Excerpt from Elementary English Composition The indifference of younger classes in the secondary schools to their English composition is due to a variety of causes, of which three are worthy of special considera tion. In_ the first place, there is a lack of novelty in present methods of teaching the subject. The kind of work that is usually prescribed for such classes seems to the pupils to be a mere repetition of what they have tried over and over again in the lower grades. The grammar review, for instance, which confronts them on the threshold of the secondary course, is usually nothing more than a re-view, affording them no new view of their English, and calling for the exercise of no new form of ingenuity that might enlist their interest. In the second place, one side of the pupil's training in English, and a most important side, is at this stage of his progress almost entirely neglected. The forces which urge young persons to express themselves with tongue or pen are partly individual, partly social, partly impulses from within, partly solicitations from without. Pupils com pose most naturally and most successfully when the two forces are in equilibration. But at the beginning of secondary instruction it is not uncommon for the teacher to rely upon the inward stimulus alone. He does not lead his pupils to think of the other man for whom they are writing or speaking. He leaves them in the attitude, and the spirits, of soldiers who are firing their ammunition into the void. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.