enters more fully into the spirit and vocabulary of what he reads after he has "acted it out" in dramatization. The forms of expression which will best bring out the meaning should be chosen for each piece of literature.

The spelling lessons should include the copying and writing from dictation of selected sentences, stanzas and paragraphs. They should be used to teach capitalization and the character and use of punctuation marks with the spelling; in short, to teach the mechanics of written language" with the correct spelling of words. These are never separated in use outside the schoolroom, and the habit should be formed of visualizing them in one picture; and while the pupil is fixing form, he is also fixing in memory something worth thinking about. The list of words, the sentences and the paragraphs should be so selected as to contribute to the better writing of the next oral or written composition.

Stories carefully selected for the purpose will be reproduced occasionally, orally and in writing. The special values are cultivation of attention, memory and freedom in expression; growth in power to see essentials and relation, and to tell connectedly; impression and repetition of correct forms, and enlargement of vocabulary. Even young children may be led to the idea of continuity. Constant emphasis of "What comes next?" with much retelling "to tell better" in this respect, helps to establish the ideal. This accomplished, there is great value in class topic-making; in other words, class discussion before the reproduction, resulting in the making, adoption and recording of " topics" to be followed in the retelling.

Constant work toward power to think and tell connectedly will bring forth fruit. Reproductions may, also, be made a conscious as well as an unconscious means of enlarging the vocabulary. Pupils may sometimes be required to use in their own story-telling, certain specified words and phrases selected from the story told by another.

A fine poem should never be reproduced or paraphrased. It should be given only with the music and rhythm that are a part of its beauty and power.

The reading and discussion of one or two poems should be

completed each month by learning them "by heart," and reciting them to the class. Through the hearing, discussing, illustrating, repetition of lines, copying and writing from dictation, the poem is found to be completely memorized by some children in the class, and partly memorized by all of them. With a little more time and directed effort, each will have committed it to his memory to keep. Learning and reciting a poem by means of this assimilative study is of immeasurably greater value in every respect than the mere learning of the words, stanza by stanza, from book or blackboard. In the frequent individual recitations of the poems thus learned, the pupil reciting should stand out before his hearers and look into their faces. He should be trained to stand with well-poised body, to pronounce correctly, and to speak distinctly in well-modulated tones.

The following sketch of one teacher's happy and profitable use of Snow-Bound illustrates the points that have been made. It is typical of a set of more than a hundred such reports sent to the writer by as many teachers in third and fourth grades. This report came from a school where most of the pupils are the children of laboring men, many of them foreigners. The teacher wrote:

I found the following to be the most successful plan of studying "small wholes" from Snow-Bound: a short preparatory talk; then my reading the selection without comment, followed by general discussion with free questions; then re-reading, the oftener the better. Sometimes the children listened silently and drew the pictures. Lastly, they chose the lines they liked best and wanted to learn, and in that way we committed" sixty lines. Here are a few

of their comments: "I like it because we lived on a farm." "I like it because I haven't lived on a farm, and I'd like to." "I like Snow-Bound because it seems so much like home and when we have storms." "I like where the old folks told them stories about when they were children." "Where the mother was praying that no one should want for warmth and food." "The part where they were doing things and the mother was knitting and they were telling stories." "After the storm was over, where the boys went out and cut through the drifts to get to the barn." "Where the animals were mad because their breakfast was so long in coming to them." One boy said, "Seems as if I can't keep from saying Snow-Bound all the time."

These children used the writer's pictures to bring their own to light; and then it became a pleasure to tell of their own home circle, their own home experiences, and of experiences they would like to have, and to memorize the beautiful, vivid pictures of the poet. They had something to say and were eager to say it-the first two requisites of effective oral and written composition.

We have referred to the value of conscious imitation and repetition. Exercises for gaining skill by repeated correct doing remain as permanent factors in language teaching. Nothing but persistent oral repetition of the correct form will overcome the habit of using incorrect, ungrammatical and inelegant expressions in daily speech. These are matters of ear training and of motor habits as well as of knowledge. As long as errors persist in a person's speech they will persist in what he writes when full of his subject. The cure for such faults, then, whether of speech or writing, is in oral repetition. Exercises for this purpose should be conversational; the more of a game element in them the better; they may, at times, be somewhat gymnastic in their nature. They should be short, lively, and practiced daily. And the strong teacher will lead the children to desire to use the right forms in every recitation and in all conversation. As far as possible this should be required in the schoolroom.

(2) Call

Moreover, this habit of correct usage should be an increasingly intelligent usage. The general outline for daily oral exercises as given below is recommended as sound in principle and serviceable in practice. (1) Provide for oral exercises that require correct use of a form commonly misused. attention to the form used and the manner of using it. (3) Secure repetition of the correct form. (4) Ask pupils to tell what form has been used and how it was used. (5) Lead to a simple statement of a direction for its use. (6) Require further repetition to fix habit. This plan may also be followed in the study of written forms in the dictation exercises.

The series of readings, lessons and exercises suggested will culminate in the children's original letters, stories and simple descriptions. The subject-matter of these oral and written compositions will be drawn from their lessons in nature study, geography and history, from their personal observations, from their life experiences at home and at school, at work and at play.

The value of class criticisms and class corrections of these oral and written compositions and of the selections written from dictation cannot be over-estimated. The time and nervous

energy spent by many teachers in correcting papers are deplorably misspent. Every person, child or adult, overcomes bad habits by his own efforts. The work cannot be done for him. Each must himself see and feel his own faults before he will put forth this corrective effort. The wrong is seen to be wrong by its comparison with the right; the false by its divergence from the true. The habit of comparing his own work in specific points with the work of an artist under the guidance of the teacher increases the impression on eye and ear of the right and the true forms. Correcting one's own mistakes to bring his own work into line with the right that he has himself seen fixes the impression by voice or hand expression. By this comparison the child also learns to feel and unconsciously imitate the clearness, beauty and strength of the good sentence, of unity, coherence, climax and all other elements of good storytelling long before he knows them by name. As his powers mature he may be led to criticise his own compositions in each of these respects by comparison with a piece of good literature.

This kind of language work keeps pupils growing in appreciation of ideals while it requires of them daily exercises in selfexpression. Both teachers and pupils grow in realization of the truth that "to see something clearly and to tell it in a plain way" is not merely the gift of a genius, but an art to be mastered. In closing, the principles and applications presented in this paper are briefly summarized:

A group of language lessons related in thought:

(1) Pupils' reading, and listening to the teacher's reading, of something that has both interest and literary value.

(2) Thoughts and conversations about the personal observations and experiences suggested by the poem or story read. (3) Short daily conversations for the specific purpose of perfecting accuracy in the use of grammatical forms and constructions.

(4) Dictation spelling lessons ; daily exercises in copying and writing from dictation of sentences, stanzas and paragraphs, in which special attention is given to the study and use of correct forms in spelling, capitalization, punctuation and arrangement.

(5) The final outcome, the flowering and fruitage of the group of lessons,-the pupil's telling or writing about something he himself has seen, done, heard, thought, felt or imagined, suggested by the poem or story.

(6) Helpful class criticisms and corrections.

Fickleness of Physical Education

CARL LUDWIG SCHRADER, HARVARD UNIVERSITY, CAMbridge, mass.

T

HE term physical education is to-day a household term, inasmuch as it is applied to everything which suggests exercise. It has become a marketable article, and harvesting is in the highest of season. Every Sunday paper has its department of physical education, either for general application or, which is largely the case, specially designed for women. The country abounds with professors who tell the eager public how, when and why to take certain exercises. Advertisements and literature abound in systems which promise to accomplish everything possible and impossible; even the Scripture verse, "Who by taking thought can add one cubit to his stature," has come to naught by a system of exercises which claims to add inches to man's height. But why should physical education, a field of such broad possibilities, have remained free from impostors, when all other fields have been likewise explored? It is but fair to say, however, that these impostors have rendered considerable service for the general cause, inasmuch as their broad-cast claims, which they forced upon the public, have been instrumental in causing thousands of men and women to think of their bodily welfare. Many people have become interested in the legitimate pursuit of healthful exercise only after having first been fleeced by some professor, thus the profession owes a degree of gratitude to the correspondence physical director. Undoubtedly this country has more of this type of physical education to its credit than other countries. Europe, too, there are several systems issued by individual men, who, however, are on a much higher plane than our system representatives. These European men differ in this: that they issue their systems in well-edited book form, in some instances prefaced by eminent men, and in all cases inviting criticism. Two may be mentioned here to verify the above

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