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How to Teach Composition.

and draw buckets full of classic lore, wherewith to swell their scanty rills of thought?" If you have n't, read it, I beg of you, before you censure too severely a poor child who steals because he is forced to give what he does n't possess. You will have more mercy, then, for him, and less for yourself that you have been so stupid as to expect him to accomplish what you never could have done under like circumstances. What can a child, unaided, say about "Spring," and the beauties of " Hope," the follies of " Youth," and the comforts of " Age," " Memory," and the like? For such subjects he will surely select for himself; he aims high and wants to bring his teacher something worth reading, and, all untried, does n't know but his puny efforts can grasp them. He does n't know how far off the moon is, only sees she's bright and pretty, and so spends himself in vain attempts to reach her. But show him an apple tree and a ladder, and he will bring you fruit enough.

"But pray," you will ask, "how are we to find apple-trees for our pupils, and whence can we procure ladders to give them? We are employed to teach reading, writing, and arithmetic; composition is a kind of by-play, and we have no time to attend particularly to it." Yes, you have; and when you are more concerned for the progress of the child than for his appearance before the examining committee, you will find it, and find, also, that the more you awaken his mind to general knowledge, the better he can read, and write, and cipher too.

Then take some time every day for a general object lesson, however short. Tell your pupils something new, and let them tell you what they remember about it at the next lesson. You can continue the discussion of the same object through several consecutive lessons, if necessary, and then your pu pils will have something to write about that will really interest and profit them.

Take paper, for example. Tell them the ancient mode of writing, show them parchment, if possible, and the different kinds of paper used in our day. Tell them where it is made, how, and of what, keeping up their interest by asking them

How to Teach Composition.

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questions, or hearing what they have to say. Let them make lists of all articles that are made wholly or in part of paper, and, finally, as a composition exercise, let them write any parts they may remember, or add anything they can to the account. And so you might go on through a wide range of subjects, beginning with the simple and passing to those which require more research on your part, and on that of your pupils. If these exercises are rightly conducted, your own interest will increase, and your pupils' also.

These general exercises may be varied in many ways. Write a familiar, suggestive letter to your scholars, on the blackboard, and require them to answer it; let them write you a letter on some subject, or descriptive of some object; let them write to a friend, and bring the letters to you for inspection. Read them a story, then giving a few leading words for them to use as a framework, let them fill it up. Give them some dozen or more words, chosen indiscriminately, and let them write a story or sentences containing them.

Occasionally an impromptu exercise is very pleasing. Let some easy subjects be given, from which the pupils may select, and let some five, ten, or fifteen mimutes be spent by them in unfolding them upon their slates, let some ten or fifteen minutes more be spent in hearing them read, one after the other, with little or no comment. I have seen this exercise tried with great success, in large and small schools.

Encourage your pupils, if they are old enough, and very young children can begin, to keep school journals in which they may pen little items of interest that may occur, or put down facts they may wish to remember. Examine these from time to time, (the pupils bringing them in by sections,) and with proper criticism on your part as to the general features only, (you will hardly have time to go into particulars,) you will soon see a marked improvement in habits of attention, in power of memory, in neatness of penmanship, and in the ready use of language.

Did my limits permit, I would like to touch upon the physique of a theme proper, so to speak; but it may be suffi

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How to Teach Composition.

cient here to say,-have some uniform system. Do n't let one be folded in one way and another in another, and all superscribed in different ways. Do n't let the headings wander over the page and have no fixed abode. And the margins, do n't let them widen to suit shallow brains or contract for the diffuse; let them be uniform. Attention to these things should be insisted upon.

Let the teacher then criticise, at first, perhaps, only the spelling, grammatical construction, and general appearance of the work, and afterwards, as the pupil improves in these particulars, criticise the style and sentiment. Don't try to eradicate all faults at once. If you succeed in mending one thing at a time, you will do well.

And now let me say, I have known many schools thoroughly, and rarely have I seen one where the benefits of this exercise were very deep or lasting, for the reason that the teacher's comments were seldom followed up by the pupils' corrections. In my childhood I wrote many compositions, and never corrected more than one or two of them, which chanced to be selected for some special purpose. My teachers would look them over carefully, I suppose, pencil the errors, transpose and beautify, and I would carelessly look them over, lay them aside, and forget them. Of course, the same errors would be repeated the next time I wrote. I now think that my course then, was but a sample of what too often occurs in these times.

Were I teaching composition now, I would only mark the errors, and suggest the improvements, insisting upon the pupil's making the corrections himself, either upon the original composition or in a copy which I would re-inspect. It would do him more good to correct his old exercises faithfully, than to write a dozen new ones with criticisms unno ticed.

But in this, as in every undertaking, the great secret of success, is earnest, persevering effort on the part of the teacher, and a determination that nothing shall prevent its accomplishment.

Place your aims high, and while results are good and

Brown's Grammars.

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cheer you on, let them never quite satisfy you if they fall short of your standard. Labor on in faith, nothing doubting, and your success will be triumphant.

For the Common School Journal.

BROWN'S GRAMMARS.

WAS ever a subject so voluminously treated as English Grammar? And did ever theories on any subject differ so widely? Is there a more fruitful source of dispute than parsing and analysis? All this establishes the importance of Grammar, and there will, no doubt, be many more books written and many more theories broached, before the true theory of the language and the true method of its study are reached.

The Grammars of Gould Brown are among the best treatises on the subject. If they are not perfect, they are at least free from many inconsistencies which diminish the value of some other works, and if a pupil knows what they contain and bases his use of English upon this knowledge, he will seldom be convicted of "false syntax," or any other grammatical heresy.

The Grammar of Grammars needs no commendation. There is not its like on this or any other subject in the language. Nearly every thing that any one-teacher or pupil needs may be found here. All opinions of all men, not excepting G. B. himself, on any point in orthography or etymology or syntax are exhibited, discussed, ridiculed, and discarded or accepted. We never cease to admire the skill and industry displayed in the collection and arrangement of its abundant materials. It must have been undertaken as a labor of love: nothing but love could have carried a man through the toil of preparing such a volume. And now that a copious index has been added and one can turn to anything it contains, it is safe to say it is the best reference book for topics strictly grammatical, to be found. But how easy it is to find fault-we have looked in vain even here for any satisfactory accounts of Mode and Tense

or a complete classification of the kinds of sentences you may find in any English book.

The Institutes of Grammar with a sytem of Analysis by Mr. Kiddle of New York, is a very good book. Some of its excellences are the arrangements of its topics, clear and concise definitions, classification of the parts of speech, and a judicious selection of notes and observations under the rules of Syntax. The system of Analysis is good in that it is free from the mere technicalities which encumber and disfigure some other systems, in that it is progressive in its arrangement, and presents full models for analyzing all the kinds of sentences which are found in the Exercises. It is not our province to decide between rival books; there are some defects in these works, and all the grammars we ever saw, have some merits. The experience of a teacher with a good class is a good test of the value of a book, and the writer has found as rapid progress in the science of Grammar from the use of this book as he has ever found from the use of other books. Tastes differ in respect of text-books as of other things; but we should never complain if there were no better grammar than this of Brown's, provided we were allowed to correct and complete its teachings to suit our own notions, as we insist on doing with any book whatH. B. B.

ever.

S. J. WHITON.

THE many friends of this excellent young man, for several years one of our most constant and valued correspondents, will be interested in the following letter recently received from Africa. As our readers consider the privations and self-denials that must be endured by our friend in his far off field of labor, we trust it will increase their gratitude for the blessings they enjoy, and cause them to labor more earnestly and hopefully in their work. The more secluded one's field of labor and the more degraded and ignorant those for whom he may be called to toil, the greater will be the demand for a true missionary spirit, and the greater will be the good to be accomplished. Hence those teachers who are employed in some retired and neglected