Excerpt from English Composition in Elementary Schools A boy learns to plow by plowing; he learns to write by writing. Instead of having him memorize rules and definitions with regard to writing we should let him learn their application by practice. The one aim of the teacher should be the rousing of the pupil's interest. This can be done only by finding some means of appealing to his personal experience. The first means to be employed in the teaching of composition should be conversations with the children about things which they have seen or about incidents which they have experienced. The children should be encouraged to engage freely in these conversations - to tell about things they have seen, and to tell their experiences. The next step might be the telling and reading of stories. These stories should be made topics of conversations, and the pupils required to reproduce them in their own words as fully as possible. The stories may be taken from history, travels and biography; but fables and fairy stories should not be neglected; they are, in most instances, the best of all. The active imaginations of the children demand them. In addition to these fables and stories the beautiful myths of olden times can be made both profitable and interesting. While these various stories, fables and myths are being used as means for teaching the first steps in composition, selections from our best authors can be made to subserve the same purpose. There are scores and scores of little verses that could be used as memory gems and topics of conversation in the composition work of the lower grades. Take, for example, the poem beginning with, "What does little birdie say In her nest at break of day?" by Alfred Tennyson 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.