The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1864-08-05
NrGLECrINs TIE RUDIMENTs.


We have great many colleges, and mlny
more schools, private and public, and we brag
q great deal about what we call universal
| education In America; but is not this one Of
the numerous agreeable delusons with which
we amuse ourselvesp In proportion TO popu-
lation, perhaps there are more boys and girls
| in the United States who can, vulgarly speak
ing, read and write, and perhaps cipher little,
than in most other countries; but with that
exception, who would pretend to boast of our
educational system as respects its practica
efficiency and resultss
Take the mass Of the young men who are
graduated yearly at our leading colleges, and
what is the average Of their actual acquire
ments9 Out off class of fifty or sixty who
are given their degree of Master of Arts, how
many are really master of any one branch OF
studyP Occasionally we may meet with a
scholar who deserves his diploma. Yet for
one such, there are a hundred or thousand
whose substantial acquisitions would disgrace
a freshman in any flrst-rate British university
With miserable smattering of knowledge in
all the branches of regular course, they are
positively proficient in none; and it is fact,
quite as notorious as it is discreditable, that
they get through in the end by system of
cramming and imposture which is practised
in cur most respectable institutions with q
degree of facility and success that would seem
to imply conniYance on the part of professors
and trustees.
In our public schools we doubt If the plan
of instruction and the results attained are
much, if any better. Examine the majority ol
graduates in both cases, and what do they
knowP They may answer you glibly enough
some few questions in this or that branch oi
science. One may furnish tolerable version
OF line of HORACE, another demonstrate q
problem in EUCLID, a third explain the phio-
. sophy of boiling water, and the like; but arr
there ten or Ave in a hundred who can be
said in any single line of study to have
achieved accomplished scholarship
We do not, however, mean to speak of dc.
hciencies in classical learning, nor in physical
and metaphysical science. There is yet
! graver and more disgraceful fault in our aca
/ demic education. We assert that American
youth are not taught English; that not one in
> hundred who leave college or a high school
|
: tainments, can read, or spell, or write biz
mother tongue decently. II Is possible tina
he may discourse very llppantly about Greel
and Roman mythology, or cubes and square
% roots, or dynamics and hydrostatlcs, and al
3, that sort of thing but we undertake to say
that If he bo required TO prepare a paragraph
Of dozen or more lines for newspaper, b,
aba f,,I Il,
biography or the grammar Of it. Lotany ont
u refer 10 bis private correspondence, and sc,
u how far we are borne out in this charge.
Is It not the rarest thing to see American
writing their own language, not with ele
gance, force, and fiuency, but with propriety
j How many can speak it correctly, or ever
read it with becoming grace and effect? Pub
: lish without amendment the serious disserta
tions Of men who are reputed scholars, AM
e what sad demolition you would make of theI
: literary characteri Print, just as ID ia pro
0 nOunced, the deliberate speech of many
lawyer or statesman among US, and see wha
/ a marvellous havoc be makes Of the ordinar.
rules Of syntax and prosodyl Ask any one O
a casual company Of clever men TO read a pas
: sage from any English classic, in prose o
verse, and mark the elOeution. The chance
: are that it win be sung through the nose viii
a monotonous whine, or mOuthed as som
moon-struck player would pronounce it, Il
utter disregard Of all prOprieties Of accent 0
, pauses, or delivered with tameness Of man
ner wholly unappreciative and unimpressive.
: The reason OF this Is obvious Neithe
English grammar nor rhetoric are taught an
learned in our schools. The rules of both ma
( be got by rote, but the philosophy OF neither
4 ever thoroughly comprehended or applied
Reform In this Is certainly needed, and ma
J; DO very easily introduced. Let our yOuni
"A men be proficient English scholars at least
a Let them be able TO read, write, and speal
heir own tongue correctly, and even grace