The class were then asked the propriety of substituting for the italicized expressions, Haply, groan, etc., respectively the following: Perhaps, moan, inhuman, an island thrown, Inhabitest, summoned to, friends and An incommunicable. After the discussion of these points the teacher told the pupils how far their judgment had agreed with that of Wordsworth. The fact that in the first place the stanza was not given as the poet wrote it imparted to this lesson a freshness lacking in most studies of diction, which consist in tame and perhaps subservient justification of the text.

(18) When the writer recalls all the excellent recitations he has heard on Shakespeare's plays-Julius Cæsar, The Merchant of Venice, Macbeth and even Hamlet-he is at a loss which to describe. Dramatic reading without a touch of exaggeration or falsetto, thorough-going, all-round study of text and characters, comprehensive views of the plot, and animated discussions of motives are some of his reminiscences. One recitation is selected on account of the happy method of questioning. The characters of Hamlet and Claudius were discussed by the pupils with the utmost zest. Motives were considered as those of real persons. The teacher in charge had the rare gift of asking questions without impertinence. She actually wished to know the answers. Her real interest in the views of the boys and girls enabled her to conduct the discussion without domination and without weakness. She not only did not obtrude, but she did not express her opinion, and yet she had not the air of being intentionally non-committal. If her art was conscious

she had the skill to conceal it. Her success is ascribed to a good grasp of the subject and still more to a sympathetic, womanly interest in the psychology, or rather, the human nature, character, and mental attitude, of her pupils.

(19) How can teachers without being hazy or indefinite lend to the treatment of epic poetry a certain desirable breadth and freedom? After the class has read through Lancelot and Elaine, for example, and has learned the relation of this idyll to the idylls that precede and follow, what can be done except to explain and comment stanza by stanza and line by line? One teacher began the closer study in the following way. The

attention of the class was directed by questions to the resemblance between the epic and The Lady of Shalott. The name Astolat in the first stanza suggested the comparison. There followed a general discussion of the resemblances and differences of the two works of art. In which does Lancelot play the more prominent part? Does Elaine's character correspond exactly to that of the Lady? How do the forms of verse compare? This seemed to the writer a very adroit introduction, subordinating, without neglecting, the details. It was then found that the first stanza described Elaine as already in possession of the shield of Lancelot. In the second stanza the poet by raising the question how the shield came into her possession paves the way skillfully for a long retrospect. The pupils found the point at which the retrospect ends marked by an echo, "and so lived in phantasy," of the last line of the first stanza, "so she lived in phantasy." They were naturally curious about the exact meaning of the repeated expression. Then the general question arose why Tennyson began in the middle of the story. The pupils became conscious that through their novel reading they were already familiar with the literary device of retrospect. One girl suggested that the poet began in this way because Elaine's fatal love for Lancelot was the central

theme of the poem. Less directly in The Lady of Shalott Lancelot had precipitated the tragedy. Later in the lesson another general question was raised as to whether the poet should anticipate the disaster in a tragedy, as Tennyson does when he speaks of Elaine loving Lancelot with the "love which was her doom." Julius Cæsar afforded a basis of comparison on this point. This recitation, full of human interest and artistic appreciation, should afford an example to such inexperienced teachers as are tempted either to be vague or to take up time with a hodge-podge of annotations.

PHYSICS

(20) Among teachers of science some are making an effort to prelude the more technical parts of biology, chemistry and physics by nature study and other material that appeals to the common, and even in some cases to the utilitarian, interests.

A simple illustration of this so-called common-sense method of approach is afforded by a lesson on heat. The teacher began by asking about the different means used to determine temperature, the different kinds of thermometers. Their usefulness depends on the effect of heat in expanding the liquids used in them. Why is mercury so generally used as a heat measurer? When is alcohol preferable for this purpose? Do all metals expand under the influence of heat? Does type metal? What fixes the zero point and one hundred degrees of the Centigrade thermometer? Does water always boil at the same temperature? How are like temperatures registered on thermometers of different kinds? At what temperature should a schoolroom be kept? What is the normal temperature of the human body? Has the body of a fowl the same temperature as that of a man, or are birds always in a state of fever? What temperature should be maintained in an incubator for hatching chickens? Mercury solidifies at forty degrees below zero, both Centigrade and Fahrenheit. Is it a mere coincidence that the liquid most frequently used in thermometers solidifies at the same point in both kinds of instruments? Could water be used in thermometers in summer? What would be the effect on lakes and rivers if water contracted when it solidified? What is the effect of mixing ice and salt in an ice-cream freezer? Could intenser cold be produced by mixing calcium chloride and ice? Place a small beaker containing a little ether in a watch glass that holds a little water. Blow through a tube into the ether to hasten its evaporation. What is the effect on the temperature of the water? How do you account for this effect? By this easy and informal method of questioning and explaining the more difficult problems in connection with heat were approached.

LATIN

(21) A little classroom experiment in the teaching of Latin may be worth putting on record. A teacher with a very meager equipment in ancient languages was unexpectedly called upon to take a class of fifteen backward pupils in Latin grammar and Cæsar's Bellum Gallicum. He at once took the class into his confidence. He felt a little weak in the third declension

and was not complete master of any of the conjugations. It was proposed to spend the period on Tuesdays and Thursdays on the grammar and on the other three days of the school week to work out the Cæsar as a puzzle. An immediate start was made, the blind leading the blind. The words that looked familiar in a short chapter of Cæsar were underlined and their English derivatives called for. This clue led to a plausible translation in natural and idiomatic English, which was completed, and was thoroughly grasped by each pupil, before the end of the period. After this the practice was to advance to a fresh chapter just as soon as all the members of the class could adequately translate the passage assigned. No grammar questions were asked-by reason of the teacher's ignorance of the accidence, and of the fine points of syntax. One day, through some oversight, the instructor was absolutely unprepared, and yet before the end of the hour a passage of some length was successfully put into English, except one word, vinea, which failed to make sense as vine and had to be translated by the generic war-engine. The explanation, afterwards found, of this term, remained indelibly fixed in the memory when all the context was forgotten. Meantime the Latin period on Tuesdays and Thursdays was devoted exclusively to the writing and correction of short Latin sentences, to which drudgery the pupils applied themselves with zeal. Later, at the suggestion of the principal, who was himself head of the classical department, and feared that the work might be superficial, the Cæsar was studied only twice a week and the grammar three times. Even so, very rapid progress was made, and when at the end of a few weeks these backward pupils were reabsorbed into the class they had fallen behind, they and their teacher felt that they were beginning to read Latin. This success is attributed to the singleness of aim forced upon the class by the circumstances. A teacher well equipped in Latin could undoubtedly do much better by the same method.

"How to Teach" Series

II

How to Teach Language

ALICE WOODWORTH COOLEY, GRAND FORKS, NORTH DAKOTA

L

ANGUAGE is communicated thought. Clear, definite thought and its clear, direct expression are inseparable. To know the thoughts of another is to know his life. The teaching of no other subject is so closely related to the gospel of life as is the teaching of the so-called language group of studies-reading, language lessons, writing, spelling, dictation, oral and written composition, with grammar and rhetoric for study by more mature minds. For this reason, cold, formal treatment of these studies is most deadening in its effect.

Even the necessary practice exercises for skill and mastery are filled with the spirit of life, when the pupil catches glimpses of the purpose and value of such practice. The first requisite is interest in what one is to say or write. This generates the second requisite, eagerness to tell something clearly and well.

To teach language is then: (1) to rouse and stimulate thought and feeling; (2) to bring the learner into vital contact with ideals of thinking, feeling and expressing; (3) to give the practice in striving to reach these ideals which results in the habit of thinking clearly and expressing thought clearly.

Ideals, self-activity, suggestion, imitation (unconscious and conscious), repetition, habit-here is outlined the one path to the development of language power. There is no other. It is rediscovered by each who studies conditions of growth in himself and in those about him. The first condition of growth is always interest in an ideal. An ideal has been defined as an idea plus desire to attain.

The child finds his first language ideals in the words he hears-at home, on the street and playground, and, later, at school. He finds his highest language ideals in literature.

begn