220 The Nature-Study Idea 



We stifle the desire to write if we first lay 

 down rules and formulas as to how to write. 

 Let the child have a personal experience; then 

 allow it to write. Did you ever have a pupil 

 who could not write a composition, but who 

 could write a letter that was full of originality 

 and personality? Why could it write the one 

 and not the other? Too often, I fear, we pre- 

 vent our children from writing by trying to 

 make them write. Of what use is writing, 

 anyway, if it is not self-expressive? So, let the 

 child have something real and personal to write 

 about. No subject is too mean. Then when 

 the child has written, throw away the blue 

 pencil and suggest tactfully how the piece may 

 be improved here and there. Do not hinder 

 the child. 



I well remember my first ''composition." 

 For days I had tried to think of a "sub- 

 ject." I had importuned father and mother 

 and friends. "Winter," "Spring," "The pen 

 is mightier than the sword," "The pleasures 

 of farm life," "Shakespeare" — all had equal 

 terrors. Rapidly the days passed away, and 



