52 METHODS IN TEACHING 



sees that " you was " does not belong in his speech ; then 

 comes the effort to use the new form. To see and to do are 

 separate matters, but the doing is easier when the reason for 

 it stands out clearly. At first the pupils say the conjugation, 

 often completing a sentence with every form, as : 



I was hurt yesterday We were hurt yesterday 



He was hurt yesterday You were hurt yesterday 



She was hurt yesterday They were hurt yesterday 



These repetitions give the necessary knowledge, fix the cor- 

 rect forms in the memory, and train the ear and the tongue. 

 After the conjugation, the pupils give many short sentences, 

 using the correct word. Such drills should be short, from 

 five to ten minutes long, but the work should be rapid and 

 unflagging. 



There must be no attempt to teach technical grammar to 

 the little children, except in so far as it is a natural and com- 

 prehensible explanation of errors and an aid to their removal. 

 On the other hand, corrections are rarely effective when con- 

 fined to incidental suggestions in the schoolroom, because a 

 reason for the change in speech is often necessary to con- 

 vince a child of an error in the customary form. This is 

 natural. A child from a careless or ignorant home, who 

 never hears " you were " but who hears the incorrect " you 

 was " fifty times or more a day, can not be expected to accept 

 readily the really foreign " you were " by simply hearing it 

 a few times in the schoolroom and by being corrected occa- 

 sionally. Only a naturally self-observant child, desirous of 

 progress, will thus change his language. It is useless for 

 the teacher to become discouraged; equally valueless are 

 scoldings and faultfindings. The child must be given a 



