Grammar school

“ Men suppose a grammar school to mean a school where they teach grammar. But this is not the true meaning, and tends to calumniate such schools by ignoring their highest functions. Limiting by a false limitation the earliest object contemplated by such schools, they obtain a plausible pretext for representing all beyond grammar as something extraneous and casual that did not enter into the original or normal conception of the founders, and that may therefore have been due to alien suggestion. ”

“ With the text-books, however, all close resemblance between the teaching of Latin in grammar schools and the teaching of French ends. As we have seen, reading, pronunciation, and conversation were the main concerns of the French student; translation held a large place and grammar rules a subsidiary one. The grammar-school boy, on the contrary, would first gain an elementary knowledge from rules written in English, and memorize the vocabulary and phrases ”

“ For, without disparagement of the many worthy men whom choice or necessity has made schoolmasters, it may be admitted that the low estimation in which school-keeping is commonly held, does mostly exclude from it the first order of talents, and the highest acquirements of scholarship. It is one strong proof of this, that we have heretofore been content to receive our digests of English grammar, either from men who had had no practical experience in the labours of a school-room, or from miserable modifiers and abridgers, destitute alike of learning and of industry, of judgement and of skill. ”

“ A compiler of grammar first observes these habits, and then makes his rules: but if a person is himself familiar with the habits, why study the rules? I say nothing of grammar as a general science; because, although the philosophy of language be a valuable branch of human knowledge, it were idle to expect that school-boys should understand it. The objection is, to the system of attempting to teach children formally that which they will learn practically without teaching."—JONATHAN DYMOND: Essays on Morality, p. ”

“ The important thing for the schools was that the university movement made the cathedral schoolmasters devote themselves to theology and to grown-up students, to the exclusion of grammar and arts, and left the grammar school entirely for boys and youths to be instructed in classical literature, rhetoric and the elements of logic, preparatory for the university. Moreover, the movement for university colleges perhaps caused a new crop of collegiate churches to spring up, of which grammar schools formed an integral and important part. ”

“ To the same effect, have many other eminent authors written on this subject; but surely they must have been under the influence of strong prejudice, to charge men with neglect of points, which do not at all belong to their office; and with the omission of studies and arts, which they never profess to teach. A master of a grammar-school is to teach grammar, not oratory; he is to teach Latin, and Greek, not English. ”

“ And yet of all these, the proper study of English grammar is the true foundation. This would never be denied or doubted, if young people did not find, under some other name, better models and more efficient instruction, than what was practised on them for grammar in the school-room. No disciple of an able grammarian can ever speak ill of grammar, unless he belong to that class of knaves who vilify what they despair to reach. ”

“ But grammar is the science of language, and as the first of the seven liberal arts it has long held sway in school as the disciplinary study par excellence. A survey of its educational value, subjective and objective, usually produces the conviction that it is to retain the first place in the future. Its chief objective advantage is, that it shows the structure of language, and the logical forms of subject, predicate, and modifier, thus revealing the essential nature of thought itself, the most important of all objects, because it is self-object. ”

“ A boy learns more English grammar by joining in an hour's conversation with educated people, than in poring for an hour over Murray or Horne Tooke. If he is accustomed to such society and to the perusal of well-written books, he will learn English grammar, though he never sees a word about syntax; and if he is not accustomed to such society and such reading, the 'grammar books' at a boarding-school will not teach it. Men learn their own language by habit, and not by rules: and this is just what we might expect ”

“ The normal schools all over the land have for the past twenty-five years been sending out graduates whose mission it has been to replace the old rote-system of lesson-learning by methods better adapted to the minds of children. We commend this book to that great body of earnest teachers. It contains a series of twenty-five full, clear, and much-needed expositions of the principles that underlie primary and grammar school teaching. The first half of the volume is devoted to lectures, or "talks," as they are called, upon teaching children to read, to spell, and to write. ”

“ In my dreamed-of school, founded along these lines, there is perfect freedom in selecting subjects. The school offers the subjects, but it forces no one to take them. English, German, French, natural science, mathematics, history, and geography are taught. The mother tongue is practiced fluently in speaking, reading, and writing. But in this case grammar is superfluous both for general education and for using a language; it belongs to scientific study, not to general culture. ”

“ The grammar schools may be regarded as the nursery of the University, but not a few of the scholars, educated in monastic and other local schools, arrived with a knowledge of Latin sufficient to dispense them from preliminary instruction in that language, for that is what is meant by "grammar." ”

“ We like the book much—it is just what is wanted in our Grammar Schools; and if accompanied by an abridgement, for the younger pupils, which the author proposes in his preface to prepare, will leave but little to be desired for the purposes of ordinary instruction in Grammar, in our schools. ”

“ The more we live. Grammar.—A school teacher, near Dawson, Ga., having instructed a pupil to purchase a grammar, the next day received a note, thus worded, from the child’s mother:—“I do not desire for Lula shall ingage in grammar as i prefer her ingage in yuseful studies and can learn her how to spoke and write properly myself. I have went through two grammars and can’t say as they did me no good. I prefer her ingage in german and drawing and vokal music on the piano.” ”

“ If the present system of promotion permits some pupils to enter the high school without a sufficient knowledge of the elements of English grammar to make possible an intelligent study of high school English, it seems very doubtful whether the high school course in English should be planned to provide for pupils whose preparation is deficient. ”

“ Another thing very ordinary in the vulgar method of grammar-schools there is, of which I see no use at all, unless it be to baulk young lads in the way to learning languages, which, in my opinion, should be made as easy and pleasant as may be ”

“ The opening of the first grammar-school was the opening of the first trench against monopoly in church and state; ”

“ As a general rule, the students were expected to know grammar before matriculating at the university, but in case they entered very young, or that their early education had been neglected, they could make up their deficiencies in the grammar schools, some of which were afterwards attached to colleges, for the benefit of the clerks and choristers connected with those institutions. ”

“ for grammar it might have, but needs it not; being so easy in itself, and so void of those cumbersome differences of cases, genders, moods, and tenses; which, I think, was a piece of the tower of Babylon’s curse, that a man should be put to school to learn his mother tongue. ”

“ Our common schools are still "grammar-schools," although, as has been noted, educators are in agreement that "grammar," as such, is the one thing that should not be taught until the very highest grades are reached. ”

“ New Studies for Grammar Schools.—The Association of Officers of Colleges in New England, at its meeting held at Williams College in November, 1892, recommended for gradual adoption in the programme of New England grammar schools the introduction of elementary natural history in the earlier years as a substantial subject, to be taught by demonstrations and practical exercises rather than from books the introduction of elementary physics into the later years, to be taught by the experimental or laboratory method, and to include exact weighing and measuring by the pupils themselves ”

“ If we should pursue the subject into the collegiate period, we should find mental and moral science, literature, and history coming to their rights. If this be in the main psychological, we see that language study, as such, should have no great place in secondary education. The study of grammar, as has been already said, is very useful in the early periods of development if taught vocally; it brings the child out in self-expression, and carries its own correctives, from the fact that its results are always open to social control. ”

“ Should the Council be pleased to adopt the suggestion, I do think, in my humble opinion, that in four years, the time prescribed now for Grammar study, the students shall have a thorough knowledge of Grammar and tolerable proficiency in Literature besides, and they will not experience that difficulty in the Sahitya Class which they do now, being made all at once, just after finishing an imperfect Grammar, to begin with the standard works without having had an insight into the language. ”

“ The experience of every one at all acquainted with the business of instruction, must have taught him that the study of grammar, important as it is to every class of learners, is almost invariably a dry and uninteresting study to young beginners, and for the very obvious reason, that the systems in general use in the schools, are far beyond the comprehension of youth, and ill adapted to their years. ”

“ Children, by mere imitation, will practically acquire the art of Grammar, long before they are capable of learning it as a science. It ought invariably to be taught by "Steps;" and the child should have a perfect knowledge of the etymological part, before he is allowed to advance to syntax. The efficiency of this concluding part of grammar, depends entirely upon his familiarity with the former. ”

“ It is quite true that grammar must occupy considerable of the pupils’ time. For all the persons who have studied it, there seem very few of any age at the present time who are able{420} to apply the principles of this science in such a manner that they habitually write and speak correctly. But this isn’t so much the fault of the pupil and of the teacher as of the text-books from which the science shall be studied. ”

“ For all excellence is but comparative; and to grant them this superiority, is neither to prefer them now, nor to justify the praise which has been bestowed upon their authorship. As the science of grammar can never be taught without a book, or properly taught by any book which is not itself grammatical, it is of some importance both to teachers and to students, to make choice of the best. Knowledge will not advance where grammars hold rank by prescription. ”

“ It has been the fault in teaching language, that learners have been limited to the mere forms of words, while the important duty of teaching them to look at the thing signified, has been entirely disregarded. Hence they have only obtained book knowledge. They know what the grammars say; but how to apply what they say, or what is in reality meant by it, they have yet to learn. This explains the reason why almost every man who has studied grammar will tell you that "he used to understand it, but it has all gone from him, for he has not looked into a book these many years." ”

“ Herein the business man, stenographer, clerk, lawyer, physician, clergyman, teacher—everyone who would refresh and enrich his knowledge of English—will find, in simple statement, a clear and lucid explanation of the principles of English grammar. All that makes the study of grammar a mystery is eliminated, and the whole book is constructed so as to enable any intelligent person to find his own way, by its teachings, to a correct working knowledge of English. ”

“ The objection drawn from the alleged inefficiency of this method, lies solely against the practice of those teachers who disjoin the principles and the exercises of the art; and who, either through ignorance or negligence, impose only such tasks as leave the pupil to suppose, that the committing to memory of definitions and rules, constitutes the whole business of grammar. ”

“ Not only is it not necessary that a man should study language in order to study literature; in innumerable cases the study of the language has absolutely interfered with the study of the literature. In innumerable cases, men at college have ground away, day after day, and month after month, and year after year, over cases and nouns and parts of speech, and rules of syntax and rules of grammar—working only at the grammar, and utterly oblivious of the great light that lay behind it. ”

“ In pursuing any and every other path of science, you will discover the truth of these remarks, and feel its force; for you will find, that, as grammar opens the door to every department of learning, a knowledge of it is indispensable: and should you not aspire at distinction in the republic of letters, this knowledge cannot fail of being serviceable to you, even if you are destined to pass through the humblest walks of life. I think it is clear, that, in one point of view, grammatical knowledge possesses a decisive advantage over every other branch of learning. ”