Keowee courier. [volume] (Pickens Court House, S.C.) 1849-current, 1915-06-02
STUDY OF ENGLISH GRAMMAR.
Too Much Importance Cannot BE At
GiChcd to this Branch.

English grammar has long been
one Of the most difficult subjects for
the teacher in The OnG-tCachCr rural
school to manage successfully. Or
dinarily our teachers begin language
lessons in the primary or intcrmcdi-
ate grades and usually get fair re-
suits, but when it comes to teaching
and inStilling tn" great principles Of
the language in the higher iHtcrme-
diatc and in the lower high school
grades our country schools are too
often almost failures. English gram
mar is truly progressive study, and
every principle passed over must be
remembered and put into practical
application in nearly every succeed
ing recitation. NO teacher who neg
lcCts to give her pupils continual
drill on that part Of the subject al
ready passed over can get results
that are permanent and practical.
She must ever have for her motto:
"RcUcw, exercise; review again;
more exercise" She should never
abandon this method until the great
principles that undcrlic this import
ant subject have become so grounded
in her pupils minds that they can
not be forgotten. When these have
become thoroughly known TO the
student, he should not be allowed TO
get the idea, as is often the case.
that he knows ii all, and the subject
b" dropped and forgotten. Our teach
"rS too often commit Il serious mis-
take by allowing this to be done. The
Old but good systems Of parsing and
analysis Of the sentence should never
be allowed to fall into diSrCpute.
w" sometimes think that one Of
tn" reasons our pupils do not do we'll
in English grammar is because OF the
fact that in our rush for now ideas
and methods, we have strayed too far
from those Of half a century or more
ago; that we no longer require the
thorough and complete parSing Of
cNtlN "oiu III IHt SeulcUcc, ana
that the analysts OF the sentence has
become largely superficial. 1t is a
settled fact that no pupil or teacher
can know this interesting subject
until he or she is capable Of analyz-
ing the sentence, and Of parsing
every word in it. Why, then, should
we ever allow these good old-time
methods to be replaced by some Wis
ionary idea Of one who is striving
for nOtOricty? One thing that
makes the subject difficult to teach
by authors Of English grammarS.
This causes, to the ordinary student.
as much confusion as all the idiOms
OF the language i"t together. There
is now, however, some effort being
made to standardi2e all grammars in
this respect; and already some au-
thOrS have made efforts to put the
recommendations made by the Ma
tiOnal Committee on Nomenclature
into effect All grammars should
call the same thing by the same
name. There is no excuse for one
to speak Of the attribute complement
and for another to call the same
thing subject complement This
causes the young mind to become
confused, and the pupil soon gets the
idea that it is no use to try to learn
subject that presents so many con-
fusions.
No other subject is Of more value
to students after life than is a
thorough knowledge OF English
grammar. The teacher should be a
master Of the subject, and should
require her students to use at all
times correct English in their con-
NrrSation. The teachers Of our
county can do nothing better than to
make special effort to do more and
b"ttrr work in this all-important
subject that has for so long been
somewhat neglected, especially in
our country schools.
l.. A. Sease.