Publisher's Synopsis
Excerpt from Lectures on the Teaching of Composition
I say that I try to direct the attention of students to some of the problems of their profession. Let a student enquire, not -of others, but of himself what these subjects which he purposes to teach really are. When he makes that enquiry he will find that any subject which he may hope to teach is not some thing. External to himself, but an activity in which he may be himself engaged, and that he cannot truly begin to teach it until he is actually engaged in it This discovery at once limits the number of subjects which he can decently attempt, and gives a previously unsuspected range and depth to the remainder. This remainder will include everything which is vital; the subjects which fall within it will prove themselves aspects of character, modes of intelligence. Essential parts of life.
The student who asks himself, What is this that I am doing? Will go on to enquire, Why am I doing it? And then How am I doing it? The third question cannot be usefully asked till some sort of answer has been given to the two first, and no complete answer will ever be given to it.
Let him learn what he can from others, but let him be sure that there is no method for him but his own, fashioned for his own needs, with the help of example and experience and of tested skill, yet not without the aid of Fortune, Nature, God - by whatever name he knows the strange force that carries him beyond the scope of his measured powers, making him other than his exemplars and greater than himself.
My thanks are due to Mr. D. J. 81055 for reading the lectures, and making. Many. Useful criticisms.
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