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