ectable letter. His thoughts
outrun his hand, and by the time the first labored sentence is written
his ideas have fled and he must begin again. Is it any wonder that his
sentences are disconnected, his thought meager?

Just think what it means to a child to write you a letter, or even a
brief paragraph! Suppose he wants to tell you about a dog he has at
home. He begins by thinking: "My dog, Ben, is a pretty little woolly
fellow with bright eyes and long silky ears," and then his thoughts run
off vaguely into the general idea that he is going to tell you about
some very cute tricks Ben can perform. The child is all enthusiasm and
he begins writing and thinking something like this: "My (that word must
begin with a capital letter) dog ('Ben' must begin with a capital, too)
Ben is a (is that 'pritty' or 'pretty'? It's pronounced 'pritty' anyhow)
pritty (that don't look right. Scratch it out!) pretty (well, that
don't, I mean _doesn't_ look right either, but I'll leave it) (For
goodness sake, how do you spell it? 'Wooly'? 'wolly'? 'woolly'? I guess
I had it right at first) wooly fellow (where shall I put the commas?
I'll leave 'em out. Teacher can put them in if she wants them.) with
bright eyes and long slicky (no, no, that isn't right! How funny!
Scratch it out.) silky ears. (I nearly forgot the period. Now what was I
going to say next?)." When he is through, his first sentence is like
this: "My dog Ben is a pretty little wooly fellow with bright eyes and
long silky ears." He looks at his work with doubt and disgust as he
scratches his head for the next idea. He has wholly forgotten what he
intended to tell about! Later, his work, wholly unsatisfactory to
himself comes to you for criticism and you take your blue pencil or your
pen with red ink and put in the marks if any are needed, indicate the
misspelled words and sigh as you say, "Will Charlie ever learn to write
a decent composition?" Certainly he will, when his writing becomes
mechanical, when his hand makes the letters, puts in the marks, and his
lower brain spells the words for him, without disturbing the higher
cells which are occupied with his ideas.

These are the diverse problems that confront anyone who tries to teach
language to a child. We cannot solve them all, but most certainly we can
lend some assistance.

1. Oral Lessons

Success in oral language lessons rests primarily upon interest. If you
can secure interest, the children will talk freely; if y