The sun., 1900-08-12

|
extreme poverty makes 1t necessary. know
| Of one especially sad case where the woman
has come In hopes Of lifting herself Tor
/ position which will enable her to support her
/ self and her husband, who has been out OF work
| for two years, The fact remains however
/ that many will not teach, and that there Is
are some who are too old, and some who are
| too stupid. There are even some who are
almost iliterate. | have class Of thirty one
one. who had French mother, can speak
! French The rest know nothing but Spanish
! and they cannot all write that correctly. some
| have a fne ignorance Of punctuation; They
| write q good hand, like copper plate. but are
| very slow. They are trained in music and
know something of elementary natural
| science. or literature, however, they are
curiou,ly ignorant They have not the habit
| OF books
"One comforting feature has been the steady
! Improvement even OF the worse element Then
there has been the really careful Work OF the
more earnest ones among them. They are go-
ing to take back to Cuba definite ideas about
civic life. public schools. charities and social
| organization. The good results in their cases
are sufficient 10 justify the expedition. II IL
were to be done over We would all wish ii done
Inherently. We could have got better results
had there been fewer Cubans. and those more
carefully selected and all Of one sex. Then II
We could have concentrated our energies on
school organization. we could really have ao-
complishsd something. As II is, energy has
been frittered away on geography and history
that could have been studied as well In Cuba as
here. The Cubans could have learned what a
valley was without going ten miles to Hobbs
Brooks to see one and the history Lessons could
diences At least half Of the social side OF the
excursion could have been spensed with:
One dance week could have served instead OF
two, and the teas for the edhcation Of the
Americans could have been dropped entirely.
The time has been 40 short that We could not
as an English teacher. for my girls come to me
now and say, Just as we are beginning 70 learn
something We have To 20 home, 1t might have
been different.
"'The one thing they are all going TO take
home is a slight knowledge Of tho English Ian
guags The English department of the exc,ir-
sion has cen carefully organized. There are
forty classes. each having about thirty;three
pupils. The accident OF the numbers deter
mined the first division into classes. but at the
end Of the first week n redvsion was made on
are about eight advanced class's. divided into
three grades The two higher ones. and B,
study an elementary English grammar and
read in third reader, The rect atoms are con-
Quoted in English. dictation Is given. and ex-
ercses are written outside of class. The
G. grade uses the same books as the beginners
and The Stepping stones 20 Literature.
primer prepared in English by Sarah Louise
Arnold and Charles b. Gilbert, and adart ted for
spanish use by Manuel Fernandez Junoos. The
c grade. however, advances more rapidly than
the beginners classes, and uses more English in
the class room. The teachers OF all the classes
done. and have the advantage Of working under
a definite head. The Cubans in turn, are
brought to feeling Of responsibility by the ex.
Vi5 Witch ssys sys. the ssanG Esh dignity EEs S Ss
which all the other departments lack; The
result is that there are few abse noes. although
the English classes are held twice every day ot
tho week except Sundays, from $50 to s;i5. and
from liN 10 Il.
The Cubans. too. do their part In preparing
the work outside few have made remark-
able progress Sometimes | find 1t pitiful 10
see old men carving ibarra on excursions
to study AT odd minutes. and young men sitting
on the stone posts of the fence TO study Ybarra
just before class. Ybarra has a great influence
sentences rs this: on landing at Charles.
town "A magnificent perspective was presented
for our consideration. and I will always con-
serve grateful remembrance OF my excellent
teacher In this place They are apt to be COM
plimentary in class Here are. two other ex-
ample:. which do not show the Influence so
the good taste of the. American people; I
say to my countrymeni We must initiate Me Ne
grentest desire is to learn very quickly, because
] bear very much when ! wish TO tell thing
and cannot express myself.
When people are so anxious 10 learn feel
ashamed TO meet them with the text books we
are obliged TO use. They seem very strange
In the sacred precincts of |! Harvard, usually
the home of the most advanced methods, This
ybarra was arranged primarily that English
speaking people might learn Spans There
are fifty lessons, each divided into three parts:
FIRST. yoca abulary OF words ana pIs phrases 70 be
else. arranged apparently to contain the long
est words Of both languages, and third, dia-
loogue for translation, which !. supposed to treat
parallel columns of Engli.h and spanish. There
Is no development IN the lessons except IN
length. There i. no scrap Of grammar. not
out in the inner consciousness OF the pupil. or.
H. usually happens, OF the teacher. We were
expected to go through one lesson day, but
that was found TO he too much. and 80 now we
take half ono day and half the next. We put
the emphasis on the pronunciation. and for that
reason 90 over each days lesson in advance.
"A serious fault n The book Is the use OF long.
unusual words. When a class cannot pro-
nounce i am correctl", and has no idea Of
either the final or the initial :, II is wicked
thing to request them to read about the neces-
sary condition for the execution OF the arcanum,
or the 'reiuvenatng Of 'septuagenarians, oc-
togenarians and ,nonagenarians, In the
eighth lesson they have TO commit to memory
the straight street Gothic architecture,
the puzzle and the labyrinth, and the box Of
an omnibus The fifteenth lesson has a read
ing exercise about South American forest
After references TO innumerable, cascades and
beautiful ca,hedrals comes this sentence:
From these in'erminable aisles and among
these thousands Of columns hang beautiful
orchids that form the chandeliers and cande-
abra of this colossal sanctuary. All here is
grand, all Is precious Then in other lessons,
there is much talk about the Tower Of Babel.
sedan chairs. barks, brignntines. Sufferers
and stammerers, and even OF "a genuine Eden
Of rural felicity We have the fact that tho
telenhone places in intimately close connection
the inhabitants Of great cities. and we commit
to memory. the phrase, to have complete con-
scionsness.'
"To appreciate the full humor Of the sltua-
ton. YOU must know the difficulties The Cubans
find in pronouncin2 even our simplest words
In their own Spanish they omit or slnr over
their consonants, drop the final which indi-
Gates the plural, and nasalize their M s and MS
These are all fatal errors in English. have
worked hve minutes to get the $ pronounced
IN cuffs In the end. the girl, with a look of
fiery determination, said slowly and distinctly,
cuss Then | gave up, And do you think
that can get girl like that To read such SEN
tences and phrases as have Just given you?
"Ybarra has also some clriousy compli-
seen; In the list TO be committed to memory
he gives I shall not have been alone, j should
like that II might have that ] may have been
studious that thou mightest not have had
no squirrel The forms with thou are very
common. The past lenses OF the verbs are
formed with did as he did obey and he did
sing and the distinction between shall and
will, should and would are entirely neglected
There, are unidiomatic phrases, like well
thought translation OF Bien pensado. and
there are ungrammatical sentence. like and
the collars they must be quite stiff. There
are also awkward sentence constructions
like this one about a stock brokers Office
There all is reduced to so much per cent. to
this worm. which little by little goes on. in
vading everything. and devours verythnR,
and which Is the ideal Of the humanity OF to-
dav, which wishes to reduce every thing TO
~ are likely to be Of use in conversation are
given TO commit To memory. Among them