IMPORTANCE OF LANGUAGE TRAINING 55 



possible from mistakes. But errors will occur. Who is 

 absolutely free from them in making a first draft of a manu- 

 script? The teacher should not be impatient nor the child 

 discouraged. Put the papers away for a day or two, as a 

 more mature writer would be liable to do, then give them 

 back to their writers for corrections, and it will be surprising 

 how many of their own mistakes the children will notice. 

 This is the most helpful kind of correction, for it is self-help. 

 There are two lines of correction and criticism to, be 

 observed constantly : known errors, or those on which there 



have been class drills which have made them 

 Papers "^ familiar to all the pupils ; unknown errors, or 



those which the children have not yet learned 

 to recognize as mistakes. The method of correction should 

 be radically different for these two kinds of errors. Pupils 

 should be held to self-correction of the former, just so soon 

 as the drills have been sufficiently thorough to warrant thus 

 throwing the responsibility on the child; but they can only 

 be assisted to understanding the second class of errors in 

 preparation for later study. Advanced grammatical points, 

 good sentence structures, unity and harmony of thought, 

 composition of paragraphs, can be subjects for class criti- 

 cisms, suggestion, and drills, gradually and whenever the 

 pupils reach the necessary development for their comprehen- 

 sion. It is surprising how critical children become about 

 their own productions, and how helpful they are to one 

 another, under friendly, suggestive guidance. This is the 

 beginning of real power. It is learning to recognize and to 

 correct one's own weaknesses. 



Writing papers belongs to the literary side of education, 

 to the intensive, the inspirational, the formative; but cor- 



