Portland Gazette, And Maine Advertiser

What is usually called English grammar is of little more utility in a school, than cyphering books. Grammar! grammar! you barbarian! What, attack grammar too! Don't be hasty. I say, what is usually called English grammar. I say, it is of little utility. And this benefit is what those, who study it, seldom think of; and it might be obtained in a cheaper way. So you see, that I allow some advantage to arise from what is styled the study of English grammar; viz. it obliges the student sometimes to search closely for the meaning of the sentence he is parsing. In this round-about way it may be of some service. Besides this, I must say, that considerable experience and observation have never, in this practice, discovered to me any usefulness worth serious notice.

Within the reach of my own memory, the name of grammar was scarcely known to common schools back in the country. At length masters came out of academies, or out of ships, or out of somewhere, who professed to teach English grammar. Astonishing! English grammar amongst common folks' children! Half the old ladies expected, even in their day, to see their daughters become Adamses or Moors; young lads' hands began to grow tender; and the pinnacle of scientific fame was everywhere exposed to the eyes, perhaps to the grasp, of the vulgar. "Ah!" said the old people, "grammar was not heard of in our day."

The study of it spread like fire from school to school. Visitors (all visit in the country) were amazed, confounded, and filled with admiration to hear what was "quite beyond their comprehension." It thus grew popular extremely fast; and, in a short time, a young man could, in many places, find no employment as a teacher, unless he would make a great parade of—he and his employers hardly knew what. Seldom was a question asked about its utility. It was grammar; and that was enough to satisfy or overawe all inquiry.

It is scarcely necessary to observe in this place, that these strictures are aimed at the practice of parsing grammar, as it is commonly expressed. And what is this practice? A mere playing with words. Or if it aim at anything more, it pretends to analyze the language. Children at eight years of age, before they can write a sentence intelligibly; almost, before the powers of reasoning and judgment begin to operate, are soused headlong into the depths of critical learning; and are put upon investigations, that require the full exercise of those intellectual faculties, which are last to unfold themselves.

The result is just what we might expect. They leave the study as wise, as they commenced it. "English grammar teaches to speak and write the English language with propriety and despatch:" This is a definition in almost every grammar. But I affirm, without fear of contradiction, that what is called the study of grammar, or in other words, the practice of parsing does neither of them. It does not teach the student either to speak or write with propriety and despatch. These can be learned only by practice, and from imitation. In my next, I will follow his last idea a little farther; and perhaps, from these small beginnings, we may yet arrive at some conclusions, of no little consequence in the business of education.

THOS.