54Q POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



mind, his thoughts, because these thoughts are interesting to him. 

 There is, broadly speaking, only one situation in class about which his 

 mind is working: his own success or failure to recite. Hence, before 

 each recitation we shall speak a sentence of encouragement or com- 

 mand, such as " Please begin," " I think you are going to do well." 

 After each recitation we shall speak a sentence of praise or blame, 

 such as " Very good," " It might have been better." These, as they 

 can not be expressed by actions, may be translated when necessary 

 into equivalent phrases in the mother tongue. We shall illustrate 

 each phrase by stories, riddles, quotations, whatever you like. The 

 pupil will be interested, and hence will remember. It is not neces- 

 sary to the acquisition of knowledge that the pupil should be thor- 

 oughly bored while trying to learn. After a sufficient number of 

 repetitions of a phrase by the teacher, it will be handed over to the 

 pupils, who will then address to each other phrases of encouragement, 

 command, praise, blame, etc. We have now enabled the pupil to ex- 

 press an action and his thought; the outside and the inside world are 

 his; he needs only to advance as he began. Each lesson proceeds in 

 this wise: 



EXAMPLE. 



Part I. — Teacher: "We shall learn about opening the door." 

 General subjective phrase, " Pay attention." Explanation of the 

 phrase through stories. 



Teaching of verbs. 



First subjective phrase before recitation, " Please begin." Ex- 

 planation through stories. 



Recitation. 



First subjective phrase after recitation, " Very good." Explana- 

 tions through stories. 



After the teaching of the sentences, the subjective phrases are 

 spoken by the pupils. 



It lies in the intelligence of the teacher to recognize the moment 

 for introducing phrases. 



The lesson then proceeds to the movements of the door as Part 

 II, and to our leaving the door as Part III. The scheme is the 

 same. 



All this is a copy (systematized, of course) of the method em- 

 ployed by the mother. Now, first, can the grammarian be useful to 

 us? Let us remember that to begin with his method is to put the cart 

 before the horse. He must play the second but also an important 

 part. The child learns to speak first, but he also learns to read and 

 to write. We will give the same lesson to the pupil in printed 

 form; he will be asked to read it, and then to copy it or write it from 



