I.—All Grammar Should be Practically Used in Composition.

Every step we take in our grammatical course should be put to practical use in sentences made by the children. Every part of speech, every new idea or rule regarding it, page 17 should at once be fully exercised on in composition. The child should not merely know and understand a word when seen, but he should be able to use it correctly in speech and in writing. Of course, exercises are given on all these points by every careful teacher, but the exercises should not only be such as will insure that the different facts in grammar are apprehended and known by the child, but other exercises should be given directly framed with a view towards Composition, towards giving the child the power of using them in actual speech in full and correct sentences.

For example, the children should not only be able to tell the different ways of forming the plural or possessive, but should be able to put the words thus given into sentences. They should not only know the irregular adjectives, but should use them in living language. All the pronouns should not only be pointed out and named, but used in sentence-making with ease and correctness. Indefinites, interrogatives, ordinals, distributives should be real words so well known to him that he can at once put his knowledge to practical effect in composition. A transitive verb should not only be pointed out but made; the "future perfect" not only named but used in practical speech; the auxiliaries, the impersonals should be real coins for the transaction of lingual business in school life. And so of every single point in our otherwise dead grammar. We should not only exercise on words till they are known, named, and pointed out by the children, but should, in addition to this, put it definitely and continually before us, as the more important thing to do, to embody these dry details, these dead forms, in actual speech made by the children themselves under the guidance of the teacher. And just reflect what a mighty gain such a practical conversion of grammar into composition, of lifeless terminology into living thought and speech, would give a child after he has traversed the grammatical field. He not only can speak of, point out, and know when seen, an adverb of degree, or an interjection of surprise, or a co-ordinative conjunction, or a compound relative, but he is able, readily and correctly, to use these on the spot in sentences made by himself.