Table Of ContentThe Vital Approach
SECOND EDITION
Comment on the Teaching of English
to pupils between the ages of 8 and 15
DONALD MATTAM
Principal Lecturer in English
Sheffield City College of Education
PERGAMON PRESS
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Sydney · Braunschweig
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Copyright © 1973 Donald Mattam
All Rights Reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced,
stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means,
electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without
the prior permission of Pergamon Press Ltd.
First Edition 1963
Reprinted with corrections 1964
Reprinted 1964
Second Edition 1973
Library of Congress Cataloging Publication Data
Mattam, Donald
The Vital Approach
Includes bibliographies
1. English languages—Study and teaching
2. Language arts. I. Title
LB1576.M393 1973 372.6Ό44 73-5832
ISBN 0-08-017700-X
ISBN 0-08-017701-8 (flexicover)
Printed in Great Britain by A. Whealon & Co., Exeter
Preface to the Second Edition
SINGE the publication of the first edition of this book much work has
been undertaken on various aspects of the teaching of English, notably
under the auspices of The National Association for the Teaching of
English and of the Schools Council. In particular, new attitudes to
language work with pupils under the age of 15 have been suggested,
and the thematic approaches, often interdisciplinary, have been
advocated.
The latter were, I feel, sufficiently stressed in the first edition. Indeed,
it may be that many teachers and colleges now both wish and need to
bring into clearer focus the values of and the teaching situations related
to the particular English skills and experiences, to which the theme is
after all the approach and for which it is the justification in the eyes of
the children. This is what the major part of the book still tries to do.
The new attitudes to language work suggested by the findings of
modern linguists have been dealt with in some detail in the rewritten
chapter, with its appendix, on the mechanics of English.
The lists of recommended material have in all cases been revised in
the light of recent writing and publication.
Vll
Acknowledgements
I SHOULD like to express my grateful thanks to Mr. A. A. S. Downing,
Headmaster of Deansbrook Junior School, Mill Hill, London, N.W.7,
and to his Staff, for permission to include extracts from Castleton
Cavalcade', to The Schoolmaster for permission to include in Chapter VI
material originally published in that journal; to Messrs. Chatto &
Windus for permission to include in Chapter V material from my
article published in The Use of English, Volume XII, Number 2; and
to the following for permission to quote copyright material :
Mr. James Reeves, and the Oxford University Press, for "Diddling",
by James Reeves, from The Blackbird in the Lilac.
Messrs. Samuel French, Ltd., for lines from "Sampan", by Frederick
Norton, from Willow Pattern Plate.
Mr. Siegfried Sassoon and Messrs. Faber & Faber, Ltd., for "Concert
Party" and "The Dug-Out", by Siegfried Sassoon, from Collected
Poems.
Messrs. Frederick Warne & Co., Ltd., for the passage from The
Observer's Book of Geology, by I. O. Evans.
The Estate of the late Mrs. Frieda Lawrence, and Messrs. William
Heinemann, Ltd., for quotations from "The Best of School", "Last
Lesson in the Afternoon" and "Dreams Old and Nascent : Old", by
D. H. Lawrence, from The Complete Poems of D. H. Lawrence,
Volume I.
Miss Eleanor Farjeon and the Oxford University Press for "I is for
Idle in Yorkshire", from Perkin the Pedlar.
To the authors and Messrs. Faber & Faber, Ltd., for quotations from :
"The Unknown Citizen", by W. H. Auden, from Collected Shorter
Poems: 1930-1944; "Refugee Blues", by W. H. Auden, from Another
Time; "An Elementary School Classroom", by Stephen Spender,
from Poems, Revised Edition: 1934; "A Matter of Life and Death",
by Anne Ridler.
ix
χ ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Miss Elizabeth Richardson for a quotation from an article in Researches
and Studies, Number 20, 1959, The Leeds Institute of Education.
Messrs. Gerald Duckworth & Co., Ltd., for quotations from "Mrs.
Hague", by Osbert Sitwell, from Selected Poems—Old and New, and
"The Week-End", by Harold Monro, from the Collected Works.
Mr. J. N. Britton and the Oxford University Press for a quotation from
"Space Travellers", from The Oxford Books of Verse for Juniors:
Book III.
Mr. Ralph Hodgson and Messrs. Macmillan & Co., Ltd., for a quotation
from "The Bull", by Ralph Hodgson, from Collected Poems.
The Representative of the late Wilfrid Gibson and Messrs. Macmillan
& Co., Ltd., for a quotation from "The Ice Cart", by Wilfrid Gibson,
from Collected Poems: 1905-1925.
The Literary Trustees of Walter de la Mare and the Society of Authors
as their representatives, for a verse from "The Barber's" and a
quotation from "Jenny Wren", by Walter de la Mare.
Mr. Cecil Day-Lewis and Messrs. Jonathan Cape, Ltd., for a quotation
from "Flight to Australia", by Cecil Day-Lewis, from Collected
Poems: 1954.
Messrs. Macmillan & Co., Ltd., for a quotation from "The Song of
Wandering /Engus", by W. B. Yeats, from The Collected Poems of
W. B. Yeats.
For my first introduction to Central Theme work in junior school I am
indebted to Miss L. Buckland, formerly Headmistress of Hunter's
Bar Girls' School, and Miss C. Fairbourn, Headmistress of Abbeydale
Junior School, Sheffield.
CHAPTER ONE
•The Vital Approach"
"Having found what he wanted, having got what was to be had . .."
D. H. Lawrence : The Best of School
ALTHOUGH the teaching of social and physical sciences involves far
more than a presentation of facts, it is true that much definite material
must be presented to the pupils in the course of their education in these
subjects. An uninspired teacher of geography or physics may do little
more than this, though others will treat such facts as dry bones to be
animated by the scientific spirit of enquiry. No such satisfying body of
information exists in school English. Rules governing expression offer
the nearest approach—and they therefore play a far larger part than is
necessary in most schemes of work. Mere facts about literature are
slowly losing their only value as preparation for examinations, though
some secondary school teachers still plead for the retention of questions
like "Give the works from which the following characters are taken" in
their school leaving examinations.
Work in English, then, should be directed towards something other
than the mere acquisition of facts. We know that its purpose is to help
children to realize the power that lies in language and the extension of
experience that is offered by literature, but if a teacher does not see this
realization as a clearly defined objective, approached in some measure
in every type of English lesson, he will be tempted to substitute some-
thing easier and far less valuable, will fall back on the practice of skills
which are barren because they have no acceptable purpose, on the
teaching of formal rules of grammar in academic isolation, on present-
ing poetry as disguised prose-for-comprehension, and reading-around-
the-class as dramatic education, until nothing will be left to show the
power and the experience apart from the chance values of reading
fiction.
1
2 THE VITAL APPROACH
We need to refresh our conception of what we mean by the power in
language and the experience in literature, partly, of course, by writing
and reading ourselves to a greater extent than most of us do, partly by
analysing the values of each type of English activity from this point of
view. Is this lesson likely to carry our class a little further towards the
realization of these two aims?
A teaching method is more gratefully received than an analysis of
aims ; but a methodical lesson is dead if the vital quality, the realization
that it is worth something in life, is missing. Children are sensitive to a
teacher's attitude, and a method adopted without sincerity will not ring
true. An obvious example illustrating this is the poetry lesson taken by
a teacher who is not convinced of the value of poetry to him in his own
living or to his class in theirs. Since the appreciation of poetic ex-
perience is more than a matter of reason, however, the example needs
more space than is afforded by an introductory chapter. A simpler
illustration is the lesson involving letter writing. The letter is the only
form of written composition undertaken by the average adult; it is one
of the most personal forms of expression ; it calls for the exercise of the
imagination, requiring that we place ourselves in the situation of the
reader; it gives rise to a fuller awareness of the experience put into
words, and it offers a remarkably wide variety of special purpose and
subject matter. Yet the letter-writing lesson is generally the most boring
of all lessons in composition, because this method of interesting the class
in written expression is adopted without a full realization of the values
of writing in general and of letter writing in particular.
Word-study suffers similarly. The true value of this type of work lies
in a growing awareness of the real nature of words, in the realization
that they are born, grow, specialize in their work, marry, have children,
may emigrate, become class-conscious or lose caste, that they are the
very stuff of thought and of human intercourse. If a child is made aware
of words, he will take an interest in those he hears and sees which will
range far beyond the limits of blackboard lists of words torn from their
lawful occasions. Of course, there is need for some learning by rote—of
fortuitous spellings, for example—just as there is some argument for
the mathematician's memorizing of facts, but this is not the main task,
and even here the eye is made surer by having been focused on spellings
which have a reasonable basis; it has become more able to grasp letter-
"THE VITAL APPROACH" 3
patterns of a less consequential kind. No teacher can make a pupil learn
the meanings and spellings of all the words he will meet, but he can
arouse his interest in words as a whole. It is this interest that endures
and ranges wide; what can be memorized under compulsion is very
small.
The realization of the power and experience in language and litera-
ture is necessary to the pupils as well as to the teacher; neither should
work in blinkers. The general conception is beyond the child in some
cases, but each activity has a particular purpose that a pupil can
appreciate if it is translated into terms of his own experience, and no
sound lessons can be offered if that appreciation is neither explicitly nor
implicitly present. This is true of English in all types of school; the
approach should be vital in the fullest sense of the word before it narrows
to the academic, the technical, the vocational—certainly up to the age
of 14. In the less academic classes of the comprehensive school, freed as
they ought to be from the pressure of outside examinations, it should be
the only approach. It prevents the classroom from being looked on as a
prison with real life something beyond the walls, especially by those
waiting to leave school at the earliest opportunity; it gives a sense of
direction instead of the sensation of marking time; it means satisfaction
with the present place and time because it links both clearly with the
world and the future.
When planning an English course it is helpful to divide the work
into certain main and subordinate divisions : comprehension, of the
printed and of the spoken word ; expression, oral, written and dramatic ;
appreciation, of poetry, fiction and drama. A teacher who does not do
this will be tempted to stress certain types of activity and to neglect
others, not because the class has demonstrated its need of the one and
its mastery over the other, but because every teacher is by nature more
drawn towards certain aspects of the work. It is certain, for example,
that many of us neglect that kind of training which leads to clear
expression and thoughtful listening in everyday conversation, and that
the appreciation of drama through active entry into dramatic situations
is often avoided. Whenever a teacher is not sincerely convinced of the
value of an English activity, so convinced that the lesson becomes a
meaningful and moving experience for him, he will either omit this
section of his work almost entirely or will surrender his rights in it to
4 THE VITAL APPROACH
the text-book of a writer who does not know the class and the environ-
ment at all.
This analysis of English work into its seven major sections has its
dangers as well as its value; the analysis does help the teacher, but it is
synthesis which makes the work meaningful to the class. Comprehen-
sion, expression, appreciation should not be isolated; they are inter-
dependent in school as they are in life. An adult does not read or write
or speak because it is time for him to do so; he uses the English skills
because they satisfy an urgent need. It is the teacher's duty to create
such a need. When a pupil is reading because he wants to find out,
recording because he wants to use his record later, speaking because he
wants to communicate, exploring the world of literature because it gives
him delight, he is aware of the true values of English. "To excite the
self-activity in a suitable province is the chef d'oeuvre of the teacher's
art."*
A natural way of achieving this synthesis is by introducing, or allow-
ing local events and the children's own interests to suggest, a central
theme rich enough to appeal, in some measure at least, to the whole
class, or by encouraging small groups or individual pupils to choose their
own topics with an oral or written report for the rest of the class in
mind, or by creating a situation—linked perhaps with a class magazine,
outing, play, concert or exhibition—which will call for similar practice
of the English skills. The more such work is linked with other subjects
in the curriculum, the more other teachers give the benefit of their own
personalities to the experience, the better for staff and pupils alike.f
This approach has been advocated by many educationists—there is
a passage in William Cobbett which deals with it—and it has been
adopted in the liveliest junior schools for many years now; but many
junior and far more secondary schools pay it no more than lip-service.
Why is this ?
The prejudice arises partly from vagueness as to the part played by
the teacher in the process and partly from a fear that progress in certain
mensurable qualities, such as accuracy in the mechanics of English, must
be impeded. Some teachers fear the more protracted forms of this work,
*Eichte : Address to the German Nation.
|As for example in team teaching. See A. Adams: Team Teaching and the
Teaching of English; Pergamon.
"THE VITAL APPROACH" 5
especially with less able pupils whose interest in a new topic is soon
exhausted. Others, treating the method as master rather than servant,
presume that every English activity—the appreciation of poetry, for
example—must be found a place in every scheme of work, whatever the
central theme, and naturally question this. Some, but, happily, far from
all teachers of slower pupils insist that all they can do is to hammer
away at simple skills and rules of writing and reading, ignoring their
natural employment as means to vital experiences. It is certain that it
is much easier to drive a class through a formal lesson than to prepare
adequately for central theme work; it is also certain that such formal
lessons are more than a mere waste of time—witness the staff-room
laments about the need to take certain grammar lessons time and time
again with the same children—they are harmful because they create
antipathy towards the skills and experiences which they are supposed
to serve.
The notes in the appendix to this chapter will suggest the initial
planning which the teacher needs to do for the fullest scheme of this
type. The plan itself will indicate what material ought to be made
available for the pupils. Once the scheme of work is under way, the
teacher's task is to answer questions or to give suggestions, to indicate
errors in written work where it is to form a permanent record or to be
communicated to a body of readers—two natural incentives to accuracy
in both matter and the mechanics of English—and to arrange the
occasions on which the class is to share an experience, perhaps a special
lesson, a broadcast talk, a visit. In addition to this—and here is the
answer to the second objection—he will note what weaknesses in any
English skill are brought to light during the course of the work, so that
some isolated instruction or practice, the starting-point of which may
well be linked with the central theme, may aim at achieving progress in
these fields. Such instruction will not be offered to the whole class unless
the weakness is widespread ; often it will be given to small groups or to
individuals. It is possible that, in addition to work in the mechanics of
English, some stress on note-taking and reading factual prose with
discrimination will be called for, or, with younger children, practice in
the use of indexes and other alphabetical lists.
Central themes need not demand more time than the class is willing
to give to them, but even the shortest scheme of work should be so
