New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1897-06-02
ENGLISH ~ SCHOOL AND COLLEGE.


The declaration Of Professor Mott that New
! York boys have to be taught English as If they
were learning n foreign tongue has enough OF
| literal truth under its rhetorical exaggeration
TO emphasize the need of such conference and CO.
| operation as are sought by the college and pre-
| paratory school teachers now gathered In this
| city 1t is n Iamentable fact that even in our
| best colleges students of more than average
| standing are not rare whose capacity for the
| composition of an English sentence Is most
| rudimentary and whose vocabulary owes its
variety purely to It's crudlty and slang No edi-
tor who has been beguiled into examining the
| contributions Of college students recommended
| to him by instructors as promising candidates
| for journalism and competent reporters OF col
| Iege affairs can have failed TO wonder where
| the writer's of the future were being trained
| The colleges are naturally blamed for the icno
| rance of American youths. and ii Is true that
until recently the attention given to English by
them was scandalously slight. But the college
professors plead in mitigation that the fault lies
in the home surroundings, in tho primary teach
lng and in the preparatory school, and that it is
impossible to make up in college for the absence
or the defects Of early training.
1t is, undoubtedly true that nothing can take
the place Of correct influence and teaching when
the first attcmptS.ar made at composition. We
are far too slow to realize that the youngest
children are those who need the most carefully
taught and perhaps most expensive teachers
4 boy who enters college with scholarly
foundation in English such as II is perfectly
possible for him to have II he is trained I'm 1t as
Systematically and thoroughly rs he is required
to be in mathematics and classics. is able with
out undue effort 10 go into the world with
STYLE of speech and writing which will not dis
credit his other attainmcnts. But If at sixteen
or eighteen he has still to struggle TO write pre-
sentablc paragraph il is only with the greatest
difficulty that he can master his own language
He is handicapped by bad habits ana he has all
he can do to deal with the subjects belonging to
the more advanced course Of study.
The preparatory school cannot supply the lack
of home influence on the use of language. and
Professor Motifs complaint apparently voices an
almost despairng realization Of the difficulties
of the problem. But those difficulties are by no
means insurmountable. For years preparatory
schools were content TO ground boys in the Latin
end Greek which the colleges demanded, and
treat the college assumption that tnc English
had already been taught to its students as a
good reason for not teaching ii M all. Now IN
the better schools this is changed. The co-Opcra-
ton Of college and secondary teachers is set
ting standard 10 which all preparatory schools
will have TO come. For time, with the extern
sion Of courses and the ambition TO do advanced
work. our college authorities were in danger of
forgetting To coordinate their cuTricuums with
the intellectual development of those who pur-
sued them. They assumed that their pupils
were men prepared to study and investigate rs
trained students when. In fact. n large propor-
ton Of them were boys whose foundation i'm
learning was too crude to allow them 10 make
the best Of the teaching offered The authorities
have discovered their danger, and while they
strive to give the most advanced training they
are striving also To make their students fiji TO
profit by IT, Therefore they are entering into
closer relations with the preparatory schools.
Nowhere Is there greater need of such cO-Opera-
ton than in the teaching Of English. II Is to
he hoped that this third conference is an early