GOOD WORDS.

Te Aroha News, Volume VI, Issue 370, 22 May 1889, Page 8

GOOD WORDS.

Slovenly Reading. — Slovenly reading is ruinous both to mind and morals. It is apt even to injure a man's business habits and prevent him from winning success in practical affairs. In tim it will confound all his faculties ; it will destroy his capacity for clear perception, for precise thought, and for proper reasoning. It will throw into confusion his judgment and his memory. If he does not get rid of it, he can never become a good writer, or do any literary work of any kind worth looking at. How many slovenly readers are to be found in these times 1 They will, in their slovenly fashion, read newspaper-article, perhaps a very excellent one, and, when they have got to the end of it, or, as they say, when they have 'looked through it' or ' glanced over it,' you will find that they are unable to give any accurate account of its argument, or that they do not apprehend its fundamental points, or that they have lost one of its links, or that they have overlooked an important illustration, or that they have failed to seize a word which is the very hinge of the writer's thought, or that they have wholly misunderstood the drift and purpose of the article which they have wasted their time in ' glancing over.' Slovenly reading is largely due to the slovenly way in which children are taught at school. Teachers must be very careful about this thing, they must teach their scholars to read with precision and undei standing, thinking of every word, getting the sense of each sentence, and grasping the full meaning of any piece that may be before them.