ORAL AND WRITTEN LANGUAGE /9 



children than at first thought appears possible to teacher or 

 parent. One must be in close touch with the workings of 

 these young minds to comprehend the nature and reality of 

 their difficulties. 



The correction of vulgarisms and common errors must be 



carefully continued. The child's own pride in ready and 



cultured language is coming more and more 



Grammar tO the hdp f the teacher >* although, at the 



same time, there has to be overcome the 

 feeling that is peculiarly strong in these middle grades, that 

 the school, in some occult way, is not life, real life, and that 

 its lessons are for the schoolroom only, to be forgotten as 

 soon as the outside air is reached. To counteract this feel- 

 ing, it is well to keep in touch with some form of everyday 

 life that stands close to the pupil. Show what carefully 

 selected language is used by some persons, known and 

 respected by the pupils ; read an extract from a speaker who 

 will appeal to them, calling attention to the fact that the 

 verbs are properly used, that pronouns are in their right 

 cases ; various means can be employed to impress upon the 

 children that good language, far from being a schoolroom 

 bug-a-boo, is a recognized necessity of cultured life. 



The grammatical drills are beginning to take on a more 

 formal nature. A conjugation is called a conjugation; the 



indicative mode is thoroughly learned by all ; 

 Technical in.* -n 



Grammar distinction between shall and will is im- 



pressed, although a teacher must not be 

 flattered with the thought that it will be definitely learned; 

 present and past participles are used in phrases as adjectives, 

 adverbs, nouns, and in their verbal significations, in order 

 to show their flexibility. While the technical element is 



