A Course Of Study In Grammar And Handbook To Accompany The California State Series Text

Author : Frederic Lister Burk
Publisher : Forgotten Books
ISBN 13 : 9781330350386
Total Pages : 98 pages
Book Rating : 4.3/5 (53 download)

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Download or read book A Course of Study in Grammar and Handbook to Accompany the California State Series Text written by Frederic Lister Burk and published by Forgotten Books. This book was released on 2015-06-24 with total page 98 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Excerpt from A Course of Study in Grammar and Handbook to Accompany the California State Series Text The writers of this Bulletin belong to the class who are convinced that grammar should be entirely removed from the course of study of the elementary schools. The current reason which has been offered for the teaching of English grammar is that it teaches the pupils "to speak and write the English language correctly." A century's experience of grammar teaching has proved conclusively to those who take the trouble to read the results of this experience that the promise has never been realized in any practicable degree. Experience for a number of years with high school graduates, who have not only passed through the grammar study of the elementary schools, but also have had courses in the grammar of some dead or foreign language in the high school, shows that less than ten per cent have anything whatever to show for their grammar study except the decayed remains of a few definitions, usually quite meaningless to them, and never usable in the correction of errors in writing or speech. Not one in twenty could offer intelligent grammatical reasons why the following current forms of speech are incorrect: It don't matter. Let the affair rest between you and I. He done right. The rose smells sweet. Every one should hang up their hats. Whom did you say called? If I was you I would not do it. Neither of them answer. Each of the many officers in the various political clubs who have votes to east are directed to report to this office to take up their duties. If any one doubts this statement, the truth or falsity can be proved to ample satisfaction by testing a few high school classes. The fact of the matter is that our grammar teaching is a hopeless bankrupt, and is, therefore, a positive waste of time. Moreover, as taught, it is one of the studies that deaden school life and tend to increase the number of pupils who leave school because neither they nor their intelligent parents can find the use of it. To that fretful argument which is always offered when this bankruptcy is proved to one of its supporters, that the results would not be what they are if we used proper methods of teaching, - it is useless to reply. It is to be doubted that there are any successful methods, and if there are, they are certainly impracticable, for otherwise, we would have found them after a century's failure. Let us give it up. There is really no necessity for teaching grammar. A large percentage of people already write and speak with current accuracy. 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.