Dictionaries

Kingslay Amis , in his book "The King's English" (the King here being Kingsley not the one Fowler meant), he writes about the word "Dictionary": "It used to be said, probably with much truth, that every literate household possessed a Bible and a copy of "The Pilgrim's Progress. During the 19th century, the works of William Shakespeare and of Dickens would have added themselves to these and, towards the end, an English dictionary, one of the smaller ones. Nowadays, the shelf where these volumes would once have stood has been replaced by a longer one bearing video recordings. In particular, the habit of owning and often consulting a dictionary has largely died out among the general public."
I have a dictionary in most rooms of my house (and an encyclopaedia in two - though they are being used less and less as more an more use is made of the internet). I look up words in the dictionaries every day; one trouble is that I find myself looking up words which I have already looked up days - or even hours - before. This is partly due to my getting old with a memory that is slowly failing but more to do with the fact that there are certain words that, even after looking them up many times, I still cannot remember their meaning. This probably has to do with the fact that they do not fit in my vocabulary, they are never used, don't need them, don't like them, don't want them. "Solicitude" is one. "Solipsism" is another. "Trenchant" another. There are many others.
When I was doing my year of teacher training I was first put in a junior school with a middle-aged woman who was a good teacher but did not take a liking to me; I had the feeling I was an intruder. Luckily, the headmistress did like me so I knew I'd get a good report at the end of my two week session.
One day the teacher asked the children to look up a word in their dictionaries; they vigorously started turning pages, haphazardly I could see, looking for the word. This took some time because, to my amazement, they didn't know the alphabet.
This was, evidently, a perfect demonstration of that ridiculous idea that took flight then in theoretical educational circles that "discovering things for themselves" was the best method of learning. Kingsley would have been red-faced with the disgust if he had witnessed it.