1 2 3 5 Nominative case. Verb. Objective case. Preposition. Object of the preposition. As we are daily in our respective classes and have seldom an opportunity of seeing each other's manner of teaching, I do not know how you teach; nor do you know how I do myself. If you would allow me to explain to you how I was taught, how I was made to understand the construction of sentences, and how, by and by, with my own application and reflections, I succeeded in acquiring a tolerably good knowledge of written language, I will, with pleasure, give you sometime to-morrow if not to-day, an exhibition of my method on the slate, provided you allow me, at least an hour for the explanation. But whatever it may be, we ought not to expect from all our pupils as complete an acquisition of the English language within five or six years, as they spend only the half of the day in the school-rooms and the other half in the work-shops, whereas I had the whole day at my disposal, an advantage which I had over them; of course I have no right to claim any merit of my own if I have any at all. We do well in giving our pupils in the second or third year elementary books of stories and arithmetic, but before thinking of supplying them with books of a higher order of science, such as geography, history, philosophy, &c., we should ascertain whether they are now able to rehearse a verb with all its different inflections. There are about forty-four inflections of the verb, and they know but fifteen or twenty!! Then let us teach them to employ these forty-four inflections àpropos and aright in the affirmative, negative, interrogative and interro-negative forms, beginning with the two auxiliary verbs, to have and to be, which are the most trouble some. In the course of our instruction, we shall often find it hard to make our pupils understand the difference between I shall see and I will see, which are both future tenses; but if we tell them that when it is a question of a future action, either indifferent or uncertain; that is, of a thing which can arrive or not arrive, or of an event depending entirely upon the will of the person who speaks, we shall have recourse to will. When, on the contrary, the future event is indispensable, we employ shall. For instance, if I will have you walk during an hour, I shall say, you shall walk; but if you have the will of walking without being obliged to do so, I shall say, you will walk; therefore, Will and would are used when the action is voluntary; May and might, when it is doubtful. We should also take care to bring to the perception of our pupils, the characters, use and influence of all the other words, which, as parts of speech, unite, modify and determine the noun, the verb and the adjective. We should likewise make them classify the verbs in their various forms with their derivates. Verb. Present part. Passive part. Adjective. Adverb. Noun. Personal noun. We should moreover ask questions or require them to question ourselves on the lesson or story they have just written down on their slates, viz: STORY. U. S. HISTORY. PAGE 40. Sir William Pepperell, with his 4,300 men, arrived at Louisburg the last of April, 1744. They were occupied fourteen days in drawing their cannon across a swamp, so as to bring them near the town. They then besieged it; that is: they surrounded it both by land and water. They also made frequent attack upon the soldiery in the forts. manned. to occupy, occupying, occupied, occupation, occupancy, &c. to draw, &c. to cannonade, &c. to cross, &c. to besiege, &c. to water, &c. to make, &c. to frequent, &c. to attack, &c. to fortify, &c. QUESTIONS. 1 Who arrived at Louisburg? 2 With whom did he arrive? 3 When did he arrive there with his men? 4 In what were they occupied ? 5 How long were they occupied ? 6 Across what did they draw their cannon? 7 Why did they draw them across the swamp? 6 What did they do then? 7 How did they surround it? 8 What else did they do then? &c. In catechising our pupils, we have frequent opportunity of asking them what is the meaning of the name Jesus? Did it ever occur to our mind of seizing this opportunity to teach the pupils of the fourth or fifth year the different acceptations of the word mean? It has a great many indeed. 1 to mean, (meaning.) 2 to mean to, (intention.) 3 to mean by it that. 4 meaning, (meant.) meaning. 5 mean. 6 meanly. 7 meanness. 8 the means. 10 by all means. 12 with the means. 13 without the means. 15 beyond the means. We have often met the phrase," with respect to," in the course of our teaching the history of the United States. Have we ever taken the trouble of giving out the eighteen or twenty acceptations of this word respect? And what have we done with the verb to give? Have we taught to give up, to give in, to give out, to give forth, to give way, to give away, to give over, &c.? And what have we done with the verbs to make, to do, to bear, to put, to set, to lie, to lay, to take, to hold, to render, to call, to cut, &c.? I have seldom seen any of our pupils employ these words in their letters or compositions. Is it more advantageous for them to know more about Algebra than about the use of these words? They have a dictionary, I grant it, but it is an abridged one, and it does not give all the illustrations which they want. They should nevertheless know them as they are in daily use. Thirty-five years ago, while at sea on my way to America, I eagerly betook myself to the study of the English language. Poor Mr. Gallaudet, who was kind enough to correct my compositions in English, tried very hard to make me understand the difference between the adjectives alone and only. The adverb only I understood very well, but not as well the adjective only; for I often confounded only with alone by using them in a reverse sense. How did Mr. Gallaudet explain it to me? As far as I can recollect it, he said: I alone |