When I gave the first grammar lessons to defective children I put special emphasis on nouns and verbs. The noun (= object), and the verb (= action) were distinguished with the greatest clearness, much as we distinguish matter from energy, chemistry from physics. Condition and motion, as potential and kinetic energy, are both expressed by verbs. Whereas formerly the child took the objects in his hands and studied their name and attributes, here he must perform actions. In the execution of actions he must necessarily receive some help, for he is not always capable of interpreting the word with the precise action which corresponds to it. On the contrary, the study of the verb is necessary to initiate him into a series of "object lessons" upon the different actions he must perform. The teacher therefore must give individual lessons teaching the child to interpret the verb.

Analyses

In the usual manner we present a box which has four compartments, for the article, the noun, the adjective, and the verb. The sections are designated by the usual title cards: tan, black, brown, and red. In the compartment at the back of the box there are six slips for each exercise, and for every written word there is a card, except for such words as are repeated in successive sentences. For example: if the following sentences are written on the cards:

And so the child after he has composed his first sentence needs to change only one card (lock for close) for the second sentence. This brings out the force of the verb, showing that one sentence may be changed into another by indicating an entirely different action. The child performs the action and then on his table he builds the sentences with the cards. In the series we have prepared, the verbs are either synonyms or antonyms. Here is the material:

Permutations

The teacher should have in mind the grammatical rules for the position of the verb in the sentence, to give the child a clear idea of its normal location before the direct object: "first the verb, then the object upon which it acts."

Example:

Lessons and Commands on the Verb

The children take considerable delight in our verb lessons which develop through interpretations of actions. We use packs of red cards, tied with an elastic, each pack containing ten cards. The child executes the actions indicated on each card, one after the other. He may afterward copy the cards—an exercise specially attractive to very young children.

Examples:

—walk, sing, jump, dance, bow, sit, sleep, wake, pray, sigh.

—write, erase, weep, laugh, hide, draw, read, speak, listen, run.

—arrange, clean, dust, sweep, button, lace, tie, hook, greet, brush.

—comb, wash, wipe, embrace, kiss, smile, yawn, scowl, stare, breathe.

These are fairly common words, representing actions more or less familiar to the pupils. But this exercise is only an introduction to the real verb-lessons. For these the teacher selects, as subject for a lesson, a series of synonymous verbs. Their shades of meaning are taught to the children by translating them into action, the teacher executing the action herself. She then distributes around the class commands making use of the verbs in question. There may be several copies of a given command if the pupils are very numerous. The child reads by himself the card he has received, executing the action from memory of what he has seen the teacher do. We have tested experimentally the Italian material (i.e., the verbs in parentheses), as follows:

lay, throw, toss, hurl (posare, gettare, lanciare, scagliare).

—Take a counter and lay it on the floor. Pick it up again and throw it on the floor.

—Roll your handkerchief into a ball. Toss it into the air. Pick it up again and hurl it against the wall.

—Lay your handkerchief carefully, very carefully, on the floor. Pick it up again and throw it on the floor. Make a ball of it and hurl it across the room. Pick it up and toss it into the air.

lie, crouch, sit, rise (sollevare, alzare, levare).

—Go to the sofa and lie with your face to the wall. Now rise, go to your table and sit with head erect.

—Rise from your chair and crouch behind the table, as though you were playing hide-and-seek. Rise and go back to the sofa.

open, close, lock, unlock (aprire, spalancare, chiudere, socchiudere, serrare, disserrare).

—Go to a window and open it a little; wait a moment and then close it again. Open the window as wide as you can and close it immediately.

—Go to the door and open it wide. Then close the door gently. If the key is in the key-hole lock the door; but before you go away, unlock it again, so that everything is left just as you found it.

breathe, inhale, exhale (respirare, sospirare, inspirare, espirare).

—Go to the window, open it, and inhale and exhale the fresh air five times. Then after a moment inhale once and hold your breath as long as you can. When you can hold your breath no longer, exhale as slowly as you can.

—Take a hand mirror and breathe upon the glass. What happens?

hang, attach (appendere, affiggere, sospendere).

—Hang one of your best drawings on a hook in the room.

—Attach the drawing you like best with two pins to the wall near the door.

cover, wrap, tie, undo (avvolgere, involgere, svolgere).

—Take a book, a string and a large piece of cloth. Lay the book on your table and cover it with the cloth.

—Take the cloth and wrap it around the book so that the book cannot be seen.

—Tie a string around the cloth so that the book will not fall out.

—Undo the bundle, and return each object to the place where you found it.

turn, invert, revolve, whirl, reverse (volgere, capovolgere, rovesciare).

—Turn a picture toward one of your school-mates so that he can see it clearly.

—Invert the picture, so that it will be upside down.

—Reverse the picture so that the back only can be seen by your school-mate.

—Revolve the seat of the piano-stool as rapidly as you can.

—Stand with your back to the window and turn slowly on your heel till you face the window. Whirl on your heel completely around till you again face the window.

breathe, blow, puff, pant (sbuffare, soffiare, alitare).

—Tear a large piece of paper into tiny bits on your table. Blow steadily upon the table till the pieces of paper are all on the floor.

—Pick up the pieces of paper and place them on the table. Puff three times upon them and see if they all fall to the floor. Gather up the pieces and throw them into the waste-basket.

—Breathe softly upon the back of your hand. What do you feel?

—Blow upon the back of your hand. What do you feel?

—Puff upon the back of your band. What do you feel?

—Pant noisily as though you had been running a long way.

murmur, mutter, whisper, speak, grumble (mormorare, sussurrare, brontolare).

—Ask one of your school-mates to listen carefully to what you say; then murmur a short sentence as though you were speaking to yourself.

—Mutter the same words in a louder voice and see whether he understands.

—Whisper the same words in the ear of one of two children. Then ask the other whether he has heard.

—Grumble the same words and watch how the two children look at you.

—Speak the same words aloud and as distinctly as you can. Do the children understand?

touch, rub, graze (toccare, tastare, palpare, sfiorare).

—Go to your table and with your eyes shut touch it as though to recognize it.

—Rub the table with the tips of your fingers, bearing down as hard as you can. What do you feel?

—Graze the table with the tips of your fingers, trying not to touch it.

spread, sprinkle, collect, scatter (spargere, spruzzare, aspergere).

—Take a box full of beads and spread them evenly around the center of your table. Then collect them in a pile in the center of the table.

—Take a handful of the beads and scatter them over the table. Return all the beads to the box.

—Take a glass of water and sprinkle two or three handfuls on a plant in the room.

walk, stagger, march (barcollare, dondolare, erigersi).

—Walk naturally to the end of the room farthest from your table.

—March back to your seat as though you were keeping time to music.

—Stagger across the room as though you were very dizzy.

take, seize, catch (acchiappare, acciuffare, afferrare).

—Walk to the cabinet and take a box of counters in your hands.

—Run to the sofa, seize the sofa-pillow, and run around the room with it, holding it in your arms.

—Roll your handkerchief into a ball, toss it into the air and try to catch it before it falls to the floor.

Lessons with Experiments

The function of the verb can be still more interestingly emphasized by suggesting actions designed to increase the child's knowledge in the direction of elementary science. Here the teacher, instead of executing simple movements, performs experiments, which on the same day or on succeeding days the child can imitate guided by the directions in the commands.

stir, mix, beat, flavor (mescolare, emulsionare, stemperare).

—Take a bowl half full of water and drop into it a half cup of flour; stir with a spoon until the mixture is thick.

—Place a table-spoonful of vinegar and a table-spoonful of olive-oil in a clean bowl; beat them together until an emulsion is formed.

—Place a tea-spoonful of chocolate and a tea-spoonful of sugar in a cup and mix them thoroughly. What color was the chocolate? What color was the sugar? What color is the mixture?

—Take a little milk in a cup and taste of it; add a drop of vanilla extract. Then taste of the milk again. Do you taste the vanilla? In the same way flavor a glass of water with the vanilla. Flavor another glass of water with vinegar.

dissolve, saturate, be in suspension (sciogliere, fare la sospensiona, saturare).

—Place a spoonful of sugar in a glass of warm water and dissolve the sugar by stirring with a spoon. Is the water still clear?

—Saturate the water with sugar by continuing to add sugar and stirring till you can see the sugar at the bottom of the glass. Allow the water to rest a moment. Is the water still clear?

—Mix a spoonful of starch in the water. The water becomes white, since the starch does not dissolve but remains in suspension in the water.

strain, filter (decantare, filtrare).

—Take the glass containing the water saturated with sugar and the one with the starch in suspension, and allow the starch and sugar to settle for some time, until the water is clear. Taste the water in each glass, and then strain each glass of water separately.

—Filter the water saturated with sugar and the water with the suspended starch. Then taste of each.

By the time all these commands have been executed, the child will have developed a keen desire to go on, becoming so interested in the meaning of verbs as not to require further commands to stimulate his study of these words. The most frequent question now is "How many verbs are there in the language?" "Are there more in other languages?" etc. To satisfy this new curiosity of the children we have dictionaries of synonyms and antonyms, and word-charts. But meantime they have been building their own dictionaries. One by one they begin to own copy books (rubrics) with illuminated letters of the alphabet. Under the proper letter the child copies his words as fast as he learns them. We are still experimenting on the question of the exact amount of information that may successfully be offered to elementary school children of various ages and stages of development, with the word material required for the notions of natural history, physics and chemistry they may be expected to acquire. We can say, at this moment, simply that each experiment involves the use of a certain number of new words (nouns, adjectives and verbs), which are copied into the word-books (rubrics) as fast as they occur.