The new daily appeal. [volume] (Carson City, Nev.) 1872-1873, 1873-01-03
A WORD TO THE WISE.
Let German and French be taught I'm
our Carson Schools.

| A word to our school managers on
the above proposition. It is worthy
of their consideration. Two years
ago it engaged their attention favor
ably and efforts were made to teach
the children French and German.
while we yet fingered in the gloomy
old stone school house. With the
beginning of the new year, our town
largely advanced in prospe rity, and
our new and commodious school
house filled with children of all ages
whose number has been swelled with
the happy growth of the Capital, the
question recurs and demands a new
and still more favorable considera-
ton.
German and French are taught
universally throughout the United
States in first class public schools.
This seems to settle the question of
their Importance as we'll as of their
adaptability to our public education
system. This ground of argument
is high enough. We would not dis
cuss the saying originated by the
most erudite of Germans which is
received as maxim by modern
scholars a man cannot be mas
ter of his own until he has mastered
other tongues. Still less necessary
would it be to quote from a popular
French philosopher who atfirms that
a man acquires another intellectual
self with every additional language
he masters. Such discussions are
too far out of the way from things
practical, and from the public
schools in Carson.
If there is no money in our school
fund to spare for the teaching OF
these languages, then the question
drops. Ii, however, there is fund
iccruing to the school which could
be used for that purpose-it being
always understood that the ordinary
English training is not to be inter
fered with thereby-we feel assured
that it could not be dispensed with
more profit in any way than in pay
ing a master of German and French,
especially of the former, to ted h
those languages in the Carson pub
lie school. Let native be procured,
if possible, for this service, in order
that the languages may be learned
in the purity of idiom and accent.
Grown persons acquire with great
difficulty, while children who have
not yet developed in thought or ex-
preston will imbibe foreign Ian
guage, taught in an interesting man
ner, rapidly and almost without con-
scious effort. Their capacity for
words is almost immense. Surround
a child with an atmosphere full of all
the verbal sounds in existence and it
would appropriate and utilize them
spontaneously and at will. This condi-
ton is, Of course, impossible, but
the capacity admitted, if it were pos
sible, shows what children are capa-
BILE of, when taught in a natural way
which ELECTS their interest and cap
tivates their fancy for new and novel
sounds. The living voice should be
the medium of instruction always,
or nearly so.
A child of ordinary capacity that
has learned to read with facility and
has mastered fractions in the arith-
metic can, with one lesson a day, be-
come familiar with the principals of
the structure of the German Ian
guage in year and half. and need
only practice afterwards in reading,
writing, and speaking to become
proficient.
The French is an easy language to
learn, but difficult to learn WE'LL. It |
would be silly to presume that this
language, embodying the thought |
and soul of the most elegant and re-
fined people progressively for cen
turtles could be mastered in a day.
A child of ordinary intelligence will |
learn to read French with diction
airy in eight or nine months, while
in studying German he could not use
a dictionary to adyantagein less than
ayear.
But the majority of the children
in the Carson school will remain at
their studies probably from three to
four or five years. That they may
become very proficient in this time
is evident.
The study of the languages will
not impede, but help them in their
other studies. It will render their
exercises more varied and less mo
notonous. It will open up to them