Burlington free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1827-1865, 1859-08-26


SECOND DAY.
AFTERNOON
The best method of teaching English
Grammar being the subject Of discussion ,
the Rev c. W Gushing Of Albany, Ny,
commenced it, He said that he had little
confidence that much good would come from
Teachers who went about their work without
4 previous plan. Lacking that, they would
rot enter upon their work with sufficient
zeal to effect much. On the subject of Eng
lish Grammar he held the whoe tribe of
bookmakers on that topic in very low es-
timation. Lindley Murray's Grammar, in
particular, he considered as curse. He
had his own method, but he did not say it
would be good in all respects for all Others.
in fact. whoever undertook to follow pre-
ciselv anvbody's plan would make failure
Every one must have in some measure a pltn
Of his own-his own spirit must give life and
energy to his teaching The inquiry often
was, at what age should the pupil he put 10
/
years go for geography, 50 for Arithmetic.
and every other study,-the plan beng 20
take up one Of these studies and 20 through
with it, perhaps in two years or SO, and then
to take another, the notion being that ore
study at time was enough. His way would
be to take part Of each, and carry all along
| together as fast as the child could comrr,
hend them. He did not consider reading a.
usually taught, any part of education-b,
! thought 1t much easier to teach a child the
principles Of botany, geology, and phl,sp-
/ ply than TO teach him how to read-vet tb,.
ordinary method is to keep a child reading
for years, and to put off those other studies.
he thought such plan poor one. 1t was
slId parents could not generally teach such
things; but teachers ought to be able to do
it.
The general way was to keep a child at
grammar two or three years, and then to set
him at something else for a like amount of |
time. This is as if one would feed child /
for year or two on bread, then wear or |
two on meat, then again a year or two on |
vegetables. He would teach grammar oraHv. |
before the child learns to read Children
are made dull and stupid by being set AZ
books too soon. He would begin by asking
the child to name the articles in the room.
chairs, tables &c.,-then set him at picking
out the names of things mentioned in sen
ces,-whether they were called nouns, o.
had any name at all given them, was Of small
moment. Then he would ask them to state
the differences between the articles, as white.
black, old, young, large, small &c, then
to select from sentences the words which
marked differences of things-adiectives,
then words which expressed doing some
thing, verbs, and 50 on. As for parsiug, as
laid down in the books, he considered it a
humbug, farce. Grammar was to be con-
sidered as common sense applied to deter
mine the meaning and force Of words in a
sentence.
Mr.. Gushing was earnest in his manner.
and threw out many hints which might give
young teachers minds a Jog, if they were
pre-disposed to work in rut. yet, on the
whole, his system has strongly marked
hobby y-horscal qualities. He probably could
turn it to better account than less enthusi-
astic admirers of it could.
Mr.. Gushing was followed by Prof NJ II.
Buckham, of Burlington
Mr.. Buckham said he could not entirely
agree with the speaker who preceded him
All that he learned of English Gram
mar, he got from that q accurSed book - OF
LIndley Murrays; and when he thought
of the long array Of good writers and speak
ers, in England and in this country.
who had received their grammatical
discipline from the same source, he was
rather disposed to call it a blessed book
Two or three years ago he had occasion to
say something on this subject before the
Teachers Association but as others Were
riding out their hobbies, he did not know :
why ho might not trot ont his, also. His
hobby was that there is no one best way Of
teaching any thing-much less, English
Grammar. Different methods may be good,
each according to circumstances Whatever
method, however, takes the form of knack
or trick, however successfully practsed SO :
long as it is not detected, as soon as it is 50.
becomes dull and Intellectual He thought
all such should be avoided.
English Grammar is considered difficult ,
study by the young, & some Of its parts are so
considered by older pupils, also. Yet some of
its parts are easy enough. Orthography, for ;,
instance, is intricate, but EtymoIogy is sim r
pie. great part of the difficulty attending ,
the study of English Grammar comes from /
considering it as a system of rules No science n
Is inherently difficult; every one is easy, if |;
properly unfolded. Every thing has, so to a
speak, secret; till it is discovered, the
study of it is difficult. That secret does not q
lie in the separate parts of it. but in their o
relations 10 each other. There is a secret 2
about watch, but it is not in the separate q
wheels; there is a secret in an arch, but not
in the separate stones which compose it. e
The relations of wheel to whee, of stone TO ST
stone, contain the secret. So the study of A
iOOrds alone, Will give the pupil no knowl- II
edge of the philosophical principles of Ian
guage, their relations to each other must be n
searched out.
For himself, he thought he would prefer to d
begin with sentence-not at Sc early an age Il
as Mr.. Gushing would begin at, according n
to his method, NOT till the child was old e.
enough and advanced enough to understand p
a sentence,-not one with any peculiar quirks W