The Fargo forum and daily republican. [volume] (Fargo, N.D.) 1894-1957, 1913-06-03
Why NOT TEACH
SCANDINAVIAN?
THIS LANGUAGE OF MORE I'M.
PoRTANCE IN NORTH DAKOTA
THAN OTHER MODERN LAM
-GUAGEs-sHoULD BE ONE OF
ELECTIVE COURSES.

TIC The Fargo Forum: A short time
ago DIR. Lenker of st. Paul visited
Fargo. During his stay here he deliv-
cred a. lecture and several shorter
talks, in all of which he advanced rea-
sons why the Scandinavian languages
ought to have a place in the public
chool curriculum Of the state. A To-
cal publication took exception to the
views advanced by DR.. Lenker and in a
recent editorial proceeded to sing the
praises of Latin in the high school
course. Being interested in the public
school work of the state and education
in general, l would like to call your at
tention to a few facts pertinent to this
question.
AS a matter of fact, there are u large
number of students in the high hOO
today that do not study Latin, because
Latin is an elective subject in the high
school course, a pupil being free to
take two, three or o u years Of Latin,
or none at all. In order to be consist
ent the paper referred to should begin
a campaign for making Latin compul-
sorry for every high school pupil, be-
cause it is already being supplanted to
a very great extent either by mathe-
MATES, science, French, German or
history. Now, then, since Latin is not
compulsory and other subjects are
chosen in it's place it would seem to
me that DR.. Lenker, or n other school
man, has a perfect right to Compare the
different substitutes both as 10 Cultur-
al and commercial Values.
Given a boy or girl just out Of the
eighth grade in his high school course
two years Of some modern language
must be studied. What should this
pupil choose in case he is Of SCandina-
Wan descent, and has probably a ca
sonable Conversations knowledge Of
the Scandinavian language? Two
years of German will not give him
enough German so that he can either
read or write it. It will not put him
in reach of the cultural value of the
German literature. Two years Of
French will give him still less Of this
language for either cultural use, or
commercial use. If on the other hand
he takes two years of the Scandinavian
language he will lave a language that
he can read and write. The writer's of
the Scandinavian literature are at his
command.
The Scandinavian literature is read
just as extensively throughout Europe
today as any other foreign literature.
Ibsen, BjOrson, Gaarborg, Kjelland. Lee
and dozens of others Of the great expo
nents of Germanic thought and dra-
matte and poetic art in general are not
eXcelled by either the French or the
German. SO much for the cultural
value.
I need hardly call your attention to
the fact that there are vastly more
Scandinavians in the northwest than
there are Germans or French. AS far
as drill value is concerned, any foreign
language serves the same purpose in
developing a pupils critical ability,
and as far as commercial value is con
cerned, there are twenty calls for
clerks who can speak scandinavian
where there is one for a clerk who can
speak French. Taking these things
into consideration, n the further
fact that one of the heaviest tax paying
elements in the northwest is the Scan
~dinaVian, if they prefer to nave their
boys and girls spend two years on the
Scandinavian Language instead of giving
that time to French or German, have
they not a perfect right to do so?
Since other things are equal and they
pay the fiddler there is no reason why
the morning paper whose revenue
largely comes from a Scandinavian
people should feel so worried about the
Introduction of Scandinavian in the
public schools.
The editorial claims that so per cent
of the English language is Latin deriv-
atives. While this statement is true
as far as the contents of the dictionary
are concerned, 1t is, nevertheless a
1diSc anu IhlSlSdIlilS statement. VI |
these 70 per cent to 80 per cent are
Anglo-Saxon words. closely related to
German and Scandinavian. In looking
over an article in the same paper I
find that less than Is per cent of the
words it uses are of Latin origin. Of
the words used by laborers in northern
England. according to the best au-
thorities, 90 per cent, and over, are
words of German origin and not Latin
derivatives. The English Bible and
Bunyan's Pilgrims Progress contain
over IS per cent of Germanic words.
Therefore since Latin is not COM
pulsory, since it is already displaced by
other disciplines, since it is merely a
question whether people are Of Scandi-
navian origin and have a chance to
master alanguage or to spend two years
on some other modern language which
will be of but very little benefit to
them, is it not air and just and rea-
sonable that each community in this