3. Composition should be Taught in Elementary Schools even when Grammar cannot be Taught.

If I were asked regarding a very elementary school, with great irregularity and short attendance, in which only the most necessary subjects can be taught—if I were asked whether Grammar or Composition should be left out, I would unhesitatingly answer, Grammar as Grammar. In addition to the three "R's," what more important power can be given to children than the power of using the language with some degree of correctness and ease, in writing to their friends, or otherwise using the pen?

Away in the north-west part of the northern district, I find teachers, with laudable but painful industry, pegging away at Grammar, and hear the children deliver themselves of all its most forbidding technicalities with only the very slightest apprehension of their meaning, even when they can with difficulty express themselves in the simplest forms of English, and understand only a modicum of their simple reading-books. It is painful to see such a waste of time and energy; and therefore to such teachers I strongly recommend the giving up of Grammar as a subject, and the teaching of Elementary Composition or Sentence-making in the way already described; taking up the simpler points in Grammar as they are necessary in the Elementary Composition course, but laying it wholly aside as a separate branch of school instruction.

The plan recommends itself to teachers, especially after seeing on the spot, with their rude material, the thing easily and pleasurably done. Its advantages would be very great in all schools, but especially in schools with another tongue in page 35 constant use outside the school-door. It supplies the one thing most wanted there—a knowledge of words, a knowledge of the simple structure of an English sentence, and the power, by-and-by, of combining these, and writing a simple composition on a common subject. I am sure were this to be done from the III. Standard onwards, and exercised on for only fifteen minutes or half an hour daily, the result in intelligence and in knowledge of the language would be remarkable.

This would be my advice to all our elementary schools in which the teaching of grammar is reckoned the right thing to do, and in which the children can stay only a short time at school. Teach the children to know the great principles of love to God and love to man; to read, write, and cipher; and to use our English tongue so as to be able, at least, to write a letter decently. All this can be done in the most elementary school. The last has not been done in most of such schools, and where done, not done systematically. It should be done, and it can be done, with ease and pleasure. Do not, in our elementary schools, put off time teaching them about indefinites and subjunctives and distributives, and such impractical matters. Take them through such a simple course of Elementary Composition as shall give them the power of writing a little theme or letter well, and only teach Grammar as far as it helps towards this desirable and most practical end; and you give the children a power for life which they will feel the pleasure and advantage of, and for which they will ever give you thanks.

We have now traversed the field we had before us. The subject recommends itself to every teacher and to every one interested in education. It is eminently practical and eminently pressing, and good can be done only by the adoption of some such combined course from early years in our daily school-work. Most earnestly do I urge you to do this. If the thing is to be done, it must be done by the profession—each man for himself. The best books on the subject may be made, but unless you teachers unite to work it out systematically in school, little good will result.

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It is most gratifying to note the change that is gradually taking place in our text-books on English, and their gradual recognition of practical power over the language as the aim and end of all our grammatical course. We have now not a few really good books constructed more or less on the plan we advocate. The last ten years have seen marked improvement in this direction. But these better class-books are not in general use, and the idea that an English course has its only true purpose in practical power in Composition has not yet taken possession of the profession. It will be something for this Association to seize the idea and put it to real practical effect in school-work.

But we live at the beginning of even greater changes still in the teaching of English.

The eyes of English scholars and educationists are beginning to be opened to the great wealth of English idioms, and the necessity for their practice from the first in the manner of the classical languages. They are becoming awake to the fact that, rightly used and exercised on, the English Language can afford as varied and thorough mental training as these ancient languages, that English has not received its due in this matter, that it is time that it should, and that it is only simple justice and practical wisdom to employ this great instrument of daily speech, thought and writing, for such training, and for increased skill in its use. Just reflect on the practical power with which a boy would leave school, from a thorough course in English similar to what has been applied to the classics, begun in early years, and carried on so many hours daily, with as numerous and efficient a system of exercises in the use of our glorious English tongue. The result would be astonishing, and the gain for life in business, literature, and thought, incalculable. The battle has begun of mere Classicism versus English, and the issue is certain. Henceforth, our greatest instrument in mental training, culture, and practical use of language is English. It lies mainly with Teachers to prove its power in this field, and to lead to this "consummation so devoutly to be wished."