English for the Thoughtful Child, Volume Two

Description

English for the Thoughtful Child, Volume Two
by Fred Scott, Gordon Southworth, & Cyndy Shearer

After the publication of the original English for the Thoughtful Child in 1989, we began receiving requests for a second, more advanced volume.

Like the first volume of English for the Thoughtful Child, this second volume concentrates on the development of composition skills. And like the first volume, this book contains picture lessons, oral and written narration exercises, memory work, and copy work. In addition, nature lessons help build a child’s expository writing skills. Those families who keep nature notebooks may find these lessons work well with their own nature studies.

Much of this book comes from Scott and Southworth’s 1913 title, Lessons in English. The original preface describes the book this way:

“Too many teachers think of a textbook as a kind of machine gun, built to fire so many loads a minute with deadly precision. This is a vicious error . . . In this book, teachers will find a great variety of material which they can use in accordance with their best judgment. Exercises are given for copying, for dictation, for rewriting, for description, for letter writing, for recording the results of observation and experience, for the use of words and their synonyms, and for practice in the use of correct forms. Ample provision is made for the correlation of nature work with language, and the elements of grammar are inductively presented. . .

The end of all instruction in English is growth in power of expression and appreciation. Drill which contributes to this end is good. Drill which, falling short of this end, merely fills the child’s mind with rules and symbols, is a grievous waste of time.”