Show DECLINE OF GOOD READING point made mada at educational association convention would seem to bo be well taken the central importance of rending reading was tho the theme of much of the tha discussion at tho the recent convention of the national educational association at salt lake city mr rice state library clerk of wisconsin told how that state prepares lists of suitable books for rural libraries and offers the books at per cent discount it also requires teachers to pass an examination in library training which I 1 mr rice hice considers more important that algebra though the comparison seems odd mr air caxton united states commissioner of education who followed to declared literature the tha most important of all school subjects and observed that any man who will read thought thoughtfully tully tour four good books rl a year will be a well educated man ly by the time ho he afis read that may depend somewhat on tho the books tor for not all good books reward that kind of reading though tho the greatest usually do it is at any rate a kind of reading too much out ct cf fashion nowadays mainly because there them Is so much to read that it Is difficult to let abe mass go and conden concentrate on one author one book one page one woid A fine old classical professor used to grow indignant at proposals to teach boys to read greek like english it would be more to the point he said it we could teach boys to read english like greek we can hardly expect them to forgot forget their mother tongue for the sake of learning to pay proper attention to the details of a good book yet there to la something in this view much of the benefit of the classics comes from being forced to pay attention to details do talla such careful study Is quite possible in english but the temptation Is to skim over the surface |