Children taught in this manner will soon show an appreciative interest in the best literature, and will readily gain, with the appetite, a knowledge of the outlines, at least, of these inexhaustible stores. Let children get some knowledge of history, as a skeleton sketch of the story of man; not a confused mass of disconnected fragments, but a coherent whole. They can fill out the various periods for themselves, in after-years, as time and taste serve, but the great salient points of the story, the chief epochs and figures, should early be made real and vivid for them.

Any attempt at education falls far short that does not give some intelligent notion of the great lines of human thought and endeavor. A little knowledge of the rudiments of a great science may be a good thing if the young person who possesses it understands fully the slightness of the acquisition,- that it merely gives entrance to a truth which to follow will take a life-time,-but she ought to be incapable of the flippant folly of such remarks as we sometimes hear: "Oh, I have finished chemistry, astronomy, geology!" Such acquirements as we have hinted at, with that knowledge of books which prepares one to use them, which makes a great library a storehouse of tools; these, helped by a sense of proportion which gives one a grasp upon facts and theories alike,—a capacity for fitting them into their places so that not one shall overshadow another or be lost in undue subordination; such an education, modest indeed in its aims, but not without solid value, is easily attainable at home under the charge of an intelligent mother. If practical efficiency has been at the same time developed; if the scholar has thought upon his own relations to the problems of support and usefulness, and has been almost unconsciously helped to find some channels, more or less swift, of honest, productive efforts, it will probably compare favorably with the usual routine.

ELEMENTARY COMPOSITION IN PRIMARY SCHOOLS.

BY MISS E. A. FANNING, NORWICH, CONN.

The teachers of the past erred in undervaluing the importance of composition, and in not recognizing fully, if at all, its relation to the other studies, however elementary, which they were teaching. As an inevitable result, from such mistaken ideas came delay and a total ignoring of the subject until, after a waste of the best years of school-life, the branch suddenly developed into importance and the scholar's mind was expected to furnish a complete edifice of rhetoric where no foundation of thought and expression, however simple, had ever been laid. Even here another mistake was made, not only in subjects given, but in the practice of enforcing reliance in, and withholding aid from, pupils who, lacking experience, could hope for the awakening, development, and proper expression of ideas, only from the suggestions of teachers, supplemented by the information to be gained from reference-books and from their own reading. What wonder, then, that composition became the bugbear of school-life!

The reason why the language-lesson may not be made one of the most important studies, as well as the most fascinating one, of the course has yet to be proved. It is certainly productive of vast benefit; since,-in the primary grade, it is the only plain and certain test we have of the proficiency of pupils in independent writing and spelling. Every teacher knows that a pupil in the lower grades who may, perhaps, copy a set word or phrase with Chinese fidelity will be perfectly at sea,—so far as correct writing is concerned,-when bidden to write a paragraph unaided. As for teaching such children spelling by simple repetition of words, the result is about as satisfactory as was Penelope's web, of which as much was unraveled every night as had been spun during the day. If primary teachers wish to see any practical, satisfying results from their perplexing labor, day by day, they must commence by making copybooks and oral spelling of secondary importance.

Although we had been doing some desultory and tentative work in language in our primary course previous to the last year, it was not until then that the subject was given prominence in our scheme of study, as necessary and practicable. Even then I regarded it as a pleasant device for promoting interest and variety, rather than as the probable source of large benefit to my class. Up to that time the pupils had been writing simple descriptions of ordinary pictures.

But as nine out of ten of their slates would read: "I see a picture. I see a horse. I see a man. I see a dog by the man," I concluded to try a change. So I commenced to draw the subjects of their exercises, first letting them talk about the picture, which I took good care should be of some very familiar object. I prefer this of all plans which I have tried. It adds a thousandfold to the pleasure and interest of pupils to watch an outline, however imperfect,-grow into shape before their eyes. There is a freshness, a newness, about it which never belongs to a printed picture. Occasionally, as time went on, they were permitted to write independently of pictures, their subject being some suggestive word written upon the board, as, Christmas," or "Sliding." At other times they wrote entirely from memory; as recollections of stories which they had heard or read (but this, of course, was at best a limited field), or letters to their parents or to myself. In no case,-no matter what the scholar's rank in any other study,-did I ever discover poverty of ideas in the exercise. The first and most discouraging obstacle to success was spelling; the second, the inability of pupils to express their ideas rapidly and easily in writing. As a rule, children's fingers are rarely able to keep pace with their brains. And this is an end which can only be attained by patience on the teacher's part, and experience in writing and spelling, on theirs.

66

Whatever method of conducting the language-lesson I have chanced to select, whether by writing from ordinary pictures, from drawings independently of pictures, or from memory, I have always employed the same aids to spelling. My first plan was to draw the picture-subject, and to write its name both as the title of the little story and to insure proper capitals; then to write upon the board the principal and necessary words relating to the picture, numbering them as they were written. By this practice of copying, correct spelling was promoted, while the numbers saved time and trouble, since pupils might be instantly referred to the corresponding number when uncertain as to the spelling of a particular word. Then I have encouraged freedom of inquiry relative to the spelling of every uncertain word, both as an aid to the pupil who asks as well as to those who listen. Again, much good may be gained by encouraging reference to text-books, not only as insuring accuracy in copying and spelling, but in serving to keep the pupil's mind alive not alone to the peculiarities of new words which he learns, but to their position in the book,-to the very page, the line even, in which they occur. I fail to see why it is not quite as important for a primarian to develop a keen perception of relations in respect to the words of his reader as it will be for him, ten years hence, to see analogies in his

mental philosophy, or to recognize instantly a case of parallelism in his Æneid.

The fourth aid to spelling requires more time than the three preceding ones. My practice has been to divide a slip of paper by a line, upon one side of which the pupil writes the uncertain word, always followed by a question-mark. He comes to me without asking permission, and if his word is correct I return the paper without comment; if not, I write the correct form opposite his attempt. The name of each pupil is written upon his paper, which he keeps, drawing a line under the uncertain words of each lesson; which words he is afterward required to re-write correctly five or ten times, as the case may be, at odd moments of leisure.

Some one may suggest that all this takes time, and that, after all, learning to write stories is not of primary consideration in the education of mere infants. The very same objections have weighed heavily upon my own mind at times, and I have frequently hung out various small signals of warning to myself, fearing lest I might make this subject a harmless kind of hobby. How I got rid of my scruples was simple enough. There are sixteen pupils in my class whose ages average 7%. Now I am positive each pupil has spelled and read and seen the simple word "there," at the least calculation, fifty times. Yet day after day the word was written "t-h-e-i-r," or "t-h-a-r-e," and no amount of simple correction seemed equal to effect any improvement. One day in particular, one of the boys,—a smart, bright boy, too,-wrote, "Thare is a turtle on the board; A turtle bees in water." And I commenced to ask myself, "Is there any help for this thing? Is there any means of remedying these errors of spelling and language? True, experience would do the work, later on; but could not I anticipate the office of experience now, this year, this term even?" The question was, How could that particular boy be made to realize the errors of his sentences, in order to perceive and avoid them for the future? His experience of the uses and relations of those and all other words would necessarily be distributed thinly over a period of many years. Would it not be possible to gather up, to concentrate and compact, this experience into a single year? If so, and I answered "Yes" to my questions,-by what so natural, simple, yet efficacious means as that of practice; of doing again and again, until at last thought and judgment would step in and take the work out of my hands? I saw at once that, to prove of the desired effect, the exercise must be done frequently, done repeatedly, and, as a consequence of limited time, done with despatch.

So, like Robinson Crusoe, "I put my mind upon thinking," and having considered the pros and cons, I decided to try an experiment.

Cer

So at the next lesson, having drawn the picture, I said, "Scholars, I want you to write me a story of eight lines; I shall call for it in fifteen minutes." I explained that this was exclusive of their names. and ages and the title of the story. They set to work with an accession even of the delight which they always take in this exercise; and the stories were written and corrected inside of half-an-hour. tainly a moderate allowance of time to devote to a language-lesson. This plan I have followed ever since, although I have reduced the acceptable least number of lines to six. Since that time I have found in general a steady improvement in economy of time, in writing and spelling, and in facility of expression. The practice of noting the lines helps them in paragraphing, as well as in determining the placing of capitals. Of course some of the class will attempt to slur their writing; while others, using a stenography of their own, will make a single word stand for a sentence. However, it is, perhaps, as natural for a child, hurrying on to the expression of his thought, to leave out all except the important words in writing, as it was for him in his earlier childhood to omit the copula and articles, and say, intelligibly to himself and his hearers,-"Book pretty," or "Sugar sweet."

In order to cultivate correct expression of ideas I have made a practice of looking over the pupils' work during each exercise, and of causing each improper and ungrammatical sentence to be read aloud, in order to encourage careful work and self-criticism (children are always sufficiently venomous critics of each other). The most difficult habit to cultivate is that of looking back, of re-reading the work already written. But that of course will come with time. Such expressions as, "They are a picture on the board;" "My father give me a sled a Christmas;" "The teacher leave me take a purty book," occur, of course, in every lesson. But we cannot expect elegant English from the majority of pupils who daily hear such expressions as, "Johnny, git that air book o' yourn, and jest you make tracks for school!" or, "Mary Ann, if you spile your ruffled apron with ink, yo'll git the wus lickin' you ever had'n your life!"

As to corrections in spelling, sometimes pupils are simply required to re-write mis-spelled words ten or fifteen times; while in cases of very poor exercises the stories are entirely re-written.

My corrections are always made with colored ink; and, when practicable, each incorrect word is fully written out. Of course, even with the wisest application and economy of time, progress is comparatively slow, and days come when good results are almost imperceptible, and and there seems no resource but persevering, hopeful, prayerful patience.