The Democratic advocate. [volume] (Westminster, Md.) 1865-1972, 1874-10-10

Concluding Notes on the Teachers
Conelaye.

ConelaFo.
Everybody has his own tastes and am
free 10 say that the things which pleased me
most at those meetings in the schoolhouse
were the essay by Miss Hooker, the criticisms
by Mr, Baughman, and the pathological discus
sions in which several Of the members partic-
ipated. The essay richly deserved the vote
Of thanks which was so promptly moved and
carried upon its reading. The criticisms were
thoughtful, pithy, and unmalicious The gen.
eral discussion of the various topics Of gram
mar introduced was very interesting. II might,
thought, have been longer with advantage.
II struck me, too, that only few of the
teachers seemed 10 be in state Of prepared
ness on the subject that the general feeling
was not one Of q liking for grammar; and
that the discussion might have prohtably
embraced photography and 0rthoepy, as well
as Syntax On all three Of these divisions
there Is the greatest looseness Of practice
among our writer's and speakers, in and out
ofprint Much Of this eyil--and ii is serious
evil--arises from our national faults of haste
and impatience Of legitimate authority much
also from an undertaking Of grammar, and
an iuapttude on the part Of teachers in rela'
ton to it. Curtailments aud neologisms are
the order Of the day. Tongue and pen run
wild in pronunciation and spelling, or err with
systematic perversenessu under the lead Of Noah
Webster The newspaper which has, sup.
pose, the largest circulation in Maryland is so
devoted an adherent of How-not.todo-it,
that its punctuation looks as if the youngest
devil had set up the types, and its spelling
out Websters Webster, its parsimony Of the
double consonant being such TINT only by the
rarest accident is It ever betrayed into giving
two Us to tranquility. As people, we are
49, fknf q. H...ls.I L.
guage, and that in relation to it we Americans
are only provincials, and are bound, in loyalty
and right, to seek the law il the mother coun-
try. In this widespread obliyiousness, not
discerning even the seat Of authority, and
blinking at the beacon lights that might have
held us in the right way, we have indeed erred
and strayed like lost sheep and unhappily,
the shepherds crook has been too often used
to misgude us. Noah Webster, the great
corrupter Of language on the American con.
tinent, was man Of vast learning in his
specially; indeed l am tempted to call him
the only full scholar Of his day in our country.
Had his judgment and taste been proportioned
to his erudition, hardly any marble could have
been found pure enough to bear the record of
his praise but in an ill-starred hour he was
seized with the ambition Of remodelling the
English language, and in pursuance OF this
bNAACoo NhuiS n 0paaMn VI sptlhHH-
books and an = american Dictionary which
the zeal Of Yankee reformers and the energy
Of influential publishers have made instru-
ments of incalculable mischief over the length
and breadth Of the land. The great New
York publishing house Of the Harpers got the
Dictionary into their hands years ago, aud
took to printing all their books according to
its GEOGRAPHY. Minor publishers followed
the base example: newspapers took It up
so catching is what is new and bad at the same
time land soon, all over the country, in
schools, in business, in affairs of state, in re-
view essays and in common correspondence,
in the lecture room, the parlour, and the
street, we had the new shapes and sounds of
Of new language. remember but one word
in which, to the lasting honour Of the Ameri-
can people be it said, they refused to follow
DR.. Webster. That one word is MoIAssEs.
have spoken Of our impotence of legiti-
mate authority. Two instances taken from
our common speech will serve very well to
illustrate this trait We continually hear can
used in the place of may. Can come imp
some Paul Pry will say to you editors, just as
you are deep in the preparation Of an article
that is TO blow Mr.. Ensor sky high and enable
Mr.. Roberts to save the country. "Cdn 90
with you to the fairg'' young hopeful asks his
father, desiring to give school the slip and see
the races. Pry knows that he can come in,
since you are too far from the door to prevent
him and hopeful is quite sure of his ability
to carry himself to the fair: permission is
what they wish to obtain but as independent
sovereign people, breathing the atmosphere
Of unterri6ed democracy, they cannot stoop
to use the proper term, which would acknowl-
edge their subordination. Let Mr.. Pumble-
chook, with his May ?-nay ~ teach us
lrha hnra TIa atka- I
shall adduce to show the yitiation Of our Ian.
guage through the spirit Of insubordination, is
the substitution of the term help for the time.
honoured and appropriate word servant. This
wretched fgment Of false sentiment formerly
unknown in Maryland, has imported from
the North, and has been particularly in vogue
since our servants ceased TO be the helps they
used to be. 1t indicates an essentially false
conception Of service and of social relations,
and is one of many signs which should I'D.
monish us to take heed to our thinking as well
as to our words.
From the foregoing considerations, and
Others naturally springing from a contempla.
ton OF the subject, should have been glad
to hear q larger discussion of Grammar among
the assembled Teachers. There is hardly any
other study that requires such clearheaded-
ness and ripeness of understanding for its
ptbptf ACtttHGht- a - utAElJ uhiU " 1@OElC
and the higher Mathematics and most i'm
portant reform in our schools would be to
exclude ungrammatical text. books, and to take
the technical grammars out of the hands Of
little children. Grammar, indeed, should be
inculcated from the time the child begins to
talk; but grdplmdrs may well be put off till
twelve or thirteen. Pronunciation was not,
believe, discussed by the Teachers, though
some instances of mispronunciation were con
demned by the critic. Others that remem-
Der hearing were Enquiry "idea,n and
g sonorous." In each of these words the
accent falls properly on the second syllable.
One of the speakers mot Carroll teacher)
made dissyllable Of series: it is word Of
three syllables. Wrong pronunciation leads
TO wrong spelling Ms we see in the verb com
bat, which is often wrongly accented on the
second syllable, and thence runs into false
| spelling with two Is in the past lenses and
participates Hymeacdi, again, is frequently
mispronounced with the accent on the first e.
and consequently misspelled with 1 instead OF
in the pennltimate, which is properly the
accented syllable. There is IN excellent little
work by Rev. +. j. Stearnes, entitled, l think,
= Principles Of Pronunciation which might
do good service in the schools. Passing from
the subject Of pronunciation, | will remark that
FETCH If not an elegant term, is ct least
good English, and "overly," in the sense of
too or peIy, is not, Be Il noted, moreover,
that notify does not mean inform but make
knoicH; that the best writers and speakers
avoid using commence before the infinitiye
mood, and do not employ it, as is common with
us, to the general exclusion of the stronger
and better word begin and that the sentence
ieiH be tSenty-one in june though given
as an example Of correct English in small
edition Of Fewsmith's Grammar which saw
in Baltimore last spring, is grossly ingram
NAUTICAL, according to the standards of the Ian.
guage from Doctor Johnson' sday to ours ro-
member also the following mistakes that seem
most for almost stop for stay q stop
at the hotell'' Themselves MS a prononn
referring to teacher c. each teacher.
for fheBiselces''). In conclusion, let me hope
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