Riverside Educational Monographs: EDITED BY HENRY SUZZALLO PROFESSOR OF THE PHILOSOPHY OF EDUCATION SELF-CULTIVATION IN ENGLISH BY GEORGE HERBERT PALMER ALFORD PROFESSOR OF PHILOSOPHY HOUGHTON MIFFLIN COMPANY BOSTON, NEW YORK AND CHICAGO The Riverside Press, Cambridge COPYRIGHT, 1908, BY GEORGE herbert Palmer COPYRIGHT, 1909, BY HOUGHTON MIFFLIN COMPANY ALL RIGHTS RESERVED EDUCATION DEP Copyright, 1897, by Thomas Y. Crowell & Company INTRODUCTION ENGLISH as a school subject grows more important in the education of our youth. Its place in our schools begins to be as large as its position in every-day life. And gradually the aims pursued by the school in English teaching conform to those practical and artistic purposes which are usually associated with our spoken and written language. Educational reform and English study The teaching of English reflects the important movements for the reform of our schools. There is, indeed, no better index of our substantial achievements in modern educational affairs than those modifications in English instruction which are now in progress. The passing of a technical and barren study of grammatical and rhetorical forms is part of the general tendency toward the subordination of formal subjects. The introduc 543616 tion of classic material in reading books and the study of unmarred literary wholes mark the determined effort to enrich the school curriculum with content significant alike to the child and to the society in which he lives. The increased emphasis on English composition as an instrument for the communication or expression of the child's thought is a response to the same ideals of educational method which are giving manual training and the other expressive arts a respectable position in the school curriculum. Changes in the spirit of English instruction The influence of educational reform on English instruction extends beyond specific changes in the subject matter and methods used in schools. It causes wide-sweeping modifications in the whole spirit of our English teaching. Slowly but certainly it dawns on us that a mere study of the formalities of language does not insure an enjoyment of literature or a command of speech. In place of the old and barren insistence upon a half-scientific analysis of language which leaves us conscious only of the dissected parts of language, modern teaching sets up two new major purposes for English study, — to develop an appreciation of the best English literature, and to train the power of effective expression through language. The difficulty of training linguistic power It is the attainment of this latter end, the improved use of English as an instrument of expression, that presents the largest difficulties to the teacher. Most of the current practices of the school have been developed mainly with reference to giving the child the facts of our organized knowledge. Until recently, its methods have not been concerned with training him in the application or expression of the thoughts thus attained. Hence the weakness of the school in teaching children to speak and write good English is conspicuous, and hence the need to improve the conditions that underlie the acquirement of clear and forceful expression and to develop new modes of transmitting the technique of English speech and writing. |