ing to work, and to work hard, provided only they are set to doing the things that excite their curiosity by appealing to their own life interests. In other words, the right subject must be found for the right student. Special pains have been taken, therefore, not only to secure this needed novelty in the exercises, but to make them sufficient in number and kind to suit the likes and dislikes of widely different personalities. Not a little attention has been given to oral exercises, thus doing away with the artificial separation of written and oral composition. To make the book more teachable, class exercises and other devices, many of them new in textbooks, have been added here and there throughout the book. And now just a word about the use of the book. The book can be used for a two-year course or a one-year course, or twice a week through the entire high school course of four years. If used for a two-year course, Parts I and II will afford work for the first year, and Part III for the second year. If used for a one-year course, some portions of the book will need to be omitted (Part II, say, can be used mainly for reference, and Chapter VIII omitted) and fewer exercises done under each section studied. The most satisfactory results will be obtained if the book is studied in the order of presentation, and, however used, it should be remembered that Part I is fundamental, and should, therefore, under no circumstances be slighted or taken out of its normal order. In the matter of criticism, as was suggested a page or so back, it is best during the work of Part I to help the student by way of guidance and encouragement. During this period the teacher should try to find out what special power is in each student, and to develop that power or individuality as spontaneously and naturally as he can. At this stage no minute criticism of any sort should be offered, as the effect of this kind of criticism is bound to be deadening both to the student and to the teacher. As the trainer tries to get from his athlete all the speed he can, and last of all attends to the gait, so the teacher should try to get from his student writing as natural and spontaneous as he can do, and, last of all, gradually, by taking but one thing at a time, and winking at the rest, try to correct his faults. By this method the most diffident student can be brought to express himself in writing with comparative freedom, and those students who begin the work of composition with the notion that writing of every sort must be drudgery, can be brought to a realization of the pleasures of composition. After this development of the student's individuality is well started, the teacher's criticism may be more minute, but seldom merely negative. Except in cases of outright negligence, it will almost always be found more effective to bring to the student's attention those portions of his theme that are praiseworthy than to discourage him by continually centring his attention on those portions that are blameworthy. Indeed, in regard to defects, a little tact will set the student to correcting his own errors, and thus cultivate in him that habit of watchful carefulness in his writing that will be of so much use to him when he leaves school and has to do without his teacher's guidance. Never, during any part of the course, should a theme be criticised for more than one thing at a time, and that should invariably be the particular thing the student was set to do in that particular theme. This will impress on the student's mind, as nothing else will, the various principles in the theory of his practice. In conclusion, let me ask the teachers who use this book to write me freely regarding its betterment. I shall be especially grateful for new devices for securing personality in the student's work, and for exercises of every sort that have proved more than commonly interesting and effective. MOUNTAIN VIEW, CALIFORNIA, T. F. HUNTINGTON. |