The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1900-09-12
RACES IN
THE SCHOOLS
Babel Of Tongues to
Deal With.
PROFESSOR SCOTT TALKS
Interesting Discussion Of Educational
Matters by the Head of
the High School.

Prof NJ. NJ. Scott, of the High School,
garding the difficulties encountered by
the teachers here in handling this "Ba-
bel of tongues" and the practical OBJ
stacles In the way of reaching any stan
dard. Personally" said Professor
Scott, II am astonished they do so well
Teachers in the States never have to
handle such raw material but, from
long and patient labor in this particular
field, our teachers have actually re-
duced this condition Of things and
brought it down to minimum. In this
respect, they are better able to Crap
pie with the subject today than would
be a fresh teacher in the field. una
ware Of the peculiarities of each and
every nationality in our schools. The
Hawaiian, as you know, has but twelve
sounds in his language. When the first
missionaries transmitted, or gave them
letters, he took the vowel sounds
There are few consonants In their Ian
mystery. 1t is like a gathering of the
waters. In fact it is not in accord with
any other known language; it Is not
cognate.
Now, here we can see some of the
difficulties teachers in our schools have
to contend with; because, practically
language of a whole people has had
to be changed-peacefully, it is true, for
they recognize the fact, as do we, that
| the change viii be the better for their
children and their children's children
The difficulty that confronts these chill
dren Is this: Having to learn a Ian
guage before they can be instructed to
any extent in that language. Right
here, in the High School, we find that
state of affairs constantly. We have to
really prepare them, even when they
come from other schools. OF course we
nave a department for that very pur-
pose. Each year. however. conditions
are growing better, and in a few years
this state of affairs will be thing of
the past.
PERSONAL. 1 feel a regret to see the
language of people dying out. 1t
lforeshadows the decadence of the race
1t becomes degraded and the language
goes down and is finally relegated to
the antiquarian and the philologist to
study. The Hawaiians are a noble peo-
pie and L find something pathetic abou.
1t. The Hawaiian having but twelve
sounds-and of course every sound pro-
bounced mas muscle sound, it takes
him long while to acquire our many
consonants; especially the 'gh' and the
tn Voltaire made fun of the English
for their manner of cutting their words
in two,' but the Frenchman who has an
h in his language has let it become a
FOSSIL and he leaps right over it.
AS the Chinese have no r. in their
language they substitute an Il as, for
instance in the word rice which they
pronounce lice 1t is not so singular
either. The Japanese have no T. so
they use the r in it's place. Then the
Portuguese have peculiarities equally
marked; making it very difficult for
the teacher new to our polyglot race to
make any Roadway until she has be-
come accustomed to all these oddities
OF tongue-for dialects they are not.
simplicity forms the keynote of the
Hawaiian character, and as a race they
are most lovable. Voltaire saws. the
alphabet was the origin of ali mans
knowledge, and of all his errors but
the system in vogue on our Islands will
ultimately merge into one the different
factions, or elements, resulting from
the mixture of races and produce from
the conglomerate mass a perfect unity
or whole"