PRIMARY schools have been called, with truth, "breeding places for speech hesitation." For this there may be several reasons: Many children are so nicely pivoted that only a little forceful explosion of the vowel from the throat and a little more energy placed upon the articulations are all that is necessary to destroy the slight balance and cause them to hesitate. Perhaps a child hesitates but little, and by encouragement and the right kind of instruction would overcome the slight impediment. It may be that his friends have avoided giving any attention to it, thinking that if nothing was said, he would be less conscious of the infirmity, and be better able to outgrow and overcome it. But he has discovered that he can not speak certain letters and words, and has begun to avoid them and substitute others. The teacher does not understand that no word or sound is difficult except as it is made so by the contraction; i. e., that the word is simply subject to the condition. The child receives the usual phonic drill, direct attention being given to the troublesome sounds, and when he struggles through them and repeats them after the teacher, it seems like a victory. But it is a victory that is worse than a defeat.
Reading is usually more difficult than speaking, because every word must be rendered literally, and learning reading as it is now taught is a dangerous experiment for a child inclined to hesitation. School is a trying place for such a child. He is sensitive, and knows that every ear in the school is on the alert to hear and to magnify every fault. He is met by anything but loving sympathy. The boys and even the girls follow him with taunts, shouting into his ear the words of which he is most afraid, and imitating his efforts.
They little know their own danger. The tormenting spirit in boys is stimulated by the helplessness of the object, who knows that to undertake a word in return is to expose himself to still greater ridicule. So, as a rule, he suffers in silence.
