The University daily. [volume] (Morgantown, W. Va.) 18??-????, 1895-06-10
OUR MOTHER TONGUE
ssEnglish III Our Schools And
Colleges.
BY PROF R. a. ARMSTRONG.

4 81 slbs ~ n IblA4dIAdp4S ft1Cb bAldO C1SSsI
mentary English is sadly neglected
III almost all OF our schools.
Young men who apply for admis-
sion into the freshman classes 81 our
colleges are found to be lamentably
deficient in this most important
branch.
IN And If those who thus aspire to a
higher education are So deficient, what 1
gof those whose educationsis finished
Ain the common and graded schools?
Their teachers have taken less pains,
lift possible, with them than with those
\ who expect to continue their studies.
/ The result is that these boys end their
school lifeJtithout being able to ex-l
press themselves respectfully with
tonguetor PA fksy cannot compose q
letter Of the most ordinary character
without numerous blunders in spell
ing, punctuation, capitalization, and
what IS worst Of all, grammatical ac-
curacy s.#
III our public schools are to pre-
pare our boys and girls for the practi-
cal affair of life, and there is a de-
mand, much emphazied now, that
these schools should be intensely prac-
tical, practical even to the extent of
teaching the trades there is surely
nothing more severely practical than
the study Of English how to speak
!. it correctly, how to write it with a
fair degree Of ease and correctness.
Yet, as practical, az valuable, as
knowledge and training Of this kind
would be, there are boys and girls in
the schools who can tell you just
how high Kilimanjiro is but, can't
write q simple receipt, who can solve
Rays grindstone problem, but can't
write a letter without making 4 doz-
zen blnnders.
N The Harvard Report Of 1891: Zone
half Of the total number of candi-
i dates for admission to the freshman
class who presented themselves in
june of the current year were unpfez.
pared in the department. of Elemeta-
~ English, for admission to the Col.
lege.
Out Of 414 applicants, but nine, or
two per cent, were marked as passing.
the examinati ton with credit" as
against 20 per cent who failed who'll
/. ly. Prof. A. s.HiH, Of Harvard, says:
eff the dreary compositions written
by the great majority ofeandidates for
admission toecollege were correct in
spelling, intelligent in punctuation,
and unexceptional in grammar. there
would be some compensation, but this
I is SO farsfrom being the case that the
instructors of English in American
Colleges have to spend much Of their
| time and strength in teaching the Az
B G Of their mother tongue to young
men of twenty, work disagreeable in
itself and often barren of results,
Every year Harvard graduates a GER
tain numbersof men some of them
high scholars whose manuscripts
q 4 r. * et 4 i 4 ) a-.f "
would disgrace a boy Of twelve.
III Ernest w. Huffcutt of Cornell
writes 1.-THE writer has occasion to
test at college entrance examinations
the familiarity Of applicants with the
forms and use Of their er-tongue.
The results have heen in the main
unsatisfactory, and at times discour-
aging. Scarcely an applicant for adj
mission can write the simple essay re-
Quired Of him at the examination,
without hlunders in orthograpy, pune
tuation, capitalization, and grammat-
ical accuracy .
III The last freshman class Of one Of /
k < FIJI y
Dur colleges numbered ninety members
representing "A preparatory schools
All but sixof the ninety held, on en-
tering, diplomas from reputable sec
.ondary schools. Over forty held Re
gents pass cards in rhetoric, and all /
but nine had satisfactorily com leted |
a prescribed course in grammar and
ThetoFios Yet In the first set Of coll
lege essays required from these fresh-
men simple descriptions averaging
Ave hundred words in length the az
erage numberof palpahle error per
writer, was thirty -four. Under the
term 'palpable error We include any
violation Of those fundamental princi-
pies of form and style iii which all our
ordinary text books agree. I
We see from these statements that /
VIE are not alone in having poor prepar-
atory schools. Almost all colleges and
universities have held out for only q
low standard ofprotciency in snglish
for admission to the freshman class,
Ifall our higher institutions Of learn