Richmond dispatch. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1884-1903, 1899-12-15
"ENGLIsH AS SHE IS WROTE"
some Wise Suggestions to College
Students.
Chicago Tribune.)


The persistent failure Of our schools
and universities 10 turn out men who can
write and speak good, clear, correct Eng
lish is amazing as IT is notorious. After
our boys have spent eight years I'm the
graded schools, three or four years IN
a high school or academy, four years In
college. and then perhaps three or more
I'm professional school they can by no
means be trusted to write decent letter
i'm the English language or make cor
rect and scholarly speech. II Is not nee
essary TO refer 10 Harvard University's
voluminous report OF this humiliatng dis
covery in order TO substantiate these
statements.
Educators in search OF cure for this
blemish on our school system can do no
better than TO study Franklin's method
OF self-education as described by sydney
George Fisher IN his volume. THE True
BENJAMIN Franklin" Franklin went 20
school less than two years in his whole
life. yet he was one Of the best masters
of the English language this country has
produced. Not only was he the first pro-
minent self-made American, but he was
probably the greatest. not excepting
Jackson or Lincoln. Not one college gra-
duate in five hundred to-day can use the
English language with the grace. facility,
and accuracy acquired by Franklin IN his
hours stolen from recreation or sleep.
Yet, as Mr. Fisher says, q collegian who
receives his deploma without receiving
with 1t more than mediocre facility Of
expression has spent his time and money
in vain. IL was Franklin's wonderful
power in the use OF English that mode
him a great man. Without II he would
have been second-rate or ordinary. How
did he get his power and why do our
collegians fall TO acquire III
Franklin ascriDed the beginning OF his
education I'm expression 20 his youthful
taste Tor writing verses. Though his
father ridulculed and dissuaded him
from this pastime. no remained more or
less a verso writer throughout his lie.
To this fact more than 70 anything else
he attributed his training in prose. lie
was also went 10 argue and dispute with
his friend Jonn Collins. During one such
dispute he championed the property OF
educating women, but at the close he
felt he had been worsted by his oppo-
nents more fluent tongue. lie reduced
his arguments TO writing and a CORES
pondence followed. Franklin's father
happened to see the letters and pointed
out 10 his son the great advantage Col
Inns had in clearness and elegance Of er-
preston the ambitious youth took the
hint and began course OF systematic
self-dril in composition such as no
school now imposes.
He bought a copy OF Addison's Specta-
tor and studied IL. with a view 10 INT
tating its style he took brief notes OF
each sentance, laid the notes aside Few
DAYS and then tried TO complete Inc
original from them. Finally ne compar-
ed the two and corrected the eros. To
I.llI 10 or TEL
facility he reduced the Spectator papers
10 verse. and after he had petty well
forgotten the prose he turned them back
again. lie also sometimes 1umbied his
notes into confusion and after lapse oil
some weeks tried 20 put the thoughts
again IN the best order. Ihls taught
him the arrangement OF thoughts-now
almost a lost art.
In Franklln's delightful description OF
this severe course he lays bare the Sc
cret OF how TO acquire the power TO
write good English. IL IS one OF the
things that 1--WE learn to DO by doing
Then why does the modern SCHOLARSHIP
insist that IS should be done by reading
and writing Greek end Latin? Mr.. Fisher
himself discounts his own conclusion by
remarklng that 70 write Latin verses Is
an even better and severe drill. But
Franklin had nothing TO do with Latn
or Greek. He put the same amount OF
concentration on English. thus getting
the severe mental drll and at the same
time becoming accustomed To the tools
he was later 70 use with facility. the
classical student gets the drill without
the facility. because when he gets
through studying he throws away MS
Greek and Latin vocabulary and - d
stranger to the finer uses Of his own Ian
guage. He can neither speak IL fluently
nor write Il accurately. He cannot even
punctuate Il properly. The example or
FRANKLIN IS an unanswerable criticism
upon the modern educational system