A survey of the educational system of the Philippine islands by the Board of educational survey, created under acts 3162 and 3196 of the Philippine Legislature.

240 EDUCATIONAL SURVEY OF THE PHILIPPINES

whole elementary school. This applies to the method of developing
new lessons, silent reading, and oral reading.
Provide for much more reading as fast as books can be secured.
Read the basic texts more rapidly. Assign more reading outside of
textbooks. Interest pupils in reading in every way possible. Find
what children like to read as a help in selecting books and as a basis
for developing and improving their taste. Much research is needed to
find what children like to read. Many teachers could help in this by
recording and reporting the books read in their schools by children and
the attitudes of children toward them. In the upper grades the reading of individual books instead of class books might well be given
nearly half of the reading time as soon as the schools can afford the
books.
In the intermediate school, the reading should include much more of
history and science material that the usual reading textbooks contain.
More supplementary reading is needed in the study of geography.
Several excellent books on history and geography for the fourth, fifth,
and sixth grades in the American schools might be read as a part of
the reading course. Breadth and range of good, easy reading material
is needed to stimulate interest and thinking, to develop vocabulary, and
to facilitate rapidity in reading. Children should be encouraged to
buy books for themselves. Secure the cooperation of parent-teacher
associations to place good books in the school library. The National
Parent-Teachers' Association of the United States whose office is at
Washington, D. C., has prepared a booklet called One Thousand
Books for Children which may be consulted with profit in selecting
books.
A summary of all the reading done by an average pupil through the
seven grades would reveal a deplorably small quantity of material as
compared with an average pupil in the United States. Everything
possible should be done to develop reading interests early in the school
life of pupils and to provide them with good material to keep the
interest alive and growing. Newspaper and magazine reading should
be encouraged and directed. At present there is very little reading
of periodicals by pupils either in the schools or their homes.
Care should be used in the selection of the classroom materials.
Whether Hiawatha is the most valuable selection for a considerable
period in the seventh grade for Filipino children is at least subject to
question. The struggle for the vocabulary is a hard one, the imagery
is often entirely beyond the experience of the Filipino child, and the
content as to thought and meaning cannot be large for the time ex