The record-union., 1898-11-24

ined. He explained the treatment of
the verb in it, both as a word and as
a verb phrase. or a word with a help
er. The elucidation was necessarily a
technical one, and was to the effect
that the auxiliary or helping words
could be put at the top OF the black
board and kept there, and their rela-
tion to the present, past and participal
forms Of the verb explained, so that
the pupil would readily see that have"
would not properly be united with
went" but with gone" Continued
exercise on these points soon brings
| improvement
Some do not understand why in the
Revised Grammar there is no person
| for the nouns, but he explained why
| it was so. The hardest subject how
ever, is the treatment of verbals. He
was opposed to teachers or grammars
saying that a word was one part of
speech used for another. He held that
| if an adverb was used as an adjective
it became an adjective, and if word
was used for a verb it was a verb.
Participles and infinitives are the
terms used in the Revised Grammar
for consistency, and he showed why.
There is still an apparent inconsist-
ency, but the explanation is that all
general rules have few exceptions.
and the apparent inconsistency is
simply the exceptions to the rule.
He answered a number of questions
| asked by teachers, explaining several
stumbling blocks.
Taking uD the mood and tense. he
said that he first thought it had bet
| ter be left out of the grammar grades
and taken up in the High School, and
| the pupils of lower grades be allowed
| to put more time on other things. He
thought tense might be defined as the
/ element in the sentence that denotes
| the degree of time and completeness
of the action. and that the only form
of the verb having tense is the indica-
tive mood, while tense in the subjunc-
] tive, potential and imperative moods
| is in some word besides the verb. To
postpone these subjects until the
higher grades will save the pupils
much perplexity.
| Another source Of trouble is transit
| tive and intransitive verbs. The first
step is to teach the distinction between
the active and passive voices, and that
one can be changed into the other.
| SUPERINTENDENT MEREDITH.
| State Superintendent Charles T..
| Meredith was introduced and ex-
pressed his qualification at meeting the
assembly, and explained why he had
been unable to attend the two previous
days of the institute.
! In relation to the discussion on the
grammar, he said that where there was
1 so much lack of unity as had been
| shown by the teachers in the Ques-
| tions asked it was not surprising that
the pupils found it hard to understand
| grammar 1t would be surprising II
| they did, He was sometimes tempted
TO think that the grammar should not
| be used in the common schools. and
! that the pupils should be taught ex-
preston. Let them read and read, and
think and think. and then they can
| talk Nine-tenths of the work to-
day that is ineffective is because the
| teacher does not put himself in the
place of the pupil. and try TO see how
/ the latter looks at the subject. He
had hoped to address the institute on
"Child Study" not because he had any
ideas that he thought specially valu-
able, but that he hoped to set them in
motion and set people to thinking.
Parents LET their children grow up
and spoil them and then send them
1 to school and expect the teachers to
1 make ladies and gentlemen of them.
If he had power he would abolish the
Teachers Institute and compel the
parents to attend Institutes once a
month, and learn how to study their
own children. (Applause.)
1 - ~, 6
ability. A child may do. better at 10
than another at fourteen What the
/ teacher should do is to study the
child's nature.
HOME READING.
! Professor Kirk took up Home Read
ing"
He said he believed that the time
was coming when every home Will
have in it a selection of choice litera-
ture. not. perhaps, in fine bindings, but
the subject matter good. If we can get
the children to read good literature.
many difficulties Of the teacher will
/ be removed.
| He was sorry to say that there Is
class that have taste for reading, but
not for good reading; another that has
a taste for good reading, but have not
| ACCESS u SOOQ UOOhS, d11o "a tiAAA - ~ie.3S
that have a taste for good reading
and the opportunity to crafty 1t.
Much is said about arousing the inter-
est of pupils, but care must be taken
that their interest is not aroused ana
allowed to run in the wrong direction
How to prevent the cultivation OF
taste for melodramatic and sensational
books and to direct the taste in the
direction of elevating and profitable lit
erature is a hard problem to solve. He
advised teachers to extend their inter-
est in the pupils outside of the school
room and to enter into their home life
and come into contact with them and
their parents, and try to get closer to
them and influence their reading.
For boys he would pick out something
that boys like. They like something
| that has adventure and 'go" in them.
Quo vadis," for instance is an artistic
work but it has not "go" in 1t. and
will not compare with Bulwer's descrip-
tion in 1.-THE Last Days Of Pompeii,
| or the chariot race in ben Hur.'