ABSTRACT
A FEW years, or generations ago, the question whether English Composition can be taught was considered as debatable as was the same question concerning virtue among the ancients. At the present day it is a settled opinion that it can be taught. Most of us teach it, or try to. The few who still disbelieve cover their scepticism in the silence of their hearts, or release it under their breath in Common Room. The danger is rather that every man thinks himself competent to teach it, sometimes with insufficient thought about the matter; or at least he is expected to be able to. “ I suppose you can offer Elementary Mathematics, and French up to matriculation as subsidiary subjects, and of course you can teach English to the Junior Forms,” is the sort of formula which perhaps comes too easily to head masters who are engaging recruits for their staffs.
