ou retain
interest, you can criticize freely and with good effect.

Criticisms should not be too severe and should always be impersonal. It
is not John and Mary who are being corrected, but the mistakes that John
and Mary make. You have heard both parents and teachers say, "John, why
will you persist in saying, 'I done it'? Don't you know that is wrong?
You must correct yourself." Such criticism is wholly bad. If John says
"I done it," it is because he has heard the expression and become
habituated to its use. He cannot be taught differently by berating him.
When he says, "I done it," repeat after him in a kindly inquiring voice,
"I _done_ it?" or say in a kindly way, "I did it." In either case John
will give you the correct form willingly, and when he has done so times
enough he will forget the wrong form and cease to use it.

Everyone must remember that children have heard slang and incorrect
speech almost from infancy; that the playground, the street and the home
have been steadily teaching, and that the minds of even primary children
may be filled with not only loose forms of speech, but even with profane
and indecent expressions. One of the natural correctives for such things
is the reading and telling of attractive stories, full of dramatic
power, calculated to stimulate right feeling, couched in clear and
forcible English. Elsewhere in this volume under the title _Telling
Stories_ are suggestions and good models.

From the standpoint of the language lesson, children must reproduce the
story, must "tell it back" to make it valuable to them. The instructor's
part in this reproduction may be summed up as follows:

1. Be an interested audience for the child.

2. Secure clearness. Do it by a gentle question or a remark now and
then: "I am not sure that I understand you." "Do you think I would know
what you mean if I had never read the story?" "If you were telling the
story to your playmate would she understand that?"

3. Encourage the child to use his own words, when he follows too closely
the phraseology that was given him, yet remember that one of the objects
of the exercise is to give the children the use of a wider vocabulary
and to make them appreciate and use beautiful and forcible expressions.

4. Be reasonably content with freedom of expression at first, and do not
expect too rapid improvement. You are moving against fixed habits.

5. Vary the character of the exercise. Sometimes permit one child to
te