The special emphasis laid by Dr. Montessori upon selections from Manzoni is due simply to the peculiar conditions surrounding the teaching of language in Italy, where general concepts of the national language are affected by the existence of powerful dialects and the unstable nature of the grammar, vocabulary and syntax of the national literature. We have made no effort to find a writer worthy of being set up as a like authority, since no such problem exists for the American and English public. Our citations are drawn to a large extent from the "Book of Knowledge" and from a number of classics. Occasionally for special reasons we have translated the Italian original. The chapter on Italian metrics has been translated entire as an illustration of method; whereas the portion relating to English is, as explained below, entirely of speculative character.
To Miss Helen Parkhurst and Miss Emily H. Greenman thanks are due for the translation of the chapters on Arithmetic, Geometry, and Drawing.
I. The Transition from the Mechanical to the Intellectual Development of Language 3
II. WORD STUDY 12 Suffixes and Prefixes 13 Suffixes 13 Prefixes 17 Compound Words 18 Word-Families 20
III. ARTICLE AND NOUN 22 Singular and Plural 25 Masculine and Feminine 27 Singular and Plural in English 33
IV. LESSONS--COMMANDS 39 Nouns 40 Commands on Nouns 48
V. ADJECTIVES 51 Analyses 51 Descriptive Adjectives 51 Permutations 55 Inflection of Adjectives 56 Logical and Grammatical Agreement of Nouns and Adjectives 59 Descriptive Adjectives 61 Adjectives of Quantity 63 Ordinals 64 Demonstrative Adjectives 64 Possessive Adjectives 65 Comparison of Adjectives 65
VI. VERBS 66 Analyses 66 Permutations 68 Lessons and Commands on the Verb 69 Lessons with Experiments 74
VII. PREPOSITIONS 77 Analyses 77 Permutations 80 Lessons and Commands on Prepositions 81
VIII. ADVERBS 85 Analyses 85 Permutations 87 Lessons and Commands on Adverbs 90 A Burst of Activity: the Future of the Written Language in Popular Education 93 Commands Improvised by the Children 96
IX. PRONOUNS 98 Analyses 98 Personals 98 Demonstratives 99 Relatives and Interrogatives 99 Possessives 101 Permutations 101 Lessons and Commands on the Pronoun 102 Paradyms 106 Agreement of Pronoun and Verb 108 Conjugation of Verbs 110