English Grammar Definitions
St. John's School (Elora), September 1974
This 5-page Introduction to English Grammar was written by Jim Chalmers, the Headmaster of St. John's School (Elora), Ontario, and given to all Grade 7 boys entering the school in the 1970s. Memorizing it was a big chore. Every Old Boy from that era of the school's history remembers these prints. Memorizing them was like a test of fire. Mr. Chalmers was a strict grammarian. The total number of grammar prints that Mr. Chalmers gave us during our 4-years at the school comes to 102-pages. I still have them all, neatly preserved and arranged in a binder on my desk. But these five pages stand out because they were the first - our introduction to grammar as a topic of study, and our introduction to Mr. Chalmers as our teacher. He was an intimidating man to us Middle School boys. I never knew him as a human being.
The 11th Commandment at our school was "Thou shalt always pick out the Principal Clause."
Privately, we referred to Mr. Chalmers as "JC," as if he were God himself.