The Scranton tribune. [volume] (Scranton, Pa.) 1891-1910, 1896-04-08

about rules OF grammar or Of rhetoric.
Not that those rules are bad things to
know. The knowledge Of them IL like
the knowledge of the railway schedule
when one wants to 60 on q journey. 1t
facilitates matters to know when the
right train goes and how to get on the
right train instead Of the wrong one.
But for all that. the train schedule
should not be made the chief consider
alton in travelling. 1t Is. at best. only
useful accessory. The paramount
thing is to know where you want to 60
to and what you want to 60 for.
Applying this homely simile to the
writing Of English. would suggest that
it is well not to be too severe when the
pupil mixes lenses or rhetorical figures:
when he sprains the parts Of speech or
does unconscious violence to the shade
of Lindley Murray. This. to be sure,
is bad thing to do: but in the great
day. when human accounts are bal
anced for the last time. II will, I trust,
be reckoned a venial sin compared with
the writing Of structurally proper sent
ences which have in them only faint
suggestions of a meaning. only the pale
ghost of a murdered idea
Let it never be forgotten that this Is
an age when people like to get results.
lie ltdCIct WIZ IlluS ldNOE VIII tuG
knowing ones in q community Is not
necessarily the teacher who knows the
most about the science of pedagogy;
about Pestalozzi. for example. who died
years ago, or Colonel Parker, of
Quincy method" fame. who lives way
out in Chicago; but the teacher who
can take the crude pupil, let us say
right here in Scranton. in his raw ma
terial stage and with due diligence turn
out a tolerably well finished product
fit for the substantial duties and re-
sponsibilities of everyday life. Such
teacher is a jewel, be her method this,
that or the other Such a teacher does
not teach composition on the principle
that the boy must fit the boot; she tries
to get a size of boot that will fit the
boy; and she is careful, too. to see that
the sharp pegs which the grammatical
and rhetorical boot-makers are wont
to leave sticking up through the soles
are smoothed down so as not to MAIN
the foot and give the lad O wild desire
to shake boots altogether and hoof 1t
barefooted.
BY this time / trust you will see my
point, that. when all Is said, the idea
Is the thing. Put that always first.
Never let a pupil begin q composition
until he knows what he wants to say.
Discourage aimless writing. Do not let
the inexpert pen try to blaze path as 1t
goes along. There are enough mature
cranks in the world to supply all the
necessary side cuts to beatitude or per-
dition. Keep the young literary trav-
eler on familiar ground. Don't let him
feel that writing is different function
from talking; that 1t Is not worth while
to write down the things that one talks
or that one hears; that, somehow, COM
position Is a strange thing, thing
apart. Make 1t an easy, q familiar, an
almost unconscious thing. thing as
easy. when there Is something to be
written, as 1t Is easy to speak when
there Is something to be said. To be
sure. cultivate originality: but would
not do much of that In special connection
with composition exercises themselves.
That should be a permanent aim, all the
day long. That should be one Of the
solemn and everlasting missions Of the
teacher, twenty-four hours to the day
and seven days to the week. In COM
position, when you get the pupil to the
point where he can lift his pen to pa
per without more ado than he would
purse his lips to frame q spoken sent
ence, the originality that Is in him, that
you, as teachers, are divinely commits
stoned to nurture and develope in him,
will come to the front, in English that
can be read without tax upon the read
er's guessing faculty.
And, now. a word about style. At
some point or other in the progress Of
the pupil through the schools, the ques-
ton of style will probably present IT.
self. If 1t does, ignore it. Above all
things, don't try to cast the pupils