II. COMPOSITION.

1. DIRECTIONS FOR TEACHERS.

1. When you take charge of a class not previously trained in composition writing, set the pupils to copying short reading-lessons. Let them exchange papers, and, with open book, correct one another's exercises with reference to spelling, punctuation, capitals, and paragraphs.

2. Next, let them write out an abstract of some familiar story, told or read to the class.

3. When you require a formal composition, select a subject for the entire class, and give the necessary directions, explanations, and suggestions. Select subjects about which your pupils know something-never abstract subjects, such as happiness, or knowledge, or virtue.

4. Train your pupils to correct one another's compositions, and require them to rewrite corrected exercises.

5. "I call that the best theme," says Thomas Arnold, "which shows that the boy has read and thought for himself; that the next best which shows that he has read several books and digested what he has read; and that the worst which shows that he has followed but one book, and followed that without reflection."

6. "Training in the appropriate use of the English language ought not to be limited to the mere grammatical exercise of composing sentences. Even in our common-schools, it should extend to the cultivation of taste by which neat as well as correct expression is acquired as a habit."-Russell.

7. "I hold it as a great point in self-education that the student should be continually engaged in forming exact ideas, and in expressing them clearly by language. Such

practice insensibly opposes any tendency to exaggeration or mistake, and increases the sense and love of truth in every part of life. Those who reflect upon how many hours and days are devoted by a lover of sweet sounds to gain a moderate facility upon a mere mechanical instrument ought to feel the blush of shame if convicted of neglecting the beautiful living instrument wherein play all powers of the mind."-Professor Faraday.

8. "The study of rhetoric in high-schools ought not to be completed in fourteen weeks. It should be continued through the entire course, at the rate of one lesson a week, because it relates to language, which is the instrument used by teacher and pupil throughout the course. This method will give time to write the exercises assigned in works on rhetoric, and will not interfere with other studies relating to the English language. - George W. Minns.

2. DIRECTIONS TO BE GIVEN TO PUPILS.

1. Think about the subject, and make some plan of arrangement.

2. Do not run together a long string of statements connected by ands, buts, or ifs; but make short sentences.

3. After writing the first draft, examine it critically, cross out superfluous words or phrases, interline, correct, and then rewrite.

4. In correcting, examine with reference to-1. Spelling; 2. Capitals; 3. Punctuation; 4. Use of words; 5. Construction of sentences.

5. Acquire the habit of crossing t's, dotting 2's, and punctuating as you write.

6. Do not put off writing until the day before you must hand in your composition.

CHAPTER VI.

CONDENSED DIRECTIONS FOR TEACHING GEOGRAPHY.

1. MAKE beginners familiar with the local geography of the place where they live. Lay some kind of a basis for conception by calling attention to whatever natural features of land and water are within the limited field of the pupil's observation; such as hill, mountain, valley, plain, spring, brook, river, pond, lake, village, city, etc. Then extend these lessons to the surrounding country, questioning pupils about all the places that they have ever seen in their short journeys. Next, connect this knowledge with the elementary lessons in the text-book, or with an outline map. [For first lessons, see Part III., Chapter III., sec. iii.] "In geography," says Agassiz, "let us not, at first, resort to books, but let us take a class into the fields, point out the hills, valleys, rivers, and lakes, and let the pupils learn out-of-doors the points of the compass; and then, having shown them these things, let them compare the representations with the realities, and the maps will have a meaning to them. Then you can go on with the books, and they will understand what these things mean, and will know what is North and East and South; and will not merely read the letters N., E., S., W. on a square piece of paper, and perhaps think that the United States are about as large as the paper they learn from. When I was in the College of Neufchâtel, I desired to

introduce such a method of teaching geography. I was told it could not be done, and my request to be allowed to instruct the youngest children in the institution was refused. I resorted to another means, and took my own children-my oldest a boy of six years, and my girls, four and a half and two and a half years old-and invited the children of my neighbors. Some came upon the arms of their mothers; others could already walk without assistThese children, the oldest only six years old, I took upon a hill above the city of Neufchâtel, and there showed the magnificent peaks of the Alps, and told them the names of those mountains and of the beautiful lakes opposite. I then showed them the same things on a raised map, and they immediately recognized the localities, and were soon able to do the same on an ordinary map. From that day geography was no longer a dry study, but a desirable part of their education."

ance.

2. Use the school globe daily for several weeks, showing your pupils the grand divisions, the oceans, the equator, the poles, etc. Send every pupil by turns to the globe. [See Part III., "Geography," sec. i.]

3. The method of beginning with outlines and afterwards filling in with details must, to a certain extent, be carried on pari passu with that of laying a foundation of correct notions based upon a knowledge of local geography. The extent of local lessons, however, is limited; and, beyond the limit of personal observation by pupils, it seems to be the better plan to begin with the grand outlines of geography. Unless children have travelled a great deal, they can no more form a correct notion of the size of their native State than they can of the United States or of Asia. A great deal of elementary work nec

essarily consists in getting familiar with names and maps. It must be borne in mind, too, that generalizations, in order to be of any value, must be based on a knowledge of particulars.

4. In using the school text-book, let the advance lesson be read over aloud in the class, and then direct your scholars to mark with a pencil a few leading points to be committed to memory, certainly not more than from one tenth to one fourth of an ordinary lesson of descriptive text. The following direction from the Massachusetts State Course of Instruction embodies a valuable general rule for guidance:

"As travel broadens ideas, so will the study of geography, if rightly pursued; and pupils may increase the value of their lessons by reading books of travel and stories of great explorers. The teacher can afford to deal sparingly in statistics, latitudes, longitudes, areas, and heights, and to avoid dry, definitions and detailed map questions that lead only to a recital of names of places destitute of associations. Such knowledge is not worth the time it takes to acquire it, though it may secure rapid and accurate recitations."

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5. In the lower grades, let the "map lessons" be read aloud in the class, and answered with open book in the hands of the pupils; then select a few of the leading questions, mark them, and let the class recite them from memory at the next lesson. Supplement these lessons by short oral descriptions of places mentioned, or by some interesting facts connected with them, so that they may be remembered by the aid of association.

6. Train pupils in detail on the geography of their own State; then, in a more general way, on their section; and,