New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1889-02-17
THE MOTHER TONGUE.
SOME FOOLISH METHODS OF TEACHING
ENGLISH.
OUR ENGLISH. By Adams Sherman HI Boylston
Professor of Rhetoric and Oratory In Harvard
University limo, pp. e45. Harper Brothers


OUR ENGLISH. BY Adams sherman I'M. goylsto1,
Professor Of Rhetoric and OratoIy In Harvaru
University. 16mo PIP. 245. Harper Brothers
In these crisply written papers Professor Hill
raises the voice Of protest against the methods OF
teaching English commonly praotsed in schools
and colleges and the methods Of using the Ian
guage in newspapers and novels, the pulpit ana
conversation. No doubt the fact that numbers
of college graduates can neither compose spell
nor punctuate their mother tongue correctly may
be accepted as positive proof that the teaching OF
the language is too often radically dcfective but
IL is question whether the error Of method does
not go deeper than Professor Hill thinks, and
whether the results are not in the main attrb'
utable TO o system of education which fails TO
develop and train the thinking and reasoning
faculties sufficiently. Perhaps it is not altogether
due to general deficiency in originality that
children and young men in school and college are
won't to prepare such fat and jejune English COM
positions. Mechanical training, no matter Of
what kind must be expected to yield mechanical
results The plastic mind Of child takes every
impression easily, and when no stimulus is ap-
piled to its productive and inventive capacity
it will merely echo, with the careless inaccuracy
which bespeaks absence Of interest. the
lessons forced upon it. The failure OF
schools and colleges to graduate scholars
who are thoroughly grounded in English
is in one sense an impeachment Of the whole
educational system Nor will II do to shift the
responsibility upon the native dulness Of the STU
dents. Professor Hill asks why IL is that young
men who are bright ard keen-witted out Of the
classroom appear to lose their intelligence the
moment they take pen and paper to write the
prescribed English essay Surely the fact ought
TO suggest the seat OF the evil. Evidently 1t is
because the educational methods possessed do not
appeal 10 and stimulate the intelligence Of the
students They are not interested. Their at
tention is forced, not given willingly There
fore their performance is lfeless and perfunctory
Recent experiments in education, and notably
those carried on by Mr. Charles G. Deland, have
demonstrated the possibility Of developing, in al
most ell children, q power Of origination jnven-
ton and execution in the minor arts which was
quite unsuspected previously and the execution Of
which practically disproves whole body of educa-
tional theory which the world has chung blindly
during generations Every one, again, knows or
has known some child, reputed singularly forward,
who found no difficulty in learning TO read, SPELL
punctuatc, write, at a very early age. Such cases
ore usually explained on the theory OF special ca
pacity. Perhaps more accurate diagnosis would
be that OF special wisdom in methods Of instruc-
ton. OF course, heredity counts, but IL is not
everything, for Mr.. Delands experience tends
strongly to the conclusion that nine children out
Of ten will develop what would formerly have been
| considered abnormal capacity, IL they are duly
helped TO unfold their own intelligence In this
respect there is little difference between the child
and the man. The latter no less than the former
shrinks from all work which presents itself solely
as q compulsory task, and puts the minimum Of
| effort and OF mind into such work. II was long
since observed in prisons that obiectless work i'm
posed upon conyicts specially distasteful, and
that men would cheerfully labor only when they
knew themselves TO be working to some useful and
practical end
| Professor Hill Justly condemns the practice Of
devoting long hours TO English grammar. It is
questionable whether any one ever learned TO
speak or write good English by pursuing that
study, and IL is certain that the lack OF living in
terest in it makes every step uphill work. But
here again the lesson TO be derived from failure is
general and not special. II is a common observa-
| ton that the knowledge which stays by the
student Ia that which lac seeks out for himself.