All the scholastic and analytic grammar in the world will not
enrich the mind in language to any appreciable extent.
And now we may consider another objector, who says, "I have studied
grammar for years and it has done me no good." In view of what has
just been said, we may easily concede that such is very likely to
have been the case. A measuring stick is of little value unless you
have something to measure. Language cannot be acquired, only tested,
by analysis, and grammar is an analytic, not a constructive science.
We have compared bad use of language to a scurvy condition of the skin.
To cure the skin we must doctor the blood; and to improve the language
we should begin by teaching the mind to think. But that, you will say,
is a large undertaking. Yes, but after all it is the most direct and
effective way. All education should be in the nature of teaching
the mind to think, and the teaching of language consists in teaching
thinking in connection with word forms and expression through language.
The unfortunate thing is that teachers of language have failed
to go to the root of the trouble, and enormous effort has
counted for nothing, and besides has led to discouragement.
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