The Richmond palladium and sun-telegram. [volume] (Richmond, Ind.) 1907-1939, 1911-09-09
sv ESTHER GRIFFIN WHITE.
School begins next week.

School begins next week
Then starts the battle of the school
teachers with what Is termed home
influences"
For some mysterious reason home
influences" is synonymous with every
thing eleyating. refining, educating.
Why this should be SO, when casual
glances are given sundry home influ-
ences next door or round the corner.
TO say nothing Of those of your rela-
tives and most enduring friends. ia
one of those commonplace mysteries
easily explainable.
Explainable by frankly acknowledg-
ing the buncomb handed out" about
1.-THE home"
THE home" is where man is seen
without any of those charming dis.
guises in which he masquerades before
society. Where he vents his ill-tem-
pers. Is frankly selfish and hateful
Where he casts of all those shackles
upon speech and act which restrain
him when in daily contact with the
rest who are incidentally doing the
same thing.
And the women are just as bad
sometimes.
However to 60 back to the teachers.
Johnnie where is your arithmetic"
Il amt got no arithmetic"
johnnie" severely and slowly,
where is your arithmetic?"
II amt got no book"
What you mean to say, Johnnie, is
that you haven't any arithmetic"
Johnnie smokers and looks silly.
Johnnie has been associating exclu-
sively with his family since June and
his ability to talk with correctness is
lying dormant.
The discouraged teacher casts her
eve to heaven and wonders how soon
she will be abused in some women's
club convention for not teaching Eng
lish speech, pure and undef1led.
The truth is that the schools are not
to blame. Never in their history in this
country, and especially in this state,
have they been giving so much atten-
ton to the teaching of English Not
only in the high schools, but in the
lower grades.
General complaints obtaining the
nation over relative to the inefficiency
of the graduates of our public schools
in the use Of the English language,
both spoken and written. has, within
the past few years, caused a revival of
insistence upon spelling and compost
ton that has resulted admirably.
Our State Superintendent of Public
Instruction have started on a crusade
that has brought this matter to the
crucial test. Robert ]. Alley, now presi-
dent of the University Of Maine, be-
gan series of spelling contests that
attained conspicuity. Mr.. Greathouse,
now the incumbent of the former Of
flee, has announced his determination
to wage wal. against the murderers of
grammar
But their task is difficult one
They buck right up against that
home influence"
The minute Johnnie goes home he is
bombarded with questions, admoni-
tons and even endearments of the
most shudderable linguistic sort.
Nothing SO relegates you to social
class as certain grammatical errors
habits formed in the plastic
years of early childhood have damned
many boy or girl socially later.
1t is just as reprehensible to start a
child wrong linguistically as it is NOR
ally.
Education means nothing if it does
not mean the correct use of the lam
guage. Cultured speech carries far It's
half the battle in many a successful
business career.
But the teacher cannot combat the