EXERCISES IN ORTHOGRAPHY AND COMPOSITION, ON AN ENTIRELY NEW PLAN; CONTAINING MUCH VALUABLE INFORMATION ON VARIOUS SUBJECTS, BY HENRY HOPKINS, LONDON: SIMPKIN, MARSHALL & Co. STATIONERS' HALL COURT. E. C. AND W. OSBORNE, BENNETT'S HILL BIRMINGHAM. 1837. PREFACE. Ar the present time, when the public attention is somewhat roused, and people are becoming sensible of the defects of the old system of education, and when any improvement is hailed with delight, instead of being regarded as an innovation, there are but few teachers, thinking at all on the subject, who do not desire to avail themselves of the valuable suggestions which are from time to time thrown out, by aid of them to advance as much as possible the improvement of the pupils under their care, and to store their minds with facts and ideas, instead of a jargon of words which are not understood, and to explain which no effort is made. There are but few such persons, who, if a better plan were proposed, would make use of the old spelling books, for the purpose of teaching orthography, containing, as they do at the commencement, a number of sounds to which no idea can be attached, such as bi bo be bu, gri gro gre gru, &c. and afterwards columns of long words which the poor child is required to commit to memory. Some persons would say that the memory must be strengthened in youth, and that this is as good a plan for effecting it as any other. That the former statement is true, no one can doubt, but is it not far better to give the child something which he can understand, something to which he can attach an idea, and not a string of useless words which have not the slightest connexion with each other? The compiler of the following little work has for many years been engaged in education, and until he adopted his present plan, he has never been able to satisfy himself as to the best method for teaching orthography. He presumes there can be no doubt that the eye is quite as good a judge of the correctness of orthography as the ear, and that in many cases it is even more to be depended upon. He has often noticed persons when writing a letter, feeling some doubt as to the orthography of a particular word, write it down on another piece of paper in different ways, in order to determine by the eye which is the correct one. This he has particularly noticed as regards such words as conceive, believe, receive. This then is surely a proof that we should not be guided altogether by the memory but that we should accustom ourselves to see and copy words which are correctly spelt, with a view to ascertaining the orthography of them by our sight. The plan sometimes adopted is to select portions from the works of well known authors, and to require the pupils, not to write them from dictation, but to copy them over and over again, till they are able to write every word correctly. Though this plan is good, still it appeared to the author, that some improvements might be adopted, and these he has endeavoured to embody in the present little work. One great objection to the arrangement referred to is, that with whatever judgment the passages may be selected, they do not contain exactly the words which are most desirable. Writing from dictation is a practice much acted upon in some schools, but it appears ineffective, inasmuch as if a pupil make several errors, the advantage gained by requiring him to write over those words correctly ten or twenty times, does not counterbalance the injury done by allowing him to see the word as he has written it, with an error in the orthography. The method adopted in Murray's exercises, of giving to the pupils sentences containing orthographical errors, which they are to correct, is for the same reason considered injudicious. The plan pursued in this little work, is to bring together all words which have the same sound, but of which the orthography differs, and to compose a number of sentences which contain these words in their different senses. These are followed by sentences containing words in which frequent errors are made, and words, which, though not often recurring, are of difficult orthography. The teacher may divide the book into as many portions as he pleases, and require the pupils to copy each one until they can write it correctly from dictation, before they pass on to another part These sentences may be used for other purposes besides that of teaching orthography. They may be made subjects for parsing, or used as exercises in composition in various ways;—either by reading the sentences to the pupils, omitting some words, and requiring that the blanks shall be filled up; or by desiring the boys to express the idea contained in each sentence in other words. These and other exercises may be formed upon them, so as to make the work as much as possible available for the purposes of education.* Many words will be found printed in italics. It is to be understood that this arrangement has nothing to do with the sentences regarded as exercises in orthography; but it is intended to render them more useful as exercises in composition, acting upon the first of the suggestions thrown out respecting it. A teacher, wishing to give his pupils practice in composition, will * As a school book for exercise in English Composition, the author strongly recommends to general use, a work which he has for some time used with great success in his own school, entitled "Progressive Exercises in English Composition," by R. G. Parker, A. M. |