HL m^Kfeii warn 111111$ nifiiiil ■.■.■■ .■-'''■'■' ■ ■ ><■■■■■■■ 19HBniB$ PHHI K • ; HHilil Class LIB 163/ Book ,( 24 IS 13 COPYRIGHT DEPOSIT Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2011 with funding from The Library of Congress http://www.archive.org/details/teachingofenglis02carp AMERICAN TEACHERS SERIES EDITED BY JAMES E. RUSSELL, Ph.D. DEAN OF TEACHERS COLLEGE, COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY THE TEACHING OF ENGLISH IN THE ELEMENTARY AND THE SECONDARY SCHOOL BY GEORGE R. CARPENTER FRANKLIN T. BAKER AND FRED N. SCOTT American Utt&tfitvg getvitti The Teaching of English in the Elementary and the Secondary School BY GEORGE R. CARPENTER, A.B. '/ AND FRANKLIN T. BAKER, A.M. PROFESSORS IN COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY AND FRED N. SCOTT, Ph.D. PROFESSOR IN THE UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN NEW EDITION LONGMANS, GREEN, AND CO. FOURTH AVENUE & 30TH STREET, NEW YORK LONDON, BOMBAY AND CALCUTTA 1913 Copyright, 1903, By Longmans, Green, and Co. Copyright, 1913, By Longmans, Green, and Co. First Edition, April, 1903 Reprinted, January, August, 1904; March, 1905; April, 1906; January, 1907, February, October, 1908; August, 1910; October, 191 1 New Edition, with additional Bibliographies, October, 1913 UNIVERSITY PRESS . JOHN WILSON AND SON • CAMBRIDGE, IT. S. A. ©CI.A354947 3^/ Preface In our opinion, the teaching of English is still in an imperfect state of development. Its aim, its scope, its subject-matter, its method are still to be clearly defined and determined. The earnest discussion of the teaching of English within the last quarter-century has, however, made it necessary to have a suc- cinct statement of the issues in question and a careful summary of the most sound opinions regarding them. Such a statement and such a summary we have tried to present, for the informa- tion and guidance of the novice, and as a convenient book of reference for the experienced instructor. It is only, we believe, by sympathetic cooperation and by careful discussion and inves- tigation that the very pressing problems relating to the instruc- tion of our youth in their mother-tongue can be solved. We have therefore endeavored to avoid eccentric, dogmatic, and personal opinions, and to present the subject in as many of its important aspects as possible, helping the reader to see the reasonable differences of method and theory, and urging him to weigh the arguments on both sides of all doubtful ques- tions. Throughout the book we have had in mind, not the best schools nor the worst, but rather the great majority of 'schools, whose excellencies and defects alike make them repre- sentative. Each writer is directly responsible for his own part of the volume, but each has so modified his work by frequent conference with the others that the opinions of one are, in gen- eral, the opinions of all. G. R. C. F. T. B. March, 1903. F. N. S. Contents i HISTORY AND METHOD Chapter Page I. The Study of the Mother-Tongue G. R. Carpenter 3 I. Latin and the Vernaculars 5 II. The Teaching of the Vernaculars in Europe . 26 III. The Teaching of English in the United States 37 IV. The General Theory of Instruction in the Mother-Tongue 52 II. English in Elementary Education . F. T.Baker 67 I. General Conditions 68 II. The Place of English in the Lower Grades . 75 III. Primary Reading Matter 81 IV. The Beginnings of Reading 98 V. Composition in Elementary Schools . . . . 121 VI. English Grammar in the Elementary Schools . 144 VII. Spelling .,..., 152 VIII. Literature in the Elementary Schools . . . 155 III. English in Secondary Education : Part I. Language . . . v* . G. R. Carpenter 188 I. Language: Grammar 190 II. Language: Old and Middle English . 215 III. Language : Rhetoric and Composition 218 IV. Language : Oral Composition . . . 244 Part II. Literature in the Secondary Schools F. T. Baker 250 Part III. College Entrance Requirements in English . . . . G. R. Carpenter 283 viii CONTENTS Chapter Page IV. The Course of Study F. T. Baker 293 I. General Principles . . . 293 II. The Elementary Schools 296 III. The Secondary Schools 300 II THE TEACHER AND HIS TRAINING. F.N.Scott V. The Training of the Teacher 305 I. General Qualifications 308 II. Special Qualifications 314 VI. The Philosophy of the Assignment .... 319 VII. Essay-Correcting 327 BIBLIOGRAPHY 345 INDEX .383 I History and Method CHAPTER I THE STUDY OP THE MOTHER-TONGUE BIBLIOGRAPHY I. On the rise of literature in the vernaculars, see the standard histories of the English, French, German, and Italian literatures. On the rise of the vernacular in education, see C. S. Parker. On the History of Classical Education. In Essays on a Liberal Education, edited by P. W. Parrar. Macmillan. 1867. R. H. Quick. Educational Reformers. Appleton. 1893. G. Compayre. The History of Pedagogy. D. C. Heath. 1886. G. Compayre. Histoire critique des Doctrines de l'fiducation en France depuis la seizieme Siecle. 1885. On the degree of discipline received through the study of Latin and Greek, see C. E. Bennett and G. P. Bristol. The Teaching of Latin and Greek in the Secondary School. Longmans. 1901. Especially Chapter I. and the accompanying bibliography. II. On the present position of the mother-tongue in modern secondary education in Europe, see J. E. Russell. German Higher Schools. Longmans. 1899. P. E. Bolton. Secondary School System of Germany. Appleton. 1900. 0. Greard. Education et Instruction. Enseignement secondaire. 1889. Especially Vol. II. pp. 1-160. J. Texte. Teaching Language and Literature in France. Educa- tional Review, XIII. 121. 1. Carre\ L' Enseignement de la Lecture, de l'Ecriture et de la Langue francaise dans les ficoles primaires. In Recueil des Mono- graphies pedagogiques publiees a TOccasion de l'Exposition uni- versale de 1889. 1889. Vol. IV. pp. 1-71. Plan d'Etudes et Programmes de l'Enseignement secondaire classique. 1900. P. H. Dale. The Teaching of the Mother-Tongue in Germany. In (English Government) Report from Commissioners, Inspectors, and others. 1897. Vol. (XL) XXV. Also printed in Educational Department. Special Reports on Educational Subjects. Vol. I. i897* 4 THE STUDY OF THE MOTHER-TONGUE M. E. Sadler. Problems in Prussian Secondary Education for Boys. In Special Reports on Educational Subjects. Vol. III. 1898. Curricula and Programmes of Work for Higher Schools in Prussia. Issued by the Prussian Minister of Education, 1896. Translated in Special Reports (see above). Vol. III. III. On the History of the Teaching of English in the United States, see R. R. Reeder. The Historical Development of School Readers and Method in Teaching Reading. Columbia University Press. 1900. Edward Eggleston. The Transit of Civilization from England to America in the Seventeenth Century. Appleton. 1900. Chapter V. J. B. McMaster. A History of the People of the United States. Appleton. Vol. V. Chapter XLIX. Other information will be found here and there in B. A. Hinsdale's Teaching the Language Arts (see next section of the bibliography), E. E. Brown's The Making of Our Middle Schools, Longmans, 1902, and in the various essays on elementary, secondary, and higher education in the several States, published in the Circulars of Infor- mation of the United States Bureau of Education. See also the special references on the history of the separate parts of secondary instruction in English, given in Chapter III. [V. On the general theory of instruction in the mother-tongue in German schools, see the Bibliography at the end of Russell's German Higher Schools, Chapter XII. V. On the general theory of instruction in English, see B. A. Hinsdale. Teaching the Language Arts. Appleton. 1896. P. Chubb. The Teaching of English. Macmillan. 1902. S. S. Laurie. Lectures on Language and Linguistic Method in the School. Macmillan. 1899. G. H. Palmer. Self-Cultivation in English. Crowell. 1897. For references on special parts of instruction in English, see the bibliographies in the following chapters. The aim of this book is to record and discuss theories with regard to elementary and secondary instruction in English now held by teachers and students of education. With such a pur- pose in view, it would at first seem unnecessary to speak at all of Latin and Greek or of French and German. Two considera- tions, however, must not be neglected. First, the idea that there should be any definite system of instruction in a native tongue is of comparatively recent origin and is not even yet THE STUDY OF THE MOTHER-TONGUE 5 accepted by all ; and, second, it is clear that, generally speak- ing, the theory of instruction in a native language or mother- tongue must be virtually the same, whether that tongue be English or French or German. It is important, therefore, that we should not regard instruction in English as an isolated problem. We must, in the first place, consider the long move- ment that has led to the breaking down of the theory by which all or nearly all systematic linguistic instruction should be given by means of Latin and Greek, rather than by means of a ver- nacular. In the second place, we must consider the systems of instruction in the vernacular now in vogue in one or more of the countries of continental Europe, with the hope of deriving som? profit from foreign experience in analogous problems. I. Latin and the Vernaculars So accustomed are we to the conception that each modern nation or group of sister nations has its own special language, common to all or to the great majority of its inhabi- Language and tants, that it is with surprise and pity that we read of the Peo P le - imperfectly civilized Eastern lands, where different classes or castes sometimes use widely different dialects and where the written language of the learned has little or no connection with the speech of the people at large. Yet it is only a few centuries since, in each European country, at least two languages were in vogue : the vernacular, the despised speech of the lowly ; and Latin, the language of literature and of learning. In the delightful series of letters on the grammar of the English language written by William Cobbett, in The 1817-20, may be found the following bitter protest "Learned" ■ ' * j.l i.- 1 4. i.u languages. against the assumption, common even as late as the nineteenth century, that Latin and Greek, as distinguished from the modern tongues, are learned languages : — "Those languages are, by impostors and their dupes, called the leqrned languages ; and those who have paid for having studied them are said to have received a liberal education. 6 THE STUDY OF THE MOTHER-TONGUE These appellations are false, and, of course, they lead to false conclusions. Learning, as a noun, means knowledge, and learned means knowing, or possessed of knowledge. Learning is, then, to be acquired by conception ; and it is shown in judg- ment, in reasoning, and in the various modes of employing it. What, then, can learning have to do with any particular tongue ! Good grammar, for instance, written in Welsh, or in the language of the Chippewa savages, is more learned than bad grammar written in Greek. The learning is in the mind and not in the tongue ; learning consists of ideas and not of the noise that is made by the mouth. If, for instance, the Reports drawn up by the House of Commons, and which are compositions discover- ing in every sentence ignorance the most profound, were written in Latin, should we call them learned ? Should we say that the mere change of words from one tongue into another made that learned which was before unlearned ? As well may we say that a falsehood written in English would have been a truth in Latin ; and as well may we say that a certain handwriting is a learned handwriting, or that certain sorts of ink and paper are learned ink and paper, as that a language or tongue is a learned language or tongue." Cobbett's defence of the natural rights, so to speak, of a modern language, and his refusal to admit that any one tongue Rise of the can P ro P er ly be called " learned " as distinguished Vernaculars. f rom ano t n er, recall vividly the long period during which Latin and Greek were conceded throughout the civilized world to be the only fit subjects of linguistic study, and Latin declared to be the only suitable medium for written and oral communication among educated men, and especially the only sure means for bequeathing thought to posterity. Of this old doctrine many vestiges remain. We still speak of the " classical " languages, with a half-conscious implication that we thereby set them apart as authoritative standards of human speech and literature ; we award degrees with Latin names ; commence- ment orators still deliver Latin addresses ; the grammar of our native tongue is still frequently taught in terms more applicable to Latin and Greek than to English ; and the unlettered still often feel that he who can read an ancient language must have an undisputed title to wisdom. More than all this, Latin is still THE STUDY OF THE MOTHER-TONGUE 7 believed, by a strong party of scholars and men of influence and authority in Germany, France, England, and the United States, to be the most essential element in all sound secondary educa- tion. If we would understand, therefore, how and to what ex- tent English should be taught in the elementary and secondary schools, it will be found necessary, first, to review briefly the long process by which English, French, and German - — and in general the modern tongues of Europe — have come to supplant Latin for literary uses ; second, to notice the steps by which the modern languages, from a position of complete neglect, have arisen to a position of comparative equality, in matters of educa- tion, with Latin and Greek ; and, third, to discuss for a moment the extent to which, if at all, English, as a typical modern lan- guage, may properly supplant Latin and Greek in the training of the secondary schools. (1) Latin versus the vernaculars in literature. For the nations that grew up in Europe on the ruins of the old Roman Empire, Latin was, during the early centuries, the official Ltiti:athe language of state and church, the only medium |5 ,n t gue ^ used in literature or in any formal written or oral Church. communication among educated men. It was only after the lapse of centuries that the speech of the vulgar, the despised dialects of the people at large, came to aspire humbly to such uses. Even after nations had grown to consciousness of their power and dignity, Latin long remained the medium of royal edicts, and its use in diplomacy died out only towards the end of the seventeenth century. It was not until the rise of the various Protestant sects that the modern languages were regu- larly and widely used in public prayer and worship, and Latin is still the official tongue of the Roman Catholic Church. Literature of real value had been here and there produced in the vernaculars from the seventh century on. Our pagan an- cestors, the Anglo-Saxons, wove their sombre epic in almost complete freedom from the influences of foreign culture, even as, at a somewhat later period, their Scandinavian cousins 8 THE STUDY OF THE MOTHER-TONGUE wrought their noble eddas and sagas. But these things were done in distant corners of the earth. The career of the mod- TheNew ern to n g ues m literature and their direct corn- Popular in petition with Latin for such purposes did not Poetry. begin until, yielding to an innate impulse, Pro- vence broke forth into pleasant song, in its own rough dialect, in the twelfth century. It was followed in divers fashions by land after land, and by the middle of the fourteenth century the bonds of tradition were, throughout Europe, either broken or at least greatly loosened, so far as popular poetry was concerned. It was in Italy, where the young humanists were alike men of learning and men of letters, that the point of issue between Distrust of the tne °ld tongues and the new was first sharply New Tongues. raised> In his trea tise On the Vulgar Tongue, written while he was maturing the thought of his great poem, Dante demonstrated clearly the right, and indeed the duty, of the poet to use the vernacular, proclaiming it to be the nobler form of speech, because more common, less artificial, and more closely associated with actual life. The use of Italian rather than Latin in the Divine Coi?iedy was thus the somewhat daring choice of a far-seeing and clear-thinking man. But even after the success of the great epic had been thoroughly tested, Petrarch, who had himself won fame as a poet in the vernacular, thought meanly of his native language. In 1366, writing to Boccaccio, he confesses that in his youth he was led by the charm and promise of the " recently discovered " vernacular into making great efforts to improve it, but that, " turning the matter over in my mind, I concluded at length that I was build- ing upon unstable earth and shifting sand, and should simply waste my labours and see the work of my hands levelled by the common herd." As knowledge grew, and men saw more clearly the majesty and power of the world of antiquity, scholars came to realize the orderly strength and fitness of the Latin tongue, in comparison with what was then the loose and irregular character of the modern languages. Though they were willing to waive the rights of the older language in such THE STUDY OF THE MOTHER-TONGUE 9 trivial matters as popular verses and tales, they were stiK inclined to maintain that it was safer to compose all works of learning, on whatever subject, in that tongue which all agreed in declaring the most noble, the most serviceable, the most exact, and the most durable. It was not to be wondered at, therefore, that the learned Erasmus, master of the classic idioms, was not ashamed of his essential ignorance of his mother-tongue, or that Bacon was unwilling to intrust to the yet unproved virtues of English the guardianship of his phi- losophy, fearing that "these modern languages," as he wrote towards the close of his life, " will at one time or another play the bankrupt with books." Though men of science may sometimes have shared Bacon's fears, however, the whole trend of literature was in the opposite direction. In the sixteenth and seventeenth cen- The opposite turies there arose in Italy, France, and England Trend - groups of men who felt convinced that their native tongues were worth paying some attention to, and that, if properly developed, they would prove fitting instruments for all literary purposes. In these countries, then, scholars and men of letters devoted themselves to experiments of all kinds for increasing the range, effectiveness, flexibility, and system of the modern languages. Such efforts, at first following the ancient languages as models, were in large measure successful, and by the eigh- teenth century Italian, French, and English prose had each proved itself a powerful and worthy instrument for the syste- matic and effective transmission of thought. So far as literature, journalism, and the common necessities of expression were concerned, the vernacular had completely won the day. (2) Latin versus the vernaculars in education. In the field of education development was of necessity much more slow. At the outset Latin was the language of all educated „ x . „ ° ° Latin the men, the only gate to book knowledge of any sort, Medium of 11 • , , , , Education, be the learner rich or poor, noble or merchant or peasant. All knowledge was in Latin, and all knowledge IO THE STUDY OF THE MOTHER-TONGUE must, therefore, begin by Latin. Such elementary and sec- ondary instruction as existed was given in Latin, and the function of the mediaeval university was to teach, likewise in Latin, whatever was thought to be worth knowing. Only here and there was an attempt made by a commune to instruct its citizens, through the medium of its native language, in some special particular, as by the Florentine public lectureship on Dante in the fourteenth century. It was only a remote nation like England, and that only for a brief period, which could perceive that the strength of its people lay in its education in its natural tongue, as did King Alfred when he expressed his wish that " the whole body of free-born youths in the kingdom, who possess the means, may be obliged to learn as long as they have to attend to no other business, until they can read English writing perfectly." Progress was almost infinitely slow. Montaigne, who was born in 1533, says of his own education, " I was above six The Old years of age before I understood either French or System. Perigordian [his native dialect] any more than Arabic, and without art, book, grammar, or precept, whipping, or the experience of a tear, had by that time learned to speak as pure Latin as my master himself." Montaigne's father was a man of ideas, and had had his son trained by a somewhat original method, in that he spared him toil over books and the discipline of the rod, which was then supposed to be insepar- ably involved, as well it might be, with the successful teaching of Latin. But in other respects the instruction of Montaigne was not peculiar. The famous Jesuit schools, founded in the sixteenth century and long the most famous in France, the con- temporary grammar (i.e. Latin) schools in England, and the celebrated Strasburg school of Sturm, had practically the same object in view, though their methods differed. The aim was that the pupil should learn Latin and nothing else. For that purpose it was thought essential that he should learn first to read in Latin, without previous instruction in the vernacular, and, certainly in France and Germany, that he should, even in the THE STUDY OF THE MOTHER-TONGUE II iowest classes, speak Latin. Except on holidays, boys were to be severely punished if they made use of their mother-tongue, even in their games. In the seventeenth century two great steps in advance were taken. In the first place, earnest and open-minded men began to see that the native forms of speech were unduly i lie first neglected in elementary instruction. In France step in the wise Jansenists made use of the mother-tongue in the lower classes of their famous Port-Royal schools, soon closed through the enmity of their great rivals, the Jesuits. In Germany, Ratich laid the emphasis, in his somewhat wild theory of education, on grounding the pupil first of all in his native language, and the less erratic Comenius put in practice a system by which the student, after passing the years from six to twelve in an elementary school, where he was taught his native language, passed on to the Latin school. In England little was accomplished by way of progress, but there were men who felt that English — even in Shakspere's time — was worth some slight attention. Richard Mulcaster, Spenser's teacher and the first master of Merchant Taylors, made a strong plea for elementary instruction in his native language : — " Is it not a marvellous bondage to become servants to one tongue for learning's sake, the most part of our time, with loss of most time, whereas we may have the very same treasure in our own tongue with the gain of most time ; our own bearing the joyful title of our liberty and freedom, the Latin tongue re- membering us of our thraldom and bondage. I love Rome, but London better ; I love Italy, but England more ; I love the Latin, but I worship the English. ... If we must cleave to the eldest and not to the best, we should be eating acorns and wearing old Adam's pelts. But why not all in English ? I do not think that any language, be it whatsoever, is better able to utter all arguments either with more pith or greater plainness than our English tongue is." 1 1 From The First Part of the Elementarie which Entreateth Chiefly of the Right Writing of the English Tongue. 1582. Quoted in Morley, English Writers, IX. 186. For Mulcaster, see also J. Parmentier, His- 12 THE STUDY OF THE MOTHER-TONGUE And in 1659 we find another schoolmaster pleading for the use, in the elementary school, of various " delightful books " in the mother-tongue, for " by this means children will gain such a habit of delight in reading as to make it their chief recreation when liberty is afforded them. And their acquaintance with good books will, by God's blessing, be a means so to sweeten their (otherwise sour) natures that they may live comfortably towards themselves, and amiably converse with other persons." 1 It was not to be expected that the almost universal belief in the sufficiency of a purely '"'classical" education, which was Tne Second ne ^ by men °f authority all over Europe, and the step * corresponding contempt for instruction in the mod- ern tongues, would suddenly be altered, even though it was more generally acknowledged that elementary instruction was best given in the vernacular. It was not until the nineteenth century that much real progress was made, though many influ- ences that were eventually effective were slowly gathering force. One of these, first clearly evident in the seventeenth century, marks the second step in the onward movement, the feeling that the mother-tongue should be studied with care and beyond the point reached in elementary instruction, but not in the schools. Such a feeling was natural in the century which saw the full triumph throughout Europe of modern literature in prose and verse, and in which progress in government, science, and general civilization removed so many of the old barriers to the understanding of the world and the social organism. The modern tongues, it was discovered, were serviceable, and should therefore be made the subject of study. Discrimination and skill in the use of one's language were the mark of the courtier and the gentleman. Such qualities, however, were obviously not to be acquired in the schools, and Locke, who saw deep into the real problem of education, observed that "to speak toire de V Education en Angleterre depuis les Origines jusqu'au Commence- ment du dix-neuvieme Steele. Paris, 1896. Chapter IV. 1 Charles Hoole, master of the grammar school at Rotherham, in The Petty- Sc hoole, 1659. THE STUDY OF THE MOTHER-TONGUE 1 3 and write correctly gives a grace and gains a favourable atten- tion to what one has to say ; and since it is English that an Englishman will have constant use of, that is the language he should chiefly cultivate, and wherein most care should be taken to polish and perfect his style." A further sign of the same widespread and deep-seated sentiment in favor of a training that should fit the gentleman for the duties of his station, — a sentiment heightened by the deadening and artificial instruction of the grammar or Latin schools, — was the founding in Ger- many, under French influence, of the Ritterschulen, schools for gentlemen, in which Latin was absent or wholly subordinated, and the emphasis of instruction thrown not only on manly ex- ercises and the arts that beget grace and courage, but on the modern languages and on such knowledge as might give one power over himself and his fellows. The aim of these schools was not always a high one, but it was better than that of the instruction which they helped to displace. The eighteenth century was rich in educational theorists, and it was largely by their inspiration and leadership that the third important step was taken, — the introduction of the Tb e Third vernacular into secondary education. But much step * too was due to the awakening sense of the people at large, who, growing alive to their duties and responsibilities as well as to their rights, found themselves sundered from the dream-world of antiquity and face to face with a new heaven and a new earth. It became clear that men who handled things should have a different training from men who dealt with words alone. The claims of science, history, and philosophy were deeply felt and fully recognized. Great ideals of human wisdom, justice, and achievement were working in all earnest hearts. The aims of " classical " instruction were transformed. Latin and Greek were no longer to give to youth mere lip-knowledge, but to train them in the discipline and aspirations of the two great nations of antiquity. The German classical gymnasia, new founded by the side of the decaying Latin schools, became noble influences in education. And, best of all, side by side 14 THE STUDY OF THE MOTHER-TONGUE with them stood the new Real-schulen, — schools where the real- ities of life had their due place. At first they were scarcely more than trade schools, or, as they have been well described, " manual training schools, in which the scientific principles un- derlying the various trades and business vocations should have a prominent place." Soon, however, they were given a higher scope and standing, and, when the century closed, there were, in Germany at least and to a lesser degree in France, two ways in which a worthy youth could be further trained, after his in- struction in the elementary schools was over, — first, in a secon- dary school where the chief instrument was the ancient linguistic discipline, and second, in a secondary school no less thorough where the chief instrument was science. In both schools the mother- tongue received more attention than before, and in the second group this was especially the case. 1 The eighteenth century was thus successful in establishing in Germany, and to a less extent in other countries, the beginnings of a sound system of secondary instruction that was Nineteenth not exclusively devoted to the classical languages. The task of the nineteenth century was the extension and systematization of this policy. How far it has been suc- cessful in this we shall consider when we come to discuss the 1 " The teaching of the German language and literature has now been firmly established for over one hundred years in the higher schools of the country. Its recognition stands in direct connection with the growth of the German classical literature toward the end of the eighteenth cen- tury. Before that time the efforts of educational reformers were chiefly directed towards obtaining the removal from school and university prac-. tice of the stern rule laid down for the Strasburg Gymnasium : Qui sermone alio utuntur quam Latino, ratione bond puniantur ! But in 1 780-1800 two men in very different spheres were working with the same ideal of diffus- ing a real knowledge of the national literature. In 1788 the great Prus- sian Minister of Education, Von Zedlitz, built up a systematic course of instruction, and gave it a prominent place in the leaving examination ; and in a school speech at Weimar, eight years later, Herder welcomed the new movement. From that time onward the subject kept its place in the gymnasium without dispute." — F. H. Dale, The Teaching of the Mother- Tongue in Germany, 362. THE STUDY OF THE MOTHER-TONGUE 1 5 present status of secondary instruction in the mother-tongue in the principal European countries and in the United States. For general purposes it is sufficient here to note that university training has everywhere been immensely broadened ; that the study of languages other than Latin and Greek, and especially the mother-tongue, has reached large proportions, and that schools fitting boys specifically for the universities have there- fore been led greatly to broaden their curricula. Moreover, the strong trend of democratic sentiment and the great change in the distribution of wealth have enormously increased the num- ber of secondary schools of various kinds whose aim is not specifically that of fitting pupils for higher institutions, as well as the attendance in such schools. And in these schools, which are naturally less under the influence of " classical " tradition, there has been a marked tendency to replace Latin and Greek in the curriculum by the modern languages and to lay special stress on the native language. The nineteenth century as a whole, however, has been marked, in point of educational theory and practice, and, perhaps espe- cially toward its close, by the earnest discussion and Tw0 Vital investigation of two important questions, — first, Questions, whether it would or would not be wiser to decrease greatly the use of Latin and Greek as instruments of secondary education, or indeed, as a rule, wholly to do away with them ; and, second, whether, if this should prove to be the case, it would be possible to use the modern languages as a means of securing the mental discipline and the other beneficial effects that have long been thought to be best secured by training in Latin and Greek. On the first question, as might have been expected, there is still a wide difference of opinion, not only among experts in education but throughout the public at large. That question, moreover, is scarcely pertinent to our present inquiry, and has been well dis- cussed, where it properly belongs, by Professor Bennett, in the corresponding volume of this series on the teaching of Latin and Greek in the secondary school. The second question, however, — what amount of mental discipline may be secured l6 THE STUDY OF THE MOTHER-TONGUE through the study of the mother-tongue, and how serviceable it may be made for educative purposes,— it is proper and indeed necessary for us to discuss here. In order to do so we must for a moment take up the less pertinent question as to the educa- tive value of Latin and Greek. (3) Latin versus the vernacular in modern education. The many sound arguments in favour of the use of Latin and Arguments Greek, or of Latin alone, as instruments of great for Latin. va i ue in secondary instruction, may be fairly summed up as follows : — 1. The study of a richly inflected synthetic language is highly valuable as a mental discipline. 2. The study of Greek and Latin is valuable in that it intro- duces the student to the two great literatures (outside of Hebrew) of antiquity, thus training his taste and giving him aesthetic standards that are both elevated and permanent. 3. It is likewise valuable in that it gives him a knowledge of the Graeco-Roman civilization, thus furnishing him the key to an understanding of the modern world. 4. Practice in translation, and especially in translation from a highly inflected synthetic language into a modern language, gives excellent training in the mother-tongue. The principal objections to this set of arguments are the following : 1 — 1. Mental discipline can be as easily secured, so far as can be seen, by the proper study of mathe- matics, the physical sciences, history, or other subjects. 2. Greek literature is beautiful and important, but pres- ent systems of instruction do not enable a pupil, at the end of his secondary studies, and rarely even at the end of his college course, to gain a knowledge of the literature at all pro- portionate to the time spent in acquiring it. The value of a knowledge of Latin literature is greatly overrated, and can only in the rarest cases be considered as repaying the secondary 1 This point of view is admirably stated in Jules Lemaitre, Opinions d r&pandre, 1901, pp. 117-157. THE STUDY OF THE MOTHER-TONGUE l J student for the time consumed, especially when we compare the results obtained from the study of the great modern literatures. 3. For the adequate understanding of the Grseco-Roman civilization a knowledge of Greek and Latin is not essential, and an understanding of modern civilization does not depend, to any marked degree, upon the study of ancient Latin and Greek society. 4. The advantages offered by translation are as easily and as effectively obtained through the modern as through the ancient languages. Men trained almost exclusively in Latin and Greek are quite as likely to write badly as to write well, and training in matters of style is best secured through the modern languages, which present us models more likely to prove serviceable, be- cause more in accordance with the whole structure of modern life. Each set of propositions, it must be noticed, is held by a strong party of scholars and men of letters. With regard to the merits of the general question and the relative The Question strength of the respective arguments, I do not pre- solved by sume to venture an opinion. The whole question, Ex P erieBce - I am convinced, is more likely to be solved by practice than by theory. Men are now being educated in large numbers, in several different countries and especially in the United States, through secondary school curricula in which Latin does not play an important part, or does not appear at all. It is by their fruits that educational systems must inevitably be judged. The end of the present century, and very possibly an earlier date, will in all probability see the solution of the question, which has in one form or another been perplexing humanity for sev- eral hundred years. c- There is, however, a matter involved which it is important that students and teachers of English should discuss and if possible decide. It will readily be seen that the claims of the classicists resolve themselves into Question these four points : Latin — to take for ease of ex- planation the language most under discussion — is almost indis- 18 THE STUDY OF THE MOTHER-TONGUE pensable as a means of instruction, because of its great value (i) as a discipline ; (2) in introducing the pupil to great works of literature and in moulding his taste ; (3) in giving him the necessary understanding of the social system of which he is a part ; and (4) in giving him power over his native tongue. Now on all these four points the classicists are flatly contradicted by the opposing party ; and on the first three heads it is with great difficulty that the classicists can hold their own. Many sub- jects of study discipline the mind, — indeed all subjects when well taught, and perhaps particularly mathematics and the natural sciences. Great works of literature in the modern languages are more accessible, more commonly mastered, and more generally effective in secondary study. It is to history, economics, and social science that we look for our orien- tation in modern civilization. But on the point of purely linguistic training the classicists still seem to preserve their ascendency. We must, therefore, discuss the important and pertinent question, — is it possible to obtain by the continuous study of English in the secondary school results as satisfactory as those obtained through the continuous study of Latin? The classicists say no ; and in the great schools of England, and until very recently in the great schools of the United States, the study of English as such was almost invariably en- tirely lacking. What is the truth of the matter at the present time? Let us recapitulate. We are not to consider (1) the relative merits of the classical languages and other subjects in point of Recapittda- discipline ; nor (2) the relative merits of the classi- tion ' cal and the modern literatures for the purpose in hand ; nor (3) the relative merits of Latin and history as helps toward the understanding of the modern world. All these points lie outside our sphere. We are to consider (4) the rela- tive merits of Latin and English as a help toward the under- standing and use of the mother-tongue for secondary school students. Those who hold that Latin is an exceedingly valuable instru- THE STUDY OF THE MOTHER-TONGUE 1 9 ment for securing linguistic discipline in secondary training seem to do so for the following pre-eminent reasons : 1 — ™. , r -r • • i Latin as a i. The study of Latm trains the linguistic sense, Linguistic because Latin is a fully developed, synthetic lan- guage, rich in regular inflected forms, and therefore able to give the pupil a clear insight into language as a system or organism. 2. The whole linguistic system of Latin is so completely dif- ferent from that of English, the whole process of Latin thinking is so different from that of English thinking, that the pupil can- not, in the study of Latin, read cursorily and negligently, but must bend his mind with perseverance to his task, and learn, if at all, by close attention and the exercise of reason. 3. All translation is profitable exercise, but especially trans- lation from Latin into English, for reasons similar to those just mentioned. The pupil cannot depend to any great extent on words common to the two languages, and is forced to master the thought expressed in the Latin, and then to decide just how that particular thought may be accurately expressed by means of a largely or completely diverse linguistic system. Many go so far as to insist that the power over his native tongue which the pupil thus acquires is far greater than that acquired by original composition in his own language, inasmuch as a sec- ondary school pupil can scarcely be supposed to have any but crude and indefinite ideas, and is therefore best trained by an exercise in which the ideas are already supplied and only ex- pression need be thought of. On the other hand, it may be said with justice that : — 1. It is true that English and the modern languages generally have not commonly been taught so as to give the linguistic discipline which it is well known that we obtain The other from the study of a synthetic language. But, Slde> though this may establish a presumption, it does not prove that an analytic language cannot be taught with similar results. 1 See especially Bennett and Bristol, The Teaching of Latin and Greek, Chapter II. 20 THE STUDY OF THE MOTHER-TONGUE Teachers and scholars are just beginning to understand that English is not an unorganized or haphazard linguistic system, but is a highly developed and wellnigh perfect instrument for the expression of modern thought. That we are already familiar with its elements leaves us free to go the more deeply into the study of important facts and principles. 2. No systematic attempt has yet been made to use the earlier forms of the language, particularly Anglo-Saxon, as an instrument for linguistic training. Anglo-Saxon is of course not so richly inflected a tongue as Latin, but it is sufficiently different from modern English to require persevering attention and application ; and a knowledge of it would be of value and interest to the student. The Scandinavian nations are making a similar use, in their gymnasia, of Old Norse, which possesses an abundant and valuable literature, and the Germans and Austrians a similar use of Middle High German, 1 and it seems possible that in due course of time Anglo-Saxon can be used in English and American secondary schools with good effect 3. Good teachers of English composition would scarcely admit that boys of fifteen have few ideas or none. Their ideas may indeed be crude, but such terms are relative. The ideas of college boys, or even of grown men, might often be similarly described. The fact is that the mind of the high school student is usually brimming over with ideas, and the problem to which the modern teacher of composition addresses himself is not that of teaching young people to express mature ideas, but that of training them to express their youthful ideas adequately, in words just and true. The facts and experiences that form part and parcel of a boy's mental life are legitimate subjects for ex- pression, and hence for composition ; and it is, we think, being daily proved by teachers who work on this basis that training in turning these mental facts into words that adequately render them forms a discipline quite comparable in effectiveness with 1 For a discussion of its use in German schools, see, for example, R. Lehmann, Der deutsche Unterricht, 1890, pp. 11 5-1 22. THE STUDY OF THE MOTHER-TONGUE 21 the time-honoured training of the student in turning into his own language, from an ancient language, ideas which he scarcely understands or appreciates. It must be kept in mind that the best way to treat crude or incoherent ideas is to attempt to ex- press them to others. The crudity or incoherence then tends to become evident. This natural educative process is involved in expression by any medium, but it is especially characteristic of written or oral expression in the mother-tongue. It would seem from the foregoing discussion that the burden of proof lies with the vernacular, which must in every case prove itself, by theory and in practice, fitted for use as a The Burden subject of instruction. And yet the justice of such ofProof ' a feeling may be doubted. If the oft imagined inhabitant of another planet should have alighted here twenty years ago in his journeyings through space, he might be supposed thus to ques- tion some interlocutor, in the course of his inquiries about edu- cation. Question. And I suppose that in your whole system of secondary education, — which is, I understand you to say, free and within reach of great multitudes of the people, — you throw great weight on instruction in the native language, that as many citizens as possible may gain an intelligent appreciation of its principles, its beauties, and its niceties ? Answer. Oh, no ! we give virtually no instruction in our own language in the secondary schools. In the elementary schools we teach chil- dren reading and writing and a little grammar, and whatever else they need they can pick up for themselves. In the secondary schools we try to teach them Latin, the language of a nation that flourished some two thousand years ago. Q. But why do that? A. The language has long been held in high respect. It was for some time, though not later than five or six hundred years ago, generally used by educated Europeans, and many words from it have become embodied in our own speech. Q. Your last remark seems pertinent, though I should suppose you would find it wiser merely to give the mass of your secondary pupils some instruction in the Latin vocabulary, in the course of their instruction in English, rather than to teach them Latin for years 22 THE STUDY OF THE MOTHER-TONGUE and not teach them English at all after their childhood is over. That seems to me an exceedingly cumbrous method of securing a comparatively slight advantage, and much like the antique methods of medical practice which you have so recently dis- carded. But I can understand how you may manage to give your young citizens a fairly thorough and adequate linguistic training without insisting on formal instruction in the history and principles of the language. They would get the essence of all this, perhaps, in the frequent practice which you doubtless give them in the use of their native tongue, — in essays and compo- sitions. A. Oh, that we consider unnecessary. Such training is useless. Our boys and girls of sixteen are almost fools. They have nothing to write about in their own language, and so we give them little exercises in translating passages from Latin into English or easy English sentences to put into Latin. Q. That is a very interesting — not to say, astonishing — condition of affairs. Still, I have seen in China other somewhat similar sur- vivals of ancient customs. I suppose, then, that you confine your secondary teaching of English to this marvellous literature of yours, which you have been praising so highly and so justly. There you have at least a subject of instruction which must prove of the greatest value to the people at large. A. No, I cannot say that we make any special effort to study our own literature in the high schools. Sometimes we have the pupils read hurriedly a play or two of Shakspere, but we rely mostly on Latin literature. At the best we can, in four years, get them to read, somewhat painfully, about three hundred pages of it; but, etc. It would be easy to prolong such an imaginary conversation, which would aim simply to take the whole subject out of its customary setting and thus help us to see it in a more rational light. The result of any such attempt to look at the matter fairly must, I think, in the present state of modern civilization, lead us to see that the burden of proof may justly be laid on the classicists, and they be asked to show how and why it is that we retain a dead language for purposes of linguistic training THE STUDY OF THE MOTHER-TONGUE 23 and neglect our own language. The first and obvious reply of the classicists to this general argument would be one drawn from experience. Whatever theory may seem to show us, it is un- doubtedly true that the apparently roundabout method has been successful. For centuries each nation has been trained in its native tongue by the study of Latin. Has a nation ever been so well trained through its own language ? Such an argument, we may reply, would have been some years ago almost unan- swerable, though a keen mind might always have suspected that experience, as in so many matters of science, was used to sup- port a monstrous waste of force. Recent experience, however, counts against the classicists. It has been proved that each modern language is, to those who speak it, an excellent instru- ment for linguistic training. Especially is this true in certain parts of the field of instruction in English. Within twenty years methods of teaching English composition have been put in practice which lead a majority of those interested in educa- tion to believe it an exceedingly valuable linguistic disci- pline, and within ten years certain American schools have been securing equally important results from the teaching of Eng- lish literature. Half a century more and we may be able to meet the classicists not only on the ground of pure theory, where their case is weakest, but also on the ground of national experience. To sum up in a few words, then, the line of thought expressed in the chapter up to this point, we may say: (1) The rightful claim of Latin to be considered as the pre-eminent language of the educated classes in Europe was broken down in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, and completely overthrown in the eighteenth ; and, similarly, the exclusive claims of Latin to be accepted as the most valuable and one indispensable instrument of secondary instruction have been gradually weakened, during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, by the increasing value set on the study of mathematics, the natural sciences, history, and the modern languages. (2) It has become more and more evident, from the educational experience of the last twenty-five 24 THE STUDY OF THE MOTHER-TONGUE years, that much of the good effect secured through Latin as a cultural study may also be secured through the use of history and of literature in the modern languages. (3) While the rivals of Latin — and especially history and the literature of the native tongue — have been thus encroaching upon the reputation it had long held as an educational medium, it has become less and less certain that Latin could hold its reputation even in the field where it has usually been regarded as supreme, as an instrument for linguistic discipline. In particular, modern methods in English composition seem to show that this is, in proper hands, an extraordinarily effective instrument. There is a somewhat wide-spread feeling, moreover, that the study of English gram- mar, particularly on the historical side, and of the earlier forms of the language, may be so systematized as to yield as remark- able results as has the recently systematized study of English composition. Three further facts which have an important bearing on the attitude towards Latin of those especially interested in the study of English are these : — 1. A still undisputed claim of Latin on the attention of the modern European nations is that it has been the source of so large a part of their respective vocabularies. The Partof Spaniard, the Italian, and, to a somewhat less degree, the Frenchman, must know something of the Latin vocabulary in order to master their own. This does not hold true, to anything like the same extent, of German, and especially not of the Scandinavian languages, which are far more Teutonic in character. It does hold true of English, the vocabu- lary of which is partly Latin, partly Teutonic. To acquire the necessary hold on the Latin vocabulary, to feel the force and weight of English words on their Latin side, is not, however, a task of great magnitude. With modern methods of teaching Latin, it can certainly be secured in three years, and it is wholly possible that, under teachers trained in English philology as well as in Latin, good results could be secured in two years or even less. THE STUDY OF THE MOTHER-TONGUE 25 2. Recent statistics seem to show that, in secondary schools in the United States, the study of Latin is increasing. Not only are more pupils studying Latin, but the increase is greater than would be expected, even taking the natural increase of school attendance into consideration. As it must remain very doubt- ful whether many of these secondary school students of Latin continue their instruction in that subject more than two or three years, it seems clear, on the whole, that the study of Latin, as now carried on in the secondary schools of the United States, should be fostered in every possible way by those of us who are primarily interested in the study of the mother-tongue, except when the time spent in the study of Latin must be subtracted, in large part or wholly, from the time devoted to English. It must be borne in mind, moreover, that, when pursued from the point of view mentioned just above, the study of Latin is as much a part of the curriculum in English as in Latin, and in matters of method must eventually be considered primarily as an English study. 3. While teachers of English will thus feel it their duty to en- courage the study of Latin to a greater or less degree in the secondary schools, they must remember that the ex- The Teaching perience of the present century, or even of the stiulnite next generation or two, may well succeed in estab- Infailc y- lishing the fact that English, when properly taught, has an educational value that has until recently scarcely been sus- pected. It is now being shown in our best schools that training in English composition may yield results hardly at- tainable through any other means in point of mental discipline. The progress now being made in the teaching of English literature seems to show that it now serves better than Latin and Greek the purpose of awakening and organizing the aesthetic side of the boy's nature and of building up in him a sound taste for good literature. Similarly, it remains to be seen whether the system of teaching the English language now in process of development, particularly if it be made to include the study of Latin and of Anglo-Saxon — the two great sources of 26 THE STUDY OF THE MOTHER-TONGUE our vocabulary — has not a strong chance of supplanting Latin as the most convenient and effective instrument for education on the linguistic side. It behooves the teacher and the student of English, therefore, to pay the utmost attention to the problems presented by the teaching of the mother-tongue, treating them in a broad way, without prejudice, and with the determination to aid as much as possible in the solution of one of the most important educational questions of our generation. II. The Teaching of the Vernaculars in Europe From our brief inquiry into the rise and progress of the study of the vernaculars in the secondary schools, and from our still briefer inquiry into the relative merits English In- structionin of the training secured through Latin and through Great Britain. & to , . . b a native language, we now pass to the considera- tion of the present state of the study of the native languages in the principal modern nations. As our main interest lies in English, it would be natural to turn our attention almost exclusively to England, where, one would suppose, we should find such models as we need. Unfortunately, the secondary school system of Great Britain, though in certain respects ad- mirable, is peculiar in that it holds closely to the methods of centuries ago, so far as the relative use of the ancient and the modern languages is concerned. In all the great English schools Latin and Greek are the chief means employed to secure mental discipline and to train the taste and the judg- ment in literary and linguistic matters. The current policy with reference to the use of Latin and Greek in secondary education is still virtually that thus described in the report of the Educational Commission of 1864 : — " For the instruction of boys, especially when collected in a large school, it is natural that there should be some one prin- cipal branch of study, invested with a recognized and if possible a traditional importance, to which the principal weight should THE STUDY OF THE MOTHER-TONGUE 2J be assigned, and the largest share of time and attention given. . . . The study of the classical languages and literature at present occupies this position in all the great English schools. ... It is not without jeason that the foremost place has been assigned to this study. Grammar is the logic of common speech, and there are few educated men who are not sensible of the advantages they derived as boys from the steady practice of Latin composition and translation, and from their introduc- tion to etymology. We are equally convinced that the best materials available to Englishmen for these studies are furnished by the languages and literature of Greece and Rome. From the regular structure of their languages, from the comparative ease with which their etymology is traced and reduced to general laws, from their severe canons of taste and style, from the very fact that they are dead, and have been handed down to us directly from the periods of their highest perfection, comparatively untouched by the inevitable process of degenera- tion and decay, they are beyond all doubt the finest and most serviceable models we have for the study of language." 1 During the last two decades — and particularly during the last decade — there have been many signs of a movement toward placing the study of English on a more r . • t, t i j , i ™ The Same secure footing in English secondary schools. Most Subject c . . u . ., Continued, of them, it would appear, are now preparing pupils for the Oxford or Cambridge local examinations, for the matric- ulation examination of the University of London, or for other similar tests, which include English grammar, composition, and literature. The evidence seems to show, however, (i) that preparation for these examinations, so far as English goes, is still rather an incident in the work of the schools than an essential element; (2) that the schools are inclined simply to teach what the examiners are likely to ask for, instead of providing a well-proportioned group of English studies ; and (3) that what the examiners require is too often not real 1 Report of Her Majesty s Commissioners appointed to inquire into the Revenues and Management of certain Colleges, Schools, and Foundations. Vol. I. London. 1864. Reprinted in Barnard, English Pedagogy. Second Series. 28 THE STUDY OF THE MOTHER-TONGUE knowledge, training, or cultivation of mind, but simply the memorizing of comparatively useless facts. 1 On the whole, it is clear that the great English secondary schools, especially in the preparation of candidates for Oxford and Cambridge, have remained faithful to the old classical traditions. 2 Composition is usually understood as meaning 1 The last point is well illustrated by the following paper on As You Like It, set in the Oxford local examinations for Junior candidates, in July, 1900: — 1. On what occasions does Touchstone appear in this Play? De- scribe briefly the part he played on each occasion. 2. Give the meaning of the following words, and quote the passage in which each occurs : allottery, quintain, umber, priser, quotidian, leer, hurtling, thrasonical. 3. Describe the character of either (a) Jaques or (b) Rosalind. 4. Give an account of the plot of this play. 5. By whom and on what occasions are the following mentioned in this Play? — Robin Hood of England, Juno's swans, all the firstborn of Egypt, Gargantua's mouth, Leander. 6. Quote either the passage beginning " And one man in his time plays many parts " and ending " The sixth age shifts into the lean and slippered pantaloon ; " or, the passage beginning " Hath not old custom made this life," etc., and ending " I would not change it." See also the essay on " The Teaching of English Literature," in D. C. Tovey, Reviews and Essays in English Literature, Bell, 1897. 2 All who have studied the English secondary schools seem agreed on this main point of difference between the English educational system and that of other countries. See, for example, J. J. Findlay's " Education in England," in Beiblatt zur Anglia, Nov. 1, 1891, p. 236. Even in the " modern " (non-classical) course, English apparently amounts to little. Indeed, the term " English " seems often to be applied to history, political economy, or any subject studied in the native language. The latest Royal Commission on Secondary Education (1895) nas little to say about the matter except that " it is now generally agreed that besides that literary and humanistic course of instruction, based upon the languages of classical antiquity, which tradition has established among us, and whose incomparable value no thoughtful man denies, ample provision must be made for scientific teaching. ... It is further agreed that . . . the chief tongues of Europe ought to be studied not only as instruments of linguistic training but as the keys to noble literatures." Report of the Commissioners, 1895, I. 284. It is only within the last few years, and after much debate, that instruction in English, and particularly in English literature, has been THE STUDY OF THE MOTHER-TONGUE 29 Latin composition, and such practice as is sometimes given in essay writing is cursory and incidental. The efforts of educational reformers appear to be almost exclusively directed to pressing the claims of the modern foreign languages and of the sciences, and to the attempt — -so far without complete success — to obtain an organized system of elementary and secondary instruction similar to that established in all other civilized countries. Such training in their native language as English boys receive in the secondary schools is thus almost entirely confined to what may be obtained incidentally in the course of their instruction in Latin and Greek, in accordance with the theory enunciated by Thomas Arnold, who declared that " every lesson in Greek or Latin may or ought to be made a lesson in English ; the translation of every sentence in Demosthenes or Tacitus is properly an exercise in extempo- raneous English composition, — a problem how to express with equal brevity, clearness, and force, in our own language, the thoughts which the author has so admirably expressed in his." The typical English schools of to-day may, therefore, be de- scribed, so far as the teaching of the English language and liter- ature goes, as in much the same condition as were English as a the old New England classical academies, such as B y- product - Phillips Andover and Phillips Exeter, up to within a few years. At their best, they teach English through Latin, securing such knowledge and training as is necessary as a sort of by-product. The reader must be careful, however, not to infer that, because English is not explicitly taught in classical schools of this sort, admitted to any recognized place in British universities. See J. C. Collins, The Study of English Literature, Macmillan, 1891, and "English Literature and How to Study It," Pall Mall Gazette extra, No. 32, Jan. 20, 1887. The absence of plan in secondary instruction in English in Great Britain can be seen in P. A. Barnett's Teaching and Organization with special Reference to Secondary Schools, Longmans, 1897. One of the few attempts to introduce modern methods in the teaching of English composition is L. C. Cornford's English Composition, a Manual of Theory and Practice, Nutt, 1900. Reviewed (unfavourably) in The [London] Academy, Nov. 24, 1900. 30 THE STUDY OF THE MOTHER-TONGUE the pupils are necessarily deficient in the power of using their native tongue with correctness and skill. This may or may not be the case. Ability to speak a language correctly depends more upon home influences and out-of-school associations than upon school training. The habit of talking and writing sensi- bly, which may be secured through drill in English composition, may also be secured indirectly through any or all kinds of sound mental discipline. In the English secondary schools a far greater number of pupils come from well-to-do or educated families than in the United States. It is not to be wondered at, therefore, that in many cases English boys who have not been trained in English speak and write as correctly as American or German boys who have had the advantage of a considerable amount of instruction in their native language ; nor would such a state of things count against those who are in favour of mak- ing the mother-tongue one of the most important elements in secondary education. British conservatism in education, which results in her making use of Latin and Greek in education to the almost complete The Native exclusion of English, forces us to look elsewhere, if ConKital" 11 at a ^> f° r our m °dels in the teaching of a native Europe. language. In elementary instruction the mother- tongue is, throughout the civilized world, given special promi- nence and attention. It is in regard to its use in secondary education that there is a difference in national opinion. In England, as we have seen, it is virtually dispensed with. On the Continent of Europe, however, we find a different state of affairs. The favoured schools in most countries are, to be sure, the institutions in which Latin and Greek are made the most important subjects of instruction. With almost no exceptions throughout Continental Europe, public opinion and govern- mental regulation treat men in whose education neither Latin nor Greek has played a part as relegated to a lower sphere of life and as practically to be excluded from the " learned " pro- fessions. On the other hand, in contrast to English conditions, there is apparently no system of recognized secondary instruc- THE STUDY OF THE MOTHER-TONGUE 3 1 tion in any other European state which does not possess, run- ning from the lowest class through the highest, a definite, well- planned, and carefully graded course of instruction in the language and literature of the native tongue. It is at first surprising to find that this is the case not only in France and Germany, but in the less conspicuous nations. The statistics given in such works, however, as Bau- » rr 77 7 ? r- • r , rr .7 The General meister s Handbuch aer Erziehungs una Untemchts- Situation in lehre fur h'ohere Schulen, show that in Russia, in Europe. Hungary, in Belgium, as well as in all the Scandinavian countries, — in short, wherever there is a strong national sentiment, — liberal provision is made for the study of the mother-tongue throughout the secondary course. Such study includes thorough instruction in the grammar of the language, practical and histor- ical, in composition in the native tongue, in the history of the national literature, and in the reading and study of a large num- ber of selected masterpieces. Some attention to the earlier forms of the language and to the older literature is almost in- variably given. Many or all of these systems will repay careful examination. For lack of space, however, we must confine ourselves to a brief summary of the course of secondary in- struction in the mother-tongue now current in Germany. 1 German secondary schools are divided into three main classes : the Gymnasien or classical schools, in which Latin and Greek are the main objects of instruction; the Real- gymnasien, in which Latin is required but not Greek, the study of and which therefore answers to the ordinary classi- cal course in the American high school ; and the Real-schulen, in which neither Latin nor Greek is required. In the first, the time allotted to German is now, in Prussia, about three hours a week ; in the second and third, slightly more, but not quite, on an average, four hours. The amount was formerly somewhat 1 Full and definite information regarding German secondary instruc- tion in the native language may be found in the admirable books of Professor Russell and Mr. Bolton, to which the reader is referred for further details. 32 THE STUDY OF THE MOTHER-TONGUE less in all of these, having been increased by the ministerial re- script of 1892, to effect which the present' emperor, then in the early years of his reign, used his strong influence, declaring in very noble words 1 that German schools should breed Ger- man citizens and soldiers, with an understanding of the national language and a love and appreciation of the national literature. It will be noticed that good American high schools and acad- emies give as much time as this to English, and that some of the best give even more. The advantage which Germany has over the United States in this respect, therefore, is merely that all authorized German schools are required to allot so much time to German, and actually do so, whereas in the United States many schools lag far behind their more enlightened brothers. Three hours a week throughout the course may, then, be regarded as all that is necessary to accomplish the objects which modern education has in mind in the study of the mother-tongue in secondary schools. 2 With regard to the qualifications of teachers German regula- tions are infinitely superior to our own. Teachers of any sub- Qualifications J ect must nave finished their gymnasium course, of Teachers. an( ^ j iaye S p ent at ] east three years in university study. The average is four or five years of university study. That is to say, translating the requirements into terms appli- cable to American education, teachers must have spent six to seven years in undergraduate and post-graduate study. In ad- dition, they must have passed a severe state examination, which tests (1) their understanding of philosophy, psychology, and 1 "Whoever has been in the gymnasium himself, and has caught a glimpse behind the scenes, knows what is lacking there. Above all the national basis is lacking. We must take the German language as the foundation for the gymnasium ; we should educate national young Ger- mans and not Greeks and Romans. We must depart entirely from the basis that existed for centuries — from the old monastic education of the Middle Ages, where the standard was Latin with a little Greek added." Quoted in Bolton, Secondary School System i7i Gertnany, p. 154. 2 Provided, of course, that correct habits of expression are inculcated in all other subjects of study. THE STUDY OF THE MOTHER-TONGUE 33 education ; (2) their scholarship in the field in which they have specialized, and in which they wish to give instruction ; and (3) their knowledge of some allied subject, such as English or French in the case of teachers of German. The specific requirements for teachers of German are summarized as follows by Mr. Bolton : — "Without going into details concerning the qualifications required for teachers of the mother-tongue, it will suffice to say that no mere ability to recite grammatical or rhetorical rules, nor a simple smattering of literature is deemed sufficient. No dilettanteism is allowed. Nothing short of a thoroughly critical knowledge of the linguistic science of the language and the ability to make scholarly literary criticism will be accepted. The historical development of the language must have been studied, and also that of the languages from which it has been derived. Gothic, Old High German, and Middle High German must be easily read and understood, and some acquaintance with their literature must have been acquired." * The extraordinary differences between the conditions thus indicated and those existing in the United States will be appar- ent when we reflect that, taking the country up and down, certainly half our high school teachers of English have not had even college instruction in that subject, much less university instruction ; have no special knowledge of the history of our language and literature ; and are incompetent, from any rational point of view, to give thorough instruction in their native tongue. Certainly not one-tenth of them, in spite of the rapidly increas- ing strictness of our city and state boards of education, have qualifications corresponding to those required by law of every teacher of German in Germany. The German requirements, like the German system, savour of pedantry, but it will be long ^before we can secure, in our own secondary schools, teachers so broadly educated and well informed on their special subjects. The aims to be kept in view by the secondary Aimso f teacher of German are thus stated in the Prussian Instruction. regulations '. — 1 Bolton, Secondary School System of Germany, 65. 3 34 THE STUDY OF THE MOTHER-TONGUE " Next to religion and history, German is the subject which is of the greatest moral importance in the organic life of our high schools. The task assigned to it is one of peculiar diffi- culty, and the necessary conditions for its successful accom- plishment are a thorough comprehension of our language and history on the part of the teacher, an enthusiastic admiration for the treasures of our literature, and a deep sense of patriot- ism, whereby he may be able to instil into the sensitive hearts of our young people enthusiasm for the German language, for the German people, and for the greatness of the German intellect." x Such statements have undoubtedly a naive air, and give one the idea that the conception of German greatness thus imparted to the pupil must be both mechanical and sentimental ; but at bottom the principle is sound. There is no better way of bringing young people to realize the essential elements of na- tional life and character than through the careful, loving, and systematic study of the national language, the national literature, and the national history. What Prussia thus explicitly an- nounces as a part of the governmental policy is, explicitly or implicitly, a part of educational policy in all the great European nations, except England. In the United States we clearly must insist on a more general and systematic adoption of the same policy. A further point in which we may with advantage study the treatment of the mother-tongue in Germany is that of the gen- The System of eral interest in tne organization of this branch of Instruction, teaching as a system. American educational peri- odicals contain numerous articles on special points connected with the teaching of English, and there are several books deal- ing with the subject as a whole ; but these articles and trea- tises are almost without exception the result merely of individual or local experience. Each expresses a different point of view, and has little in common with others. This is perhaps espe- cially the case with articles on English in the secondary schools, 1 ''Curricula and Programmes of Work for Higher Schools in Prussia," in Special Reports on Educational Subjects, III. 271. THE STUDY OF THE MOTHER-TONGUE 35 about which there were no signs of a common basis of agree- ment, in point of method or system, until the appearance of the much discussed report of the Committee of Ten in 1894. In this respect the Germans are more fortunate ; they have years ago passed from the stage of aimless discussion of individual fancies and local preferences to a stage characterized by a gen- eral consensus of opinion on essential matters, and to a convic- tion that the teaching of the mother-tongue, from first to last, can be well planned and well executed only when all its parts are considered in their logical relations as members of a single organism. 1 Systematic descriptions of the German course of study in the mother-tongue may be found in the article by Mr. Dale and the works by Mr. Bolton and Professor Russell. Pro- course of fessor Russell's chapter on this subject, in particular, sttldy - should be read and pondered by every one intending to teach English in the secondary schools. The essential characteristics of the course of study are as follows : — (1) As has been said, it is, from beginning to end, a well- planned and well-balanced system, the result of the experience of more than half a century. (2) It is virtually the same for students preparing for the uni. versity and those preparing for professional or business life. (3) It is not divided into " language " and " grammar " and "literature" and "rhetoric" and "composition," and other small portions. It is a course in German, but in it one element after another is given the attention it deserves. (4) Grammar is taught indirectly and progressively in con- nection with the study of literature and not by disconnected sentences. 1 For German theories as to methods of teaching German, see the works mentioned in the bibliography at the head of this chapter, and the references appended to Chapter XII. of Russell's German Higher Schools, especially the articles in Baumeister's Handbuch der Erziehungs- und Unterrichtslehre fur hohere Schulen and Rein's Encyklopadisckes Handbuch der Pddagogik. 36 THE STUDY OF THE MOTHER-TONGUE (5) Emphasis is laid, throughout the. course, on oral compo- sition, particularly in the form of paraphrase and of full answers to leading questions in recitations in all subjects. (6) The foremost element is always literature, studied largely through carefully graded reading-books, which are prepared with a view to giving the pupil a knowledge of the best, the most suitable, and the most inspiring parts of his native literature. (7) Correct and accurate use of language is insisted upon in all subjects. (8) During the period of elementary and secondary educa- tion, which may be considered as closing with the seventh year of the gymnasium'course, i.e. } oberseamda, a great deal of ground is thus covered, as will be indicated by the course of study out- lined for obersecunda : — " (a) Composition at home and in class ; shorter essays on topics drawn from the general instruction ; about eight essays in the school year, (b) Introduction to the Nibelunge?ilied in the original text ; the courtly epic and lyric, (c) General review of styles of poetry, (d) Reading of Dramas : Wallenstein, Egmo?it, Goetz. (e) Occasional committing to memory of selections from the reading ; original discourses by the students upon the contents of the more significant poems of middle-high German and of modern dramas." Such, in its main outlines, is the instruction in the mother- tongue in Germany. We have seen that in England similar in- struction is unsatisfactory and incomplete, owing to the peculiar character of the education given in the great " public " schools and the general lack of organization in the elementary and secondary school system. In France, and in the other important European countries, the plan, aim, and system of instruction are much the same as in Germany. Hav- ing now some idea of the importance given to the subject in other lands, and of the system in vogue there, we may turn to the development of similar instruction in the United States. THE STUDY OF THE MOTHER-TONGUE I? III. The Teaching of English in the United States The situation in the United States was from the first in many respects different from that in Europe. The colonists, especially those emigrating for political or religious reasons, had broken away — at least, in many points — from Weakening „ ,. . , . , ~ of Tradition. European traditions in matters ol thought. Capa- ble of conceiving of another order of things than that existent in politics and religion, early forced to depend on their own resources and to adapt themselves and their desires to the requirements of a new environment, they had obviously the advantage of being less influenced by systems of education which had already lost their value. It was natural that, from the eighteenth century on, there should have been a strong American party disbelieving in the old " classical ' ; training and having ready at hand a supposedly sufficient substitute. Frank- lin, always so typical of the New England and the Middle States, wrote, in 1789, the following justification of a plan formulated by him in 1749 i 1 — "The origin of Latin and Greek schools among the different nations of Europe is known to have been this : That until be- tween three and four hundred years past there were no books in any other language ; all the knowledge then contained in books, riz., the theology, the jurisprudence, the physic, the art military, the politics, the mathematics and mechanics, the natural and moral philosophy, the logic and rhetoric, the chemistry, the pharmacy, the architecture, and every other branch of science, being in those languages, it was, of course, necessary to learn them as the gates through which men must pass to get at that knowledge. "The books then existing were manuscript, and these conse- quently so dear that only a few wealthy, inclined to learning, 1 Observations Relative to the Intentions of the Original Founders of the Academy in Philadelphia. Reprinted, with a discussion of Franklin's ideas on education, in F. C. Thorpe's Benjamin Franklin and the Univer- sity of Pennsylvania, Bureau of Education, Circular of Information, No. 2, 1892, pp. 39 ff. The original plan is described in the same treatise, pp. 36 ff. 38 THE STUDY OF THE MOTHER-TONGUE could afford to purchase them. The common people were not even at the pains of learning to read, because, after taking that pains, they would have nothing to read that they could under- stand without learning the ancient languages, nor then, without money to purchase the manuscripts ; and so few were the learned readers sixty years after the invention of printing that it appears by letters still extant between the printers in 1499 tnat they could not throughout Europe find purchasers for more than three hundred copies of any ancient authors. But printing be- ginning now to make books cheap, the readers increased so much as to make it worth while to write and print books in the vulgar tongue. At first these were chiefly books of devotion and little histories. Gradually several branches of science be- gan to appear in the common languages, and at this day the whole body of science, consisting not only of translations from all the valuable ancients, but of all the new modern discoveries, is to be met with in those languages, so that learning the ancient for the purpose of acquiring knowledge is become absolutely unnecessary. "But there is in mankind an unaccountable prejudice in favour of ancient customs and habitudes, which inclines to a continuance of them after the circumstances which formerly made them useful cease to exist. A multitude of instances might be given, but it may suffice to mention one. Hats were once thought a useful part of dress ; they kept the head warm and screened it from the violent impression of the sun's rays, and from the rain, snow, hail, etc., though, by the way, this was not the more ancient opinion or practice. From among all the re- mains of antiquity, the bustoes, statues, basso-relievos, medals,etc, which are infinite, there is no representation of the human figure with a hat or cap on, nor any covering for the head, unless it be the head of a soldier, who has a helmet ; but that is evidently not a part of dress for health but as a protection from the strokes of a weapon. u At what time hats were first introduced we know not, but in the last century they were universally worn throughout Europe. Gradually, however, as the wearing of wigs and hair nicely dressed prevailed, the putting on of hats was disused by genteel people, lest the curious arrangements of the curls and powdering should be disordered, and umbrellas began to supply their place ; yet still our considering the hat as a part of the dress continues so far to prevail that a man of fashion is not thought dressed without having one, or something like one, about him which he carries under his arm. So that there are a THE STUDY OF THE MOTHER-TONGUE 39 multitude of the politer people in all the courts in capital cities of Europe who have never, nor their fathers before them, worn a hat otherwise than as a chapeau bras, though the utility of such a mode of wearing it is by no means apparent, and it is attended not only with some expense but with a degree of constant trouble. The still prevailing custom of having schools for teach- ing generally our children in these days the Latin and Greek languages I consider therefore in no other light than as the chapeau bras of modern literature." The early American colonists, and particularly the New Eng- land colonists, were early moved to provide for the elementary teaching of the mother-tongue. The development Elementary of the instruction in English given in American Schools. schools, from the colonial days to the present time, may be best treated under the successive heads of elementary schools, classi- cal schools, academies, high schools and colleges. In the opinion of the New Englanders it was indispensable that the citizen should be able to read and to write. Especially must every citi- zen be able to read, for otherwise he would not be able to understand the civil law, as laid down in the statute books of the state and the community, nor, more important yet, would he be able to understand the law of God as revealed in the Scriptures. In 1642 and 1647 ^ avvs were passed in Massachu- setts expressly stating these political and religious reasons for the study of English and establishing schools for that pur- pose in all townships of more than fifty households^ It is a tra- dition that, in some isolated communities, children then used birchbark for paper and were taught in turn by the educated adults. In the eighteenth century, during the long period of political -disturbance, the elementary schools languished, but they revived in the subsequent period of peace and prosperity. For two centuries the instruction, according to the old saying, consisted of the three R's, reading, writing, and arithmetic, — a fact which implies that practically two-thirds of the attention was given to the study of the native language. This study was, in many respects, unintelligent. The method of learning to read savoured of the Middle Ages. Children were taught to spell in 40 THE STUDY OF THE MOTHER-TONGUE the most cumbrous way imaginable. There was a similar waste of time and effort in the instruction in writing. The other branches of English study were simply grammar and exercises in reading. The grammar, in accordance with the ideas of the time, was artificial in the extreme, and eventually aroused a pro- found reaction against any formal system of grammatical teach- ing. The reading was carried on in an equally artificial way, was largely elocutionary in its basis, and had nothing of the value of an approach to literature. Even under these cir- cumstances, with methods so primitive, the fundamental ob- jects were roughly accomplished, and, throughout the United States, children of school age learned the two great hereditary secrets of civilization — the art of reading and the art of writing. It was not until late in the nineteenth century that the people as a whole awoke to the fact that the elementary school system must be greatly improved. Instruction in Eng- lish, from about 1870 on, changed rapidly. x\t first it was the large city schools, or those in favoured communities, that were thus re-organized, but the new ideas spread quickly, and at the present time in a large part of the country, elementary instruction in English is organized and carried on in an intelli- gent way. And yet it is just to say that, in spite of antique and barbarous methods, the old training in English was often extremely suc- Thelntelli- cessful. This was partly due to the influence of the Oid°Com- tlie community. In an exceedingly interesting and im- munities, portant essay on Early Common Schools of New England, 1 Dr. A. D. Mayo says of the old New England schools and communities what was at a later period equally true of many Western schools and communities : — " The one fact apparent to every well-informed person in this period of the life of New England in general, and Massachu- setts in particular, is that there was in every region of society a profound respect for education and a universal habit of rever- 1 In U. S. Educational Report, 1894-895, II. 1551-1615. THE STUDY OF THE MOTHER-TONGUE 41 ence for an educated class. In every little town, however backward, there were children and youth whose proficiency in the common school and love for study made them conspicuous, < the town talk.' The deep interest with which the progress of such a boy or girl was watched, and the great efforts of parents, friends, often strangers, to aid any capable and aspiring student in 'getting an education,' were a beautiful feature of the town life. The clergy were especially noted for this patriotic spirit. They were generally members of the school committees and often watched the schools with sleepless vigilance. Their sons and daughters were often the teachers, and every country min- ister of any pretension to scholarship drew about him a group of bright young people for mental improvement, often ' fitting for college ' those who were unable to pay the expense of attend- ance on a classical seminary. The district school shared with the church the constant interest of the people in all save ex- ceptional towns. In the dearth of popular amusements and an exciting outward life, its goings on were canvassed in every household, and the influence of the superior people was a powerful factor in its success. " The college and academy were at that time a far more pro- nounced subject of general interest than at present. There was, in the rural districts and the villages, practically no element of population supplied from ' foreign parts,' and no organized religion opposed to the prevailing Protestant church. . . . Not- withstanding the dearth of books for general circulation and the feeble estate of journalism, there were still, in almost every town, small collections of good English literature accessible to every eager youth. It was a fixed habit of the men to meet at the village store, the shoemaker's, blacksmith's, and carpenter's shops, the various mills, especially the gristmill and sawmill, to hear the weekly ' paper ' read, and to thoroughly discuss its contents, and this kept alive an intense interest in the discus- sion of all affairs of public and local interest. A New England town of one thousand people, seventy-five years ago, with a village at the centre of half a hundred houses, during the long winter months shut up from travel, with all its energies turned 4n upon itself, was a battery of electric brains. Men, women, and the older children were in constant social communication, meeting often several times a week at church, lyceum, and visiting ; kept alive by a vital interest in all things important to a good community. The one unfortunate habit of ' drink,' which was the scourge of so many of these places, had not yet undermined the personal virtue of the people to a dangerous 42 THE STUDY OF THE MOTHER-TONGUE degree ; and the old-time style of personal self-respect, of non- interference with the rights, opinions, and even prejudices of neighbours and townsmen, so favourable to the growth of practi- cal good living, original thinking, and common sense, was a prodigious power in shaping the peculiar life of the New England town. And there can be no question that the teachers of the district schools in New England during this period were drawn from a superior grade of the population, and in many instances were more competent than at the present time." It is not, theny safe to assume that the work done with such simple implements was badly done. The soil was fertile. Or, Textbooks t0 cnan § e tne figure, the boys of those days, with and Results, minds unspoiled and attention undistracted, were able to extract, from such crude books and primitive teaching, the needed intellectual nutriment, as hardy bodies gain strength from coarse and scanty fare. Men trained in the old schools were no weaklings, and it does not require research to under- stand that the old textbooks and the old methods, while includ- ing much that was harmful and false, contained also much that was true, stimulating, educative. The old Webster's spelling- book sprang from the profound conviction of the author that a nation of freemen must know the outward form of the words that composed their language ; and the drill based on it, like mental arithmetic, cultivated quickness and acuteness of mind and accurate grasp of memory. The old grammars had a similar but a higher aim. Every boy and girl, to be worthy of his lot or hers, must understand the syntactical relations that are the logic of language ; and the endless drill in parsing and analy- sis, often distasteful, usually resulted in giving the intelligent pupil an iron grasp upon the essentials of sentence structure. Of the old readers even more can be said. School children then read little and they read mechanically, but they frequently found in their well-thumbed textbooks the most inspiring litera- ture of their race and their time. Abraham Lincoln, a man of few books, said of Lindley Murray's English Reader, that " it was the best school book ever put into the hands of an Ameri- THE STUDY OF THE MOTHER-TONGUE 43 can youth ; " * and there are many to bear witness of the intense enjoyment and stimulus derived both from the readers com- piled (1820-1830) by John Pierpont, 2 which were the first to avail themselves of the new literature of the rising romantic school of Irving and Bryant, and of Scott, Byron, and Camp- bell, and from the more crude but still excellent First School Reader of Noah Webster, the patriotic American Preceptor (1794) and Columbian Orator (1797) of Caleb Bingham, and the widely used series of W. H. McGufTey (1850). The colonists were not, however, without a deep respect for classical learning, and the Massachusetts laws of 1642 and 1647 provided for the establishment, in townships of a The Classical hundred or more families, of Latin or " grammar " Scll00ls - schools on the old English model, in order that certain chosen citizens should be taught the " learned " languages as a gate to the " learned" professions ; and similar schools were founded in many other places throughout the country. Like the elementary schools, the Latin schools declined during the troubled period of the eighteenth century ; unlike the elementary schools, how- ever, they fortunately never recovered their former status, being rapidly supplanted by the new and interesting institution known as the academy. 1 W. H. Herndon's Lincoln, 37. 2 It is impossible to avoid quoting a few noble sentences from Pier- pont's preface to the first edition of the American First Class Book, which indicate the patriotic fervour which pervades the book : " Our country both physically and morally has a character of its own. Should not something of that character be learned by its children while at school ? Its mountains and prairies and lakes and rivers and cataracts ; its shores and hill-tops that were early made sacred by dangers and sacrifices and deaths of the devout and the daring ; it does seem as if these were worthy of being held up as objects of interest to the young eyes that from year to year are opening upon them, and worthy of being linked with all their sacred associations to the young affections, which sooner or later must be bound to them, or they must cease to be what they now are, — the inheritance and abode of a free people ! " Quoted in R. R. Reeder's Historical Development of School Readers and Method in Teach- ing Reading, which gives the latest and best account of the whole subject. 44 THE STUDY OF THE MOTHER-TONGUE The policy of establishing endowed schools, attendance at which should not be confined to residents in a given community, The and in which the young men of the country at large Academies. could be thoroughly educated, whether they intended to go to college or not, seemed to spring up almost spontane- ously in several of the northern colonies, and particularly in Massachusetts. The main idea was derived from the similarly named institutions established in England, from the latter part of the seventeenth century on, by the dissenting bodies, whose children were not then admitted to the Latin schools or the universities. In America, as in England, academies were in- tended partly to take the place of the local Latin schools. There was, however, another element in their constitution which was particularly appropriate in a new country, namely, the concep- tion that they might furnish an appropriate general education for boys not entering the learned professions. This idea was best developed by the fertile mind of Benjamin Franklin, who, in 1749, proposed the founding in Philadelphia of an academy which was to give a sensible, practical education to young men intended for a commercial life. 1 Latin, he held, was unneces- sary for such students, and a thorough mastery of their native language was necessary for them, — a proposition which has gained steadily in favour from that time to this, and been applied to an increasingly large class of students. In so far as they represented the Latin school, the academies paid almost no attention whatever to English instruction. 2 Out- 1 See above, p. 37. Franklin's plan was taken up at once by his fellow-citizens, and the Philadelphia Academy became, in course of time, the University of Pennsylvania, but not until the original idea had been radically altered. 2 The early records of Phillips Academy (Andover), for instance, which have been recently examined for this purpose, show that only English grammar was taught there in 1820. The. first catalogue, that of 1840, mentions only " written translations." In 1874 there was one ex- ercise a week in elocution, composition, or written translation; in 1878, two terms (and in 1879 three terms) of English grammar and analysis. In 1880-1881 a few exercises in the study of English authors were given; THE STUDY OF THE MOTHER-TONGUE 45 side the curriculum there were frequently debating societies and literary clubs ; inside the curriculum there was little or nothing that bore on the study of the native tongue, English ^ tbjS except the practice of translation from the ancient Academies, languages into English. It is fair to say that, even under these circumstances, a good English education was often obtained. The interest of the community in literature, in the days of the Puritan renaissance, was such that the eager boy could be trusted voluntarily to study the great works of his own literature, and class-room instruction in Latin and Greek was carried on so carefully that the student was usually forced to translate Latin into thoroughly good English. The result of both influences was that outside the class-room he acquired some knowledge of literature and that inside the class room he often obtained a meagre but sufficient training in accurate writing. In so far as the academy was a school for the people, it showed a marked tendency to do away with the classical languages and to substitute mathematics, the sciences, the modern languages and English. English lagged somewhat behind the other sub- jects. The trouble lay not so much in the lack of desire for instruction as in the general feeling that there was no great body of instruction to give. After the pupils had mastered grammar, they wrote formal themes, they gave orations and declamations, they studied treatises on rhetoric and aesthetics like those of Blair, Kames, and Campbell, or their American imitators. But this meagre and formal course of study, ill-organized, artificial, and unintelligent, was all that the academies could offer, and it is due less to such instruction than to the earnestness and vigour of American communities that secondary students gained a mastery over the English language and English literature further than that given by the district school. 1 in 1885, reading for the college requirements. In 1892, a group of Eng- lish studies was introduced, running through the entire course. These data apply to classical students only. 1 R. G. Boone, in his History of Ediication in Indiana, Appleton, 1892, p. 51, speaking of the education given in the Western " seminaries " 46 THE STUDY OF THE MOTHER-TONGUE In the wonderful period of the New England transcendental movement, the days of a great intellectual awakening throughout The High tne People at large, there appeared the most striking Schools. educational phenomenon of the last hundred years in America, the widespread and urgent demand for local, free, well-organized secondary instruction. Beginning in Massachu- setts and Connecticut, the two great sources of educational prog- ress as long as New England retained its pre-eminence, it found its way throughout the Union and resulted in every state in the establishment of high schools. Like the academy, the high school was the representative of two institutions, — the old Latin school and the new school for the people of which Franklin had dreamed. Wherever the high school represented the Latin school, — /. e., in its classical course, — the study of English scarcely entered into the curriculum ; wherever it represented the school for the peo- ple— /. e., in its so-called English or scientific course — English was a part of the curriculum ; but only to the degree described above in connection with the academies. Up to about 1876, then, there was scarcely to be found, in the United States, any definite, well- organized system of secondary instruction in the mother-tongue. We Summary. . . were virtually m the same condition that England now is, and at least fifty years behind Germany. The Ameri- cans have always been a reading people, and there was a growing interest among scholars and laymen in the English language and in English literature. But only here and there had this penetrated into the secondary school system. Up to the nineteenth century the colleges had done practi- cally nothing in establishing a good system of instruction in English. The desire was absent, for such a policy would have been destructive of the current educa- tional system. In the American colleges, as in the English (academies) of about 1850, says : " Rhetoric, composition, debates, dec- lamation, the dictionary were much exalted, but were after all regarded rather as the common and efficient means at hand toward a practical preparation for civic and general public duties." THE STUDY OF THE MOTHER-TONGUE A7 universities at the present day, men gained a mastery over their mother-tongue by translation or in ways outside the curriculum, and no attempt was made to prescribe instruction in the history of the language, so far as it was known, or in the history of its literature. The only sign of the coming change was Jefferson's wish to give a prominent place to the study of Anglo-Saxon in the new University of Virginia, 1 which he had planned with a wisdom at least half a century in advance of his time. The elements that make up the modern curriculum in English, however, came one by one into existence. The first was a strong interest in declamation and oratory, perhaps best typified by the remarkable lectures given at Harvard University, in ,1806-1808, by John Quincy Adams. The second, instruc- tion in rhetoric and English composition, was by the middle of the century well established in several American colleges. The third element, English literature, and the fourth, English philol- ogy, 2 were not generally introduced, except in a meagre fashion, until about 1875. They were, however, then developed with great rapidity. Such was the condition of English instruction in the schools and colleges up to about 1876. It was then that a remarkable movement began, which had the result of making jufi uence f the study of English pre-eminent in the more im- ^tiieSecoiid- portant colleges and putting it in a distinguished ary Scll00ls - place in the secondary schools. The impulse that led to this astonishing change in secondary instruction came partly from the colleges and partly from the secondary schools themselves. In 1 8 73-1874 Harvard instituted an entrance examination in English, committing itself to a stand in favour of gram- matical and rhetorical accuracy in the use of English on the 1 See Herbert B. Adams, Thomas Jefferson and the University oj Virginia, in Circular of Information, No. 1, U. S. Bureau of Education, 1888, p. 92. 2 See F. A. March, Method of Philological Study of the English Language, 1865, and " Recollections of Language Teaching," Publica- tions of Modern Language Association of America, 1893, VIII. (new series, I.). 48 THE STUDY OF THE MOTHER-TONGUE part of students entering the college, 1 This policy was for years misunderstood by preparatory schools. An innovation, it was thought to spring from pedantry and a desire to burden the schools with new requirements. At that time the schools gave practically no instruction in English, and boys entering college were quite likely to write without grammatical or rhetorical correctness. As the years passed by, however, what the Harvard authorities desired became more clear, and fitting schools throughout the country began to prepare can- didates specifically for such examinations. It was then that Yale University introduced a new branch of English study by requiring, at entrance, beginning with 1894, a knowledge of the content of certain comparatively simple works of English literature. This requirement was apparently based upon the theory that much of the formal accuracy demanded by the other system was unnecessary or unattainable, that the great desideratum was that young students should know and appreciate English literature, and that in order to do this they must have a clear idea of what certain typical books meant. As in the former case, the main requirement was usually misinterpreted on the part of the fitting schools, and it was not for several years that a study of the content of certain English masterpieces became an essential part of the preparatory school curriculum in English. The second influence, less formal but more vital, came from the high schools themselves. While the attention of the pre- paratory schools was riveted on the movements of Movement , , . , , . . , in the High the colleges, which they were of necessity bound to . follow closely, the high schools, not obliged to prepare for college, were freer to develop a more ideal system of national instruction. Teachers like Dr. Samuel Thurber of Boston, — to name one of many, — realized, as did men of the same rank and importance in France and Germany, the duty 1 See " History of the Requirement in English for Admission to Harvard College," appendix to Twenty Years of School and College English, Harvard University, 1896. THE STUDY OF THE MOTHER-TONGUE 49 of the schools of the people in teaching the language of the people, and used every effort to put the study of English in the secondary schools on a firm basis. One of the clearest signs of the movement was the attention given to such matters in the journals of education. In Dr. Bacon's short-lived publica- tion, The Academy (1886-92), the subject of English received more attention than any other, and from 1890 on the same may perhaps be said of every similar school journal. The movement arising in the high schools was in part antagonistic to the movement coming from the colleges. The college authorities, who were rarely well informed regarding secondary education, as distinguished from preparatory education, were inclined to insist on a somewhat rigid course of study, leading directly up to the work which they themselves desired to give in the early college years. The high school authorities, on the other hand, were scarcely concerned about what was taught in college, simply desiring to give to their tens of thousands of pupils the wisest, most thorough course possible in English literature and English composition. As a result each party misunderstood the other, and it cannot be said, indeed, that even now the two points of view are wholly compatible. The results of this widespread movement for the more careful and systematic study of English in secondary schools are ex- ceedingly interesting. In the first place, separate Beginnings of colleges, seeing that their individual efforts to " raise Or?*" 112 ** 1011 - the standard " of preparatory English were not having a suffi- ciently rapid effect, began to combine for the enforcement of the same entrance requirements. One of the first acts of the New England Commission of Colleges, founded in 1886, in re- sponse to an appeal from the New England Association of Col- leges and Preparatory Schools, was to stimulate and organize preparatory instruction in English by agreeing on a uniform list of books 1 from which should be chosen the subjects given out for English essays at the entrance examinations in all the New 1 Beginning with 1889. See the Reports of the Commission. 4 50 THE STUDY OF THE MOTHER-TONGUE England colleges. The books were often badly selected, and the entrance requirements at the colleges concerned were often widely different in spirit or in letter, but this arrangement was a first step toward the formal organization of preparatory English, and, with all its vices, had the great virtue of serving as a defi- nite requirement, on which all colleges belonging to the Com- mission were bound in general to agree, and on which other colleges throughout the country might easily agree for the sake of convenience. A second step was taken in 1893, when, at the instance of the Association of the Colleges and Preparatory Schools of the Middle States and Maryland, a committee was appointed, consisting partly of college instructors and partly of preparatory school instructors, to arrange uniform entrance re- quirements in English for colleges in the territory indicated. The committee wisely foresaw that it could act only as a dis- turbing element if it did not proceed in harmony with the New England Commission of Colleges, the New England Association of Colleges and Preparatory Schools, and all existing organiza- tions of the latter sort. The result was that the chief colleges and schools throughout the country voluntarily agreed, through their representatives in these organizations, on a new system of entrance requirements, involving, first, the older or Harvard scheme, which demanded only skill in composition and rhetor- ical accuracy ; second, the Yale scheme, which threw the em- phasis on a knowledge of elementary facts concerning English literature ; and, third, a list of English classics which should serve as a basis for examination on each of the parts mentioned. 1 Although open to grave objections, this arrangement was ob- . viously a great step in advance. The colleges, with only a few exceptions, had at last, with the help of the preparatory schools, agreed on a uniform entrance requirement. A second group of results was that obtained wholly or largely through the efforts of the schools themselves. The National 1 A Summary of the Proceedings of the Meetings of the Conference on Uniform Entrance Requirements in English, 1894- 1899. THE STUDY OF THE MOTHER-TONGUE 5 1 Educational Association had long shown a marked interest in the teaching of English, and the publication, in 1894, of the Report of the National Committee of Ten on Second- p r0 g ress in ary Schools gave a new basis to instruction in Eng- Organization. lish. The committee dealing with English consisted partly of secondary school teachers, both from high schools and prepara- tory schools, and partly of college professors of English, and their task was to construct a curriculum in English that should serve the interests of general education, for the benefit of the many, and not merely that of the few who go to colleges. Their admirable report was the first attempt, in England or America, to systematize secondary instruction in English. The principal points in which it was noteworthy are as follows : (1) It made of English instruction in the secondary schools a complete organism. Through it the schools came to realize for the first time that instruction in English means, not a group of discon- nected studies in grammar, rhetoric, English literature, and elo- cution, but one constant current, as it were, of work, running throughout the whole period of instruction. (2) The committee was convinced that secondary education in English can be prop- erly systematized only when it is considered in direct con- nection with elementary instruction in the same subject. It proceeded, therefore, to lay down certain principles and plans for the teaching of English from the earliest grades of the ele- mentary schools through the highest classes in the high schools. Other parts of the same inquiry have been taken up in greater detail by the Committee of Fifteen on Elementary Education (1895), whose duty it was to recommend a systematic course in English for the elementary schools, and by the Committee on College Entrance Requirements (1899), whose aim was to formulate a course of study leading towards the college require- ments. These three reports have had two marked results: (1) they have aroused great interest throughout the country in the subject of a graded course of English instruction, and (2) they have helped to formulate definite principles on which in- struction in English may be based. The ideals pursued are still 52 THE STUDY OF THE MOTHER-TONGUE various, but the confusion is less great than before, and it is plain that light is breaking through the darkness. It will not be many years before the whole subject can be taken up from a broader and more philosophic point of view, the different theo- ries harmonized, the different aims unified, and an ideal course of study, thoroughly adapted to American needs, built up throughout the country. It will be noticed that in the United States as much time is given to instruction in the mother-tongue as in the other countries, 1 and that, roughly speaking, the field covered is as of instruction great. It may, on the whole, be believed that in the best American schools the field is covered also as thoroughly. In short, the great difference between the situa- tion in America and that in other countries lies not in the fact that the best schools in America do not do such good work in the mother-tongue as that done in other countries, but that in America there is in this, as in other subjects, a wide difference between the instruction given in the best schools and that given in other schools. IV. The General Theory of Instruction in the Mother-Tongue It will be clear that the time has now come for a careful study, in America and England, of all that pertains to element- The Purpose arv an( ^ secondary instruction in English. In the of tMsBook. £ rst pi ace> the subject is a comparatively new one and needs further investigation. Sound systems for the teach- ing of any mother-tongue have only recently been developed, and England has in this respect lagged far behind its European sisters. It is necessary for our American schools to look care- fully to their own needs, and to develop their own system, turn- ing for help to the models furnished by French and German rather than by English schools. In the second place, it is plain 1 See J. E. Russell, German Higher Schools, Chapter XII., and F. E. Bolton, Secondary School System of Germany ', 264. THE STUDY OF THE MOTHER-TONGUE 53 that the present status of instruction in English is only partly satisfactory. The influences which have been indicated above have, to some extent, brought about a superficial organization of the whole field, but the condition is at best one of confusion and uncertainty. In the third place, the subject is worthy of the most careful study on account of its value to the public and to the individual. To the general public it is important because the curricula of our public schools are now, to a large extent, either badly arranged or insufficient, so far as English is con- cerned. To the individual it is important because he may be enabled, by understanding the general theory of education in the mother-tongue, to counteract the influences which have been exerted upon him by an ill-balanced, incomplete, or falsely based system. The aim of this book is the statement and dis- cussion of the whole group of theories, general and particular, regarding the teaching of English in the elementary and second- ary schools. The object of the authors has been in every case to state the principal existing theories and to discuss them, with a view to determining which, in whole or in part, are more worthy of acceptance. It is their earnest desire, however, that their own conclusion in these matters be not accepted, if at all, without careful thought. We have seen the rise of the study of the vernacular in the chief European nations ; we have also seen the various steps by which the study of English has risen in America to a command- ing importance. It is now necessary to supplement this histori- cal study with a brief consideration of the general reasons why a study of the vernacular is of real importance to the community, and with an examination of the general theory of such study. It is obviously for the welfare of the nation that all the com- munities which form it should realize clearly their mutual rela- tions. It is equally obvious that the attainment of j m:&a ^ aaiSA this national consciousness must be, to a very great vernacular degree, dependent upon the thorough and general to a Nation. understanding of a common tongue. Nations in which the component communities speak and read no common tongue are 54 THE STUDY OF THE MOTHER-TONGUE nations only in name, as may be seen in China, where whole provinces use languages largely unintelligible to the inhabitants of other provinces, and where the literary language of all is a tongue which requires many years for its mastery. To speak a dialect of Chinese is the birthright of every Chinese child ; but to read and write the literary language takes in itself at least ten years. That is to say, the Chinese pupil at the end of ten years is not, in point of linguistic progress, beyond the American child who has just learned to read and write the characters of the English language. The common tongue, inasmuch as it is the basis of a common literature, is indispensable to the establishment of national ideals and of national systems of thought. To the individual the cultivation of the vernacular is also of great importance. It is, in the first place, his instrument _ . in all his communication with others : it is, in the Importance ' ' \°^ e -A i second place, the instrument by which his aesthetic Individual. * \ J m needs are chiefly served ; it is, in the third place, the means by which he arrives at intellectual consciousness. Modern psychologists teach us that a considerable part of our existence is filled with cerebral action that is not translated into words. During sleep, and indeed in many of our waking moments, the stream of consciousness flows on without verbal expression. On the other hand, it is clear that when the mind is thoroughly awake, when questions are to be decided and thought must be definite, the skilful use of language, even in the mind's relations with itself, is almost an absolute necessity. The intellectual life depends to a considerable degree upon the mastery of words, without which any connected chain of reasoning is almost wholly impossible. To the individual, therefore, the ability to utilize language as an instrument for his conscious rule over himself is his distinguishing mark as a man, the token that marks him off from the child or the savage. Granting the need of a thorough mastery of the native tongue on the part of an educated man or woman, we now pass to the THE STUDY OF THE MOTHER-TONGUE 55 several parts of "which such mastery consists. It is clear that the mastery of one's mother-tongue depends upon three cardinal points: (i) the ability of the individual to under- in what the stand the thoughts of others, whether spoken or JJSjSg? written : (2) his ability to express his own thoughts Consista> through spoken or written words ; (3) his ability to gain aesthetic pleasure through his native literature. These general points we may now proceed to analyze. The individual must obviously be able to articulate clearly all English sounds (independently of their meaning) in accordance with the general national custom. In other words, the infant must learn to make the sounds which are C a ° n * agreed on by its elders as conventional signs for the expression of thought. Such training is largely the work of the mother and of the home, but it enters also partly into school life, and is the necessary step on which all later progress in oral composi- tion must be based. Its broader aspect is too often neglected. The child must be able not merely to utter sounds roughly and approximately, but to pronounce them accurately and by the proper use of the vocal mechanism. The elementary teacher has few higher duties than that of inculcating, by example and precept, a clear pronunciation of English vowels and consonants. It is by such training that unpleasant dialectic peculiarities — e. g., the nasal twang of the New Englander — can be destroyed. 1 1 While, however, it is the duty of the teacher to tone down harsh and obtrusive dialectal peculiarities in the speech of his pupils, it is not his duty wholly to eliminate such peculiarities. He may safely lessen the difference between one pupil's speech and another's, but he should be- ware of attempting to reduce the speech of all to a dead level of uni- formity. To do so would be to arrest the normal processes of language growth. The speech of no country is strictly homogeneous. Differences in climate, in language-inheritance, in character, in social conditions, in modes of thought and feeling, prevail in different geographical sections, and these differences will find expression in corresponding differences of pronunciation, of intonation, even of vocabulary and sentence-structure. The Southern child, by the time he has reached the secondary school, has acquired beyond recall the Southern for u (before r), the Southern d for th, the Southern w for wh, and the other peculiarities of speech 56 THE STUDY OF THE MOTHER-TONGUE A faulty pronunciation may of course be due, in large measure, to defective organs of speech, or to defective nervous control oi which the Northerner is accustomed to attribute (mistakenly) to the influence of the negro dialect. The middle-Westerner at the same age has acquired the glottal catch before initial vowels and the short a in past and glass ; the Hoosier has acquired the «w-sound in dog and fog; the New Englander has acquired the flattened a in father, the final r in idea-r and Isaiah-r, and the shortened o in hot. Even if at the age of eight or ten the pupil be transplanted to another part of the country, as from Alabama to New York, he will all his life long exhibit in his speech — at least in moments of excitement and spontaneous utterance — some traces of this early acquired pronunciation. The retention of some part of his native dialect is not, however, to be regarded by the teacher as an unmixed evil. Why should it be ? The spoken language is richer, more musical, more interesting for these differences, which for educated people diminish in no degree the intel- ligibility of the speech. The time will come when only the pedantic and the bookish teacher will insist that every pupil in the school shall pronounce glass and past and whole according to some preferred authority. Indeed, the growing liberality of editors of dictionaries seems likely soon to give warrant for any pronunciation which prevails among educated people in any given section of the United States. To take this attitude toward the teaching of pronunciation is not, how- ever, to throw the doors open to arbitrary or meaningless variations from the common language. It is simply to recognize the fact that the com- mon language, at every stage of its progress, is the result of the incessant competition of sectional and individual differences in speech-habits. This competition cannot be prevented either by legislation or by instruc- tion, and any serious and concerted attempt to prevent it by rigorous discipline in the schools is certain to result in bookishness and affecta- tion. An insistence upon clear and accurate enunciation is quite com- patible with toleration of minor differences in the position of the vocal organs of pupils from different parts of the country. When, however, the peculiarities of speech observable in the pupils are the result of foreign influences, as, for example, where the pupils come from homes in which the parents speak only Polish, or Swedish, or Pennsylvania German, the situation is radically different, and the duty of the teacher is different. Such influences are to be regarded as abnor- mal and should be resisted. No doubt even these influences will have their effect in the long run, and in spite of all that can be done will mould to some extent the future pronunciation of the English language in America. But at present they are extra-national. They cannot be recognized as legitimate factors in the shaping of the common lan- guage. [F. N. S.] THE STUDY OF THE MOTHER-TONGUE S7 these organs. 1 Such cases can often be cured under enlightened medical advice, and a great many cases that might seem at first to require medical treatment could be at least greatly re- lieved if elementary teachers were thoroughly well trained in the use of the voice, and had a sound knowledge of the mechanism by which the voice is produced. Correspondingly, the individual must be able to understand the words uttered by others. That is to say, his ear must reproduce for him the utterances of the vocal organs r ° Hearing, of others. Skill in this respect is likewise almost entirely secured under home influences. It may be well, how- ever, to call attention to the fact that many cases of stupidity among pupils, particularly with regard to their English studies, are due to peculiarities of hearing, and that the duty of the elementary teacher is always to make sure that the child really hears completely and accurately. If it does not, the causes should be investigated and the child placed, if necessary, under medical treatment. 2 The points spoken of above are largely secured by the general training obtained through the ordinary experiences of life. If one never went to school at all, he would by imitation, if pro- vided by nature with good organs of hearing and of speech, learn to give a definite meaning to the sounds uttered by others and to make them for himself. The two points which follow, however, are different in this respect, and are more especially subjects of school instruction. The individual must learn to write a clear hand. The impor- tance of penmanship, or of the ability to form the symbols re- quired by convention for the expression of thought, Writing and can scarcely be exaggerated. Such knowledge is Readin * a very elementary step in education, but it is none the less of the utmost importance, and if the pupil be not well grounded in this respect, as is too frequently the case, his further instruction 1 S. H. Rowe, The Physical Nature of the Child, 1899, Chapter VI. 3 Rowe, Chapter III. 58 THE STUDY OF THE MOTHER-TONGUE will be constantly impeded. The individual must also be able to recognize by sight the symbols by which society has agreed to express its thought; in other words, he must learn to read. It is the duty and the pleasure of the modern teacher to see that he learns to read rapidly, without, as was the case for many centuries, wasting a considerable degree of time and effort. The subjects just mentioned are usually associated with school instruction. They may, however, be learned at home, and fre- quently are learned there. When he understands these two arts, the young citizen has mastered all the essentials of educa- tion. He has in his possession the two most precious elements of civilization, which are thus handed down from one generation to another. All the rest of his English education he can, if necessary, derive of his own accord from books or from life, as many great men have been forced to do. The training of the schools can, however, simplify the process greatly and add to its richness and thoroughness. In the remaining subjects school instruction plays an increasingly important part. The individual must have the power of effective speech. It should be remembered that language is primarily a matter of the Effective voice and of the ear, not of the hand and of the eye. Speech. The living language is the spoken language. The written language is merely a conventional form of the spoken lan- guage. The more important aim of education in the mother- tongue must, therefore, always be the development of power over the spoken language rather than over the written language. In this instruction there are two important elements, both too fre- quently neglected by high schools and elementary schools. These subjects are : elocution and practice in public speaking. By elo- cution we mean knowledge of, and practice in, the principles of voice production. The human voice is a mechanism for utter- ing sounds, — a mechanism whose working is dependent upon simple mechanical laws. The child can understand the chief of these, and all students can be practised in such attitudes of the body, such habits of breathing, such uses of the muscles of the throat, as will enable them to speak with effectiveness and ease. THE STUDY OF THE MOTHER-TONGUE 59 The second point is one in which practice rather than theory is involved. No child or man has a proper mastery over his native language who is unduly impeded by nervous fear fi^s*~4itter- ing his thoughts in the presence of others, whether (they be few or many. The child can be encouraged to speak frankly and freely in the recitation room, at proper times, with quiet self- possession. The older student can be helped by having prac- tice, at regular intervals, in the speaking of the compositions of others or of his own work, in the presence of small or large groups of his companions. The result of intelligent direction in these respects will be that, on leaving the high school, every boy and girl will have learned self-control under these circumstances, and will thus be able the more successfully to meet the necessary demands of business, professional, or social life. The individual must also have the power of effective written expression. Like the similar faculty just treated, this depends to a great extent upon the development of the r ^ T , , Effective powers of reason. No person, old or young, can Written u- u- Horace E Scudder : 2 "To the child in his earliest years the most direct appeal to the imagination comes from the clear-sighted dweller in the ideal world. Not yet has experience filled him with troubled questions, with doubt, with perplexity of mind. He is prone to believe, not to dis- believe, and to him should be brought the truth-tellers ; those, that is, who themselves believe, whose eyes are open to the things of faith. Deepen in his mind the familiarity with what lies beyond the visual organ. He has not yet learned to be- lieve only what he sees. Fortify in him that power of seeing with the eye of faith, which is so soon to be assailed by hard contact with things visible and tangible. I am not pleading for an idle chase of phantoms and vagaries, but I ask, is there 1 La7iguage atid Linguistic Method. 2 " The Educational Law of Reading and Writing," Atlantic Monthly, LXXIII. 254 ff., February, 1894. ENGLISH IN ELEMENTARY EDUCATION 77 not a body of literature — not the cheap production of in- different writers, but the rich deposit of centuries — which, by its simplicity, its reliance upon elemental truths of the soul, its homely instincts, its free spirit of wonder and belief, appeals directly, surely, to the imagination of the child? " Hearing at once these stories from his books, the child recognizes no change in his habit of mind other than an expansion of his powers. There has been no break in his natural development, but literature has come in to deepen one great channel of his being. Not only so, but the growth of this supreme faculty of the imagination is not at the ex- pense of his other powers, the powers of understanding, of reasoning, and of practical sense ; it is highly stimulating to the development of these powers." (5) The material found in books is of the greatest in- terest to the child, — particularly story books, histories, and simple poems. In support of this argument it is • , 1 , -i , -ii , r , • Interest cited that children, particularly those of the in- telligent classes, learn to read easily and are fond of reading for the pleasure it gives. The greatest problems of the school now present themselves not so much as questions of method as of curriculum. It is therefore in place to consider, in the light of present condi- tions, the arguments upon which the pre-eminence has so long been given to reading and writing in the early school years. It can no longer be maintained that reading and writ- ing are the only means of giving information in the primary grades. Nature study, the study of the simpler counter elements of materials and mechanic arts, — in BookSofthe brief, the study of things in the school-room, has only Media, been found capable of filling the child's mind with ideas ; and very young children can learn more rapidly and with less ex- penditure of energy through oral instruction than by reading. Still less weight can be given to the arguments based upon the exclusive property of books in knowledge. Knowl- edge, intelligence, even mental power may now be conceded to those whose knowledge of books is comparatively limited. 78 ENGLISH IN ELEMENTARY EDUCATION The provinces of science, art, and practical affairs all have such men to show. Nor, on the other hand, is knowledge ol books, even such knowledge as an enlightened system of in- struction seeks to give, sufficient to insure a liberal education in the highest sense of the term. The fact of discipline in reading and writing is not gainsaid. But of the value of such discipline grave doubts, Doubts as based on psychological researches, have arisen. oftti e eDis Ue It: is argued: (a) the child has not reached the cipiine. stage of development at which fine analytic dis- criminations should be required of him. Attention to minu- tiae of any sort is a severe tax, which results sometimes in loss of interest, sometimes in injury to the nervous system, and arrested development. Advocates of this view argue that science and the manual arts are better adapted to the child's stage of development, and more interesting. (3) That discipline in and of itself is of much less efficacy than was formerly supposed. It has been demonstrated that good intellectual habits are not necessarily transferable ; that a high degree of accuracy in one line of activity is often found compatible with actual slovenliness in another. In fine, that discipline is valuable in and for the field of work in which it is given, and valueless for anything outside of that field. 1 Discipline in reading and writing, then, while it would make good readers and good writers of the pupils, would do nothing else for them. To the argument that the literary unity is the best kind for the child, the man of science is most likely to object. TheScien- To him the strict sequence of logic, the relation tific Unity. f cause an d effect, the grouping of conceptions into classes, has come to seem the easy and normal process of the mind. It must be admitted that children manifest an early interest in facts and their causes in logical relation- ships ; and that literary unity is often fantastic, superficial, or arbitrary, and based on mere seemings and unrealities. 1 Thorndike and Woodworth, Psychological Review, VIII. 247-261, 384-395> and 553-564. ENGLISH IN ELEMENTARY EDUCATION 79 Children are undoubtedly interested in things that lie outside the realm of books. To the bright child books often seem dull and stupid compared with the vividness and reality of the world around him, with sports, industries, the properties of things, the wonders of nature. To all these arguments must be conceded a certain validity. Books are no longer the only vehicle of knowledge. The disciplinary value of learning to read and to write may be overestimated or misapplied. The literary unity is assuredly not the only method of organizing ideas that the child can appreciate. Nor is the material found in books always that of most absorbing interest to him. What then shall we accept as a present and approximate answer to the questions here raised? (1) Although books are no longer the exclusive sources of knowledge, yet the printed page is still so much the means of recording and transmitting the majority of the ,,, . . , , , , . Books still world s important ideas, that the power to read is, the Principal in fact, more than ever a prime necessity in the equipment of every one for capable business activity, for intelligent citizenship, and for culture ; and therefore, al- though reading can no longer claim the exclusive place in a scheme of primary education, the burden of proof still rests upon those who would assign to it a secondary place. It is indispensable as an instrument for further education, and no abandonment or postponement of its supremacy can be con- sidered except upon reasonable probability of the greatest physical and mental welfare of the child. (2) Nor can the disciplinary element in the primary schools be ignored. It has long been recognized that an ill- managed Kindergarten is a foe to good work in i.u ■ 1- 11 t *u a. -n Heedof the primary school. 1 In the same way the ill- Discipline regulated work of the primary school may breed u anguage ' habits of inattention and general intellectual flabbiness, to the 1 For a somewhat extreme statement, see " The Kindergarten Child, — after the Kindergarten," by Marion H. Carter, Atlantic Monthly, LXXXIIL, March, 1899. 80 ENGLISH IN ELEMENTARY EDUCATION frustration of the work in higher grades. There must be dis- cipline, from the beginning of the school life ; and the disci- pline in reading and writing is within a field of activity neces- sary for the child both in school and in after life. (3) This discipline must be adapted to the capacities of the child. Science and the manual arts, when well taught, Science and a ^ so f urrusn discipline. They cultivate the habit ^Ma n jgl of observation, they lead to sound knowledge of cient. the relations of things. They are within the range of the child's powers and interests. In so far they hold exactly the same claim to a place in the primary curriculum as do reading and writing. Judged by their results as well as by their inherent value, they have proved their right to be there. They do not, however, give all the training which children at this stage should receive. The language faculty, though more or less involved in teaching these subjects, can with difficulty, or not at all, receive through them alone the degree of develop- ment of which it is capable. The child's command of lan- guage is fixed and enriched by reading and writing; and accuracy of thought and expression are almost conditioned upon such exercise. Interest in language itself, the conscious attention to expression, is an essential of the cultivated mind ; and such interest is more likely to be aroused if the begin- nings of reading and writing are made early in the school life. (4) The literary unity seems to be the prevailing method of organization in the child's mind. The play of fancy, and even The Literary tne j m g^ e °f nonsense rhymes and the fantastic tale to^ Child's are con g en i a l t0 ms taste ; here words and ideas are Mind. presented in an order that he can easily follow. It is not always the order of wisdom or of logic ; it is often the order of play. But play is one of the child's means of giving his faculties exercise. In the more serious literature, the stories of heroes, etc., the child finds motives that he can understand and imitate, appreciates the relation of motive to action, and so comprehends the organization, the inner unity, of the story. Moreover, the literary unity is the one to which he is first ac- customed. His playmates and his parents view life and speak ENGLISH IN ELEMENTARY EDUCATION 8 1 of it, though crudely, in the way the maker of tales views it, and not as the scientist does. (5) Finally, since the spontaneous interests of children un- doubtedly include the things found in books as well as the things outside of books, it is advisable to seize upon this inter- est as early as it is available, and to turn it to account in the necessary task of learning to read and to write. The conclusion would then seem to be that the study of read- ing and writing can neither claim the lion's share of the time in the primary school, nor be put aside as a subordinate T ... i-i Summary, thing. Its necessity, its interest, and its adapt- ability to the child's stage of mental growth claim for it a place second to no other subject in the school day. Enthusiasts in the cause of English study have undoubtedly done it some harm by unreasonable demands in its behalf. Realizing that it needed improvement, and that _ , . . How much more concentration was one of the essential con- Time in the ditions to its improvement, they have argued that it should receive throughout the entire elementary course more time than all other subjects included. Such a claim disregards the impoverishment of the school curriculum that would result from curtailing the work in science, history, and the manual arts, and ignores the opportunities of the capable teacher for training in English in all the work of the school. How much time should be given to English it is perhaps unwise to attempt to state in numerical terms. During the earlier years, until, say, the fifth year in school, perhaps a third of the total time of the ' school can be wisely given to it. After the fifth year, when reading and writing have become comparatively easy, the time may be safely lessened, until in the last year it includes no more than an hour a day. Less than this it should never be. ' III. Primary Reading Matter In its general use the term " education " has long included, and is still often understood to include, little more than the ability to read and write. This idea survives in the legal 6 \ 82 ENGLISH IN ELEMENTARY EDUCATION meaning of the term "illiteracy" : inability to read and write. To be able to read and write was to be " lettered/' that is, educated. It is therefore to be expected that the history of the teaching of reading and writing would be an interesting and important chapter in the history of edu- cation. Learning to read and write has been to many children a painful process, whose difficulties have been a puzzle to thoughtful teachers and a stumbling-block to the unskilful. Quintilian thought it worth while to prescribe 1 — though with apologies for introducing a matter so elementary — the manner in which reading and writing should be begun. And so important did this early instruction seem to Plato that he dwells at length upon the kind of reading to be given to the youth of an ideal republic. 2 Modern educational thought has brought to bear upon the subject the results of scientific experiment and common Modern experience as well as the deductions of philo- sophical speculation. To the Germans more than to any one else we owe the discussion of materials and methods, the enthusiastic advocacy of new theories, the long and patient series of experiment and observation. France has had theorists who have made notable advances in method, especially the Port Royalists, Rousseau and Jacotot. Eng- land has had some clear voices, like Mulcaster and Ascham, who have wisely advocated the study of the mother-tongue. The United States has within recent years taken up the best — as well as the worst — of these various theories, and by patient and enthusiastic discussion and experiment helped to clear away much of the confusion gathered around the subject. But the fact stands, that the development of the teaching of reading Our Indebted- anc * W1 "i tm g> ^ rom tne long-established but severe Ge S 1nans ie anc * i rra tional plan of beginning with the names of the letters and spelling them into words, to the kindlier and wiser methods of to-day, is best presented in the history of the common schools of Germany, from the efforts 1 De Orator e. Book I. chapter I. 2 Laws, VII. 809-818. ENGLISH IN ELEMENTARY EDUCATION 83 of Ickelsamer, who lived in the time of the Reformation, to the practices now established in their primary schools. Within these four hundred years of German educational activity, virtu- ally every theory of what should be read, how much, when, and how ; every theory of how the beginnings of reading, writing, and spelling should be made ; in brief, the whole problem of the teaching of the mother-tongue in the elementary schools, has been considered, and tested by experiment. In contemplating this development 1 two phases of the sub- ject appear : teachers have taken thought over what should be read and how the arts of reading and writing should be taught. The question of what to read will first be discussed, in its history and present phases. The history of the modern movement begins with the period of the Reformation. Before that time there could not be said to be any general interest in popular education. Beginning Following the Reformation came the wider spread Edw!^onfthe of the ability to read and write. Book learning Reformation. was less confined to clerks and monks. Skill in wielding arms and familiarity with the codes of chivalry were ceasing to be the only elements of the education of the upper classes. The invention of printing had made books more accessible. The expansion of commerce had given to education a practical value. The growth of the ideas for which Luther stood, and which implied the right and duty of every man to read the Bible, was a direct cause of the more general interest in educational methods and materials. Interest in the study of the mother-tongue, which m the eighteenth century looked to the development of its possibili- ties for literature, had in view in the sixteenth . ' . . ,. . , School Read- century especially its importance for practical and ing at first ethical ends. The first school readers after the Reformation were, as was natural, distinctly religious 1 This topic is fully treated in the excellent work of Carl Kehr, Geschichte des deutschen Unterrichts in der Volksschule. See also the interesting monograph of President G. Stanley Hall,, How to Teach Reading. 84 ENGLISH IN ELEMENTARY EDUCATION in character. Prior to the Reformation the schools had only an ABC book, or a primer, which contained the alphabet, a collection of syllables, and certain extracts of a religious nature. 1 In one of the school books of the Reformation period we find the following table of contents : a grace, and a thank offering after the meal, the Lord's Prayer, the Creed, and the Ten Commandments. In another, by Ickel- samer, the Ten Commandments, the Creed, the Lord's Prayer, the Last Supper, the Magnificat, the Benedictus, etc. Pas- sages from the Bible, — especially the Lord's Prayer and the Ten Commandments, — the hymns of Luther, and cer- tain other parts of the service of the church, continue to reappear as the principal reading matter of the primary schools, partly because of the serious religious temper of the German people, partly, no doubt, because there was as yet but little German literature to dispute the supremacy of distinctly religious writings in the affections of the people. The German word for primer, Fibel, is now understood to have meant little bible, and its purpose as an introduction to the Bible is evident enough. Though other types of books began to be introduced into the schools, and the reli- gious reading-books came gradually to be diluted with other material, the Bible continued to hold the field until the eighteenth century. The controversies over its use were many and often bitter. In the middle of the nineteenth century its use as a school reading-book in Prussia was forbidden by law. The second important stage in the development of the reading-book is represented in the work of Basedow (1723- 1790) and the so-called philanthropinists. Rec- of Pleasure ognizing the hardship of learning to read, and the lack of interest for the child in the books to be read, Basedow compiled a primer in which the children read of things pleasant to eat and to see : of almonds, raisins, apples, etc. In his school the children played out in games 1 Fechner, Geschichte des Volksschul-Lesebuches. ENGLISH IN ELEMENTARY EDUCATION 85 their learning of German and Latin, and were rewarded with sweetmeats when they answered well, — in short, had the task of learning made pure play. 1 His work called forth much local enthusiasm and much general scorn. But it did, at any rate, contribute a valuable idea to education. In the latter part of the eighteenth century appeared the first two school reading-books, in the modern sense of the term. Eberhard von Rochow issued in 1776 a The First book containing so-called " moral tales," illustrat- School ing the virtues of politeness, modesty, and so on, the "Moral in the place of the religious extracts of the ear- lier period. Rochow advised that the children should first be made acquainted with the simple sounds and the written and printed names of simple and familiar things ; that they should be led to talk of these, and their oral speech be made more ready and accurate while they were learning to read. When they had learned to read words of one syllable with some readi- ness, they took his Children's Friend, and had practice in read- ing simple matter adapted to their tastes and capacities. By this system the emphasis was thrown first upon instruction in language, and then upon the choice of material suitable from the points of view of interest and difficulty. The book is said to have reached a circulation of one hundred thousand cop- ies. The primer of Christian Felix Weisze, issued at Leipsic in 1772, is equally remarkable. Its title 2 indicates its char- acter. It contained short stories, fables, songs, prayers, little verses, and an illustration with each letter of the alphabet, like the modern nursery books. It soon attained a sixth edition and a translation into French. These two books are repre- sentative of the type of school reader which was displacing the religious primer, and which by the middle of the nineteenth century came to be generally adopted. But the struggle was 1 For an interesting account of Basedow's work and method, see The American Journal of Education, V. 487-520. Hartford, Conn., and London, 1858. 2 Neues ABC-Buch, nebst einigen kleinen Uebungen und Unterhalt- ungenfiir Kinder ; mit 25 illuminierten Abbildungen auf 13 Tafeln. 86 ENGLISH IN ELEMENTARY EDUCATION long and often bitter. The prejudice in favour of the old was due not only to that conservatism which resists changes as such, but to a religious zeal that feared the undermining of the national faith. In many places the opposition to the new type of readers included whole communities, and in one instance there arose an actual insurrection, due to the omission from the primer of the Creed and the Lord's Prayer. In the interval between the Reformation and the nineteenth century there were of course many types of primers. Most of them preserved the prominent features of the older type, while including characteristics of the newer sort. The changes indicated above had in these three centuries introduced into school readers certain new elements : (i) a recognition of the child's tastes and aptitudes ; (2) the use of other than religious reading; (3) the introduction into the school of such matter as the pupil might be supposed to continue to read after leaving school; and (4) recognition of the importance of method. As in Germany, so in the United States, the dominant ideas of the people have determined the character of the school ThetfewEne- rea ders. 1 From the latter part of the seventeenth land Primer, century to the end of the eighteenth century, The New England Primer 2 was the principal school book. It went through many editions, and its aggregate circula- tion probably reached several hundred thousand copies. Its origin, like that of the German primers, goes back to the Reformation. Henry VIII., while in conflict with the Church of Rome, caused a primer to be issued in 1534 (the same date as Ickelsamer's) with the title " A Prymer in Englyshe with certeyn prayers and goodly meditations, very necessary for all people that understonde not the Latyne tongue. Cum privilegio regali." In 1535 and again in 1545 he had primers reflecting the further modification of his religious views. The latter, known as the Henry VIII. Primer, was designated as 1 See The Historical Development of School Readers, by Rudolph R, Reeder. 2 See The New England Primer, by Paul Leicester Ford. ENGLISH IN ELEMENTARY EDUCATION 87 "The Primer set forth by the King's Majesty, and his Clergy to be taught, learned, and read, and none other to be used throughout all his dominions." As preliminary to this there was an A B C book containing the alphabet and a catechism. Later they became united ; the A B C book was made to in- clude also the substance of the Primer, and this combination soon reached a wide circulation. Both the ABC book and the primer were thus devotional books more elementary than the Bible and the Book of Common Prayer, and were, like the German primer, religious in content and purpose. One of the earliest enactments of the Puritans in New Eng- land was a requirement that every township of fifty or more householders should provide a teacher for instructing the children to write and read, that they might know the Bible. 1 Teachers of reading and writing and of the catechism had, indeed, been appointed soon after the landing of the Pilgrims. Out of this earnest religious purpose grew up a number of catechisms, the forerunners of the New England Primer. One Benjamin Harris, printer and author, finding London temporarily inhospitable to his religious opinions, opened a book-shop and coffee-house in Boston in 1686. While in England he had published in 1679 The Protestant Tutor, a book designed " to bring up children in an Aversion to Popery." It contained the " portrait of the reigning sovereign as a fron- tispiece, and portions of the text were the Roman Small Letters, the Syllabarium, the Lord's Prayer, the Creed, the Ten Com- mandments, the John Roger biography and verses, though not the famous picture of the martyr at the stake, the words of from two to seven syllables, the Proper Names, and a catechism, together with much other material for the benefit of youth and the injury of Papacy." 2 This book was reissued in 1680, and again in Boston in 1685. Some time between 1687 and 1690 it was again issued in Boston, abridged and made more of a school book, under the title of The New England Primer. 1 Records of the Massachusetts Bay Colony, II. 203, 2 Ford, The New England Primer, pp. 34-35. 88 ENGLISH IN ELEMENTARY EDUCATION It soon became the school primer of New England, and is known to have been printed in large numbers in the Quaker City of Philadelphia. Successive editions modified and puritanized the contents. For example, the rhymes and pictures given with the alphabet, which at first presented secular and familiar ideas, gave place to purely biblical matter : The Lion bold Lot fled to Zoar, The Lamb doth hold, became Saw fiery shower, on Sodom's power. Time cuts down all Young Timothy, Both great and small. became Learned Sin to fly. The shorter catechism became a permanent part of the book. As successive editions appeared, various minor changes were made. In deference to the ideas of the new republic, the reign- ing sovereign's portrait gave place to that of Samuel Adams or of Washington. As the rigidity of Puritanism relaxed, the verses of the Primer grew less biblical ; but in spite of all these minor changes, the essential tone of the Primer remained un- changed until the end of the eighteenth century. Like its predecessors of the time of Henry VIIL, it was religious, even doctrinal, in character, was an introduction to the Bible, and in general, reflected, in New as in old England, the close con- nection between school instruction and religion. After the Revolution the material of elementary instruction in reading in America underwent a change not unlike that Seculari- which it passed through in Germany. With the School Read- g rowtn of the colonies, their experiences in the ing Matter. Revolution and their contact with France, Puritan- ism lost something of its ascendancy and a more secular tone entered into the school books as it had into the life of the people. This change of tone is clearly foreshadowed even in the Primer. In other school readers moral lessons, not bib- lical and often prudential only, found a place. The widely ENGLISH IN ELEMENTARY EDUCATION 89 popular aphorisms of Franklin, poetry and stories, and frag- ments of patriotic speeches, were now inserted. The leading books of this type were the spelling-book and school reader of Noah Webster, issued near the end of the eighteenth century. No school book has had so wide a circulation in this country as Webster's Speller. It is still in use in many schools, and in its various editions has probably reached a circula- The Webster tion of near one hundred millions. The earlier s P eUer « editions contained reading matter as well as orthography and orthoepy. "The edition in use previous to the revision of 1831 comprised 168 pages, 14 of which are introductory; 66 con- tain words taken from the dictionary; 29 pages contain the names of persons, places, etc. ; 47 contain reading lessons ; 8 contain pictures and fables ; 4 contain numbers, abbrevia- tions, explanations of the characters used in writing, and a census of the United States. The edition published in 1831 contains several poems, a moral catechist, including abstract treatises on humility, mercy, anger, justice, gratitude, avarice, frugality, industry, etc. ; precepts concerning the social rela- tions, in which the young man, young woman, husband, wife, parent, and child are all briefly instructed and admonished concerning their duties and responsibilities. Eight pictures illustrate as many fables, the first of which is the story of the boy that stole apples, which Mr. Scudder (in his life of Webster) says he has never been able to trace back of Webster, but through him it has become part of our mental furniture. This story, with the picture of the old man in his continental coat, knee-breeches, and high hat; that of the enterprising but unfortunate milkmaid, who would have a green gown with the profits of milk, eggs, and chickens yet to be hatched ; poor Tray in bad company ; the farmer inter- viewing the lawyer, whose ox first was and then was not the gored one, were all read and re-read a hundred times by the millions of boys and girls who toed the mark and spelled in a row." x 1 Reeder, Historical Development of School Readers. 90 ENGLISH IN ELEMENTARY EDUCATION Webster's reading-book was the third of the series known as a Grammatical Institute of the English Language. (A gram- ^ mar was the second of the series.) The reader " institute." b ore its table of contents and its purposes on its title-page : " An American Selection of Lessons in Reading and Speaking, calculated to improve the mind and refine the taste of youth, and also to instruct them in the Geography, His- tory, and Politics of the United States. To which are prefixed rules in Elocution, and directions for expressing the principal passions of the mind. Being the third part of a Grammatical Institute of the English Language, by Noah Webster, Jr., Esquire." Within the nineteenth century the contents of readers in the United States have been of different types : ( i ) the graded word lessons, in which the reading matter is made Century to order, much after the fashion of the Ollendorff method, rather for the sake of introducing easy words than for any sense or form ; (2) the " moral tales," which held their ascendancy until a comparatively recent period ; (3) the patriotic selections, mainly from our own poets and orators, which are still recognized and defended, and confined mainly to the years beyond the primary school ; (4) the " informa- tion lessons," which are likewise retained; (5) purely literary extracts, ranging from nursery rhymes and tales to selections from Wordsworth and Tennyson. As we have already shown, the ideals of contemporary civil- ization have largely determined the selection of the primary Principles of reading. In the development of educational Selection. thought there came a time, however, when the pedagogical ideal prevailed ; when the reading matter was selected largely with reference to its power to maintain the interest of the children and to facilitate the process of learning to read, as in the work of Basedow and Rochow in Germany, and in readers like those of McGuffey in the United States. The third stage of the movement came in the last quarter of the nineteenth century, when out of disbelief in the peda- ENGLISH IN ELEMENTARY EDUCATION 9 1 gogical effectiveness of the graded "exercises," and in the cultural value of the moral tales and information lessons, there grew an attempt to select as school reading ma- pi. esent terial that which should combine the desired liter- Standards, ary worth with the qualities of thought and style suitable to the teaching of young children. These qualities, it was discovered, coexisted in a considerable amount of our good literature. A survey of the successful primary reading material of the present time indicates (1) that the pedagogical needs of the children, as now understood, are the principal element in determining the reading matter; (2) that these needs are understood to include (a) simplicity in thought and form of the material, (b*) the use of familiar words, (V) the choice of material good in itself, either as information or as literature. Within these principles of choice there is, obviously, room for consider- able variation, both from the literary preferences of the indi- vidual compiler and from his notions of the educational value and fitness of the material. The question of what to read thus seems to be reaching at least an empirical answer. But the answer is not of that final sort that precludes the necessity of further discus- Books for sion. What, therefore, are the claims of the vari- chil dren. ous types of reading matter given in the primary school ? What relations have they to the work of the school as such, and to those larger purposes for which the school is instituted ? 1. Nursery rhymes, such as the Mother Goose nonsense rhymes, have found their way from the home into the school. Most of the Mother Goose rhymes have trium- Honsense phantly stood the supreme literary test — that of Rhymes. time. 1 Some of them are centuries old ; most of them are of respectable antiquity, 2 and their counterparts are found among most of the races of mankind. Such universality and persist- ence depend, of course, upon their power to please children ; 1 Many of the modern followers of Mother Goose have written well Notable among them are Edward Lear and Peter Newell. 2 See the Publications of the Percy Society, IV, 92 ENGLISH IN ELEMENTARY EDUCATION and this is one reason for their place in the school- room. Children like the sounds, and remember them ; they like the images, and remember them. Moreover, such simple and primitive rhymes and rhythm, such freedom in the realm of vocal sound, give these nursery classics a special educational value. When the child in the nursery, the kindergarten, or the primary school repeats to himself meaningless rhymes, or gibberish with or without meaning, he is giving one sort of training to his powers of speech just as truly as he is develop- ing his motor system in his physical play. It is, in fact, to the play element in the child that these nonsense-rhymes especially appeal • and the value of play in early education has long been recognized. To most children nothing can better make reading seem an acquaintance with real things than to read matter with which they are so well acquainted as with these nursery favourites ; and a sense of the reality of reading is of prime importance. To children who have not already known this child literature, it seems to most of us like a tardy recognition of their natural rights to give it to them in school. The phrases and the ideas contained in it are among the common literary property of the race, used with more frequency and more generally understood than the fragments from greater classics. On the other hand, it is objected that nonsense furnishes no mental food, that children should be given only what has logical connection, and that there is plenty of material for children that is equally entertaining and more sensible. To the last objection, primary teachers are likely to reply that they have not found the material abundant ; to the first and second, that the demonstrated value of play in education has rehabilitated Mother Goose. 2. Scenes of home-life in poetry, story, and description are excellent primary reading-matter. Children have a lively literature interest in these familiar things. Domestic animals, ofFanriUar toys, games, food, nature, and all the elemental things that enter into their little world are to them matters of grave importance. Some of these things have ENGLISH IN ELEMENTARY EDUCATION 93 found expression in literature simple enough for six-year- olds. Whenever the author gets the child's point of view and writes of what the child knows, he can get a hearing. Such literature has, like the nursery rhymes, the value of making the reading-lesson seem to the child to deal with real things. But for the trivial, the commonplace treatment of these things in made-to-order books, the present writer sees no place, unless it be for the sake of mere drill. 3. Stories and accounts of primitive life have a special interest for young children. Waiving the discussion of the "culture-epoch" theory — that every child epito- pr^^e mizes in his development the experiences of the Life - race in its progress from barbarism to civilization — as not appropriate here, 1 we may confidently assert the interest of children in these types of life. The concreteness of such life is attractive; the lions in the path of the cave-dweller are no allegorical lions of the mind, but real beasts to overcome. The struggles of the savages are with things that the boy can picture : real enemies with bow and club, real hunger and thirst. The Indian is troubled with no chaotic yearnings, no hunger and thirst after righteousness ; or, if so, with the simpler forms of these wants as they are known to childhood. This absence of complexity in primitive life enables the child to see clearly the fundamental relations of life : man hunting, fishing, learning simple handicrafts and forming into families and tribes as a means of continuance of life itself. The primitive virtues, like physical courage and self-restraint, which are known to the child, stand clearly revealed. The crudity and cruelty of such life seldom shock him : he is too little acquainted with pain to suffer by imagining the physical sufferings that belong to barbarous life. In brief, the life of the savage is very near to the boy of the twentieth century. Nor is this sympathy at all incompatible with the fact that the fortunate child of to-day is far removed from the 1 For discussions of this theory see the Introduction to H. M. Scott's Organic Education, Boston, 1899, and the Proceedings of the Herbartian Society. 94 ENGLISH IN ELEMENTARY EDUCATION primitive savage : do not cultivated men still enjoy the battle scenes of Homer? 4. Still nearer to the child is the fairy story. He lives in the far away ; or, to speak more accurately, his imagination _ . _ brings the remote constantly into his daily life. The Fairy Stories. ° J J world of faery is his ideal world, where poetic justice reigns supreme, where good is punished and evil rewarded, where the normal aspirations of childhood for the beautiful are fully realized, where there are no troublous limitations and con- tradictions as in real life. The simplicity of the fairy realm lays bare to him principles of right and justice that remain clouded in the real world, — as, indeed, they often are to his elders. In the fairy world he escapes from this sense of perplexity and finds life " as it ought to be." Of course he knows it is not real ; knows that it is make-believe. But it is good for him to become acquainted with perfection, even in make-believe. 1 The fairy story has been condemned because it is not "true." What its critics probably mean is, that it is not fact, or not true to all the phases of life. But to exclude all but fact is practically to exclude art of whatever kind ; to rob the imagination of its principal source of pleasure and one of its best forms of exercise ; to deprive the child of a treasury of memories that is in fact his hereditary right. The true grounds of objection are (1) against fairy stories which do not have the qualities of art, and (2) against the employment of fairy stories to the point at which the child loses his interest in real life. 5. The fable is also near to the life of the child. His animistic tendencies make it seem quite natural to him that animals should talk like men. His interest in Fables. animals makes the homely forms of the fable more real to him : the transition from speaking animals to men 1 See Kenneth Graham's The Golden Age, Chicago and London, 1895, and other recent stories of child life, for a presentation of the child's view of life coloured by that of the adult ENGLISH IN ELEMENTARY EDUCATION 95 and women seems natural and easy. The fa Die is one of the oldest forms of teaching. Its origin is in the far East ; and its ethics are of the primitive type, sometimes of a type which the finer feeling of to-day rejects. Its brevity, its unity, and its simplicity of style make it easy to read. Like the nonsense rhyme and the fairy story, it is part of the literary possessions of the race, recurs again and again in literary and common allusion, and is thus one of the links between the primary school and the later intellectual life. One notable objection has been made to the fable for school purposes. Professor Felix Adler has pointed out 1 that many of the fables, particularly those collected under EtMcsof the name of ^Esop, reflect a despotic civilization, the Fable, in which the weak are crushed by the strong, and cunning wins over better qualities. " A really moral spirit is wanting in them ; the moral motives are not appealed to. The appeal throughout is to the bare motive of self-interest." This objection seems to assume, not only that the child will accept the ethics of the fable, but that their effect will be permanent. It is at least doubtful whether he will see in the fable anything more than an interesting story. If he does, it is not likely that the selfish ethics there depicted will prove so attractive as to influence him deeply. Such an objection seems indeed to imply too much confidence in the permanence of the earliest moral teaching. The child's first morals are distinctly rudimentary. He grows from none at all through the lower to the higher. If his development were to cease at the age of seven, then we might well challenge the morals of the fable. Again, if the child were deeply affected by the sense of injustice and cruelty that the more analytic adult finds in these stories made under an old-world despotism, are they therefore to be excluded ? Is it good that all his reading should represent conditions ideally perfect ? Must he not early come to know something of life as it is? Is the 1 Adler 's Moral Instruction for Children, New York, 1892, pp. 81-94. 96 ENGLISH IN ELEMENTARY EDUCATION school to continue to present life to him only as he finds it is not? 6. The myth, like the fable, is an old-world product. 1 It is an early and imaginative people's attempt to preserve Myths its ideas and experiences. 2 It falls into several broad divisions: (i) the attempt to explain some natural phenomenon, like the rising of the sun or the return of spring; (2) the celebration of the deeds of some hero and benefactor, like Hercules or Hiawatha; (3) the records of how some custom or invention came to be ; (4) some knowl- edge or inference regarding human nature, like that of the fable. This classification does not always hold in a clear-cut way for particular myths; but these are the elements that myths contain. All of these things are within the interests of children. Many of the myths tell their meaning so simply that a child may understand. But whether he understands or not, the story itself is so concrete and so interesting that he hears it with delight. It is not essential that the teacher should insist on his understanding the meaning. Let him get the story, and grasp the meaning when he can. The story, after all, is the thing. The story is what he needs to know in order to appreciate the significance of the many allusions to the myth which he will meet in his later reading. 7. Under different religious and social conditions the Bible was an integral part of early instruction. What moral gravity The English an d what effects upon the imagination it wrought, e * we know. Modern custom has neglected it, and modern laws have sometimes forbidden it in the schools. The disuse of it is to be deplored quite as much as the abuse of it 1 Every observer must have noted that myth-making is still in progress : e. g., the Lincoln myth. The present discussion refers to such myths as are read in the school, like the Greek, the Teutonic, and the Indian myth in Hiawatha. 2 See Fiske's My Iks and Myth-makers, chapter 1, Boston, 1891 ; Lang's Custom and Myth, New York ; and Pater's Greek Studies (Dionysus, and Demeter and Persephone) New York, 1895, an( ^ chapters 16 and 17, Part I. of Grote's History of Greece. ENGLISH IN ELEMENTARY EDUCATION 97 for narrow sectarian purposes is to be condemned. The King James version is one of our greatest literary treasures. It has permeated our English literature, in thought and phrase. 1 It has furnished scenes, characters, and sentences rich in their applicability to the life of all times. It has been a storehouse for poets and moralists alike. To lose it from the schools is to leave thousands in ignorance of it ; for the church no longer reaches the multitude. It is to be hoped that the time is near when it can be read as the great literature it really is, without obscuration of its beauty by the prejudices of sects or the smoke of ignorant commentary. 2 Many of the stories of the Old Testament — like those of Ruth, or of Jonah, or of Jacob, or of David and Jonathan ; much of the New Testament, like the parables, the Sermon on the Mount, and the other ethical teach- ings, could be read by primary children. The exclusion of the Bible from the schools is only another of the many unfor- tunate phases of religious prejudice. In a truly liberal and dispassionate community no such objection could arise. 8. Poetry forms a considerable part of primary reading- matter. Not only may we include poetry written for children, like the simple and pleasing rhymes of Field, Stevenson, Riley, and others, but such of the poetry written for adults as is within reach of childish minds. Of this latter sort are many things of Wordsworth, Tennyson, Longfellow, Whittier, and other modern poets, and some of the easier ballads. There are some good collections of verse that contain much for the little children : Whittier's Child Life in Poetry, Patmore's Children's Garland, and Palgrave's Chil- dren's Treasury of English Song are among the best. To the teacher of English it seems hardly worth while to point out the linguistic and educational value of poetry for young children. Its ideal presentations of human life, its treatment of the beauty of nature, its rhythmic and memorable 1 See A. S. Cook's The Bible and English Prose Style, Boston, 1892. 2 The National Educational Association has recently put itself on record as deploring the neglect of the Bible as literature. See Pro- ceedings of the N. E. A., 1902. 7 98 ENGLISH IN ELEMENTARY EDUCATION form, justify its presence in the school. Moreover, if the reading of poetry is good for adults — as would hardly be disputed — an early and continuous familiarity with poetry in the school course seems a likely way of decreasing somewhat the neglect of poetry by adults. 9. Other forms of literature, not already classified, have a place in primary work. Tales of travel and adventure, de- Other scriptions of strange places, information, and what- Fonns. ever enlarges the mental horizon find favour, provided only that they be simple enough and near enough to the mental life of the children to be assimilated. In the foregoing classification we have had in mind only those books that can be read by the pupil himself. As a matter of fact, the list of what he can enjoy is much fuller than is implied here. Many things can and should be read to him which he cannot read for himself. He can enjoy hearing Homer before he can read fairy stories for himself. IV. The Beginnings of Reading The discussions over the methods of teaching reading have been more numerous, more divergent in points of view, more given to minute analysis, more heated, more productive of vagaries, but in the outcome more conclusive, than the dis- cussions regarding what to read. For many centuries the pre- vailing method was to begin with the names of the letters of the alphabet and to combine these into words. Naturally the child had to reach by his own inference a knowledge of the The Alphabet sound of the letter in its place in the word. To the beginner, dee-o-gee, would spell deeogee, and not dog, and might as well be given in the Greek delta-omicron-gam- ma, so far as any real representation of the sound of the word is concerned. 1 That the necessary inference from the name of the letter to its sound can be made is established by the fact that children have learned to read by this method. But that 1 Stanley Hall's How to Teach Reading. ENGLISH IN ELEMENTARY EDUCATION 99 teachers should so long have overlooked the obvious source of the difficulty, failing to see that the child at first tends to make that combination of sounds which he actually hears, is one of the marvels of educational history ; a marvel surpassed only by the fact that nearly four centuries after the needless subtlety of the method was pointed out by Ickelsamer, 1 teachers should occasionally take it up just as it was when he showed its error in principle. The particular service rendered by Ickelsamer was to show that the difference between the sounds and the names of the letters offered a difficulty to beginners, and to icteisamer's recommend that at first the sound of the letter Metllod ' instead of its name be used. He separated the letters of the alphabet into classes distinguished by the position of the vocal organs, and taught first those that, like o and a, were simple and distinctive. He suggested mnemonic associations, as, for example, a is the sound made first in saying axe, o the sound that the driver uses to stop his horses, etc. The sounds of words and the letters representing those sounds were to be learned side by side. There was to be practice in speaking the words, and certainty that the thing read was understood. In analyzing a word into its sound elements, he would give to the child an image not only of the written or printed letter, but also of the object or animal which could suggest the sound of each letter. For example, if the word Marz (March) was to be learned, the pupil first analyzed the word into its sounds : M< that of the cow beginning to low, a the sound made by the goose, r the sound of the snarling dog, and z the twittering of the sparrow. Then, lest the mnemonic device be not vivid enough, the pupil would point out, among a collection of pictures on a chart, the cow, the goose, the dog, and the spar- row ! If this naive belief in mere method provokes a smile, we should remember that the principle from which he worked was sound, and that Ickelsamer not only was two hundred years or more ahead of his time in his wiser recommendations 1 His book for beginners was issued at Marburg in 1534. IOO ENGLISH IN ELEMENTARY EDUCATION regarding the teaching of reading, hut also that he published a grammar whose protest against the Latinization of German grammar, whose disbelief in the efficacy of " conjugating " and "declining" as a means of learning correct speech, and whose plea for the dignity and value of the vernacular would all find favour among modern scholars. Other beginners' books — two within the same decade — advocated the same methods. But they were unable to bring The Play Ele- a b° ut anv extensive reform in the prevailing usage. ment : Buno. guno, 1 w ho anticipated Basedow's method of giv- ing the children rewards for answering rightly, thought that the letters were in themselves fearful things for the children, and advised that they should be associated in the minds of the learners with some natural object, which should be drawn to resemble, as nearly as possible, the form of the letter. Thus b was represented by a strawberry, u by the horns of an owl, h by a hen. In teaching the letters he used a story of a some- what crude type about the stupid Hans who was learning to read, and on this strung incidents and objects suggesting the letters. When the letters were thus learned, they were com- bined into syllables, much in the fashion of the a-b-abs of the books of a generation ago. Finally, the pupils were put to reading whole sentences. Within the hundred years following Buno's work, no im- portant contribution was made to the method of teaching reading. Imitators of Buno rang changes upon upon Sound : his method. Basedow (see page 84) sugar-coated the old letter-method. Rousseau, whose influence extended into Germany, advised alleviating the task by post- poning it and arousing interest. The next important advocates of better methods were Olivier, Heinicke, and Pestalozzi, at the end of the eighteenth century. Olivier insisted that the sen- tences to be read should first be spoken by teacher and pupils, be clearly apprehended, and sharply enunciated, that the organs of speech might also be exercised. The words were 1 Buno's reading-book was issued at Dantzig in 1650. ENGLISH IN ELEMENTARY EDUCATION IOI then divided into syllables, and the syllables into vowels and consonants. The consonants were so pronounced as to ex- clude as much as possible the breathing which links a vowel- effect to the pure consonant sound. Those consonants which preceded a vowel or consonant were given with the obscure e following, those which followed a vowel with the obscure e pre- ceding. Combinations of consonants were sounded together, sch in Fleisch, for example, being given as esh. When the pupils had learned thus to analyze words into their elementary sounds, the letters were taught. The consonants were classified and named according to the speech-organs used in enunciating them. Illustrated charts recalled the letter, not by the initial but by the final consonant sound : a tulip recalled the lp in Tulpe. The final syllables were printed in red letters. When the pupils had learned to read written syllables and words, the master gave them the book and taught them word by word and sentence by sentence that which they had already thoroughly learned. Contemporary with Olivier's was the work of Heinicke. His efficiency in the cause of sound educa- tion was due largely to his power of ridicule and invective against the folly and stupidity of the unnatural letter-method. He recommended that the consonants, the main cause of the trouble, be sounded only in connection with the vowels, that is, in syllables. To the same period belongs the work op Pestalozzi. His general influence on modern education has been dwelt upon overmuch, and has no special bearing upon the p es taiozzi's subject of the present chapter. In his instruction Work, in the elements of reading, he dwelt with special emphasis upon the importance of arousing interest and self-activity, of cultivating the ear in home and school by letting the child hear right speech clearly enunciated, and of mak- ing the child adept in reading and making combinations of letters into syllables. Not the names of the letters, but their sounds, singly and in combinations, were to be learned. A typical page from his primer will show his method : — 102 ENGLISH IN ELEMENTARY EDUCATION The word gebadet is to be developed. The teacher gives, g- What is it? Answer g. e is added a <( a a ge- b " " t( a u a geb. a « « it a a a geba. d " " a te it it geb ad. e " " it tt n a gebade. t " " a a a a gebadet. The lack of ideas in such a lesson, and the ease with which it could become merely formal and mechanical, are obvious. Pestalozzi himself and some of his admirers later became doubtful of its wisdom. Although Pestalozzi attempted to formulate scientific principles for his method, beginning with the training of the organs of speech, and passing to the study of words and then of connected discourse, it cannot be seen that his contributions to this particular phase of education were of any higher value than those of his contemporaries, or, indeed, equal to his wisdom regarding the more general problems of education. Among the immediate successors of Pestalozzi, and in the list of those to whose efforts were due the establishment of modern methods, was Heinrich Stephani. His method, which consisted in laying stress upon the oral work, in using the sounds of the letters and in advancing by easy and simple combinations to the reading, was adopted by the Prussian Minister of Education in 1841. The victory of the sound-jnettibd over the letter- method was now estab- lished, irf spite of the extravagance oiTviews of some of its advocates, whose elaborate classification of the sounds of the alphabet into minute phonetic divisions, with long compound names to be learned by the children, resembled the fetich of method set up by Ickelsamer, Buno, and others. The " write-read method " (Schreiblese-Methode), so-called, is old. The Greeks and Romans made use of it: Quintilian 1 Stephani. l De Oratore, I. 27. ENGLISH IN ELEMENTARY EDUCATION 103 and Plato x assume it as the usual thing, Comenius and Ra- tichius advocated it in the seventeenth century. It was argued pro and con in the eighteenth and early nineteenth The " Write- century. Its opponents asserted that it doubled Read the difficulty of learning to read by requiring two things to be learned at once ; its supporters, that the in- terest and self-activity of the child made the learning of each process easier. The child's pleasure in himself making the same words which he has heard and read, the necessarily closer attention to the form and order of the letters, and the increasing sense of power in the lessons, are obvious advantages of the method. Its adoption was due mainly to the vigorous defence of Grafer and others in the early nineteenth century. Its use is now general in Germany, France, England, and the United States. The analytic-synthetic method of teaching reading, though it had its roots in part in the work of earlier centuries, belongs in its clear and definite form to the early nineteenth _ . m _ A . J The Analytic century. It was the invention of a Frenchman, J aco- Method : Jacotot. tot, and was introduced into Germany by Gedike. Jacotot's own accounts of his method 2 were not clear or satis- factory. He seems not to have had the power of presenting his ideas in clear and logical form, to have been given to oracular deliveries such as "All is in all," and " Nothing is in nothing," and to have held such Utopian beliefs as that all persons have like abilities. In his teaching, however, he seems to have shown rare ability in applying fundamental principles. He asserts that he does not oppose nature, but imitates her. For the mind, he says, proceeds from the whole to its parts. Children learn the songs, and then the musical notes; the plant, and then the stamens ; why then not the word and the sentence, and then the letters ? Why not proceed here from the whole to the parts, from the known to the unknown? 1 Laws, VII. 818. 2 See Enseignement universel, Langue maternelle, par. J. J. Jacotot, 1818. 104 ENGLISH IN ELEMENTARY EDUCATION In his teaching he would begin with Fenelon's Telemaque, and have the children learn the first sentence, repeating it after the teacher, word by word, until the whole had been thoroughly learned. Thus Calypso Calypso ne Calypso ne pouvait Calypso ne pouvait se Calypso ne pouvait se consoler, etc., until her inconsolability over the loss of her hero had been thoroughly established. The sentence was then written by the children from the copy. The teacher would go slowly, that the child might learn all thoroughly. The second lesson began with a review of this first sentence, and proceeded to the second. In all succeeding lessons the children were to reproduce orally and in writing what they had learned before. After ten lessons or more, the teacher would question them upon the content of what they had read. Throughout the series the object was to have the whole story reproduced with- out error by the children. If there was too much insistence upon memory, there was, at any rate, a justifiable emphasis upon the story as a starting-point. The word-image and the thought are here seen to be of first importance. It is easily seen, too, that the child's powers of analysis, whereby he can arrive at the sounds of the letters and so become self-helpful, are trained only incidentally, if at all. The supreme merit in the system is that it deals first with ideas appreciable by the child and impresses upon his memory the image of the word. Letzsam presented the theories of Jacotot in clear form in a series of writings, simplified and modified them so as to retain only their good features, united them with other sound theories in use in Germany, and so demonstrated their excellence that they were adopted by law in Breslau in 1846. 1 1 For a full account of present methods, see Kehr, Praxis der Volksschule. ENGLISH IN ELEMENTARY EDUCATION 105 With the work of Jacotot and its betterment at the hands of its German advocates in the middle of the nineteenth cen- tury we reach the end of our brief historical survey. As was said above, all the important contributions to the theory of the subject are included within the scope of their experiment and inquiry. Only the larger features of the movement have been sketched here, and those with unsatisfactory brevity. Students of the problems involved are referred to the historical sources given at the beginning of the chapter. Even a brief account of the history of methods must take note of the use of pictures and reading-machines. According to Kehr 1 the origin of the pictured primers is to be traced to the pictured Bibles of the cloister. The pictured primer existed as early as the fifteenth century, and a number are known to have been issued in the sixteenth century. The best known of the early illustrated school books is, however, the Orbis Pictus of Comenius, issued in 1657. Though not the first, as is often said, this book of Comenius is from its wide influence to be regarded " as the real father of all picture books for children." The most common use of pictures was, as in the work of Comenius, to represent some creature known to the child, whose cry expressed or resembled some sound of the alphabet, the letter and the syllable accom- panying the picture ; or to represent the form of the letter, as, for example, the common fashion of representing the German a by an eel. Sometimes the pictures and letters were accom- panied by little verses — the method adopted in The New England Primer. Writers of a more inventive turn of mind made up stories or comparisons of the letters with known objects, to deepen the impression upon the mind of the child. In the nineteenth century pictures came to be used to repre- sent the object upon which the child's attention was to be fixed, and which was to be made the subject of the lesson in language. The reading-boxes, or reading-machines, were devices to 1 Geschichte des Lese-Unterrichts, p. 19. 106 ENGLISH IN ELEMENTARY EDUCATION secure the interest and self- activity of the pupils in learning to read. Their essential elements were generally a lot of Reading- movable blocks or dice on which were stamped Machines. the letters f t ^ Q alphabet. These were to be fitted into a framework so as to spell syllables and words. Some- times the blocks were coloured, oftener plain. Some of the machines were of a construction so elaborate that the descrip- tions of them convey but a vague idea to the lay mind. Read- ing-machines were in use by the philanthropinists and still continue to be made and used. The nursery alphabet-blocks of the present day are in principle like the simpler reading- machines. In the foregoing historical sketch almost all the principal elements now included in the best plans for the primary work in reading are represented. The various devices Summary. _ ,. . for relieving the work of its dulness or its terror appear in Ickelsamer, Buno, and Basedow ; the emphasis upon the sound rather than the name of the letter appears in Ick- elsamer, Buno, and Pestalozzi ; the importance of beginning with an idea and proceeding by analysis to the sounds of the syllables and letters was shown by Jacotot ; the increased in- terest and self-activity gained by early combining the reading and the writing, the desirability of having simple and interest- ing material, and the help afforded by pictures, had all become accepted principles by the middle of the nineteenth century. There is, therefore, little that is new or distinctive in modern methods, except a judicious blending of the various principles and devices of earlier teachers. "The growing agreement that there is no one and only orthodox way of teaching and learning this greatest and hardest of all the arts, in which ear, mouth, eye, and hand must each in turn train the others to automatic perfection ... is a great gain, and seems now secure." * Indeed it may be doubted whether any definite method or system could be devised which would not become harmful, by growing stiff and mechanical. It is 1 Hall's How to Teach Reading. ENGLISH IN ELEMENTARY EDUCATION I0y principally in the recognition of the participation of ear, mouth, eye, and hand in the work, of the necessity of beginning with wholes instead of parts, and of emphasizing the sounds at the initial stages of the instruction, that modern primary work has made its greatest advances. The first steps in learning to read are difficult. In oral language there is often a resemblance between sound and idea. But in written language the signs are purely arbi- trary and conventional. There is no logical reason of Learning why the written English word which is to recall the concept should appear in its present form rather than in the Greek or any other foreign alphabet or in the Morse code. The beginner must learn it in whatever form he happens to find it. The process of analysis involved in separating the word into its component parts, both as letters and as sounds, is difficult. Such a word, for example, as blackboard, consists of eight component parts as sound, and ten letters. The pupil must learn not only to recognize the word in print and script, and to know what thing it recalls, but must know it as made up of these elements of sound and these letters. In English, the difficulty is still further increased by the fact that the language is imperfectly phonetic. The letter g has one sound in go, and another in gentle ; c is k in cat, and s in city. The selection of vowels in modern English has slight relation to the sounds represented. A does duty for at least five sounds, /appears with a range of too great variety : as in machine, fit, ivine, bird. Ough is distracting : though, thought, through, tough, and plough form a group arbitrary and unreasonable enough for tears. Then there are the " silent " letters, — not unwisely printed in italics in certain books of a few decades ago. Not without cause has been the debate over the best ways to teach children of tender years the art of reading English. The alphabetical method once universal is now seldom used. Under this system the child began with the alphabet, and learned the letters by their names. Now, it is The Alphabet obvious enough, as was pointed out by Ickelsamer, Method, that these names do not spell the word. But the pupil passed, 108 ENGLISH IN ELEMENTARY EDUCATION by much repetition, through his a-b-abs into the knowledge of the sound intended by certain combinations of letters. Then through various collections of simple words, either meaningless and uninteresting, or didactic and equally uninteresting, the pupil came to a greater or less degree of power in reading. Exceptions were wisely treated as such, and as things to be learned. Much drilling in oral reading and oral spelling in- sured a fair knowledge of the form of the words, but at such a price of time and energy as a modern school cannot afford to pay. In the agitation of " methods " two new plans arose : the " word method " and the " sentence method." The advocates "Word °f eacn defended their system most vigorously. ^Swrtenc?" 1 At bottom the two are not so different in principle Method." as m ight seem, and are certainly not different enough to account for the fervour of the debates they have provoked. Each begins from a larger unit than the alphabetic sounds, and with something that can convey an idea to the child. (The " word method " begins, as its name implies, by having the child learn the word, and, when a sufficient number of words can be recognized, learn the elements of the word, and words already combined into sentences. The " sentence method " begins with the sentence and leads the pupil to identify words, and gradually to know the letters and their sounds. Each assumes — and rightly — that the child should start from an idea expressed in type or script, and come by process of analysis to the knowledge of the elements, before attempting to combine minute and arbitrary elements into a known word. Each defers the learning of the names of the letters until the child has learned to read. The dispute about the merits of the respective systems is about over, or heard only as echoes in certain regions remote from the centres of educational activity. Out of the controversies in educational periodicals and teachers' institutes, and out of the experiments in the school- room, there has grown up a sort of consensus about the be- ginnings in teaching reading. A few general principles, sanely ENGLISH IN ELEMENTARY EDUCATION 109 and tactfully applied, have now taken the place of elaborate systems, and with better results. The wise teacher knows that she must first accomplish two things with her primary class: (1) learn something of the range of their interests and ideas ; (2) get them TheFirst into a responsive attitude towards her. " Every Step- child who enters the school-room . . . brings with him, not an empty head, but a mind stored with the memories of varied experiences. . . . What he has seen and heard, liked and desired, determines the net result of our teaching. For nothing which we attempt to teach finds lodgment in the child mind unless it is linked with some past experience and awakens, actual interest." * Hence the desirability of beginning with an interesting object, picture, or story, and engaging the chil- dren in conversation about the thing seen or heard. When the teacher has thus elicited remarks from the children, some of these remarks may be written upon the board, and the children be told the meaning of each sentence. The sen- tences should contain some of the more important words several times. Suppose a story has been told of a dog. Talk about dogs could bring out something like the following : My dog can bark. My dog can bite. My dog eats meat. My dog is black. The teacher could point to each word as she read the sen- tences. The repeated word dog would soon be recognized, and the children required to observe it carefully. Similar exercises, continued several times a day, would soon make the children familiar with a number of simple words, and so afford a basis for the next step in the instruction. The more definite work of teaching reading now begins : resolution of the words into their phonetic elements. Sup- 1 Reading, How to Teach It, by Sarah Louise Arnold. IIO ENGLISH IN ELEMENTARY EDUCATION pose the children have come to recognize bat, cat, rat, and the new word mat is seen. The sound of at is known from the other words ; the teacher will then call upon them the Phonetic to observe the similarity of sound in those words and the similarity of form in the last part. The children, we will assume, have also learned in the same way the sound of m, as in my, moon, man, etc. They will then.be called upon to give, first the sound of m, and then the sound of at, in as close succession as possible, and so get the sound of mat. This is a definite accomplishment for them, by the so-called " analytic-synthetic " method. The analysis has been made in getting a perception of the sound-values of the letters in the familiar words, and the synthesis in recombining these sounds into a new word. The pupil is thus put into possession of an instrument that he can use to help himself. Every sound or combination of sounds that he learns is not only so much clear gain in itself, but becomes a key to other words. Thus rack, back, lack, etc., become a key to crack, black, and other words similarly built. 1 Longer combinations of sounds or letters like ing, ight, oard, etc., may be intro- duced as the need arises. In the use of this method it is evident that the teacher must keep track of the words already learned by the chil- Importance dren, tnat sne mav gi ve the helpful suggestion of Drill. whenever needed. There must be frequent drill in the recognition of the words, that they may be exactly and readily known, and be of real service in helping to the knowl- edge of new words. There must be much drill in the resolu- tion of the phonograms into their essential sounds : thus old would be resolved into the sounds o-l-d, and the sounds recom- bined into the sound of the whole syllable. It need not be feared that the work will be uninteresting. Children have a natural interest in words and sounds. The 1 For a fuller discussion of this method, see an article by E. G. Ward in the -New York Teachers' Monograph, I. No. 3, November, 1898, on " The Rational Method in Reading." ENGLISH IN ELEMENTARY EDUCATION III imitative tendencies, so prominent in the mental life of children, can be used with great effect. The mere imitation of sounds, independent of their meaning, the fondness for strange, long, or musical words, the pleasure in gibberish and nonsense rhymes, which most children show, testify not only to their delight in imitation, but to their pleas- ure in making sounds for the mere sake of the sounds. They find satisfaction also in mere activity. The teacher will there- fore find this tendency a constant resource in the early stages of language teaching, and will make use of it constantly in establishing an easy and indelible association between the written symbol and the sound. When this delight in mere activity is reinforced by a sense of achievement over difficulties, and by giving stuff to read that has some relation to their ex- periences or some charm for their imaginations, their interest can easily be held to the work. One especial caution may be suggested to the young teacher. Children often read from their books without recognizing the individual words. They remember the stories verbatim. Every pupil in the class should frequently be tested by words, old and new, written on the blackboard. The teacher should assure herself that the children are not only able to recognize the words, but able to resolve them into their sound elements. By the end of the first year, or in the early months of the second year, the drill in phonetics should be a regular part of the daily work, and should be continued until the pupils have mastered it as a working method. But English is only a partially phonetic language. It abounds in anomalies of spelling. Its system of vowel classi- fication is wrong. And, as in other languages, the irregularities are most frequent in precisely those words which are most used. For these difficulties there is but one pedagogic rule. Exceptional usages, variations from the norm, and all isolated facts must be learned as such. 1 Rules are at first obviously a useless burden. Light is but little harder to learn than bite. 1 Sweet, Practical Study of Languages, New York, 1900. 112 ENGLISH IN ELEMENTARY EDUCATION The child remembers it as a fact ; and easily associates it with other words of the same sound-group, as might, right, etc. Experience has shown that the order of difficulty in form is not the only order — perhaps not even the principal order — to be followed. Many of the simplest and most common ideas are conveyed in words whose form is difficult ; and it is inex- pedient to postpone the introduction of such words until the pupil has mastered most of the words of simple form. More- over, the word of unusual form is thereby easily recognized. Such are the auxiliaries, might, could, would, and should ; names of familiar objects and ideas, house, police, under- stand, etc. ; names of persons and places. It is more impor- tant that the pupil should come as soon as possible to the power of reading some form of connected discourse, some- thing that will make the learning of all these arbitrary symbols seem a reasonable task, and that will provide him with mate- rial for thought. The timidity over words that are merely " big " is now seen to be as often invented by their elders as felt by the children. To the sweetness of much of modern education has been added light. Classes in the second grade, under ordinary conditions, can read Hiawatha without fear or stumbling. Give them but the means of coming at the sound of the word by using their knowledge of its elements, and the big word is exhilarating rather than depressing. It is not, however, to be assumed that children in the first years of school either hear or render all sounds correctly. Putting aside all considerations of dialectic varia- Ear and the tion, influences of foreign languages heard at home, and variations from the norm of vocal language due to defective hearing and imperfections in the organs of speech, there is still a considerable difference between sounds that pass as English from the lips of children and those from cultivated adults. Reference is not made here to the accuracy and range of the vocabulary, but to the clearness and precision of the spoken word. A quick ear will detect in the enunciation 'of children imperfectly articulated consonants, and vowels swerving from their proper quality. The word that the chil- ENGLISH IN ELEMENTARY EDUCATION 113 dren speak is not always the word which they hear. They may, for example, hear insists, and say insiss, without being aware of the difference. The present writer has often heard children say pont when they thought they were saying point, drawr for draw, New Yawk for New York, etc. Such pronun- ciations are often due to dialectic peculiarities in the speech of the home. But in most cases it is noticeable that the pupil does not at first hear the true sound, even when it is given in his presence. Sharp and clear-cut enunciation, not, of course, of the exaggerated type that errs by making obscure vowels full and gives to speech a pedantic preciseness like the too rigid separation of the words in such phrases as at all, dortt you, and the like, but clean-cut pronunciation of the language as it is, should be a daily exercise in the lower grades. Much of the difficulty in getting control of the phonetic elements of the language may thus be overcome ; and much may be done to remedy the blurred and obscure enunciation with which Americans are justly taxed by English visitors. Where there is the influence of a foreign language daily heard and spoken in the home, or of dialectic variations heard at home, on the .playground and perhaps from the teacher also, the case seems almost hopeless. When one considers the influence in our large cities of the Teutonic and Slavonic quality of the consonants, and the persistence of nasal twang or flattened vowels in communities of nearly pure American descent, one is fain to accept them as symptoms of that flux and growth of language for which the schoolmaster has no responsibility. 1 The growing use of print as a means of communicating ideas tends to make us forget that language is in its essence as well as its origin oral, a thing of the vocal organs and the ear. In teaching reading we are teaching the art of quick and easy 1 See Rein's Encyklopaedisches Handbuch der Pcedagogik, article on " Mundart in der Volksschule ; " Brander Matthews, The Parts of Speech, New York, 1901 ; A. S. Hill's Our English, New York, and Kittredge and Greenough, Words and their Ways in English Speech, New York, ^901. 8 114 ENGLISH IN ELEMENTARY EDUCATION association of the printed or written form with the auditory image and the idea. We must have the pupils ultimately reach The Real a k^n facility in passing direct from the crowd of a^Sffor s y m bols on the page to the ideas they suggest. the Ear. Good reading implies not merely the recognition at a glance of the idea for which the word stands, but that sentences and even paragraphs must be read " on the run." But in the primary grades the transition from printed symbols to idea is for the most part necessarily through the auditory image. Hence children and imperfectly educated adults may be seen to move the lips as they read. They are calling up more or less distinctly the sound image of the word. And this is well ; the real word is a sound ; it is a spoken and heard thing, — a " winged word." Nor is the swift absorption of the mean- ing of sentence or paragraph by the trained adult the whole art of reading well. The higher kinds of literature demand that the sound images be present while we read, or the reading is imperfect. Tennyson and Milton, when read as one reads the newspaper — for the idea only — cease to be literature in any real sense. One must hear Milton's verse, or he is not reading it. This delight in the mere sound of verse and of good prose is often seen in school children. By all means let it be fos- tered ; it will minister not merely to clearness in reading, but to aesthetic enjoyment. Learning a language, whether the vernacular or a foreign language, is not a mere act of acquisition. Storing the mem- Relation or y * s on ty one P art °f tne process. There must Readfngand ^ e a * so reflection an d expression. When one Expression, thinks in a language, one is learning it. When he puts his thoughts into connected discourse, he is gaining not merely a clearer notion of the meaning of the words and a better memory of them, but he is training his mind in seeing relationships. Without this element language study is not much above rote-work : it yields no training in thought. Nor, without the stimulus and interest of the thought element, can the acquisition of the language go satisfactorily forward. Hence arises the necessity for choosing, as the basis of primary in- ENGLISH IN ELEMENTARY EDUCATION 115 struction in language, not only such material as will enlist the interest of the pupils, but such as will also afford the opportun- ity for the best training in thought which they are capable of receiving. Before leaving the topic of the teaching of reading in its earliest stages, certain topics of minor importance but of con- siderable aggregate value must be briefly considered. Brief reference has been already made to the controversy of the " word method " vs. the " sentence method," and the con- clusion drawn that no matter which be used the real work in reading, i. e., the power to be self-helpful, begins when the pupil analyzes the word into its sound elements and letter ele- ments, and makes of these elements the synthesis which presents a new word to his consciousness. It is therefore of some importance what words are taken for the first steps in this process. These first words, 1 called "normal words," must be chosen with reference (1) to their necessity in sentence building, the, is, an, etc.; (2) to their power of presenting an formal idea to the child which he can grasp and in which Words - he is interested, as, dog, boy, books, run, etc.; (3) to their similarity of form to other words, in order that by inference the pupil can reach a conception of the relation between a certain group of symbols and a certain constant of sound, as in bat, cat, hat, etc. Many such lists of " normal words " have been offered. It is obvious that any effective list must be selected also with reference to the particular group of chil- dren with whom it is to be used. It must include only words which are already in their vocabulary, and which represent ideas familiar and interesting to them. For their first task is not to learn new words, but to learn old words under a new form. The "normal" or " model " sentence used for the first exercises in reading should be selected in accordance with 1 See Kehr, Geschichte des Lese-Unterrichtes, pp. 109-110, and Ward, " Rational System of Reading," New York Teachers' Monograph, I No. 3. 116 ENGLISH IN ELEMENTARY EDUCATION similar principles. It must reach the interest and under- standing of the pupils, must therefore embody familiar and Model simple words, and must be short enough to be easily Sentences. g ra sped. In addition to these qualities it must have some real thought and be able to give some exercise to the child's reason or some satisfaction to his aesthetic faculty. Sentences made to order on the plan of the Ollendorf lessons in French and German, and involving impossible and absurd collocations of ideas, are not the type of sentence to cultivate the power of thinking. As Professor Sweet has pointed out, 1 the best model sentences are those which contain a rational idea and in which some familiar or necessary rela- tion is set forth; so that the reader may get at the mean- ings of the words not only by the processes of analysis of their form, but by just inference. The sun rises in the east, and sets in the west, is a good example of such a model sentence. Whether the lessons read by the child should be in script or in print is still in debate. Obviously, the print is simpler than Print or tne cursive script, since the letters in print are not Script. mn t g e ther, and since they are not subject to the same variations in form. But, on the other hand, the script can be seen to grow under the children's eyes, can be turned to account to record at once the ideas of the children, and is the form in which their own ideas are to find written expres- sion ; nor is the script of much greater difficulty than the print. Although the print is somewhat the simpler, the script seems, therefore, to be the more useful in the practical work of teach- ing reading. The objections to the use of the cursive script have been much lessened by the wide introduction of the vertical script Vertical as a substitute for the slanting script. This new Script. f Qrm Q £ wr i t j n g i s so muc h more legible, and is so much nearer in its general appearance to print, that the tran- sition from script to print is comparatively easy. The principal 1 Practical Study of Languages, pp. 131 ff. ENGLISH IN ELEMENTARY EDUCATION 11/ arguments 1 which have led to its general adoption are (i) that it can be written in a more erect and therefore more hygienic posture, and (2) that it is more legible because it is easier for the eyes to follow vertical than slanting lines, and (3) that it is more rapid. To these arguments it is objected (1) that the slanting script may also be written in an erect posture, (2) that it has more beauty, (3) that it is more rapid, (4) that it gives greater scope for individual variations in handwriting. In some cities, as in New York, a modified form of the ver- tical has partly displaced the absolutely vertical, largely on the grounds of speed. In the present unsettled state of the matter, it seems safe to say only that while the advocates of the verti- cal script have the better of the argument as to legibility and hygiene, they have not had time as yet to demonstrate the superiority of their system for speed and individuality of form. A full test of these matters should be reached within a few years, when the children trained in the schools shall have taken sufficient part in active business life. Some difference of belief and practice still exists with refer- ence to the first instruction in writing. That the earliest writing should be in large free hand, in pencil and on un- ruled paper, or with crayon on the blackboard, instruction seems to be accepted. Young children have not sufficient co-ordination of nerves and muscles for the minuter movements ; nor are such movements hygienic either in their effects on the nervous system or on the eyes. If forced upon the children too early, they are likely to result in a cramped and awkward movement that persists in the later handwriting. The earliest attempts should, of course, be imitative, and accompanied with no detailed instruction, except in the holding of the pencil or crayon. As to the time when the work should begin, teachers differ. 1 See, for example, the pamphlets by C. H. Ames, published by D. C. Heath & Co., Shaw's School Hygiene, New York, 1901, and M. M. Bridges, A New Handwriting for Teachers, Clarendon Press, 2902. Il8 ENGLISH IN ELEMENTARY EDUCATION The " read-write " method of teaching reading, which requires that writing be begun earlier, within the first two months of the primary work, seems to be sustained by experience. In some schools, however, no writing is allowed until the begin- ning of the second year, on the ground that, if begun earlier, (i) bad habits will be formed, (2) the children will have the double task of learning to read and write at the same time, and (3) the work of writing is too minute and particular a task for children under seven years of age. The last argument is an- swered by an appeal to experience, and the second has been answered in a previous paragraph. The first argument, the danger of the formation of bad habits, seems to ignore the rec- ognized methods of growth in the mental life of children. In all their activities, both motor and mental, they grow by practice from the crude and imperfect to the less crude and imperfect. To delay the attempt at any kind of action beyond the point at which the child is ready and willing to make the attempt would be like postponement of the opportunity to walk or to talk when the impulse prompts to these activities. The sole question is, therefore, not at what age children can begin to write well, but at what age they can and will make the attempt to write. This period seems to be early in the first year of the primary school. Among the objects of the instruction in English is the oral rendering of the thought on the printed page. As the Reading whole energy of the pupil is at first employed in Aloud. making out the single words, oral reading is likely to be dull and monotonous. From the first, therefore, there should be practice in reading aloud sentences and stories that are known to the pupils, and others that can be read with considerable ease. To the same end the school exercises in oral reading should have in view as a purpose distinctly recog- nised by the pupils the conveying to the other members of the class and to the teacher the meaning of the sentence or the story. If the tone is monotonous, the pupil should be asked to put aside the book and tell the thing. Different renderings of the same sentence by various members of the class and by ENGLISH IN ELEMENTARY EDUCATION 119 the teacher will serve to show how the idea changes with the change of emphasis. Each pupil will thus show what the sen- tence means to him. The clear enunciation and correct pro- nunciation of the words, and the right use of the voice, will be seen in their real relations as a means of conveying ideas easily. That we speak to be heard and understood, is a point of view that children can well appreciate. Among the devices familiar to many is reading " in con- cert." 1 It seems a simple means of securing the activity of all the pupils. But a little analysis of the process Readin g «« in makes its value appear very doubtful. The slower Concert." pupils lag behind, or mumble some approximation to the right words that is lost in the general volume of sound ; individual difficulties are thus lost sight of. Interpretation and expression are sacrificed to a meaningless and monotonous rhythm. A little careful drill of small groups of pupils, while the rest of the class are kept busy at their seats, will prove a much more effective way of giving individual help. 2 In former paragraphs we have dwelt upon the importance of correct and clear enunciation. This should be sought not -only in the general reading-lessons, but through Clear the instruction of individuals or small groups of Enunciation. children. It should not ordinarily be needed beyond the first two years of school, if properly attended to in those years. Daily attention to clear speaking, with occasional exercises to break the habit of mumbling and to secure proper use of the vocal organs, will do much. The primary teacher has many things to learn ; but surely a little training in the correct use of the organs of speech, and in suitable exercises for children, might without objection be added to her equipment for her important work. 1 J. M. Rice, The Public School System of the United States, and Sarah Louise Arnold, Reading, How to Teach It, 216-221. 2 One of the authors has seen concert reading in which the teacher showed the skill of an orchestra leader in detecting variations and errors. Such skill in the teacher would, of course, remove one of the objections to the plan. — F. N. S. 120 ENGLISH IN ELEMENTARY EDUCATION In close connection with the foregoing topic the subject of "word analysis" presents itself for consideration. In the Word paragraphs on phonetics attention was called to the Analysis. method of analyzing the words into their sound elements, as a necessary step in learning to read. In the earlier employment of the word and sentence methods, the error was often made of neglecting the analysis of words into their sound elements. The natural result was that children knew words imperfectly and incompletely, confused words of similar form with each other, and spelled absurdly. The only way of avoiding such carelessness seems to be to fix the atten- tion upon the words not merely as wholes, but upon the parts of which they are made. This must be done (i) by careful attention to the elements of the spoken word, both in the aud- itory image and in the enunciation, and (2) by careful atten- tion and frequent drill in the elements of the written word. Attention must be given to syllabification, connected with the sounds in words that are perfectly phonetic, and fixed by practice in writing in all words that vary from the phonetic norm. The memories of the sound, the articulation of the written form, and the motor movements of writing the words should reinforce and support each other; the difficulties in visualizing the words fully and clearly, or in getting the clear auditory image, should be noted and removed as far as possible by practice. Carelessness and indolence should, on the other hand, be recognized for what they are, and treated with the same tact and persistency applied to other moral delinquencies. Modern conditions are not adequately recognized in ele- mentary instruction unless account is taken of two widely Sight different kinds of reading : the minute and careful, Reading. an( j ^ ra pi(5 an d cursory. Some things are to be studied, others merely skimmed ; and this distinction should appear in the earlier work. At first the attention is wholly absorbed by recognizing and analyzing the words. Then, when a certain facility is attained, some things are to be read with especial care, for the mastery of the idea. ENGLISH IN ELEMENTARY EDUCATION 121 At this point the child can be made to appreciate the necessity of rapid reading and of careful and repeated reading. V. Composition in Elementary Schools The teaching of composition in elementary schools has in recent years assumed considerable prominence. A half-century ago, in the common schools of this country, such teaching was much more limited in amount and Aims and kind. The theory of the instruction seems to have been that a knowledge of grammatical laws, of the mean- ings of words, of usage, of spelling, and of punctuation was for the elementary pupil the proper and sufficient preparation for the writing of the composition. To these things there was added drill in sentence structure and some instruction in figures of speech. Transcription of the copy-book sentence, and ex- ercises in dictation, in letter writing, and in paraphrasing served for practice in acquiring the correct forms of written expression. Weekly or monthly set compositions were sometimes required. These were usually upon subjects either of a strictly informa- tional character, such as the lives of notable men, or upon abstract subjects. Two characteristics of this instruction stand out quite clearly : ( i) It proceeded from the part to the whole, that is, from the word to the sentence, and sometimes from the sentence to the paragraph. It laid emphasis upon the details, upon the forms and the various mechanical and con- ventional elements of the work before considering the entire composition. (2) Its treatment of the thought side of the work was inadequate. It either assumed that the material for writing was already in the child's mind, as in its choice of abstract subjects, or, as in its informational subjects, left the gathering and ordering of the material to the child's unaided efforts. Such a system was, of course, unsatisfactory. The insistence upon the mechanical side to the neglect of the ideas deprived the work of interest to both pupil and teacher, and Their made it perfunctory and artificial. Lacking ideas, Defects * it lacked both interest and dignity, and the instruction in 122 ENGLISH IN ELEMENTARY EDUCATION English sank back upon spelling and formal grammar, where at least something definite and tangible could be found. That some good results were obtained is not to be denied. The emphasis upon "correctness" could not fail to have good effects in many cases. But of the larger aims of composition teaching, as now commonly understood, of the training in thought and in the gathering and ordering of material, of the sufficient practice that brings easy and orderly writing, the older type of instruction took no heed. In recognition of the defective standards once everywhere prevalent, Professor Laurie writes : " The word ' essay ' is a hateful word ; it is associated with so much in schools, especially girls' schools, that is false and hollow and showy." 1 Since the recent general stimulus of interest in English teaching the fundamental principles of composition work have been variously apprehended. By some writers the emphasis is laid mainly upon practice;- 2 by others, the training of the imagination has been given special importance, 3 and in the view of yet other writers the training in thought, both in the gathering and ordering of material and in the process of ex- pression, is the principal object. According as the one or the other of these objects has been uppermost, the scheme of in- struction has been determined both in material and in methods ; hence the special emphasis upon daily themes, or upon the writing of original stories, or upon the systematic plans for gathering and arranging material. An important difference of opinion appears, too, as to the degree to which special in- Present struction and drill in the laws of composition and Problems. ^he conventional matters of writing should be carried. Shall we begin by finding something interesting to write about, and give the attention first to arousing interest in the subject? Or shall we first insist upon the power to form sentences and paragraphs according to good rhetorical princi- 1 Language and Linguistic Method. 2 See, for example, the Harvard Reports on English. 3 See The Problem of Elementary Composition, by Elizabeth H. Spald- ing, Boston, 1896. ENGLISH IN ELEMENTARY EDUCATION 1 23 pies, and then seek for the interesting thing to say? What type of subjects shall then be chosen? Shall there be daily written exercises ? Or less frequent writing, with more criti- cism? These and many other questions arise in the work of the elementary teacher. The general aim of elementary composition teaching seems to the present writers to be, primarily, not the acquisition of an art, nor the cultivation of a science, but the . . „ , . , , , ... , The Aims : training of the mind through the acquisition and l. Training . r '. , m, • • j • ^ Thought expression of ideas. 1 his view does not ignore the through r *. ^ , i. i.u ^ • j Expression, fact that writing is an art, or that in some degree the elementary study of language is a science ; but it makes the purpose of teaching composition in the schools parallel with the purpose of teaching other subjects, that is, to lead the pupil to learn something and to express it clearly, either orally or in writing. A defence of this principle as a basis in teaching composition is no more needed than in other school subjects. It is indeed the general problem of instruction. Even the manual arts have the same end in view, though the expression there is through another medium than words. Education is a process whereby the child is brought into in- telligent and interesting contact with the world, with the material world about him, and with the world of the human spirit, both present and past : a process involving the growth of his own power and capacities by careful observation, correct inference, and adequate expression. 1 The teach- ing of composition should, we believe, aim at precisely these things. It succeeds when the pupil has learned to see, to think, and to express; when his mental life has grown richer and more interesting, his views of things more just, his knowledge and his inferences more clearly expressed. The purposes of teaching composition are, there- fore, as was said before, the same as the aims of the rest of the curriculum. The same view is more radically stated by 1 See the well-known statement of President Eliot, Educational Reform, 410 ff., New York, 1898. 124 ENGLISH IN ELEMENTARY EDUCATION Meiklejohn : x " The idea that composition is artificial, and the fact that we postpone the teaching of it until very late, give rise to the vulgar belief that it is a ' subject ' like French, or Latin, or history. But composition is not a ' subject.' It is quite an ordinary practice — a very general activity. ... If it is not a subject, oral composition ought to be begun as soon as the pupil can read, and written composition as soon as the pupil can write. In fact, writing and speaking are simply two forms of one mental act, — the act of expression." Such a statement, however, goes too far. There is a certain body of facts and principles, some of them purely arbitrary and conventional, others logical and inherent in the tie Media of nature of our mental processes, which must be taught xpr ssio . p r i nc ip a iiy j n the lessons in composition. Some of these principles, though involved also in the teaching of other school subjects, such as the arrangement of ideas in clear and logical order, are most effectively presented in connection with composition ; and many of the arbitrary and conventional facts of the language, such as spelling, punctuation, etc., are purely matters of the "subject" English. So that while the primary aim of the work is, as stated above, to train the mind through the acquisition and expression of ideas, the second aim must be to teach those facts and principles of language which are the necessary media of successful expression. If the foregoing aims be accepted as a proper basis for the work, the first consideration of the teacher is seen to be the Material for gathering of the material. " Matter before form " Composition. - s an e d uca ti nal dictum, rendered valid by both the interests and the powers of the children. Every observant teacher knows that children are interested in ( i ) the world of visible and external facts about them, (2) the world of story, whether history or fiction, (3) the explanation of things. He knows further that only certain types of facts in life and certain 1 See Meiklejohn, TTie Art of Writing English. See also School Review, I. 660 ff., where Professor Barrett Wendell calls attention to the fact that most of the English teacher's knowledge is assumed to be common property. ENGLISH IN ELEMENTARY EDUCATION 125 types of action in story are apprehended by them, that the power of apprehension varies somewhat in the individual pupils and in different schools, and that, however active the child's interest in the reason of things, he can go but a little way in explanation or exposition. In general, therefore, the material for composition must be drawn from the child's daily experience and from the stories which interest him. It must be selected, more- interest and over, not merely by this general rule, but by fJentiaif 6 means of the teacher's actual acquaintance with the experiences and interests of the class. Knowledge of the subject and interest in it are of the first importance. The unfamiliar and difficult act of writing is of itself a barrier to expression in the earlier stages of the work. The mere thought of having to "write a composition" is often enough to scatter the child's ideas to the four winds. Ask him, therefore, to tell on paper something which he knows too well to forget, and in which he is too much interested to be daunted by the mechanical difficulties of expression. For the observant child — that is, for the child of normal type — life is full of such material. He talks of it freely and often ; his mind has grown through such observations and ex- pressions. But when he is asked to write his memories some- times desert him. Here is the teacher's opportunity and duty, — to find the material that the pupil knows, and to bring him to the expression of it. A runaway horse, a fire alarm, an arrest, the construction of a building, a Types of " sandwich man," or any one of the hundreds of Sul)ject * striking objects and incidents seen on our city streets, may be selected. The child's home life, his games, his pets, or his toys will seem to him worth talking about. So, too, the stories that he has read, in school or out, are good material for his work in composition. Early in the in- struction, the material that he has learned in other school subjects can be employed : his history, his science, or his manual training. 126 ENGLISH IN ELEMENTARY EDUCATION Pictures that tell a story or give a scene clearly can be in- terpreted in words. 1 In those that invite a comparison the Use of . pupil may note points of likeness or of difference. Pictures. Such a challenge to the inventiveness of the pupil as this, or as in a partially told story which he is asked to com- plete, brings excellent results. The quantity of good material is, in fact, very large. If the composition work lacks interest, it must be because the teacher lacks either ingenuity or the capacity to enter into the interests of childhood. Life is everywhere interesting enough, and the normal child suffi- ciently alive. It is not enough, however, that the material should be inter- esting. It should be capable of use for the aim of composition teaching : the cultivation of the mind through thought and expression. It must be sufficiently knowable by the child to give him some clear and definite things to say, and it should stimulate his observation and his thought. In the later stages of the work, the material chosen should frequently afford opportunity for the ordering and arrangement of ideas into some sort of unified form. For example, such a topic as How I Spent my Vacation is not of the best ; for it is likely to bring forth only a string of co-ordinate and more or less disconnected ideas, succeeding each other with a series of ands. A particular incident of such a vacation, as a fishing trip, or a boating accident, or a ride in the hay-field, is much more susceptible of the orderly treatment which results in good form. It is to be noted, too, that, especially in the lower grades, incidents are, in general, better than scenes ; narration is better than description, for both interest and ease of telling. Not only the matter but also the motives of the earlier exercises are important. The making of a sentence or a para- graph may not be a comprehensible or interesting purpose to 1 Such pictures are now generally found in school books as well as in books made primarily for entertainment. The making of good and cheap reproductions of fine pictures is now common. See, for example, the catalogue of The Cosmos Pictures Co., New York. ENGLISH IN ELEMENTARY EDUCATION 12? a young child ] but the telling of a story or the writing of a letter will be. Why should one write, but to communicate ideas ? A story or a message told in a letter, to first Exer- be sent, as letters should be, to an absent acquaint- SSf^tSy?" ance, will seem to the child a reasonable motive temn s- for writing. 1 So will the writing of a short story to be read to the class. As language always concerns two, him who talks and him who hears, or him who writes and him who reads, its employment in teaching should recognize this natural relationship. Considerable emphasis has elsewhere in the present volume been laid upon the value and necessity of oral language. In the employment of it one of the objects should be, 0ral as said before, to break down the barrier between Composition, oral and written composition. The pupil should realize that composition is with him "a habitual activity," that every time he talks he is composing, that the written composition is only the same thing in another form, though perhaps a little more carefully considered and executed, and that his habits of speech and of writing can each be brought to reinforce the other. Always in the lower grades, ancT often in the upper grades, the set composition should first be given orally : the ideas be told and retold and the telling criticised by various members of the class. Such a process bridges over the formidable gap between oral and written speech, making the latter distinctly easier and more natural. -_ After the earlier efforts, which should be very short and " rather frequent, the interest can gradually be directed toward the forms. The conventions of writing and print- x^f-orm^ ing sanction certain usages, as seen in the books Elements, read and in the written language of the teacher. There are capitals, punctuation marks, fixed ways of spelling words, etc. ; a sentence says something completely, and not in unrelated 1 Excellent models for use in this kind of work are some of the letters of Phillips Brooks, Lowell, Dickens, Stevenson, Eugene Field, and Macaulay. 128 ENGLISH IN ELEMENTARY EDUCATION fragments. These matters must be learned, and when for- gotten, as they will be many times, learned again. They are to be learned, moreover, not by rule, but rather by observation and practice, and fixed in memory by the simplest possible statement of the rule or principle. Not too much at once, and the most essential things first, are good working rules. It is appropriate here to review some of the other common forms of school work in language. Among the first in place Transcrip- an( ^ vauie > is transcription. Professor Laurie has tion ' said : * "To make boys and girls sit down and write out, with due attention to legible writing and punctua- tion, prose paragraphs and poems from celebrated authors, is an admirable exercise. It gives linguistic material. At all ages, but especially in the earlier years of language-teaching, this exercise should be almost a daily one. . . . There is no strain in this exercise, and it is all the better for that." Such exercises are of special value for pupils who, through either carelessness or lack of memory, are deficient on the formal side. But the method might be easily abused. The choice of material not interesting or intelligible to the child, or too long in quantity, could only bring disgust with the process. Moreover, it would be unfortunate to allow this easy device to supplant the need of inventiveness on the part of the teacher. It is, after all, only one of those good formal proc- esses against the usurpations of which teachers must be on their guard. Some of the best methods in teaching are among the old methods. Dictation is one of them. It trains the ear, con- nects the oral with the written language, brings Dictation. . , .. , r •?• the pupil gradually to the power of writing auto- matically the word that is in the mind, and has the advantage of being easily comparable with the correct model. If the material for dictation is taken from books in the pupils' pos- session, the self-criticism of the pupils can be made most helpful. 1 Language and Linguistic Method, p. 56. ENGLISH IN ELEMENTARY EDUCATION 1 29 Probably the most common form of composition in our schools is the writing of " reproductions " and paraphrases. By the former is meant giving a somewhat con- R d densed report or transcript of a selection either of tions ' prose or poetry. As a means of acquainting pupils with good literature, of affording something interesting to tell, and of training in getting at the essentials of a passage, it is excellent. Moreover, if the material is simple, it serves in some degree also as a model for the pupils' own efforts at original composi- tion. The degree of fulness with which the passage should be reproduced will, of course, vary with the circumstances. In general, the aim should be to have the pupils' work full enough to be interesting to their classmates. In the upper grammar grades a useful form of exercise is the making of brief abstracts of paragraphs, such as are the headings of newspaper articles. Paraphrases have been a much abused school exercise. They have served to fill many an hour for helpless teachers, to disgust pupils with many a beautiful piece of litera- ture, and to provoke lively invective from many p a school reformer. Says one of these, " A more detestable exercise I do not know. It is a vile use of pen and ink." Undoubtedly it often is. To take a thing of beauty, and to degrade it into a muddle-headed and absurd form, does seem a kind of sacrilege which it is hard to defend. Cer- tainly the claim that paraphrasing is a means of cultivating a good style seems ridiculous. As an exercise in com- position, it might well be abandoned. But as a means of bringing a pupil to see that he does not fully understand the meaning of a passage, or to realize the fulness of meaning packed into small compass, and therefore as an occa- sional adjunct to the teaching of literature, paraphrasing may serve a good purpose. Besides, do not critics — and good ones, too — use it now and then to make clear an obscure passage ? One of the first essentials to both clear thinking and clear expression is a sense of the form of the sentence. It is a unit 9 130 ENGLISH IN ELEMENTARY EDUCATION of thought as well as a form of thought. 1 A sense of the form of the sentence has, of course, been emerging from the broken Sentence speech of infancy ; and the same inductive proc- Structure. esses will continue to make it clearer in the primary grades. Helped by the teacher, with such questions as "What did you say about this thing?" or "What was it that you said about this?" the conception will grow more rapidly. By the third year in school, children can be taught definitely that the sentence has two parts, subject and predi- cate. Later, by the fifth year, at least, they can learn to separate these parts from one another in complete sentences, and to see that a compound sentence has two or more of each of these parts, though it would probably not be worth while to introduce the names complex and compound. The immediate purpose of this instruction is not grammar, though it prepares the way for grammar as a later study, but composition, — com- position viewed as above, as clear thinking and clear expres- sion. The knowledge of the structure of the sentence is almost a necessary condition to such critical questioning of thought and expression as the teacher must do in any adequate treatment of written work. The clearing up of obscure rela- tionships, the testing of hazy conceptions, can be facilitated by such means. Moreover, the rhythm which is an element of good writing and to which the ears of children may be made sensitive, is better appreciated when they have a clear conception of the sentence. Drill in the sentence, oral and written, should be a regular part of the language work. Imperfect sentences written by. the children should be made better by the class. Ideas should be stated and restated, until they are in good form. Sen- tences incomplete in predicate or subject should be filled out, loose sentences made compact, etc. An admirable form of exercise is suggested in a certain text-book on composition. 2 1 It has, however, been argued, especially by Dr. E. H. Lewis, that the paragraph is the unit of thought. This seems to apply rather to the educated mind than to that of the child. 2 Goyen's Principles of English Composition, New York 1894. ENGLISH IN ELEMENTARY EDUCATION 131 A clear sentence, preferably from books in the possession of the pupils, is arranged in parts under heads as follows, to be cast into good form by the pupils. Subject. squadron Predicate. were riding Object. Subject Modifiers. stately of snowy geese convoying whole fleets of ducks Predicate Modifiers. in an adjoining pond Other valuable exercises are practice in saying things in differ- ent ways : substitution of words, changing of phrases into clauses and the reverse, statement of contrary ideas, etc. These and many other excellent devices, for which the present work lacks space, may be found in the various text -books for teaching composition. Most of the school rhetorics of a generation ago laid stress mainly upon the word and the sentence. But the importance of the paragraph as a basis of composition work Paragraph seems now fully established. It is the unit of structlire ' thought in all that continuous thinking towards which the school is working. Whether the pupil attempt to grasp the thought of a story or of an explanation given by some one else, or to order his own thoughts into fit form for expression, his mind must proceed from paragraph to paragraph. When he wishes to make a single point clear, in any degree of fulness, he must write a paragraph. The appreciation of the paragraph, therefore, implies at once some power of discrimination and some sense of unity. Obviously, it cannot be taught in the primary grades. The very conception of it implies the ability to think of a unit of discourse larger than the sentence, of an integral part of the whole composition. When — and only when — the pupil has arrived at the power of giving a connected account long enough 132 ENGLISH IN ELEMENTARY EDUCATION to be designated as a " whole composition," and is able to think of that account as made up of successive parts, he can begin to realize what the term " paragraph " means. The begin- nings of this study may be made, in very simple form, in the third or fourth grade. The pupil may be telling a story of some experience he has had. This story he can think of as made up of beginning, middle, and end : the circumstances, the principal event, and the consequences. His attention can be called to the similar building and paragraphing of some printed story. The way to the subject thus opened, the discrimination of the parts that compose a piece of writing and the noting of the essential elements in each of these parts should become a frequent exercise not only in the English lessons but in other school subjects. In his own writing he can learn to reject or postpone ideas for the sake of the paragraph unity. In this work constant references to good models are indis- pensable. To make the conception clear and firm is a work of time, — a work, indeed, which the school is hardly able to complete, for perfect paragraphing is an achievement for the thoroughly trained mind. None the less, it is to be worked for steadily in the elementary school. In this, as in all other forms of training, the school must seek and be contented with only approximations. As a form of composition for school use, the single paragraph has the special advantage of being short enough to be grasped easily, and long enough to comprise an adequate statement of an idea ; short enough, too, to be read easily by the overworked teacher, and long enough to indicate the pupil's mental proc- esses. It is better to write often and well than seldom and carelessly. It is better to attempt what one can grasp and " think through " than to fall into devious wanderings in the longer and more ambitious task. The discussion of paragraphs brings us naturally to the con- sideration of the plan of the whole composition. Should chil- jflg^jjjg dren have a plan? It has been objected that a Outlines. pi an ma kes the work stiff and mechanical, that it destroys interest and cripples imagination. The objection ENGLISH IN ELEMENTARY EDUCATION 133 seems largely sentimental. It seems to assume that writing and speaking are emotional rather than intellectual processes, or that order and form hamper rather than facilitate the action of the mind. Now speech, though prompted by emotion, is essentially an intellectual act ; and teaching must bring order into intellectual activities. Moreover, that the following of a plan does not hamper intellectual activity is demonstrated by the daily experience of good teachers; on the contrary, it gives a certain freedom and confidence to the pupil. Having made his rough outline, he writes what he knows upon the first topic and the second, etc., unhampered by the necessity of con- stantly considering where he " is going to come out." Outlin- ing the subject to be written is, like paragraph study, not in place in the earliest years. It may begin with the consideration of the paragraph ; it is, indeed, in the simpler forms of writing, the same thing, and may be presented in the same way. Perhaps the most valuable result of such work is the guid- ance it affords in "working up a subject," that is, either in taking stock of one's ideas or in gathering mate- Gathering rial. Children are generally helpless in both these Mat 6 " 31 * respects. Let us assume a case. A topic of some length is assigned for treatment, such as, say, The Buildi?ig of the X. K Z. Railroad. Some information on the subject is already in possession of the pupils. Other information is to be sought in the appropriate places. The teacher begins to open up the subject by questions. When was the road built ? Where? Why? How long did it take? What were the difficulties? This and similar questions would result in the pupil's gathering a store of information which might be arranged in some such outline as follows : — The Building of the X. Y. Z. Railroad. I. Dates of beginning and completion. II. Reasons for building the railroad. 1. Productiveness and populousness of the country through which it runs. 134 ENGLISH IN ELEMENTARY EDUCATION 2. Absence of other adequate means of transport, or ex- cessive charges of existing roads. 3. Terminals opening up distant markets by connecting with other roads or with seaports. III. Obstacles to be overcome. 1. Legislative : due to the prejudices or lack of foresight on the part of natives, or to influences brought to bear by rival roads. 2. Financial: scarcity of capital; lack of confidence in projectors. 3. Natural : need of tunnelling, bridging, etc. 4. These obstacles overcome by certain means. IV. Construction. 1. Time. 2. Cost. 3. Influx of labourers, etc. V. Results. 1. Stimulus to industry. 2. Increase of population. 3. Decrease of provincialism, etc. Such an outline is, perhaps, fuller and more elaborate than is desirable. It is given here, not as a model, but merely to indicate the possibilities of any outline as a guide in gathering and ordering ideas, and therefore of training in thinking. We now pass to the more general discussion of the prepara- tion for the composition. Such preliminary work as will guide Preparing ^ e stu ^ent in bringing to the surface of his con- for Writing, sciousness ideas which he already has, in gathering new ideas, and in arranging his material, is half the work of teaching composition. A barren mind makes good writing impossible. Either there will be no writing, or the meaning- less tautology which only stultifies and stupefies the writer. To avoid this condition, the ingenuity and alertness of the teacher's mind must be called into play. He must be able, first, to choose a subject that has possibilities; second, to turn it ENGLISH IN ELEMENTARY EDUCATION 1 35 over in various lights, to place it in relation to other things, until the class has been brought to the point of finding it rich in material, and, finally, to stimulate that lively , ,. r . , . . , , , , . Gatheringand oral discussion of it which adds both to interest Arranging and clearness. One phase of such preparatory work has been presented in the preceding paragraphs upon the making of outlines. Another phase is the presentation of good models. Much has been said about the use of good models. Some masters of style have given direct testimony and advice as Use of to their value. Johnson's famous admonition to Models, give one's days and nights to Addison, if one would acquire certain specific graces of style ; Franklin's testimony as to how he constantly imitated Addison in order to learn to write well ; and Stevenson's charming confession of " playing the sedulous ape " to various writers, are all well known. 1 But the distinction must be drawn between the kind of imitation thus recommended, and the kind appropriate for the average child in the elementary schools. These were men, or boys, of extraordinary gifts, possessing a power of analysis, an amount of enthusiasm, and a degree of sensitiveness not common. Their aim, moreover, was literary. Now the aim of school instruction cannot be to make authors. It must be content to teach boys and girls to write with a fair degree of clearness and propriety. The imitation of the fine graces of style is in- expedient and impossible ; it would only breed " fine writing," that is, fantastic and absurd writing. There is, however, a use for good models. They may be the best work of the members of the class, or the work of the teacher, or selections from good literature. They will serve : (1) To let the pupil see the sort of thing he has to do already done, and so get a general notion of what it is like, and the feeling that it can be done. (2) To give him certain general 1 See Johnson's essay on Addison, in his Lives of the Poets, Franklin's Autobiography, and Stevenson's essay, M A College Magazine," in Mem- ories and Portraits. 136 ENGLISH IN ELEMENTARY EDUCATION notions as to the order of procedure, — what to put first, etc (3) To increase his vocabulary in the way that his vocabulary is naturally growing, that is, by contact with better and fuller speech than his own, and (4) To add to his stock of ideas. It should be noted here that the effects of good models are very different in the earlier and later stages of elementary in- struction. At first there is the merest unconscious imitation ; later, analysis of the content and form of literature, leading occasionally to conscious imitation. But such deliberate im- itations will be of infrequent occurrence and slight value, com- pared with the influences of the less studied sort in all the years of the elementary school. One of the topics magnified by much discussion in educa- tional conferences is "correlation of studies." Out of the Correlation heterogeneous materials making up an ordinary of Studies. sc hool curriculum, it has seemed desirable to build some coherent, unified whole. Hence the attempts to bring the subjects of the course into right relations with each other, partly by placing them in certain parallel or consecutive places, partly by emphasizing certain phases of them as of value in this or that subject. English, being used in all the studies, has naturally been expected to supply a common bond among them. The predilections of the teacher or superintendent generally determine whether English is to be regarded as the handmaiden of all the other subjects, or the queen to whom they all bring tribute. So long as the relationship results in sound instruc- tion all along the line, it makes but little difference which point of view is adopted. It is enough that the teacher know and realize that the teaching of science and good, clear orderly English side by side is a desirable thing. To object because either the English or the science is regarded as of secondary value is like looking for grievances. As has been already pointed out, the fundamental aim should be the training of the mind in gaining clear ideas and expressing them clearly. Other subjects of the course will afford much good material for teaching composition. Lessons in history, science, manual ENGLISH IN ELEMENTARY EDUCATION 1 37 training, will not only furnish the necessary ideas, but will also present the order in which those ideas are to be arranged; that is, will supply both substance and form. Such use of material will also secure economy of time and energy. It is better for the history lesson that it should be gathered together and written in the orderly form of a good composition, and better for the composition lesson that it should be upon material already carefully worked over. Paradoxically enough, the most difficult of these relationships to define and employ in its full measure of value is that which at first seems easiest and most natural ; namely, the literature and relationship between literature and composition. Composition. In the very excellence of the literary model lies the source of the difficulty. The indifferent model written by the teachei or by the pupils is easy to imitate ; but the simplest, the clear- est, — that is, the best, — of literary models are the despair precisely of those who can really appreciate them. The trouble lies in part in the nature of the challenge offered. Similar material may be told, indeed, in a somewhat similar manner; but the peculiar something which makes the one perform- ance literature, and the imitations mere writing, eludes the grasp. We are reduced, therefore, to three obvious things in our attempt to correlate literature with composition: (1) To find in it our material for composition, as in the ordinary re- production of a story; (2) to follow the general plan pre- sented by the model ; x (3) to cultivate, by frequent and intimate contact with the best literature, a sense of the beauty of the form, which, in reason and justice, we can expect pupils to imitate only at a distance. That is to say, we are in no different case with respect to the first two of these things than when we deal with the material chosen from the text-books in history and science. With respect to the third thing, we have a task analogous to the inculcation of fine manners and good morals. We present the good models for imitation, we point 1 See, for example, the order of the description in the opening scenes of Tennyson's Enoch Arden. 138 ENGLISH IN ELEMENTARY EDUCATION out and iterate and enforce principles, but the subtle graces of character and bearing which are the desired result may or may not come. Much, very much, in either case de- pends upon the fineness of fibre of the teacher and the pupil. To surrender the whole problem, however, because of its subtlety and its difficulty would be mere cowardice. The views Suggestions J ust expressed are to be regarded as a recognition as to Method. of its genera i difficulty and its frequent insolu- bility. The road to its solution can at least be pointed out, and the achievement be left — where, after all presenta- tions of educational principles, it must always be left — for the wisdom, taste, and industry of the individual teacher. Sev- eral definite things may be done to bring the pupil towards this imitation of the best writing : ( i ) He may be led to sat- urate himself with it, by learning more and yet more of it. What he commits to memory, both ideas and diction, becomes part of his mental equipment. Every one knows how a knowl- edge of the English Bible has given dignity and weight to the speech even of the uneducated. (2) The pupil may be led to see the force of precise and simple diction. Such discrim- ination gives definiteness to his ideas and more clearness to his speech. A conscience for right speaking may and should be cultivated. (3) If the teacher admires the good things in language, and has the gift of showing such admiration in a genuine and temperate manner, the admiration is likely to be felt by the pupils. To remember good writing, to recognize its simplicity and precision, and to catch an admiration for it may not be enough to make good writers ; but they will make poor writers better writers. But can this be done with all pupils? Will they all see the beauty that we wish them to see? Probably not. It has become safe to say, without fear of being called brutal, that some children seem hopelessly dull, blind to beauty and to nice discriminations : that is, incapable of being educated. For these, the teacher must only do her best, provided she does not neglect the others. ENGLISH IN ELEMENTARY EDUCATION 1 39 In addition to the suggestions made in the foregoing para- graphs we must notice briefly the discussions in the school- room of books read by the class, leaving the fuller Discnssi n?i of treatment of the topic for the section on the study Literature of literature. These discussions may include (1) ea ' the statement of the story or ideas gleaned from the reading, (2) the expression of judgments upon these stories and ideas. Both are of the highest value. To repeat the author's ideas is to make them more thoroughly our own, and to adopt in some measure his vocabulary. To form and express judgments, even though they be crude, is to use one's mental stores in the way that makes them of most value : classifying ideas, gaining new ones by inference, and finding them more vivid as they issue in language. In a former chapter it has been argued that English is to be regarded as one subject, of which literature, composition, and language study are only the various aspects. English ne Against this treatment of the subject there are cer- Sljl> J ect - tain arguments : (1) It is more difficult to maintain interest in the reading when digressions are made for the study of words and sentences. 1 (2) Time and energy are saved through the use of a text-book presenting principles well stated and examples well chosen. (3) There is danger that important linguistic facts and principles will be ignored or forgotten if left for incidental consideration in the reading- lessons. It is not easy for the most conscientious teacher to remember all the language work that needs to be taught, — or to judge wisely what should be taught, — while trying to teach well the literature that is read. (4) That the majority of teachers are not yet sufficiently trained either in subject matter or in the technique of their art to attempt such a method. In spite of these obvious objections, it seems that the vari- ous branches of the study of English should be brought into 1 Mr. Chubb, in The Teaching of English, goes further in deprecating the use of the reading lesson as an opportunity for language study. 140 ENGLISH IN ELEMENTARY EDUCATION still nearer relationship. The teaching of these subjects only apart from the reading has certain grave objections, (i) It overlooks the importance of training in the habit of observ- ing the forms of words and sentences. Such observation is almost a necessary element in learning language, for and is a habit of most educated people. (2) It disregards the value of attention to the niceties of expression, upon which depend exact knowledge and fine appre- ciation. The isolated study of the meanings of words cannot leave in the pupil's mind so just an idea of their use as the study of their meaning in connected discourse ; and the study of sentences has more significance in connection with whole paragraphs. (3) It is, in itself, less interesting. Knowledge unrelated and unapplied, is dead knowledge to the child ; while knowledge of a word that helps to explain a sentence is living knowledge. In a given reading-lesson, say a poem like Longfellow's Paul Revere } s Ride, there might be several distinct aims in view. First, undoubtedly, the understanding of the story. After some brief preliminary explanation of the historical back- ground, or of terms and allusions not likely to be understood, the story would be read, and the reading be followed or ac- companied by such question or comment as seemed likely to sharpen impressions, point out relationships, or heighten the feelings aroused. Then or later (rules must not be rigid about these things ; the tact of a wise teacher is more trustworthy than pedagogical theories) the language might be considered. Lines would be chosen to illustrate the points to be taught. Here the punctuation helps to indicate the meaning ; if changed, it would change the meaning thus and so. Here the word conveys such and such impression ; such another word, resembling this in meaning, would change the sense to so and so. Here will be noticed the short abrupt expression, leaving something to be supplied ; there the inverted order for the sake of emphasis, or, perhaps, of metre or rhyme ; and there the allusion or comparison with such and such associations. These and similar matters would naturally be elicited by skil- ENGLISH IN ELEMENTARY EDUCATION 141 fill question and suggestion, inviting the co-operation of the child, rather than pointed out as matters of information by the teacher. To unify the work in language it will not always be neces- sary to begin with the reading. The study may begin with the language end of the matter, and find significant illustration in the reading. In either case the important end to be secured is that the pupils shall come to regard the studies in the mother- tongue as different phases of one subject, shall gain in the reading work illustrations of the facts of the language and an increasing power over the language ; and in the lan- guage study a means of interpreting and appreciating the reading. It would be well to regard the special text-books on language study as storehouses of facts and principles to be referred to when necessary and of exercises to be used when Language desirable. With suitable exercises and clear state- Test - Books - ments of principles accessible, the emphasis could be thrown upon the language as found in the reading-books and as used by class and teacher. Care could be taken that important matters should not be overlooked, and that the language aspect of the work should heighten rather than diminish the interest in the content of the story. It remains to consider two questions that force themselves upon the attention of every conscientious teacher : How much and how often should pupils write? And, how is Frequency the criticism of their work to be made most effec- ^written* tive ? Several general principles may be offered in Work - answer to the first question : (1) Since writing, like speech and manners, is a habit, there should be at least daily practice in it. Such practice need not always be in set compositions. It may often be in the writing of some part of a school exercise in another subject. It should usually be short, but should be done with care. If the motor activities involved in writing are to be made easy and therefore serviceable, they must not be allowed to grow " rusty." (2) Since the mind, as it grows, becomes able to compass larger masses of material, there should 142 ENGLISH IN ELEMENTARY EDUCATION be a gradual lengthening of the average exercises from the lower to the higher grades. 1 (3) Though the paragraph is the unit of discourse best adapted to the purposes of teach- ing composition, there should occasionally be longer com- positions, — from three to five hundred words, say, — in order that the pupil may gain the power of handling larger masses of material. Such exercises might occur once in two weeks. These considerations will have application in various ways according to the conditions under which the teacher works. If the class is twice as large as it ought to be, the teacher cannot be expected to keep the work up to an ideal standard. The second question, How shall written work be criticised? is one of the most important in the whole problem of teaching Criticism of English. Upon the value of the criticism success Compositions. i n teaching composition finally depends. Two re- sults must be sought : economy of the teacher's time and energy, and effectiveness in the criticism made. Upon success in the Eff ti latter aim depends, in part, the securing of the former. How then shall the criticism be made effective? The aim of the work is to increase the pupil's knowledge of the subject, and to raise his standard of judg- ment ; in brief, to make him self-critical. The less neces- sary to him the teacher becomes, the better is the teaching. Hence the importance (1) of determining the ordinary errors and difficulties first to be attacked. Selecting these first points, make them the subject of class instruction, inviting criticism and discussion from the class as a whole. To go. too fast is to discourage and confuse the pupils. (2) Present models of the thing well done ; make sure that the class is attentive. Require the doing of it in the right way, that it may become part of the motor activities. (3) Give help on the new difficulties, but hold the pupil responsible for things 1 This principle applies equally to the oral composition, i. What and how much grammar should there be Grammar? [ n ^he elementary school ? The high school teacher wants the subject finished in the elementary school, so that he may have no further annoyance from \XJ But this is hardly possible, inasmuch as some of the distinctions of grammar cannot be taught with advantage until the pupil is older and has learned some of the grammar of other languages. Moreover, the teacher of English in the high school who at- tempts to present English as " one subject " can hardly ignore formal grammar. The teachers of Latin and German, also, would have the subject completed before the high school, partly that they may build upon certain definite conceptions that they have a right to expect, and partly that they may escape the teaching of certain grammatical facts which it is their business to teach. Unfortunately, too, their own unfamil- iarity with modern English grammar often leads them to ex- pect of the pupil a kind of grammar which is not English, but Latin. The body of grammatical facts appropriate to the ele- mentary school is rather limited. It might be summed up about as follows : — I. A knowledge of the sentence sufficient to analyze and parse it down to its single words, except, of course, in the case of phrases that are so idiomatic that they render analysis absurd. II. An understanding of case and a knowledge of case relationships including not only the nominative, genitive, and objective (or accusative), but also the dative and the vocative. III. An acquaintance with the verb in its various aspects of voice, mood, tense; transitive and intransitive participles and their uses. IV. A knowledge of all the common inflections as they appear in nouns, pronouns, adjectives, verbs, and adverbs. ENGLISH IN ELEMENTARY EDUCATION 15 I V. The various kinds of nouns, pronouns, adjectives, ad- verbs, and conjunctions. VI. The simple rules of syntax, particularly those whose violation is common in oral speech. VII. The power to distinguish between relationships where the form may be the same but the meaning twofold, as in phrases like " the love of God." VIII. A brief general history of the language, as to its origin ; some of the historical facts that throw light on present forms, like the genitive and dative cases, the verb phrases, etc. 9. The choice of a text-book is an important matter. Its order of presentation of the subject is not all-important ; for that need not be followed rigidly. But clear- choiceof ness of statement, aptness, interest, and sufficiency Text-books, of examples are points of great consequence. The com- ments of Professor Sweet, though made with reference to the study of a foreign language, 1 are also applicable here : " A good example must fulfil two conditions : (1) It must illustrate and confirm the rule unambiguously ... (2) The example must be intelligible as it stands, without further context." The examples ought, further, to be taken from good literature, either from modern writers, or, if from older writers, from among those sentences whose " construction has been imitated by modern writers." 2 10. The correction of false syntax as a grammatical exer- cise has been vigorously assailed. Certainly it has sometimes been far from justifiable. But we believe such False exercises may have their uses. When the right Syntax, form is once learned, occasional practice in setting the wrong right has the advantage of sharpening the critical faculties and deepening the memory of the right forms. Such errors as are used for the purpose should, however, not be arbitrary inventions of the teacher or author; they should be errors 1 Sweet's Practical Study of Languages, pp. 131 ff, 2 Ibid., p. 134. 152 ENGLISH IN ELEMENTARY EDUCATION which are actually made in the oral or written speech of the class, or errors to which they are exposed by their environment. 1 1 . Since the point of view in modern English grammar as presented by English philologists is radically different from that given in the old-fashioned grammar, and in many gram- mars still in use in the schools, it is the duty of every teacher of grammar to make himself acquainted with the modern point of view. VII. Spelling So long as English remains a badly spelled language, — that is, a language whose sounds are imperfectly and irregularly represented by its orthography, — so long will the task of learning to spell remain severe. Spelling was at one time, if not a matter of individual taste, at least a matter in which individual variations from an imperfectly established standard were lightly judged. With the wider diffusion of common instruction, and the prevalence of the ideal of " correctness " in English, correct spelling came to be a test of education, and with most people is so at the present day. When the school subjects were few, to learn to spell was a difficult task to which were devoted many hours of con- ning and reciting ; now that the curriculum contains so much that economy of time must be sought, English spelling has become a serious burden. Remedial measures have of course been suggested. The spelling reformers have offered changes more or less radical Suggested an( ^ more or ^ ess rational. These have won but Remedies. slight favour. The new forms look so strange ; our habits and our tastes are bound up with the old forms. And so, though most of us are in theory in favour of reform, the weight of custom and of vested interests has made the progress of reform very slow. We are beginning to write program without the final me, and to adopt a number of similar minor changes ; but it is likely to be long before any thorough change is effected. ENGLISH IN ELEMENTARY EDUCATION 1 53 The educationists have, of course, offered their theories. Time spent in spelling-drill is wasted, they have said. Pupils who learn to read by the " word method " or the " sentence method " will learn to spell because they will see how the words look. This was a beautiful theory. But its failure in practice was so complete and final that it brought dis- credit even upon many of the best principles in the " new education." The present situation, then, is something like this : English spelling is irrational and difficult, and likely to remain so for all the generations in sight ; there is a widespread lhe p resent and settled tendency to judge of a man's intel- Situation, lectual capacity by his ability to spell j the elementary cur- riculum is so crowded that time is precious; and we have discovered no royal road to spelling. Some things have, however, been discovered, that point out the path of present effort. 1. Special drill seems necessary. More than an hour and a half per week of drill seems not to be attended with a com- mensurate increase in results. Less than this seems insufficient to produce " good spellers." 2 2. There is a decided difference in native aptitudes for the work. To some it is comparatively easy, to others a well-nigh hopeless task. Moreover, it has been discovered that the ability to spell seems to " run in families," that is, to be hereditary. 2 3. Some people spell " by ear," but most of them by the eye ; that is, they have a memory of the word as it appears on the printed page. To these forms of memory must be added 1 See J. M. Rice, "The Futility of the Spelling Grind," Forum, XXIII. 163 ff. (April, 1897) and 409 ft. (June, 1897). 2 This has been established in some studies recently conducted under the direction of Professor E. L. Thorndike of Teachers College. The same conclusions were arrived at independently by Professor F. N. Scott, and were presented by him before the Massachusetts Association of Teachers of English in November, 1901. See the New York Evening Post, November 16, 1901, p. 12. 154 ENGLISH IN ELEMENTARY EDUCATION the motor memories whereby the hand automatically writes the word that is in the mind. Now it is obvious that it is the ability, not to spell the word orally, but to write it, that is desired. The spelling-lessons General should, therefore, be mainly written. They should Suggestions, occasionally have the reinforcement of oral les- sons, partly for the benefit of those whose auditory memories are stronger, partly for the sake of the emulation thus easily aroused, 1 and partly for the better appreciation of the word as an audible thing. Many words are misspelled because they are never correctly heard. The two main objects for which to strive are, however, a clear picture of the word as it looks on the page, and a readiness in transcribing this visual image with the pen. For this purpose the teacher will lay stress upon the memory of the appearance of the word ; will call for its reproduction orally, and in writing after it has been seen on the page or the blackboard ; will urge the pupils consciously to get and hold the image of the word ; and will be careful that new words are not merely heard but also seen in writing or in print. Rules in spelling are good things if well used. The rule is not the point from which to start. But when a number of The Use instances under the rule are known, the rule serves of Rules. to ^q^ t k e p r i nc ipi e i n m i n d : such are the rules for the ei and ie combination, for the doubling of the final consonant when a suffix is added, and the like. 2 In a language whose orthography has so little regularity, whatever of uniformity there is should be seized upon and turned to account : hence the value of learning lists of words of analogous form, like those ending in Hon, sion, cious, etc. These are more easily remembered if recalled as belonging to a certain group. Finally, most pupils need to realize that they are expected to learn to spell fairly well, and that to do 1 The author wishes to put himself on record as a believer in an occasional "spelling-match" of the antique sort. 2 See the Introductions to the dictionaries for lists of such rules. ENGLISH IN ELEMENTARY EDUCATION 1 55 this they must work. The teacher can do little to help them : if they are not to carry through life a habit of bad spelling as a badge of illiteracy, they must save themselves by a lively conscience, and a confirmed habit of being concerned about words. VIII. Literature en the Elementary Schools Since the days when, a generation ago, the literature intro- duced in the common schools was generally limited to the series of school readers, and the selections learned literature for the Friday afternoon "declamation " exercises, stibject^its the theory of instruction in literature has been dis- Permanence. cussed from almost every conceivable point of view. As a revelation of beauty, as a source of pleasure, as a means o f introduction to the past, as a revelation to himself of the per sonality of the pupil, 1 as a study of life, as systematic discipline, or as a cultivation of the imagination — from these and other points of view the study of literature in the elementary schools has been amply advocated. To enter at this date upon any justification of its place seems useless. Literature is in the schools by universal consent, and is as likely to stay there as any other subject. The accepted view of the elementary school as the introduction to the environment of the pupils insures the permanence of literature in the curriculum. For the sake, however, of a proper basis in discussing the treat- ment of the subject, it is needful to formulate our judgments upon its educational worth, its relation to other subjects of the school curriculum, and the best methods of teaching it. By literature, we mean not the made-to-order reading matter furnishing graduated series of words for beginners, nor the moral lessons whose sole excuse is their doubtful The Test effect in securing right conduct, nor the " informa- JitoSSnw tion " lessons that aim to unify the course of study. We mean rather that select body of prose and poetry which the world of cultivated men and women, untroubled by educational 1 6ee Corson's Aims of Literary Study > pp. 7-23. 156 ENGLISH IN ELEMENTARY EDUCATION theories, is willing to call literature. Its range is from Mother Goose to Plato ; but wherever it may lie between these limits, to be literature it must have also another stamp of approval than that of the schoolmaster. To define it is the business of criticism and aesthetics ; to be at home in it is the teacher's duty. For thousands of years letters have been regarded as the chief — sometimes as the only — source of true culture. Itj, Greek and Roman education proceeded largely importance* u P on this assumption. 1 Chinese education still Historically. rec ognizes little else. 2 Mediaeval literature is full of the same idea. The Renaissance, bringing together the literary achievements of the elder world and the best con- temporary thought and feeling, expressed its intellectual life best in literature ; and to be " lettered " was the only way to be educated. The study of humanity through literature was the only true " humanism." How the Renaissance degener- ated into the formal classicism of the early eighteenth century, how this formalism was broken down by another intellectual and spiritual revival of western Europe, until literature came again to fuller expression of the human spirit, are matters of familiar history. Through it all, however, it was still the literary ideal, in whatever form, that dominated education. 3 By the middle of the nineteenth century the educational fastnesses were rudely assailed from an unexpected quarter. The great achievements of physical science demanded rec- ognition. They had established new facts, not only regard- ing nature but regarding man, which altered the whole view of life. They had proved the validity of scientific method not only as an organon of knowledge but as a means of 1 See Monroe's Source Book of the History of Education, New York, 1901. 2 See A. H. Smith's Village Life in China, pp. 110 ff., New York, 1900. 3 That comparatively little of this found its way meanwhile into the elementary schools is evidence only of the failure to realize the pos- sibilities of early instruction. ENGLISH IN ELEMENTARY EDUCATION 1$? discipline. And then followed the great educational con- troversy of the sciences versus letters. 1 The scientists won their case, except in their claim that science satisfied all the requirements of a liberal education. 2 The upshot of the con- troversy is that both literature and physical science reveal to us phases of our environment; both train the mind by furnish- ing material for the apprehension and the judgment; both develop the imagination and discipline the reasoning faculties. Science, however, makes the larger appeal to the reason, and literature to the emotions. Careful thinkers in both fields have gone further and pointed out that the mental processes involved in literature and science are the same : a generaliza- tion and classification of experiences, in the one case ex- pressing the results in concrete representation of the type, in the other stating them abstractly in the law or the formula. 3 Still another important subject has, within our own generation, entered the schools in the manual arts, which train not only the perceptions and the judgment, but the muscles and the will, and, like science and literature, help to make the pupi) acquainted with his environment. When to these branches of human knowledge we add history, whose educational value is in most essential points identical with that of literature, we have in broad outlines the scope of elementary instruction. From the foregoing survey it is evident that while the educational importance of literature as a subject of elementary instruction is far better recognized than formerly, it has no such pre-eminence as it once held in college and university instruction. Nor is it the purpose of the present discussion to claim for the subject any such pre-eminence, but rather to show what its educational value really is, and how this value may be realized. 1 See Huxley's Science and Education, New York, 1894, for a strong and interesting presentation of the scientific side. " 2 See the excellent essay on " Literature and Science " in Matthew Arnold's Discourses in America. 3 Woodberry's Heart of Man, pp. 82-94, New York, 1900, and Karl Pearson's Grammar of Science, pp. 34-36, London, 1900. 158 ENGLISH IN ELEMENTARY EDUCATION Literature portrays human life, its activities, its ideas and emotions, and those things about which human interest and emotion cluster. 1 It presents them in forms which Literature as , r . . , T . . a Portrayal are of themselves pleasing. It does not, however, of Life. . 1 ii rest with mere portrayal, but presents its pictures and ideas in such manner and such relations as to give them a new interest, a new meaning : it colours them with emotion and interprets their significance. It gives the personal point of view of the author, that is, his memories and the combina- tions he has made of them, with the resultant inferences and emotions ; 2 but, to be literature of the highest order, this point of view must also be such as to be accepted by the world as true in essence. 3 Literature is therefore a presenta- tion and interpretation of life, — a "criticism of life," is Matthew Arnold's well-known phrase, — and, as such, must be of the highest value in acquainting the young with life as it is in its more permanent and universal aspects, and with the judgments upon it, the interpretations of it, and the emotional colouring given to it by writers of wide knowledge, deep insight, and right feeling. 4 There is an ancient objection to literature, — ancient and, though often answered, constantly recurring, — that it pre- . , sents life in an over-drawn, fantastic, and exagger- Essential ' OD Truth of ated manner. Aristotle answered it in part, and the Literature. answer has been repeated, amplified, and added to. 5 It must, however, be admitted that what untrained minds get 1 See the introductory chapter to Palgrave's Landscape in Poetry, New York, 1897. 2 See La Farge's Considerations on Painting, Lecture II., New York, 1895, and W. H. Mallock, " Relation of Art to Truth," Forum, IX. 36 ff. 3 Shelley's Defence of Poetry and Woodberry's " A New Defence of Poetry " in Heart of Man. 4 Ruskin's Sesame and Lilies is a familiar and interesting presenta- tion of these points of view. 5 See Butcher's Aristotle's Theory of Poetry and Fine Art, Chapter III., London and New York, 1898; Sidney's Defence of Poesie ; Shelley, Mallock and Woodberry, cited above. Gayley and Scott's Literary Criticism, Boston, 1899, is a bibliography to the whole range of this and other topics of criticism. ENGLISH IN ELEMENTARY EDUCATION 1 59 from a book is often the exaggerated and impossible part, while the underlying truth, the universal, eludes them ; that their interest is mainly in action, and very little in a " philos- ophy of life." Their judgment of values in the world of literature is, as in everything else, childish. They do not know the difference between wisdom and folly, between common sense and balderdash, between courage and braggadocio, between beauty and tinsel. This is far from being an argu- ment against the truthfulness of good literature. If it has any bearing on the matter at all, it is, a fortiori, merely an evidence of the need of the sound and wholesome. Cultivated minds find in literature (and history) the most real and faithful presentation of life : they see that they are wiser in the realm of the human spirit for reading it. 1 And this wisdom lies in well-chosen and thoughtful reading, for whoever has the patience and the capacity. Lowell has said all this and much more in one of his inimitable essays : " But have you ever rightly considered what the mere ability to read means? That it is the key which admits us to the whole world of thought and fancy and imagination? to the company of saint and sage, of the wisest and wittiest at their wisest and wittiest moment? That it enables us to see with the keenest eyes, hear with the finest ears, and listen to the sweetest voices of all time?" 2 The case is well summed up by Commissioner Harris : 3 " All that man does contributes to a revelation of human life in its entirety, but art and literature lead all other branches of human learning in their capacity to manifest and illustrate the desires and aspirations, the thoughts and deeds 1 Some most interesting collections of the praises of books have been made. Among them are Frederic Harrison's Choice of Books, London, 1886, New York, 1895 '■> Ireland's Book-Lover's Enchiridion, London, 1884; C. F. Richardson's Choice of Books, Balfour's Pleasures of Reading, London, 1888 ; Baldwin's Book-Lover, Chicago, 1892 ; Farrar's Great Books, New York, 1898. 2 Lowell's Books and Libraries, 3 " Why Art and Literature Ought to be Studied in Elementary Schools," by W, T. Harris, Educational Review, XIII. 325, April, 1897. l6o ENGLISH IN ELEMENTARY EDUCATION of mankind. Hence the educational value of these things. In the presence of the conflict of moral ideas, the struggle of passion against what is rational, the attacks of sin and crime on the divine order of the world, all that is deepest in human character is manifested. Art and literature portray these serious collisions, and like the mountain upheavals that break and tilt up the strata of the crust of the earth and reveal to the geologist the sequence of the formations from the most primitive to the most recent, so these artistic situations reveal to all men the successive strata in the evolution of human emotions, ideas, and actions. Thereby the single individual comes to know the springs of action of his fellow-men." The objection that mere knowledge of books does not bring knowl- edge of life must be admitted. Other experience, contact with life in other ways, is also necessary. But it is just such an arrangement that modern education desires, and not a monastic seclusion in the world of books. Next to the knowledge of human nature and of life, we seek in literature a means of training. The mind grows by acquir- Mentai ™& ideas, by the exercise of memory and judgment. Training. Literature, containing material interesting of itself, and ordered in a way that the immature mind can follow, is one of the best means of promoting such growth. It widens the intellectual horizon, and places the elements that make up human life in just and illuminating relationships; but more than this, it presents those concepts and interests which, far more than the concepts of science and mathematics, are the habitual and essential subjects of human thought. In Matthew Arnold's essay already cited 1 there is a clear and vigorous insistence on two important elements Pleasure. . ... ,: . _ , , .. , m our nature which are satisfied by literature : the sense of beauty and the sense of conduct. Most children have a sense of beauty ; it would be rash to say that all do. Liter- ature, particularly stories, is one of the earliest pleasures that they find when they begin to come into possession of an intel- 1 Literature and Science. ENGLISH IN ELEMENTARY EDUCATION l6l fectual kingdom. We hear much of the pleasures of reading. A very little analysis of the phrase shows that they are of many kinds. There is the pleasure that comes from the normal func- tioning of our minds, the pleasure of mere mental activity ; the pleasure that arises from the sense of power or the acquisition of knowledge ; the pleasure in beauty of picture or in exquisite phrasing ; the pleasure in high ideals inspiring generous emo- tions, etc. All of these pleasures are present more or less to the child in his reading, but none of them quite so much as the delight of entering into a world of beauty, a world of the imagi- nation, henceforth his own world. In Tennyson's A Dream of Fair Women and Recollections of the Arabian Nights, in Keats' s sonnet On First Looking into Chapman's Homer, we have two poets' records of what such pleasure meant to them. Though it means less to the less gifted, its value is never to be ignored. It is an overstrenuous view of life and education which depreciates pure pleasure of any sort. The beauty of the world of " once upon a time," where nothing was wrong — or, if wrong, was picturesquely so and spectacularly punished — where something was always happening, where the skies were always blue and the woods were always green, is, it may be, an elementary type of beauty. But it pleases the child and helps to develop his taste. His admiration, if properly fed, grows until it takes in higher forms of beauty, passing easily and gradually from the simple to the higher aesthetic pleasures. It is, we believe, idle to claim that all pupils can be brought to these higher artistic pleasures. Nature has put up the barriers against many of them. But it is the business of the school to proceed as if these barriers were not ; to bring before the children the best literature they can understand. To " foster the sense of beauty," the source of some of our highest pleasures, and a safeguard against many of the lowest pleasures, is one of the cardinal duties of the elementary school. The third function of literature as a school subject is the cultivation of the moral sense, " the sense of conduct." On 162 ENGLISH IN ELEMENTARY EDUCATION this subject it is easy to go too far ; easy to forget the fre- quent gap between aesthetic and intellectual development on „ ,_. , « , the one hand, and the will to do right on the other. Ethical Value. ' & Many of the pleas for literature as moral salvation seem purely sentimental. But that some of the elements of good literature make for morality is beyond the shadow of a doubt. (i) Literature supplies "the expulsive power of a higher emotion." The mind filled with the beautiful ideals of literature is less open to the sordid temptation of gain, to the pettiness of spite and gossip, to the seductions of sensuality. Every mind will have its treasure-house of pleasant images. It is well for the child if they be of such materials as are supplied by Irving, Scott, Tennyson, and Stevenson. At a certain stage of development, generally between twelve and sixteen, the en- largement of the imagination through reading goes on very rapidly. The inner life expands as in no period since infancy. The importance of the elements that enter into this expansion, coincident as it is with the growth into manhood and woman- hood, can hardly be overestimated. 1 (2) In addition to this, good literature supplies good ideals of conduct, — makes the good attractive and the base ugly. Imitation is the strongest impulse to action in childhood, and admiration is the strongest incentive to imitation. How readily children, especially those who have good imaginations and are therefore most subject to enticement and most worth saving, imitate their favourite heroes, is well known. A good story is worth a dozen good precepts. The immediate power of a right ideal well presented in a story has often been shown. 2 1 A series of interesting investigations made by Professor J. E. Russell revealed the fact that at this period the increase in the reading habit was extremely rapid ; and that where good literature was not obtainable, boys and girls read not only stuff that was worthless from its vacuity, but much that was positively and dangerously bad. 2 The Romans knew the full value of this ; hence their use of heroic traditions. See Monroe's Source Book of the History of Education. ENGLISH IN ELEMENTARY EDUCATION 163 (3) While our modern philosophy may not accept the Socratic doctrine that to know right is to do right, it is unde- niable that right knowing is necessary to right doing, and that just views " make for righteousness." Now, good literature, as we have already shown, seeks to present the phenomena of life in just and true relations. To come to know good litera- ture is to see truly and fairly ; to get beyond and outside of one's narrow personal point of view, and see things as they are to all men. Such an attitude cannot fail to increase respect for the rights of others. (4) The emotional element of literature lies close to the springs of conduct. The clenched hand, the sigh, the tear, that the story calls forth are due to the same emotion that prompts the generous action. The results in conduct are various. 1 The boy may start to fight the Indians ; the sentimental girl may weep over the troubles of a fictitious heroine and leave the house- hold duties to her mother ; and the thoughtful reader may be led to speak a kindlier word, or interfere in some case of op- pression or brutality. The emotion unexpressed in action, we are told, tends to weaken the fibre of character, to enervate the will. Is not this one of the specious half-truths that lead us astray because they sound so well ? Must we rush to action, Quixote-like, whenever we have an emotion? What a tangled and disheartening place the world would soon come to be, especially to children, if they acted on this rule ! The truth seems rather to be, that although emotion habitually escaping in the sigh and tear alone results in such characters as that of the sentimental and inactive girl, yet our minds are capable of storing up emotions through which our characters become gradually changed. So at least some of our own poets have said, — poets who, like Wordsworth, had observed and medi- tated deeply upon the human heart. Moreover, morality is as much a matter of inhibition as of action. The one whose mind is softened by pity and guided by reason is likely to be considerate of others, i. e., moral. 1 James, Talks to Teachers, Chapter XVI., New York, 1899. / 1 64 ENGLISH IN ELEMENTARY EDUCATION The study of literature in the elementary schools is to be conducted, then, with reference to these foregoing aims : Wider knowledge of life, mental training, aesthetic pleasure, and the cultivation of the moral sense. We now proceed to a consideration of the problems involved in the teaching of literature. We are met at the outset by a very interesting question : Can literature be J-iterature taught? Some ingenious arguments have been be Taught? * f 5 offered to show that it cannot. Literature, we are told, is a thing of the spirit, of the emotions, intangible, elusive, evanescent under the light of analysis like the dew- drop under the sun. Examples of ludicrous failures to im- part the spirit of literature could be gathered in every school. But these would, we believe, only prove that literature had not been well taught in those instances. One element in literature is the intellectual. It includes the meaning of the words, the meaning of the sentences, the relation of parts to each other and to the whole Knowledge. . , . . . , . . , . . piece, and the general thought involved in the whole. These are matters indisputably within the scope of ordinary teaching. The pupil may be told these, or led to dis- cover them ; he may, moreover, be examined upon them, so that the most exacting standard can be satisfied. The other element in literature is concerned with the vaguer province of taste and feeling. These are often subtle, Taste and intangible, elusive. An intellectual grasp of the Feeling. ideas does not insure the resultant complex of emotions that go with full appreciation. The book may be understood, and yet seem dull. To secure results in this field is at once difficult and essential to true success in teaching literature. But we must believe that it can be done because it often is done. To help the pupil get both the thought and the feeling, to supply him with the necessary associations or 1 See J. Churton Collins on The Study of Literature, London, 1891, a discussion on the question, Can Literature be Taught? by Andrew Lang, in The Illustrated London News, and a reply by Professor Brander Matthews in The Educational Review, April, 1892. ENGLISH IN ELEMENTARY EDUCATION 165 the materials out of which to make them for himself, to show him the beauty of form, the fitness of phrase and the music of language, — - in other words, to help him not merely to under- stand but to appreciate, — is part of the teacher's work in teaching literature. We have said that taste and emotion are subtle things ; and their subtlety appears not less in their origin and growth than in their essence. The atmosphere of the school, its standards and ideals ; the personality of the teacher, his attitude towards things beautiful and good; all these enter into the sum of impressions that go to form the child's tastes and emotions ; and in no part of the school work do they count for so much as in the hours devoted to literature. To be strong without being crude, to be gentle without being weak, to be sensitive to beauty without being sentimental, and, above all, to be able tactfully to show these characteristics in the most human of the school-room subjects, the lesson in literature, is to have the first and best' means of success. Taste and feeling are associative, contagious. What the strong teacher has to give, most of his pupils will get ; what he sees and feels they may be led in part to see and feel. But they will see and feel in varying degrees ; some of them much, some little or none. The aesthetic faculties are in general sooner reached by literature than by other forms of art, — pictures possibly excepted. But not every pupil will enjoy the same literature, or be helped to enjoy it by the same teacher. If the sum of failures be small, the work will have been well done. When the teacher confronts the class with a poem or story to be taught, the question he must answer is, What shall I do with it? The question must concern not only the given piece of literature, but the given class ; it may therefore be restated, How shall I bring this class to understand and appreciate this piece of literature ? The answer is many-sided. 1 . Literature is a thing for the ear as well as for the eye ; indeed, it was originally a thing only for the ear. This fact leads to several conclusions. (1) Much can and ral should be read aloud to the children which they Literature: cannot yet read for themselves. A class of ten-year-olds can 1 66 ENGLISH IN ELEMENTARY EDUCATION follow Tennyson's Idylls of the King, Scott's novels, Macaulay's ballads, and many other things whose difficulties of thought Easy to an d diction are overcome and whose substance is understand. ren( iered real and lifelike by the teacher's oral renderings. (2) The pleasures of literature are enhanced by the culti- vation of the ear. The rhythms of verse and prose, the fitness Trains the between the sound and the idea, often escape the Ear * child unless he hears them. He has not learned to read literature until he has come to hear the sound while he reads silently. And the necessary equipment for this feat is a full memory of the sounds of literary pieces. Naturally the more resonant types of literature are the best for the early years. The rhythms of the nursery rhymes, and of heroic poems like Burns's Bannockburn, Campbell's Ye Mariners of England, Browning's How they Brought the Good News from Ghent to Aix, and Tennyson's The Charge of the Light Brigade are a better introduction to rhythmic writing than are the subtler forms of Shelley and Milton. (3) The oral reading, either by the teacher or by the pupils, is a good means of passing in review the whole poem, . and seizing it as a single unity, after it has been Grasping the studied in detail. It is also of frequent value in Whole. . ' , , arousing interest before the closer study begins. Many people owe their first real appreciation of literature to some good reader. 2. The mere presentation of an object is not the whole of teaching. A class in biology might find the sight of a crayfish Literature a ver ^ interestin gj but could hardly be said to have studfd 0be stu died the crayfish until it had learned something of its anatomy, its habits, and its general biological relationships. Neither is a piece of literature known until the relation of its parts is comprehended, and the general ideas or feelings it is meant to convey appreciated. In a given piece of literature there are words to be learned, pictures to be formed in the imagination, structure to be considered, allusions to be understood and appreciated, figures of speech to be felt ENGLISH IN ELEMENTARY EDUCATION 1 67 and comprehended, a fundamental notion to be grasped, com- parisons with other mental possessions to be made, and, in growing degree as we pass from the lower to the higher grades, taste and critical judgment to be cultivated. (1) Reading must begin with an understanding of the meaning of the words. If the words that are new or that sug- gest strange or incomprehensible ideas are so many as to bring discouragement, something simpler must Meanings be chosen. The meanings of the words are often given before the piece is read. This is well, if there are not many new words to be given. On the other hand, anything new is better remembered if learned just at the point where it is needed ; and the habit of looking for the meanings of words — partly by conjecture from the context, partly by reference to the dictionary — should be begun early. The insidious habit of guessing at a word and " letting it go at that " is a vice of thousands of otherwise thoughtful readers. When new words are met, they are to be learned in their sound, in-their written form, and in their application ; in the later grades it is often useful and interesting to learn their origin. (2) Most of our literature is more or less allusive. The point of many a good thing is lost to us if we do not get the allusion involved. Sometimes it is enough to know The the origin and significance of an allusion : as, for Treatment 1 • u • »u u v of Allusions, example, in such sayings as " He has an axe to grind," or " He has paid too dear for his whistle." In such cases a simple explanation of the meaning is sufficient. But there are other allusions, common in our best literature, which are not so easily dealt with ; allusions which are memories either of scenes from literature or history, or of the ideas and phrases of the great masters of English literature. Echoes of history, of classic and Norse mythology, of folk-tale and fable, of romantic story, of the Bible and Shakspere and Milton and all our other great literary storehouses, meet us everywhere. To understand the passages in which they occur it is generally necessary to know the allusion, But to appreciate the pas- sages, that is, to get the feeling that they should arouse, to en- 1 68 ENGLISH IN ELEMENTARY EDUCATION joy them as a blending of old and new, with a background of memory and emotion, one should have known the allusion before, and, if possible, in its original place. For example, the reader has his pleasure doubled if he reads such lines as " In teacup times of hood and hoop Or when the patch was worn/' 1 . with full memories of the manners of the eighteenth century ; or Milton's invocation at the beginning of Paradise Lost, with full memories of the English Bible. Such reading at its best is the result of ripe culture ; but the beginnings may be made in the elementary school. It is well to make references to what the children already know ; to associate the new thing they read with the same idea or the same feeling met elsewhere ; to get the pupils, in short, to read in this associative frame of mind. The peculiar difficulty of the task of cultivating such ap- preciation is apparent from the nature of the case. Our pleasure in these allusions comes, as we have already said, in associating the old with the new. Now, to the child, it is almost all new ; his stock of memories is small. And he, no more than we, takes pleasure in the allusion just learned. He learns it as a fact, briefly given, without power to arouse his imagination or his feelings : the allusion is explained, and he comprehends but does not enjoy. But the teacher is building for the future : when the same allusion again occurs, it comes as a memory, bringing the pleasure both of recognition and of former associations. Those allusions, however, which are learned not as allusions, but which have first been known in their original place in history or literature, are the best appre- ciated. The boy who has read the stories of the Round Table or the ballads of Macaulay will better appreciate a reference to Launcelot or Horatius than he who has only looked up the names in a book of reference. In this as in so many educa- tional problems, we must remember that we are working 1 From Tennyson's The Talking Oak. ENGLISH IN ELEMENTARY EDUCATION 1 69 towards a remote end, through many imperfect results, and that we cannot make a " clean sweep " of the ground as we go. (3) Children are serious and literal. The jesting of adults often seems foolish to them; it is not their kind of play. Figures of speech often seem absurd and useless Figures of contradictions. But the ability to comprehend s P eecn « figurative language must be part of their intellectual training. Analysis, classification and naming of figures of speech, even in the upper grades, seem useless if not hopeless. What is needed is the ability to grasp the significance of the figure. To this end the teacher will sometimes interpret the figure, sometimes have the children interpret it, point out the respect in which the comparison holds, and state the idea in literal language. Further than this it seems undesirable to go in the elementary schools. (4) Galton pointed out 1 a number of years ago that the untrained mind thinks largely in terms of pictures. The greatest pleasure, if not the greatest profit, that The children have in reading is in the mental pictures Imagination, of scenes and action. For this reason, such books as The Arabian Nights and Robinson Crusoe remain perennially fresh and new. Nor does this power of picturing what one reads ever lose its value for the adult. The material of the imagina- tion is the stock in trade of the artist, the writer, the scientist, and the man of affairs. The trained mind may come to think less in pictures and more in general terms ; but it will still owe much of its pleasure and of its effectiveness in creative work to the imagination. From yet another point of view than that of aesthetic pleasure or creative efficiency, the vividness of the image is of the highest importance, (a) The imagination is the readiest means of reaching the emotions. Therefore the pictures that are left in the imagination by good literature are a better stimulus to right action, a more potent cause of good taste than are the abstract and reasoned formulae of instruction. (b) That which definitely impresses the memory as a picture 1 Inquiries into Human Faculty, New York, 1883. 170 ENGLISH IN ELEMENTARY EDUCATION is better remembered than are the analytical and critical judg- ments deduced from the study of literature, (c) In growing minds the memories already stored up come to have new applications and new significance. If the story is remembered merely as an ethical teaching of a certain sort, it is not likely ever to take on new meaning ; bat if it is remembered as a story, that is, as a representation of some fragment of the drama of human life, it remains there to produce new emotions and to stimulate new inferences as the mind becomes enlarged by new experience. For example, the memory of Robinson Crusoe's single-handed fight with nature means something to the boy, but much more to the man who has had a decade of the struggle for a foothold in the world. The formation of the picture is, therefore, one of the first things to be looked to in teaching literature. Sometimes the Filling out pupils' efforts need to be supplemented by a sug- a Scene. gestion from the teacher, by some artist's repre- sentation of the scene, or by some other means which may help the class to see more vividly. Suppose they are reading the tournament scene from Ivanhoe. It will seldom be enough merely to have the scene read. The arrangement of the lists, the positions of the combatants and the spectators, the armour and the gay costumes glittering in the sunlight, the successive steps of the action, and all the details in that rich and pic- turesque scene should be inquired about by the teacher and talked of freely by the class. An outline sketch drawn on the blackboard will give a basis for the topography of the picture. In general, such detailed discussion is not only useful in helping the pupils to get the scene fully, but is an exercise which will give the keenest pleasure and stimulate the liveliest intellectual activity. In this connection it is necessary to discuss the place of illustrative material. If, as has been asserted, the power to Illustrative f° rm tne picture is the condition of enjoyment of Material. tne scenej we m iast take account of the stock of memories which the pupils have and out of which they are to make the new picture. Obviously there are wide differ- ENGLISH IN ELEMENTARY EDUCATION IJl ences in their mental outfits. The observant country boy would need no help to see Whittier's Barefoot Boy or Bryant's Waterfowl except the stimulating questions of the teacher. But the ocean to an untravelled inland boy, or the scenes of Snow Bound to a Southern boy, would be very vague. So the wild mountain scenery of Scott, or the masterpieces of art, or the scenes of conflict involving long-past customs and accoutrements, may lose much of their vividness for lack of a background of appropriate memories. It is here that the importance of illustrative material appears. The use of good and cheap pictures in the school-room has steadily grown, and they may now be procured with little cost and trouble. Pictures will not take the place of first-hand knowl- edge ; but they will do much to help the pupil to a fair appre- ciation of a scene made of such elements as they represent. There is, however, another side to this question which must not be overlooked. Literature is a thing not only of the eye, but of the spirit. Its vital interests are, after all, not in the visible scene, not in the landscape, not in the visual reproduc- tion of the physical counterparts of vanished heroes, — but in deeds, in feeling, in character. " The world of literature is the world of the imagination; and its ideals, its activities, its types of character find their best reflection in the mirror of the mind. It may help to give a sense of reality to the scenes of The Lady of the Lake to see a photograph of Scotch moun- tains ; but the best evidence of the greatness of the poem is that its stirring actions and emotions may appeal to a boy who has never seen any landscape but New Jersey sand-flats or stretches of level prairie. The heroism portrayed in one of Macaulay's Lays of Ancient Rome may thrill a boy whose limited historical knowledge would lead him to think of Caesar and Pericles as contemporaries, dressed in modern regimentals. This is not to deny the gain in understanding and appreciation from having a background of geographical and historical con- ditions in the mind of the reader ; it is to assert, rather, that great literature is universal in its appeal, because its essential interest is concerned with the realm of the mind and feelings, 172 ENGLISH IN ELEMENTARY EDUCATION and not primarily with the realm of historical and geograph- ical fact. Hence the illustrative material which is most helpful is that which presents, like the literature, the ideal elements." * (5) A literary work has form and structure; like a painting, it has a definite arrangement of parts designed to present its The Study of *^ea in the most Q ^ ect ^ ve manner. To appreciate structure. this structure is a part of right reading. Ob- viously the consideration of literary form has ho place in the primary grades. At that stage the child's whole mental energy is used in the effort to get the content. He has no energy left to give to thoughts of structure, no interest in such matters, and no adequate analytic power ; it is enough for him now only to get the picture clearly, to understand the idea, and to experience the appropriate emotions. Later in the course, in the second half of the elementary school, he can begin to consider how a literary work is constituted. He can see that a story has " a beginning, a middle, and an end " ; that an in- ■ cident belongs here rather than there ; that there is a regular sequence of causes and effects ; that there are various ways of presenting character ; that there is inherent fitness between scene and incident ; that, in short, the literary composition is not a chance collocation of ideas, but an organic structure. Minute and critical analysis is not meant, but only the percep- tion of the larger and more obvious elements in structure. Such a study could be made of the form of Longfellow's King Robert of Sicily. The story falls easily into the following divisions : — 1. The opening scene, the church, the chant, and the haughty words of the King. 2. The change : his appearance, his discovery of the Angel in his place, and his baffled rage. 3. His humiliation in the various scenes that follow. 4. His penitence, and his restoration to the throne. Teachers College Record, I. No. 3, May, 1900. ENGLISH IN ELEMENTARY EDUCATION 1 73 It would be noted that the setting and tone are ecclesiastical and religious ; that the splendour of the journey to Rome is in contrast with the condition of the deposed King; that his repentance comes appropriately at the solemn festival of Easter; and that, as in the opening he is presented giving defiance to the Church's teaching of humility, so in the end his courtiers find him kneeling by the' throne in silent prayer. Other points in the structure and in the descriptive details would appear ; these are suggested as typical. 1 Or, suppose the lesson be on some prose classic, like Irving's Rip Van Winkle. As introduction there might be the gen- eral comment that this is Irving's treatment of a legend found among the old Dutch inhabitants, or that the story is one form of a common myth, that of the fabulously long sleep. After a first rapid reading of the piece, some of its simpler literary touches could be pointed out : the early intimation of coming improbabilities in the " faery mountains " and similar phrases ; the various points of view in which Rip's character is shown ; the relation between this and his presence in the mountains, and the effects upon him of what he sees upon his return to his native village. Throughout the story the well-chosen word and the felicitous phrase should be noted, that the pupils may come to enjoy the piece, not only as a good story, but also as a well-written story. Reference would of course be made to Jefferson's version of the tale and his inimitable treatment of the character. There are many good essays, like the best of Lamb's, with their quaint humour and genial tone, and some of Burroughs's, with their observant, half-scientific, half-literary attitude towards nature, which should find a place in the school-room. In reading the essay the main purpose will be to get and enjoy the author's ideas. Study of the form will be limited, perhaps, to noting the larger divisions of the thought, the attitude of 1 For critical studies of this sort the teacher will find a valuable and interesting book in Winchester's Principles of Literary Criticism, New York, 1899. 174 ENGLISH IN ELEMENTARY EDUCATION the author towards his subject, the things that are obviously well-said. In the treatment of aU the types, indeed, it is to be borne steadily in mind that the grasp of the thought, the appreciation of the story, the experiencing of the emotion, — in general, the enrichment of the pupil's mind, — is the prime object of the work. It is not, however, to be assumed that every literary work is perfect in all its parts ; such uninformed criticism finds itself involved in strange difficulties through its attempt to justify every detail. It is sometimes objected that such work cannot be done in the elementary school, because pupils have neither the interest nor the ability for it. Such an objection, happily, An Objection. , L u ' A • • -, T «. • need not be met on a priori grounds. It is an- swered by the fact that such work is now done in many schools, and apparently with as good results in interest and intelligence as any part of the school program. The essential conditions are a reasonably intelligent set of pupils, a commu- nity able and willing to buy books, a properly ordered course of study, and intelligent teachers. (6) From the analytical treatment of the literature, as de- scribed above, to the critical view of it, is but a step. And it Critical ^ as seeme d to man y teachers of sanguine tempera- Study, ment as if that step could easily be taken. In certain large city school systems, the writing of " book- reviews " or "criticisms " has become established as a regular school exercise in the seventh and eighth grades. The results are provocative of doubt. One can discern in these efforts something of the hollowness and insincerity associated with the school compositions of a generation ago. Borrowed phrases involving judgments beyond the reach of school chil- dren, and seen to be borrowed by the looseness of their ap- plication, are too frequent. Hasty generalizations, lack of perspective, misplaced enthusiasm, and all the vices of the "ill-fed criticism " of the contemporary periodical are here in miniature. Formal written criticism, judged by its results, seems to be a failure. ENGLISH IN ELEMENTARY EDUCATION 175 And yet we should all agree that we want to bring the pupils to a proper critical attitude, — proper, that is, to their age and development. As the elementary school ends the school life of so many pupils, their attitude towards Attitude . f . Desirable. literature becomes, in a democratic government, a thing of national importance ; for their attitude towards litera- ture is closely related to many of the qualities that make for or against good citizenship. 1 The problem is difficult. We can- not rest the case on authority, for " the authority of criticism " is an unstable thing. We cannot trust to independence of judgment, for the mass of pupils are barred by the lack of time and ability from acquiring the store of ideas and the power of discrimination necessary to right independent judgment. Out of the complexities of the situation seem to emerge certain principles that may be accepted and applied : (a) As the pupil's mind grows in wealth of ideas and in power of mak- ing judgments, it is desirable that he should turn over, ex- amine, and put into words his impressions from the literature he has read. This he does also with impressions from other sources. (J?) As his introspective life enlarges, he will natur- ally seek to find and express reasons for his approval or dis- approval of his literary experiences. This, too, he does with regard to other experiences, seeking to justify and explain them by reference to standards acquired in the world of thought, feeling, and taste. (V) It is desirable that certain standards of judgment be given him. These standards will not be aesthetic formulae, which he could neither understand nor apply, but memories vivid and complete of pieces of literature con- ceded by the lovers of good literature to be good. To these as standards in expression, in taste, and in judgment, he could unconsciously refer the new things that he reads. As the pupil whose home life supplies him with memories of refined and considerate behaviour has a basis for judging rudeness and self- ishness, so the pupil with a store of good literary memories 1 See the discussion in President Hadley's Education of the American Citizen^ New York, 1901. 17 6 ENGLISH IN ELEMENTARY EDUCATION has a basis for judging the tawdry and shallow stuff that he meets in print. It must be admitted that he will often fail to make such reference ; that the memory of Gray's Elegy or Shakspere's Julius Ccesar will not always remain as a touchstone of sentiment or of character study ; that, indeed, even those whose appreciation of literature is best in the elementary school and whose love of good literature leads them to continue to read good books after their school days, will probably never know much good literature well or critically. But the inadequacy of the means to produce the highest result is no proof of their lack of value. The school must do the best it can with the means at command ; and it may well ex- pect in its teaching of literature to raise, though slightly, the general average of intelligence, feeling, and morality. And who dares deny the efficacy of church or school because it does not fully achieve its own ideals? (7) Another aim that the teaching of the literature must include is an appreciation of the spirit and significance of the piece of literature as a whole. Failure in such ap- Studyofthe l . . . , , . , Fundamental preciation, not uncommon even in adults, is due generally to the lack of the thoughtful attitude of mind. Many readers never ask themselves, Why did the author write this? What was his interest in this theme ? How did he see it? And yet these are interesting questions, capable often of a simple answer. Wordsworth's pleasure in the memory of the picture of the Daffodils or of the Solitary Reaper, Whittier's pleasure in the childhood memories of Snow Bound or The Barefoot Boy, Dickens's delight in caricature and the absurdities of Pickwick Papers, or in the portrayal of generous sentiment among the lowly, ought to be easily within the discernment of a child of twelve. We do not know a piece of literature until we know its fundamental idea, its spirit, its motive. (8) It has long been a practice to have children commit to memory bits of good literature. It is to be hoped that the practice will never die out. Provided the liter- Memorizing. r . ■ . .. ature is well selected, — that is, good in itself and adapted to the pupils' development, — provided also that ENGLISH IN ELEMENTARY EDUCATION 1 77 the exercise is not made hateful as task-work, the custom has certain obvious advantages : It enlarges and enriches the vocabulary ; it cultivates the sense of rhythm ; it supplies a storehouse of memories valuable for their beauty, their wisdom, and their ethics ; it makes surer the possession of a touchstone by which other literatures, and even life, may be judged ; and, finally, much that is thus learned in childhood, though only partially appreciated then, takes on new meaning and beauty in later life. (9) Recent educational activity has been much concerned with courses of study, and what is called " correlation " has provoked much printed matter. English, as the subject including the largest number of topics of human knowledge, has been regarded as the principal instru- ment of correlation. It has been attempted so to choose and dispose the literature in the elementary school course that noth- ing read shall be unrelated to some central subject or interest then before the school. Such a centre of interest might be the science, the history, the manual work, or even the season of the year. Thus there might be a butterfly month, or a Revolutionary month, or a basket month, or a snow month, in the year's pro- gram. It might impart a little welcome enlivenment to these pages to reprint some of the schemes that have been gravely offered. But the subject is really entitled to serious discussion. The following principles can, I think, be maintained : — (a) That correlation overdone deprives the school day of that variety of interest which is the need and the demand of normal childhood. (b) That forced and artificial correlation, which seizes upon accidental rather than essential relationships, helps to destroy rather than to cultivate good habits of thought. (V) That it is just as valuable an exercise to bring subjects that have been learned some time since to bear upon subjects now under discussion, as to range them side by side on the same day or in the same week. Indeed, the comparison is often the more effective when one of the ideas has become an old and thoroughly assimilated mental possession. 178 ENGLISH IN ELEMENTARY EDUCATION {d) That each of the school subjects is, or should be, of sufficient worth to be studied for itself, in its own spirit and method, rather than be made a mere handmaiden of other subjects. (ject makes it distasteful is to hold a brief for study. {-kg stupid and the lazy ; that while it is true that some literature needs no study to understand its message, the most of the literature read in the schools needs an active and an open mind. That he apply himself to a subject and master it so far as he can is a just demand to make of the pupil in the elementary school. To do this he should have more time than the class- room treatment of the subject allows. " Home study," so called, should include the literature as well as the other subjects. Such study, if left unguided, is not likely to have definite re- sults. After the stage at which the mere learning to read is the main object, it is well to give the pupil certain topics to consider, certain questions to answer, upon the literature he is asked to study. These topics would naturally be from the teacher's plan for presenting the work. It is equally a mistake here, however, to adhere to this method until it becomes a stiff and mechanical thing. The value of spontaneous activity must not be forgotten. 1 Longfellow's The Bell of Atri. ENGLISH IN ELEMENTARY EDUCATION 1 83 (12) Amid the bewildering multiplicity of printed things the inexpert are lost. The art of using books and papers well and economically must be learned as a means to _ Slow and an intellectual life. Even the man who does little Kapid Reading- reading needs to learn not only how to pick and choose, but how to read rapidly or slowly. 1 So inherent in our civilization are the conditions that call for these different powers, that they should be cultivated in the elementary school ; it should be one of the specific objects of the work in literature to train not only in the close and careful reading which the literary classic and the text-book require, but also in the rapid and cursory reading which is enough for the lighter and simpler stuff. In work of the latter kind, however, the teacher needs to be on guard against the formation of slip-shod habits. 3. In the foregoing pages it has been argued that literature has a place on the tongue and in the ear, and that it is a thing to be taught and studied. It now remains to con- . , . , • , . . _,. . . c Literature sider it as a thing to be enjoyed. This point of as a Source u • a a u a - *x. a- of Pleasure, view has, indeed, been assumed in the preceding discussion ; but it is bound up with other considerations that are here to be presented. (1) The choice of literature for the schools must always take account of childish interests and childish powers. To attempt to force the interest too far is not only to choose what invite failure, but to cultivate an unfortunate tedium is En i°yable. and dislike for good literature. Pupils must be led on by gentle steps from the easy to the mpre difficult, and from the cheap to the precious. The boy whose palate is depraved to the "penny dreadful" will find Wordsworth stupid; but he may find Cooper and Stevenson a good transition to Scott and Homer, and thence to literature more subjective and contemplative. (2) The study and the teaching must have pleasure as well 1 See an article on " The Pace in Reading," Atlantic Monthly, June, 1902. 1 84 ENGLISH IN ELEMENTARY EDUCATION as profit in view : pleasure of the intellect and pleasure of the emotions. Good teaching of literature will increase week by week the child's storehouse of agreeable Literature memories ; will give him a private theatre where- Sou C rc?of ent in are enacted stirring scenes, where sweet and Pleasure. wise vo j ces are heard, and where he can feel that he is living a fuller and finer life. (3) The school reading should be only an introduction to the world of books, Encourage home reading ; find time to have the children talk of what they have read: Collateral , . . Reading; Use suggest new poems and new stories in connection with what has already been read in school or out ; have books about the school-room to tempt them to read, and strengthen the temptation by reading choice bits to them ; strike an alliance with the public libraries : the custodians of the library are, in general, more than willing to oblige the teachers and the children. Where public libraries do not exist, a school library may be gradually formed at small cost : one excellent plan is to begin with " grade libraries," each grade of the school gradually building up by voluntary con- tributions a library for itself, leaving it for the next group of children, and, in turn, passing into its inheritance from the grade above. From such a series of nuclei, growing by the stimulus of immediate interest and possession, might be formed, in a few years and at little cost, a good school library. In the discussion of the problems arising in the teaching of literature, it remains to consider the form and extent of Complete tne units to be presented. We have seen the vs?lcnool passing of the supremacy of the school reader and Readers. fae introduction of the classics into the school. The views of the late Mr. Scudder express the spirit of this important movement : 1 — 1 Literature in the Schools, by H. E. Scudder, Boston, 1888. See also Superintendent Maxwell in The New York Teachers' Monograph, New York, November, 1898. ENGLISH IN ELEMENTARY EDUCATION 185 "The real point of practical reform, however, is not in the preference of American authors to English, but in the careful concentration of the minds of boys and girls upon standard American literature, in opposition to a dissipation over a desul- tory and mechanical acquaintance with scraps from a variety of sources, good, bad, and indifferent. In my paper on Nur- sery Classics in School, I argued that there is a true economy in substituting the great books of that portion of the world's lit- erature which represents the childhood of the world's mind for the thin, quickly forgotten, feeble imaginations of insignificant bookmakers. There is an equally noble economy in engaging the child's mind, when it is passing out of an immature state into one of rational, intelligent appropriation of literature, upon such carefully chosen classic work as shall invigorate and deepen it. There is plenty of vagrancy in reading ; the public libraries and cheap papers are abundantly able to satisfy the truant; but it ought to be recognized once for all that the schools are to train the mind into appreciation of literature, not to amuse it with idle diversion ; to this end, the simplest and most direct method is to place before boys and girls for their regular task in reading, not scraps from this and that author, duly paragraphed and numbered, but a wisely selected series of works by men whom their country honours, and who have made their country worth living in. " The continuous reading of a classic is in itself a liberal education ; the fragmentary reading of commonplace lessons in minor morals, such as make up much of our reading- books, is a pitiful waste of growing mental powers. Even were our reading-books composed of choice selections from the highest literature, they would still miss the very great advantage which follows upon the steady growth of acquaintance with a sustained piece of literary art. I do not insist, of course, that Evangeline should be read at one session of the school, though it would be exceedingly helpful in training the powers of the mind if, after this poem had been read day by day for a few weeks, it were to be taken up first in its separate thirds, and then in an entire reading. What I claim is that the boy or girl who has read Evangeline through steadily has acquired a certain power in appropriating literature which is not to be had by reading a collection of minor poems, — the power of long-sustained attention and interest. " If we could substitute a full course of reading from the great 1 86 ENGLISH IN ELEMENTARY EDUCATION American authors for a course in any existing graded series of readers, we should gain a further advantage in teaching children literature without frightening them with the vast spectre of literature. Moliere's doctor x spoke prose all his life without discovering it, and children taught to read literature may escape the haunting sense that there is a serious, vague study known as literature, which has hand-books and manuals, and vast dictionaries, and cyclopaedias, and Heaven knows what mountains shutting it out from the view of ordinary mortals. There is a deal of mischief in teaching young people about literature and perhaps giving them occasional specimens, but all the while keeping them at a distance from the real thing." With Mr. Scudder's views as to the value of the complete classic over the unrelated fragment skilful teachers have no difference. The previous discussions of the treatment of the literature as an organic unity are based upon the assumption that entire compositions are read. It still remains, however, to be pointed out : — (i) That there are many authors whose good things are so small and so few that they cannot well be supplied apart from the school reader ; 2 (2) That many of the good things here meant are a part of the common property of even the imperfectly educated, and that to omit them is to cut the child off from a part of the common literary heritage ; (3) That many authors whose work in general is of high value have written but little that is suitable for the lower grades ; (4) That there are selections from longer works, scenes from Scott, Dickens, Shakspere ; lyrics from Shelley, Browning, and the dramatists : selections, indeed, from many of the larger works which the children can appreciate long before they can read the whole composition ; 1 The reader will note the error in the allusion. 2 It may be added that many good things may be culled from works which can never be rated as classics good enough to read entire. ENGLISH IN ELEMENTARY EDUCATION 1 87 (5) That often the best introduction to a classic is some well-chosen selection ; and (6) That many fragments from the greater works, while they may lose something by absence from their setting, yet, like the songs from Pippa Passes and The Princess have in themselves sufficient organic unity to be appreciated apart from their context. In sum, the argument seems to lead to the conclusion that there is a place in the school for both the classic and the school reader. CHAPTER III ENGLISH IN SECONDARY EDUCATION Part I. — Language GENERAL BIBLIOGRAPHY Report of the Committee of Ten on Secondary School Studies, with the Report of the Conferences Arranged by the Committee. American Book Co. 1894. Samuel Thurber. (1) The Three Parts of English Study: their Corre- lation in Secondary Teaching. American Institute of Instruc- tion, 1892, 132. (2) An Address to Teachers of English. Education, XVIII. 515. (3) English Work in the Secondary Schools. School Review, I. 638. (4) English in Secondary Schools; Some Consider- ations as to its Aims and its Needs. School Review, II. 468, 540. (5) To what End do High Schools Teach English ? F. T. Baker. Course in English, Horace Mann School. In Teachers College Record, May, 1900, Vol. I. No. 3. A. S. Hill. English in Schools. In Our English. Harper. 1888. Percival Chubb. The Teaching of English. Macmillan. 1902. Nothing has so impeded the proper development of a thorough secondary course in English as the traditional English a system of breaking up the subject into a consid- Single Subject. eraD i e number of smaller divisions, the mutual relation of which is far from obvious. The old secondary curriculum included elocution, oratory, grammar, composition, rhetoric, the study of certain works of literature, the history of English literature, versification, — not to mention " word study," " bad English," and perhaps other matters. Indeed, the fact that there is one broad field, one single subject, English, which can be treated in the high school in a consecu- tive and systematic way, was long unknown, and is even now not often understood or appreciated. Nor, when this essential premise is accepted, is it easy to agree on the relation of part ENGLISH IN SECONDARY EDUCATION 189 to part in the whole process of training which we include under the general term. It is, however, growing yearly more clear that no one kind of instruction in English can be effec- tive that is not planned with an understanding of the aim of all instruction in English. Secondary instruction in English has been dominated, during the nineteenth century, by three successive ideals, each of which has thrown stress on a special and Three Points separate part of the whole subject. The first of View. ideal, grammatical correctness, was that of Lindley Murray, Noah Webster, and their contemporaries, whose one aim was that the pupil should understand the syntactical laws of the language and should have skill in the logical analysis of sentences and phrases. Half a century or more of teaching in which the emphasis was laid on these topics alone led to a sharp reaction of feeling, which tended to underestimate the benefits derived from the proper study of English grammar. The second ideal was rhetorical correctness, and the period in which it was dominant may be roughly reckoned as begin- ning with the Harvard entrance requirements in English in 1874. For nearly twenty years thereafter, the stress in secondary instruction was largely thrown on clearness and accuracy of written expression, to which the knowledge of English grammar was regarded as wholly subordinate. The third ideal, that now rapidly coming into prominence, is that of familiarity with and appreciation of English literature. It was first evident in high school instruction between 1885 and 1890, in the form of a growing feeling that more attention should be devoted to English literature, without undue neglect of either grammar or rhetoric, and was first recognized by the colleges in the Yale entrance requirements of 1894, and the uniform entrance requirements adopted in the same year. The rapidly widening outlook of teachers has led to the building up of an ideal more stable than any of those men- tioned, — the ideal of a well-balanced course of The Essential instruction in the language and literature of U^# Elements, mother-tongue. What the essentials of such a course are, we 190 ENGLISH IN SECONDARY EDUCATION have already considered in the opening chapter. We agreed that the mastery of the mother-tongue involved three elements : (i) the ability of the individual to understand the thoughts of others, whether spoken or written; (2) his ability to express his own thoughts adequately through spoken or written words; and (3) his ability to gain pleasure and profit through his native literature. We also pointed out that in- struction in effective expression involved training in grammar and rhetoric, as well as practice in composition ; that instruc- tion in effective oral expression involved these also, and, in addition, elocution and practice in speaking ; and that the development of the power to appreciate literature involves, not only the reading of literature with that object in view, but some knowledge of the history of literature, a familiar acquaintance with a certain number of literary masterpieces of various epochs, and a realization of the characteristic traits of the race or the nation which are revealed in its literature. With these three essential elements or aims of instruction clearly in mind, we can now take up in detail such points regarding the matter or method of instruction as are most in need of discussion, under the general heads of language and literature. I. Language : Grammar BIBLIOGRAPHY S. E. Lang. Modern Teaching of Grammar, Educational Review, XXI. 294. F. A. Barbour, The Teaching of English Grammar. Ginn. 1901. E. C. Bowen. On Teaching by Means of Grammar. In Essays on a Liberal Education. Edited by F. W. Farrar. Macmillan. 1867. E. A. Abbott. On the Teaching of English Grammar. In P. A. Barnett's Teaching and Organization. Longmans. 1897. S. S. Laurie. Lectures on Language and Linguistic Method in the School. Chapter VII. E. A. Allen. English Grammar Viewed from All Sides. Education, VII. 460. O. P. Emerson. The Teaching of English Grammar. School Review, V. 129. ENGLISH IN SECONDARY EDUCATION 191 W. D. Whitney. Essentials of English Grammar. Ginn. 1877. Preface. K.G.White. Words and their Uses. Houghton, Mifflin & Co. 1870. Chapters IX. and X. The old theory was that grammar inculcated correctness by teaching the laws that rule language. Such a doctrine was the natural outcome of the study of the classical languages, in which concord plays so large a part Aim of in syntactical relations : to be ignorant of the real basis of agreement was, in Latin and Greek, to be ignorant of the real basis of the literary language. Two other circum- stances united to aid the association of grammar with correct- ness. First, the prevailing attitude toward language in France and England, during the eighteenth century and during the early part of the nineteenth century, was highly rational and philosophic, not to say metaphysical. Language was supposed (erroneously, of course) to follow the laws of logic and reason. 1 Second, the difference between the forms of language spoken by people in various parts of the same country was at that time even greater than it is now. In France, Germany, Italy, Spain, and even in England, the spoken language of great masses of people differed radically in many points of inflection and syntax from that spoken by other large groups of people, and all differed in many important particulars from the written, literary, or " standard " language. Only those who knew the inflectional and syntactical laws sanctioned by grammar, which was based on the literary language, could speak or write " correctly." As time went on, however, marked changes appeared in the attitude taken toward grammar both by investigators and by teachers. First, it became clear that the teaching The Modern of the rules of grammar, particularly in the median- Tlieor y' ical way then in vogue, scarcely produced the result desired. 1 The movement began with the Port-Royal Grammaire generate et raisonnee (1660), and is very fully and interestingly described in Petit de Julleville, Histoire de la Langne et Litterature franqaise, V. 723 ff. and VI. 821 ff. 192 ENGLISH IN SECONDARY EDUCATION Children learned the rules, recited them glibly, but did not thus acquire the habit of employing the usages sanctioned by the literary language. 1 It was plain rule -grammar did not suffice to produce correctness in speech, any more than rule- arithmetic produced real skill in calculating. One might speak correctly without a knowledge of the rules; even with the knowledge of the rules one might speak incorrectly. Second, it has become evident that, of all the modern European lan- guages, English is the one to which the old laws of concord apply least, owing to the fact that we have so few inflections. 2 Third, with the development of modern philology, the attitude of investigators toward language has greatly changed. They no longer deem themselves arbiters of speech, but simply recorders of usage, humble searchers for the hidden laws that seem to guide language. They no longer despise dialects or deal ex- clusively with the literary language. What their task is, and what, from the scientific point of view, grammar has become, is well stated by Professor Whitney, in the preface to his Es- sentials of English Grammar (1870) : — "That the leading object of the study of English grammar is to teach the correct use of English, is, in my view, an error, and one which is gradually becoming removed, giving way to the sounder opinion that grammar is a reflective study of language, for a variety of purposes, of which correctness is only one, and a secondary or subordinate one, — by no means unimportant, 1 The correcting of " bad English " was long a part of the course in grammar. Driven thence; it took refuge under the wing of rhetoric. The main objection to the frequent use of this form of exercise is that it seems to throw the emphasis on incorrect expressions and to tend to make the pupil familiar with them rather than with the correct forms. To the use of the exercise from time to time there can be no real objec- tion, especially in the case of pupils who are already too familiar with the incorrect forms, provided that the specimens are really normal " bad English." 2 See, for a popular statement of the facts, R. G. White's chapter on the " Grammarless Tongue " in Words and their Uses, and, for a more scientific statement, O. Jespersen, Progress in Language, with Special Ref- erence to E?iglish, Macmillan, 1894. ENGLISH IN SECONDARY EDUCATION 1 93 but best attained indirectly. It should be a pervading element in the whole school and home training of the young, to make them use their own tongue with accuracy and force ; and, along with any special drilling directed to this end, some of the rudimentary distinctions and rules of grammar are con- veniently taught ; but that is not the study of grammar, and it will not bear the intrusion of much formal grammar without being spoiled for its own ends. It is constant use and prac- tice, under never-failing watch and correction, that makes good writers and speakers ; the appreciation of direct authority is the most efficient corrective. Grammar has its part to con- tribute, but rather in the higher than in the lower stages of the work. One must be a somewhat reflective user of language to amend even here and there a point by grammatical reasons ; and no one ever changed from a bad speaker to a good one by applying the rules of grammar to what he said. To teach English grammar to an English speaker is, as it seems to me, to take advantage of the fact that the pupil knows the facts of the language, in order to turn his attention to the underlying principles and relations, to the philosophy of language as illus- trated in his own use of it, in a more effective manner than is otherwise possible." In England, France, and Germany, where the schools must often struggle to give to pupils speaking a dialect a clear idea of the usages of the literary language, the chief The Present aim of grammar is still generally thought to be the status * inculcating of syntactical and inflectional " correctness." In parts of the United States where the foreign element is strong- est, the same may properly be the case. As a rule, however, we have come to depend, for the purpose of teaching " cor- rectness," largely on the now greatly increased instruction in composition and in literature, and to look upon grammar as a means both for giving the young some knowledge of the facts of language and for thus training them in the analysis and structure of sentences. The history of the teaching of grammar in Germany, France, England, and the United States seems in the main to have been the same. The grammarians who aimed at correctness by rule were in the ascendancy in the eighteenth century and 13 194 ENGLISH IN SECONDARY EDUCATION in the early part of the nineteenth. They were, as we have previously pointed out, the successors of the old grammarians of the Latin tongue, accustomed only to mechan- Grammar ical methods of dealing with the facts of a dead aug language, known to them almost entirely in its somewhat artificial literary form. This school was represented in England and the United States by Lindley Murray. It was followed by what might be called the logical or metaphysical school, typified by Becker in Germany, and by many minor grammarians in France, England, and the United States. 1 Con- ceiving of language as based on reason and as the logical com- bination of certain parts of speech, each of which represented a sort of abstract entity, these writers improved on their prede- cessors by offering systems which had at least the merit of being logical, but which laboured under the disadvantage both of being often unsound 'and of being almost wholly beyond the actual comprehension of the young and immature. 2 The reaction, beginning in Germany with such scholars as Grimm, finally triumphed, and resulted for a while in a general prejudice against the older schools, in a widespread suspicion of the possibility of teaching grammar at all, — at least, of teaching anything but the bare and necessary facts of language. 8 1 On the French movement, see I. Carre, " L'Enseignement de la Langue francaise," in Recueil des Monographies pedagogiques, 1889, IV. 50-55- 2 A good illustration is the old definition of the " potential " mood as " that form of a verb which expresses the power, liberty, possibility, or necessity of being, action, or passion." 3 " Two generations ago the watchwords of the parties into which the educational world was divided were 'Grammar thorough and systematic ' and 'No teaching of grammar in the schools.' On the one side were ranged men like Becker and Wurst, who declared, in Becker's words, that 'since the instruction in language is in its own nature theoretical, grammar, especially the grammar of the mother-tongue, should be the proper gymnastic school, in which the intellectual powers may be practised and developed.' Against them stood the famous philologist, Jacob Grimm, who urged that the natural unconscious growth of speech should not be stunted by ' the misconceived and misshapen rules of the pedant,' and protested that the emphasis laid on grammar tended ' to draw the ENGLISH IN SECONDARY EDUCATION 1 95 The reaction, however, was in its essence directed against the old system of teaching grammar, not against the teaching of grammar in itself, and systematic instruction in the inflections, syntax, and word-order of the native language is now generally accepted as a part of higher elementary or secondary education in all civilized countries. The main objections urged against the study of TheMaiii grammar are as follows : — ttestSSS (1) The learning of a multitude of rules does Grammar - not help the pupil to speak and write correctly. (2) The philosophic distinctions of formal grammar are meaningless except to the advanced student. (3) Exercises in the parsing and analysis of literature tend to give one a distaste both for literature and for grammar. (4) The mental discipline supposed to be secured through the study of grammar may also be secured in other ways, as is shown by many scientific or business men, who, though with- out linguistic training, have been taught by observation and experience to think clearly and accurately. (5) Whatever facts about the language are necessary for a broad education may be readily acquired through familiarity with good literature. (6) Whatever knowledge of syntactical laws is necessary for information, for mental discipline, or linguistic training, can be more readily attained through the study of Latin. 1 (7) English is a grammarless tongue. immature mind of the child to unfruitful abstractions and dry reflections.' His protest, though seconded by men of such influence as Wackernagel and Von Raumer, had little effect for twenty years. Then came the re- action in his favour and grammar has been deposed from the throne it once occupied." F. H. Dale, " The Teaching of the Mother Tongue." 1 " And, finally, to the demand why, if boys must study language as a means of education, can they not study French and German, — the an- swer is, that the value of the classical tongues as means of education is in the very fact that they are dead, and that their structure is so remote from that of ours that to dismember their sentences and reconstruct them according to our own fashion of speaking is such an exercise of 196 ENGLISH IN SECONDARY EDUCATION " Government, and agreement, and apposition, and gender, have no place in the construction of the English sentence ; tense is confined to the necessary distinction between what is passing, or may pass, and what has passed, and case, to the simple expression of possession. This being the condition of the English language, grammar, in the usual sense of the word, — i. e., syntax according to etymology [better, on the basis of inflection], — is impossible, for inflected forms and the conse- quent relations of words are the conditions, sine qua non, of grammar. In speaking or writing English, we have only to choose the right words and put them into the right places, re- specting no laws but thos~ of reason, conforming to no order but that which we call ' logical.' " 1 Objections In re P lv > il ma Y be ur g ed = — Answered. ^ That we no longer attempt to teach correct- ness of expression by means of grammar. (2) That only the simplest logical distinctions are at- tempted in the best modern teaching of grammar. The old " metaphysical " school is rapidly passing away, and there is little or nothing in recent good text-books that cannot be readily understood by a pupil of fifteen or sixteen. (3) That the old system of multitudinous exercises in parsing and analysis is now discarded, or retained only in a sufficient degree to make sure that the pupil is capable of understanding the structure of the English sentence. (4) That no one would deny that mental discipline can be secured in many ways, or that men learn to think accurately and hence to express themselves accurately and logically, perception, judgment, and memory, such a training in thought and in the use of language, as can be found in no other study or intellectual exer- tion of which immature and untrained persons of ordinary power are com- petent. To us of English race and speech this discipline is more severe, and therefore more valuable, than to any people of the [European] Con- tinent, because of the greater distance, in this respect, between our own language than between any one of theirs and the Greek and Latin." R. G. White, Words and their Uses, Chapter IX., "Grammar, English, and Latin." See also H. Corson, Claims of Literary Culture, 1875. 1 R. G. White, Words and their Uses, 324. ENGLISH IN SECONDARY EDUCATION 19/ through the experiences^ of life. Grammar merely aids this process. (5) That, although experience has shown that "correct- ness " is best attained, as a rule, through familiarity with the use of the " standard " language in conversation and in litera- ture, experience also goes directly counter to the assumption that an adequate knowledge of the laws and principles of the language can be thus commonly acquired, without the help of formal or systematic grammar. (6) That, although students may gain a knowledge of the syntactical laws of our language through the study of Latin, (a) not all pupils have the opportunity of studying Latin; (£) such a knowledge of English syntax is an almost indis- pensable preliminary to the study of Latin, as the complaints of experienced Latin teachers show ; and (c) the whole sys- tem of Latin grammar is, in many respects, so different from that of English grammar that it seems absurd to learn by partial inference what might more easily be taught directly. (7) That the well-known facts brought out by R. G. White and others do not show that English is a grammarless tongue, but only, so to speak, a concordless tongue. The objection holds good against the old conception of grammar, but has no weight against the modern conception of grammar. It seems clear, then, on the whole, that the main objections to the study of grammar apply to it as taught by antiquated methods, or rather to antiquated conceptions of ... S ummar y. grammar. The general conclusion seems to be, on the part of the most thoughtful teachers, that high school pupils need, in some way or other, to be trained systematically in a knowledge of the important facts relating to inflection, syntax, sentence- structure, word-order, and word-composition, in their native language. This point of view, the resultant of several oscillating changes during the nineteenth century, is well expressed by Dr. Samuel Thurber : — " A certain amount of formal grammar, on the other hand, I consider extremely important. The distinction of subject 198 ENGLISH IN SECONDARY EDUCATION and predicate, which is fundamental to thought and speech, is comprehensible even to children younger than high school youth. The names themselves, like many other grammatical terms, are not merely technical, but belong to the vocabulary of educated persons. Intelligible and interesting to youth are the distinction of subject and object, the distinction of princi- pal and subordinate elements, the meaning of noun, verb, and the parts of speech generally ; of preposition, number, gen- der, and finally of case, tense, mode, relation, and govern- ment. . . . Tracing grammatical relations is a most excellent discipline, and the knowledge in which it issues is a most use- ful knowledge.' Through parsing and analysis we gain facility in following the language, sometimes difficult and involved, of writers like Milton. No one can go far in Shakspere with- out noting the peculiarities of his grammar. And you cannot conceive a beginning of a study of a foreign language without perpetual consideration of grammatical topics. Therefore I recommend parsing and analysis, to occupy a certain quantu- lum of our precious English time. It will not hurt a pupil's appreciation to parse a little of Paradise Lost. The opinion we often hear expressed that to parse beautiful prose or verse blunts the aesthetic enjoyment of it as literature, I simply laugh at. The onslaught on grammar which culminated some years ago was a senseless panic. Of late I believe the educa- tional world is recovering its wits." 1 The question now arises, How shall this information be pre- sented to the pupil, how shall grammar be taught? In dis- cussing this question it is fair to admit at once that Grammar the pupil cannot be left wholly to himself to " pick aug up " the separate facts referred to and to gener- alize regarding them. Under such circumstances, experience shows that he would only rarely acquire the necessary infor- mation. Nor, as we have seen, can we depend exclusively on the teacher of Latin or of some modern foreign language to present certain facts or laws connected with the foreign lan- guage, which the pupil can by inference apply to his own lan- 1 "English in Secondary Schools: Some Consideration as to its Aims and Needs," in School Review, II. 468, 540. ENGLISH IN SECONDARY EDUCATION 1 99 guage, for it is just this preliminary information as to his own language which he needs to use in acquiring a systematic knowledge of the foreign language, It may also be regarded as generally admitted that the pupil shall have learned pro- gressively, from the fourth grade of the elementary school up, many of the chief facts relating to the inflection and syntax of English. It is clear, then, that the information we have described is already partly given him, in the main, by the teacher of English, and that it must now be given him systematically. The question under discussion, therefore, is, Shall grammar be taught in the high school deductively, as it is usually taught in the United States and England ; inductively, as is the custom in Germany ; or by both methods ? The time-honoured deductive method of teaching grammar in the United States and England is well illustrated by the text-books of Mason, widely used in England, and The D educ . of Whitney, widely used in the United States, tive Method. The order of procedure in each is definition, example, appli- cation. The pupil first learns the definition, for example, of a noun ; then notices examples of nouns ; then applies his knowledge to exercises in picking out nouns from among other words". 1 In Germany, where text-books in grammar are little used, the method is almost invariably inductive. In Prussia the law is that " grammatical instruction must be limited 7he indnc- to what is strictly necessary, and must always rest tive Method, on definite examples. German grammar must no longer be treated in the same way as the grammar of foreign languages." 2 The method is thus further explained by Mr. Dale : — 1 Both books stand for the method most in use during the last quarter of the nineteenth century. Other books differ from this point of view only in giving less emphasis to application, and more to definition and example. 3 " Curricula and Programmes of Work for Higher Schools in Prussia." 200 ENGLISH IN SECONDARY EDUCATION " An instance of construction is found in some piece that the class is learning; the sentence is written on the black- board, and the boys look for more examples of the same kind. Under the questioning of the teacher, and by comparison of the instances, they gradually elicit the rule, which, after being repeated, is written down in a note-book with a model sen- tence. Their next piece of composition is then so planned as to involve the use of the construction already learned. Thus the two steps on which emphasis are laid are: (i) that the instance selected should always be one appealing to the chil- dren by its content; and (2) that the rule should never be given but always found, and when found, embodied in a con- crete sentence again. Abstract and universal statements are, as far as possible, kept in the background." l Either extreme seems equally absurd. To teach grammar by a set of generalizations destroys, to a considerable de- gree, the value of the training, though no more Objections & & & to either than would the same method when employed in any other subject. The pupil tends to learn by rote, to see only what he is told to see ; he does not gain the power of observing and generalizing for himself on lin- guistic matters ; he conceives of grammar as a more or less formal philosophy which has little or nothing to do with the actual processes of language as they reveal themselves in conversation, in composition, or in literature. On the other hand, the German method is wasteful of time and effort. Why devote hour after hour to the discovery by induction of laws that can be easily stated, explained, and remembered, and to the laborious writing out in exercise-books of gen- eralizations which can be found recorded in any elementary text-book? 2 1 F. H. Dale, "The Teaching of the Mother Tongue in Germany." 2 The wastefulness of the method in this respect reminds one of the solemn farce of the late Professor Zupitza's lectures on the elements of Anglo-Saxon. One of the great scholars of his time, he deliberately chose to spend weeks in dictating to a large class of apparently earnest students facts that any sensible person could find in a good text-book ENGLISH IN SECONDARY EDUCATION 201 The special advantage of the German system is that it allows the continual exercise of the student on grammatical principles throughout the whole course. Grammar TJie j n8t is thus not the task of a single term or a single Mean - year, but of many years. It is kept steadily in mind during the pupil's entire secondary training, and, though rarely or never appearing alone as a separate subject, it is a constant factor in the work in composition and in literature. The dis- advantage of the system lies wholly in its cumbrousness. It seems plain, therefore, that American teachers, dealing with a language which is fortunately far less complicated in its grammar than German, will find it wise to retain their custom of making grammar, for a year or a part of a year, a separate subject of systematic study, and to adopt the German custom of connecting the incidental study of grammar with all com- position and literature throughout the course. In schools where, owing to local causes of one sort or another, a large proportion of the pupils are children of foreign immigrants or come from families of the ... . , . Essential unintelligent class, it may often be necessary, in Parts of ,". ° J ... , , Grammar. teaching grammar, to return to primitive methods, and to regard the study as a special instrument for securing syntactical correctness. In such cases emphasis will be thrown on the accurate knowledge of the inflectional system and the few laws of concord, and abundant exercises ' are desirable. Where, however, as will normally be the case throughout the United States, pupils are fairly well accustomed to the use of good English in point of syntax and inflection, the emphasis of the course should be laid on the analysis and structure of the sentence. The facts of inflection and syntax can be quickly learned. The essential thing is that the pupil shall be able to separate any ordinary English sentence into its and commit to memory at his convenience. What we craved, in such university lectures, was the comments and explanations of a great scholar; what we received was largely a mass of comparatively trivial facts, easily obtainable elsewhere, but none the less written down with trustful solemnity by the spectacled band of novices. 202 ENGLISH IN SECONDARY EDUCATION component parts and to state the relation of each to the others. The boy who once learns this simple process can never forget it, for it becomes immediately the first guiding principle in the understanding of all that he reads and in the composition of all that he says or writes. The older method was to begin the study- of systematic grammar with the classification of words. Each part of Plan of speech was then taken up separately, its inflections instruction. (jf anv ) described, the sub-classifications indicated, and a method given for parsing each type of word. Having thus mastered the preliminary data, the pupil was taught how words could be combined into phrases and clauses, and how, either separately or in these group -forms, he could build up sentences of various degrees of complexity. He was thus prepared for the analysis of sentences. Nowadays the pupil usually has learned, in the various stages of elementary in- struction, to distinguish several of the parts of speech and to recognize the subject and the predicate in easy sentences. The method of systematic instruction may, under such circum- stances, be somewhat modified. It is possible, after a brief survey of the parts of speech, to begin immediately the work on analysis, returning later to the more careful consideration of the parts of speech. The point at issue, whether any considerable treatment of the larger unit (the sentence) is of advantage until the pupil has mastered the details relating to the smaller unit (the word), is precisely analogous to the similar point often raised in connection with the teaching of systematic rhetoric, whether it is advantageous to take up the paragraph before studying the structure of the sentence. In the case of grammar, it is clear that the interest of the student will be stimulated, and his appreciation of the real purpose of his work heightened, by some work on the sentence as early as possible in the course, although we think it wiser to postpone the thorough consideration of the sentence until the pupil is familiar with the details of classification, inflection, syntax, and the analysis of phrases. ENGLISH IN SECONDARY EDUCATION 203 Many just objections have been brought against the old system of parsing : — (1) Parsing was carried to such an extreme, especially in connection with certain classics, that it killed all appreciation of them as literature. (2) Too much stress was laid on concord. English ad- jectives were said to agree with their nouns, for instance, after the fashion of the Latin grammarians. 1 (3) Parsing fostered the un-English idea that each word was somehow created as one or another part of speech, instead of being, as is often the case, a symbol sometimes capable of several uses under several sets of circumstances. The modern ideas about parsing, on the other hand, are : — (1) That the exercise should be used only as a drill pre- liminary to analysis. The pupil needs to be trained in the statement of the relations of single words to each other until he is sufficiently familiar with these relations to recognize them instinctively. He is then ready to go on with the more com- plex task of separating sentences into their component phrases and clauses. Into this work parsing need not enter to any considerable extent. (2) That parsing should be made as simple as possible. The pupil should not be asked to indicate agreement when agreement does not actually exist, and, after he has once learned to recognize the case, number, voice, mood, or tense of words, it is scarcely necessary for him to continue indicating them in parsing, unless occasionally for purposes of review. Parsing thus reduces itself to {a) a statement of the class of words to which the word in question belongs, and {b) a state- ment of its function in the sentence. (3) That parsing should be made as little as possible of a mechanical exercise. There is danger that pupils may catch, so to speak, the knack of parsing, following some routine 1 The best statement of the absurdities of " agreement " is that before referred to, the chapter "A Grammarless Tongue," in R. G. White's Words and their Uses. 204 ENGLISH IN SECONDARY EDUCATION method, and developing a strange faculty for stating, after this fashion, linguistic relations which they do not really recognize. If parsing be thus shorn of its useless attachments of "agreement" and other non-existent relations, it practically Parsing and reduces itself to analysis on a smaller scale. We Analysis. parse when we show by the form or position of a word that it bears a certain relation to other words. Parsing we usually apply to separate words, and we associate with it the attempt to indicate minute details of sentence structure, though of course the parsing of a noun or a verb may at any time lead us to the fundamental analysis of a sentence. Best employed as a preliminary exercise, it assists the pupil in developing the power to recognize at once the relation of one word to another in any group of words which he can without difficulty hold in his mind as a unit. Analysis we usually associate with the dissection of long or intricate sen- tences into their component parts, feeling that when this larger analysis is accomplished we shall have little difficulty in applying the smaller process of analysis which we call parsing. With regard to analysis teachers are generally agreed : — (i) That the process should be made as simple as possible. (2) That it should, so far as possible, be done without the help of diagrams. The aim of the exercise is that the pupil Analysis and snoi uM gain the power, possessed by all educated the Diagram. p e0 pi e? Q f recognizing, as he reads, the relation that the parts of a sentence bear to each other. The use of the diagram is not an end in itself, but merely a possible stage in the process. The intelligent pupil may not need it at all, and, if a class can be trained in analysis with- out requiring the diagram for purposes of understanding, it seems wrong to force upon it the use of the diagram simply for the convenience of the teacher. It would appear wise, then, (a) not to use diagrams unless necessary; and (ft) if they are necessary, to discard them as soon as pos- sible after they have served their purpose, substituting the ENGLISH IN SECONDARY EDUCATION 205 oral or written statement of the pupil as to the main facts of structure. 1 (3) That, if a system of diagrams be used, it should be a very simple one. (4) That pains should be taken that the pupil does not acquire facility in making diagrams as a mechanical process without actually acquiring the power of intelligent analysis. This result may often be best attained by having the pupil use several systems of diagrams, inventing or adapting them as graphical methods of expressing grammatical relations. On no point does the teacher of English grammar need more to stand on his guard than in the matter of looking at English sentences with Latin eyes. For centuries Latin-English the makers of text-books of English grammar have Grammar - been men trained in highly inflected classical languages, wholly different from English in form, method, and spirit. The consequence has been that until very recent years we have been treating English as if it were Latin or Greek. Even now many teachers do not realize, so great is the hold of tradition, that English nouns rarely have gender and can scarcely be said to have more than two cases, that pure adjectives never " agree " with their substantives, and that verbs rarely " agree " with their subjects. It seems wise to do away, so far as possible, with all distinctions that apply to other languages but not to ours, and resolutely to set ourselves to look at our own language in the light of fact. 2 One of the most striking achievements of the nineteenth century has been the conquest by scholars of the data relating to the development of the modern languages, — a conquest scientific in method, but romantic in Taught^ the passionate devotion shown by generations of mstoricall y- tireless investigators. It is now possible for the trained mind 1 After all, the best clue as to whether a pupil can analyze a sentence is often whether he can read it aloud intelligently and with proper emphasis. 2 Perhaps the greatest aid that can be secured from treatises in this process will be obtained from H. Sweet's A New English Grammar. Oxford, Clarendon Press, 2 vols., 1892 and 1898. 206 ENGLISH IN SECONDARY EDUCATION to grasp the whole sequence of changes through which English words have passed before reaching their present forms and relations, just as it is possible for the well-trained mind to grasp the changes of form and structure by which the horse, the magnificent animal of to-day, has been developed from the odd little five-toed beast of the Eocene era. Fresh from such linguistic researches, it is only natural that ardent philologists have been eager to teach the grammar of Modern English by showing the evolution of the modern tongue through Early English and Middle English. The best plea for this method is that made by Prof. Mark Liddell, who says : — "We have in English historical grammar a subject that is scientific, practical, and of great educational value, and, more- over, a subject which can be taught in an elementary way to young students, and can at the same time furnish a field for original scientific work in university teaching. Why should it not be easily possible to put it in the place that dogmatic grammar used to occupy? Why is it necessary to wait until a student is nearly through with a university course to give him a scientific view of the machinery he thinks with? It would not be difficult to teach anybody to read Old English at the time when he begins to read Latin, to continue the work by teaching him to read Middle English, and then to put upon this elementary work, which need only be such as will give him the power roughly to read his own language in any period in its history, a more or less thorough training in English historical grammar. It is not necessary to make him speak Old English or Middle English, or even to seek native idioms in his own use of language. But surely a student with an accurate and correct knowledge of what his language is will be able to use it with more ease and power than one without such knowledge." * Strong as this plea is, there are two even stronger objections to be urged against it. First, the plan is not well adapted to secondary education. To study the modern lan- guage through its earlier forms would involve the work of several years. Not one high school student in ten, English Historical Grammar," Atlantic Monthly, July, 1898. ENGLISH IN SECONDARY EDUCATION 207 perhaps not one in a hundred, would be justified in the ex- penditure of time and effort required. The method is, at best, adapted only to college instruction. Second, even if the system could be adopted in high schools, it is doubtful whether it would be advisable on the basis of sane educational theory and practice. The palaeontologist, and perhaps the expert veterinary surgeon, should perhaps know the evolution of the horse, but the actual user of the horse, the driver, has no need of such knowledge. His training must come through the practical handling of the present-day animal under diverse circumstances, and from such an understanding of his main characteristics and capabilities as shall spring from simple theory and wide experience. English grammar, the group of facts and principles that has to do with our handling of the present language, is self-explanatory, self-determining, regu- lated by the feelings, associations, and practices of to-day, without regard to its ancestry. To follow its evolution is highly interesting to the professed student of language, but not of great importance to the people at large. 1 As has been pointed out, the modern grammarian feels that he has little to do, under ordinary circumstances, with "cor- rectness," or with the reasonableness or logic of Divided Usage given expressions. We no longer consider it our ta Grammar, duty to condemn " had rather " because it cannot be parsed under such and such rules, and to set up " would rather " as a more logical phrase. On the contrary, we treat " had rather " as an existing fact, — a . fact to be explained or classified, if necessary, but not to be changed. The first and greatest prin- ciple of modern grammar is that the standard of our language is the usage of intelligent and educated English-speaking people, and that the business of modern grammar is to record 1 This paragraph is to be understood as applying only to the historical method of teaching modern English grammar, and not to the incidental use of appropriate historical information in the course of instruction in systematic modern grammar, nor as applying to the possible study of historical English grammar, or of Old or Middle English, during the last year of the high school. 208 ENGLISH IN SECONDARY EDUCATION and classify that usage, so far as regards the inflectional forms of words and the relation that words bear to one another when used in sentences. It is the custom of intelligent and educated English-speaking people to say, " he struck me " and " / struck him" and the laws of pronominal inflection are based on these typical facts. If, however, in some inconceivable fashion, the users of the language should come to drop all distinction be- tween /and me and he and him, as they have dropped the old distinction between ye and you, and should say "him struck 7/ie" and" me struck him" then grammar would simply change its generalizations about pronominal inflection. "Reason," in the formal or logical sense, does not enter into the question at all. Now, there are a few grammatical points on which the practice of intelligent speakers and writers differ, as, for instance, the much discussed question of the split infinitive. At first the users of the new form were so few that the grammarians ignored them ; then, as their number grew, the scientific grammarians called attention to the apparent anomaly, usually expressing their regret at the turn affairs were taking ; finally, as the num- ber increased very considerably, the scientific grammarians felt bound to restate their previous deduction in such a way as to cover both forms of expression. These double forms of ex- pression — another good example of which is " all but I went " and " all but me went" — are now generally known as in- stances of divided usage. With regard to the place to be given to the double forms of expression in the teaching of English grammar, there are three Its Place in opinions. One body of teachers, especially those instruction, giving to grammar a sort of "verbal inspiration," think that divided usage should be wholly excluded. One form must be right, they would say, and another wrong. A second class, more scientific in its attitude, would acknowledge the position held by divided use in an ideal statement of English grammar, but would prefer to ignore it as much as possible, lest pupils should be puzzled and confused. A third would be inclined to give cases of divided usage, under ordi- nary circumstances, a certain prominence, that pupils might ENGLISH IN SECONDARY EDUCATION 209 get the greater insight into the nature of language and of lin- guistic laws. I am disposed to favor the opinion last men- tioned. It must be remarked, however, that — (1) This does not mean that the teacher should sanction what he conceives to be unwarrantable license in usage. After showing, for example, that there are two ways of placing the adverbial modifier of the infinitive, he may with perfect pro- priety explain why he regards one way as far less desirable than the other. (2) Nor does it mean that pupils should necessarily be allowed their choice in such cases, though I believe that would be the wiser plan. The instructor may announce, after an explanation of the facts, that, for purposes of uniformity, one of the two forms will be regarded as the standard form in that class, precisely as a principal may with propriety announce that, for the sake of uniformity, traveller, traveler, and similar words should in that school regularly be spelled in one way and not in the other. (3) On no point is personal feeling more likely to be aroused than on questions of divided usage, and on no point is discus- sion likely to be less satisfactory unless carried on in the most impersonal and scientific fashion. Whenever anybody seems inclined to lose his temper, the treatment of such matters had better be immediately postponed or dismissed once for all. So much for the basis, aim, and method of 'the instruction in formal grammar. But where shall the course be placed ? Some favour the last years of the elementary school, J The Time with a review towards the end of the high school to Teach course ; others, the first year of the high school. The solution seems to depend upon circumstances rather than upon theory. In favoured communities, where literary tra- ditions are strong, the gradual inductive study of grammar may properly be supplemented in the seventh or eighth grade by the systematic study, which need not be again taken up until late in the high school course, if at all. The supplementary study of grammar, of which we shall speak in the next paragraph, can be relied on to keep the principles of 2 1 ENGLISH IN SECOND A RY ED UCA TION the subject fresh in the pupil's mind. On the other hand, ex- perience shows that, taking the country as a whole, not many children enter the high school with what may be called a suffi- cient working knowledge of systematic grammar, and it would seem clear that in most cases the time in the elementary schools could have been more wisely spent on literature and composi- tion and the inductive study of grammar in connection with them. Pupils entering the high school without a good working knowledge of English grammar should certainly be put at once to work on it, for it is the essential preliminary to all high school work in English as well as in other languages. Under favour- able circumstances, and with a skilled and judicious teacher, \he course may be completed in half a year. Except in ex- traordinary cases it should be completed in a year. When the course of formal instruction in systematic grammar ttfops, it is a grave mistake, I believe, to allow the subject to drop entirely from the pupil's mind : first, because tary Work in he must keep fresh -such knowledge as he has, and, Grammar. . , r ■ , , ° , A second, because he has much more to learn. As a matter of fact, however, American practice is weak in this respect, encouraging the student, in effect, to discontinue his efforts just when his need of grammar is greatest and when its connection with his work in composition and literature is most evident and important. So far as rhetoric and composition are concerned, the points most to be kept in mind in this supplementary work seem to be as follows : — (i) All errors in grammar should be corrected at once and with emphasis. There are, indeed, few that a pupil could make, after the thorough preliminary training which the second high school year presupposes, unless he has been unfortunate in his home influences or has some other tongue than English as his native speech. Pupils who, at this stage in their edu- cation, seem to have anything like a habit of ungrammatical expression need further special training. (2) The ability to make a clear-cut, well-proportioned English sentence depends primarily upon the grammatical ENGLISH IN SECONDARY EDUCATION 211 instinct, — upon a keen sense of the relations which words or groups of words bear to each other. The teacher, therefore, will often find that pupils whose sentences are ungainly and sprawling are in need of further drill in grammar, and can with profit be put to analyzing their own sentences and, under proper direction, to rearranging the various elements in them. With the study of literature, which should be pursued con- secutively throughout the high school course, this supplement- ary teaching of grammar has even closer connections : — (i) Whenever there seems to be the slightest doubt, espe- cially in the work of the first and second years, that the pupil does not understand the meaning of a sentence, the teacher's first duty — unless the failure to grasp the thought comes from ignorance of the meaning of the words — should be to make sure that the pupil can analyze the sentence, so as to recognize its essential elements and their grammatical relations. When this has been done, it will often be found that the pupil's difficulty has been solved. (2) During the literature work of the first and second years it is wise to require, during each recitation, the oral analysis of at least one sentence and the parsing of several words. In this respect the study of English literature should differ only in degree from the study' of the Greek and Latin classics. In his reading of Homer and Virgil the pupil is constantly alive not only to the fact that his knowledge of grammar is helping him to understand what he reads, but to the much more impressive fact that his instructor is likely at any point to test his under- standing of the text by pertinent grammatical questions. It would be rash to carry this method too far in the study of English literature, lest, as is very often the sad case with Homer and Virgil, the content be neglected for the outward form ; but it is certainly wise not to allow the pupil to lose sight, in his study of English literature, of the grammatical construction until it has become second nature with him to recognize it as he reads. (3) So far the supplementary teaching of grammar has been used only for purposes of review. It can also be em- 212 ENGLISH IN SECONDARY EDUCATION ployed to give the pupil fresh knowledge. He can learn through it — in connection with his reading and under the direction of his teacher — all the more minute details of sys- tematic grammar, with which it is useless to surcharge the memory during the course of formal instruction. Such, for example, are the various anomalies of plural- making and the few other oddities of the scant system of English inflection, the shades of meaning indicated by the subjunctive, and, above all else, the laws of shall and will as used in literary English. The intricate set of idioms just mentioned cannot easily be learned by rote. In his formal study of grammar and rhetoric the pupil may come to understand the principles involved, but unless he has been familiar from childhood with the distinctions he will not thus learn to apply them. His only chance, there- fore, of mastering this baffling shibboleth of English speech lies in his drill in composition and his work in literature. Through these, even if he does not learn invariably to distinguish in his own speech between shall and will, he can at least be pre- served from the shame of not being able to recognize the finer shades of meaning in his own language which these two words often indicate. Etymology or word-composition was once a conspicuous part of formal grammar, and hapless youths were forced to learn lists of meaningless prefixes and suffixes from Etymology the Latin, Greek, and Anglo-Saxon. But such days are past or are rapidly passing. We still recognize the desirability of giving the pupil information on these subjects, but we prefer to do it incidentally rather than systematically. It would, indeed, be possible, if all high school children should be obliged to study Latin, to base on the elements of that study a short systematic course on the Latin side of etymology. As it is, the case of a formal and elaborate course in etymology is hopeless, for, to understand what they were doing, pupils should have some knowledge of both Latin and Anglo-Saxon, whereas few are acquainted with the first and none with the second. Much, however, may be accomplished by a method which is by no means unsystematic, but can scarcely be called ENGLISH IN SECONDARY EDUCATION 213 formal or deductive ; we refer to the same process of incidental or supplementary teaching which proves of so much value in connection with the study of systematic grammar. Early in the high school course the teacher should find occasion to point out such Latin prefixes as trans ox post, perhaps allowing the class to gain this meaning by induction from their use in English words ; other common prefixes or suffixes, whether of Latin, Greek, or Old English origin, should in successive days be taken up, until the class has, within the course of several weeks, thus learned all the common prefixes, and suffixes, of whatever origin. For the first year this work would prob- ably be sufficient, so far as etymology goes, though the in- structor should often call attention to the history of English words, as they occur in the study of various masterpieces, and to notable changes of meaning. In the second, third, and fourth years, when some of the pupils are studying Latin or Greek or both, and some French or German, the time is ripe for the incidental study of the Greek, Latin, French, and Old English elements in English words, for the tracing of the his- tory of queer words, or words that have had strange fortunes, and for interesting talks on the history of the language, its re- markable characteristics, and the nature and composition of its vocabulary. The whole forms one of the most stimulating and valuable sides of English instruction, but it is impossible to lay down rules or principles for the guidance of the novice. Nothing but real learning will enable the teacher to give his pupil sound facts ; nothing but real skill, born of practice and forethought, will enable him to present the facts at the time and in the way that will alone cause them to be appreciated and remembered. 1 1 It is to be hoped that text-books will be prepared which shall place pertinent information of this sort at the disposition of the teacher who is untrained in philology. An excellent beginning is made in J. M. Ander- son's A Study of English Words, American Book Company, 1897, which will serve as a guide to the general character of the matter described above. Trench's English Past and Present and On the Study of Words long were of great value in this regard, and were the main source of cur- 214 ENGLISH IN SECONDARY EDUCATION Prosody, or the theory of versification, was originally treated as a part of systematic grammar, though usually in a per- functory fashion and according to a false system. Prosody. T J . . b . "\ .. In more recent years it does not seem otten to be treated at all, and the ignorance of the subject among young people is simply appalling. It is not ignorance of technical details, but ignorance of matters vital to any appreciation of verse. They do not know how to read it or how to feel it ; they miss all the beauty that comes from the simplest knowl- edge of poetical forms. But this ignorance is easily done away with. A few lessons, a little simple explanation patiently repeated, and the idea is plain : they see how words may be grouped, according to their accents, into lines or verses, and these lines grouped, usually by rhyme, into stanzas. It is hard to decide at what times pupils may best be given this instruc- tion. Much of it should have been given incidentally, from the earliest grades of the elementary school up, in connection with each piece of verse that has been read. But at some one time or, indeed, at several times, in the high school, it is wise to bring together and supplement this rapidly accumulating stock of information, that the pupil may feel that he understands the system of English verse as a system. 1 A convenient time for getting a first glimpse into the system of English versification occurs undoubtedly in con- nection with the course in formal grammar. After much supplementary and incidental instruction in connection with the work in English literature, the subject may again be taken up in connection with the more advanced work in rhetoric. rent information on such subjects, but the rapid progress of philological research has invalidated many of the observations and generalizations contained in them. A sound treatment of much the same topics will be found in the similar manual recently prepared by Professors Greenough and Kittredge, Words and their Ways in English S pee o%, Macmillan, 1901. Much use may also be made of the Oxford New English Dictionary. 1 If he has studied Virgil, he is quite likely to have gained, by infer- ence, an almost completely false notion of English versification, which has little in common with the Latin system. ENGLISH IN SECONDARY EDUCATION 215 II. Language : Old and Middle English It is frequently urged that some attention should be paid in our secondary schools, as is done in those of other countries, to the older forms of the native language and lit- erature. The following subjects are those most and Middle generally suggested for such study: — ( 1 ) The history of the English language. The object would be to give the pupil some idea of the general relation to each other of the main branches of the Indo -Aryan stock and par- ticularly of the Germanic languages ; the difference between synthetic and analytic languages ; the chief characteristics of Old English ; the changes that, coming from within or acting from without, turned Old English into Middle English, and Middle English into New English ; and such information re- garding historical English, grammar, phonetics, etymology, and cognate matter as may be suited to his comprehension. Text-books dealing with the subject are likely to be either simple and unscientific, or scientific but not simple enough for the young student, and this fact, as well as the fact that such instruction can scarcely be given except by a teacher thoroughly trained in English philology, makes the subject one not likely to be taken up in most schools. It is, however, plain that under skilful direction the ground indicated could be covered in lectures and recitations during half of the last high school year. (2) Old English. It is likewise plain that, under similar conditions, fourth-year pupils could in half a year gain a fairly adequate reading knowledge of early Anglo-Saxon prose. (3) Middle English. An equal period would also be sufficient to introduce pupils to Chaucer and to give them the same degree of proficiency in reading. It would obviously be absurd to put such studies previous to the fourth year, and few or none would be willing even then to prescribe them for all students. For presenting Fa y 0ural) ie them as elective studies for the fourth year, par- Arguments, ticularly for well-advanced pupils who are not going to college, 2l6 ENGLISH IN SECONDARY EDUCATION there are several manifest advantages. Pupils show consid erable interest in all three subjects (especially in the third) ; all three afford excellent mental discipline, improve the student's power of expression, increase his knowledge of litera- ture, and indeed widen his whole mental horizon by bringing him into close relation, at first hand, with great monuments in the history of his race. On the other hand, it is urged that a little knowledge is worse than none, and that we have as yet not enough time in our schools for even the indispensable parts of gumentsand instruction in English. Both of these counter- Summary. , , , , T . , arguments may be doubted. It is curious that experts of all kinds, in their hatred of charlatanry, are inclined to oppose the introduction into the high school curriculum of subjects which could be treated with better results later in the course of a life devoted to learning. But certainly all such subjects cannot be postponed because they could be taught later to greater advantage, for then there would be little left to teach; and the many who do not continue their education beyond the high school have a moral right to whatever knowl- edge will be of most service to them. And under such circumstances as we have pointed out, a knowledge of the older forms of the language would be to a considerable number a delight and an inspiration. It is true that there are problems of historical syntax and phonology of which they would still be ignorant, but they could learn to read the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle and the Knights Tale, and draw from each an added insight into the wealth of English literature and the power and grace of the English language. As to the second point, it may be remarked that the situation is much better than it seems ; the battle for sufficient time for English is really won ; or victory is at least in sight. Having attained an assignment to English of three periods a week, as a mini- mum, throughout the course, teachers must now make sure that the time granted is used to the best advantage. My im- pression is that as the preparation in the elementary school improves, as good methods of instruction are introduced, and ENGLISH IN SECONDARY EDUCATION 217 skilled teachers of English alone allowed to give instruction, we shall find, within the next few years, that what we have been doing with difficulty in four years can be done easily in three. In some schools this is already the case, and in such schools I advise, for the reasons mentioned above, an elective course in Old English, covering half a year ; an elective course in Middle English, completing the year ; and, accompanying them both, a course of instruction on the history of the language. Whatever may be thought with regard to the suggestions just made as to the probable value of systematic courses in the history of the language and in its older literature, Historical there can be little or no doubt as to the utility JsSSiS- of historical grammar when pursued in a supple- tary study, mentary way, precisely analogous to that employed in the supplementary study of modern English grammar. This sup- plementary study of historical grammar may indeed be re- garded as beginning with that of systematic modern English grammar, for there the teacher will often pause in his task to make clear the new by means of the old, explaining, for instance, the odd apostrophe in the possessives of nouns by the old inflectional system. The supplementary study of his- torical grammar, however, will be in large measure connected only with the course in English literature, where will be found a wide and fertile field. As Mr. Rolfe remarked, " It would seem no more than reasonable that the only grammar the majority of people will ever study or refer to should cover the English of Shakspere, Milton, and King James's Bible," though I should prefer not to include these necessary matters in systematic grammar, but to connect them with the supple- mentary work of which we are now speaking. No high school course in English literature would be thought adequate in which Shakspere and Milton did not play a considerable part, and teachers are coming more and more to see that the work in Shakspere cannot be properly presented to pupils who have not, for a few days at least, studied systematically the differences between the language of Shakspere and the 2l8 ENGLISH IN SECONDARY EDUCATION vernacular of to-day. Later writers are less rich in this respect, but the poems of Scott and Coleridge contain many antique forms, and even in the prose of Addison points will arise that deserve attention. III. Language : Rhetoric and Composition BIBLIOGRAPHY S. Thurber. Elementary English Composition in High Schools. The [Syracuse] Academy, November, 1889; Composition Topics, ibid., October, December, 1890; The Correction of School Compositions, ibid., June, 1891 ; The Limitations of the Secondary Teaching of English Composition, Education, December, 1893; The Conditions Needed for the Successful Teaching of English Composition, School Review, January, 1894; Five Axioms of Composition Teaching, ibid., January, 1897. F. N. Scott. References on the Teaching of Rhetoric and Composition. Contributions to Rhetorical Theory, IV. Sheehan & Co., Ann Arbor. Twenty Years of School and College English. Harvard University. 1896. G. Buck. Recent Tendencies in the Teaching of English Composition. Educational Review, November, 1901. It is easy to trace the history of this department of second- ary English instruction and to define its present status. Up Present to a b° ut 1880 the work done in rhetoric had been Rhetoric and °*" t ^ ie most f° rma l an d artificial sort, and was not Composition, often accompanied by practical exercises or com- positions. In some schools essays were written at rare inter- vals, but they were simply corrected in points of spelling and punctuation, and the writers at best given only a few offhand hints about plainness and conciseness of style. Two move- ments, both taking their rise in about 1880, combined to stimulate high school work in rhetoric and composition : first, the schools began to awake to the fact that they were neglect- ing an important subject, and, second, the colleges began to exert great pressure upon secondary schools, through entrance examinations, in favour of the same subject. At the outset, ENGLISH IN SECONDARY EDUCATION 219 the main aim of both parties seemed to be " correctness," the discarded ideal of grammar, which had now been passed on to a new phase of language-teaching, though the unenlightened schools conceived of it as rectitude in matters of spelling and punctuation, and the colleges as rectitude in the choice of words and framing of sentences. The schools soon caught the new idea of impeccable neatness of expression, and were devoting themselves ardently to it, when, in the early years of the new decade, two ideas of considerable power were brought to bear on secondary instruction in English through the influ- ence and writings of Prof. Barrett Wendell and Prof. F. N. Scott. Each worked independently of the other, but the systems advocated by both agreed in two essential particulars : (1) that practice in writing counted for much more than theory; and (2) that the kind of " correctness " that was of the highest importance concerned not the word or the phrase, but the sentence, the paragraph, and the larger whole, — that, in brief, structure of thought was the main object to be kept in mind. These ideas were assimilated, throughout the coun- try, with great rapidity, and resulted in changing to a marked degree the amount and character of high school work in English. The amount of writing was largely increased, the character of instruction became far less formal and was de- voted rather to structure than to correctness of detail, though the latter was by no means neglected. Within the last few years, however, the strong tendency to make high school pupils write daily compositions and other similar exercises in great abundance has been checked by the feeling that it is not wise thus to force the immature mind into a habit that may prove to be only a fatal facility, and by the growing conviction that composition has in many schools been allowed unduly to overshadow literature. We seem, therefore, to be at the be- ginning of a period in which composition work in the high schools will be carried on in a better balanced fashion without going to any of the older extremes. In the discussions that follow we use the term " rhetoric " with reference to formal or systematic instruction in the theory 220 ENGLISH IN SECONDARY EDUCATION of expression, parallel to instruction in formal or systematic grammar, and the term " composition " with reference to in- Distinction struction and practice in the art of expression, i. e., pjSic and essay- writing and similar exercises. The old fashion Composition. was to teach rhetoric but not composition. Con- versely, there are now some who believe that composition can be best taught without rhetoric. I have before called attention to the fact, once often disre- garded but now becoming generally recognized, that the study of rhetoric presupposes a knowledge of grammar, presupposes Unless pupils are able intelligently to analyze any ordinary English sentence and to appreciate the relation existing between its component parts, they should not be permitted to take up rhetoric, for the essence of the latter study is that it considers the combination of sentences into larger groups according to given principles; and how can one learn to deal thus with the higher powers, so to speak, of a form with the elements of which he is not thoroughly acquainted? In connection with our discussion of grammar we found that teachers were generally agreed that young people stand M , in need of a considerable amount of information Snail Formal . . Rhetoric be as to the facts and laws of their native language, Taught? . . b ° ' but sometimes failed to agree as to whether this information was to be given them formally or systemat- ically, as a theory, or incidentally, in connection with other branches of English study. The same difference of opinion exists with regard to the teaching of rhetoric. Almost all teachers agree that there are certain facts, laws, principles, — call the information what you will, — that should be com- municated to their pupils. The question is, as in the case of grammar, Shall this be done formally or incidentally? Here we find three typical opinions : first, that rhetoric can be taught alone, as an abstract theory, in the way that physics and chemistry used to be taught; second, that rhetoric, consisting of a modicum of theory, can be best taught when accompanied by a considerable amount of composition work, ENGLISH IN SECONDARY EDUCATION 221 just as physics is now taught by allowing at least an equal amount of laboratory work to supplement the theoretical work ; third, that the pupil need make no formal study of the theory, inasmuch as he will master what is necessary through his composition writing. The first opinion has now been generally rejected and need not be discussed. The third is held by many teachers of skill and experience, especially by those who teach q^^ composition in close connection with literature. Discussed. It is best stated by Dr. Samuel Thurber, who declares that he " would abolish formal rhetoric entirely from the course ; or at most give it a lesson or two at the very end as a sort of resume of the foregoing discipline. Applied rhetoric, remem- ber, will have been pursued during all the learner's school years. What the secondary school wants is the effects of rhetoric, not the science of it." 1 Such teachers as Dr. Thurber would, then, prefer to give considerable practice in simple essay writing, and to bring out incidentally, as it were, the few principles of The Airoarent good writing with which it is necessary for the Necessity student to be familiar, or to develop them indue- Systematic . r Rhetoric. tively from the English classics which are being read in the class in literature. 2 On the other hand, pupils of that age work more effectively with a text-book than without one, and it is wholly natural and proper that this should be the case. It seems, too, reasonable, that in this, as in other subjects, the principles laid down should be arranged and related to each other in an orderly and logical manner, so that the pupil's mind may be trained by comprehending the subject as a system rather than as a bundle of facts. Indeed, the ^danger of teaching rhetoric is merely that it be taught badly, that is, in too great detail ; but against this danger the 1 "English in Secondary Schools," School Review, October, 1894. 2 Part of this paragraph, and of several paragraphs later in the chapter, are taken, with the permission of the Macmillan Co., from the author's Notes for Teachers of English Composition (1901). 222 ENGLISH IN SECONDARY EDUCATION well-educated and experienced teacher has long since learned to be on his guard. Though convinced of the futility of the old system of studying rhetoric, by which the pupil learned by heart a vast number of rules and principles that scarcely stood the test of practice or investigation in later life, he will also, probably, be convinced of the possibility, as well as the practical utility, of putting before pupils at this stage of their progress a simple exposition of the elementary principles of the art of expression, provided that it is accompanied, in accordance with modern methods, by a thoroughly good set of graded exercises, so that the pupil may practise what is preached to him, and grow in skill and in real power over his own thoughts as well as in mere knowledge. In short, a brief course in systematic rhetoric, as well as in systematic grammar, will, under ordinary circumstances and at the pres- ent time, be found of practical service in the teaching of English. If, then, we assume that it will ordinarily be convenient to give high school pupils some little instruction in systematic rhetoric as well as in systematic grammar, it When shall . . , J . , . , Rhetoric he remains to point out the time at which such instruction can most profitably be given. On this point most teachers would probably agree in thinking the second year the most fitting. The pupil has then completed his course in systematic grammar, he has had work in English literature and some practice in composition ; he is now at home in his new environment, his powers of observation and reasoning have begun to grow rapidly, and he is already more of a young man than a boy. It is high time that, for half a year or so, he should have a little plain and kindly systematic instruction in the theory of written expression. If this be given him, he will be able to continue his practice in com- position throughout the course without other instruction, unless, as may seem wise, pupils who are not going to college should be allowed to take, during their final year, a somewhat elaborate course in composition, in which case some slight further instruction in theory might then be added. ENGLISH IN SECONDARY EDUCATION 223 The subject-matter of school rhetoric has been so thoroughly and sensibly discussed by American teachers dur- what shall ing the last ten years that it is not difficult briefly ^e Taught? to indicate what seem to be the general conclusions. They are : — (1) That the older method, descended from Blair and Campbell, of teaching dogmatically somewhat pedantic theories as to purity, propriety, and precision (not to mention perspicuity) and of elaborately analyzing and classifying multitudinous figures of speech, is valueless and is being rapidly discarded. (2) That the succeeding method, which laid great stress on formal correctness, is also of doubtful or limited value. Systematic rhetoric may help the pupil to acquire the habit of correct expression, just as systematic grammar may also be of service to him in the same direction, but it cannot be his only help or his main help. He will be aided chiefly by the conversation he hears, by the example of his teacher and fellows, and by the knowledge of standard English which he gains from his study of English literature. (3) That, therefore, the best method is one which, while not neglecting the study of correctness, lays most stress on the study of construction in the larger sense of the word, — the building up of a complete idea through a series of sentences or paragraphs. 1 What has already been said about divided usage in sys- tematic grammar will apply equally well to rhetoric, though in rhetoric the problems involved are more numer- Divided Usage ous and more perplexing. In some hundreds of ^^etoric- cases, many of them of frequent occurrence in oral and 1 We should not leave the subject without calling attention to two other points : (1) that a system or method does not make the use of a text-book indispensable, provided that the teacher has his own method clearly and definitely in mind ; and (2) that in the teaching of rhetoric American teachers are greatly in advance of other countries. Through- out Europe the subject is almost invariably taken up according to the methods prevalent at the end of the last century. 224 ENGLISH IN SECONDARY EDUCATION written expression, the usage of intelligent, educated, English- speaking people differs, — somewhat more than one-half, let us say, uttering or writing one word or phrase and somewhat less than one half another. In olden days, when correctness was the aim of all linguistic instruction, it was the invariable practice of teachers, often on very slight authority, to pro- nounce one of these twin expressions " correct " and the other " incorrect." With our changed notions regarding language and propriety, we now feel this practice to be un- scientific, and agree to call one expression "preferable" to the other on grounds of taste and analogy, or perhaps to recognize both as equally current. On the other hand, there is no doubt a general feeling among teachers that this theory is objectionable, first, because some one thing must be " right ; " second, because it makes the task of the teacher so much harder, inasmuch as he himself is constantly at a loss to decide between variants ; and, third, because the pupil may come to believe that he can say or write almost anything without fear of error. These pleas are, however, easily met. First, no one thing must be " right " in matters of custom ; second, the teacher must be prepared to face the facts, whether the task be hard or easy ; and, third, the pupil can feel assured that he cannot be justly reproached for employing expressions that are used by the most in- telligent people with whom he comes into contact. The whole subject is one deserving careful discussion. Three points, however, may be stated, which represent the deliberate opinion of the present writer : — The same Subject (i) It seems wise to accept without reserve the modern doctrine of divided usage, and to explain carefully to pupils that the real arbiter of correctness is the practice of intelligent and educated people, and that when, as often happens, usage differs, each speaker or writer can, with- out fear of being "incorrect" or "wrong," use either of the parallel forms. (2) But it is important that pupils should understand that taste is an essential element in this choice, and that therefore ENGLISH IN SECONDARY EDUCATION 225 they should endeavour by training their own taste in language to render their choice, in cases of divided usage, one made not at random but in accordance with the dictates of cultivated instinct and good judgment. (3) We all acknowledge that every publishing or printing house, and every school, class, or other group of individuals, has a right to decide, for purposes of convenience, on the use of one rather than another expression in cases of divided usage. Each school or teacher is advised to follow this practice. It will save endless discussion and, perhaps, bad feeling, and with it will disappear the plea that pupils suffer from bewilderment in not knowing " which is right." (4) Care should be taken in the selection of a text-book, if one is used, that it be not unscientifically dogmatic on points of usage. It is unwise to allow a young student to acquire ideas regarding language which his later experience must in- evitably show him to be unwise. From about 1885 to about 1895, one °f tne most difficult problems relating to secondary work in English was that of the part played in systematic rhetoric by the correction "Bad" of "bad" English, i. e., ungrammatical or unidio- fyft^maSc 1 matic expressions. At that time the text-books fc^ 01 ™- most in use concerned themselves largely with exercises of this kind, many colleges made a point of including such tests in their entrance examinations, and the current theory was that the careless habits of American boys in matters of ex- pression could best be reached in this way. During the last few years, however, the problem has in the main disap- peared and may practically be regarded as settled. There was right on both sides. The young must learn to express themselves decently and intelligently, and setting them to cor- rect their own errors or those of others is often a considerable help. But to concentrate all or a greater part of secondary instruction on this negative process defeats, to some degree, the purpose involved. Text- books and systems of instruction now wisely give most attention to questions of structure, to the general method of composition, taking it mainly for granted *5 226 ENGLISH IN SECONDARY EDUCATION that the teacher will by various means and on all occasions insist on the use of correct English, — without pedantry, — and that the pupil will be led on all sides, and especially through his reading and study of literature and through his practice in oral or written composition, to acquire skill in the proper use of his native language. The old method, however, is still valuable on occasion and to a limited extent, and, in the case of pupils unfamiliar with good English idiom or resolutely neglectful of it, may often for a time be regularly employed with good results. The following hints as to method may also be of service : — (i) It is well to cover the ground as rapidly as possible. Rhetoric is useful only as an advisable preparation for cora- Hliits as position, just as certain parts of algebraic theory to Method. are f use on ]y as necessary preliminaries to the solution of equations. Once it is clear that a class understands a given principle there is no need of lingering further over it. (2) But it is important also to cover the ground thoroughly. The class must really understand the given principle before it is allowed to pass on. A few principles thoroughly understood will be of far greater service than a large number which are only imperfectly comprehended. (3) If we regard systematic rhetoric as a sort of extension of systematic grammar, it will readily be seen that it may be of considerable value as a means of mental discipline. The sys- tems used may vary, but whichever one is chosen may be with advantage taught as a system, a. theory in which all the parts are related one to the other in a given way. Emphasis on rhetoric as a system, instead of a mere fortuitous assemblage of rules, will assist the student, provided the system is suffi- ciently sound and simple, and make the drill more rapid, more interesting, and more useful. The formal study of rhetoric must, however, like the formal study of grammar, be regarded as merely the beginning of the Snpplemen- task. If the pupil ceases constantly to use it in tary Study, connection with his other work in English, he is little the better off. In the case of rhetoric also, as in that of ENGLISH IN SECONDARY EDUCATION 22J grammar, the main fault of American instruction is that it too often fails to make use of opportunities for supplementary training. These are offered in abundance by the work in com- position, where the pupil can apply constantly the system in which he has been trained, and by the work in literature, where his attention should, during the second and third years, be frequently called to points relating to the choice of words and to the grouping of words, sentences, and paragraphs. In rhetoric, too, as in the theory of any of the arts, it must not be forgotten that the essential principles cannot be mastered at once. Even when clearly apprehended at first, they take new forms and gather new meanings as the learner's experience broadens and as his taste and judgment mature. Systematic rhetoric — to use the pedantic term — is thus merely the begin- ning of a study of the principles of expression which will con- tinue through life, under one form or another, and can never be regarded as completed. The course which we have outlined for the first term of the second year deals only with the structure of expression, — with the choice of words and their grouping in mi ,i r • A Second sentences and larger units. The theory here in- Coursein volved will be quite sufficient for the pupil's needs in connection with his work in composition and literature dur- ing the remainder of the second year and the whole of the third year. At the beginning of the fourth year a different situation arises. It is the last year of education for many pupils, and it is only just that they should use it to the best advantage. They have now more maturity and more ambition, and their composition work becomes more spontaneous. They need training in description, narration, exposition, and argument. Here the same reasoning as that which we have outlined in the case of systematic grammar and of elementary rhetoric points to the setting aside of a few weeks or months for a theoretical treat- ment of the subjects mentioned. The teacher may, indeed, prefer merely to give a few incidental hints for the student's guidance in connection with his essays, or to develop a theory inductively in connection with the work in literature. But 228 ENGLISH IN SECONDARY EDUCATION either method is only in rare instances satisfactory : the dan- ger of the first is that the pupil will get merely scattered hints, and hence be unable in after years to judge his own writing or that of others ; the danger of the second is that he will get not only scattered ideas but misleading ideas, owing to the lack of a broad basis for induction furnished by the few works of litera- ture read. Several hints may be of service in connection with an ad- vanced or fourth year course in systematic rhetoric : — (i) It is wise to avoid subtle distinctions as to Method in \ ' _ , , . . ^ Advanced methods of narration and description. Very few such methods and principles will stand careful and sane analysis. All the theory that any one needs to know about either narration or description is exceedingly small in amount, and can be easily presented to an intelligent class in a few hours. Exposition is obviously the kind of writing which the student will use most and in which he needs the most careful drill. (2) The detailed study of argument is too difficult for pupils at this period. The process of proof, to be sure, they have been familiar with, in various forms, for several years, partic- ularly through algebra, geometry, and the natural sciences ; but the proof of any proposition of any weight in connection with history, economics, or literature involves a broad knowledge of facts and principles which it is impossible for the high school pupil to possess. The main advantage of the study of argu- mentation in the high school is thus, as an able secondary teacher remarks, that the pupil becomes conscious of the ex- treme difficulty of complete and scientific proof, and of his own inability to prove propositions of any complexity. Pursued in this spirit, the study is a valuable part of the student's training. (3) As in the case of the elementary course in rhetoric and the systematic course in grammar, much depends upon the previous work of the pupil and upon his supplementary work. His mind must have been prepared by much incidental instruc- tion, during the work of the second and third years in compo- sition and in literature ; and the training given in the advanced ENGLISH IN SECONDARY EDUCATION 229 course in systematic rhetoric must be supplemented, while it is being given and after it has ceased, by work both in litera- ture and in composition. In connection with the discussion of formal rhetoric a moment's attention should be given to the old practice of requiring the systematic memorizing of definitions establishing distinctions between words meaning much the same thing, together with exercises in framing sen- tences involving the proper use of such words. It is much to be doubted whether this training was of any value whatsoever. Definitions of words apart from any context are not only very dull but very unsatisfactory. It is important that young people should learn these distinctions. It is not necessary, however, to give such instruction in a fashion that runs counter to the known laws of mental activity. The proper place for learning the exact meaning of words is in connection with the regular work in literature and in composition. In the former the teacher will do his best to make sure that the pupil under- stands the force of each word and its shade of meaning, and in the second he may encourage him constantly to broaden his vocabulary by the appropriate use of such new words. No other subject of school instruction, certainly no other subject in the field of English, is so important as composition. Other subjects are means to an end. We pursue them in order that the mind may be stimulated to an Essential healthful activity, or may accumulate the material u jec ' on which it will work when trained and roused to activity. Composition, however, is itself an activity or the sign of an activity. Through it we may determine the amount of dynamic power possessed by the student, the extent to which it has been developed, the character and substance of the informa- tion which he has acquired, and the degree to which he is lord over it. It is of great importance, therefore, that the teacher should discuss with care the various problems relating to the work in composition, in order that it may in every way possible be made effective. 230 ENGLISH IN SECONDARY EDUCATION As we have seen, composition was until recently not an im- portant element in secondary instruction. Within the last twenty years, however, it has made great strides Shan there be J J . ' . * u r a Teacher of forward. At the present time the teacher of English is, in many cases, chosen largely on the basis of his skill in teaching composition, and " English " in the curriculum often means scarcely more than English com- position. The teacher of composition has thus become an exceedingly strong influence in secondary instruction. Broad- minded, well-balanced, sympathetic, eager to learn and to teach, quick to read character and skilful in training his pupils in power of observation and reasoning, he — or more often she — has won the respect and affection of the whole school community. But the question may very properly be put, — and has been very strongly put by Dr. Samuel Thurber, — Is it the business of any one teacher to give instruction in com- position? Is it not rather the duty and privilege of all? "What I must say here is that the special teacher of com- position should be abolished. He does no good, and he stands in the way. The reading of a certain limited amount of juvenile writing for purposes of correction is a pleasing task, leading to personal relations, to an appreciation of individual difficulties, to a possible giving of wise counsel. But the read- ing of juvenile writing in great quantities is inconsistent with mental and physical health. All the teachers of a school should share equally this task of supervising the English writing. I do not see how any teacher, man or woman, can have the ef- frontery to claim to know good English better than the rest ; and I do not see how any teacher can submit to have the drudgery of having several times his share of this work thrust upon him." * Dr. Thurber' s plan, consistent as it is in many respects with the best educational theory, is a counsel of perfection. In the ideally constituted, frictionless school machine it would be possible and advisable. Nay, more, it is a device that can 1 Samuel Thurber, " Five Axioms of Composition Teaching," School Review, January, 1S97. ENGLISH IN SECONDARY EDUCATION 23 1 in certain rare institutions be already put into practice; if adopted in small colleges, under skilful administration, it might there work wonders. But it can scarcely be seri- Yes -at ously considered to-day by the rank and file of Present * secondary schools throughout the country, for three reasons. First, what is everybody's business is nobody's business. The proper results would — through indifference, indolence, or sheer lack of time and strength on the part of teachers and pupils — simply not be secured at all. Second, there is, sad to say, good reason for believing that in far too many cases some teachers do use better English than others, and that a great number do not use good English at all. Third, even if all teachers were equal in this capacity, all would scarcely be equal in the peculiar characteristics that distinguish the good teacher of composition. Indeed, this special work can often not be entrusted even to the teacher of English literature, who knows and teaches his branch of the subject thoroughly, but who fre- quently cannot somehow succeed in getting boys and girls to write well. Therefore, reluctantly agreeing that work in composition must be under the charge of a special teacher, we pass to the consideration of a necessary corollary, What help Aid from in the field of composition can the teacher of 0utside - English get from his colleagues? Here we are on more solid ground. Three points at once suggest themselves : (1) The teachers in a secondary school should by solemn compact bind themselves to foster in every way the use of good English in all classrooms. Under this agreement they would discourage slovenly or incorrect pronunciation and slip- shod expression, and would absolutely decline to receive papers in which errors in spelling, punctuation, and grammar are conspicuous, or to approve oral recitations in which the English is plainly bad. 1 Further, they would, in the inter- 1 This is again a counsel of perfection. But much can be done in this way if teachers are only willing to do as much as they can. The dangers are : (1) that teachers will not take the trouble to meet together and dis- 232 ENGLISH IN SECONDARY EDUCATION . ests of their own subjects, help their pupils to acquire the priceless habit of accurate statement. (2) Much can be done for composition by means of the prolonged oral recitation, — the topical recitation. Pupils are too much inclined to get along, if they can, by saying yes or no, or uttering little scraps of information, sure of being prodded or cajoled into giving the rest of the answer. A pupil who can speak for two or three moments, quietly and clearly, on a given topic, has a real command over his knowl- edge and his faculties. (3) The writing of exercises, summaries, and essays on subjects lying outside the field of English may also be turned to good account. But here also we must step with caution. There is real danger that the pupil will have too much writing to do, which is almost worse than none at all. On this matter teachers should consult each other, agreeing on a stated sched- ule, so that the poor beast of burden may not be so outra- geously overweighted as to make no real progress. Nor is it clear that the teacher of composition should have any share in the correction of papers written for other departments. That will depend upon circumstances. Other things being equal, each department can best attend to its own exercises. All that is important is that the department of English should keep on good terms with its sister departments, and that all should agree on the amount of work thus required and on the standards to be used in judging it. It is to be doubted whether young people can safely be talked to about " style." Scientifically speaking, every writer has his habits of expression, which dif- fer only in slight particulars from those of his fellows. From cuss the matter carefully, to see just what they had best do ; (2) that, because the pressure of time keeps them from doing all they want to do, they will decline to do anything ; and (3) that some teachers who have hard and fast (and perhaps unscientific) ideas as to what is " correct " will strain over the minute and unimportant errors in idiom and let slip the opportunity to scotch the really vicious practices of thought and speech. ENGLISH IN SECONDARY EDUCATION 233 the artistic point of view style is a highly specialized set of habits in composition, such as are acquired only by an indi- vidual either of considerable maturity or endowed with unusual talent in matters of expression. Young people rarely have any such highly specialized habits of expression, nor is it desirable that they should try to acquire them. The duty of the teacher is to see that they write plainly and clearly and naturally, — that is all. Nor is it wise to talk to them much about the " style " of great authors. They should be helped to enjoy the special charm of various pieces of literature, but for this purpose very little detailed analysis is necessary. Indeed, little detailed analysis of an author's style is possible until psychology has made further advances. The peculiar linguistic training to be obtained from transla- tion has been often vaunted, and no doubt there is much that is sound in the laudation. But there are several ....,, . . ,. , Translation, limitations that detract from the merits of transla- tion as a secondary exercise in English. First, the whole element of structure is absent. The pupil must follow some one else's thought, and, generally speaking, cannot depart from the order of statement employed in the original. Second, the pupil must not, in a school exercise in translation, vary much from a literal version. It is the classical master's busi- ness to see that the foreign original — in its construction — is felt through the English version, whereas to translate well, into English that is thoroughly idiomatic, is frequently to weave together the elements of thought so differently that the transla- tion is a re-creation of the matter in a form often strangely diverse. This practical necessity of rendering literally is strikingly apparent in so-called translations at sight, written for examination purposes, where no sane youth would dream of writing anything but a sort of English parallel or facsimile of the foreign original. Third, the task is one in which judg- ment, maturity of mind, and reflection play a large part. The boy of sixteen has rarely the intellectual power to do work requiring such careful introspection, such minute consideration of the associations connected with words, such deliberate dis- 234 ENGLISH IN SECONDARY EDUCATION crimination. With these disadvantages in mind, the teacher of English, while encouraging translation, will make but a guarded use of it in secondary as distinguished from college instruction. As to the work that falls directly within the field of com- position writing, we have first to ask ourselves how much, how . often, may the secondary student be expected to Composition wr ite. Here opinions differ widely, but I am Writing? r J ' convinced that : — (i) He should certainly write no more than the teacher has time to read. 1 At least the opposite method should never be adopted except for reasons of solid weight, and then only in the case of mere exercises. (2) He should certainly write no more than he can write well. Even for a mature person a few hundred words a day is a good average, if he has thinking to do before and while he writes, and other things to attend to. Composition is not a trick of the hand, but the most delicate act of mental balance and control. To the boy the writing of two hundred words often seems like a labour of Hercules. And it must be remem- bered that it is folly to force a growing boy to be fluent. Let him think a little, and compose a little, — just enough so that there is no inhibition, so that the habit grows with his increas- ing knowledge, self-consciousness, and self-control. Just how much this should be each teacher must find out for himself with due regard to the existing circumstances. The pupil should have some writing to do every day ; he should do it with care and should be judged by it. But this need not be a " daily theme " — a burden proper only for broader shoulders, 2 — but a simple exercise, based usually on some one of his school duties and usually designed for another teacher. For the composition specifically required by his English teacher, once a week will usually be often enough. 1 See Samuel Thurber, " Elementary Composition in High Schools," The [Syracuse] Academy, November, 1889. 2 See Samuel Thurber, " Five Axioms of Composition Teaching," School Review, 1897, V. 14. ENGLISH IN SECONDARY EDUCATION 235 The question of the relation between written composition and literature is a perplexing matter, and must be solved by each instructor according to his own experience Topics from and in connection with his own methods and gen- Literature, eral policy. Many successful teachers hold that composition should be kept in such close relations with the work in litera- ture as to be almost, if not quite, a subdivision of it, basing their theory on the ground that the works read in the course in literature serve naturally, not only as the student's inspira- tion, but as his models. Though it is not to be doubted that appreciative reading will be a constant source of inspiration to the student and a natural and proper stimulus, it may be objected, on the other hand, that masterpieces of literature are scarcely normal models for high school students. 1 Master- pieces are the work of men, not of boys, — and of men of genius at that. The youth can in many instances understand and appreciate them, he can be stimulated by them, but, even when the masterpiece belongs to the period in which he is living, he is rarely if ever fitted, physically or psychologically, to treat himself a subject of anything like the same sort in a style even remotely similar. A boy is a boy, and to a boy belong a boy's subjects and a boy's style. In the opinion of the present writer, therefore, it would be certainly possible, though scarcely advisable, to teach a boy to write thoroughly well without requiring him to make in any Way a study of English literature, — perhaps, in an extreme case, without reading books at all. Provided that he is supplied with a fairly good vocabulary, whether by reading or by conversation, or by both, he can be so trained, during his school days, by practice, correction, and criticism, as to be able to express his owru ideas in a rational and sensible manner, precisely as, under good instruction, a boy could learn to draw really well 1 As my collaborators remind me, I must not fail to state that what I say applies only to the use of literature as a model. It is natural that subjects for compositions should often be taken from English literature, — summaries, criticisms, and the like, — though I do not believe that it is wise to use such subjects exclusively or more than to a moderate degree. 236 ENGLISH IN SECONDARY EDUCATION by attempting, under such guidance and correction, one tan- gible object after another, without ever having seen or studied the work of a great artist. Certainly, by availing ourselves of the inspiration that must inevitably come from the proper reading and study of literature, we can give high school students — and, for that matter, college students — the very best training in composition without letting them stray far away from the subjects most suitable to their age and experi- ence. It is not, then, in my opinion, wise to attempt to corre- late too closely the course of study in literature and that in composition. The student must depend on literature for much of his general stimulus and often for specific hints. The sub- jects for essays may, too, frequently be taken from topics in literature just as from topics in history. But it should not be forgotten that the main object in view is to train the pupil in the art of expressing his own thoughts and not those of another, and that this means, in the case of a high school pupil, that he must be taught how to think consciously and logically, and how to express clearly these conscious and logical thoughts. The secret of good teaching in this respect lies in letting the pupil always feel that he is handling thoughts that are genuinely his, or that are essentially of his sort, not the thoughts of an older person or of another epoch. 1 If the question as to the taking of subjects mainly from the work in English literature be regarded as settled, the teacher will scarcely find much further difficulty as to sub- Choice of . m, 1 1 11 1 Subjects jects. The text-books all make many suggestions, and the life of the school community is so rich that the instructor, once committed to the policy of letting boys write on what they are actually thinking about or are glad to be thinking about, will find himself swept briskly along by a powerful and vital current. Experience has shown that, even in the public schools of large cities, the pupils from homes where refinement does not enter are not thereby at a 1 See the admirable essay of Samuel Thurber, " Composition Topics," The [Syracuse] Academy, October, 1890. ENGLISH IN SECONDARY EDUCATION 237 disadvantage as regards the material of their essays, for, like their more cultivated fellows, and even more than they, they can draw at will from a multitude of interesting trades and handicrafts, and from the stimulating sights and incidents that make up the life of a great city. Two special forms of composition, — paraphrasing and verse writing, — as to the value of which there has been much dispute, may be conveniently taken up at this point. The case against paraphrasing has p s g. been most strongly stated by Dr. Laurie, whose attack we quote in full : — " To facilitate the full comprehension of difficult sentences and paragraphs, the exercise came into general use in this country [Scotland] about twenty-five years ago. Paraphrasing Paraphrasing consists in the turning into common- Attacked, place language, which ' any fellow may understand,' the verse of a poet, or the succinct prose of such writers as Bacon and Browne, or the luxuriant paragraphs of Jeremy Taylor. A more detestable exercise I do not know. It is a vile use of pen and ink. One would, of course, submit to it as an un- happy necessity were there no other way of showing that we understand an author. But this is far from being the case. To paraphrase Milton or Shakspere is to turn the good into the inferior or the bad, and to degrade literature. Moreover, it is false. For the youth who has done it imagines that his bald sentences give all that is to be found in the original passage of Milton or Bacon. If this were so, then there would, alas ! be no such thing as literature, no such thing as Art in language. When all is done, you have no longer got Bacon or Milton, but only your much lesser self. This exercise is based on a misunderstanding of the whole situation. Teachers were vaguely groping for some means of assuring themselves that their" pupils really saw their way through the organism of a piece of poetry, — terse, elliptical, and frequently inverted in the ordo verborum. But this object can quite well be obtained by a process which might be called ' Resolution,' or, to please those fond of big words, ' Dialysis.' It simply consists in the writing out of the piece of poetry in grammatical prose order, supplying words understood, but always pre 'serving 'the language of the poet. This prevents a boy from contenting himself 238 ENGLISH IN SECONDARY EDUCATION with that vague knowledge which is not knowledge at all, but mere impression supported by dim, disconnected images, or, it may be, by the mere musical rhythm of language. It compels him to be exact, and may, perchance, startle him for the first time into the perception that poets, after all, talk plain sense, and may thus awaken his critical faculties. To shut the book and try to express the substance of the thought of a prose writer in your own words, is an excellent exercise, but this is not l paraphrasing ' as commonly practised." * In direct opposition to Dr. Laurie's views are those of Mr. H. C. Bowen. " 'Paraphrasing,' " he says, "is the unpacking Paraphrasing anc ^ exhibiting clearly and at large of the whole Defended. meaning of a passage which, in the author in ques- tion, is expressed in a brief and condensed or figurative form, or perhaps, at times, rather suggested than expressed. It re- quires in the pupil a knowledge of the real force of the allu- sions, and of the bearing of the passage as a whole on its context, and the occasion on which it is used. It requires an appreciation of the exact force and intention of the metaphors, similes, and epithets, and a consciousness of that associated meaning or colour which certain words and phrases acquire, and which are brought out most distinctly in the contrasts between so-called synonyms. It is only when this knowledge of, this insight into, what the author desires to convey to us has been sought for and gained, that we are in a position to truly appreciate, and really delight in, the art and beauty of his mode of expression. To ascertain whether our pupils have gained this knowledge and insight we must require them to tell us what the passage has told them. This exercise in giving outward expression to the thoughts and feelings which they have made their own is of great value educationally." 2 Paraphrasing is not a common exercise in our secondary schools, and the whole system is one of theoretical rather than 1 Lectures on Language and Linguistic Method in the School, p. 52. 2 English Literature Teaching in Schools, London, 1891, p. 32. ENGLISH IN SECONDARY EDUCATION 239 practical importance. It is, however, so frequently brought up for discussion that it is of importance that teachers should have clear ideas about it. The gist of Summary, the matter seems to be as follows : — (1) As Dr. Laurie says, there is no sense in requiring a paraphrase into bald English of beautiful and intricate pas- sages in prose and verse if the pupil gets the impression that his bald version is really the equivalent of the original. It would be better, as Dr. Laurie suggests, to require in its place — if it is necessary to make sure that the original is under- stood — a sort of construing that, using the words of the original, would indicate the ordinary prose construction. (2) But, as Dr. Laurie himself acknowledges, there would sometimes be a distinct advantage in asking a pupil to express in his own words his understanding of a difficult or intricate prose passage, keeping his book closed meanwhile. If so, it is hard to see why the process would not be equally helpful in dealing with a similar poetical passage, and why, provided the pupil still gave his own impressions in his own words, his book might not as well be open as shut. (3) The point really at issue, therefore, is whether, inas- much as a considerable part of the effect produced by poetry or beautiful prose must be analogous to that produced by music and hence not translatable into words, it is well to en- courage any attempt to render the impressions produced by such passages into plain English. But there is obviously an intellectual or logical substratum for even delicate aesthetic impressions, and it is of value to the pupil that he be taught clearly to recognize this element in literature, and, further, that he be encouraged to express in his own words whatever he feels or knows. On this basis, it seems evident that those in favour of paraphrase have won their case, though, on the other hand, it is equally evident that the exercise is mainly to be used in direct connection with the work of literature, that it may most often be carried on orally, and that, like analysis or parsing, it should not be continued, except at intervals, after the pupil 240 ENGLISH IN SECONDARY EDUCATION has learned to perform unconsciously the process of under- standing which it aims to cultivate. With regard to verse writing there is less to be said, for the question has not reached the stage of general and public dis- Verse cussion. Within the last few years a considerable Writing. number of secondary teachers have found that they could interest their pupils in verse writing, and that, as a re- sult of such training, their pupils were often able to produce very creditable verse and showed, in addition, a more marked appreciation of English poetry. 1 Other teachers have made at- tempts in the same direction without much success, and many have doubted whether the exercise was feasible, unless in ex- ceptional cases. The consensus of opinion appears to be this : (i) Pupils must in some way learn to understand the mechanism of English verse. If this is presented to them systematically, as it perhaps should be, it is quite likely that they will be considerably aided in understanding it by trying themselves to write blank verse. This much may be regarded as fairly well established, both by practice and by general educational theory. (2) It would be unwise to ask all teachers and all classes to go further than this. But, when the teacher is himself interested in such work, it is highly advisable that he should try the experiment of requiring the whole class, at some appropriate time, to write several quatrains, some hexameters, and finally a sonnet. He will perhaps be surprised to find that many pupils succeed in doing their tasks well, and that even those who were previously insensible to rhythm and rhyme begin now to get a distinct sense of what the pleasure is which poetry gives, and are stimulated, if not to further writing, at least to further reading. It is not necessary or desirable that every man and woman should write verses, but it is desirable that every man and woman should love poetry, and a little verse writing in youth may prove one of the most efficient aids to this end. 1 Chubb, The Teaching of English, Chapter XVIII. ENGLISH IN SECONDARY EDUCATION 24 1 (3) So far all the class may go. Those who show ability may go further, if more important tasks do not prevent. Especially in the case of students not going to college it would be wise, in connection with the last year's work in composi- tion, to give an opportunity, from time to time, for the writing not of doggerel parody but of unaffected and sincere verse. In the process of essay writing, it should be noticed, the teacher has his share. The audience, the miniature public which the pupil addresses, is the class, or, on rare 1 1 , \ ™, , The Process occasions perhaps, the whole school, lhe teacher of Essay is the counsellor of the author, the protector of the public. He approves the subject as one likely to interest the little community; he helps the author in his search for material, and at need in his arrangement of it ; but he also guards the public from boredom, refusing to accept in its behalf the illiterate or carelessly composed or vulgar essay. It is a mistake or a misfortune to think of the teacher's work as beginning only when the essay is handed in. It may, indeed, if his method has been well thought out and his counsel good, be almost wholly completed. It is a mistake, too, for the teacher to allow himself to be thought of as an unscientific and unlearned person who merely knows " how to say things." He is instead The Teacher an expert in adolescence. Himself mature, broad- tio£°as an 1 " minded, well read, he has not entirely put away Ex P ert « his sympathy with the young. He understands them, knows when to repress and when to stimulate, of what is the sub- stance of their thought, and how their minds may wisely be led to subjects worthy of permanent interest. This delicate, inspiring, tactful influence may well be the most important factor in their development. He owes himself, therefore, some self-esteem, for his place is hard to fill. With regard to the correction of essays, the instructor of experience will need no advice, but the teacher who is just entering on the duties of his profession will, perhaps, be glad of a few hints. 16 242 ENGLISH IN SECONDARY EDUCATION (i) The reading and correction of essays, and the sub- sequent conferences on them with pupils, form by far the TheCorrec- most important part of your work. Take pains, tion of Essays, therefore, to perform such duties with the utmost thoroughness. Insist that pupils shall present their manuscripts at the time designated, and in the form prescribed. Do not waste your time in reading essays on which the pupil has put little time or thought. Mark such essays zero, and it is not likely that the pupil will repeat the experiment. Insist, so far as possible, that sufficient time be given you for reading essays with proper care, and for a proper amount of conference on them with students, either individually or in small groups. Give to the task of reading and correction, so far as possible, your best or freshest hours, either early in the morning or just after invigorating exercise. The practice of reading essays by artificial light, or when jaded, is usually injurious, both physically and professionally. (2) When reading essays, make yourself as comfortable as possible, and take measures to guard yourself against in- The First terruption. You are engaged in an important Process. professional duty, and it is necessary that you should have all your faculties in good working order. With regard to each essay, there are two things to be considered. First, has the pupil used correct English? Second, has he given to his thought full, clear, and well-balanced expression? The best way, as a rule, is to read each essay twice. The first reading should be for correctness. Mark each error in spelling, punctuation, etc., as you read, provided that the errors are of such a kind that the pupil can fairly be supposed to be acquainted with the proper form. In the early stages of composition work, be careful not to bewilder the pupil by calling his attention to errors the consideration of which properly belongs to a later stage in his training. If there are many errors, the teacher should not go further, and the essay should be returned for rewriting. So far the teacher's task has been largely mechanical, but he has as yet performed merely his preliminary and more ENGLISH IN SECONDARY EDUCATION 243 elementary office. If, in the case of essays which are in the main correctly written, he stops here, he is as likely co have done harm as good, for he has left untouched The Second the most important point, — has the pupil got hold Process « of a definite idea and given to that idea a sufficiently full, clear, and well-balanced expression? If he has, he should be praised. If he has not, he should be shown how and why. But this should be done, if possible, by word of mouth and not by writing. In this second reading, then, the teacher's task calls for good judgment, an insight into what young people may with reason be expected to know, and much skill in seizing the hazy thought which the boy actually had in mind, and in drawing him on, little by little, to see the steps by which that thought can be well expressed. Be sure, finally, not to give a high mark, under ordinary circumstances, to an essay in which the writer has not honestly striven to give expression to some real thought of his own. Good thinking expressed in incorrect language must not be tolerated, but neither must correct language without good thinking. 1 (3) Avoid sarcasm and irritable comments. Keep your sense of humour wakeful, and be as kindly disposed towards your inferiors in skill as you would wish your superiors to be towards you. (4) Don't be fussy or finicky. No two people write alike, and it would be abnormal for a youth to have the style of a person of mature years. The essential thing is that he shall have an idea, that he shall consciously strive to give that idea its best expression, and that in the process he shall not have overstepped the bounds of correct usage. (5) Teachers should feel that, in proportion as they do their work skilfully, they are experts, in precisely the same way and to precisely the same degree that trained teachers of 1 Here is one of the great stumbling-blocks in practical instruction. Many a teacher can do excellent work on the more mechanical side, and succeed in getting his pupils to write clearly and correctly, who fails completely in getting them to express ideas which are other than the mere replica of what they have just heard or read. 244 ENGLISH IN SECONDARY EDUCATION mathematics or chemistry are experts. To teach composition well, one must have scholarship, cultivation, good judgment, and ingenuity. (6) Teachers of composition are peculiarly prone, from the nature of their work, to discouragement and irritability. Don't try to do more than you can do well ; take plenty of exercise and sleep ; work hard while you do work, — and if you have had the proper training, you will surely do well. If you find your judgment growing confused while you are reading essays, stop and take some light exercise for five minutes or read an amusing book. IV. Language : Oral Composition BIBLIOGRAPHY H. Corson. The Voice and Spiritual Education. Macmillan. 1897. The Aims of Literary Study. Macmillan. 1899. S. Thurber. How to Make the Study of Literature Interesting. School Review, September, 1898. It was a misfortune that, during a great part of the nine- teenth century, our secondary schools were so largely engaged in teaching dead learning. Knowledge was con- of Oral m _ ceived of as something acquired by the eye through books, independent of personal activity or experi- ment, to be retained in the memory as so much dead weight, and at need to be regurgitated in the form of written words. Educational theory and practice have in many respects changed our methods and our outlook, particularly in the natural sci- ences, where the laboratory has supplanted the text-book ; but there is danger that in the field of English we shall cling too closely to the old pedantic fashion, and, while throwing stress on written composition, the more unreal and lifeless form of the art, neglect oral composition, which is the art in its human and natural, in its least lifeless and mechanical shape. For, in the first place, it is a mistake to conceive of language as primarily written, of the real or standard language as expressed in visual ENGLISH IN SECONDARY EDUCATION 245 symbols, and of speech as only an artificial, secondary, or de- rived form. Precisely the contrary is true. No study of lan- guage is scientific that is not based on the grouping of its sounds, on its uses on the lips of men. The grammar we study is too often confined merely to the more or less unnatural or literary language, and we often err in sending pupils to dic- tionaries and similar printed material, which are merely imper- fect works of reference, valuable mainly as rough and mechanical classifications of existing usage, — chiefly with regard to the written language, — when the great source of all such informa- tion, the primary facts of usage, the speech of the intelligent and the educated, is continually ringing in their dull ears. One great advantage of laying stress on oral composition, then, is that it tends to rivet the pupil's attention on the facts and usages of his native language in their most living and vital forms. In the second place, the pupil will be greatly helped in his work in written composition by such practice in oral composition as will ensure his conceiving of the latter as the normal or typical form of expression, so that he will write with the idea of how his words will sound (rather than how they look) constantly before him. In the third place, he will be helped in his study of literature, for, similarly, he will enrich his store of associations with English words and phrases, and, what is perhaps even more important, he will learn, through his studies in the control and management of the human voice, to give to what he reads a more varied and adequate expres- sion, and thereby, if the psychologists are right, to realize more keenly, by the very fact of possessing greater powers of physical utterance, the emotional value of literature. In the fourth place, oral composition is of practical importance. It is only a few who can influence the public by essays or written appeals ; many men and women — indeed almost all in whose lives social, political, or business affairs play any considerable part — influence their fellows by spoken words. In the Amer- ican republic of to-day, almost as much as in the Grecian republics of two thousand years ago, the acquiring of skill in speech is, for the active citizen, a duty and a necessity. 246 ENGLISH IN SECONDARY EDUCATION The people at large, and particularly teachers, have unfor- tunately become somewhat prejudiced against elocution. We Elocution: mean by the term, nowadays, merely good habits Teacher Cial °^ physic^ utterance, but for a long while we per- Hecessary? ^aps thought of it as a difficult and esoteric art, based on a metaphysics of its own ; and we were often encour- aged in this belief by " elocutionists," who seemed to be not as other men because they alone were master of the inner wisdom that led to such unnatural mouthing of words and such ab- normal gesticulations. But now that elocution is more rightly understood as the simple and useful art, based on the study of the human vocal organs, of clear and effective utterance, and the elocutionist merely the master who, himself carefully trained, teaches this art, the situation is entirely different and does not call for suspicion or prejudice. It is clear that secondary pupils should be trained in these matters. The first question is, Who shall train them ? In general and in the abstract, it is obvious that no special teacher should be neces- sary, precisely as in composition. We all — presumably — use our vocal organs properly and are thus fitted to teach others. Practically, however, as in the case of composition, some are better fitted than others for this task, inasmuch as the effective use of the voice is far less common than might be thought, and skill in teaching the art may also vary. It is wiser, therefore, for some one of the teaching staff — prefer- ably the English master — to make himself responsible for the whole matter, and for the other teachers to co-operate with him systematically in a task which is as much for their benefit as for his. Where a special teacher of singing is employed, he may also take the work in elocution, and in large school systems it is advisable to have a special instructor in voice- training who has no other duties. In this case he should know his business thoroughly. There is no form of meta- physics that has any bearing on the subject at all. The train- ing of the speaking voice and the training of the singing voice are precisely parallel. Both require scientific knowledge of physical facts, natural aptitude of ear and voice, and skill in ENGLISH IN SECONDARY EDUCATION 247 teaching, but they have only the remotest connections with theoretical aesthetics, psychology, and philosophy. The results desired are exceedingly simple and have already been mentioned. They are merely that such of our men and women as have had the advantage of a high school The ResuIts education shall be able to breathe properly, use Desired. their vocal organs properly, and have such control and range of voice as to be able to express appropriately various shades of meaning, whether in ordinary speech, in reading aloud, or in public discourse. We need such training sadly. Few men can speak to an audience so as to be heard fifty feet away, even with an unnecessary expenditure of breath and muscular effort j few women breathe properly, and the shrill nasal voices of many of our young women, in marked contrast with their refinement, intelligence, and beauty, are absolutely unpardon- able. Such training as may be given in a secondary school will not cure all these faults in every case, but it will certainly do away with three-quarters of them, when teachers are earnest and thoughtful, and will help make life better worth living for us all. The practice of requiring each student to " declaim " before his class or the whole school, formerly much in vogue, is now apparently disappearing, and, for many reasons, Z x. • 1 r J n a Declamation. the change is a mark of progress. Ihe alleged advantages of the old system were {a) that it brought students together as a whole, in an exercise that concerned them all ; (5) that it trained the memory ; (c) that it gave an oppor- tunity for gaining control over the voice ; and (d) that it led the modest and the timid to overcome their dread of address- ing an audience and gave others useful experience in the same direction. On the other hand, it may properly be urged (a) that there are other equally appropriate occasions for the assembling of students as a whole ; (b) that the memory is sufficiently trained in other ways; (V) that, unless supple- mented by careful training in elocution, declamation could have little effect on the control of the voice ; and (d) that the public ordeal was scarcely calculated to reassure the timid, — 248 ENGLISH IN SECONDARY EDUCATION in short, that the time, effort, and trouble involved in the exercise were out of proportion to the benefits derived from it. It is certainly clear that almost all of the advantages which it was supposed to offer can be easily secured from the practice of reading aloud in the classroom, which is further made desirable by the fact that it does not tempt the pupil into an artificial, exaggerated, and gesticulatory form of delivery. If students have had, however, proper drill in elocution and sufficient practice in reading aloud, it can do them no harm, towards the end of their course, to give declamations or to read their own compositions before the whole school, and the experience will probably often be useful to them. For the old system of declamation may be substituted, in short, a less formal and more effective method, by which even Reading better results are obtained. The teacher of elocu- Aloud. t j on does his part, or, to speak more in accord- ance with what is likely to be the fact in the average school, the teacher of English, at a fairly early point in the course, gives to the entering class a sufficient number of sensible and thorough exercises in the management of the voice, and ex- plains to them the principles which must be borne in mind until their application becomes habitual. But the main ele- ment in the instruction we are discussing is simply reading aloud, practised in connection with the work in literature and in composition, — reading which shall be carried on regularly, week in and week out, year in and year out, throughout the course ; and which shall aim simply to be audible, natural, and expressive. If this plan be adopted, if no exercise in compo- sition or literature take place without at least one pupil's reading aloud with these objects in mind, the problem will be found to solve itself. Not only that : it will be apparent, unless all theory and experience be at fault, that the other branches of English study will be correspondingly benefited. We cannot read well without recognizing clearly the meaning and force of words and the structure of sentences and para- graphs. And, conversely, if we read well, we are sure not to be lacking in knowledge of grammar and in a grasp of ENGLISH IN SECONDARY EDUCATION 249 literature, and we are likely to write much better than we otherwise should. In a well-arranged secondary course in English it is almost im- possible not to provide for a considerable amount of training in oral composition. Even in the elementary school, 0ral oral composition is the natural and proper prelimi- Composition, nary to written composition. In the high school it is equally im- portant that oral composition should not be pushed too far in the background, for speech — not writing — is the vital and essential form of language. All good teachers will encourage and demand topical recitations at frequent intervals, and teachers of English will be helped by fostering discussion and the free expression of opinion, within necessary limits, by advising pupils to get their materials for composition so thoroughly in mind, before writing their essays, that they can utter their thoughts freely and concisely, and by sometimes requiring them to do so. The students' own ambition will also further the end in view. They will have their literary societies, their debating societies. These the teacher will encourage warily, for they often waste time and breed affectation and the mere spouting of nonsense. Particularly must he be on his guard with reference to debating. Adolescents can go through the form of debate, but real debating, in which the truth is sought through rigid testing of evidence and sound induction and deduction, is beyond their stage of mental growth, and is as harmful to their immature minds as certain forms of athletics would be to their immature bodies. The more careful exposi- tion boys and girls do, the better for them ; and a dash of attempted argument from time to time may not be amiss. But if they must debate, let them act under the direction of some older and wiser head, who will lead them to simple subjects, and, even in these, take pains to make it evident that only under exceptional circumstances will they be able really to prove any proposition whatsoever. 250 ENGLISH IN SECONDARY EDUCATION Part II. — Literature in the Secondary Schools For the general bibliography, see the bibliographies prefixed to this chapter and to Chapter II. So many and so effective have been the justifications of the introduction of literature into the secondary course of study, 1 that the question may now be considered Established as fully answered. English literature is now, in all good secondary schools, a subject of good standing, having its share of time in the regular school program. The pre-eminence once given to the classics and mathematics has passed, and in many cases has been given to English literature. The doubts as to whether it can be taught are also ceasing, for the sufficient reason that it is taught in many schools with which can as g reat measure of success as are the other be Taught, subjects, whether judged by its opportunities as a means of discipline, as a subject of information, or as a means of cultivating taste. The grounds on which its claims rest, — -as a means of knowing life, as a source of the higher pleasures, and is worth as a f° rm °f training, and as an ethical force, are Teaching. the same as obtain in the elementary school, and have been discussed in the chapter devoted to that subject. The divergences of opinion with regard to its treatment in the secondary school are concerned with other matters : What Aspects w i tn tne questions how, how much, in what order, jecVshaSnie anc * including what sorts of facts and ideas. In Taught? no su bject is there greater variety in the content and method of instruction than in literature. The personality of the teacher and the bent of the department of the university which gave him his training, the requirements of the various 1 See especially Laurie, Hinsdale, and Corson, cited above, and the files of The Academy, The School Review, and The Educational Review. ENGLISH IN SECONDARY EDUCATION 25 1 colleges as indicated in their entrance examinations, 1 the standards maintained by state systems, and the home life and previous reading of the pupils, all condition and determine the instruction. In fact, the subject is and must always remain not only one of the most vaguely defined, but one of those in which the personal element in teacher and pupil is most present and most valuable. For not only are aesthetics and the canons of criticism in a most unsettled state, 2 but literature, being an art, is an expression of a personal point of view of the author, — is, in fact, his interpretation of a certain phase of life, — and deals with that class of phenomena regarding which it is most difficult and unsafe to dogmatize. Moreover, it must always be that the different aspects of literature will have different degrees of interest for different minds ; the aesthetic, the philosophical, the linguistic, or the historical may appeal to us with peculiar force. But no matter what our peculiar predilections may be, it is obvious that for pupils of the secondary schools the first thing in studying literature is to understand it and enjoy it. It is even held by many good teachers that this is also the last thing, — a position of considerable strength, provided the term "understand" is sufficiently comprehensive. It can rarely be assumed that the pupil at the beginning of his high school course thoroughly understands what he reads. No matter how good his previous instruction, he reads with im- perfect analytic powers, with a knowledge of words neither full nor exact, with a limited acquaintance in the fields from which literary allusions are drawn, and with an experience of life as yet far too narrow to give his reading full significance. His knowledge of literary form and his ability to perceive relations are slight. When he reads simple stories, like Silas Marner, he gets the story, the motives of the action, and the 1 See Kegents' Bulletin, Albany, June, 1897, by Richard Jones. 2 See The Authority of Criticism by W. P. Trent ; Literary Criticism by Gayley and Scott, and " The Relation of Art to Truth," by W. H. Mallock, Forum, IX. 36. 252 ENGLISH IN SECONDARY EDUCATION broader differences of character. If his earlier instruction has included such things, he may see the purpose of the book as a whole, and understand a little of its structure. If he reads a poem, like The Vision of Sir Launfal, he may be impressed with the beauty of certain scenes, get the drift and significance of the poem as a whole, and feel some of the charm of metre and diction. If he reads an essay, like the simpler ones of Irving or Addison, he gets the thought in sentences, but seldom sees the whole essay in its developed idea. In general, he will understand and appreciate, but in limited degree. The work of the teacher, therefore, is to lead him to understand better and to enjoy more. In the purely intellectual side of the work there are certain definite things to be aimed at : — (i) Words are to be learned. The diction of ordinary life has many terms with whose exact meaning the pupil is The Study not familiar. The diction of literature being more of Words. artificial, more analytic, and richer, will include many terms either new or imperfectly known. These are to be learned in their relationships, and not as disjecta me?nbra. The dictionary should become not only a familiar book, but an interesting book; there is no reason to fear a too frequent use of the dictionary. Interest in words can be cultivated by skilful discussion of their meanings and their suggestiveness. Clear paraphrasing of difficult passages should be often required. In reading Shakspere such study is of the first importance. Much of the failure in intelligent interest in this poet is due solely to the unfamiliarity of his diction. 1 Ruskin's well-known passages on this subject of knowing words should be familiar to all young readers : — " You must get yourself into the habit of looking intensely at words, and assuring yourself of their meaning, syllable by syllable, letter by letter. You might read all the books in the British Museum (if you could live long enough) and remain 1 Schmidt's Shakespeare Lexikon should be in the possession of every secondary school. ENGLISH IN SECONDARY EDUCATION 253 an utterly ' illiterate,' uneducated person : but if you read ten pages of a good book, letter by letter, — that is to say with real accuracy, — you are forevermore in some measure an educated person." x This is, perhaps, an extreme statement, but there is essential truth in it. Slipshod, careless reading never raises a student to the higher level of power. He may gain vague ideas and real emotional experiences thereby, but he will not get the best that literature holds for him. What is suggested in the language of literature is greater and more beautiful than what is obviously said, so that only the most careful, thoughtful reading will reveal the beauty or the strength of the passage. (2) Allusions must be learned. Only a few of the books read in the high school are so allusive as to make this a difficult task. 2 But even though the looking up of . such references involves some labour, it is one of the things to be done. In the preceding chapter 3 the treat- ment of allusions has been discussed at some length. The principles there stated for the elementary school apply equally to the secondary school. (3) But the study of literature which stops with the learn- ing of words and allusions is entirely inadequate. These things are but a part of what is involved in intel- ligent reading. A work of literature is an art, and tKerefore follows certain laws of structure. These laws may not be perfectly or mechanically obeyed ; but they are evident to the thoughtful reader. The order in which a topic is developed in a paragraph, the development of a theme in a story, the relations to each other of the parts of any sort of literary composition, are a part of the qualities that make it literature and therefore legitimate subjects for consideration. For the same reason the- metrical structure of poetry should 1 See his Sesame and Lilies for this and much more of the same tenor. 2 Milton's poems and Tennyson's The Princess are examples of books made difficult by excessive allusiveness. 3 See pp. 167-169. 254 ENGLISH IN SECONDARY EDUCATION be considered. The scansion of poetry is an easy matted (though the theories as to the nature of English verse may differ), and well worth doing for the increase of one's enjoy- ment of the form. (4) Necessary as it is to understand the diction and appre- ciate the forms of literature, these are, after all, to be regarded only as means in the effective achievement of an the Book as end, which end is the meaning and spirit of the whole. This is the vital thing ; the whole story, the whole play, the whole poem, with their significance as pres- entations of some thought, some mood, some phase of life. No appreciation of single parts or of particular effects is suffi- cient. We must know and feel the book as a whole. What does it mean ? What, in a few words, would be a bare and prosaic statement of the author's idea? What is his attitude towards his theme? What are the emotions aroused? In fine, what is this thing ? Of course an answer to these ques- tions put in our own words is ridiculously inadequate compared with the idea as revealed in and through the book. But none the less such are the questions we must put to ourselves when we thoughtfully weigh what we read. In the study of any given piece of literature we may concern ourselves primarily with it as a revelation of the personality of the author, as a link in the chain of development of that type of literature, as an expression of the life and spirit of the time in which it was written, or as a work of art to be judged en- tirely in comparison with ideal standards. 1 1. When we consider a piece of literature as a revelation of the author's personality, we must not only bring to it the power of analysis that makes clear the thoughts and Personality ideals, the views of life and feelings that it repre- Author. sents, but must know something of the biography of the author ; his other works, the conditions and influences 1 See an interesting article by Professor Calvin Thomas on " Litera- ture and Personality " in Proceedings of the Modern Language Association, XII. 1896. ENGLISH IN SECONDARY EDUCATION 255 of his environment, the characteristic qualities of contem- porary literature, and the literary and other formative influences that immediately affected his work. In Mrs. Shelley's Franken- stein, for example, we have a good opportunity for such study. 1 We know the company and the circumstances in which the story was conceived, the literary models that were in immedi- ate influence over the circle of which she was a part, the phil- osophical ideas in which she was reared ; and we can see these things abundantly reflected in her development of the story. In George Eliot's works we can see her democratic sympathies, her scientific and philosophical interests, and her attitude of protest against the false and restricted conventions of thought. In Tennyson we find a respect for law working by evolutionary processes and a belief in the ultimate elevation of humanity. How different Milton was from the proverbial psalm- singing Puritan of satire and story lies on the surface in U Allegro and // Penseroso. The dominant mental attitudes of Dickens, Thackeray, and Browning are familiar to all their thoughtful readers. The examples here cited at once suggest our first difficulty : that of discriminating between the individuality of the particu- lar author and the spirit of the time in which he lived. Such discrimination, calling for keen powers of analysis and full knowledge of the intellectual life of the time, is not a task for school boys. We must be content if they gather a sense of what the author was, what he thought and felt, without attempting the measure of his originality. But the acquaintance with a great author means yet more. Professor Dowden well summarizes it in his excellent essay on The Interpretation of Literatm-e : 2 — " From each work of a great author we advance to his total work, and thence to the man himself, — to the heart and brain from which all this manifold world of wisdom and wit and passion and beauty has proceeded. Here 1 See Mrs. Shelley's Introduction to the story. 2 See this essay in his Transcripts and Studies. London- \\ 256 ENGLISH IN SECONDARY EDUCATION again, before we address ourselves to the interpretation of the author's mind, we patiently submit ourselves to a vast series of impressions. And in accordance with Bacon's maxim that a prudent interrogation is the half of knowl- edge, it is right to provide ourselves with a number of well-considered questions which we may address to our author. Let us cross-examine him as students of mental and moral science, and find replies in his written words. Are his senses vigorous and fine ? Does he see colour as well as form ? Does he delight in all that appeals to the sense of hearing, — the voices of Nature, and the melody and harmonies of the art of man? Thus Wordsworth, exquisitely organized for enjoying and interpreting all natural, and, if we may so say, homeless and primitive sounds, had little feeling for the delights of music. Can he enrich his poetry by gifts from the sense of smell, as did Keats ; or is his nose, like Wordsworth's, an idle promontory projecting into a desert air? Has he, like Brown- ing, a vigorous pleasure in all strenuous muscular movements ; or does he, like Shelley, live rapturously in the finest nervous thrills ? How does he experience and interpret the feeling of sex, and in what parts of his entire nature does that feeling find its elevating connections and associations? What are his special intellectual powers ? Is his intellect combative or con- templative ? What are the laws which chiefly preside over the associations of his ideas? What are the emotions which he feels most strongly, and how do his emotions coalesce with one another? Wonder, terror, awe, love, grief, hope, despon- dency, the benevolent affections, admiration and religious senti- ment, the moral sentiment, the emotion of power, irascible emotion, ideal emotion — how do these make themselves felt in and through his writings ? What is his feeling for the beau- tiful, the sublime, the ludicrous? Is he of weak or vigorous will ? In the conflict of motives, which class of motives with him is likely to predominate ? Is he framed to believe or framed to doubt? Is he prudent, just, temperate, or the re- verse of these ? These and like questions are not to be crudely and formally proposed, but are to be used with tact ; nor should the critic press for hard and definite answers, but know how skilfully to glean its meaning from an evasion. He is a dull cross- examiner who will invariably follow the scheme which he has thought out and prepared beforehand, and who cannot vary his questions to surprise or beguile the truth from an unwilling witness. But the tact which comes from natural ENGLISH IN SECONDARY EDUCATION 2$J gift and from experience may be well supported by something of method, — method well hidden away from the surface and from sight." 2. We may be interested in that form of comparative study which considers a piece of literature in its place in the devel- opment of the type. The De Coverley Papers fore- cast the emergence of the modern novel from the Development essay on men and manners, 1 and Goldsmith carries ' the development a little further in The Vicar of Wakefield, though still encumbered with the essayist's attitude of mind. Macbeth and King Lear are higher forms of art than their predecessors, the " tragedies of blood "of a few years earlier. So in the various forms of English Literature there is evident a continuous series of changes, sometimes in the development to more perfect types, sometimes in the decadence of perfected types. These changes are evident in both form and content. (i) In form, such work as that of Fielding in the eighteenth century and Jane Austen in the nineteenth century are excel- lent examples of progress towards a definite organic structure unknown to the early periods of English ' prose fiction. Certain metrical developments, like the blank verse of Shakspere and Milton and the heroic couplets of Dryden and Pope ; the clear and direct prose of the eighteenth century, and the equally clear and more flowing prose of the nineteenth century, are examples of another development in form. (2) More interesting to most readers is the development of ideas and their expression in literature. What Addison and Steele tell us of the thought and feeling of the and Content. London of Queen Anne, what Jane Austen and Shelley and Byron give us of the forms of thought a century later, and the full light thrown upon the intellectual life of England by later poets and novelists, are matters of surpassing interest. 2 1 See Cross's Development of the English Novel, New York, 1900. 2 See, for example, Vida D. Scudder's Social Ideals in English Litera- ture, Boston, 1900. 17 258 ENGLISH IN SECONDARY EDUCATION (3) The judgment of a piece of literature is, by general admission, most fascinating and most difficult. Every book Critical we rea d challenges us to a critical estimate, and Study. a u Q f USj no ma tter how unqualified we may be by native gifts and experience, respond to the challenge by mak- ing our estimate of its value. And yet, though we are thus constrained to pass judgment upon our literary as upon our other experiences, the history of contemporary criticism pre- sents a series of blunders perhaps more egregious and amusing than any other field of thought. With a few brilliant excep- tions, the only safe criticism is the result of the accumulated verdicts of several generations. Nor is the criticism of books seen in their due perspective of time in much better case. Where there is agreement that the book or the author is great, there is the widest difference as to what the nature of the greatness is. Shakspere is variously commended for his art, his wisdom, or his learning ; and those who find one of these qualities often deny or ignore the others. Such difficulties proceed in part from the lack of agreement in the fundamen- tals of aesthetics, in part from the personal bias which enters so largely into our appreciation of any form of art, in part from general ignorance of the field in which the criticism is made, in part from the lack of mental powers and of that peculiar sensitiveness which is a lesser form of the same qualities that make the poet. Notwithstanding the limitation upon our power of criticism, it is neither to be expected nor desired that we should cease to exercise our judgment. The judgment grows by exercise even of a crude sort. What is to be deprecated is a readiness to form dogmatic conclusions, and to ignore the value of wide knowledge and experience. As a matter of fact, in most of our thoughtful reading we are interested in all the foregoing questions. We seek to know the author better and to get his peculiar message for us, to place the book in its proper relation in the historical develop- ment in our literature, and to judge of its actual value as a revelation of life and a thing of beauty. Different works do, however, interest us in greater degrees in one or other of these ENGLISH IN SECONDARY EDUCATION 259 topics : sometimes it is the historical aspect, sometimes the personal element, sometimes the mere beauty of the work that attracts us. The selection of the present uniform series of books known as " the college entrance requirements " is discussed elsewhere. As they form the bulk of the English curriculum in most schools, and as they also include all the types of literature that are studied, — the novel, the essay, the lyric, the romantic narrative poem, and the drama, — with the distinctive traits of most of the literary groups from Shakspere to Tennyson, it will be most convenient to discuss the teaching of literature through them as examples. In fiction the primary interest is in the story. To get a full and clear knowledge of the story is the first thing. Such knowledge must include a vivid imagining of the The study of action, and a perception of the order and arrange- the Hovel - ment of the incidents, — particularly where they are related as cause and effect. To decry the interest in the mere story is to misapprehend the value and purpose of this form of art. In good fiction the story is the embodiment of the author's view of some phase of human life, given not in abstract terms but as a concrete vision. Its great value lies not only in its powerful appeal to our interest and its effect upon our emotions, but also in the persistence with which it lives in our memory, ready to take on new and deeper meaning as we reinterpret it in the light of wider experience and deeper thought. What the later centuries with their modified points of view have added to the meaning of such works as Don Quixote and The Merchant of Venice, the individual man may do with the memories of stories read in his boyhood. The plot should be studied not only to be known as a story, but in its structure, as a thing of parts skilfully built to pro- duce a unified effect. 1 The introduction, in its function of 1 See the volume on Narration, by W. T. Brewster, New York, 1895, and the bibliography there given for the study of narration. See also 260 ENGLISH IN SECONDARY EDUCATION fixing the story in time and place, of presenting the characters, or of giving the tone of the narrative, or of all these func- tions, should be noted. The development of the The Plot . . . . . . . - . . , plot by incident, the interweaving of principal and subordinate plots and their points of contact, the arrange- ment of the action in certain large and vivid scenes, with lesser incidents between, as in Ivanhoe, the climax of the action, and the unravelling of the plot to its denouement should be carefully noted. Throughout all such study the question of the probability of the action, 1 its truth to human life, and its use of ordinary or extraordinary means, will serve to stimulate interest and understanding. It is worth while to ask, for example, whether so skilful and probable a story as Silas Marner is not impaired by the employment of the hero's cataleptic trances in the two crises of his history, or by the use of the stone-pit for the obvious convenience of the author in abstracting and restoring the hero's gold at con- venient seasons ; or whether the probability of The Rime of the Ancient Mariner, as a spiritual experience, is impaired by the impossibility of its material events. Closely related to the study of plot is that of character. In the higher type of narrative, the interest in plot is bound up with the interest in character : plot is the means by which character is set forth and developed, the author's medium of portraying human life. In the study of fiction, therefore, we note the interaction between plot and character ; we are interested in seeing how each affects or determines the other. The portrayal of character is also in- teresting apart from the plot. The celebrated characters of literature are types of human nature, throwing into high relief its various phases. By acquaintance with them we not only widen our knowledge of the world of men and women about Crawshaw's Interpretation of Liter ahtre, New York, 1896, and The Study of Prose Fiction, by Bliss Perry, Boston, 1902. 1 See Chapters II. and III. in Butcher's Aristotle's Theory of Poetry and Fine Art, London, 1896, and Woodberry's Heart of Man, New York, 1900. ENGLISH IN SECONDARY EDUCATION 26 1 us, but become more definitely conscious of what we ourselves are, actually or potentially. Each of us finds in himself the counterpart of the simple Vicar, the ambitious Macbeth, the unreasonable Lear, or even the witty, boastful, and evasive Falstaff. It is not to be expected that pupils in the secondary school will make minute analysis of traits of character. Such a re- quirement usually leads them into vague attempts at classifica- tion and dulls their interest. But they can be led to see and name the salient points, to note how the character is made to reveal himself, and to see in the revelation some phase of our common human nature, either in the type as it stands or in the relationship held by the character to the life about him. But plot and character in their interrelations are, as has been said, the means by which the author presents his thoughts and feelings about life, that is, his interpretation of interpreta- life. What this large effect of the story is, may tion - well be considered. We must ask, What does the work mean as a whole ? What is the author's own dominant interest in the story? Where do his sympathies lie? How would he state his idea in simple form, if, like Hawthorne in his American Notes, he had made jottings of ideas to be embodied in stories? It is not assumed here that every story has a moral purpose. The author's aim may be as purely aesthetic as is that of the artist who paints a rose. Between Scott and George Eliot one feels a wide difference in ethical interest. But it is just as pertinent to ask ourselves the aim and interest in a romance by the former as in a novel by the latter. In the study of fiction as here suggested, the teacher must exercise a large freedom. Some books may be touched lightly, others in greater detail ; in the same book different parts will receive quite different degrees of attention. Above all things, the work must not become formal and mechanical, but must keep alive the interest in the movement and meaning of the story. As an example of the fuller treatment an analysis of 262 ENGLISH IN SECONDARY EDUCATION Chapter XII. of Silas Marner may be taken. 1 The pupils may be asked to note how the introductory sentence is transitional ; what motives had driven Godfrey's wife forth on her errand ; what her life and experience had been, and how these extenu- ated her wrong-doing; what part mere chance had in the entrance of the child ; what memories of recent and remote events drew Silas to the child ; what part his simple and super- stitious nature had in the event; what point the story has now reached in its development ; what skill the author shows in analyzing mental states, and in giving a clear picture. Reference has already been made to the various types of literature represented in the ordinary high school course. Variety of Within the field of fiction we have the psycholog- Treatment. ical novel in Silas Marner, the historical romance in Ivanhoe, and the novel of men and manners closely related to the essay in The Vicar of Wakefield. Each of these types naturally demands a somewhat different treatment. In the first, the interest is mainly in plot and its relation to the evolu- tion of character ; in the second it is the creation of an inter- esting and romantic story, wherein appear the life and ideals of a vanished age; in the third, the portrayal of a group of characters with the simple foibles and virtues of the author, and their behaviour in adversity. It is well to have, in teaching any book, some large aim Silas Marner: which shall be coincident with the author's own pur- its Theme. pose. Such an aim George Eliot has given in Silas Marner. In the quotation prefixed she announces her theme : " A child, more than all other gifts That earth can offer to declining man, Brings hope with it and forward looking thoughts." This is the idea exemplified in the story, and in its skilful working out appear the excellent structure, genuine feeling, and real insight of the book. 1 Many of the college entrance requirements texts now have excellent lists of questions suggestive of topics and points of view. ENGLISH IN SECONDARY EDUCATION 263 In the beginning there must be a situation of hopelessness. This is brought about by depriving the hero at one blow of his friendship, his love, and his religion. That he may lose these he is made simple and helpless in the catastrophe that be- falls him. That he may continue estranged from his fel- low-men, he is placed in a new environment, where strangers are rare, where both his appearance and his craft seem strange, and where even the forms of religion are unintel- ligible to him. Here his estrangement is at once fixed by his growing love of gold, even while we see that the heart of the man is sound because he still has need of something to love. When the time draws near for his regen- eration, he is first deprived of his gold, and then given the child to love under circumstances which link it peculiarly with his love for his gold and with the tenderest memories of his own childhood. From this point on the story concerns itself with the gradual reunion of Silas with his fellow-men, in the resumption of the right and normal relations through the influ- ence of the child. The secondary plot, the story of the Cass family, is made to touch the main story in a natural and effective way for devel- oping the character of Silas : in the theft of the subordinate money, in the appearance of the child, and finally Parts - in the opportunity given to Eppie to reward her foster-fathers love. While subordinate to the main plot, the story of the house of Cass has also its own meaning and purpose. The episodes which reveal the simple community life, though brief and infrequent, are worth study for their humorous sympathy, their skilful portrayal of character, and their representation of simple rustic life. The personality of the author as expressed in her sympathies and interests is easily to be seen. She touches the ignorance and prejudices of these rustic folk with a broad and kindly spirit, whether dealing with their foibles or points of their untutored religious beliefs ; she is deeply iew interested in the problems of right living, and in showing not only the relation between the characters and their environ- 264 ENGLISH IN SECONDARY EDUCATION ment, but also their development under these influences; her method is not only to present, but to explain ; and her atti- tude towards the life she presents includes those of both the artist and the philosophical thinker. In these things she was of the nineteenth century, with its scientific interests and its social and humanitarian sympathies. 1 The historical romance, represented in the curriculum in Ivanhoe and The Last of the Mohicans, has been justly re- The Historical girded as a type of special importance. This Romance. importance is due to the fact that it is one of the most interesting types to the juvenile mind, and to the relation- ship between it and the more exact subject of history. i. Its interest for young people lies in its strong action, "high speeches," and strenuous ideals, and in part in the im- pression it is able to create of being a " true story." Reaching, as it does in the best instances, the higher standards of art, it is therefore one of the best means of cultivating a genuine love of reading, and as such should not only hold a place in the curriculum, but should be made the definite starting-point for further incursions into the field of historical fiction, whether prose or poetry. The ballad, the battle lyric, the metrical romance, and the epic can be shown to be artistic presentations of ideas and feelings that have their ultimate roots in or have clustered round some definite historical experience, and there- fore to have a kind of obvious reality. 2. Its relationship to history is frequently alleged as the ground upon which to base the teaching of the historical novel. It is argued (i) that it will impart many valuable historical ideas, (2) that it will incite to further historical study and in- vestigation. Counter arguments are also made to the effect (1) that it is utterly unreliable as history, 2 and is therefore not 1 One of the best studies of George Eliot is by Frederic Harrison, in Early Victorian Literature, London and New York, 1895 5 printed also in the Forum, vol. xx. 2 See Freeman's Methods of Historical Study, New York, 1886, and his Norman Conquest, New York, 1880, for an opinion on the historicity of Ivanhoe. ENGLISH IN SECONDARY EDUCATION 26$ only worthless but injurious, because it presents the false ideas so attractively, and (2) that the pupil is more likely to rest content with the fascinating falsehood than to go in search of the dry truth. Amid such conflicting opinions the truth is not easy to discover. It may, however, be maintained (1) that much of the matter in good historical novels is true history, though mingled with error, (2) that history is thereby rendered more attractive because it is interpreted and made more human, and (3) that pupils will sometimes be incited by the historical novel to a further reading of history. But all this discussion seems to me to miss the main point. The historical novel is literature, and as literature it is to be judged and taught. Like all other literature, its fundamental interest is in human experience, its fundamental purpose to present human experience in an attractive, coherent, convinc- ing manner, and to keep itself true to human nature. The mixture of dates in Shakspere's King Henry the Eighth x does invalidate the play as history, but does not impair its truth as a presentation of human character. The story is worked out with a verisimilitude of fact and a truth to human nature which are of a high order of art. The whole question must be carried back to the time-honoured distinction between historic and po- etic truth. 2 As Aristotle pointed out, the poet — and the plea includes the novelist — is not concerned so much with a true record of fact as with a presentation of human life that shall be true in that it faithfully represents human nature. It is the old distinction between fact and truth, between the real and the ideal. It must be granted, however, that the novelist who chooses a historical field thereby conditions his freedom. While he gains in interest by selecting what is already known to his 1 See the list of misplaced events given in the notes of the Rolfe edition, New York, 1894. 2 See Butcher's Aristotle's Theory of Poetry and Fine Art, London and New York, 1896; Mallock's "The Relation of Art to Truth," Forum, IX. 36, and Paul Leicester Ford's " The Historical Novel," Atlantic Monthly, December, 1897. 266 ENGLISH IN SECONDARY EDUCATION readers, and in apparent truth by keeping within the range of known historical facts, he runs the risk of forfeiting our belief by distortion of facts with which we are familiar. Anachro- nisms are harmless to the unlearned or in unknown fields ; but they are disturbing when they overturn our settled and familiar memories ; and the novelist is expected to convey a true general impression of the life and spirit of the period he presents. Thus the necessity of historical accuracy in fiction is seen to be in a certain ratio to the general historical information of the reader. It was of less value to Shakspere than to Scott, and of less value to Scott than to any one of the present generation of historical romancers. If the foregoing arguments are valid, we should select for the curriculum the historical novels which are the best as novels, and treat them in the same way as other types of fictitious narrative. The impossibility of Cooper's Red Man as a his- torical concept is perhaps a blemish, but the truth of his borVs to the spirit of pioneer life is an excellence to offset many blemishes. With all his antiquarian interests and achieve- ments, 1 Scott had not the point of view of the modern scientific historian; but he had a spacious imagination, a capacious and well-filled memory, a wholesome spirit, true insight into human nature, and the creative powers of a great artist. A few suggestions may be permitted here as to the treatment of Ivanhoe. In structure it contains a few great scenes, the intervals between these filled with minor incidents leading up to or growing out of the larger scenes ; where it is merely episodic, there is sufficient interest in the episodes to justify their presence. It is full of detailed repro- duction of a vanished age, with its customs, manners, and ideals. Its characters are diverse, often strongly drawn, but unequal in treatment, the more chivalrous types being gener- 1 The introductions to his novels show that Scott constantly strove to present life either as he believed it to have been in history or as he saw it in his own time. ENGLISH IN SECONDARY EDUCATION 267 ally inferior in vividness to the wicked or the homely. Its action is free and varied, its spirit romantic, its tone as whole- some as the forest air breathed by Robin Hood and his band, though it has no ethical purpose, and can hardly be said to have any definite theme. It is, above all things, a story told in a succession of interesting pictures. These considerations should determine its treatment. Collateral reading of other tales of chivalry, information upon points relating to interest- ing customs and ideas here presented, and pictures to help in realizing the ideas, will often be of value. But it is not to be studied minutely : nothing o r Scott's is. It is to be read, imagined, enjoyed. Its diction and its structure are possibly the only things that require any study ; and these are not diffi- cult. The book will be of most value if the teacher can come to know its qualities more fully than we have outlined them, and bring the class to know the story well and to enter into its spirit. The Vicar of Wakefield differs widely in type from the books just discussed. With adults it is almost safe to say that enjoyment of this classic is a test of a culti- The Vicar of vated mind, but it is by no means so sure to please Wakefield - boys and girls. It presupposes a mellowness of judgment and a fulness of experience which few young minds can of them- selves reach by imaginative sympathy. Its theme, similar to that of the Book of Job, is clear enough and interesting enough, but so badly developed, so full of improbabilities and cheap devices of plot that it wins scant respect from young readers. Its frequent essay-like digressions render it tedious to them ; and its philosophy of life is somewhat too mild and simple for their crude taste. And yet the book may be successfully taught. It is recommended that in this one instance the teacher begin with the biography of the author. The lives of Goldsmith written by Irving, William Black, 1 and Austin Dob- son 2 should first be well known by the teacher; then such 1 English Men of Letters Series, London and New York. 2 Great Writers Series, London. 268 ENGLISH IN SECONDARY EDUCATION gleanings regarding Goldsmith as may be found in Boswell and other contemporary sources. To this let him add a fair knowl- edge of the contemporary literary history, a familiarity with the best Goldsmith criticism, and a love of this gentle-spirited classic, and he should be ready for his work. If he begins by telling the class about the author, personalia being here the things of prime importance and rich enough in themselves to occupy an entire lesson, and then explains to the class that the book is not to be read for its plot, but for its reflection of the man Goldsmith, for its quiet, mellow humour, its portrayal of simple domestic virtues, and its subtle shadings of character, he will have removed from the path of the class the principal stumbling-block. SPhese things should be kept in mind throughout the reading of the book, and recalled and reinforced as they are suggested in the course of the work. Like most works touched with humour, it is shy of the analytic spirit, and yields most pleasure when it is read aloud. There are certain facts of literary history connected with the book which should be noticed. It stands between the completely developed novel and the essay, which is one of the literary forms out of which the modern novel emerged. It be- longs also in the long series of pastoral literature beginning with Theocritus and extending its influence to our own day ; and like all pastoral literature celebrates the virtues that are supposed to flourish in a life of simplicity. It stands about midway in the romantic revival which began in the first half and culmi- nated in the end of the eighteenth century, and reflects many of the features common to that revival : tenderness, kindly humour, and sympathy with lowly life. Midway between the novel and the essay stand The De Qoverley Papers, easily the most famous examples of peri- odical literature in the English language. Without De Coverley the help of a good teacher, they may seem dull to the pupils ; with such help they are very interest- ing. They furnish such a transcript of the life of the period that historians draw freely upon them. Reinforced by other numbers of The Spectator and by references to the social ENGLISH IN SECONDARY EDUCATION 269 life of the period in other sources, 1 the book becomes an attractive medium of entrance to this interesting period of history; its political interests, its coffee-houses, theatres and pleasure gardens, its rough sports, its exaggerated fashions, its frank interest in the things of this world, move vividly before us. No less interesting are these remarkable papers for their place in the development of literary types. In the midst of a large body of satirical and didactic literature they are conspic- uous, not only for their impersonality and urbanity of tone, but for their rare success in winning large popularity among the very readers whose follies and vices they hold up to pleasant ridicule. As the beginning of the modern novel, we note the interest in contemporary life, the rudimentary plot in the club as a centre for the characters, the presentation of types of character, and especially the fine poetic idealization of the good Sir Roger. 2 It is not a book for minute study, but rather for that easier kind of reading in which one notes the graces of style and character, while he sees another type of civilization than his own paraded before him as an interesting spectacle. The essays in the college entrance requirement list are of the biographical and critical type now rare in our contem- porary literature of criticism, but of considerable interest historically. The two of Macaulay 3 deal with the life and work of men who are otherwise represented in the same list. Obviously there is good reason for reading 1 See especially John Ashton's Social Life in the Reign of Queen Anne, W. C. Sydney's England and the English in the Eighteenth Century, Traill's Social England, IV., Frances Burney's Evelina, and Green's History of the English People. 3 See Cross, The Development of the English Novel, New York, 1900, and Walter Raleigh's The English Novel, New York, 1895. 3 The essays on Milton and Addison. The essay on Johnson has re- cently been substituted for the former. The wisdom of this substitution I am inclined to doubt. The historical interest, the lifelike pictures of the Puritans and the Cavaliers, and the clear argument in the former are not equalled by anything in the latter. The main ground of objection to the essay on Milton, its false theory of poetry, can easily be removed by any teacher who knows his subject well enough to make an appeal to the facts. 270 ENGLISH IN SECONDARY EDUCATION them not too remotely from the works they criticise. What Macaulay thinks of the work and character of these two men will be our principal interest. His impressions are to be clearly understood and compared with those already formed by the class, and, it may be, with critical judgments found elsewhere. His estimate of the man as apart from his work and as expressed in his work is to be clearly grasped. In fact, in these, as in all the books, understanding the content is the first and most important thing. But besides the content, the form and method are to be somewhat carefully studied. Each essay is built upon a clear plan, easily divisible into large sections, and these sections again into smaller topics. The transi- tions between them are clear and natural. The minor units, paragraph and sentence, are also to be considered. The topics or topic-sentences of paragraphs should be found ; the method of clear and orderly development, usually from the general to the particular, from the abstract to the concrete, by which Macaulay makes his paragraphs not merely units but pictures, should be noted. His frequent use of the antithesis,, his terseness of sentence structure, and other obvious qualities of his style should be seen. But the study of style has its dangers in the secondary school. It is not of much interest to boys and girls, and must be dealt with not only in moderation but, above all, in that clear and rational method of study which avoids meaningless generalizations and cites definite instances within the comprehension of the class. If we bear in mind that " English is one subject," we shall want to make prominent always the value of this or that point of style in rendering expression effective. In the present dis- position to rehabilitate Macaulay's it is again safe to reiterate that he is one of the very best authors from whom to learn to write. His clearness, his lack of subtlety, his comparative uniformity of method are, pedagogically speaking, good ; and even his faults are of that obvious kind which cannot mislead the master or do injury to the apprentice. ENGLISH IN SECONDARY EDUCATION 271 What has been said above about Macaulay's essays applies in part to the study of Carlyle's Essay on Burns. Here, too, the content is the main thing, and familiarity with some of the work of the poet criticised is essential. Although this essay does not afford such valuable opportunities for detailed study, the study of the structure of the whole essay and of the paragraphs will naturally be made. Although belonging to oratory rather than to the essay, Burke's Speech on Conciliation will, we believe, be best studied along the lines indicated above. The student will need to know the history involved, and to note the skilful way in which Burke marshals facts and arguments, anticipates and answers objections, and reaches the feelings by appealing to the convictions of his audience. The other essays form good examples through which to make clear the principles of exposition ; this serves to illustrate both exposi- tion and argument. In general, the essay is not an attractive form of literature to young readers. But a plan of study which makes it yield ideas can secure respect for it and go far towards making it agreeable. In fact, though the essay has not the attractiveness of a poem or a story to imaginative children, it does have an obvious intellectual weight and definiteness which put it along- side the serious work in other subjects of the curriculum. To many good teachers of English the teaching of poetry is a peculiar pleasure, to others a peculiar difficulty. As poetry is more condensed than prose, more allusive and The Teaching indirect, more imaginative and more dependent of Poetl 7' upon form, it is harder to read, and therefore affords more opportunities to the teacher; as it is more subtle, more in- tangible, more in the realm of emotion and less in the realm of exact intellectual activities, it is less subject to treatment by any prescribed method. Of course we know that it is to be understood and appreciated. But the mere understanding of it is so bound up with emotional experiences, that explain- ing it is often as impossible for the teacher as for the pupil : the explanation of poetry is often worse than the explanation 272 ENGLISH IN SECONDARY EDUCATION of humour. Much of the pleasure in reading poetry comes in the perception of the exquisite blending of musical speech, beauty of picture and emotional tone. But neither this nor any other summary of the qualities of poetry is adequate. The wide range of effects attained can be known only by familiarity with good poetry and good interpretative criticism. A survey of the many good editions now in print of the college entrance books, with their notes and questions for students and teachers, will of itself convince that there is much that is both definite and stimulating to be done in the study of poetry. In spite of the difficulties of the work, there are many teachers as successful in the interpretative study of poetry in the classroom as are the critics in their essays. The task of the teacher is, indeed, not essentially different from that of the writer of interpretative studies, except in the methods of approach. Narrative poems demand the same treatment as to theme, structure, character, and general tone as do prose narratives. What they have beyond these in finish of expres- The Rime of ... the Ancient sion and imaginative glamour may also be felt and pointed out. Few poems present all these qualities in so high degree as The Rime of the Ancient Mariner. Its theme is clear and definite, its structure orderly and compact, its finish of expression almost faultless, and the imaginative glamour almost unique. There are so many things to be noted in studying it that there is danger of giving it too much rather than too little time. Some of the most obvious things may here be mentioned. Its style is like the ballads, to which form it is akin ; swift in movement, terse in expression, giving few but suggestive details, so that it requires careful reading and an alert imagination. Its simplicity of language, its richness in rhyme effects, its perfection of rhythm, and its striking use of repetitions are to be noted. From the begin- ning the presence of the supernatural in its theme is indicated in the manner of the Mariner. It begins and ends with the wedding feast and the unwilling auditor as an every-day back- ground, keeps constantly before us the idea of the Mariner's ENGLISH IN SECONDARY EDUCATION 273 crime in the violation of the higher law of kindliness, 1 and leads us on into the story as worked out in the hero's con- science not only by his sufferings but by all the supernatural machinery of the poem. Its climax or turning-point, where the Mariner's hardness of heart is melted and he can love any living creature, is expressed again in the poet's own interpreta- tion of his tale, — " He prayeth best who loveth best All things, both great and small." There are three things in the poem which frequently interfere with the enjoyment of it by young readers : its condensed style, its grisly horrors, and its impossible setting. The first should be no great obstacle, if there be required a careful reading, assisted by wise and skilful suggestions from the teacher. The second is likely to loom up large : it sometimes seems that the poet has revelled in mere horrors; but the teacher can show their place in working out the Mariner's change of heart, and their fitness in a tale of the untravelled waste of sea, around which superstitious horrors have always gathered ; and he can dwell upon the many passages of pure beauty until these latter overcome the others in the pupil's mind. To an imaginative child the third point offers no more difficulty than the usual machinery of fairyland. But the more prosaic type of pupil may demand some reason for all this super- natural machinery. He must be brought to see that literature is concerned primarily, not with the natural facts of external nature, but with the experiences of the human soul ; _that its claim to wide liberty in dealing with the material world has been long conceded ; and that in the present instance the subversion of the laws of the external world not only helps to create the imaginative glamour which is one of the charms of the poem, but, by keeping in close and constant parallel with the mental experiences of the Mariner, serves also to impress upon us the emotions that he felt, — is, in brief, an artistic 1 See, for example, how each of the several parts closes with a reference to the albatross. 18 274 ENGLISH IN SECONDARY EDUCATION method of making those experiences concrete and vivid. The first appeal in literature is usually to the imagination and the emotions. But if the way to these needs to be prepared by an appeal to the reason, there can surely be no objection to such an approach. Among the difficult books to teach is Tennyson's The Prin- cess. Its theme not only lies without the usual range of interests of secondary pupils, but often seems to The Princess. , . . . ; . . _, them a mere making of words over nothing. The story itself is so overlaid with ornament and allusion that it is not easy to follow ; and the mixture of ancient and modern, of serious and burlesque, taxes their patience. On the other hand, the poem is so permeated with the thought and feeling of the nineteenth century that it can be brought within the comprehension and approval of most pupils. First, the story should be read and known clearly. Then its theme, or quest, and the author's answer to the problem can be considered. After this the art of the poem should be studied. The medley element, consisting not merely in the composite manner of narration, but also in its mixture of ancient and modern, of serious and absurd, and in its union of different types of poetry, lyric, romantic, epic, and pastoral, 1 can be shown to be an appropriate form of art in which to present the half-serious, half-absurd problem of the poem. The function of the songs sung by the women in the interludes, and presenting the ideals of love of men and women and their love for child- hood, can be pointed out, and their lyric beauty be felt and remembered. The fitness of the characters, various types clearly drawn, for working out the theme, can be shown. A forecast of the form, the spirit, and the material is seen in the prologue. The humour, varying from keen satire to the most delicate and good-humoured banter, should be noted; and the prejudice against the poem which girls are prone to feel on this account be removed by calling their attention to 1 See the song, "Come down, O maid, from yonder mountain height." ENGLISH IN SECONDARY EDUCATION 2J$ the fact that neither sex escapes the banter, and that the cause of women is really treated with chivalrous consideration. The poem is rich in allusions and memories of other literature ; so rich, indeed, that only a part of its wealth can be appreciated by young readers. It is rich also in pictures, "the purple patches " in which form, colour, and sound unite in composite effects of a high order. 1 While it is conceded that the poem is difficult to teach, it can be maintained not only that the poem can be and often is well taught, but that few things in the curriculum have as great cultural value as this rich, high- wrought, beautiful classic. The minor poems of Milton which appear in the " college entrance list " are L Allegro, II Penseroso, Lycidas, and Comus. 2 The first two are simple in theme, and of obvious Ma^^g unity in purpose and effect. It can be shown how M*™* Poems, the mood in each is presented simply by the selection of appro- priate details ; 3 how the two poems are parallel in structure while opposite in effect ; and how each of them reflects Milton the lover of books, art, and nature rather than Milton the Puritan. The beauty of individual passages will hardly need to be pointed out. But the allusions and the archaic diction will demand some serious study : how much, the teacher must judge for each class, that he may strike the right mean be- tween too little and too much. Lycidas is a difficult poem. Its unity is by no means apparent, and has often been doubted in quarters of high authority ; unity of tone it certainly has not. Its diction and machinery, literary and conventional in the highest degree, are the descendants of a long line ol pastoral poetry, very little of which is known to the secondary pupil. It is as condensed 4 as it is possible for good English to be, and neither its theme nor its spirit is near to modern 1 See especially the closing lines in Parts II. and III. 2 It is to be regretted that some of Milton's great sonnets have not been included. 3 See Newman's Aristotle's Poetics, New York, 1894. 4 See Ruskin's analysis, cited above, p. 252. 2/6 ENGLISH IN SECONDARY EDUCATION readers. On the other hand, its beauty of verse and picture catch the imagination and leave a sense of dignity rarely sur- passed; no pupil of sensibility can regard this poem with contempt. To be understood and enjoyed it must be studied ; its pastoral machinery must be translated, mentally at least, into ordinary and modern forms of thought, until the words of the poem come to convey at once and directly to the reader the ideas that Milton had. If it is not enjoyed then, the blame rests in the same places as does the responsibility for the pupil's mental endowments and his previous training. Comus is equally difficult : its high and impassioned oratory and imagery are condensed and philosophical; of character and action it has little or none ; its theme arouses no special interest. Its dignity and sonorousness of diction, and a certain awesomeness in its general tone, the pupil can feel. If it is read mainly for these qualities, and as a monument of a vanished form of art standing somewhere between the drama and the opera, it is more likely to be appreciated than if read for the story or for the human interest. Like the other minor poems of Milton here dis- cussed, it should certainly leave behind it a respect for its beauty and intellectual weight, and convince the pupil that the highest pleasures in literature are not to be had without the price of labor. A drama is more difficult to read than a story. Action, description, and motive are usually given directly in narrative writing ; in the drama they are given indirectly or left to the reader's inference. The form, broken into scenes and acts, is harder to imagine as a unified whole than the more continuous form of narrative. In general, the teacher will have to see to it that the pupil understands the characters in their relation to the action, and the separate scenes in their relation to the whole play. For illustration of these and other things to be consid- ered in the drama, the following topics are chosen from Macbeth : — ENGLISH IN SECONDARY EDUCATION 277 1. The source of the story, its original form, and its modifi- cation in Shakspere's hands. m , . ...,,. 1 Macbeth. 2. The opening scenes, giving m their natural environment and in the introduction of the Witches a sort of keynote to the play. 3. The position of Macbeth, the promises of the Witches, the fulfilment of a part of these promises, and the stirring of more ambitious hopes in him. 4. The evidences for and against the belief that Macbeth had conceived the murder before he met the Witches; the nature and degree of his responsibility. 5. Lady Macbeth's part in inciting him to the crime; her methods and her motives. 6. The descriptive elements attending the crime : means of arousing terror, such as the sounds that Macbeth hears in the murder scene and the knocking at the gate. 7. Macbeth's character : his fears of the uncertain or unknown, his excitable imagination, the nature of his scruples, his motives ; how these are employed later in leading him to his destruction. 8. The part of Banquo in the first and second acts. 9. The change in Macbeth's motives, terror added to ambition ; the recklessness with which he plunges into crime on his own initiative. 10. The change in Lady Macbeth. n. The banquet scene: how prepared for in preceding scenes, how made effective, its part in determining the future of Macbeth. 12. Macduff as the leader of the avenging force. Where he first appears in this light, and his actions in succeeding scenes. 13. Lady Macbeth's diminishing prominence in the play: her break-down ; the sleep-walking scene, how made effective. 14. The irony or Nemesis in the play : how it is shown that Macbeth's hopes are disappointed, his deeds react upon him- self, and his troubles spring ultimately from what was in himself at the beginning of the play. 278 ENGLISH IN SECONDARY EDUCATION 15. Macbeth as a tragic hero: how far he satisfies the accepted canons of dramatic criticism. These few topics out of many that might be suggested will serve to illustrate the richness of the drama as a subject of study. Free discussion, taking in all parts of the play, should be encouraged. It is most essential that pupils should read carefully, know clearly the meanings of the sentences, and learn to bring to the interpretation of one part of the play what they have found in another. In the drama as in other forms of poetry, the beauties of individual passages should be noted. Some of the speeches of Macbeth are proverbial for their high order of imaginative beauty. In all his teaching of literature the problem of the teacher begins, not with questions of method, but with matters of fact Questions of an d interpretation. If he knows his literature well, critically and in its historical relations, and if he has an alert and sympathetic type of mind, he has the best equipment for teaching it. But there are, nevertheless, certain questions of method to be considered, — questions which rest in part upon the literature chosen and in part upon the class to be taught. The principal point of doubt seems to be with re- gard to the amount of discussion and analytic work. Theories vary from a belief in merely reading the literature aloud in the classroom 1 to the advocacy of minute and searching questions upon every detail of the work. 2 In support of the first point of view it is often argued that literature appeals through the ear to the emotions, and that any intellectual treatment, analytic or otherwise, kills the spirit of it. The advocates of the second method seem to assume that every piece of good literature is a perfect work, a mosaic in which every word and idea have a definite and inevitable function which analysis will reveal. From both these extreme views I dissent. I believe that in the mere reading much of the best of a work is not appre- 1 See Corson, The Aims of Literary Study. 2 See, for example, Sherman's Analytics of Literature, Boston, 1892. ENGLISH IN SECONDARY EDUCATION 279 hended ; and I repose my belief not only on experience, but upon the endorsement of many wise men, from Bacon down to the present time. I dissent also from the theory that the intel- lectual activities necessarily kill emotion and destroy aesthetic pleasure. One needs only note the enthusiasm with which lovers of music and painting analyze effects and the means of pro- ducing them to see the inherent unsoundness of this general- ization. The poets, too, have often been the best critics, dwelling with interest upon the details of their own and others' work. It must not be forgotten that a large part of aesthetic pleasure proceeds from the activity of a trained mind : the perception of symmetry and unity, of the nice adjustment of means to ends, and of the fine sense of fitness between the parts of a work, is one of the highest rewards of the study of literature. It is a significant fact that the sentimentalists in the world of letters are usually formless and inchoate in their expression ; and it is a sentimental or an indolent mind that will not deal with literature on any other footing than an emo- tional one. It is true, of course, that there are some things that defy analysis, and other things that need none ; there are lyrics, for example, whose message goes straight to the heart and whose beauty eludes study. But these are not typical of literature in general ; most of it is best enjoyed when it satis- fies not only the feelings but also the reason. Few living writers have a more unquestioned rank in scholarship and taste than Dr. Furness, the Shaksperian scholar. His opinion on this point is characteristic and interesting : 1 — " We read our Shakespeare in varying moods. Hours there are, and they come to all of us, when we want no voice, charm it never so wisely, to break in upon Shakespeare's own words. If there be obscurity, we rather like it ; if the meaning be veiled, we prefer it veiled. Let the words flow on in their own sweet cadence, lulling our senses, charming our ears, and let all sharp quillets cease. When Amiens' gentle voice sings of 1 Introduction to As You Like It, edited by Dr. Horace Howard Furness, Philadelphia, 1892, 280 ENGLISH IN SECONDARY EDUCATION the winter wind that ' its tooth is not so keen because it is not seen, ' who of us ever dreams, until wearisome commentators gather mumbling around, that there is in the line the faintest flaw in ' logical sequence ' ? But this idle, receptive mood does not last forever. The time comes when we would fain catch every ray of light flashing from these immortal plays, and pluck the heart out of every mystery there ; and, then, we listen respectfully and gratefully to every suggestion, every passing thought, which obscure passages have stirred and awakened in minds far finer than our own. Then it is that we welcome every aid which notes can supply." What is here said of commentaries on Shakspere applies to the careful study of other classics. There is no essential conflict between study and enjoyment except to lazy minds, no essential obstacle to study except in dull minds. And both the dull and the lazy must remain without the gates of the literary garden of the Hesperides. It cannot be too often insisted that the " soft education" is not that which yields most profit, or, indeed, the truest pleasure to the student. Teachers of literature and those who write about the teaching of literature have too often assumed that this is the one field in which young students cannot be expected to unite work and pleas- ure ; and the interesting result is often that it becomes the one field of work which they do not respect. It is held that the proof of this is that an examination cannot be given in litera- ture. But a good teacher has many ways of finding out the pupils' comprehension and appreciation of what they have read. On the other hand, there are degrees and kinds of analytic treatment that do kill. When analysis is pushed to the point of finding fifty questions to ask on one brief scene of a play, we grow weary, and are ready to doubt the relevancy of the work. Analytic work may err in three ways : (i) It may go into such detail as to be tedious ; (2) it may assume a degree of artistry that the literature does not possess ; (3) it may, and often does, lead to untenable conclusions regarding the mean- ing and effect of the piece of literature under study, forcing into it ideas which exist only in the mind of the analyst. ENGLISH IN SECONDARY EDUCATION 28 1 What to discuss and where to stop the teacher must decide : he needs not only a knowledge of his class, but sound scholar- ship, good taste, and good sense, to save him from mistakes. One general principle seems to me to cover all such study : the analysis that reveals to the pupil new meanings within his power of comprehension, and new beauties within his power of appreciation, while keeping true to the spirit and tenor of the literature as it is known to scholars, — such analysis is not only safe, but of the very essence of good teaching. In such questioning of the meaning and spirit of the litera- ture as is here recommended, one naturally looks — though not with slavish dependence — to the critics, critical Most teachers of literature are under large obliga- Essa y s# tions to them. It is, I think, worth while to introduce pupils to such sources of enlightenment before they reach the college, — not to many such works, not to the inferior ones, but to a few of the best criticisms upon books which the pupils are reading or have read. There is nothing formidable about these writings, nor anything essentially different in their approach to literature from that which is made by the good teacher; they, too, are teachers who help us to see more meaning and more beauty in what we read. In general, however, they should be read after the classic itself is read. Literary biography is uninteresting to young people, and the reasons therefor have already been stated. 1 Exceptions to this are generally due either to the special skill of Literary the teacher or to unusual and, we may say, facti- B^sfrapMes. tious elements in the author's life and character. The even exterior and the quiet inward activity of the man of genius do not strike the imagination of the boy. In such instances the part that is of most significance, the relation between the man's life and his work, can seldom be grasped except by a mature and cultivated mind. The main facts of the lives of i See p. 179. 282 ENGLISH IN SECONDARY EDUCATION our principal authors should be learned in the high school, not so much for immediate as for future use. Every man of even moderate education is expected to be able to place Shakspere and Dryden and Wordsworth. And yet, if we were fearlessly honest, might we not be brought to admit that our sensi- tiveness on such points is a sign not of the value of the knowledge so much as of a certain standard of mental "respectability"? With stronger reasons we may urge the importance of the study in the high school of the general history of English liter- The History ature on both sides of the Atlan tic It is not an Literature attractive subject to the school boy, let us frankly admit. But in its general outlines, its larger move- ments, it presents a development of thought and feeling more or less evidently connected with the history of the people, and constituting an interesting and valuable chapter in the history of human thought. Such an outline should be more than a mere skeleton. It should be based upon a well-written text- book, and should be accompanied with enough incursions into the principal authors to get some sense of what they are like. If such a course succeeds in making the pupil feel a little more at home in the great body of our literature, and leaves in him the feeling that there are good things to be read at his later leisure all along the line between Chaucer and Tennyson, it will have more than justified itself. Such a course is probably best given after the reading of a number of the classics from various periods. After the class has read some of Shakspere, Milton, Addison, Goldsmith, Cole- ridge, Wordsworth, Scott, and Tennyson, has learned about their contemporaries and the characteristics of contemporary literature, a general survey of the three centuries would serve to fix in his mind the succession of great men and great liter- ary movements, not as a series of isolated phenomena, but as a continuous development and an expression of the thoughts and feelings of the English people. ENGLISH IN SECONDARY EDUCATION 283 Part m. — College Entrance [Requirements in English. BIBLIOGRAPHY Report of the Committee of Ten on Secondary School Studies. National Educational Association. 1894. Pp. 93-95. A Summary of the Proceedings of the Meetings of the Conference on Uniform Entrance Requirements in English. 1894-1899. See also the Reports of the Associations of Colleges and Preparatory Schools of the Middle States and Maryland. R. Jones. College Entrance English. University of the State of New York. Examination Bulletin, June, 1897. Report of Committee on College Entrance Requirements. National Educational Association. July, 1899. Pp. 12-19. Reports of the Committee on Composition and Rhetoric to the Board of Overseers of Harvard College. 1892; April, 1895; June, 1897. For special bibliography of the discussion aroused by these reports, see B. A. Hinsdale, Teaching the Language-Arts, p. ix, and P. N. Scott, Contributions to Rhetorical Theory, IV., References on the Teaching of Rhetoric and Composition. English in the Secondary Schools. A Plan for Work in English adapted to the Programmes of the Committee of Ten. Harvard University. 1897. Twenty Years of School and College English. Harvard University. 1896. H. A. Beers. Entrance Requirements in English at Yale. Educa- tional Review, III. 427. E. L. Godkin. The Illiteracy of American Boys. Educational Review, XIII. 1. Suggestions for Teachers and Students, in the editions of books pre- scribed for study contained in Longmans' English Classics, and especially F. B. Gummere, Merchant of Venice, pp. xlii-xlviii. The question now arises, In what particulars, if any, should the course in English vary from the general form described when pupils intend to continue their liberal educa- The present tion* beyond the high school? To answer this statlls - question properly it is necessary, first, to understand the present requirements in English for admission to colleges in the United States. Reference has already been made to the growth of entrance requirements in English, and to the part which they have played in secondary instruction in English. Up to 284 ENGLISH IN SECONDARY EDUCATION about 1875 there were few or no colleges that attempted to test candidates in this subject. By 1885 an entrance examination was already firmly established at Harvard and at several other institutions, and by 1890 the practice was widespread. 1 At first these examinations were almost invariably conducted with a view to testing grammatical and rhetorical correctness of expression, but about 1890 it came to be more generally desired that they should also test to some extent a candidate's acquaint- ance with English literature. In the last decade of the century three special causes led to a widely prevalent feeling that the whole question of entrance examinations in English should be dealt with from a broader and more scientific point of view. First, the admirable Report of the Committee of Ten (1894) formulated, with marked success, the whole secondary work in English, and attempted to outline the essential elements of a sound entrance examination in that subject. Second, the Reports of the Committee on Composition and Rhetoric to the Board of Overseers of Harvard College (1892-1897) showed plainly that Harvard at least was apparently asking of its candi- dates a greater rhetorical accuracy than could ordinarily be obtained. 2 Third, the preparatory schools were completely 1 See W. C. Collar, "Action of the Colleges upon the Schools," Educational Review, December, 1891. 2 The Harvard Reports were unsatisfactory in several respects. First, the committee appointed consisted not of experts, but merely of prominent citizens with a general interest in education. Second, the methods of procedure were unscientific, and the results, though suggestive, far from definitive. Third, the intent of the reports seemed to throw the burden of blame upon the preparatory schools, though, as the college had been admitting in large numbers boys whose training was thus shown to be grossly defective, it would logically appear that the fault, as well as the remedy, lay largely with the college authorities. The reports were useful, however, in stimulating the schools to renewed efforts in raising the college standard and in bringing about a more general discussion of the question. The most interesting point involved, in our opinion, was the alleged illiteracy of American youth as compared with those of other nations and with American youth of a generation or / ENGLISH IN SECONDARY EDUCATION 285 bewildered by the diverse requirements of the different colleges, some of which demanded rhetorical correctness in expression and others an acquaintance with English literature, and all in different degrees and on the basis of somewhat different sets of prescribed books. At this juncture the Association of Colleges and Preparatory Schools of the Middle States and Maryland appointed a committee of teachers of English in various schools and colleges, to bring about if possible a uni- formity of requirements among the colleges in its district. This committee wisely suggested to other similar associations the appointment of similar committees, and met in conference with them. The result was a general agreement on certain definite and uniform regulations for entrance examinations in English, which were subsequently recommended by the asso- ciations and adopted by almost all the colleges in the United States. The uniform requirements recommended in 1894 by the Conference, and now in general use throughout the United States, consist of an examination in composition and an examination in literature. The first is Requirements based on . a list of about ten books, prescribed for " reading ; " the second, on a list of four or five books, prescribed for " study." The first examination, that in composition, may be taken at the end of the third high school year • the second is usually taken at the end of the final year. The Conference has also recommended (a) "that in connection with the reading and study of the required books parallel or subsidiary reading be encouraged ; " (b) " that the essentials of English grammar, even if there is no examination in that subject, be not neglected in preparatory study ; " (c) that, in preparation for the examina- tion in composition, "it is important that the candidate shall have been instructed in the fundamental principles of rhetoric ; " two ago. The question of illiteracy is the real kernel of the whole matter. It is apparently capable of demonstration, one way or the other, and should be made the subject of systematic research by compe- tent investigators. 286 ENGLISH IN SECONDARY EDUCATION and (d) that, in connection with the examination on literature, " the candidate may be required to answer questions involving the essentials of English grammar, and questions on the leading facts in the periods of English literary history to which the prescribed works belong." In brief, then, the requirements prescribe entrance examinations in composition and literature, and recommend the reading and study of other English classics, and instruction in grammar, composition, and in parts of the history of English literature. The Conference did not intend, however, to limit the course of study in secondary schools to the mere preparation of candi- dates on a list of specified books, as is shown by the following supplementary resolutions, which were adopted in 1897 : — 1. That English be studied throughout the primary and secondary school courses, and, when possible, for at least three periods a week during the four years of the high school course. 2. That the prescribed books be regarded as a basis for such wider courses of English study as the schools may arrange for themselves. 3. That, where careful instruction in idiomatic English trans- lation is not given, supplementary work to secure an equivalent training in diction and in sentence-structure be offered through- out the high school course. 4. That a certain amount of outside reading, chiefly of poetry, fiction, biography, and history, be encouraged through- out the entire school course. 5. That definite instruction be given in the choice of words, in the structure of sentences and of paragraphs, and in the simple forms of narration, description, exposition, and argument. Such instruction should begin early in the high school course- 6. That systematic training in speaking and writing English be given throughout the entire school course. That, in the high school, subjects for compositions be taken partly from the prescribed books and partly from the student's own thought and experience. 7. That each of the books prescribed for study be taught with reference to (a) The language, including the meaning of words and sentences, the important qualities of style, and the important allusions ; ENGLISH IN SECONDARY EDUCATION 287 [b) The plan of the work, i. e., its structure and method ; [c) The place of the work in literary history, the circum- stances of its production, and the life of its author ; [d) That all details be studied, not as ends in themselves, but as means to a comprehension of the whole. The real accomplishment of the Conference was the securing of outward uniformity. As to the substance of the requirement, it did little more than to combine the method for „ , _ Objections to which Harvard had long stood, — an examination the Require- ments. in composition, — with the new method which Yale favoured, — an examination on literature. Objections of many kinds have been brought up against the new requirements. The strongest and most pertinent are the following : — (1) As the Conference was from the circumstances of its origin rather Eastern than national, its natural tendency was to base its requirements on the practice of the large Eastern colleges, which do not attempt to supervise or inspect the work of their candidates throughout the whole secondary course, but prefer to know nothing about them except what is revealed by written examinations, set by the college itself, usually at the end of the candidate's course of preparation. The require- ments were, therefore, such as pertained not specifically to all the secondary course in English, but only to that comparatively small part of it that could readily be used as a basis for a brief preliminary or final examination. The large majority of American colleges, who virtually hold no entrance examinations, and who aim to control to a greater or less extent the whole course in English pursued by their candidates, could raise the just objection that too little attention had been paid to their special needs. (2)" A second objection concerns the fact that only a few books are prescribed for reading and study, and these rigidly, without possibility of substitution. Here, again, it was the ex- amination policy that guided the Conference. It would be obviously impracticable or inconvenient to examine candidates on books from a larger list, within the time conventionally given 288 ENGLISH IN SECONDARY EDUCATION to such tests, or to allow a wide option. Following its premises, therefore, the Conference chose a certain number of definite books, on which the candidate must present himself for ex- amination. It thereby went counter to the preferences of many schools, who would have wished to train students on Coriolanus, for example, rather than on Macbeth, and of many colleges who would have wished, for various reasons, to indicate other masterpieces as a basis for reading and study. (3) A third objection, raised as soon as the uniform argu- ments were put into operation, was that, though outwardly the requirements were practically everywhere the same, the colleges, as a matter of fact, were inclined to interpret them differently, and to relapse into their former diversity of practice. 1 These objections to the policy adopted by the Conference seem to us, on the whole, just. It would have been better for The Policy tne cause of good instruction in English through- Weighed. out the country^ if t he Conference, instead of formulating a set of requirements for use in one or two very short examinations, could have marked out an approved course in English, which, if necessary, could lead up to some such examination as the Conference had in mind. But it must be remembered that the Conference had no power to prescribe such a course of study ; that it is highly doubtful whether any considerable number of colleges would have been willing to agree in recommending any such course of study ; and, finally, that it is not quite possible to conceive of so large a body of men, with diverse views and training, as composed the Con- ference, themselves agreeing on any such course of study. The time was not yet ripe for an attempt of that sort, highly desir- able though it is, and it is not likely to be ripe until there has been a much more general and continued discussion of fun- damental questions, and until the results of many experiments now being made can be more clearly estimated. 1 See Dr. Richard Jones's interesting pamphlet, which, however, slightly exaggerates the diversity of practice. ENGLISH IN SECONDARY EDUCATION 289 It is to be hoped that the time may soon come when the same or a similar conference will see its way clear to formulate a course of English study for preparatory schools, which will be generally adopted throughout the country. In the mean time it is plain (1) that the spirit of the requirement already leads ambitious schools to establish carefully planned courses of this sort, which aim at covering more than the mere letter of the requirement ; and (2) that the majority of colleges are already being brought, by various influences, into substantial uniformity in their interpretation of the requirement. The actual results achieved by the new requirements may, then, be said to be in the main satisfactory. There had been two prominent parties in higher English instruc- practical tion: one laid much stress on composition as a Resuits * means of training and was afraid to recommend that English literature — a subject which demanded such learning and cultivation on the part of the teacher — should be included in the preparatory curriculum ; the other was inclined to believe that composition was a proper exercise only for more mature minds, and that literature was the natural and fitting subject for school training. The new requirements merged these two complementary ideals, and saved the schools the long con- flict of opinion that might otherwise have ensued. The schools, too, were stimulated to new efforts. Some that had virtually paid no attention to English as a preparatory subject were willing, now that the requirements became definite and uniform, to give a considerable amount of time to English study. The colleges and the schools, almost for the first time, felt that they had united in securing a desirable reform. Last andjnost important, the definiteness and comparative perma- nency of the lists of prescribed books led many preparatory schools to draft a rough course in English. They had in mind nothing but the technical fulfilment of the requirements ; they attempted nothing but the mere routine reading and study of the little list of prescribed books. Still they purposed to do this systematically. Such courses of study were pitifully meagre, 19 290 ENGLISH IN SECONDARY EDUCATION unphilosophic, un-educational, but they were the beginning of better things. To secure any regular course in English was a great triumph. Having satisfied ourselves as to the origin and nature of the new entrance requirements in English, we may now pass to a brief consideration of their relation to the secondary Preparatory course in English. The main points to be borne in English. ° mind seem to be these : — (i) The preparatory work in English should form a course in itself, extending over four years, with a time allotment of at least three periods a week, and very similar to the system of English instruction described in this chapter. The mere reading and study of the prescribed books will form scarcely a half of this work. To restrict the course to the prescribed books and to direct preparation for the examination is a bad policy. It goes counter to the spirit of the requirements and to the best edu- cational thought of modern times. (2) It is generally agreed that instruction in English should be identical through the first three years of the secondary course, both for those who are going to college and for those who are not. The only practical objection is based on the fact that, if this be the case, it will be necessary, during the second and third years, to provide for separate instruction on the books prescribed for reading, or else to force students who are not going to college to follow the line of reading laid down in the college requirements. There could be no plainer illustration of the unfortunate policy necessarily adopted by the Conference. Still, it is to-be said (a) that the treatment of the books pre- scribed for reading requires less time than is commonly supposed, when the class has already been well trained in several branches of English study ; and (b) that the books prescribed are almost invariably such as may be used without difficulty as the basis of general instruction. (3) The statement is also commonly made that in the fourth year also the course of English study should be identical for both kinds of pupils, but here there is room for a wide differ- ENGLISH IN SECONDARY EDUCATION 29 1 ence of opinion. My own judgment is that pupils closing their scholastic education with this year need a broader or more advanced course of study than those who will attend college. The latter will have abundant opportunities for more training in composition, and for the study of the language in its earlier forms and of the history of English literature ; the former are almost invariably barred from such pursuits, except in so far as they follow them unaided. It seems to me only fair, therefore, that pupils who are not going to college should have as many opportunities as possible of the kinds mentioned. As for the college candidate, he has during his last year many demands to satisfy in other fields, and can scarcely be expected to devote more time to his English studies than he . Importance to has in the three years preceding. Furthermore, he the College • 1 ■, r • . , • i f Candidate of has a special duty to perform in preparing himself, the " study »' with great care, on the books prescribed for study. In the larger educational organism which he is about to enter there are two points in which he must be highly proficient if he wishes to attain success. The first is the power of expressing himself clearly ; the second is the power of understanding accu- rately and thoroughly what he reads. The work of the first, second, and third years of the high school should have started the student on the right path in the first respect; if he has passed satisfactorily his preliminary entrance examination in composition (t. e., on the books prescribed for reading) he may turn his chief attention to other matters, — without, however, allowing his newly found skill in composition to diminish. It is, therefore, to the acquiring of the power of accurate understand- ing that he must now address himself with assiduity and am- bition,, and it is precisely this training that the books prescribed for study are best adapted. These he must master, one by one, — their language, and, so far as possible, their content. One of the first tasks set him in college will be the reading of books for the sake of the information they contain, the inferences to be drawn from that information, or the aesthetic pleasure or mental training derived from following the play of imagination or the 292 ENGLISH IN SECONDARY EDUCATION logical process of thought. To perform this high function, one of the greatest to be performed by the human mind, he must have had a full and sound preparation. He must know how to grapple with a paragraph, a chapter, a whole book, and to make himself lord over it. No ability for skimming, for mere cursory reading, will avail. He must know accurately the meaning and the force of words, and how to find them out when he does not know them. He must be familiar with English syntax and versification. He must understand ordinary allusions, and, again, how to hunt them down when he is not familiar with them. He must be able to follow a line of thought ; to catch the bear- ing of details on the whole, — to understand " what it is all about." Of course, all this is not learned in a year. His train- ing in it began years ago ; it will continue for years still. But this is the year which should focus the training that has gone before and fit him worthily to receive that which is to come. This process means hard, definite, and continued drill on the books prescribed for study. It will at times not be a pleasant task ; it will shut the pupil off from more interesting and more superficial study with his classmates who are not going to college, but it will prove the very corner-stone of his college work in English, and perhaps of his college work in all subjects where he must handle books. CHAPTER IV THE COURSE OF STUDY I. General Principles In framing a course of study in English for the schools, we must consider what elements are most suitable and necessary, and in what order those elements are to be presented. A solution of the first problem has been attempted in Chap- ters II. and III. of this book; the other, though already answered in part, seems to need a fuller discussion. A good course of study in any subject must present the elements of the subject in a well-recognized and justifiable sequence. This sequence may be logical, as in science and mathe- matics; or it may be chronological, as in history; but in any case it must present the data to be learned in a series, the later terms of which shall either rest upon or include the earlier terms. It must proceed from the known to the unknown, from the simple to the complex, and, usually, from the concrete and particular to the abstract and general. The interest in the study of English has brought forth, in the published reports of educational conferences, in the reports of school superintendents and of normal school prin- cipals, in the books on the teaching of English, and in the articles in educational periodicals, many interesting sugges- tions *as to the order and arrangement of the materials to be studied. Among these published opinions may be found con- siderable variety in the materials chosen, their order in the course, and their relation to each other. The main diversity seems to lie in the arrangement of the material. Upon the fitness of certain works of literature for educational purposes, 294 THE COURSE OF STUDY and upon the necessity of acquiring certain things in expres- sion, an empirical agreement fairly general has long been reached. When we come, however, to the arrangement of this material, we still find a considerable divergence ; a diver- gence which seems to indicate a fundamental difference in theories of language instruction. The question at issue seems to be, Can the vernacular be taught in the elementary and secondary schools by a logical, or at least a highly sys- tematized, arrangement of the course ? A high school course in English built mainly upon this principle appears in the report of the Committee on College Entrance Requirements submitted to the National Educational Association in 1899. All the work in composition and literature is here arranged by years in conformity to the rhetorical divisions of literature into narration, description, and exposition. In the fourth year the study of life and character in novels and poetry and a survey of the history of English literature are offered. This arrangement at once appeals to us for its clearness and its suggestiveness. But a little reflection raises doubts. Narra- tion and description have a trying habit of taking on mixed forms, and of assuming varying degrees of importance in the same piece of literature. Young students, moreover, are not interested so much in classifying literature as in knowing it and feeling it ; they are not so ready to discuss the technical distinctions of the rhetorician as the relation of the literature to life. To me, the rhetorical basis of classification, especially when it recommends the treatment of the lyric mainly as a form of exposition, seems wrong. The course referred to above seems best precisely where it breaks away from its schematic rhetorical arrangement. If, as has been suggested, we arrange the work according to types of literary form, we are again in difficulty. Some of the novels ought to be read in the first year of the high school, some (like The Vicar of Wakefield) not earlier than the third ; some of the lyrics are good for the primary grades, some for the fourth year of the high school. Julius Ccesar THE COURSE OF STUDY 295 can be well read early in the high school course, Macbeth ought to be reserved for the last year, Gareth and Ly?iette and The Rime of the Ancient Mari?ier can win an audience anywhere between twelve and eighteen years of age. If we attempt to fix the place of books in connection with other subjects to which they are somehow related, we only increase our perplexity. For the authors unhappily did not foresee their pedagogic importance, and often neglected to present their theme in a form within the comprehension of the appro- priate grade. A chronological arrangement of the books would be still worse. It would fail in many points to bring in the works when they could be best appreciated, and they could not be so presented to young pupils as to lead them to see the historical evolution of our literature. But one other principle of arrangement remains to be considered ; and that, fortunately, is the order now generally adopted, the order of ease and interest, — the line of least resistance. From the first primary grade to the end of the high school, the deter- mining thing in choosing literature for the pupils should be its adaptability to their interests, their powers, and their needs. When this is attained, but not before, let other claims be heard. It would be poor teaching of English, indeed, which made no reference to other subjects of knowledge, no attempt to classify types of literature and methods of treatment within the same type, or no effort to give a sense of the develop- ment of our literature and of its progressive reflection of the ideas and feelings of our race. All these things should come in, at the appropriate time, as a part of the work. But they are matters of instruction, not of the making of the course of study. They are not the province of the school board or of the superintendent ; they are the teacher's own peculiar domain. They cannot be given in an orderly, systematic fashion. Order and system may, and indeed must, be at- tained. But it must be built up in the mind of the pupil by teachers in whom the habit of erecting a symmetrical struc- 296 THE COURSE OF STUDY ture out of loose and unclassified materials is a confirmed mental trait. In the field of expression the same general principles hold good. The short, the simple, the concrete, the interesting, must come first. We must pass from the easy to the difficult by moderate stages and by frequent iterations. Certain things must, however, have an early place, not from their interest, but from their necessity. These are mainly the con- ventional and arbitrary matters of written language, which have the same relation to later work as do the first attempts at speech in the nursery. II. The Elementary Schools The general principles underlying the English work in the elementary school have been fully discussed in Chapter II., and need not be referred to here. In the choice of the literature for these grades it must be remembered that interest and comprehension run side by side to a much greater extent than in the high school. Interest, therefore, is of the first importance. For the most part, such interest can be held only by stories with a good deal of action and by descriptions at once lively and simple. Fables, fairy stories, stories of child life, myths, simple narrative and descriptive poems, and very easy longer works, like Hiawatha^ are the appropriate material for the first two or three years. For the middle years of the course, myths, narratives in prose and poetry — especially of the heroic type — biography and the brighter essays on nature, like those of Burroughs, are the best. For the last two years the reading need not be dif- ferent in character from the earlier literature read in the high school. The only difference will be in the treatment of it. The following outline, taken from the Teachers College Record, Vol. I. No. 3 (May, 1900), expresses my views of the language work appropriate to the elementary school : — THE COURSE OF STUDY 297 LANGUAGE WORK ARRANGED IN ORDER OF SUBJECTS I. Spelling. (I) Grades J 1 and 2. Imitative, incidental to the main object of learning to write simple sentences. Phonetics introduced to give the elements of orthography and pronunciation. (II) Grades 3-4. Definite work in spelling as subject of special study. Grade 3. Diacritical marks taught. Spelling-book used. Words learned in lists, classified according to form. Ex- ceptions noted. Work both written and oral. Special attention to errors in the children's written work. Effort made to cultivate a conscientious accuracy in the children, but spelling kept subordinate to things of higher value. Grade 4. Same plans continued. Definite lessons assigned. Use of spelling-book continued. Dictionary used by the children. Grades 5-7. Same work continued in more advanced form. (Ill) Grade 8. Children made to understand that correct spelling must come from their unaided efforts. II. Writing. (I) Begun in Grade 1. Imitative; free, large movements taught ; ideo-motor activities aroused. Words and simple sentences copied. (II) Grades 2-7. Definite instruction in writing. Aim, — to cul- tivate (1) freedom, (2) accuracy, (3) speed. Work culmi- nates in Grades 5-7. III. Arbitrary Signs and Forms. (I) Capitals. 1. Grades 1-3. Beginning of sentences, pronoun I, proper names; names of persons, days of week, months, streets ; lines of poetry, direct quotations, etc. 2. Grade 4. Review of previous work ; other usages not previously given. (II) Punctuation. 1. Grade 1. Period and question-mark at the end of a sentence. 2. Grade 2. Period after abbreviation ; apostrophe in con- tractions and in possessive ; comma after yes and no, and with names of persons addressed. 1 Here and elsewhere in this book the grades of the elementary school are numbered from the first year in school. Thus, grade 3 would mean the third year in school, and would designate children about nine years of age. 298 THE COURSE OF STUDY 3. Grade 3. Quotation marks in undivided quotations; conventional usages in letter-writing; apostrophe in possessive. 4. Grade 4. Exclamation marks ; hyphen ; apostrophe in plural possessives ; marks in divided quotations. 5. Grade 5. Review of work of Grades 3 and 4. 6. Grades 6-8. Work of preceding years, with special reference to the logic of punctuation, and its impor- tance in establishing unity and coherence. In Grades 7 and 8 a definite scheme of rules for punctuation may be placed in the children's hands, and turned to critical use by giving them examples to punctuate. (III) Letter-writing. 1. Grades 2-5. Exercises in the forms of correspondence, and in familiar letter-writing. 2. Grades 6 and 7. Business letters; formal and informal correspondence. (IV) Abbreviations. 1. Grade 2. Mr., Mrs., Rev., Dr., St., Ave., names of states, names of months, etc. 2. Grade 3. Roman numerals ; familiar titles, as Capt, Col., Gen., D.D., etc. Common contractions. 3. Grades 4-8. Common abbreviations needed by the general reader, as the opportunity arises in the work of the school ; e. g., A.B., A.M., Anon., ibid., A.D., B.C., i.e., etc. (V) Arrangement of titles of books or chapters, indention of para- graphs, etc., Grades 2-4. IV. Word Study. (I) Form. 1. Grades 1-4. Recognition of known words in print and in script. Writing and pronunciation of such words. Grades 2-4. Diacritical marks. Spelling. Frequent practice in writing words to gain facility. 2. Grades 3-8. Use of dictionary and spelling-book. (See also under I. (II). ) Special attention to prefixes and suffixes, and analysis of familiar compounds. (II) Meanings. 1. Grades 1 and 2. Given by teacher. 2. Grades 3-8. Use of dictionaries. See above, (I), 2. 3. Grades 2-4. Extension of vocabulary, by literature, school studies and conversation, by " memory gems," and by reproductions, written and oral. 4. Grades 4-8. Synonyms, homonyms, etymology (given as subsidiary), study of things well said in simple litera- THE COURSE OF STUDY 299 ture. Literature and school studies treated partly as a means of extending the vocabulary with the increase in range and accuracy of concepts. Memory work in good literature. 5. Grades 3-8. Special attention given to idiomatic forms of expression. V. Organization of Material. (I) Whole composition. 1. Grades 4-8. Topical outlines. 2. Grades 6-8. Simpler laws of description and narration. 3. Grades 7 and 8. Instruction in gathering and arranging material. (II) Paragraphs. 1. Grade 3. Mechanical form and simplest division taught. 2. Grades 4 and 5. Elementary principles of paragraphing taught from literature and applied in written work. 3. Grades 6-8. Principles of narrative and descriptive paragraphs taught as above, with some slight refer- ence to the order of development within the para- graph. 4. Grades 7 and 8. The paragraph treated as a basis of composition. Elementary work in simple development of expository writing as in history or science lessons. Expansion of sentence into paragraph ; condensation of paragraph into sentence. 5. Grades 4-8. Pupils trained to sustained attention and memory, for power of dealing with progressively larger units of material. Topical recitations. (Ill) Sentences. 1. Grades 1-3. Good sentence form taught mainly by imi- tation and empirically. 2. Grades 4-8. Attention to form of sentence for euphony and clearness, in the literature read, and in the writing of the pupils. 3. Grades 5-7. Special work in transformation of sentence elements. 4. Grades 6-8. Study of sentence-structure as determined by the needs of emphasis, unity, and logical relation ; enforced in Grades 7 and 8 by correction of wrong or ineffective sentences. 5. Grades 4-8. Attention to common errors in expression. VI. Subject-matter. 1. Grade 1. Reproduction of simple sentences and stories, mainly oral. 300 THE COURSE OF STUDY 2. Grades 2 and 3. Reproduction of stories, picture stories, "filling-in " exercises, letter-writing. " Memory gems," school lessons. 3. Grades 4 and 5. Reproduction of reading and other lessons ; descriptions of pictures, objects, and familiar scenes. 4. Grades 4-8. Reproductions; descriptions; written ac- counts of things seen at first hand. Letter-writing. 5. Grades 1-6. Practice in dictation. VII. Grammar. 1. Grades 2-4. Possessives. Empirically, the relation be- tween verb and subject, and the objective pronoun forms. 2. Grades 5 and 6. Nouns, verbs, and simpler modifying relations ; subsidiary to the interpretation of the read- ing and to the composition work. 3. Grades 7 and 8. Systematic study of grammar, with text-book. Grammar viewed throughout as a study of forms, and of relations of thought. Function made the basis of classification. VIII. Criticism of Written Work. 1. Grades 1-3, direct help from the teacher, aiming to give the pupil the desire to do things well. Criticism mainly constructive. In Grade 3, simple symbols used to indicate the pupil's most common errors. 2. Grades 4-8. Definite efforts to make the pupil self- critical. Symbols of correction used, increasing in number from Grade 4 to Grade 8, demanding of the pupil that he discover and rectify his mistakes wherever this can be enforced without discouraging him. At- tention given to the gathering and organization of material. III. The Secondary Schools The discussion of the high school work in Chapter III. has included full details as to the order and kinds of instruction in language. Some further word as to the arrangement of the work in literature seems desirable. It is obvious that a good school can, by giving three les- sons per week for four years to the subject of English, cover all the necessary work in expression and include much more THE COURSE OF STUDY 301 reading than is required in the college entrance list. 1 It was, indeed, expected by the Conference which framed the list that it should only be representative, and that, while these books should remain as the basis of the college entrance examina- tions, other books appropriately selected should supplement and round out the course. The following order is based mainly upon what I conceive to be the capacities and tastes of typical high school classes : — First Year. Ivanhoe, and two or three of the following of Scott's novels : Waverley, Rob Roy, Anne of Geierstein, Old Mortality ; Silas Marner, The House of the Seven Gables, The Last of the Mohicans, selections from Irving, The Lady of the Lake. The interest would here be mainly in plot and char- acter, and in the attitudes towards life of romantic and real- istic fiction. It is especially desirable in the first year that the number of types presented be few, and fully exemplified. Second Year. The Vision of Sir Launfal and other selec- tions from Lowell, selections from Bryant and Emerson, and an outline history of American Literature. The De Coverley t Papers, and selected papers from The Tatler and The Specta- tor (with especial reference to their historical interest), The Rime of the Ancient Mariner, The Idylls of the King. Third Year. Julius Ccesar, The Merchant of Venice, As You Like It, with reference to the plot, the character, the essential idea, and the differences between tragedy and comedy. Irving's Life of Goldsmith and The Vicar of Wake- field, Carlyle's Essay on Burns and selected poems from Burns, Macaulay's Life of Johnson and Essay on Addison. 1 The list, as discussed in Chapter III., is that which is at present in force. At the last meeting of the Conference (1902) certain changes were made. Irving's Life of Goldsmith was substituted for The Vicar of Wakefield, and Macaulay's Life of fohnson for Macaulay's Essay on Mil- ton, and three of. The Ldylls of the King (Launcelot and Elaine, The Pass- ing of Arthur, and Gareth and Lynette) for The Princess. The Lady of the Lake was added to the reading list, and Macbeth and fulius Cozsar were interchanged in their positions on the lists for reading and study respectively. 302 THE COURSE OF STUDY Fourth Year. Burke's Speech on Conciliation, Milton's Minor Poems and Books I.-IV. of Paradise Lost, Macaulay's Essay on Milton, Tennyson's The Princess, Macbeth, selected poems from Wordsworth, Keats, or Browning, the Prologue to Chaucer's Canterbury Tales. An outline history of Eng- lish literature. II The Teacher and his Training CHAPTER V THE TRAINING OF THE TEACHER BIBLIOGRAPHY I. General References : A. Bain. On Teaching English. Longmans. 1887. Fred Burk. The Training of Teachers. Atlantic Monthly, LXXX. 547. P. Chubb. The Teaching of English in the Elementary and the Secondary School. Macmillan. 1902. A. S. Cook. The Teaching of English. Atlantic Monthly, LXXXVII. 710. B. A. Hinsdale. Teaching the Language-Arts : Speech, Reading, Composition. Appleton. 1896. S. S. Laurie Language and Linguistic Method. Cambridge, University Press. 1890. D. Salmon. The Art of Teaching. Longmans. 1899. See also the articles of Dr. Samuel Thurber in the General Bibliog- raphy at the close of this book. II. On the special training of the teacher of rhetoric and composition, see J. F. Genung. The Teacher's Outfit in Rhetoric. School Re- view, III. 405. S. Thurber. The following articles : Suggestions of English Study for Teachers of English, The [Syracuse] Academy,V. 513 ; Milder Suggestions of English Study for Secondary Teachers, The [Syra- cuse] Academy, VI. 167 ; Admonitions as to the Primary Teach- ing of English, Boston, 1894; The Conditions needed for the successful Teaching of English Composition, School Review, II. 13; Five Axioms of Composition Teaching, School Review, * V. 7. The subject is treated by implication in most of the books and articles listed under Rhetoric and Composition in the General Bibliography at the close of this book. III. On special training for the teaching of grammar, see F. A. Barbour. The Teaching of English Grammar. Ginn. 1901. O. F. Emerson. The Teaching of English Grammar. School Review, V. 129. 20 306 THE TRAINING OF THE TEACHER S. Thurber. Suggestions of English Study for Teachers of English. The [Syracuse] Academy, V. 513. For the three phases of language study recommended to teachers of grammar, see (a) On the history of the English language : O. F. Emerson. The History of the English Language. Macmillan. 1895. H. Sweet. A New English Grammar, Logical and Historical. Clarendon Press. 1892. L. Kellner. Historical Outlines of English Syntax. Macmillan. 1892. R. Morris. Historical Outlines of English Accidence. Macmillan. 1875- (b) On comparative philology : H. Sweet. The History of Language. Macmillan. 1900. O. Jespersen. Progress in Language. Macmillan. 1894. H. Paul. Principles of the History of Language. Macmillan. 1889. P. Giles. A Short Manual of Comparative Philology for Classical Students. Macmillan. 1895. (c) On the psychology of speech : E. B. Titchener. A Primer of Psychology. Macmillan. 1898. See Index s. v. Gesture, Language, Word. J. M. Baldwin. Mental Development in the Child and the Race : Methods and Processes. Second Edition. Macmillan. 1900. Pp. 409-475- J. M. Baldwin. Social and Ethical Interpretations in Mental Development. Macmillan. 1897. Chapter IV. J. Collins. The Genesis and Dissolution of the Faculty of Speech. Macmillan. 1898. IV. On training for the teaching of literature, see H. Corson. The Aims of Literary Study. Macmillan. 1895. J. Churton Collins. The Study of English Literature. Macmillan. 1891. A. S. Cook. Preparation for the Teaching of Secondary English. Journal of Pedagogy, XL 284. H. C. Beeehing. How not to Teach English Literature. Long- mans' Magazine, XXXVIII. 350. Brander Matthews. Suggestions for Teachers of American Litera- ture. Educational Review, XXI. 11. Success in teaching English, as in teaching any other subject in the curriculum, depends primarily not upon training, but upon the possession of a special talent. The teacher who has not a passion and an aptitude for imparting instruction in Eng- lish, who does not feel that it is the great thing in life to live THE TRAINING OF THE TEACHER 307 for, and a thing, if necessary, to die for, who does not realize at every moment of his classroom work that he is performing the special function for which he was foreordained 1 Special from the foundation of the world, — such a teacher Talent Necessary* cannot profit greatly by any course of training, how- ever ingeniously devised or however thoroughly applied. He lacks the one thing needful. On the other hand, a special talent for teaching English is not in itself a guarantee of suc- cess. Unaided, it will soon reach its limit. It cannot attain to its highest efficiency without submitting itself to a severe and protracted discipline. The purpose of special training is frequently misunderstood. It is thought to be for the sake of giving the teacher expertness in his subject and a knowledge of methods of teach- what Train- ing. In a sense both of these aims are right. But ^gc^d - they are subordinate. (The main purpose is to give the teacher, not knowledge of his subject, but self-knowledge ; not knowledge of methods of teaching, but resources to meet the exigencies of the classroom. \ Thus the effect of a proper course of train- ing will be in the first place to reveal to the teacher his own powers and limitations. He will learn by it how much he really knows and how much he has yet to learn. The peculiar defects and peculiar virtues of his special aptitude will be brought home to him. He will be put in a position to make the most of himself. But a further result of training will be to make him more resourceful. Knowing the fundamental principles of his subject, he will- be able to give it greater depth and substance, and thus to make it a better nutri- ment for growing minds. Drawing his illustrative matter from a wider range, it will be easier for him than for the un- trained teacher to make it various and interesting. The trained teacher will also be better able than the untrained to take advantage quickly of new theories about the teaching of English. He will not need to be told by others, as does the untrained teacher, whether the novel ideas attractively set out before him are educational forces or educational fads. If his 308 THE TRAINING OF THE TEACHER training has been what it should be, he will know of his own knowledge. To come now to details, it is obvious that certain general requirements will be laid upon all who teach English ; certain other requirements will concern more especially those who teach particular branches of English, as composition, grammar, and literature. In what follows these two aspects of the teacher's equipment will be considered separately. I. General Qualifications (i) Among the general requisites may be mentioned, first, ability to speak and write the English language with clearness, Ability to use accurac y> an d freedom from bookishness. This qual- Good English. ifi ca ti n is of fundamental importance, and should be insisted upon ; but it must not be misinterpreted. It cannot be held necessary, for example, that the teacher should, on the one hand, illustrate in his own writing and speaking the " graces of diction," so called, or, on the other, that he should express himself in a severe and academic manner. 1 There is no style peculiarly appropriate to a teacher of English, nor one from which he may be required to abstain, unless it is a bad style. It is even possible — -and the fact has been established by numerous examples — for a teacher whose mode of composition is singularly defective to train up, by force of enthusiasm and sympathy, coupled with ardent admiration of good style in others, writers of the first rank. , Nevertheless, it is highly desirable that all teachers of English should be able to express themselves naturally and logically and with taste. Although the foundation for such an equipment must be laid early in life, in the grammar school and the high school, yet 1 " How often has it been my experience to have spoken to a peda- gogic audience on some topic that I deemed important, and to find, when the question was opened for discussion, that I had before me the task of defending my pronunciation or my syntax instead of my thesis." Dr. Samuel Thurber, in the School Review, I. 651. THE TRAINING OF THE TEACHER 309 every teacher of English, even of mature years, may do some- thing to improve himself in this regard. He can seize every opportunity for practice in writing ; he can watch his conversation ; he can prepare himself carefully cultivation for his daily talks to his students. A teacher who ta Englisl1, has the ambition and the will power to put himself through such a course of discipline, can in a few months bring about a marked improvement in his use of English. 1 One obstacle which lies in the way of most teachers, but es- pecially of teachers who have been trained in certain of the normal schools, is the tradition of a stiff, frigid, and ° School- yet inaccurate style of speech and writing sometimes master's denominated " schoolmaster's English." The power of this speech-tradition to corrupt the mental faculties is as striking as it is natural. Walking through the halls of a school where such speech is traditional, one may see the evidences of it in the faces of the students. Sitting in the classroom, one may fairly hear the mental machinery creak. Singularly enough, the mastery of this iron-jointed dialect, or rather the being mastered by it, is not incompatible with violations of taste ; so that one who examines the writings of teachers who are ad- dicted to it will frequently find, scattered through the arid waste, hideous artificial flowers of rhetoric, anecdotes of questionable propriety, and sometimes humour approximating to horse-play. The teacher of English who has been so unfortunate as to acquire this scholastic jargon and its vicious concomitants should take pains to rid himself of it by every means in his power. First, he should endeavour to cultivate his taste by the extensive read- ing of simple, unforced prose, — the writings of John Burroughs, Philip Gilbert Hamerton, W. H. Hudson (Idle Days in Pata- gonia and The Naturalist in La Plata) will be of some help for this purpose. In the next place, he should make an effort to displace the characteristic vocabulary of the jargon. Favourite words and phrases should be noted down, and hackneyed 1 See Palmer's Self-Cultivation in English. 3IO THE TRAINING OF THE TEACHER terms, when they are discovered, laid upon the shelf. By the exercise of a little labour and some vigilance, the teacher may in a comparatively short time rid himself of this disease of speech. (2) In the second place, it is important that the teacher of English should be well read in English literature and English Knowledge literary history. 1 That he should have expert knowl- of English J . Literature. edge of the whole range of literature in English is of course out of the question ; but he ought at least on the one hand to have made a careful survey of the entire field and to have acquired definite ideas of the course of literary develop- ment, and on the other hand to have formed an intimate ac- quaintance with the leading English classics. As regards the history of literature, the greatest danger is perhaps that the teacher will rest content with biography and history instead of pursuing the study of literature itself. Literature has its own peculiar record, which in a sense is distinct from the lives of the men who wrote it or from the times in which it appeared, closely as it is related to both. Not to grasp the essential facts and laws of literary evolution is to lack a most important clue to the proper study of literature. Again, as regards literary master- pieces, the greatest danger is that the teacher will mistake vague recollections of the utterances of critics, more or less eminent, for acquaintance with the works themselves. What is needed in this particular of his training is, first, appreciative reading, which through sympathy will bring the reader into the closest possible contact with the mind of the writer, and then critical reading, which through the exercise of the judgment will reveal the technical sources of the writer's power. 2 Neither kind can be dispensed with. The first is needed in order that the appreciation of literature may be genuine and vital, not merely formal ; and the second in order that the appreciation aroused 1 The word " English " will be used here and hereafter in the sense of English and American. 2 See " Two Problems of Composition Teaching," by J. V. Denney, Contributions to Rhetorical Theory, No. 4. THE TRAINING OF THE TEACHER 311 by the first kind of reading may not degenerate into sentimentality. How extensive ought this reading to be ? How much prose, how much poetry should a candidate for a position as teacher of English be able to call his own intimate posses- • 5 tu- • a-cc u a Extent of the sion ? This is a difficult question, and any answer Teacher's to it, however carefully guarded, is liable to miscon- struction. Nevertheless an answer will be risked. As a con- venient measure of literature in bulk, we may take Professor Winchester's Five Short Courses of Reading.^ Let the candidate examine Professor Winchester's lists of masterpieces ; if he finds that he has familiar personal acquaintance with not more than two-thirds of the works there cited, he may conclude that as concerns the particular under consideration he is poorly equipped for a position as teacher of English in a secondary school. He should hasten to read the other third. Let him not infer, how- ever, that when he has read the remaining third his equipment will be complete. Of the reading of English masterpieces there is literally no end. A word of advice may be given at this point in regard to courses of reading. Such courses are often fruitless because they are undertaken for no definite purpose, courses of Nothing is more futile than to plod wearily through Readin g» great tracts of prose and poetry — Wordsworth's Excursion will serve as an example in both kinds — just for the sake of being able to say that they have been traversed. On the other hand, a definite purpose on the reader's part will in time give interest and even charm to any worthy piece of literature, no matter how distasteful it may have been at the start. Such a purpose may always be provided by this simple device : Let the reader ask himself a question that can be answered only by a perusal of the work. For example, suppose the case of a teacher who has never read any of Thackeray's novels. He — 1 C. T. Winchester, Five Short Courses of Reading in English Litera- ture with Biographical and Critical References. Ginn. 1892. 312 THE TRAINING OF THE TEACHER or more likely she — has not found in them, we may suppose, so far as he has gone, anything likable. Now such a teacher, instead of being asked to read Thackeray as a matter of con- science, should be referred to the following passage in Brownell's Victorian Prose Masters (pp, 26-27) : — " Nothing better attests George Eliot's scientific interest in character than her constant exhibition of its evolution. This is one of her real contributions to literature. The effect of circum- stances in developing a character like Lydgate, for example, the difference between Rosamond as she is first introduced and when she leaves the stage, are almost Spencerian demonstra- tions. This, as Mr. Albert Dicey, I think, has observed, was an unknown thing in fiction when George Eliot began to write, and it is naturally savoured by the palate of our day, which seeks a taste of science even in its literary confections. But it is needless to point out that it implies an instinct quite lacking in Thackeray, in whose view character is spectacle, significant spectacle, to be sure, and its significance often copiously insisted upon, but essentially spectacle, and not the illustrative incarna- tion of interesting traits and tendencies. This is also Shake- speare's view, it may be added, as it is clearly the distinctly literary view as opposed to the scientific." The teacher of English unfamiliar with Thackeray, who, after reading this extract, will not at once (if there is opportunity) sit down to an eager perusal of Vanity Fair or Pendennis, in order to verify the criticism, has seriously mistaken his vocation. The question started for this purpose need not be abstruse ; indeed, the simpler it is the better; but having raised it, the teacher should pursue it relentlessly through the work in hand. If after the chase is begun and the reader is in full cry, the work itself should become so interesting that it is read for its own sake, just for the enjoyment of it, doubtless no great harm will be done. 1 1 This is not the place to do more than to illustrate this method of self-propulsion, so to speak, into an acquaintance with English classics. Any good critical essay will suggest unsolved literary problems which can be used in the way suggested above. THE TRAINING OF THE TEACHER 313 (3) Granted a mastery of the mother-tongue and a fair ac- quaintance with English literature, it remains to be said that no teacher has an adequate preparation for teaching s^^^ English, even in the elementary grades, who has Laa snages. not been thoroughly grounded in at least one foreign language, ancient or modern. It is a commonplace of education that the mother-tongue can be understood and appreciated only by those who have made some progress in an alien tongue ; and if the knowledge of one foreign tongue is good for the teacher, a knowledge of two is still better. What this language, or these languages, shall be in any individual case is a question which must be left to be decided by the teacher's opportunities ; but if there is room for choice and but two languages can be studied, doubtless the most advantageous combination is Latin and German. A knowledge of Old English is also desirable, though it can be more easily dispensed with, or compounded for, than a knowledge of the classics or of the modern lan- t A1J ^ Old English. guages. Important on many grounds as Old Eng- lish is, the contention that it can rival Greek, Latin, French, or German as a quickening force, as a means of culture, is quite idle. If the teacher in his preparatory work must choose between Latin and Old English, or German and Old English, he should not hesitate long. But granting that the other lan- guages have been studied, the claims of Old English are con- siderable. Only through the systematic study of the older forms is it possible to gain a just idea of the genius of the language as a whole. A knowledge of the older forms is also essential to an understanding of the development of the language and of its present condition. A teacher, then, who has tfaced the stream of English speech from its fountain head downward, has a distinct advantage over one who is familiar only with its modern aspects. Old English, however, is far from being a difficult study, especially to one who has some knowledge of German. An hour a day for a school year spent upon some such text-book 3H THE TRAINING OF THE TEACHER as Professor A. S. Cook's First Book in Old English, will give the teacher an acquaintance with the grammar and an induc- tion into the literature ; and if this brief study be Pnow V -Rn?Ssh judiciously supplemented by a summer's term at a college or university under some one who has expert knowledge, the subject may be fairly mastered, for all practical purposes, in a twelvemonth. The teacher of English, therefore, to whom the Anglo-Saxon grammar and literature long remain a sealed book, is wholly without excuse for his ignorance. II. Special Qualifications The preceding qualifications are general in character, and such as may be required of all teachers of English. It is now desir- able to consider briefly the special preparation demanded for the teaching of specific phases of English, as rhetoric and composition, grammar, and literature. (i) The essentials in the equipment of a teacher of compo- sition are partly matters of skill, partly matters of knowledge. Among those belonging to the first class the most Composition: . , , ,. , , Theme- important, or at any rate the least dispensable, is skill in reading and correcting themes. Intrinsi- cally, skill in this particular is not perhaps to be rated very high. It may be no more than a knack. One may conceivably be able to read themes rapidly and correct them accurately, and yet be good for very little else. Still, so much of the teacher's happi- ness and success depends upon this knack that it must be set down as a sine qua non. The born teacher of composition reads themes rapidly and interestedly, and with the exhilaration which comes from the successful performance of a function for which one is specially adapted. If then, after a fair trial under favourable circumstances, the teacher finds the reading of themes slow, irksome, and depressing, he may fairly conclude that he is not a born teacher of composition. He is out of his element and he cannot by any possibility be entirely successful in this THE TRAINING OF THE TEACHER 315 field unless he can employ some one else to do the correcting for him or haply can devise some method, as yet unguessed, by which essay-correcting may be done away with. 1 Although ability to do this kind of work well and easily is a natural aptitude, it is, like any other gift, susceptible of great improve- ment. If it is present in some degree, but undeveloped, a systematic effort should be made to cultivate it. 2 (2) As a second qualification of the teacher of composition, may be named scholarship in the history and theory of rhetoric. Such training has often been decried on the ground that the teacher who has made a pro- study of b Rhetoric. found study of rhetorical theory will be disposed to unload his erudition on the class. It is doubtful whether ex- perience will bear this out, but even if it should, ignorance of one's subject is no proper safeguard in the classroom. It is the business of the specialist to be as wise as he can in his own line of work. 3 Furthermore, the teacher who has made an exhaus- tive study of rhetorical principles has a real advantage in the 1 For a discussion of possible substitutes, see the report of the investi- gation by the Pedagogical Section of the Modern Language Association, in the School Review for May, 1902, " The Undergraduate Study of Com- position." The following anecdote quoted (from memory) from Andrew Clark's Stories of Lincoln College illustrates a method, if not of doing away with theme-correcting, at least of reducing it to its lowest terms. The scene was Mark Pattison's room at Oxford. Pattison was standing with his back to the grate smoking, when a knock came at the door and to him there entered an undergraduate with a composition in his hand. Pattison took the paper, quickly ran his eye over it, then crumpled it up in his hand and threw it in the face of the student, who immediately left the room. Not a word was spoken on either side. 2 For this purpose perhaps no exercise is better than impromptu oral correction before a class. The following method is suggested. The themes^are placed by the students in a basket on the teacher's desk just before the beginning of the recitation. The teacher has no opportunity of examining the papers in advance. At the opening of the hour he gathers up a handful of them, and reading them aloud makes corrections as he goes. The unskilled teacher will find that the successful perform- ance of the task will try his powers, particularly his powers of concentra- tion and discrimination, to the utmost. 3 For a contrary view, see the remarks of Dr. Samuel Thurber at the 316 THE TRAINING OF THE TEACHER classroom over one who has not done so. Not only is he de- livered from the tyranny of the text-book, but if his study has been of the right kind he knows ways of enriching and enliven- ing the subject which are denied to the teacher untrained in this respect. Above all, a thorough-going study of rhetoric absolves the teacher from the finicalness and intolerance, characteristic indeed of the sciolist in any line of thought, but peculiarly char- acteristic of the sciolist in rhetoric. (3) From composition we may pass to grammar. It is a common saying that grammar is the worst-taught subject in the English curriculum. If the saying be true, the Grammar. ... . reason for the condition of things it represents is not far to seek, for few teachers have made special preparation for teaching English grammar. Such preparation, in addition to a familiar acquaintance with the best school text-books, should include (1) a study of the development of the English language from the earliest times to the present ; (2) a study of the gen- eral principles of comparative philology, or the science of lan- guage ; (3) a study of the psychology of speech. Though all of these subjects are abstruse, they have fortunately fallen of late into the hands of persons who have treated them with the utmost simplicity. In their main principles they are now accessible to every teacher. 1 Of the three subjects specified, the first is doubtless the most indispensable, for a teacher who is ignorant of the history of his mother-tongue is disqualified for the teaching of its grammar ; but an acquaintance with linguistics and with psychology, even though it be but a limited acquaintance, will be found of great advantage. The comparative study of language will free the student from a superstitious reverence for gram- matical rules, and give him an insight into the true nature eighth annual meeting of the New England Association of Colleges and Preparatory Schools, published in the School Review, I. 650-655. 1 See the Bibliography at the beginning of this chapter. The most elementary books under each of these three heads are perhaps (i) Emerson's History of the English Language ; (2) Sweet's History of Language; (3) Titchener's Primer of Psychology. THE TRAINING OF THE TEACHER 317 of usage and idiom. From a study of the psychology of speech he will learn through what processes the child acquires his native tongue, and how the various elements of the language present themselves to the child-mind at different stages of its develop- ment. The total outcome of this study should be to give the teacher a new conception of the meaning of English grammar and its place in the curriculum. He should cease to regard it as a study merely of abstract rules and formulas ; he should come to see that the underlying subject is virtually the same as that which underlies composition and literature, namely, the expressive and communicative activities of the English-speaking race. And he should come to see that in teaching grammar his chief duty is to awaken the minds of his students to the mean- ing of their own familiar modes of expression. This knowledge, of itself, if it could be brought home to the consciousness of the teacher, would effect a revolution in the teaching of English grammar. (4) Of preparation for the teaching of literature the most important requisites — acquaintance with the English classics and with literary history — have been specified in the general requirements for all teachers of English. A teacher whose special subject is literature should naturally go farther in the same direction. He should know his classics more intimately, and he should have a more thorough acquaint- ance with the facts of literary history. Experience has shown that the best method of securing this profounder knowledge of literature is to make a prolonged and exhaustive study of a single period, a single author, or a single problem. (5) Besides knowing the masterpieces and literary history, it is the.duty of every teacher of English literature to form some acquaintance with the underlying principles of liter- „ . . ... T , ; , , , . Principles of ary criticism. Inasmuch as these are dependent, in Literary Criticism. the modern formulation of them, upon aesthetics and psychology, some knowledge of these latter subjects is also to be desired. How far such studies should be pursued is an open question, but certainly the teacher of literature who can to 318 THE TRAINING OF THE TEACHER some extent derive his principles of criticism and his standards of appreciation independently, has a distinct advantage over the teacher who is compelled to take his principles as he finds them from the pages of a text-book. The teacher psychologically and aesthetically equipped is less likely to be bewildered by the con- tradictory opinions of belligerent critics, or to be overawed by the solemn platitudes of self-constituted authorities. Knowing the sources from which critical principles are derived, he is able to reconcile the seeming inconsistencies of rival theories or to explode their fallacies. He is also less likely to be tainted with the shallow sentimentalism which in some schools takes the place of intelligent appreciation. (6) A phase of literary criticism which has received much attention of late and is certain to receive more, is the study known as comparative literature. For a thorough Comparative comprehension of literary history, this study is doubt- less as important as is the study of comparative philology for the understanding of grammar. Although the sub- ject has not as yet gained a foothold in many universities and although its principles are but ill defined, the ambitious teacher of literature will do well to follow with some care the progress of this branch of his chosen subject. 1 1 For the chief authorities on Comparative Literature, see Gayley and Scott's Introduction to the Methods and Materials of Literary Criticism, Ginn, 1899, pp. 248-278. CHAPTER VI THE PHILOSOPHY OP THE ASSIGNMENT BIBLIOGRAPHY The subject of this chapter has not hitherto received special attention. For a discussion of the principles of method in general, see such works as W. James. Talks to Teachers on Psychology. Holt. 1899. Pp. 91- ii5- Charles De Garmo. The Essentials of Method : A Discussion of the Essentia] Forms of Right Methods of Teaching. Heath. 1889. Charles De Garmo. Herbart and the Herbartians. Scribner. 1896. Pp. 130-140. Charles A. McMurry. The Elements of the General Method : Based on the Principles of Herbart. Public School Pub. Co. 1892. A. H. Garlick. A New Manual of Method. Longmans. 1896. A. Sidgwick. On Stimulus. In Three Lectures on Subjects Connected with the Practice of Education. Cambridge, University Press. 1883. In newspaper offices the term " assignment " is used to de- note the managing editor's allotment of a particular task of reporting to a particular member of the staff. The . ,, . , , . „ , ,-' Meaning of instructions are usually written in a book called the the Term " assignment book." This word " assignment " it is proposed to borrow from newspaper usage and employ in a somewhat broader sense. It will here be used for certain class- room procedures the general object of which is to induce in the student a state of mind favourable to composition. Em- ployed in this sense, the term includes the following steps : (1) the announcement of the subject ; (2) stimulation of interest in the subject ; (3) arousal of a desire to write upon it ; (4) suggestion of a method of procedure in writing ; (5) pre- cautions against wasted effort. Each of these points will be considered in turn. 320 THE PHILOSOPHY OF THE ASSIGNMENT (i) The first topic suggests the interesting question whether it is better for the student to select his own subject or for the Selection of teacher to select a subject for him. Advantages a Subject. mav ^ e ur g e d on both sides. On the one hand, it may be said, first, that to choose a proper subject for an essay is a valuable mental exercise. It not only trains the student's judgment; it increases his knowledge by compelling him to search his mental stores and take stock of his available resources. Secondly, the exercise is of practical value to the student because it is a task which he will be compelled to perform often in later years. In the school of life there will be no teacher at his side to choose his subject for him. On the other hand, it is clear, first, that much of the mental effort expended in choos- ing is of no practical value, because it is misdirected and desul- tory. The student in search of a subject ought theoretically to use his judgment, but practically he does no such thing. In- stead of ransacking his mental stores and making comparison of competing subjects, he casts his eye lazily and unobservantly over the field of things in general. Delaying his choice until the eleventh hour, he chooses at last in a panic and quite at ran- dom. Such a procedure as this is relaxing rather than strength- ening. Secondly, to meet the argument that training in choice of a subject is useful in later life, the reply may be made that in the actual struggle for existence choice among unlimited possi- bilities is extremely rare. It may even be said that choice of any kind is the exception rather than the rule. Men who make a business of writing do not spend much time or energy in choos- ing subjects ; subjects are chosen for them. Reporters on news- papers, for example, are told explicitly what they shall write ; it is seldom that they have an opportunity to select their subjects. Reviewers write upon the books that are sent to them for review. Novelists and essayists, although they are popularly supposed to have great liberty, are as a matter of fact pursued relentlessly by ideas which cry for utterance and will not let them rest. The true man of letters never has occasion to say, " What in the world shall I write upon next ? " His sentiment is THE PHILOSOPHY OF THE ASSIGNMENT 32 i more likely to be, " How shall I find time for all the things that I must write about? " It is the same with lawyers, doctors, and other professional men ; when they write as professional men, they have little opportunity for choice. The character of their work determines within narrow limits the subjects of their com- positions. The only exception to this rule is the person who is taken unawares ; the man, for example, who is called upon un- expectedly to " say something " at a banquet or to write an original sentiment in a young lady's album. In such an emer- gency (fortunately rare in the experience of most) the power of choosing rapidly an appropriate subject is doubtless an advan- tage. Setting this exceptional case aside, certain positive advan- tages accrue from the teacher's taking the selection of the subject into his own hands. First, he can in this way consult the genuine needs of his students instead of humouring their whims. Second, he can devise a progressive series of topics, covering a definite range of subject-matter. And finally, it is in his power to secure the advantage which comes from having the entire class write upon the same subject. From these considerations the conclusion may be drawn that in the majority of cases it is better for the teacher to choose the subject for the student than for the student to choose the subject for himself. If choice is given, it should be limited. The student may be allowed to choose one of two alternative subjects, or one of three or four aspects of the same subject. Not to neglect, however, the benefit which undoubtedly comes from training of the selective power, the teacher should now and then give a special exercise in choosing a a special subject. This exercise should be carefully prepared suK?- 6 for, and should take the form of a discussion. The Choosin8: ' teacher should lead the class to imagine a definite situation or emergency where the choice of a subject is necessary and urgent. He should then ask not only, " What subject should you choose in such an emergency ? " but " How would you go about the choice of it ? " " Why would you choose such and such a sub- ject rather than another ? " In other words, the teacher should 322 THE PHILOSOPHY OF THE ASSIGNMENT try to draw out from the class and impress upon them the fun- damental principles of subject-choosing. Adroitly managed, such an exercise might be of considerable value. If the teacher is, then, to choose the subject for the student, it is desirable to consider next the principles upon which his Principles of cn °i ce shall De made. These may be briefly stated Choice. as f nows : (i) The subject chosen must be one that is interesting to the teacher. (2) The subject chosen must be one that is interesting, or that can be made interesting, to the students. Teachers of English sometimes think that the first principle can be neglected. They allow tradition to impose upon them Freedom of subjects for which they care little or nothing. This the Teacher. j s a se rious mistake, and is a potent cause of indif- ferent composition teaching. It must be borne in mind that after the essays are written they must be read, and it is the teacher who will read them. He ought to read with intense interest and a kindling enthusiasm. But if the subjects are distasteful to him, his reading, despite the most conscientious efforts, will be half-hearted and ineffectual. It is, then, of the utmost importance for the teacher to understand that in his se- lection he is — theoretically at least — as free as air. The world is before him, where to choose. There is no corner of the field of literature, science, art, philosophy, or humanity which is not his to cultivate if he desires. Subject to a single limitation — the second principle — he may as legitimately draw the subjects for the composition work from the mediaeval romances as from current politics, from the Homeridse or the Dutch school of painting as from the germ theory or the South African war. In the second place, the subject should be actually or poten- tially interesting to the students and adapted to their powers. This is not so serious a limitation upon the teacher's Adaptation of Subject choice as some teachers are disposed to think. A study of children's minds will show that the phases of thought or human activity are few indeed in which they have not some rudimentary concern, some germ of interest capable THE PHILOSOPHY OF THE ASSIGNMENT 323 of development. The difficulty has been that teachers of com- position have conceived of subjects quite abstractly, as things which clamour to be written upon quite apart from the needs and personality of the individuals who are to write upon them. Substitute for the term "subjects" the word " interests," and the question takes on a different aspect. Subjects, in the ab- stract sense, may not be easy to find, but student interests are always present in abundance. To call upon students to give expression to their interests does not necessarily mean, however, that the teacher is to fol- low passively the students' whims and fancies. It Healthy is the teacher's business to detect and encourage, Interests, not interests at large, but vital interests, — healthy interests. There are such things as unhealthy interests, and these it is his business to suppress. (2) Assuming that a subject has been found which is inter- esting to the teacher and potentially interesting to the members of the class, the next step is to make the potential teovsaiot interest actual, — if possible, to make the student Interest feel that this subject is the most fascinating thing in the world. There are at least four ways of arousing such an interest. The first is by connecting the subject with other subjects already known to be interesting. In order that he may use this kind of stimulus intelligently, the wise teacher will make a special study of his pupils. He will learn their likes and dislikes and take stock of their ideas. Knowing these things, he will next seek for some point of contact between the new subject and the ideas already in their minds. Somehow he will find a place in the students' present scheme of interests for the new subject. The second method of stimulating interest in a subject is to employ suspense and thereby to appeal to curiosity. The method is seen in its simplicity, and at the same Useof time in its most effective form, in the common Suspense, device of the interrupted narrative. The teacher develops the subject in story form up to a point of absorbing interest. Then he suddenly breaks off and leaves to the student the task of 324 THE PHILOSOPHY OF THE ASSIGNMENT writing the conclusion. Similar effects may be secured in other ways. The teacher may give to a subject the interest of a puzzle or a paradox by discovering in it contradictory aspects which need to be reconciled, or by revealing phases of the subject which the student has not suspected, or by suggesting some novel method of treating it. An alert and enthusiastic teacher will delight in exercising his ingenuity to find new devices for creating suspense. By this means many old and hackneyed subjects may be given a new lease of life. Turning abstractions into concrete images is a third method of creating interest. For this purpose the teacher should use Appeal to the illustrations, examples, allusions, and other similar imagination. d ev j ces f or appealing to the imagination. Actual pictures will in many cases work wonders in making the dry bones live. Fourthly and finally, a powerful stimulus may be supplied by the teacher's own sympathy and enthusiasm. The teacher's The Teacher's i nterest will kindle a like interest in the class ; no Sympathy. student can resist it. It is essential, however, that the emotion should be genuine ; interest pumped up for the occasion will leave the students cold. Another caution may be given at this point : the wise teacher will not say that a given subject is interesting, or tell the pupil that he ought to be inter- ested in it. Still less will he upbraid the class, or any individual member of it, for lack of enthusiasm. Without mentioning the word " interest," the teacher will by his manner and his mode of speech make the class realize the attraction that the subject has for him, and arouse in them, through the influence of sympathy, a feeling similar to his own. (3) It is not sufficient, however, for the teacher merely to arouse interest in the subject ; he should also arouse a desire to write upon it. Such a desire, when it is natural, the Desire springs from two healthy impulses : the impulse to to Write. . . , \, r . , . .. , give expression to ones thoughts and feelings, and the impulse to communicate one's thoughts and feelings to others. Both of these motive powers should be utilized to the THE PHILOSOPHY OF THE ASSIGNMENT 325 full. Being complementary, each may be stimulated by giving exercise to the other. Thus, in order to cultivate the impulse to expression, it is sufficient to reveal the need of communica- tion. To cultivate the impulse to communication, it is suffi- cient to reveal the value of expression. If, for example, we wish to stir in any person a longing to express himself, we can do so most effectually by showing him that others are interested in what he will say. The sight of eager faces, the conscious- ness of waiting auditors, — these are the most powerful of all stimuli to expression. Conversely, the impulse to communica- tion may be set going by making the writer or speaker realize the value to others of the information he is prepared to impart. To call out and utilize these two impulses, the student should be made to feel that he is a member of the little community embraced within the family and the school. What he has to say is of some value to the other members of this community. He has his part to play in furnishing them with information or amusement or criticism. This means that in assigning the work the teacher should be at some pains to provide an audience or a reader. Sometimes the audience will be real, sometimes it will be imaginary, but it should never be entirely lacking. (4) It is appropriate and desirable, particularly in the earlier years, that the teacher should assist the student in blocking out his work. He may, if he chooses, suggest more or suggestion less definitely a method of analysis, an order of ofMetllod * topics and a mode of beginning and concluding. He may even go farther. The appropriate length of the composition, the due proportion of the parts to the whole, the method of devel- opment, the adaptation of matter and manner to the needs of the readers, — all these things may be spoken of in the assign- ment, though the extent to which they are introduced and the emphasis to be thrown upon them are matters to be decided ad hoc in individual cases. In general it may be said that this part of the assignment should be rather of the nature of hints and suggestions than of positive injunctions. Here, at any rate, is no place for formal rules of rhetoric. If in this portion of the 326 THE PHILOSOPHY OF THE ASSIGNMENT assignment rhetorical principles are cited at all, they should be brought in by way of implication rather than by direct statement. 1 (5) Finally, since prevention is better than cure, it is well to devote a portion of the assignment to prophylaxis ; i. e., the teacher may at the close caution the student against Cautions. prevailing errors and endeavour to forestall possible misconceptions. Such cautions, however, should not be thrown out at random ; they should be aimed at the besetting sins of the class in hand or at the temptations peculiar to the subject. The faults of individuals should receive individual attention. In any case, this negative feature should be touched with a light and rapid hand. To close the assignment with a lecture on the errors of preceding essays is to destroy to some degree its dynamic effect. To sum up. The assignment is a talk — generally a brief talk — given by the teacher to the composition class. Its pur- pose is to throw the student into the proper mood or frame of mind for composing to the best advan- tage. This it does by providing him with an interesting subject to write about, by making him feel that he is capable of writing about it, by showing to him that other persons want him to write about it, and by giving him some intimation of the best method of attacking it. It may also include cautions against miscon- ception or error. The effect of the whole should be to create a natural situation, real or imaginary, in which the student's powers of expression and communication are stimulated to their normal maximum. 1 This remark, however, applies more particularly to the lower grades ; in more advanced classes there is no reason why a rhetorical principle should not now and then be explicitly stated in the assignment. CHAPTER VII ESSAY-CORRECTING BIBLIOGRAPHY H. G. Buehler. On Correcting Compositions. Educational Review, VII. 492. P. Chubb. The Teaching of English in the Elementary and the Sec- ondary School. Macmillan. 1902. See references s. v. Correction in the Index. C. T. Copeland and H. M. Rideout. Freshman English and Theme- Correcting in Harvard College. Silver, Burdett & Co. 1901. B. A. Hinsdale. Teaching the Language-Arts : Speech, Reading, Com- position. Appleton. 1896. Chapter XVIII. W. H. Maxwell. An Experiment in Correcting Compositions. Educa- tional Review, VII. 240. Jules Payot. A suggestive series of papers in the Revue Universi- taire for July, 1897, and January, February, and April, 1898. A. Salles. De la Composition francaise. Revue Universitaire for December, 1895. S. Thurber. The Correction of School Compositions. The [Syra- cuse] Academy, VI. 254. The opinion that the correcting of school compositions is a low and disagreeable form of mental labour has been expressed so often and with so much emphasis and by so many eminent authorities that it has now come to Correcting in Ill-Repute, be regarded as a part of the condensed wisdom of humanity. Persons who do not profess to know anything else about the teaching of English, know that much, and cannot be shaken in their conviction. The teacher of composition who appears upon the street or the campus with a bundle of essays under his arm is greeted by his friends with pitying smiles and expressions of sympathy. If he ventures to demur, as he sometimes does, and to affirm that he is still an optimist and on the whole rather enjoys this kind of work, the look of pity 328 ESSA Y-CORRECTING slowly changes to one of rapt astonishment, to be succeeded in turn by shouts of laughter. He must be joking. That any one should actually derive pleasure from the correction of school Compositions is too much for human credulity. For this general sentiment regarding the disagreeableness of theme-correcting there is doubtless a basis of fact. It must Is the Evil ^ e conceded at once that to particular persons, Intrinsic? j n particular schools, on particular occasions, the work of correction is unrelieved drudgery. But the question which it is desired to raise in this discussion is not particular, but general. What we wish to inquire is whether or not correcting is, with some happy exceptions, inevitably joyless, — joyless intrinsically and universally. There is at least a possibility that the disagreeableness of which complaint is made is due not to an inherent and inseparable quality of the act, but to some accidental quality, — to some accompaniment or set of un- favourable conditions under which the act has hitherto been performed. We know that this may be the case in other branches of study. Let us take, for example, the case of a teacher of Virgil. Under favourable conditions, the teaching of the poetry of Virgil is regarded by students of Latin as a fairly agreeable task, interesting and enjoyable to teacher and pupil alike. But in particular cases the conditions may not be favourable. Suppose the case of a teacher who is compelled to teach Virgil eight hours a day for six days in the week. Suppose also that he has Virgil conferences which take up the remainder of his working hours and even encroach on his sleep. Who, under these conditions, would not sicken of the ^Eneid? Or take the case of a teacher who, having prepared himself for the teaching of Latin, is called upon to teach some- thing of a wholly different character, — let us say, geometry. Although he knows little about geometry, we may suppose, and cares nothing about its pedagogical aspects, — perhaps seriously misapprehends the end and aim of the science, — he is yet compelled to teach it to his classes four hours a day for five days in the week. Conceive how, longing all the time to be ESS A Y-CORRECTING 3 29 at his Latin, such a teacher would comport himself toward the teaching of geometry. Yet it not unfrequently occurs that the correcting of essays is performed under conditions not less unfavourable than those hinted at in the illustrations given above. It is Unfav(mral)le not uncommon for teachers of English in second- Conditions, ary schools who are conducting twenty hours of recitation a week, to sit up until twelve o'clock night after night in order to correct the compositions of their pupils, and to give liberally of their time after school hours to personal conferences. And cases are not unknown where the teacher of composition longs eagerly in his secret heart to teach some other subject — literature, perhaps. 1 Is it any wonder that the task is in such cases uncongenial? If these untoward conditions were re- moved, is it not conceivable that the correcting of essays might be found intrinsically as attractive as the teaching of Virgil or of geometry ? Examining these unfavourable conditions, let us attempt to determine whether or not they can be ameliorated. They are, as implied in the illustrations, as follows : — (1) The amount of correction is often greater than the teacher should be asked to undertake. (2) The work of correction is sometimes undertaken by persons who have no special aptitude for it. (3) The work of correction is sometimes undertaken by persons who have had no special training for it. And as a corollary from this, (4) The work of correction is sometimes undertaken by persons who misapprehend its purpose and essential charac- teristics. The first condition, namely, the excessive amount of correc- tion that teachers of English are asked to undertake, is doubt- 1 " I have never done any rhetorical work at except in connection with my courses in literature, and I thank God I have been delivered from the bondage of theme-work into the glorious liberty of literature." From a private letter by a teacher in an Eastern University. 3 30 ESS A Y-CORRECTING less the most unfavourable, and is responsible for most of the complaint. It is also the most difficult to remedy. Three solu- Co-operative ^ ons °f tne problem may be considered. The first Correction. j s t0 distribute the essays to be corrected among teachers of other subjects. The teacher of Latin takes a bunch, the teacher of physics another bunch, the teacher of mathematics another, until perhaps a third of the number has been peddled out. The teacher of English takes the rest. This co-operative plan has seemed to some principals an easy method of solving the problem, and is now in practice in a considerable number of schools. The chief objections to the method are, (i) that it throws the important work of correction into the hands of persons who may have had no preparation for it and may have no liking for it ; (2) that it divides responsibility for the method and degree of thoroughness of the correction, and by making it anybody's business ultimately makes it nobody's business ; and (3) that it prevents or delays the proper recognition of the special teacher of composition. These are theoretical considerations. Whether or not the method is pernicious in its practical application must be decided by an inspection of the schools in which it is in force. In several cases where it has been tried under the most favourable circumstances it has resulted in a rapid lower- ing of the standard of written English. A second solution was suggested several years ago by Professor William Lyon Phelps, of Yale, in a brief article con- tributed to the Century Magazine. The nature Correctio . , .... . , r .. anon of the suggestion will appear from the following corrigendo. extract : — " A wide reader is usually a correct writer ; and he has reached the goal in the most delightful manner, without feeling the penalty of Adam. . . . We would not take the extreme position taken by some, that all practice in theme-writing is time thrown away ; but after a costly experience of the drudgery that composition work forces on teacher and pupil, we would say emphatically that there is no educational method at present that involves so enormous an outlay of time, energy, and money, ESS A Y-CORRECTING 33 1 with so correspondingly small a result. ... In order to support this with evidence, let us take the experience of a specialist who investigated the question by reading many hundred soph- omore compositions in two of our leading colleges, where the natural capacity and previous training of the students were fairly equal. In one college every freshman wrote themes steadily through the year, with an accompaniment of sound instruction in rhetorical principles ; in the other college every freshman studied Shakspere, with absolutely no training in rhetoric and with no practice in composition. A comparison of the themes written in their sophomore year by these students showed that technically the two were fully on a par. That is weighty and most significant testimony." x Could the theory of the above citation be established as sound, a delightful simplification of the composition work would at once ensue. Composition classes could be disbanded. Readers of themes would drop their pencils and become readers of Shakspere. The raw student could be left to absorb from his Addison, his Macaulay, and his Stevenson, with scarce an effort, the proficiency in writing which his predecessors had won, so to speak, at the point of the bayonet. Unfortunately, however, the data for settling the question are not yet at hand. It is dangerous to generalize from a single instance, even when the utmost precautions have been taken to insure scientific accuracy. In this case no precautions appear to have been taken. Consequently it is an open question whether the results obtained were not due to wholly different causes from those assumed in the article. 2 i Century Magazine, LI. 793, 794. 2 In order to throw some light upon the problem, or at least to obtain opinions as to how light might be thrown upon it, the pedagogical section of the Modern Language Association of America issued in 1901 a circu- lar letter addressed to a large number of teachers of English in this country and abroad, containing the extract cited above. To the extract were appended the following questions : — 1. What is your opinion of the idea expressed in the quotation? 2. Do you know of any similar experiments ? If so, please give full details. 3. Do you think it is possible to conduct an experiment or a 332 ESSAY-CORRECTING The third solution of the problem is to increase the number of teachers. If themes must be read, let the schools furnish More Teachers tne men an( ^ women t0 rea d them. Double the Keeded. force ; if necessary, triple or quadruple it. If in a high school in which there are four hundred pupils, ten readers are necessary to handle all of the written work, then have ten readers. To this the objection will be raised that the tax- payers will not, and in many cases cannot, afford to pay the addi- tional expense required. But this objection can easily be set aside by an appeal to the history of education. Past experience shows that the general public has never shrunk from lavish ex- penditure upon the schools as soon as it was convinced of the necessity. Not many years ago, physics and chemistry were taught in our high schools at little greater expense than Latin and Greek. The laboratory method was almost unknown. Now even the smallest high school has its laboratory, equipped with expensive apparatus, while the equipment of the larger high schools for botany, zoology, physics, and chemistry fairly puts the universities to shame. It is not unusual for large high schools to spend eight, ten, even twenty thousand dollars in a lump, for means of instruction in science. This being so, surely it is not wholly past belief that if a concerted attempt were made to arouse public opinion upon the subject of English composition, the money could be obtained for doubling or quadrupling the force of teachers. Whether this happy state will ever be attained or not, of one thing we may be sure. It is that up to the present time too series of experiments which would furnish conclusive proof of the value or the futility of requiring freshmen to write themes steadily through the year ? A few of the most suggestive answers were embodied by Professor J W. E. Mead, the Secretary of the Pedagogical Section, in a report pub- lished in the School Review for May, 1902, under the title "The Undergraduate Study of English Composition." As will appear from the specimens there given, opinion was fairly divided, though the burden of proof, as Professor Mead says, still rests upon the advocates of read- ing as against theme-writing and theme-correcting. ESS A Y-CORRECTING 333 little credit has been given to the teacher of English for the composition work actually (lone in the schools, and conse- quently not enough allowance has been made for , . . , , i • i . i /• ■, Composition the time that must be devoted to this kind of work. Teachers If the correction of essays be taken into account, the teacher of English frequently does two or three times as much work as any other teacher in the school. Indeed, this is so well known that it is sometimes a matter of common jest among the teaching force. It should be said for the teachers of Eng- lish that they take these jests in good part, and assume the extra burden in a spirit of self-sacrifice that is in the highest degree commendable. But this sacrifice should not be asked of them. The burdens of teaching should as soon as possible be adjusted more equitably. It is not unduly magnifying the importance of the English work to say that in any school when the time comes for an enlargement of the teaching force the first question asked should be, not " Do we need another teacher of science, or of history, or of mathematics ? " but " Do we not greatly need another teacher of English?" This should come first ; other questions later. The second unfavourable condition, namely, that the work of correction falls to the lot of persons who have no special apti- tude for it, may be dismissed somewhat briefly. Elsewhere in this book, the point has been made Aptitude that special aptitude for essay-correcting is a sine qua non for a successful teacher of composition. Yet, in taking stock of the candidate's qualifications, it is commonly disre- garded. The assumption often seems to be that anybody who can read and write the English language with a fair degree of proficiency may be entrusted with the correction of composi- tions. * In one sense this is perhaps true. Everybody, or almost everybody, can correct mistakes in spelling or can caution the pupil against certain well-known errors of speech, though even in this limited field some grotesque misconceptions might be noted; but, as will be argued presently, this is not the essential part of essay-correction. Special aptitude, native talent for 334 ESS A Y-CORRECTING this kind of work, genuine liking for it in all its phases, is probably as rare as a gift for mathematics, for the classics, or for the biological sciences. Any one, therefore, who purposes to undertake the teaching of English composition ought to ask himself seriously whether he has a special aptitude for correct- ing essays. Should he decide that in his case such aptitude is lacking, it does not follow that he should forthwith give up all thought of teaching composition, for he may be mistaken in his judgment of himself; but he should understand at the outset that in the struggle for existence he is seriously handicapped, and that he may be displaced, or at least outstripped, at any time by some one who through natural endowment is better fitted to survive. He should also understand that a kind of work which is distasteful to him is not likely to be either very attractive or very profitable to those who are so unfortunate as to be in his classes. In the third place, it sometimes occurs that the teacher who has a moderate number of essays to correct and also has special aptitude for correcting them, seriously misapprehends the nature of the task. To make this point clear it is necessary to speak at a little length of the purpose of composition and the part that correction plays in it. What is the object of composition work in the schools? Most teachers would reply to this question that it is to develop the student's facility in the use of language. In one The Object of , . . , J , 7 r Composition sense this is true, but the answer may, and frequently does in practice, conceal a serious fallacy. The teacher of composition who does no more than to cultivate in* his students a facility of speech has overlooked the main point. His first and most important duty is to develop character, to bring out in the boy or girl the man or woman that is to be, to fit the student for the part that he is to play in life. To this end instruction in English, as in any other subject, is but a means. We may, then, answer the question that stands at the beginning of the paragraph in some such way as this. The object of composition teaching is to fit the student to play his part in the ESS A Y-CORRECTING 3 3 5 business of life so far as his use of language is concerned ; or, otherwise put, to enable him in any calling, as politics, religion, science, medicine, literature, to use the tool language in the most effective way. This sounds, perhaps, like quibbling, but it is not. The dis- tinction is important and vital and far-reaching. The doctrine so sharply rebuked by Socrates in the Gorgias — the character doctrine, namely, that facility of pen and voice comes Facmty of first in degree of importance, manhood and woman- Speech * hood second — unfortunately did not perish with the Greek sophists. It still lives and exerts a powerful influence in our courts, our political gatherings, our newspapers, and our legisla- tures. It is the business of the teacher of composition to kill it at the root. If he does this, his work is so far good, though his students break every rule in English grammar. And if he does not do this, though he teach his pupils to speak with the tongues of men and of angels, his work is so far a failure. To fit the student to employ his tongue and his pen in the service of his manhood, the teacher may employ a variety of agencies. First, he may use the potent influence of Mean i ng f good literature. Second, he may give the student Correction, practice in writing and speaking. Third, he may instruct the student in the principles of rhetoric ; that is, he may call his at- tention to the uniformities of expression observable in the composition of successful writers. Fourth, — and this is the point in which we are now especially interested, — he may take note wherein the student's powers and habits of expression are susceptible of improvement, and by words of encouragement, ad- vice, caution, or censure, as the case requires, may help him to overcome his faults. It is this last procedure to which the term " correction " is applied. Under this head should be brought not only abbreviations, hints, and questions written in the margin of the essay, but also counsel and suggestion given to the student orally. Taking correction in this broad sense, we may say that its purpose, like that of composition teaching in general, is the 336 ESS A Y-CORRECTING development of the individual student with respect to his use of language. Its specific aim is the checking of bad habits Aim of °f expression and communication and the substitu- Correction. t j Qn f Qr t j iem f g 00 d habits. Inasmuch as all who learn to write commit errors of one kind or another, correction is an indispensable part of the teaching of composition. Regarding correction from the point of view indicated above, we may next inquire into its proper nature and spirit. From what has just been said, we may infer certain general character- istics, as follows : — (i) Correction should be individual. Study of the individual student, the proper starting-point for all teaching of composition, is peculiarly necessary as a basis for correction. individual The good teacher of English will try to know his students through and through. Informing himself in every possible way regarding the influences that have shaped their speech thus far and have given it its individuality, he will be interested in learning their present habits of mind, — their ambitions, their doubts, their fancies, their likes and dislikes. By careful inquiry and observation, and perhaps by experiment, he will try to determine each student's failings and the causes of them, so that when occasion arises he can lay his finger upon the point of weakness and say with confidence, " Here and here thou ailest." But he will endeavour also to learn wherein lies the strength of each student, and to this quest he will devote not less attention than to the discovery of his failings. (2) Correction should be constructive. This is a corollary from the definition. Correction, like every other part of corn- Correction position work, should primarily aim at develop- Seveiop, not rnent. It should build up, not tear down. It has, Repress. t0 ^ e sure ^ a ne g a ti V e side, which must not be left out of the account. Thus, if its immediate object is to check and repress a wrong tendency, it may take the form of rebuke. Sometimes the only way to unseal the eyes of a pupil who is in love with his own faults is by means of irony. But correction should not stop with these negative results. Its ultimate aim ESSAY-CORRECTING 357 should be the development, not the repression, of the student's powers. To be truly constructive, correction should be stimulating and suggestive. It should stir the pupil's thought, give him some- thing definite to reflect upon, set a problem for him to solve. Paradoxical as it may seem, good correction will promote origi- nality and spontaneity. It will widen the pupil's intellectual horizon and rouse his dormant faculties. It will remind him of knowledge already acquired, pique his curiosity, and stir his ambition to acquire fresh knowledge. There are a hundred ways in which this end can be attained. To take a single illus- tration, the alert teacher will often make use of apt reference to literature. By this means a commonplace correction can often be reanimated. For example, suppose the word li transpire " to have been wrongly used in the sense of " happen." Correction of the error may be made in two different ways. The unsugges- tive way is to put an abbreviation or question-mark in the margin. A suggestive and thought-provoking way is to write there : " See Lowell's Letters, Vol. II. p. 47." The student on turning to the citation reads as follows : — TO T. B. ALDRICH. My dear Aldrich : — It is a capital little book — but I had read it all before, and liked it thoroughly. I think it is whole- some, interesting, and above all natural. The only quarrel I have with you is that I found in it the infamous word " tran- spired." E-pluribus-unum it ! Why not " happened "? You are on the very brink of the pit. By a reference of this kind not only is the student's attention so fixed upon the error that he is not likely to forget it, but by the very process of correction he is introduced to an entertain- ing collection of letters which some day he may wish to read. The teacher of composition should have in his mind, or at his elbow in a card catalogue, hundreds of such references, cover- ing all cases of words commonly misused by his students. Is he fond of Shakspere ? What task could be more pleasant than to 338 ESS A Y-CORRECTING collect from Shakspere's writings striking examples of such words? Does he wish his pupils to read Tennyson and to commit to memory extracts from his poems ? How better ac- complish this end than by sending them to the poems to note Tennyson's use of common words? So with the larger ele- ments of discourse. If the pupil's description is weak or in bad taste, direct him to something on the same subject in Haw- thorne, in Irving, or in Defoe. Such reading as this comes home to the pupil, sticks in his memory, and gradually forms within his mind a standard for self-criticism. It should be superfluous to add that all constructive correc- tion is given in a kindly and helpful spirit. This means that the teacher must not only have a general interest in A Kindly Spirit the welfare of the student, but a close sympathy with his aims, his struggles, his failures, and his small successes. It is not by any means necessary, as some teachers seem to think, that this sympathy should be sentimental and gushing. It may, on the contrary, find expression in words that are sharp and caustic, provided only there is about them that indefinable something which assures the student that in his teacher he has a guide, philosopher, and friend. (3) In the third place, correction should be rational. This means that the teacher of composition should have not only sympathy and good taste, but also knowledge. He should oe should be so thoroughly grounded in the underlying principles of rhetoric that whenever need arises he can give a reason, where a reason is possible, for the faith that is within him. In this regard teachers of composition are not as a body so well informed as is desirable. It is doubtful whether any great number of teachers even in the universities have kept track of the advance of rhetorical theory, are prepared, for instance, to say just what additions to the knowledge of rhetorical effects have been made by recent investigations in psychology, ethics, sociology, and aesthetics. For this they are not wholly to blame. Unlike teachers of physics, of modern languages, of biology, and of other studies that could be named, ESSAY-CORRECTING 339 teaehers of rhetoric have as yet no technical journal in which by the recording of investigation and the exchange of opinion the chaff can be separated from the wheat. Much, however, can be gained from books. Teachers ought at least to push their studies far enough to distinguish between slipshod work like that of Richard Grant White, in certain of his writings, and the editor of the Verbalist, and scientific work like that of Paul and Kellner and Jespersen. They should be sufficiently enlightened not to assume before the dictionary the attitude of the savage in the presence of his fetich. The time is coming when every teacher of rhetoric and composition will be expected to know something about the history of rhetorical theory and the present status of unsettled problems. Lacking such knowledge, the teacher in his correction is apt to be arbitrary, inconsistent, and hypercritical. (4) In the fourth place, correction should be systematic. The teacher may advisedly put himself in the attitude of the physi- cian- Having diagnosed the case of a pupil who Valne of comes under his charge, he should lay out the course System. of treatment and forecast the outcome. Such correction as is made should then be made with reference to this end. It is an excellent plan to keep such a brief record of the pupil's case as physicians are wont to keep of their patients, noting therein the results of the correction. If the pupil's rhetorical health does not improve under treatment, a systematic effort should be made to discover and to eradicate the cause of his disease. Unsystematic correction is not only futile in a majority of cases; it also wastes the teacher's time. Not every fault in every essay needs to be corrected. It is sometimes best to concentrate attention for a time upon one or two essentials. Not infrequently in the case of work which is manifestly crude and defective the most helpful correction which the teacher can give is to write at the end of the composition, " Good ! keep at it." (5) Last, and most important of all, the teacher in his cor- rection should exercise common sense. This is the saving grace, 340 ESS A Y-CORRECTING the crowning virtue in every department of instruction ; but it is of especial worth in the department of composition. Judi- ciously exercised, it will save the teacher from the of Common besetting sins of narrowness and dogmatism. It will also absolve him from the solemn reproach of know- ing too much about his subject. How any teacher can know too much about his own business is difficult to understand, but it may easily happen that a well-equipped teacher of composition will make a foolish use of his rhetorical learning, just as, if he were ignorant, he would make a foolish use of his ignorance. Says Mr. Balfour, in one of his entertaining addresses : " It is true, no doubt, that many learned people are dull ; but there is no indication whatever that they are dull because they are learned. True dulness is seldom acquired ; it is a natural grace, the manifestations of which, however modified by education, remain in substance the same. Fill a dull man to the brim with knowledge, and he will not become less dull, as the enthusiasts for education vainly imagine, but neither will he become duller." Speaking in the same spirit, we may say that although many learned teachers of rhetoric have been failures, there is slight evidence to prove that they failed because they were learned. All that was needed was the exercise of a little common sense. An endeavour has now been made to sketch in broad outlines the purpose and the essential characteristics of good correction. Correction I* remains to inquire whether correction with such cau^S*^ an a ^ m anc * °f sucn a nature i s inherently and in- agjeeable. evitably disagreeable. The opinion will here be stoutly maintained that it is not. On the contrary, pursued in the right way, the correction of essays may be as pleasing and as profitable as any pedagogical procedure that can be men- tioned. Why is any kind or part of teaching attractive? Because, primarily, it gives an opportunity to exercise special aptitude and training for the benefit of society ; secondly, be- cause it enables the teacher to promote his scholarship, to cul- tivate his tastes, to build up his character, to broaden and deepen his views of things. Now the correction of essays, commonly ESSA Y-CORRECTING 341 deemed so trivial, so burdensome, so wasteful of the mental energies, gives opportunity to him who knows how to seize it, for the attainment of all these ends. Has the teacher a native gift, a special aptitude for correction? Here is his supreme chance in life. Let him not throw it away. And it is no small gift. The power to help others in acquiring a mastery of their native speech is one of the most important and valuable in the whole circle of pedagogical equipment. Does the teacher desire to cultivate his scholarship ? The way is open. If his interest is in literature he may so shape his methods of correction that the ransacking of any given field of poetry or prose will be unescapable. Means to If he desires to pursue the study of psychology, he should know that the psychology of language processes is one of the most fascinating as well as one of the most profitable of modern lines of research in this field. If he is interested, as he ought to be, in the reconstruction now going on of the science of rhetoric, the opportunity is all that could be asked for. The written work of the pupils in the secondary schools constitutes precisely the material needed for investigation in this subject. Finally, that correction carried on in the manner and spirit here indicated is a cultivating, liberalizing, and character- building process, need not be argued at length. It , . r . ■, • 1 r Correction is surely not going too far to say that a kind of may be a Joy teaching which brings the instructor into so vital and intimate relations with his pupils, which calls for so great an exercise of sympathy, insight, and moral influence, can compete in these respects with other departments of instruction. We may then briefly draw the conclusion that essay-correct- ing, when there is not too much of it, when one has special aptitude and training for it, when its true purpose and essential character are understood, is not intrinsically disagreeable. It may in a true sense become a joy forever. BIBLIOGRAPHY BIBLIOGRAPHY For Supplemental Bibliography (1913), see page 375. I. General References Aiton, Geo. B. The Purpose of English in the High School. A paper read before the Michigan Schoolmasters' Club, Ann Arbor, Novem- ber, 1896. Reprinted from the School Review for March, 1897. Allen, Edward A. Academy (Syracuse) 4: 1 Thomas Jefferson and the Study of English. Alvey, K. H. Academy (Syracuse) 7 : 19 English in the Public Schools. Bain, A. Education as a Science. New York : 1879. Appleton. Pp. 166, 168, 230, 350-353. 392 Rhetoric; pp. 334-3 57 Literature. On Teaching English. London : 1887. Longmans. Reviewed in London Journal of Education 9:272. Barnett, P. A. Common Sense in Education and Teaching. London, New York and Bombay : 1899. Longmans. Pp. 143-168 Audible Speech (in reading) ; pp. 169-195 Literature and Formal Linguis- tic Study. Teaching and Organization with Special Reference to Secondary Schools. London, New York and Bombay : 1897. Longmans. Chapter VII. English Grammar and Composition ; pp. 136-160 Literature. Brown, Edward M. Papers Read at the Fifth and Sixth Annual Con- ventions of the Modern Language Association of Ohio, 1894-95 : 53 English in Ohio Colleges. Burk, Fred. Atlantic Monthly 80:547 The Training of Teachers. P. 558 The Principles of Language-Teaching. Butler, M". M. Atlantic Monthly 73:372 Reform of Secondary Education in the United States. Chubb, Percival. The Teaching of English in the Elementary and the Secondary School. New York : 1902. Macmillan. Committee of Fifteen. See Report of the Committee of Fifteen. Committee of Ten. See Report of the Committee on Secondary School Studies. Cook, A. S. Atlantic Monthly 87 : 710 The Teaching of English. Corson, H. The Aims of Literary Study. New York : 1895. Courthope, W. J. National Review 21 : 486 Study of English Lan- guage and Literature as a Part of a Liberal Education. 346 BIBLIOGRAPHY Encyclopaedia of Education. Ed. by Henry Kiddle and Alexander J. Schem. New York : 1877. Steiger. London : 1877. Sampson Low. Pp. 163-164, 732-734 Composition ; pp. 277-280 Literature. Emerson, O. F. Academy (Syracuse) 4:233 English in Secondary Schools ; 5 : 104 English in Preparatory Schools. Pitch, J. G. Lectures on Teaching. Cambridge: 1881. University Press. Pp. 273-279 Composition ; pp. 279-285 Literature. Furness, H. H. Education 9 : 441 The Study of English in the College Course. Gardner, George E. Education 15 : 133, 221 Should Power to Create or Capacity to Appreciate be the Aim in the Study of English ? Garliek, A. H. A New Manual of Method. New York : 1896. Long- mans. Pp. 303-307 Composition ; pp. 302, 303 Literature. Garnett, J. M. Addresses and Proceedings of the National Educa- tional Association, 1879: 87 The Historical Method in the Teach- ing of English. — ~~ Publications of the Modern Language Association of America, Vol. II. p. 61 The Course in English and its Value as a Discipline. Groce, B. Academy (Syracuse) 7 : 202 Teaching English. Gummere, F. B. School and College 1 : 84 English in Secondary Schools. Harris, J. H. School Review 10 : 566 The Recent History and Present Status of the English Curriculum. Harris, W. T. Educational Review 11:323 The Necessity for Five Co-ordinate Groups of Studies in the Schools. Hart, J. M. Proceedings of the Modern Language Association of America, N. S. IV. 4 (1895) : xi English as a Living Language. Hinsdale, B. A. Teaching the Language- Arts : Speech, Reading, Com- position. New York : 1896. Hunt, T. W. Publications of the Modern Language Association of America, Vol. I. p. 118 The Place of English in the College Curriculum. Landon, Joseph. The Principles and Practice of Teaching and Class Management. London : 1899. Holden. Pp. 424-433 Composi- tion ; pp. 433-436 Literature. Laurie, S. S. Lectures on Language and Linguistic Method in the School. 2d Ed., revised. Edinburgh : 1893. Locke, John. Thoughts on Education. Edited by R. H. Quick. Cambridge: 1880. University Press. §168 Grammar; §§188, 189 Rhetoric and Style. Marble, A. P. Addresses and Proceedings of the National Educa- tional Association, 1894 : 279 The Study of English in the Public Schools. Same article in School Review 1 : 198. Painter, F. V. N. Publications of the Modern Language Association of America, Vol. II. p. 83 Recent Educational Movements in their Relation to Language Study. BIBLIOGRAPHY 347 Payson, E. R. Academy (Syracuse) 1 : 97 How far can Literary and Rhetorical Work be Carried in the High School? Penniman, James H. School Review 1 : 462 The Study of English in School and College. Price, T. R. Educational Review 11:12 Language and Literature. Report of the Committee of Fifteen on Elementary Education, with the Reports of the Sub-Committees ; on the Training of Teachers ; on the Correlation of Studies in Elementary Education; on the Organization of City School Systems. New York : 1895. Also in Educational Review for March, 1895. Pp- x 4> *5> 44~5 I > 90-92 English Language. Report of the Committee on Secondary School Studies (The Com- mittee of Ten), with the Reports of the Conferences. Washington: 1893. U. S. Bureau of Education. See pp. 20, 21, 86-95. For com- ment, see Dial 16 : 35, Educational Review 8 : 82. For general bib- liography of comment on the Report, see Educational Review 8 : 103, 226. Roark, Ruric N. Method in Education. N. Y. : 1899. American Book Co. Pp. 282-321 Language Training. Salmon, D. The Art of Teaching. London, New York and Bombay : 1898. Longmans. Seeley, J. R. Macmillan's Magazine 17 : 75 English in Schools. Spencer, Frederic (Editor). Chapters on the Aims and Practice of Teaching. Cambridge : 1897. University Press. Chapter IV. English, by A. S. Way. Swett, John. Methods of Teaching. New York : 1880. Harper. Pp. 155-156, 258-278, 307-318. Thurber, S. Addresses and Proceedings of the National Educational Association, 1898 : 671 Some of the Main Principles of Second- ary English Teaching. American Institute of Instruction, 1892: 132 The Three Parts of English Study : Their Correlation in Secondary Teaching. Education 16 : 449 Aims and Methods in the Study of Litera- ture. Tompkins, A. The Philosophy of Teaching. Boston : 1894. Pp. 171- 176 Composition. Way, A. S. See Spencer, F. II. College Entrance Requirements Addresses and Proceedings of the National Educational Association 1899 : 640 English. Report of the Committee on College Entrance Requirements. Beers, H. A. Educational Review 3:427 Entrance Requirements in English at Yale. 348 BIBLIOGRAPHY Carpenter, G. R. Educational Review 4 : 513 College Entrance Re- quirements in English. Currell, W. S. Proceedings of the Southern Educational Association 1900: 76 A Plea for the College Entrance Requirements in English. Davidson, Chas. English in the Secondary Schools, with suggestions based upon the reports of the English Conference. Cleveland: 1896. For similar pamphlets, see Denney, English in the Secondary Schools, Gayley and Bradley, and Hopkins. Denney, Jos. V. English in the High Schools. Columbus. (A circular issued by the English Department of Ohio State University.) For similar pamphlets, see references under Davidson. School Review 6 : 339 English Requirements. Eaton, A. W. College Requirements in English: Entrance Examina- tions. Boston : 1892. Ginn. College Requirements in English : Entrance Examinations (Ex- amination Papers for 1893 an ^ !894). Boston : 1894. Ginn. Educational Review 8 : 176 Report of Conference on College Entrance Requirements in English Appointed by the Association of Colleges and Preparatory Schools of the Middle States and Maryland ; 204 Editorial Comment on report of Conference on College En- trance Requirements in English ; 9 : 97-98 Report of the Com- mittee on College Admission Requirements to the Association of Colleges and Preparatory Schools of the Middle States and Maryland. English in the Secondary Schools. A Plan for Work in English Adapted to the Programmes of the Committee of Ten. Cambridge : 1897. Harvard University. Prepared by the Department of English, of Harvard University. For similar pamphlets, see references under Davidson. French, C. W. School Review 5 : 343 The English Conference (On the meeting of the joint committee on entrance requirements in English) ; 6 : 344 Special Report of the Joint Committee on English Requirements. Gayley, C. M., and C. B. Bradley. Suggestions to Teachers of English in the Secondary Schools. Berkeley, Cal. : 1894. For similar pamphlets see references under Davidson. Henneman, J. B. University of Tennessee Record, January, 1898, pp. 54-63 The National Conference on Uniform Entrance Require- ments in English. Hopkins, E. M. Circular Touching the Requirements in English for Admission to the University of Kansas. Lawrence : 1895. Pub- lished by the University. For similar pamphlets, see references under Davidson. Hunt, T. W. Modern Language Notes 13 : 257 The New Require- ments in Entrance English. — Their Literary Value. BIBLIOGRAPHY 349 Hurlbut, B. S. Academy (Syracuse) 7 : 257 College Requirements in English. Reprinted in Twenty Years of School and College English (Cambridge: 1896), pp. 46-53. Jones, Bichard D. College-Entrance English. (Examination Bulletin No. 13, June, 1897. University of the State of New York.) Albany : 1897. Published, in part, in Addresses and Proceedings of the National Educational Association 1897 : 684. Lathrop, H. B. Educational Review 6 : 289 Entrance Examinations in English at Stanford. McElroy, J. G. B. Publications of the Modern Language Association of America, Vol. I. p. 195 The Requirements in English for Ad- mission to College. Pancoast, H. S. Educational Review 3 : 132 College Entrance Requirements in English. Beport of the Commission on Accredited Schools. Appendix to the Proceedings of the Seventh Annual Meeting of the Association of Colleges and Secondary Schools of the North Central States. Ann Arbor : 1902. Published by the Association. Beport of Committee on College Entrance Requirements, July, 1899. Appointed by Departments of Secondary Education and Higher Education [of the National Educational Association] at the Denver Meeting, July, 1895. Published by the Association. Pp. 12-19 English. Russell, J. E. Educational Review 4 : 74 College Entrance Require- ments in English. School Review 5 : 332 College Entrance Requirements in Eng- lish. School Beview 5 : 449 The Preparatory Course in English. Sugges- tions to preparatory schools by the examiner in English of the University of Chicago. See, for similar suggestions, the references under Davidson. 3 : 92 Requirements for Entrance Examinations in English. Report of a committee appointed by the Association of Colleges and Preparatory Schools of the Middle States and Maryland ; and discussion of the Report. 6 : 222 Report of the Committee on Entrance Requirements in English. Scott,^ P. N. Educational Review 20 : 289 The Report on College Entrance Requirements in English. Proceedings of the North Central Association of Colleges and Secondary Schools, 1901, pp. 37-49 College Entrance Require- ments in English. Reprinted in School Review 9 : 365. Stoddard, P. H. School Review 6 : 223 Entrance Requirements in English. Summary of the Proceedings of the Conference on Uniform Entrance Requirements in English, 1894-99. (Published by the Conference.) 350 BIBLIOGRAPHY Van Slyck, F. G. N. School Review 9 : 316 Working Conditions in the High School with Regard to College Requirements in English. III. Rhetoric and Composition (See also IX. English in the Lower Grades.) Abbott, E. A. Macmi Han's Magazine 18 : 33 The Teaching of English. Reprinted in Massachusetts Teacher 21 : 271. Adams, C. F. Nation 56 : 31 English at Harvard. Nation 61 : 309 School English. Adams, C. F., E. L. Godkin, and Geo. R. Nutter. Report of the Com- mittee on Composition and Rhetoric to the Board of Overseers of Harvard College. April, 1895. Report of the Committee on Composition and Rhetoric to the Board of Overseers of Harvard College. (Second Report.) Adams, C. F„, E. L. Godkin, and Josiah Quincy. Report of the Com- mittee on Composition and Rhetoric to the Board of Overseers of Harvard College. Published, in part, in Harvard Graduates' Mag- azine 1 : 258. Adams, C. F., and W. W. Goodwin. Harvard Graduates' Magazine 1 : 177 Preparatory School Education. Pp. 178-189 The Classics and Written English, with facsimiles (C. F. Adams) ; pp. 189-193 The Root of the Evil (W. W. Goodwin). Reviewed by Wm. Strunk, Jr., in School Review 1 : 127. Atkinson, J. H. Journal of Pedagogy 13 : 122 English Composition. Atlantic Monthly 72 : 284 The English Question Again. Balch, S. W. Education 16 : 223 Rhetoric for Science. Baldwin, C. S. Educational Review 8 : 290 Value of the Office-Hour in the Teaching of Rhetoric. Barbour, F. A. School Review 6:500 English Composition in the High School. Beers, H. A. Educational Review 3 : 427 Entrance Requirements in English at Yale. Bouton, E. Education 5 191 Study of English. Briggs, L. B. R. New England Journal of Education 38 : 383 What the College Desires. Academy (Syracuse) 3:345 The Harvard Admission Examina- tion in English. Reprinted in Twenty Years of School and College English (Cambridge : 1896), pp. 17-32. Academy (Syracuse) 5 : 302 The Correction of Bad English as a Requirement for Harvard College. Reprinted in Twenty Years of School and College English (Cambridge: 1896), pp. 33-43. Browne, G. H. Educational Review 9 : yj7 Educational Value of English. BIBLIOGRAPHY 35 1 Brownlee, J. H. Academy ' (Syracuse) 6 : 80 Study of English in Preparatory Schools and Colleges. Buck, Gertrude. Educational Review 22 : 197 What does Rhetoric Mean ? Review of an investigation into the graduate study of rhetoric, conducted by the Pedagogical Section of the Modern Language Association of America. Educational Review 22 : 371 Recent Tendencies in the Teaching of English Composition. Modern Language Notes 15:167 The Present Status of Rhetoric cal Theory. Buehler, H. G. Educational Review 7 : 492 On Correcting Com- positions. Comments upon an article by Superintendent W. H. Maxwell in Educational Review 7 : 240. Burton, Richard. Dial 19 : 277 The Teaching of English and the Making of Writers. Carpenter, F. I. Dial 14:271 The Teaching of our Mother Tongue. Castor, T. H. Academy (Syracuse) 4 : 565 Instruction in Language. Clark, J. S. Academy (Syracuse) 4:369 English in Secondary Schools. Clark, T. A. Papers Read at the Second Annual Session of the University High-School Conference, University of Illinois, 1896 : 1 Composition in the High Schools of Illinois. Collar, Geo., and Chas W. Crook. School Management and Methods of Instruction. London: 1900. Macmillan. Pp. 155-168. Collins, J. S. Academy (Syracuse) 5 : 367 Logic with Rhetoric. Copeland, C. T., and H. M. Bideout. Freshman English and Theme- Correcting in Harvard College. New York : 1901. Silver, Burdett & Co. Coy, E. G., and others. Nation 63 : 344, 364, 385 English in Colleges and Preparatory Schools. Cox, E. S. Addresses and Proceedings of the National Educational Association, 1885: 181 English in American Schools. Currie, James S. Common School Education. Edinburgh. Thomas Laurie. Pp. 366-373 Composition. Daniel, M. L. Education 16:562 Concentration as Applied to the Mother Tongue. Deahl, J. N. Imitation in Education: Its Nature, Scope, and Signifi- cance. Columbia University Contributions to Philosophy, Psychol- ogy, and Education. New York: 1900. Macmillan. Pp. 74-83 Imitation in Language and Composition. Denney, Jos. V. Two Problems in Composition-Teaching : I. The Relations of Reading to Practice ; II. The Statement of Com- position Topics. (Contributions to Rhetorical Theory, edited by F. N. Scott. No. III. The Inland Press, Ann Arbor.) De Quincey, Thos. The Education of Boys in Large Numbers. Works, Masson's Ed., vol. xiv. pp. 34, 35. 352 BIBLIOGRAPHY Dewey, John. The School and Society. Chicago : 1899. University of Chicago Press. Pp. 61-65. Dodge, D. K. Educational Review 14 : 370 English and Latin in Illinois High Schools. Douglas, Chas. H. J. Suggestions for Courses in English in Secondary Schools. Albany: 1893. Reprinted from Convocation Proceedings of the University of the State of New York, July, 1893. Dye, Charity. Addresses and Proceedings of the National Educa- tional Association 1898 : 678 A Proposed Four-Years' Course in English for Secondary Schools. Easton, Wm. M. Publications of the Modern Language Association of America, Vol. IV. p. 19 The Rhetorical Tendency in Under- graduate Courses. Fisher, K. B. Academy (Syracuse) 4: 311 Teaching of English. Fosdick, F. S. Addresses and Proceedings of the National Educational Association, 1894 : 773-776 The Possibilities of High School Training in Relation to Public Speaking. Frink, H. A. Education 13 : 129 Rhetoric and Public Speaking in the American College. Genung, J. F. School Review 3 : 405 The Teacher's Outfit in Rhetoric. The Study of Rhetoric. (Monographs on Education.) Boston: 1892. Heath. George, A. J. Dial 23:64 Preparatory English. — A Teacher's Ex- perience. Gilman, Arthur. New York Evening Post, October 26, 1896 School- Boy Illiteracy. See also Godkin, Grant, New York Evening Post. Gleason, C. B. School Review 1 : 301 On Teaching English. Godkin, E. L. Educational Review 13:1 The Illiteracy of American Boys. See also Grant, Gilman, New York Evening Post. Goodwin, W. W. Nation 61 : 291 School English. Gore, Willard C. Dial 23:210 Scientific Work in Rhetoric. See also Smyser, S. F. Grant, Percy S. New York Evening Post, October 26, 1896 School- Boy Illiteracy. See also Godkin, Gilman, New York Evening Post. Greene, John. School Review 1 : 546 The Mastery of English. Greenough, J. J. Atlantic 71 1656 The English Question. Groce, Byron. Academy (Syracuse) 6 : 529 The Emphasis in the Teaching of English ; 7 : 202 Teaching English (see p. 232 for a discussion of Mr. Groce's paper). Hales, J. W. Essays on a Liberal Education, Edited by F. W. Farrar. London: 1868. Macmillan. Pp. 293-312. Halpin, P. A. New York Regents' Reports 94 : 573 A System of Rhetoric. Harlow, W. B. Academy (Syracuse) 4: 151 A Three Years' Course in English Composition. BIBLIOGRAPHY 353 Harrison, Oaskie. Dial 17 : 286 The Work of Preparatory Schools in English. Harvard Reports on Rhetoric and Composition. See Adams, C. F. Herrick, Robert. Methods of Teaching Rhetoric. Chicago : 1898. Scott, Foresman & Co. Hill, A. S. American Institute of Instruction 1884: no English in the Schools. (Abstract.) An Answer to the Cry for More English. In Twenty Years of School and College English (Cambridge: 1896), pp. 6-16. Reprinted from Good Company, Springfield, Mass., 4 : 3. Hill, A. S., and Eliza A. Witney. Educational Review 14:468, 15:55 Sub-Freshman English. Extracts from Harvard examination pa- pers, designed to show the quality of the work in English in the preparatory schools. Hill, A. S. Our English. New York: 1889. Pp. 1-71 English in Schools; pp. 72-101 English in Colleges. Huffeut, E. W. New England Journal of Education 24 : 355, 386, 418 ; 25:118, 181 The Teaching of English Composition. Reprinted in Monographs on Education. Boston : 1892. Heath. Science 9 : 474 English in the Preparatory School. Huling, Ray Greene. Proceedings of the National Educational Asso- ciation 1891 : 632 How English is Taught in One High School. HuU, L. C. Michigan School Moderator 5:525, 545, 568 Essay Writ- ing in our Common Schools. Hurlbut, B. S. Academy (Syracuse) 6:351 The Preparatory Work in English, as seen by a Harvard Examiner. Reprinted in Twenty Years of School and College English. (Cambridge: 1896.) Pp. 44, 45- Jillson, W. E. Education 7 : 691 English in the Preparatory School. Jordan, Mary A. New England Journal of Education 55:361 Some Methods of Securing Freedom and Adequateness of Expression in English. Havana, Rose M. Dial 31 : 353 Some Recent Phases of English Teaching. School Review 10 : 298 The Constructive Side of English Study. Heeler, Harriet A. Academy (Syracuse) 1 : 58 A Schedule of Com- position Work. Kellogg, B. School Review 1 :96, 152 On Teaching English. Keyser, R. S. Academy (Syracuse) 5 1361 Question of English. School Review 1 : 131 Readjustment of the School Curriculum. Knowlton, Stephen B. School Review 4 : 6S2 The Recitation in the Study of English. Lambert, W. H. American Institute of Instruction 1888 : 54 English in the High School. Lockwood, Sarah E. H. Academy (Syracuse) 4:255 English in Sec- ondary Schools. 23 354 BIBLIOGRAPHY Lowell, D. O. S. School Review 10 : 351 The Teaching of English in the Secondary Schools. Lowry, C. Journal of Education (London) 11 : 334 Teaching of English. M'Chesney, J. B. Addresses and Proceedings of the National Educa- tional Association 1888 : 405 Teaching English in the Secondary Schools. Macdonald, S. W. Harvard Graduates' Magazine 2 : 258 Defective Training in English. McElroy, J. G. B,. Academy (Syracuse) 4:244 English in Secondary Schools. Manny, F. A. Papers Read at the Second Annual Session of the Uni- versity High School Conference, University of Illinois, 1897 : 7 Rhetoric and Composition. Marble, A. P. Educational Review 3 : 22 On Teaching the Effective Use of English. Maxwell, W. H. Educational Review 7 : 240 An Experiment in Cor- recting Compositions. See also Buehler, H. G. School and Home Education 20 : 21 A Method of Teaching Composition. Mead, W. E. Publications of the Modern Language Association of America, Vol. XVI. No. 4, pp. xx-xxxii The Graduate Study of Rhetoric. Report of the Pedagogical Section of the Modern Lan- guage Association of America. School Review 10:317 The Undergraduate Study of English Composition. Report of the Pedagogical Section of the Modern Language Association of America upon the value of theme-writing in colleges. Meader, Emily Isabel. School Review 7 1472 A High School Course in English. Miller, Edwin L. Addresses and Proceedings of the National Educa- tional Association 1898 : 696 Subjects for Compositions : Shall we Draw them from Literature or from Life? Monteith, J. Education 16 : 268 Talking and Writing. Newcomer, A. A Practical Course in English Composition. Boston; 1893. Preface. New England Conference of Colleges and Preparatory Schools. School Review 1:625-667 Addresses by Professor Barrett Wendell and Dr. Samuel Thurber, and discussion. See Educational Review 6:519 for brief editorial comment. New York Evening Post, October 13, 1896 The Growing Illiteracy of American Boys (editorial article). Same article in Nation 63 : 284. New York Teachers' Monographs, III. 3 (June, 1901) Oral and Written Composition. (By various hands.) Nightingale, A. P. Addresses and Proceedings of the National Educa- tional Association 1894 : 155 English. BIBLIOGRAPHY 355 O'Shea, M. V. School Review 6 : 289 Relative Values in Secondary and Higher Education. See pp. 299-301. Painter, F. V. N. Addresses and Proceedings of the National Educa- tional Association 1898 : 693 What Proportion of Essay Subjects shall be Drawn from Literature ? [Phelps, Wm. L.] Century 51:793 Two Ways of Teaching English. Popular Science Monthly 50 : 409 Growing Illiteracy. Apropos of the Harvard report. See also Godkin, Grant, Gilman, New York Even- ing Post. Report of the Committee on Composition and Rhetoric to the Board of Overseers of Harvard College. See Adams, C. F. St. John, Cynthia M. School Review 1 : 491 English in Schools : a Parent's Point of View. Scudder, H. E. Atlantic Monthly 74 : 688 Academic Treatment of the English Language. Atlantic Monthly 73 : 252 The Educational Law of Reading and Writing. See, for comment, School Review 2 : 179. Sewell, Jas. W. School Review 8 : 80 English. Sidgwick, A. On the Teaching of Composition. A Lecture. London : 1889. Rivingtons. Skinner, Charlotte E. Academy (Syracuse) 3:261 English in the High School. Smith, G. J. Educational Review 14 : 285 On Teaching Argumen- tation. Smith, M. W. Addresses and Proceedings of the National Educational Association 1889: 520 Methods of Study in English. Smyser, Seldon P. Dial 23 : 141 The Lack of Scientific Work in Rhetoric. See also Gore. Soldan, P. L. Educational Review 11:335 Tne Work of the High School. Spalding, Elizabeth H. The Problem of Elementary Composition. Suggestions for its Solution. Boston : 1896. Heath. Stark, A. B. Education 1 1492 Teaching of English. Stevens, Alice A. Harper 104 : 287 The Question of English. Stoddard, Francis Hovey. Academy (Syracuse) 3:395 The Uses of Rhetoric. Educational Review 6: 126 Literary Spirit in the Colleges. Stone, Chas. W. A Rejoinder to the Report of the Committee on Composition and Rhetoric to the Overseers of Harvard College. Cambridge: 1893. Storr, Prancis. Educational Times 50:221 The Teaching of English Composition. Street, I. M. Academy (Syracuse) 4 : 506 The Order of English Studies in the Secondary School. For discussion see p. 513. Tetlow, John. Educational Review 12 175 Sight Translation from the Classics as a Test of Proficiency in English Composition. 356 BIBLIOGRAPHY Thurber, C. H. School Review 6 : 328 English as it is Taught. Thurber, S. Academy (Syracuse) 4 : 421 Elementary English Com- position in High Schools ; 5 : 354, 459 Composition Topics, 513 Suggestions of English Study for Teachers of English (Reprinted in pamphlet form, 1891) ; 6: 157 Milder Suggestions of English Study for Secondary Teachers, 254 The Correction of School Compositions. Education 14 : 193 The Limitations of the Secondary Teaching of English Composition ; 18 : 515 An Address to Teachers of English. Educational Review 5 1381 The "Harvard Report " on the Teach- ing of English. New England Journal of Education 36 : 74 The Three Parts of English Study; 39:85 English. School Review 1 : 638 English Work in the Secondary Schools (Discussion of Professor Wendell's paper at the Conference of the New England Association); 2:13 The Conditions needed for the Successful Teaching of English Composition, 468, 540 English in Secondary Schools : Some Considerations as to its Aims and its Needs ; 5 : 7 Five Axioms of Composition Teaching. To what End do High Schools Teach English ? See, for review and summary, Pedagogical Seminary 2 : 327. Todd, Ada J. Academy (Syracuse) 5 : 390 How to Use Newspapers in Schools. Upson, A. J. New York Regents' Reports 79, Appendix : 69 A De- fence of Rhetoric. "Warner, Mabel L. Education 21 : 163 A Plea for More English Com- position in Secondary Schools. Webster, W. F. Addresses and Proceedings of the National Educa- tional Association 1898 : 681-690 Syllabus of a Course in English with a Defence of the Same. Wendell, Barrett. English Composition. New York: 1896. Scribner. A helpful note for teachers stands at the beginning of the book, in copies put out since 1894. School Review 1 : 638 English Work in the Secondary Schools. Paper read at a conference of the New England Association. Wickes, W. K. Academy (Syracuse) 3:85 Worth of the English, 133 The Mastery of the English Tongue. Wight, John G. School Review r : 15 First Year English in the High School. Same article in New England Journal of Education 36 : 366. Winch, Wm. H. Problems in Education. London : 1900. Sonnen- schein. Appendix X Grammar and Composition. Winston, Francis D. Nation 63 : 455 English and the High School. Woodward, F. C. English in the Schools. (Monographs on Educa- tion.) Boston : 1893. Wright, C. B. Academy (Syracuse) 5 : 467 English in the High School. — What the College has a Right to Expect.. BIBLIOGRAPHY 35T IV. Literature (See also IX. English in the Lower Grades.) Abbott, Allan. School Review 10 : 585 Reading Tastes of High School Pupils. Ailing- Aber, Mary. An Experiment in Education. New York : 1897. Harper. Pp. 141-155 Backus, T. J. New York Regents' Reports 103, Appendix : 55 Methods of Instruction in English Literature. Barnett, P. A. Journal of Education (London) 1902: 208 English Literature and English Schools. Bates, Arlo. New England Journal of Education 44 : 398 Literature in the Grammar Schools. Bates, Katharine Lee. New England Journal of Education 55 : 329 Literature in the Schools. Poet-Lore 6 : 383 Knowledge versus Feeling ; 8 : 563 New Ideas in Teaching Literature. Beardshear, Wm. M. Addresses and Proceedings of the National Educational Association 1900: 153 The Influence of Poetry in Education. Beeching, H. C. Longmans' Magazine 38 : 350 How not to Teach English Literature. Bowen BE. Courthope. Educational Times 44 : 174 On English Lit- erature in Schools. Educational Times 55 : 139 Histories of Literature and their Use in the Earlier Stages of Literary Study. Brackett, Anna C. Academy (Syracuse) 3:14 Teaching English Literature. Bronson, Walter C. Academy (Syracuse) 4:384 English Literature in Secondary Schools. Brumbaugh, Martin G. Addresses and Proceedings of the National Educational Association 1900: 169 Educational Principles Applied to the Teaching of Literature. Brusie, C. F. Education 14:129 Literature as a Means of Moral Training in the Schools. Buehler, H. G. School Review 6 : 709 The Training of the Imagina- tion in the Study of Literature. Butler, Xtfathaniel. Education 16 : 529, 589 Aims and Methods in the Study of Literature. Carpenter, F. I. Poet-Lore 6 : 378 The Study of Literature. Chevrillon, M. Andr6 Lt. Addresses and Proceedings of the National Educational Association 1893 : 168 The Study of English Lit- erature in French Universities. Clark, M. C. Addresses and Proceedings of the National Educational 358 BIBLIOGRAPHY Association 1887 : 417 The Ministration of Literature. Same article in the Syracuse Academy 2 : 357. Clark, M. C. Educational Review 21:485 Ethical and Practical Points in Teaching English. Collar, Wm. C. Poet- Lore 8 : 449 New Ideas in Teaching Literature. Collins, J. Churton. The Study of English Literature : A Plea for its Recognition and Organization at the Universities. London: 1891. Macmillan. Cook, Albert S. Journal of Pedagogy 1 1 : 284 Preparation for the Teaching of Secondary English. Poet-Lore 8 : 567 New Ideas in Teaching Literature. Cooper, Oscar H. Addresses and Proceedings of the National Educa- tional Association 1887 : 530 The Superintendent and Good Literature in the Schools. Corson, H. Poet-Lore 6:377, 473, 536 The Aims of Literary Study. Cox, E. S. Addresses and Proceedings of the National Educational Association 1885 : 181 English in American Schools. Crunden, Frederick M. Addresses and Proceedings of the National Educational Association 1901 : 108 The School and the Library — The Value of Literature in Early Education. Darwin, E. W. Journal of Education (London), New Series 10:515 Reading and the Study of Literature. Davidson, Charles. Journal of Pedagogy 12:313 Leaves from an English Inspector's Note-Book. De G-armo, Charles. New Education 6:61 The Value of Literature in Moral Training. Addresses and Proceedings of the National Educational Association 1894 : 388 The Value of Literature in Moral Training. Also in Public School Journal 12 : 399, and New England Journal of Educa- tion 2,7 • H7- Dillard, J. H. Nation 71 : 189 Literary Taste of Pupils and their Vocabulary. Dodd, Catherine I. Introduction to the Herbartian Principles of Teaching. London : 1898. Sonnenschein. New York : 1898. Macmillan. Chapter V. Humanistic Studies. Dodge, D. K. Papers Read at the Second Annual Session of the University High-School Conference, University of Illinois, 1896 : 10 The Teaching of English Literature. Dye, Charity. Addresses and Proceedings of the National Educational Association 1898 : 678 A Proposed Four-Years' Course in English for Secondary Schools. Fletcher, Frank. Journal of Education (London) 1902 : 439 The Place of Literature in Education. Fouillee, Alfred. Education from a National Standpoint. Translated and Edited by W. J. Greenstreet. London : 1892. Edward Arnold. Pp. 232-245. BIBLIOGRAPHY 359 Prink, Henry A. Education 104 : 13 A Term's Work in English Literature. New York Regents' Reports 97, Appendix : 189 Methods of In- struction in English Literature. Fruit, J. P. Modern Language Notes 6:77 The Worth of the Eng- lish Sentence for Reflective and ^Esthetic Discipline. Publications of the Modern Language Association of America, Vol. VI. No. 1, p. 29 A Plea for the Study of Literature from the ^Esthetic Standpoint. George, Andrew J. Academy (Syracuse) 7 : 195 Translations of the Ancient Classics in the Literary Courses of Secondary Schools. New England Journal of Education 38 : 382 Literary Interpretation. Gilmore, J. H. New York Regents' Reports 96:350 Methods of Instruction in English Literature. Glazebrook, M. G. Journal of Education (London), New Series 11 1609 The Teaching of English Literature. Thirteen Essays on Education, Edited by E. Lyttleton. London : 1 891. Percival. Pp. 193-220. Greene, John. School Review 1 : 546 The Mastery of English. Greenough, J. C. American Institute of Instruction 1876 : 92 English Literature in the Common Schools. Gummere, Francis B. Academy (Syracuse) 2 : 145 Poetry in the School Room. Halleck, R. P. Education of the Central Nervous System. New York: 1896. Macmillan. Chapters VII.-X. Addresses and Proceedings of the National Educational Association 1900 : 160 The Value of English Literature in Ethical Training. Halsey, L. R. Education 9 : 390 Author and Library Work in Schools. Addresses and Proceedings of the National Educational Associa- tion 1888 : 70 Practical Methods of Using Literature in Teaching Children to Read. Hanna, John C. Addresses and Proceedings of the National Educa- tional Association 1898 : 665 English the Core of a Secondary Course. Harris, Wm. T. Educational Review 13 : 324 Why Art and Literature Ought to be Studied in Elementary Schools. ' National Educational Association 1888: 86 Ought Young Girls to Read the Daily Newspapers ? 1 Report of the United States Commissioner of Education, 1898-99, I. : 687-706 The Study of Art and Literature in Schools. Hart, J. M. Academy (Syracuse) 7 : 125 The Scientific Method in Eng- lish Literature Teaching. Publications of the Modern Language Association of America. Vol. I. p. 84 The College Course in English Literature. Herrick, R. W. Harvard Monthly 16 : 133 The Laboratory Method in English Literature. 360 BIBLIOGRAPHY Hitchcock, Alfred M. Educational Review 22 : 252 The Secondary- School Teacher of English. Hodgson, G. E. Journal of Education (London), New Series 19:706 English Literature and Examinations. Hopkins, E. M. Suggestions for the Teaching of English Classics in the High School. Lawrence: 1897. Published by the University of Kansas. For similar pamphlets see references under Davidson in the second division of this Bibliography. Hudson, H. N. Canada School Journal 8 : 79, 103 Relation of Gram- mar and Literature. New England Journal of Education 9 : 340 How to Study English Literature. Huling, Ray Greene. Addresses and Proceedings of the National Educational Association 1891 : 632 How English is Taught in One High School. Same article in New England Journal of Edu- cation 34 : 148. Hurll, Estelle M. Poet-Lore 6:546 The Study of Poetry from the Standpoint of Aesthetics. Johnson, Charles P. American Institute of Instruction 1892 : 174 The Development of Literary Taste in College Students. Same article in New England Journal of Education 36:75 Jones, Richard D. Public School Journal 10 : 535 Studies in Literature. King, E. P. Academy (Syracuse) 3:443 English Literature and Col- lege Preparation. Knowlton, Stephen B. School Review 4:682 The Reaction in the Study of English. Laurie, S. S. Journal of Education (London) 3 : 189, 203 The Function of Literature in Education. Lawrence, Isabel. Addresses and Proceedings of the National Educa- tional Association 1899: 1044 Children's Interests in Literature. Lewis, Frances W. Education 20:277 The High School Course in English. Liddell, Mark H. Atlantic Monthly 81:465 On the Teaching of English. Low, P. B. Journal of Education (London), New Series 20 : 219 The Study of Literature in Girls' Schools. Lowry, C. Journal of Education (London), New Series 11:334 The Teaching of English. McElroy, John G. R. Academy (Syracuse) 4 : 244 English in Sec- ondary Schools. MaeLaughlin, Edward T. Educational Review 5 : 17 Developing Lit- erary Taste in Students. McLellan, J. A. Addresses and Proceedings of the National Educa- tional Association 1894: 71 The Ethical Element in Literature, and How to Make the Most of It in Teaching. McMurry, Charles A. Addresses and Proceedings of the National BIBLIOGRAPHY 361 Educational Association 1899 : 472 The Relation of the School to Libraries. McMurry, Charles A. Addresses and Proceedings of the National Edu- cational Association 1899 : 481 Readings for the Common School. Michigan School Moderator 15 : 38 What has been Accomplished in Co-ordination in the Field of History and Literature. ■ Special Method in Literature and History. Bloomington, Illinois : 1900. McMurry, Frank. Public School Journal 11 : 108 Imaginative Liter- ature for Children. Marble, Albert P. Educational Review 3:22 On Teaching the Effec- tive Use of English. Matthews, Brander. Educational Review 3 : 337 Can English Litera- ture be Taught? 21:11 Suggestions for Teachers of American Literature. Addresses and Proceedings of the National Educational Association 1896: 95 American Literature. Maxey, Carroll Lewis. School Review 1 : 105 Teaching Shakespeare. Maxwell, Wm. H. New England Journal of Education 29:150 Crit- ical Study of Literary Selections. Meader, Emily Isabel. School Review 7 : 472 A High School Course in English. Mead, Wm. E. Academy (Syracuse) 2 : 49 A Ten Years' Course in Literature. Monroe, Will S. New England Journal of Education 29 : 213 Teaching Literature. Morton, E. P. Modern Language Notes 15 : 192 A Method of Teach- ing Metrics. Moulton, Richard Gh Addresses and Proceedings of the National Edu- cational Association 1894 : 210 The Study of Literature. Abstract in New England Journal of Education 40: 113. New York Teachers' Monographs, IV. 2 (June, 1902) Reading and Literature. (By various hands.) Pall Mall Gazette Extra, No. 32, January 20, 1887 English Literature and How to Study It. Letters from Gladstone, Morley, Huxley, Froude, Arnold, Jowett and others on the study of English Liter- ature at the Universities. Pancoast, H. S. Lippincott's Magazine 66 : 434 The Reading of Children. Peaslee, John B. Education 2:150 Moral and Literary Training in Public Schools. Thoughts and Experiences. Cincinnati : 1900. Curts and Jen- nings. Pp. 33, 40-67, 72-76, 80-100. Porter, Charlotte, and Clarke, Helen A. Poet-Lore 8 : 432, 9: 585 New Ideas in Teaching English Literature, with suggestions for their application to required English. 362 BIBLIOGRAPHY Price, Thos. R. Publications of the Modern Language Association, New Series, Vol. IX. p. 77 The New Function of Modern Lan- guage Teaching. Proceedings of the First Annual Convention of the Association of Colleges and Preparatory Schools of the Middle States and Mary- land. 1893. Pp. 78-108. Reports of the United States Commissioner of Education 1889-90, II. : 1 168 Reading and Literature. Rolfe, Wm. J. American Institute of Instruction 1884 : J 07 One Way of Studying Poetry in School. (Abstract.) Poet-Lore 6 : 592 The Poets in School. Ryland, Frederick. Journal of Education (London), New Series 21 : 335 English Literature in Girls' Schools. Sawvel, Franklin B. Education 17 : 290 Aims in the Study of Litera- ture. Schelling, Felix E. University Magazine 1893 : 5 How can the High- est Educational Efficiency be secured for English in American Colleges. Scudder, Horace E. Addresses and Proceedings of the National Educational Association 1888: 57 The Place of Literature in Common-School Education. Atlantic Monthly 70 : 382 The Primer and Literature. Atlantic Monthly 73 : 252 The Educational Law of Reading and Writing. Sewell, Jas. W. School Review 8 : 80 English. Shepherd, H. E. Education 9: 73, 178 Methods of Study in Eng- lish Literature. Sherman, L. A. Educational Review 10:42 English and English Literature in the College. Poet-Lore 6 : 381 Specialized Teaching of Literature; 8:567 New Ideas in Teaching Literature. Shute, Katharine H. Journal of Pedagogy 1 1 : 266 The Value of Literature; 13:371 Ideals in Literature. Smith, George J. Educational Review 10 : 444 A High-School Course in English Literature and its Correlations. Smyth, A. H. Publications of the Modern Language Association of America, Vol. III. p. 238 American Literature in the Class-Room. Sprague, Homer B. Addresses and Proceedings of the National Edu- cational Association 1887 : 448 The Place of Literature in the College Course. Spring, Leverett W. Education 13:83 Teaching English Literature. Stark, A. B. Education 2 : 492 Teaching English. Super, Charles W. Journal of Pedagogy 11 :3i6 Some Thoughts on Fiction as a Factor in Education. Tappan, Eva March. Journal of Pedagogy 12 :40 How to make the Most of the Course in English in Secondary Schools. BIBLIOGRAPHY 363 Thurber, Samuel. Academy (Syracuse) 4 : 165 The Annotation of Eng- lish Texts ; 6 : 357 On the Study of Macaulay in Secondary Schools, 485 English Literature in the Schools. Education 16:449 Aims and Methods in the Study of Literature. New England Journal of Education 36 : 74 The Three Parts of English Study. School Review 2:321 English Literature in Girls' Education: 6:483 How to Make the Study of Literature Interesting; 8:129 An Address to Normal Teachers of English. Tovey, D. C. Reviews and Essays in English Literature. London: 1897. Bell. Pp. 1-2 1 The Teaching of English Literature. Trent, W. P. Addresses and Proceedings of the National Educational Association 1896: 104 The Teaching of English Literature, with Special Reference to Secondary Schools. See also New England Journal of Education 44 : 94. ■ Atlantic Monthly 78 : 414 Teaching the Spirit of Literature. Triggs, O. L. Poet-Lore 6 : 389 Personality in Teaching Literature ; 8 : 452 New Ideas in Teaching Literature. Underwood, Francis H. Addresses and Proceedings of the National Educational Association 1872: 159 English Literature and its Place in Popular Education. Same article in Massachusetts Teacher 25: 186, 412. "Warner, Charles Dudley. Atlantic Monthly 65 : 721 The Novel and the Common School. Webster, "W. F. Addresses and Proceedings of the National Educa- tional Association 1898 : 681-690 Syllabus of a Course in English, with a Defence of the Same. Wells, J. Educational Review 6 : 277 The Teaching of English Lit- erature in Schools. From the London Educational Review. Wetherbee, Emily G-. American Institute of Instruction 1886 : 147 The Study of English Literature. White, T. W. Education 12 : 273 Claims for English Literature as a Study. Wilkins, A. S. Journal of Education (London), New Series 16 : 263 Teaching of Literature in Schools. Williams, A. M. Educational Times 46 : 319 On Teaching English Literature. Winship, A. E. New England Journal of Education 19 : 52 The Study of English Literature. Wright, Charles B. Academy (Syracuse) 5 : 467 What the College has a Right to Expect in English from the High School. Zimmern, Alice. Journal of Education (London), New Series 22 : 557 Literature as a Central Subject. 364 BIBLIOGRAPHY V. Grammar (See also IX. English in the Lower Grades.) Allen, Edward A. Education 7 : 460 English Grammar, Viewed from All Sides. Bain, Alexander. Education as a Science. New York : 1879. Ap- pleton. Pp. 166, 168, 210-213, 312-349. Barnett, P. A. Common Sense in Education and Teaching. London, New York, and Bombay: 1899. Longmans. Pp. 191-194. BlaMston, J. R. The Teacher. London : 1883. Macmillan. Pp. 48-51. Blodgett, J. H. Addresses and Proceedings of the National Educa- tional Association 1870 : 160 Claims of English Grammar in Common Schools. Bowen, E. E. Essays on a Liberal Education. Edited by F. W. Farrar. London : 1868. Macmillan. Pp. 179-204. Bowen, H. Courthope. Educational Times 50 : 493 English as the Beginning of the Teaching of Language, with some Reference to Latin. Journal of Education (London), New Series 12:275 The Teach- ing of English. (Abstract.) Brown, Geo. P. School and Home Education 18 : 247 Language Lessons and Grammar. School and Home Education 19:243 Our Grammar School In- struction. Buck, Gertrude. School Review 5:472 The Psychology of the Dia- gram. Education 18 : 269 The Psychological Significance of the Parts of Speech. ■ Educational Review 13 : 250 The Sentence-Diagram. Chubb, Percival. The Teaching of English in the Elementary and the Secondary School. New York : 1902. Macmillan. Chapter XII. Grammar and Language Work in the Grammar Grades. Collar, Geo., and Chas. W. Crook. School Management and Methods of Instruction. London : 1900. Macmillan. Pp. 134-155. Compayre, Gabriel. Lectures on Pedagogy. Translated by W. H. Payne. Boston : 1893. Pp- 325—338. Currie, James S. Common School Education. Edinburgh. Thomas Laurie. Pp. 348-365. Cutting, Starr W. Proceedings of the Modern Language Association of America, 1893 : x ^ x Should the Elementary Study of Grammar be chiefly Inductive ? Darling, Gertrude. Education 18:346 Syntax and Psychology. Davenport, H. J. Education 20: 161, 208 The Scope and Method of Grammar. BIBLIOGRAPHY 365 Davenport, H. J. School and Home Education 20 : 74 Technical Grammar. De Garmo, Charles. Public School Journal 9 : 473 Elementary Lan- guage Work. Emerson, O. F. School Review 5 : 129 The Teaching of English Grammar. Fitch, J. G. Lectures on Teaching. Cambridge: 1881. University Press. Pp. 256-273. Fouillee, Alfred. Education from a National Standpoint. Translated a"nd edited by W. J. Greenstreet. London : 1892. Edward Arnold. Pp. 228-232. Garlick, A. H. A New Manual of Method. New York : 1896. Long- mans. Pp. 277-302. Gildersleeve, Basil L. Essays and Studies. Baltimore : 1890. Murray. Pp. 127-157 Grammar and Aesthetics. Journal of Education (London), New Series 14: 59, 60 ; 22 : 365 What is meant by " The Teaching of English in Public Schools " ? Lang, S. E. Educational Review 21:294 Modern Teaching of Gram- mar. Liddell, Mark H. Atlantic Monthly 82:98 English Historical Grammar. March, F. A. Addresses and Proceedings of the National Educational Association 1872 : 240 Methods of Teaching English in the High School. Newell, M. A. Addresses and Proceedings of the National Educational Association 1872 : 136 English Grammar in Elementary Schools. Owen, Lincoln. Education 21 ^85 Suggestions upon the Teaching of English Grammar in the Elementary Schools. Parker, Francis W. Talks on Teaching. New York : 1883. Kellogg.. Pp. 26-74, 80-94. Robinson, Robert. Teacher's Manual of Method and Organization. London: 1882. Longmans. Pp. 186-217. Salmon, David. The Art of Teaching. London, New York and Bom- bay : 1898. Longmans. Pp. 185-296. Snoddy, James S. Education 19 : 522 English Grammar in Elementary Schools. Sonnenschein, E. A. Educational Review 3 : 450 The Parallel Study of Grammar. Spence, James. Journal of Education (London), New Series 6 : 292, 338 Grammar and English Grammars. Swett, John. Methods of Teaching. New York : 1880. Harper. Pp. 150-154, 279-306. Vietor, Wilhelm. Educational Review 6:351 A New Method of Language Teaching. "White, Emerson E. The Elements of Pedagogy. Cincinnati and New York : 1886. Van Antwerp. Pp. 255-267. 366 BIBLIOGRAPHY Whitney, W. D. New England Journal of Education 3 : 133, 181, 229 The Study of English Grammar. Wilkinson, John W. Education 20 : jy Common Mistakes in Teach- ing English. Winch, Wm. H. Problems in Education. London: 1900. Sonnen- schein. Appendix X Grammar and Composition. Woodward, F. C. New England Journal of Education 29 : 324 " Eng- lish as She is Taught." VI. English Philology and the Study of Old English Barbour, F. A. Academy (Boston) 5 : 158 Anglo-Saxon in the High School. Collins, J. Churton. The Study of English Literature. London: 1891. Macmillan. Pp. 56-70 Distinction between Literature and Philology. Earle, J. Forum 13:75 Study of English. Easton, Morton W. Academy ( Syracuse) 4 : 489 Comparative Grammar. Garnett, J. M. Addresses and Proceedings of the National Educational Association 1876 : 141 The Study of the Anglo-Saxon Language and Literature. Academy (Syracuse) 5:112 The Position of Old English in a General Education. Gummere, F. B. Publications of the Modern Language Association of America, Vol. I. p. 170 What place has Old English Philology in our Elementary Schools ? Hart, John S. Proceedings of the American Association for the Ad- vancement of Education. Session IV. Pp. 33-66 On the Study of the Anglo-Saxon Language. Journal of Education (London), New Series 11:19 Philology and Language Teaching. March, F. A. Method of Philological Study of the English Language. New York: 1865. Harper. Publications of the Modern Language Association of America, Vol. VIII. p. xix Recollections of Language Teaching. Schuyler, W. H. New England Journal of Education 7 : 36 The Study of Anglo-Saxon. Sears, L. American Institute of Instruction 1S86 : 76 The Study of Anglo-Saxon. Sweet, Henry. Journal of Education (London), New Series 8 : 148. The Teaching of Phonetics. Thurber, S. Academy (Syracuse) 5 : 513 Suggestions of English Study for Secondary Teaching of English. BIBLIOGRAPHY 367 VII. The Teaching of German Composition in Germany Apelt, Otto. Der deutsche Aufsatz in der Prima : Ein historischkriti- scher Versuch. Leipzig : 1883. Becker. Herrig's Archiv 14(1853): 36 Etwas liber den Zusammen- hang des deutschen Unterrichts mit andern Unterrichtsfachern. Beschmann, Dr. Herrig's Archiv 19 (1856) : 68 Ueber deutsche Aufsatze. Bindseil, Dr. Zur Methodikdes deutschen Unterrichts in der Prima der Gymnasien. Programm des Marien-Gymnasiums zu Posen : 1883. Bolton, F. E. Secondary School System of Germany. New York : 1900. Appleton. Buchner, W. Deutscher Unterricht in hoheren Madchenschulen. W. Rein's Encyklopadisches Handbuch der Padagogik, Bd. 1, p. 677. Curricula and Programmes of Work for Higher Schools in Prussia, translated by W. G. Lipscomb. Special Reports on Educational Subjects. English Education Department, Vol. III. London : 1898. Dale, F. H. The Teaching of the Mother Tongue in Germany. In Special Reports on Educational Subjects, 1896-7. English Educa- tion Department, Vol. I, London: 1897. Also in (English Govern- ment) Report from Commissioners, Inspectors, and others. 1897. Vol. (XL) XXV. Doering, Dr. Ueber freie Redeiibungen in deutscher Sprache auf Gym- nasien. Programm des Gymnasiums in Freiberg : 1846. Edel, Augusta. Our Study of our Mother Tongue in the Munich School for girls. See Jones, College-Entrance English, p. 588 (in the second division of this Bibliography). Encyclopaedic des Gesammten Erziehungs- und Unterrichtswesens, herausgegeben von K. A. Schmid. Leipzig. Fischer, C. Der deutsche Sprachunterricht in den Schulen Deutschlands und der Schweiz. Wien : 1878. Florin, A. Deutscher Unterricht in Lehrerseminaren. W. Rein's Encyklopadisches Handbuch der Padagogik, Bd. 1, p. 677. Baecke, R. H. Der deutsche Unterricht auf Deutschen Gymnasien. 2te Aufl. Leipzig: 1872. First issued in 1842. Hildebrand, R Beitrage zum deutschen Unterricht. Leipzig: 1896. Vom deutschen Sprachunterricht in der Schule. 4te Aufl. Leip- zig : 1890. Imelmann, I. Vortrag uber deutschen Unterricht in der 5. General- versammlung des Gymnasialvereins, abgedruckt im humanistischen Gymnasium, 1895, IV. 368 BIBLIOGRAPHY Jeep, Chr. Ueber deutsche Lektiire und schriftliche Produktion in den hoheren Klassen der Gymnasien. Braunschweigisches Magazin 1847, Stiick 5-12. Jonas, A. Mittheilungen aus dem deutschen Unterricht in Prima. Pro- gramm des Stadtgymnasiums zu Stettin. 1878. Jones, Richard D. Education 15:44, 100 German Methods of Using the Mother Tongue. Also published in the Addresses and Proceed- ings of the Department of Superintendence of the National Educa- tional Association. Kapp, A. Herrig's Archiv 12 (1853) : 1 Zur Forderungdes deutschen Unterrichts. Kaufmann, G. Rhetorenschulen und Klosterschulen in Gallien w'ahrend des 5. und 6. Jahrhunderts. F. von Raumer's Historisches Taschen- buch, 1869. Kern, Frz. Zur Methodik des deutschen Unterrichts. Berlin : 1883. Klemm, L. R. European Schools. New York : 1891. Appleton. Krueger, Dr. Die Primaner-Arbeiten gegen Ende des 17. und im An- fange des 18. Jahrhunderts. Gratulationsschrift. Braunschweig: i860. Laas, Ernst. Der deutsche Aufsatz in der oberen Gymnasialklassen. Berlin : 1877. Der deutsche Unterricht auf hoheren Lehranstalten. Ein kritisch- organisatorischer Versuch. Berlin : 1872. Lehmann, R. Deutscher Unterricht in hoheren Knabenschulen. W. Rein's Encyklopadisches Handbuch der Padagogik, Bd. 1, p. 646. Leonhard, Dr. Der Unterricht im Deutschen. II. Teil. (Miindlicher und schriftlicher Gedankenausdruck und Logik.) Programm des Realgymnasiums zu Dortmund, 1883. Liebmann, A. Sprachstorungen geistig zuriickgebliebenen Kinder. (Sammlung von Abhandlungen aus dem Gebiete der padagogische Psychologie und Physiologic IV. Bd., 3. Heft. Berlin : 1901. Reuther und Reichard.) Locker, Dr. Ueber den deutschen Unterricht auf Gymnasien. Pro- gramm des Gymnasiums zu Dillenburg, 1881. Lyon, O. Die Lektiire als Grundlage eines einheitlichen und natur- gemassen Unterrichts in der deutschen Sprache. 1. Thl., 2. Aufl. Leipzig: 1896. Zeitschrift fur den deutschen Unterricht, Jahrg. 12: 15 Die Ziele des deutschen Unterrichts in unserm Zeitalter. Messer, Aug. Kritische Untersuchungen iiber Denken, Sprechen und Sprachunterricht. (Sammlung von Abhandlungen aus dem Gebiete der padagogische Psychologie und Physiologie, III. Bd., 6. Hft. Berlin: 1902. Reuther und Reichard.) Miiller. Der Deutsche Unterricht auf Realschulen. Emden: 1892. Miiller, Johs. Quellenschriften und Geschichte des deutschsprachlichen Unterrichtes bis zur Mitte des 16. Jahrhunderts. Gotha : 1882. BIBLIOGRAPHY 369 Magel, L. Der deutsche Unterricht in der unteren Klassen der hoheren Biirgerschulen. Berlin : 1892. Nicklas, Jons. Methodische Winke fur den deutschen Unterricht an den drei unteren Klassen hoherer Lehranstalten. Miinchen : 1894. Pickel, A. Deutscher Unterricht in der Volkschule. W. Rein's Ency- klopadisches Handbuch der Padagogik, Bd. 1, p. 632. Prince, John T. Methods of Instruction and Organization of the Schools of Germany. Boston : 1892. Chapter IX Language. Richter, J. "W. O. Der deutsche Unterricht an hoheren Schulen. Leipzig: 1876. Rieek, F. Padagogische Brief e. Bielefeld : 1867. Risler, C. Herrig's Archiv. 2 (1847): 364 Das psychologische und nationale Element im deutschen Sprachunterrichte. Russell, J. E. School Review 2 : 199 German in the Higher Schools of Germany. German Higher Schools. New York : 1899. Longmans. Chapter XII. Sadler, M. E. Problems in Prussian Secondary Education for Boys. In Special Reports on Educational Subjects. English Education Department. Vol. III. London : 1898. Schiller, H. Der Aufsatz in der Muttersprache. Eine p'adagogisch- psychologische Studie. I. Die Anfange des Aufsatzes im dritten Schuljahre. (Sammlung von Abhandlungen aus dem Gebiete der padagogischen Psychologie und Physiologie, IV. Bd., 1. Heft. Berlin: 1900. Reuther und Reichard.) Schmidt. Der deutsche Unterricht in der Obersecunda. Borna : 1892. Schrader, W. Erziehungs- und Unterrichtslehre fur Gymnasien und Realschulen. Berlin : 1868. Schwab, E. Der deutsche Sprachunterricht in den obersten Gymnasial- Classen. Programm des Gymnasiums in Olmiitz, 1867. Strehl, W. Der deutsche Aufsatz fur die Mittelstufe hoheren Schulen. Berlin : 1895. Suttinger, Dr. Ueber die Bildung des prosaischen Stiles durch den Schulunterricht. Programm des Gymnasiums zu Liibben, 1855. Thimm, Dr. Zum deutschen Unterricht auf dem Gymnasium. Pro- gramm des Gymnasiums zu Bartenstein, 1874. Thramer, Th. Geschichte des deutschen Sprachstudiums und insbeson- dere seiner Unterrichtsmethodik seit der Reformation. Vortrag. Dorpat : 1848. Vigelius, W. Aus dem deutschen Unterricht in der Prima : der Lehrer- aufsatz als positive Korrektur der Schuler-aufsatze. Programm des Gymnasiums zu Frankfurt a. O., 1881. Volcker. Aufgaben des zu verstarkenden deutschen Unterrichts. Schonebeck : 1892. Wackernagel, Ph. Der Unterricht in der Muttersprache. (Deutsehes Lesebuch, 4. Aufl., 4. Thl., fur Lehrer.) Giitersloh: 1889. See 24 370 BIBLIOGRAPHY H. Vollmar, Vom Unterricht in der Muttersprache. Zum Gedacht- niss Philipp Wackernagels. Giitersloh : 1897. Weisweiler, J. Ueber das Wesen und die Bedeutung der Chrie im deutschen Unterrichte. Programm des Marien-Gymnasiums zu Posen, 1892. Wendt, Gustav. Der deutsche Unterricht und die philosophische Pro- padeutik. In Baumeister's Handbuch der Erziehungs- und Unter- richtslehre, III. vii. See especially pp. 98-133 Aufsatze und miind- liche Vortrage. Wendt, H. Die freie deutsche Arbeit in Prima. I. Programm des Gymnasiums in Rostock, 1857. VIII. The Teaching of French Composition in France Bruneti^re, Ferd. Atlantic Monthly 80 : 442 Style in French Lit- erature. Revue de Deux Mondes, 1 Decembre, 1890 Apologie pour la rhetorique. Brunot, Ferd. Revue Universitaire, 15 Fevrier, 1895 Explications francaises. Buisson, F. Dictionnaire de pedagogie et destruction primaire. Tomes 1-2. Paris : 1882. Hachette. See s. v. Composition et Style, Litterature et Style, Rhetorique. Carre, I. L'Enseignement de la lecture, de l'ecriture et de la langue francaise dans les ecoles primaires. In Recueil des Monographies pedagogiques publiees a l'occasion de l'Exposition universelle de 1889. Vol. IV. pp. 1 -7 1. Chaignet, A. Ed. La rhetorique et son histoire. Paris : 1888. Pre- face. Devoirs ecoliers etrangers, recueillis a l'Exposition de Paris (1878) et mis en ordre par MM. de Bagnaux, Berger, Brouard, Buisson et Defodon. Paris. Hachette. Girard, Jules. Revue Universitaire, 15 Novembre 1896: 311 Rapport sur le concours de l'agregation des lettres de 1896. Hartog, P. J. Fortnightly Magazine 77 : 1050 Teaching of Style in English and French Schools. Meunier, G. Revue Universitaire, 1898, Tome 2 : 241 Un projet d'exercice nouveau de composition francaise. Payot, Jules. Revue Universitaire 15 Juillet, 1897 L'Enseignement de la composition francaise, reformes necessaires; 15 Janvier, 1898 Les methodes actives ; encore la composition francaise ; 15 Fevrier, 1898 La composition francaise, exemples pratiques ; 15 Avril 1898 La composition francaise, son role exact. BIBLIOGRAPHY 371 Salles, A. Revue Universitaire, 15 Decembre, 1895 ^e la composition frangaise. Stevens, Alice A. Harper 104 : 287 The Question of English. Texte, J. Educational Review 13:121 Teaching Language and Lit- erature in France. IX. English in the Lower Grades Aldrieh, George I. Educational Review 14 : 96 Children's Reading. Barker, M. Ellen. Education 8 : 384 A Study in Elementary English. Bird, Hugh S. Southern Educational Association, 1900: 277 Lan- guage in the Primary School. Blair, Frank C. School and Home Education 18 : 24 Literary Tastes of Grammar School Pupils. Bowen, H. Courthope. Educational Times 49:211 The Uses of Fact and Fiction in the Early Education of the Young. Bright, Orville T. Addresses and Proceedings of the National Educa- tional Association 1884: 217 English Instruction for Children. Brown, Geo. P. Public School Journal 9 : 259 On Teaching Reading ; 11:24 The Reading Lessons, 126 A Reading Lesson, 540 On Teaching Primary Reading ; 14:213,323 Teaching Reading in the Fourth and Fifth Readers. Burt, Mary E. Literary Landmarks : A Guide to Good Reading for Young People. Boston : 1890. Houghton. Calkins, N. A. Primary Object Lessons. New York : 1878. Harper. PP- 313-338. Chubb, Pereival. The Teaching of English in the Elementary and the Secondary School. New York : 1902. Macmillan. Part I. The Elementary School. Collar, Geo., and Chas. W. Crook. School Management and Methods of Instruction. London: 1900. Macmillan. Pp. 88-128. Compayre, Gabriel. Lectures on Pedagogy. Translated by W. H. Payne, Boston : 1893. Heath. Pp. 290-309. Crary, Agnes. Educational Review 14 : 457 Aspects of English Teach- ing in the Lower Schools. Currie, James. Common School Education. Edinburgh. Thomas Laurie. Pp. 313-340. Davis, Lucy. Southern Educational Association, 1900 : 76 Literature in Primary Schools. De Garmo, Charles. Teacher 4 : 66 The Language Problem in the Grades below the High School. Dougherty, N. C. New England Journal of Education 21 : 212 Reading. Fanning, E. A. Education 3 : 636 Elementary Composition in Pri- mary Schools. 372 BIBLIOGRAPHY Farnham, George L. Addresses and Proceedings of the National Educational Association 1873 : I 99 Primary Reading : The Thought and Sentence Method. Garlick, A. H. A New Manual of Method. New York : 1896. Long- mans. Pp. 153-194. Haliburton, M. W. Proceedings and Addresses of the Southern Educational Association, 1902 : 175 Some Experiences in Teach- ing Young Children to Read. Harrington, Henry F. Addresses and Proceedings of the National Educational Association 1875: 153 Language-Teaching, its Im- portance, and its Methods. Hall, Frank H. Journal of Pedagogy 14:214 The Transition in Mental Training from the Spoken to the Written Symbol. Hall, G. Stanley. How to Teach Reading. Boston: 1887. Heath. Hughes, James L. Educational Review 2 : 162 Objective Method of Teaching Elementary Reading. Hyde, Ellen. American Institute of Instruction 1892: 120-124 Eng- lish in Elementary Schools. Jones, L. H. New England Journal of Education 43 : 263 Composi- tion Work for the Primary Grades. Keeler, Harriet A. Addresses and Proceedings of the National Educational Association 1874 : 264 Language Lessons in Ele- mentary Schools. Lawrence, Isabel. Addresses and Proceedings of the National Ed- ucational Association 1901 : 850 How shall Children be Led to Love Good Books ? Lombroso, Paola. Saggi di Psicologia del Bambino. Prefazione di C. Lombroso. Torino-Roma : 1894. Roux. Cap. VIII Primi Scritti dei Bambini. ■ McMurry, Chas. A. The Special Method in Reading of Complete English Classics in the Common Schools. New Edition. New York : 1902. Macmillan. Marble, A. P. Addresses and Proceedings of the National Educa- tional Association 1894: 279 The Study of English in the Public Schools. Maxwell, W. H. Educational Review 8:302 English in Grammar Schools. Metcalf, Robert C. American Institute of Instruction 1884: 90 Lan- guage Teaching in Primary and Grammar Grades. How to Teach Language. Boston : 1888. Educational Publish- ing Company. Moses, Edward P. Education 15: 10 The Teaching of English Words by Sound. Ogden, John. Education 15 ^63 Language in Elementary Schools. Parker, Francis W. Educational Review 2 : 474 Objective Method of Teaching Elementary Reading. BIBLIOGRAPHY 373 Parker, Francis W. Talks on Pedagogics. New York and Chicago : 1894. Kellogg. Chapter IX. Putnam, Alice H. Addresses and Proceedings of the National Educa- tional Association 1893 : 3 2 7 Shall Reading and Writing be taught in the Kindergarten ? Reed, A. A. Addresses and Proceedings of the National Educational Association 1900: 416 English in the Grades. Reeder, R. R. Historical Development of School Readers and Method in Teaching Reading. In Columbia University Contributions to Philosophy, Psychology, and Education, Vol. VIII. No. 2. Macmillan. Public School Journal 12 : 593 Some Essentials of Good Reading. Richards, Zalmon. Addresses and Proceedings of the National Educa- tional Association 1877 : 175 The English Language in Elementary Schools. Robinson, Robert. Teacher's Manual of Method and Organization. London: 1882. Longmans. Pp. 1-81. Salmon, David. The Art of Teaching. London, New York and Bom- bay: 1898. Longmans. Pp. 74-124. Sandison, Howard. Inland Educator 1:84, 155, 201, 285, 349; 2:48, 105, 161 Method in Language. Schrieber, Mae E. Addresses and Proceedings of the National Educa- tional Association, 1901 : 288 Literature in Grades below the High School. Scott, Harriet M., and Gertrude Buck Organic Education. Boston : 1899. Heath. Chapter V. Scudder, Horace E. Atlantic Monthly 70:382 The Primer and Literature. — — Atlantic Monthly 73 : 252 The Educational Law of Reading and Writing. Shute, Katherine H. Education 12 : 138 Composition. School Review 10 : 332 The Teaching of English in the Elemen- tary Schools. Snoddy, James S. Education 20 : 353, 423 English Composition in Elementary Schools. Swett, John. Methods of Teaching. New York: 1880. Harper. Pp. 123-140, 189, 190. Thurber, S. Admonitions as to the Primary Teaching of English. Boston (1894). New England Journal of Education 40 : 344 What to do with English Literature in the Grammar Schools. Westcott, Oliver S. Addresses and Proceedings of the National Educa- tional Association 1900 : 437 How shall we Teach our Pupils the Correct Use of the English Language ? White, Emerson E. The Elements of Pedagogy. \ Cincinnati and New York : 1886. Van Antwerp, Pp. 219-255. ^ 374 BIBLIOGRAPHY Wiltse, Sara E. Addresses and Proceedings of the National Educational Association 1894 : 691 What can the Kindergarten do for His- tory and Literature in the Higher Grades ? Young, Ella F. Addresses and Proceedings of the National Educational Association 1896 : 11 1 Literature in Elementary Schools. Same article in New England Journal of Education 44 : 95, 98. X. Spelling and Spelling Reform Addresses and Proceedings of the National Educational Association 1879 : 249-283 The Spelling-Reform Association. Balliet, Thos. M. Addresses and Proceedings of the National Educa- tional Association 1893 : 75^ Some Association Tracks involved in Reading and Spelling. Carmen, E. Kate. Journal of Pedagogy 13 : 86 The Cause of Chronic Bad Spelling. Fernald, Frederick A. Popular Science Monthly 27 : 638 How Spelling Damages the Mind. Same article in Teacher 1 : 136. Gladstone, J. H. Spelling Reform from an Educational Point of View. London : 1878. Macmillan. Goodard, P. B. The Art of Spelling. New York: 1889. Baker. Gregory, John M. Present Age 1:356 How do we Learn to Spell? 535 Spelling and Spelling. Haldeman, S. S. National Educational Association 1879 : 2 &7 The Etymologic Objection to Spelling Reform. Harris, W. T. New England Journal of Education 53 : 216 Spelling Reform. Hill, T. Forum 7 : 185 A Way to Teach Spelling. Hodgson, W. B. Exaggerated Estimates of Reading and Writing as Means of Education. London : 1875. Jones, E. Addresses and Proceedings of the National Educational Association 1879 •' 2 & Spelling Reform in England. Popular Education : A Revision of English Spelling a National Necessity. London : 1875. Pitman. Mann, Horace. Lectures on the Best Method of Preparing and Using the Spelling Book. Boston : 1841. March, P. A. Addresses and Proceedings of the National Educational Association 1879: 249 The Present State of the Spelling Reform in America. ■ Forum 6 : 424 The Reign of Law in Spelling. New England Journal of Education 4: 242 The Reform of English Spelling. (Opening address before the International Convention for the Amendment of English Orthography at Philadelphia, Aug. 15, 1876.) — — The Spelling Reform. Washington: 1893. Bureau of Education. SUPPLEMENTAL BIBLIOGRAPHY 375 March, F. A. Transactions of the American Philological Association, Vol. XII. p. 51 The New Spellings of the Philological Society of London ; Vol. XVII. p. 127 Joint List of Amended Spellings. Miiller, Max. On Spelling. London: 1880. Pitman. North, S. N. D. Addresses and Proceedings of the National Educational Association 1879 : 2 7 l Spelling Reform in Journalism. Rice, J. M. Forum 23 : 163, 409 Futility of the Spelling Grind. New England Journal of Education 48:190 An Ideal Spelling Course. Scott, C. P. G. New England Journal of Education 56: 104 Simplifica- tion of English Spelling a Present Duty. Sweet, Henry. A Handbook of Phonetics, including an Exposition of the Principles of Spelling Reform. Oxford : 1877. Clarendon Press. Swett, John. Public School Journal 12:600 Hints on Teaching Spelling. Thomas, Calvin. Publications of the Modern Language Association of America, Vol. XVII. p. 297 The Amelioration of our Spelling. Vickroy, T. K. Addresses and Proceedings of the National Educational Association 1881 : 88 The Necessity for Spelling Reform. Wyckoff, Adelaide E. Addresses and Proceedings of the National Edu- cational Association 1893 : 762 Constitutional Bad Spellers. SUPPLEMENTAL BIBLIOGRAPHY I. General References Abbott, A. English Journal 1 : 419 To Beginners in English Teaching. English Journal 2 : 93 A High School Course in Drama. Alden, K. M. English Journal 2 : 344 Preparation for College Eng- lish Teaching. Bailey, F. C. School Review 13:712 Fossilization among Teachers of English. Baker, F. T. English Journal 2 : 335 The Teaching of English. Bezard, J. De la methode litteraire. Paris, 191 1. Breck, E. J. English Journal 1 : 65 A new Task for the English Teacher. Buck, P. M. National Educational Association 1905 : 454 Aims of English Teaching. Bulletins of the Illinois Association of Teachers of English, 1909. 37& SUPPLEMENTAL BIBLIOGRAPHY Chubb, P. School Review 20 : 34 Menace of Pedantry in the Teach- ing of English. Cole, W. M. School Review 14 : 469 The Vital in Teaching Sec- ondary English. Coulter, V. C. English Journal 1 : 24 Financial Support of English Teaching. Cox, J. H. English Journal 2 : 207 What is the Best Preparation for the College Teacher of English ? Cross, W. L. Education 28 : 537 English in the Schools. Cyclopedia of Education, Edited by P. Monroe, N. Y., 191 1-. Articles on Composition, Literature, and College Requirements. Dorey, J. M. English Journal 1 : 425 A School Course in Dramatics. Dunbar, A. M. Education 29 : 97 The Training of a Teacher of English. Educational Review 45 : 93, 187, 298, 407, 507 Prescribed English in College : A Symposium. Eliot, C. W. Education 31 : 639 Differentiation of the High School Course in English. English Association Leaflets 1 Types of English Curricula in Boys' Secondary Schools, 2 Teaching of Shakespeare in Secondary Schools, 5 English Literature in Secondary Schools, 7 Teaching of Shakespeare in Schools, 8 Types of English Curricula in Girls' Secondary Schools, 14 Early Stages in the Teaching of English, 17 Teaching of English Composition, 18 Teaching of Literature in German and French Secondary Schools, 21 English Literature in Schools. Erskine, J. Educational Review 40 : 340 English in the College Course. Faunce, W. H. P. School Review 16 : 492 Humanizing the Study of English. Frank, M. M. English Journal 1 : 476 Dramatization of School Classics. Gardiner, J. H. Outlook 94 : 626 Teaching English in the Schools. School Review 17:623 Training in Illiteracy. Hooper, C. L. School Review 15:261 Existing Conditions in English. Hosic, J. F. National Educational Association 191 1 : 592 English: The Questions at Issue. Jordan, M. A. School Review 12 : 361 Facts and Fiction in English. Lange, A. F. University of California Chronicle 1903 : 169 The Re- lation of Instruction in English to Instruction in the Other Branches of the School Curriculum. Leaflets of the New England Association of Teachers of English 1901- . Lewis, W. D. English Journal 1 : 9 Aim of the High School Course in English. SUPPLEMENTAL BIBLIOGRAPHY 2>77 Linn, J. W. School Review 19 : 96 What the University Expects of High School Students in English. Mead, W. E. Educational Review 25 : 275 Conflicting Ideals in the Teaching of English. Neilson, W. A. School Review 16 : 73 What the College has a right to Expect of the Schools in English. Noyes, E. C. National Educational Association 1908:653 Ideals versus Realities in High School English. Owen, W. B. English Journal 1 : 193 The Educational Opportunity of High School English. Partridge, G. E. Genetic Philosophy of Education, p. 229. Phelps, W, Lyon. Teaching in School and College, N. Y., 191 2. Report on the Study of English Language and Literature in Elementary and Secondary Schools, Connecticut School Documents. No. 12, 1904. Scott, P. N. English Journal 2 : 1 Our Problems. — School Review 16 : 360 A Substitute for the Classics. — School Review 17 : 10 What the West wants in Preparatory English. Simons, S. E. and Orr, I. Dramatization in the High School. Chicago, I9I3- Smith, J. P. Educational Review 40 : 266 Report on English in the Secondary Schools in England and Scotland. Starek, D. and Elliott, E. C. School Review 20 : 442 Grading of High School Work in English. Sykes, P. H. School Review. 14 : 157 English in Secondary Schools. Tanner, G. W. School Review 15 : 32 The Teaching of English in the High Schools of the Middle West. Thomas, C. S. English Journal 1 : 84 The English Course in the High School : The New England View. — National Educational Association 191 o : 487 Essential Principles in Teaching English. Thomson, C. L. The Teaching of English. London, 191 2. Thurber, S. School Review n : 169 The English Situation. University of North Dakota Departmental Bulletins, Education, No. 2 The Teaching of English in High Schools. Van Dyke, H. School Review 15 : 325 Reading and Writing in the Teaching of English. II. College Entrance Requirements Beers, H. A. Points at Issue, 3 College Entrance Requirements in English. Benedict, G. W» Education 26 : 534 Preparation in English from the Standpoint of the College. Bowles, R. N. School Review 12 : 331 An Investigation into Eng- lish Requirements. 378 SUPPLEMENTAL BIBLIOGRAPHY Foster, W. T. Educational Review 31 : 98 A Talk with Teachers of English on College Entrance Requirements. Greenough, C. N. English Journal 1 : 364 The New Plan of Ad- mission in English to Harvard College. Greenough, C. N., Hersey, F. W. C., and Nutter, C. F*. A Report on the Examinations in English for Admission to Harvard College, June, 1906. Cambridge : 1907. Hanson, C. L. School Review 12 : 339 Literature for Admission to College. Heydriek, B. A. Proceedings of New York Association of Teachers of English, May 15, 1910 Relation of the College Entrance Require- ments to the High School Course in English. Hosic, J. F. English Journal 1 : 95 Influence of the Uniform Re- quirements. — English Problems, No. 2, February, 1912 College Entrance Requirements in English and the High School Course. Jordan, M. A. School Review 13 : 795 Report on Entrance Require- ments in English. Lewis, E. H. School Review 12 : 64 Requirements in the English Units. Owen, J. M. Education 25 : 619 Opinions on Entrance Require- ments in English. School Review 16 : 646 Historical Sketch of the Joint Conference on Entrance Requirements in English. Shackford, M. H. Educational Review 27 : 410 Literature for Ad- mission to College. Stoddard, F. H. Educational Review 30 : 375 Uniform Entrance Requirements in English. III. Rhetoric and Composition Apgar, G. School Review 14 : 34 Definite Aim in Composition. Aydelotte, F. Educational Review 43 : 354 English as Training in Thought. — English Journal 1 : 340 Robert Louis Stevenson Darkening Counsel. Baldwin, C. S. Educational Review 32 : 385, 485 Freshman English. Beyer, T. P. Educational Review 44 : 77 Compulsory Composition in Colleges. Boynton, P. H. English Journal 2 : 73 Sorting College Freshmen. Buck, P. M. National Educational Association 1904 : 506 The Lab- oratory Method in English Composition. Campagnac, E. T. The Teaching of Composition, Boston, 1912. Clancy, G. C. Educational Review 43- : 204 Absorption Process in English Composition. — English Journal 2:235 The Weak Stu- dent in Freshman English Composition. SUPPLEMENTAL BIBLIOGRAPHY 2>79 Clapp, J. M. English Journal 2 : 18 Oral English in the College Course. Cooper, L. Education 30 : 421 Teaching of Written Composition. Courtenay, M. E. English Journal 1 : 562 An Attempt to Make Oral Composition Effective. Cunliffe, J. W. English Journal 1 : 591 College English Compo- sition. Davis, J. B. English Journal 1 ": 457 Vocational and Moral Guidance Through English Composition. English Composition Teaching. Ninth Edition, revised, of the Pre- liminary Report of the Modern Language Association, Lawrence, Kansas, 191 2. Fleagle, B. E. English Journal 1 : 611 Oral English in the High School. Fulton, M. G. Nation 86 : 463 Defence of the Special Teacher of Composition. Gordon, M. School Review 14 : 671 An Experiment in Teaching First Year Composition. Gray, B. P. Educational Review 41 : 306 English and the Foreign Languages. Greenough, C. KT. English Journal 2 : 109 An Experiment in the Training of Teachers of Composition. Hartog, P. J. The Writing of English. Oxford, 1907. Hillegas, M. B. Teachers College Record 13 (4) : 1 Scale for the Measurement of Quality in English Composition by Young People. Hitchcock, A. M. Education 24 : 348 Economy in Teaching Com- position. — English Journal 1 : 273 A Composition on Red Ink. Hitchcock, A. M., and Apgar, G. National Educational Association 1908 : 658 Practical Problems in the Teaching of English. Hollister, H. A. English Journal 1 : 497 Oral Composition in the Secondary School as a Basis for Effective Training in Written Composition. Hopkins, E. M. English Journal 1 : 1 Can Good Work in Teaching Composition be done under Present Conditions? Johnson, P. W. School Review 21 : 39 The Hillegas-Thorndike Scale for Measurement of Quality in English Composition. Leiper, M. A. United States Bureau of Education Bulletin, 1912, 18 : 1 Teaching Language through Agriculture and Domestic Science. Lodge, M. English Journal 1 : 287 Composition as a Means of Culti- vating Literary Appreciation. Lounsbury, T. R. Harper 123 :]866 Compulsory Composition in Colleges. Miles, D. English Journal 2 : 362 Composition as a Training in Thought. Moffatt, J. H. School Review n : 636 Boys in Composition. 380 SUPPLEMENTAL BIBLIOGRAPHY Nettleton, G. H. Education 29 : 226 Freshman English. Noyes, E. C. English Journal 1 : 532 Progress in Standardizing the Measurement of Composition. — School Review 13 : 696 Class Criticism in Teaching of English. Preliminary Report on English Composition Teaching by a Committee of the English Section of the Central Division of the Modern Lan- guage Association, 191 1. Bankin, T. E. Proceedings of the Michigan Schoolmasters' Club, 191 1 The Teacher of English Composition. Bice, A. H. School Review 11 : 254 One Year's Experience with Manuscript Work. Seott, F. ET. Educational Review 37 : 359 Brief Catechism on Text- books in English. — Proceedings of the Indiana Association of Teachers of English 191 1 : 6 Two Ideals of Composition Teaching. Shackford, M. H. English Journal 1 : 208 A Partial Substitute for the Theme. Tressler, J. C. English Journal 1 : 405 Efficiency of Student Correc- tion of English Composition. "Webster, E. H. Education 32 : 414 Teaching of English Composition Past and Present. Young, K. English Journal 1 : 321 Observations upon the Teaching of Composition in French Lycees. IV. Literature Abbott, A. School Review 12 : 550 An Experiment in High School English.'' Alden, B. M. English Journal 2 : 271 The College Curriculum in Literature. Axson, S. School Review 14 : 164 The Study of the History of Eng- lish Literature. Baldwin, C. S. Educational Review 27 : 338 The Philosopher's Stone of the Philistines. Bates, H. English Journal 1 : 15 The School and Current Fiction. — School Review 11 : 655 How to Teach a Masterpiece. Cabell, E. D. School Review 13 : 560 An Aspect of the Work of the Teacher of English. Canby, H. S. Education 29 : 179 The Teaching of English Literature. Colburn, J. E. School Review 14 : 178 The Study of English Litera- ture. Cunliffe, J. W. Independent 74 : 407 University Study of Recent Literature. Danton, G. H. Educational Review 41 : 510 Required Reading and Company. SUPPLEMENTAL BIBLIOGRAPHY 38 1 Edgerton, F. W. English Journal I : 278 A Recent Experiment with Magazine Literature. Firkins, O. W. Education 28 : 306 The Teaching of Literature. Gummere, F. B. English Journal 1 : 203 Old English Ballads in the School. Hagarty, L. D. Educational Review 33 : 402 Formation of Literary Taste. Hubbard, F. G. Publications of the Modern Language Association 23 : 254 The Undergraduate Curriculum in English Literature. Hulst, C. N. English Journal 1 : 72 Organization of the Course in Literature in Secondary Schools. Lewis, C. M. School Review 11 : 187 A method of Teaching English Literature. McConn, C. M. English Journal 1 : 257 High School Students' Rank- ings of English Classics. Mahy, M. C. School Review 15 : 731 Aesthetic Appreciation of Liter- ature in Secondary Education. Miner, L. B. School Review 13 : 180 Voluntary Reading in the Eng- lish High School. Munroe, J. P. School Review 17 : 542 A Suggestive Introductory Course in English Literature. Paul, H. G. English Journal 1 : 466, 521 The Teaching of Lyric Poetry. Reynolds, G. F. Education 32 : 1 English Literature in Secondary Schools.] Schuyler, W. School Review 12 : 716 English as an Art Study. Shackford, M. H. School Review 14 : 223 Practical Side of the Prep- aration of Literature. Smith, C. A. School Review 12 : 224 Memory Work in Literature. Thorn-Wright, D. English Journal 1 : 557 Oral Reading in its Rela- tion to the Study of Literature. Thurber, S., Jr. School Review 13 : 168 Voluntary Reading in the Classical High School. Venable, E. School Review 13 : 337 Oral Reading as an Aid in the Interpretation of Literature in the High School. V. Grammar Brown, L. R. English Journal 2 : 81 Some Needed Readjustments in the Teaching of English Grammar. Buck, G. English Journal 2:11 The Revision of Grammatical Ter- minology. — School Review 17 : 21 Make-Believe Grammar. Hale, W. G. School Review 19 : 361 The Harmonizing of Grammati- cal Nomenclature in High School Study, June, 1911. 382 SUPPLEMENTAL BIBLIOGRAPHY Hooper, C. L. English Journal i : 393 Influence of the Study of Latin on the Student's Knowledge of English Grammar. Bounds, C. K. English Journal 1 : 214 The Waste of Unlearning. School Review 19 : 610 A Symposium on Reform in Grammatical Nomenclature. VI. English in the Lower Grades Baylor, A. S. National Educational Association 191 o : 430 English in the Elementary Schools. Blount, A. English Journal 2 : 215 Normal School Training for the Teaching of English in the Elementary Schools. Chubb, P., Long, D. J., and Cooley, F. W. National Educational As- sociation 1904 : 452 Avenues of Language Expression in the Ele- mentary School. Clapp, H. L., and Huston, K. W. Conduct of Composition in Grammar Schools. Boston, 1902. Cooley, A. W. National Educational Association 1903 : 198 Litera- ture in the Grades and How to Use it. Harris, J. H English Journal 2 : 34 An Inquiry into the Composi- tional Interests of the Pupils in the Seventh and Eighth Grades. Hosic, J. F. The Elementary Course in English. Chicago, 191 1. JVEcKinney, I. English Journal 2 : 299 Motives for Composition Work s in the Upper Elementary Grades. McMurry, C. Special Method in the Reading of Complete English Classics. New York, 1904. Moore, M. C, and Home, P. School Review 11 1746 Report on Courses of Study in English for the Public Schools. Beed, A. A. National Educational Association 1900 : 416 English in the Grades. ^Shackford, M. H. Education 30 : 303 Teaching Elementary English. Shute, K. H. School Review 14 : 484 Literature in the Elementary Schools. Wade, J. H. Educational Review 27 : 355 Teaching English to For- eigners in the Elementary Schools. Wolfe, L. E. Educational Review 28 : 152 English in the Elementary School. INDEX Allusions, literary, 167-168, 253. Alphabet method, 98, 107, 108. Analytic method of teaching read- ing, 103, 108-112. Anglo-Saxon, 20, 215-218. Anomalous forms, 107, ill, 112. Assignment, philosophy of, 319- 326. " Bad " English, 225. Bible, the, in schools, 96, 97. Biography, literary, 179, 281. Character, study of, in literature, 260-261. Classics versus school-readers, 184- 187. College entrance requirements, 283-292. Common sense, value of, in theme correcting, 339, 340. Communication and expression, 3 2 4, 3 2 5- Comparative literature, 318. Composition, aims in teaching, 123, 124, 334; and literature, 137, 138, 235, 236; in secondary schools, 218-244; oral, 127, 244, 245; subjects for, 124-130, 133-138, 233-239, 320-323; text-books in, 141. Correction of themes, 142-144, 242-244, 314, 315, 327-341; im- promptu, 315, note. Correlation of studies, 136, 137, 177-179. Course of study in English, 293- 302. Critical study of literature, 174-176, 255-258, 278-281. Curriculum, modern, 69-71. Declamation, 247. Diagrams of sentences, 149, 204. Dialect, 55. Dictation, 128. Discipline, value of, 78, 79. Drama, study of, 276-278. Drill, in grammar, 148, 202-204; in phonetics, 101, 102, no, in; in spelling, 153. Elementary schools, the teach- ing of English in : alphabet method, 98 ; analytic method, 103, no; beginnings of reading, 98-120; composition, aims in teaching, 123, 124; compositions, correction of, 142-144; composi- tion exercises, 127-135; com- position subjects, 124-127; course ot study, 293-300 ; gen- eral conditions, 68-75 ; grammar, 144-152; literature and composi- tion, 137-140 ; literature, its place and its value, 155-163; literature, the teaching of, 164- 187; methods, sentence and woro\, 108 ; models, use of, 135, 136; oral work, 112-114, 118, 119; phonetics, 100-102, 109- 113; place of English, 75-81; 3^4 INDEX primary reading, 81-98 ; reading aloud, 118, 119; spelling, 152- 155- Elocution, 246. England, teaching of English in, 26-30. English, a single subject, 139-141, i83 ; essential elements, 189; irregularities of, 107, in, 112; Old and Middle, 20, 215-218; schoolmaster's, 309 ; self-culti- vation in, 309 ; teaching of, in England, 26-30; in the United States, 37-52; see Elementary schools, Secondary schools. Essay-correction, 327-341. Essays, the study of, 269-271. Etymology, 212, 213. Expression and communication, 3 2 4, 32 5- Expression in reading, 114, 115, 118, 119. Fables, 94, 95. Fairy stories, 94. Foreign influences in the schools, 73, 74- German school-readers, early, Zy- 86. German, teaching of, in Germany, 31-36, 82-86, 99" io 3- Grammar, beginnings of, 146, 147 ; how much, 150, 151, 201-204, 206, 211, 212; in the elementary schools, 144-152; in the second- ary schools, 190-214; methods of teaching, 146-149, 198-212; purpose of, 145, 146, 191-198; text-books of, 151 ; teacher's equipment in, 316, 317. History of literature, 282. Idioms, foreign, 73, 74. Illustrative material, 170-172, 376. Imagination, appeal to, 76, 77, 79, 80, 91-96, 160, 161, 169-172, 3 2 4- Interest, arousal of, 323, 324; im- portance of, 77, 79, III. Interests, student, 322, 323. Languages, foreign, teacher's equipment in, 313. Latin, as a linguistic discipline, 19 ; as a part of English, 24; in ed- ucation, 9 ; in literature, 7 ; in modern education, 16 ; versus the vernaculars, 5. Lesson-plans, 179-182. Letter-writing, 127. Libraries, use of, 184. Literary unity, 76-77, 80. Literature and composition, their relation, 137, 138, 235-239. Literature and science, 157. Literature, as a subject of study, 155-157, 164, 166-183; as por- trayal of life, 158-160; compar- ative, 318 ; for children, 90-98 ; history of, 282 ; its ethical in- fluence, 162-163 ; its place in the schools, 155-163; oral, 165-166; teacher's equipment in, 310, 311, 3 J 7. 3 l8 - Method, alphabet, 98, 107, 108; analytic, 103, 108-112; teaching composition, 138, 141-144; ne- cessity of, 179, 180, 278-281 ; sentence, 108 ; word, 108. Models, use of, 135, 136. Modern school-readers, 90. New England Primer, 86-89. Nonsense rhymes, 91. " Normal " words and sentences, 115, 116. Novel, development of, 257, 259; study of, 259-268; historical, 264-266. Old and Middle English. 20, 215- 218. INDEX 385 Old English, teacher's equipment in, 313- Oral composition, 244-249. Oral work, importance of, 99-104, 109-115, 118,119, 127. Outlines in composition work, 132- 134. Paragraph structure, study of, 131. J 32. Paraphrasing, 129, 237-239. Parsing and analysis, 149, 203,204. Personality in literature, 254-257, 263, 264. Phonetics, emphasis upon, 99-102, 104, 1 09-1 14. Pictures for schools, dealers in, 381 ; use and value of, 105, 126, 170-172. Poetry, for children, 97 ; the teach- ing of, 271-281. Primary reading matter, 81-98; development of, 81-98. Primer, New England, 86-89. Primers, early German, 83, 84. Primitive life, literature of, 93. Readers, school. See Primary reading matter. Reading aloud, 118, 119, 248 ; ap- preciative and critical, 310; courses of, 311 ; rapid, 120, 183. Reproduction of stories, 1 29. Rhetoric, advanced study of, 315, 316; in secondary schools, 218- 244. School readers. See Classics ver- sus school readers; Literature for children ; and Primary read- ing matter. Script, 116, 117. Secondary schools, teaching of English in : " bad " English, 225 ; college entrance requirements, 283-292 ; correction of essays, 242-244, 314, 315, 327-341; course of study, 300-302 ; critical study of literature, 255-258, 278-281 ; declamation, 247 ; drama, study of the, 276-278 ; elocution, 246 ; essay, study of the, 269 ; etymol- ogy, 212 ; grammar, 190-214 ; his- tory of literature, 282 ; literary allusions, 253 ; literary interpreta- tion, 261 ; literary structure, 253 ; method, the question of, 278 ; novel, study of, 259-268 ; Old and Middle English, 215; oral composition, 244 ; paraphrasing, 237 ; parsing and analysis, 203 ; poetry, the study of, 271 ; read- ing aloud, 248 ; rhetoric and English composition, 218 ; style, 232, 270 ; synonyms, 229 ; trans- lation, 233 ; verse-writing, 240 ; word study, 252. Sentence method, 108. Sentence structure, study of, 130, di- spelling, 152-155. Structure of sentences, 130, 131 ; literary, 172-174, 253, 260. Style, 232, 270, 271. Subjects for composition, choice of, 124-130, I33-I3 8 » 2 33- 2 39» 320-323. Sympathy, value of, 324. Synonyms, 229. Teachers, training of, 72, 305- 318. Teaching of reading, first steps in, 109-116 ; history of, 98-106. Transcription, 128. Translation, 233. United States, teaching of Eng- lish in, 37-52. Unity, literary and scientific, 76, 78, 80. Vernaculars, general theory of instruction in, 52-66; in educa- 3*6 INDEX tion, 9; in modern education, 16; teaching of in Europe, 26; teaching of, in the United States, 37-52. Verse-writing, 240. Webster Speller, 89. Word method, 108. Words, the study of, 167, 212, 213, 252, 253. Longmans, Green, & Co.'s Publications Baldwin's College Manual of Rhetoric By Charles Sears Baldwin, Ph.D., Professor of Rhetoric, Columbia University. Fourth Edition. Revised. Crown 8vo. 466 pp. $1.35. As an example of a text-book of rhetoric, which in itself is an exposition of the principles that it teaches, this work of Professor Baldwin would com- mand attention even if for no other reason. But it has other and equally important characteristics. Professor Baldwin does not believe in abandoning the earlier idea of rhetoric as applied logic, nor does he wish to be limited to it. So, taking advantage of both the older and newer viewpoints, he strikes a new analysis of the subject. Part I of his work is thus divided into logical and literary composition, while Part II takes up the study of prose diction. The result is a text-book both simple and systematic, and inspiring with the freshness of its analysis. As the work is distinctly for college students the author assumes that they are fairly well grounded in the elementary fundamentals of English writing, and are ready for more advanced topics, such, for instance, as the study of style. Consequently the work is not, as is the case with so many similar works, merely an amplification of things previously taught. But above all it is, in spirit and in word, constructive ; and its continual purpose is to get the student to write, not only clearly and correctly, but with character and charm. Contents : Part II. Prose Diction Usage Style Part I. Prose Composition A. Logical Composition (Persuasion and Exposition) 1. The Elements of Logical Com- position 2. Exposition 3. Persuasion B. Literary Composition (Narration and Description) 4. The Elements of Literary Compo- sition 5. Narration 6. Description 1. The Personal Use of Language, or Originality 2. Elegance 3. Directness, or Force 4. The Balance of Elegance and Force in Classic Prose 5. Harmony 6. Sincerity Appendix of Notes, References, Ex- ercises, and Longer Selections George H. Nettleton, Ph.D., Assistant Professor of English, Yale University, Conn. — " The book seems most valuable in every way and fills a decidedly important place in the world of college text-books. It is, above all, suggestive — a cheer- ful contrast to the usual manuals of rhetoric." Fred. N. Raymond, Professor of English, University of Kansas : — " I am inclined to think it is the best text-book of its kind for general class work that has been published." Chauncey Wetmore Wells, A.B., Associate Professor of English Composition, University of Califor- nia : — "Of the merits of the book three suggest themselves at once : (1) It is a most orderly, precise and luminous statement of the rhetorical principles; (2) it bears witness to wide reading and scholarly use of English examples; (3) and, what is alas uncommon in rhetorics of our time, it is written by a man with a sense for style and a practical hand. ... All in all, it is the soundest, most complete and most beautifully writ- ten rhetoric in the market." Longmans, Green, & Co.'s Publications Baldwin's Composition : Oral and Written By Charles Sears Baldwin, Ph.D., Professor of Rhetoric, Columbia University. Crown 8vo. 377 pp. $1.20. The plan of the work is perfectly simple. The subject is, in the main, based upon clearness and interest. As the title indicates, the work recog- nizes the necessity for teaching oral as well as written composition in an elementary course devoted largely to fundamentals. Professor Baldwin be- lieves in teaching the student to speak clearly and interestingly. He makes effective use of the oral work as an aid to better English writing — and the other characteristics of Professor Baldwin's text-books will be found in this one — an interesting style, a lucid treatment, and throughout a general tone which inspires a student to his best endeavors. " Professor Baldwin's ' College Manual of Rhetoric,' published several years ago, is probably the most helpful text-book of composition for those who have mastered elementary matters of form and are seeking an approach to literary art. . . . The present volume, 'Composition, Oral and Written/ is clearly intended for more elementary students and is well adapted to their needs. It is original, fertile in suggestions, and adapted to the constantly changing uses to which writing is now put." — The Educational Review. Baldwin's Writing and Speaking By Charles Sears Baldwin. Third Edition. Crown 8vo. 470 pp. #1.20. Also in two parts, each 70 cents. In this book the order of treatment is new, not for the sake of novelty, but because it has been settled at each point by two practical questions: (1) How may the student now revise most profitably his previous writing? and (2) What should he write next ? Exercises and directions for themes are so abundant as to invite choice and adaptation ; they are typical, suggesting at each point definite directions of practice ; and they open the correlation of composition with history, civics, geography, the natural sciences, — in short, with all other studies, and in particular with the favorite study of each student. Speaking is developed step by step with writing. In this respect the book is unique. Oral composition, instead of being relegated to a chapter as limited to one or two directions of practice, is treated fully and consecu- tively throughout, from simple topical recitations to finished debates ; and it is used throughout, not only for itself, but for its reaction on writing. Certain sections, of course, are devoted to it especially, as certain others are properly confined to writing; but in general it runs parallel, with greater or less pause according to the particular opportunity. Advantage has been taken of the publication of a third edition to include a comprehensive summary of English Grammar from the point of view of composition. Longmans, Green, & Co.'s Publications Baldwin's Summary of Punctuation By Charles Sears Baldwin, Ph.D., Professor of Rhetoric, Columbia University. 8 pp. Sewed. 5 cents. Per hundred, net, $3.00. Prepared to supply a need for a handy manual in compact form and one that would be in harmony with the best usage of present-day writers. Baldwin's The Expository Sentence and Paragraph An Elementary Manual of Composition By Charles Sears Baldwin. i6mo. 54 pp. 50 cents. A manual for the first term in college. Frank's High School Exercises in Grammar By Maude M. Frank, A.M., DeWitt Clinton High School, New York City. 206 pp. 75 cents. As a manual of English grammar, designed particularly for high schools, this text is intended to serve a special purpose. Its aim is to provide the material needed for the rapid, intensive work which is most practical and most profitable. Groups of exercises, each containing a considerable number of sentences selected from standard literature, have been so prepared as to illustrate the normal forms and constructions of the language. Theory has been stated as briefly as possible for an intelligent progress from exercise to exercise. Primarily, the book is intended to be used in connection with the first or second year work in English in high schools. However, by the method of -cross-references employed, the various divisions may easily be used inde- pendently in a quick, intensive review of grammar during the fourth year. In the questions of terminology and kindred matters no attempt has been made to depart from the usage of standard works. Frank's Constructive Exercises in English By Maude M. Frank, A.M. 164 pp. 50 cents. Comprehensive as they are, few modern text-books on rhetoric contain the amount of illustrative and practice material in oral and written work that many teachers desire. In order to supply this material, these con- structive exercises have been prepared. They are especially adapted for second year work. The selection of exercises has been with a view of securing interest with- out sacrificing literary tone. The collection is also convenient and practical. Its use will lessen the need for emphasizing theory and corrective work during the limited time given to formal rhetoric. Special attention has also been given to a development of the student's vocabulary. Longmans, Green, & Co.*s Publications Longmans' English Grammar. Edited by George J. Smith, M.A., Ph.D., member of the Board of Examiners, Department of Education, New York City. Joint author of Maxwell and Smith's "Writing in English." l2mo. 343 pages. 65 cents net. By mail, 70 cents. Contents: Parti. Parts of Speech. — Part II. Classification and Inflection. — Part III. Analysis of Sentences. — Part IV. His. tory and Derivation — Notes for Teachers — Index. In the preparation of this book the constant aim has been to make the language clear and simple ; to approach each point through exercises and illustrations, so that the pupil "may learn by doing " ; to arrange the points so that the subject develops easily and naturally, and to conceive and state grammatical principles in a sound and scholarly manner. Especial attention is invited to the simple yet comprehensive first view presented in Part I. ; to the treatment of the subjunctive mood, and of verbals, and to the fact that formal rules and definitions, clearly and succinctly stated, are given an important place, and yet are never permitted to usurp the place of exercises for illustration and application. It is technical grammar, intended to be used in the last two years of the grammar school, and thoroughly fitting pupils to take up their high school work in the classics. The avoidance of needless particularity and of technical puzzles, and the constant approach to the grammatical point of view by way of concrete ex- amples, make this text-book an effective aid to the teacher who desires to impart the essentials of Grammar intelligently and successfully. The many teachers who have used Longman's School Grammar will recognize this as being based on that well-known work of David Salmon which is character- ized by a notably clear and inductive development, by wealth of illustration, and by simplicity of statement. All the excellencies of the old book have been retained in the new, and such added improvements have been intro- duced as appeared to be called for. J. V. Calhoun, Supt. of Schools, Baton Rouge, La.: — 4< It is a com- bination of what is essentially good in the old standard grammars, and the best methods lately adopted for making plain the grammatical prin- ciples of our language." The Hon. Charles R. Skinner, formerly State Superintendent of Public Instruction, New York: — " It makes me wish that I could go to school again." Martin Simpson, Superintendent of Schools, Wadena, Minn.: — "1 am especially interested in the sim- ple and clear language used in its pages, and the natural way in which the subject is approached and devel- oped. The selections for study are profuse, and of the very best litera- ture, so that a study of the text is almost equivalent to a study of clas- sics in connection with the study ol grammar." Longmans, Green, & Co.'s Publications Longmans' English Lessons By George James Smith, Ph.D., Member of the Board of Examiners Department of Education, New York City. 225 pages. $0.40. As a preparatory book of English Lessons covering the entire work in English from the 4th to the 7th grades, it offers an attractive and refreshing method of solving the problem of English instruction in the elementary school. The author has combined, from the beginning, the work of com- position with a progressive study of the sentence. Longmans' Briefer Grammar By George J. Smith, Ph.D. 178 pages. $0.40. A special book intended for use in classes that' are, for the first time, taking up the subject of grammar with a text-book. It not only provides an introduction to the subject, but it contains matter for at least a year's work, thereby avoiding the expense of a larger book, which would be used only in part. It does not necessarily form a part of the course, but it may be used to follow Longmans' English Lessons in preparing the way for a more complete treatise, such as Longmans' English Grammar. The child who takes the work of this book deliberately will be able to form clear and accurate notions of the principal topics in grammar ; he will know how to tell the parts of speech, how to sub-classify them, how to recognize their various syntactical relations, and how to analyze reasonably difficult, simple or compound sentences. The Horace Mann Readers By Walter L. Hervey, Ph.D., Member of Board of Examiners, New York City; formerly President of Teachers College; and Melvin Hix, B. S. Principal of Public School No. 9, Long Island City, New York City. A new series of basal readers shaped by these controlling ideas: personal interest on the part of the children in the doings of children of their own age ; personal hunger for stories having continuity, development and variety ; and the development of a personal power of satisfying the literary appetite. The stories, dialogues, poems, and other selections, are almost entirely of new material. Each book is fully illustrated with black and white pictures and several colored illustrations. Primer $ .30 Manual for Teachers (Daily First Reader . • 32 Lesson Plans) $ .75 Second Reader 40 Phonogram Cards— Primer Set Third Reader 48 26 Cards 25 Fourth Reader 55 Word Cards— Primer Set. 130 Fifth Reader (Preparing) Cards 1.25 Sixth Reader (Preparing) Phonogram Cards— First Reader Set. 115 Cards 1.00 Daily Lesson Plans is the teacher's manual for the first year's work with The Horace Mann Readers. Every step of each day's lesson is planned and explained. The directions given are intended to be so definite, so com- plete and so practical, that comparatively inexperienced teachers may be able to follow them with excellent results ; while in the hands of the experi- enced teacher it is hoped that it will be of much accommodation in following the progress of the work. The manual for the remainder of the series is in preparation Longmans, Gre en, & Co.'s Publications 7^ Thomas and Howe's Composition and Rhetoric By Charles Swain Thomas, Head of the English Department, New- ton (Mass.) High School, Will David Howe, Head of the English Department, Indiana University, and Zella O'Hair, Instructor of English Shortridge High School, Indianapolis. Illustrated. Crown 8vo. 517 pp. $1.20. The purpose of this book is to help the young student to write more clearly and more forcefully. The aim is not to train -writers in the finer graces of language. That accomplishment depends upon the individual student, and lies beyond the power of a book of this grade and scope. But it is within the purpose of such a book as this to give to the pupil a fresh desire to use simple English speech with greater precision. Technical words and phrases have been kept out ,as much as possible upon the belief that good writing depends upon simple essentials. There- fore the main stress has been placed upon the word, sentence and para- graph. A special attempt has been made to furnish clear and simple directions, with an abundance of exercises chosen from good writers, and with exercises which will test the pupil's understanding of the principles of writing. The exercises selected are the result of years of testing in the class room. The mere learning of rules never taught anybody to write. Therefore ample material has been provided for constant practice. Special attention is invited to the clear and very practical presentation of oral composition. The important subject of theme correction is very fully and carefully treated. In the chapter given to it there are reproduced a number of themes which were done in regular work in the class room. These show the teacher's corrections in red ink. The wide use of this book is due chiefly to the very practical character of all the work. This work was developed and re-worked in class for many years until the best results were obtained from all the pupils. The book is easy to teach and is enjoyed by pupils. The English Teacher's Manual To Accompany the Study of Thomas and Howe's Compo- sition and Rhetoric. By L. A. Pittenger, A.M., of Indiana University. Crown 8vo. Paper covers. 25 cents. This manual is designed to help the inexperienced teacher. For the experienced teacher it is intended to serve as a note book of matters of special interest, special applications, or additional drill. There are ample blank spaces for note making. LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 019 747 503 1 ■■■•■■•-■