Frostburg mining journal. [volume] (Frostburg, Md.) 1871-1913, 1901-04-27
TOWN ANDVICINITY.
School Pick-Ups.

School progress.
Meeting him and principal George w.
Craig the JOURNAL fell into a colloquy
concerning current linguistic mon
strosities. the term, ''alright," leading.
O'Rourke was glad to say he had not
encountered it at Beall High School and
Craig was more than glad to announce
that no such distortion would be found
there.
Yet" said O. Rourkc, "the expression
appeared in one of the town papers last
week"
"Not in all the town papers, re-
sponded the JOURNAL, and the trio sepa-
rated with mutual congratulations.
This brings to mind IA statement made
bv a school trustee in Chicago some time
ago
that one half of the teachers in the put lie
schools could not write or spell the English
language correctly.
To this DR.. f. Benjamin Andrews, a!-
hitting the impeachment, responded
Inc 1ault is IlOl 81 lllutu WIN t'I 'SaNiSi'
as with the system in which they were IN
structed and in which they were lnstructinG
others.
Another trustee, Austin Sexton, said
The trouble is that the attempt is made to
teach spelling without spelling book, the
English language without grammar We
are advancing too fast; let us stick to the
grammar and the spelling book, no matter if
they are called old-fashioned. Give the
pupils one hour every day with the grammar
not English literature, "Hiawatha,
Julius Caesar" or anything Of that sort.
In New York recently Miss Julia H.
Wohlfarth, a grammar-school teacher
speaking of 1.-THE aim of education, said
1t is social service.
Continuing, she cOntended that
We teachers are officers of the State, and
the State expects us to train citizens. 1t is
not question of how much boy knows
when he leaves school, but question of his
tendency to act, to express himself The
teaching of the child to express himself in
language is naturally of the first importance.
In regard to written language as an
aid to speech she said:
Composition is the most poorly taught study
in the public schools. | may go further and
say it is not taught at ALT has no logical
development. Only one that has acquired
command of language can use it freely.
The difficulty Is that we do not teach the
children to think. No child can express him
oil n nDprpciafp hlph
preston in others. He needs ideals, literary
ideals.
Agatha teacher came into this Office
this week and left bit of nicely written
manuscript, and to her the JOURNAL of
fered the observation that i'll all schools
approXimating the magnitude of Beall
High School all the pupils should enjoy
practice and tuition under one eXemplar
as well as tutor of penmanship. That is
to say, instead of having in the course
through that school, for instance. of
graduating from nine or ten different
styles of proficiency i'll penmanship, the
pupil should enjoy resort for the whole
time to Il department where the art is
Systematically taught and uniformly ex-
emplitied. Spelling and other accom-
plishments can be largely acquired "cj-
dPntnIly, but penmanship is IA speciality
depending upon a mechanical sleight to
be caught, sometimes from nborc the
elbow. More than any other school ex-
ercise it combines the mechanical with
the mental; hence more than any other
it should be specialized wherever prac-
ticable.
After all, spelling and writing are the
fruits of the tree of knowledge which the
people most see, and by these, teachers
and pupils, are ye best known.
Prof. John T. White, examiner, was
at Beall High School all day Thursday