Chicago eagle. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1889-19??, 1900-05-12

The teaching Of English wns made by
Mrs. May Wright Sewall, teacher, club
woman and author, at the North Cen
tral Associations meeting at 1t. Louis.
She declared That the defects which cx.
LIST In teaching composition In the Sec
onlnry schools may be traced directly
md principally to defects In elemcn.
tary teaching In composition. Children
are not taught from the start correct
sentence structure. pains, and the hab-
1t Of selection In vocabulary ana care.
full punctuation. Just MS foreign Ian
guagc Gun be most easily assimilated
by n young child 80 can these funda-
mental elements Of composition be-
most easily acquired, not only ms mat-
tiers Of knowledge but as habit by chill
dren In the primary grades. As such
instruction Is seldom given In the lower
grades pupils are weak In the mechan.
ical part Of composition. A point made
by Mrs. Sewall Ii that the teacher or
English In secondary schools often fails
to realize that In all his intercourse
with his pupils he Ia teaching them En-.
glish. ana many times tho defects In
English which the teacher spends a
large portion Of the recitation time In
endeavoring to correct have been ac-
qulrcd from himself in the hours when
not teaching English and he was, 80 to
speak. OF his guard. 1t il also true that
teachers Of other subjects than English
are not careful In their language, and
while giving instruction In mathemat.
les or history a teacher may be uncon.
sclOusly giving his pupils direct instruc.
ton In haltlng or mt best commonplace
ana incleKaift English.
When Horace Fletcher proposed IL
complete moral quarantine for waits,
ana IN endeavor to bring every child In
the community under educative and
mOralixlng influences, he was met by
the cry: 1t Is impracticable! Besides,
1t would cost 80 much!' The problem,
How TO deal with 1.-The bad" has i'm
portant economic aspects. In truth. the
heap that may be found In every city
Ii only the darker side Of huge social
loss. OF which the lighter side Is ma
tcrial waste. The importance OF saw
Ing souls needs not to be urged. II one
believes In soul ut all, he believes.
theoretically ut least, that It Ia worth
saving ut any cost. But, practically.
| I'm 80 Inn, 10 oh.
strictcd on the one hand by economic
pnrslniony, and on the other ny econ
Omic prodIgality; aud both Of these are
opposed to u rational economy. There
are two or three truths that ought to
DO obvious TO oil intelligent people. hut
10 whicl many IRE strangely blind. The
first Ia. that society must bear the cost
of taking care OF the bad" There II
no option. They are class which can
not be ignored or shaken on. They are
like the ''old man Of the sea-" The
| second truth II, that the present meth.
oil Of restraint IL not only ludlcr0usly
ineffective but also very costly What
IN immense number Of institutions
society has created to protect itself
|
own prOduct-pOlice. sheriffs. courts.
jails. penitentiaries, ref0rmatorIes.
pOOrhOuses. executions and the like!
All these are expensive; In the aggre-
gate they cost vast sum Add to this
the cost OF thousands of organizations
for reform ana for mitigating the evil
and distress caused by the deprava-
| 90 han
homes, asylums, relief societies, feder-
ated charities, 1t III 0mme genus. Final.
~, add the economic loss caused by the
unprOductiveness of 1.-The bad" and OF
those who guard them. This entire sum
of cost to society IL sufficient to care
effectively for the moral training of
every neglected child aud leave at least
a fourth part OF the money unused.
This IL no mere guess. Careful estl-
mates have been made which fully JUS.
tify the statement that the present ex-
penditure for imperfect restraint OF
evil would TO sufficient for effective
prevention. Our moral blunder Is also
an economic blunder OF the gravest
sort. but III prevention possible? A
single instance may DO cited In reply.
namely, DR.. Bernari0's work on behalf
of the waits In London. Before he be-
gan his work, these. almost without u
ceptlOn, were recruiting "the bad."
Out OF nearly ten thousand cases there
has been loss of less than two In u
hundred. The rest Were saved to de.
cency, health, morality and economic
productiveness. Those who seek the
salvation OF the world will work with
divine effectiveness when they SEQ
clearly what this means; "a little child
shall lead them"