Excerpt from Wheeler's Graded Studies in English: First Lessons in Grammar and Composition During the last quarter of a century, radical changes have been made in methods of teaching elementary English, and scores of text-books have been written on this subject. Authors have done much to improve instruction in English, and their work has been supplemented by thousands of thoughtful teachers. From our colleges, our universities, and the press, however, still comes the complaint that pupils are graduated from the public schools without having acquired the art of speaking and writing correct English. One meets everywhere men and women who lament that they were not taught elementary English when they were young enough to master it. It is agreed that the proper study of English should enable a pupil to understand the expressed thoughts of others, and to give expression to thoughts of his own; but there is a great difference of opinion as to the means to be used to attain this end. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.