The Newberry herald and news. (Newberry, S.C.) 1884-1903, 1888-05-03
TEACHERS DEPARIMkN |.
\. :. SCHEETZ, EDITOR.
Educational Literature.

Forty wears ago when David Page
gave to the world his model volume en-
titled 'Theory and Practice OF Teach
ing" he stood almost alone III TINS
country as :, writer on Methods of in
struction.
Now educational publications have
increased to such numbers that we find
one publishing house advertising up
wards of one hundred standard works
OH Teaching; while the number OF
periodicals issued in the interests OF the
profession of teaching in the United
States alone is not less than seventy
five. BY the teacher who lives III the
past rather than in the present, ana
who is blindly following the beaten path
marked out by the teachers OF his ear
lier years, without Il thought as 10 the
wisdom of the methods or the posi-
bility of any Improvement, this state
ment will probably be received with a
certain degree of surprise, If not with
absolute incredulity; but the live, pro-
rressive teacher who has been earnestly
eudeavoring to TT himself thoroughly
f,r the difficult and responsible work OF
his chosen calling by an Intelligent and
systematic course of reading IN the lt-
erature of his profession, recognizes 1t as
fact.
Some of these works have been writ
ten mainly for the guidance of teach
ers in ungraded country schools, by
teachers of long and varied experience
in the management Of such schools.
Others are adapted more especially TO
the work OF graded schools: Some treat
exclusively of methods Of teaching the
different branches of knowledge; some
of school government, while others dis
euss pedagogic principles III Z general
way leaving their proper application to
the judgment and skill OF the teacher;
and still Others, like Spencer, Payne
and Tate, discuss different phases OF
the educational problem in the light OF
science and philosophy.
All of these works possess points OF
excellence, and the Intelligent and dis
terminating teacher, knowing his wants,
will. have little trouble in selecting what
will be most helpful to himself.
Among educational periodicals., While
some are merely ephemeral in charac-
ter. and others seem more deVoteo
TO the interests of advertisers than OF
teachers and schools, yet there isa large
and growing number ofjournals whose
contents are such as no thoughtful
teacher can peruse without benefit to
himself and his school. They not only
contain the most advanced thought on
education, and the latest and most ap-
proved methods of teaching. and dis
cipline, but their persual has tenden-
cy to expand and liberalize the mind OF
the reader and give him broader and
higher conceptions of his profession.
The reading Of such journals con-
stantly inpresses the teacher with the
fact that he is one of a vast number en-
gagei in the same noble cause, re
cause of popular education; this VIII
tend to give him higher appreciation
ofthe worth and dignity Of his calling,
inspire him with greater respect tor MS
fellow teachers, and thus promote that
esprit de corps hitherto so strlklnsiy
absent among teachers.
We intend from time to time to pre-
sent brief critical notices OF the more
valuable works on Teaching, and also
of educational journals, hoping thereby
to render some assistance to the younger
teachers who may be desirous OF pur-
suing q course Of reading in the litera-
ture of their profession.
At the meeting Of the Teachers AS
sociation in March the question was
asked "Can an intransitive verb take an
object?' This question was answered
affirmatively by several teachers pres
ent. In illustration, such sentences as
He runs race, She sings a song DC,
were cited. It was held that the verbs
runs and sings were intraasitive and
whenever they took an object it had TO
have signitication kindred to that OF
the verb. similar, we presume, to the
cognate accusative of the Latin.
In an article written subsequently we
briefly discussed the question and eN-
pressed the opinion that an intranSltlve
verb cannot take an object, that the
verbs runs and sings are transitlve, and
further that the objects OF such verbs
must not necessarily have q meaning
kindred to that OF the verbs. In proof
of our position we submitted such sen
tences as, The hackman runs hack,
The carpenter runs rope through 4
block, The boy runs nail into his foot,
Arms and the man, sing (Dryden),
and such expressions as sing his praise,
sing his decd; Of v;,lor, etc.
In last weeks issue of this journal
appeared IN article by 4 teacher, crlti-
cising the position we had assumed and
also endeavoring to reiute 4 statement
made incidentally in reference to tran
,Sitive and intranSiIive verbs. After
discussing the classification of verbs
into transitivc and intru>itive, a cl;,>Si-
tication found III all the standard! works
on English grammar, and the propri-
ETY. Of which we did not question, she
proceeds to admit the correctness of the
position assumed by Us. She says,
1--WE admit that frequently the same
word IS used both as Il tran>itive and
intransitive verb, but, let ii be rtinc!n-
bered, with very different nlcanings.'