Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1898-09-21
pa,lp RenMebec 3ouri,aL
GOOD EVERYDAY ENGLISH,
MisA schsels Should Give More Time 10
Grammar.

- 80 oAa6 PlNA lOI h L1AOA
ough study Of grammar In the high |
schools. He speaks a. follows:
Good English. Is aepreparation for |
life. is niucl IKE gco1 manners. sort
Of sine Qaa non, that han BE attained |
only Aeee much endeavof and many |
thrashirxe. Let me- tell you whar
comes under my own eye. Nearly SO
per cent Of the applicants Tor admis-
sion 70 the University OF Chicago by
examination regularly fail In English.
In one recent examination IS per cent
failed. And the examinations were
easy. They did. to be sure, ask few
general questions about literature, and
few simple questions in grammar.
but my instructions to my readers
were admit every student who can
write English with q respectable
amount of correctness and clearness'
In other words, something like half the
students turned out from our high
schools are. to put 1t frankly, illiterate.
They speak and write with muddle-
headedness and disregard for the
laws Of English syntax that is as COM
plete as 1t is objectionable. Something.
then, is wrong. Indeed. even the
teachers of the high schools are will
ing to admit it.
lone trouble with our high schools is
that they have set the study of litera-
ture too high. and the study Of COM
position too low. The honest critic
must admit that the ordinary high
school pupil cannot understand what
makes a thing literature, and that he
does not and never will need that
v ho docs tho lad who 4.
to be a butcher care for the aesthetic
as quality Of style? The function q
the preparatory school, says one OF
these pamphlets, is to fit its students
for life' II that is so, the author Is
condemned out OF her own mouth. The
vast majority of our high school pupils
who are turned loose in the business
world will not succeed one whit less
Because they have never heard of Ben
Johnson or Christopher Marlowe. They
may even be very tolerable business
men If Shakespeare is to them but a
8 name. But their effectiveness is dis
tinctly impaired If they talk incorrect
ly and Obscurely. 1t seems really
automatic that in school work the
study of English literature is less
necessary than the study of what
makes correct. everyday English. In
other words, the schools are wrong in
giving two pounds of energy to litera-
ture and one to composition, because
the latter is essential, the former in
essential.
II very much fear that one other rea-
son why composition is in many schools
sighted subject and literature an over
emphasized one is that it is hard to teach
COmDOSitiOn. even D0OrIy. and EASY TO
teach literature poorly. / know too we'll
the strain of reading during the year
at the end of a days work ones mind is
utterly confused. But that is not the
point. The teacher is not hired to do
what i, Interesting to himself; but to dc
NEVER do that If he deceives himself into
1thanking that a high school class is equal
St1:Ascollege class;
speaksit too often-is' primarily to make
the pupil capable of moving about. cred
sitably In business and in society. And
when. our p1mphleteer says. The general
sHro blem Is one with that of public educa-
! stionEn aims to refine the mass of average
u mind till itFis sensitive to the higher is
sues Of life. and till the individual is
st tdrted toward self-realization. she is
Claiming the function that was never
8Sarcperly hers. Those of US who pay
ss'sSy little whether every pupil comes out
y4EAs the proper amount of 'self-realza-
tom but we do re that he should be
4ted out with the essentials of educa-
ton. Ifrhe 4uoes not get that We have
been cheated.
'.The emphasis belongs then. on compo-
sition and grammar, but not on rhetoric.
Grammar Is not to be dismissed in one
semester Of the high school term 1t may
not be necessary to take it up in the first
year, for it may be that the pupil has, at
that time. some idea of the rules and
fashions of speech that he is supposed to
have learned in the. grammar school. He
will certainly have forgotten those things.
however. by. the end of that year And
then, he needs a dose of formal grammar.
A little dogmatism is not out of place
with the student at this stage of his ca
mar. the thing which students of Lam
Euage proper tell us is not grammar at
all, is useful.
.'The schoolboy voices his opinion when
he says: Grammar amt no use The
trouble with most boys is that they have
$ no standard of good English. Many pu-
pupils hear no good English at all except
that which comes from their teachers.
To tell such pupils that they can learn by
observation what good English is. is
nothing short of folly. They need to have
their attention directed to matters of lam
guage. to have a rough and ready stand
ard for testing the bad language they
hear. In nine cases out of ten the stand
ards Will be forgotten almost as soon as
learned. For the few who hear good
English at home this is not serious
matter: for the. many who learn nothing
no system would be adequate. For the
rest. for young people with little or no
Intellectual material and with the good
memories of youth. no more interesting
and advantageous subject than grammar
could be found.
.Practically, then, the questions most
necessary for the high school pupil are
those of grammar, and the structure of
paragraphs and whole compositions. All
the work should be done simply, in a
common-sense spirit. and with no other
end than making the student understand
QYnrpgS m Splf
lies, effectively. Literature should be
studied just as far as it helps to attain
this aim. and not IA bit more. until at least
IS per cent Of the high school pupils can
get through the college examinations in
English without any stretching of the ex-
amners conscience.
Curious Condensatlons.