The Washington herald., 1914-03-22


what is taught. OF course. there has been
a great tendency To let fads run away
with us, but there are fads and fads, and
| am believer in fads IL by fads you
| mean physical training. l do not think
that in any school the boys and girls
| should be taught more than FIVE different
subjects in one day, and one of the five
should be physical culture.
Girls Not Brighter Than Boys.
by the bye. talking of boys and girls
know that the general belief is that
girls learn quicker than boys up to a
certain age. Indeed. II has been laid
down as almost aximatic by learned psy-
biologists. statisticians and all kinds of
experts that the young girl is mentally
brighter and absorbs things quicker than
the young boy. But 1t Is not true. The
only thing is that the bringing up Of
girls and boys Is different. and that in
our day and generation the way girls are
brought up prepares them better for
mere book-learninE than does the early
training OF boys. 4 real American boy
gets out and plays ball and runs and
jumps and swims and acts like a healthy
young animal should, but II the Ameri-
can girl tries to do these things her
mother is almost certain to tell her that
little girls shouldn't behave like that: IL
isn't pretty That is why che young boy
absorbs information better from his sur
roundings than the young girl. and the
young girl learns better from things
written in books.
After all America is still in the pion
eer stage and here there is not that
atmosphere OF learning and bookishness
that you find in the older countries OF
Europe. in England say. I take England
as an illustration because the language
there is the same as ours. Now the
English boy learns better from books
than the American boy does, but the
American boy is quicker to learn from
experience. There is some degree OF
heredity in that of course. Most of our
boys are the sons of fathers whose
book learning was anything but exten-
sive and who were really self-made men.
Native Of Buffalo.
Mrs Young comes from New York
State She was born in Buffalo in
January. 1886. and there she received
most of her schooling. Her father. who
was a noted mathematician, moved to
Chicago in the latter fifties, and there
Miss Flagg graduated from one of the
city high schools. She at once went to
the normal school, and in 1852 took her
first class in tho Foster School. Some
of her boys were prairie bred, and they
thought they could lord il over the rather
youthful sChoolmarm. She was made the
butt of their ridiculc, but one day the
leader of tho young rebels went too far
and found himself seized by the collar
and shaken Wher h" got his breath his
teacher was asking him. why do you
laugh at me whea I am dong the best
/ can? Don't you know it's cowardly to
laugh at n person who is dong the best
she can? i could throw you out of the
window il I wanted to, but don't want
to. l want to be good to you. out you've
got to be good TO me-" Needless to say
that her plea for fair play won out.
In Chicago Mrs. Young has had ex-
ceptional opportunities for studying the
foreign element. and she has strong
views on the value of foreign languages
and the influence they are likely to have
in the broadening of our national life and
literature.
Prefers Living Languages.
While realizing to the full the great
disciplinary value of classical studies,
she prefers the living languages to the
dead. She said:
Greek is not taught in any of Chi
cago's schools: at least not regularly. III
believe there is one high school which
has a Greek class OF about ten members,
ten out Of more than q. 900 high school
students. The day will probably come
when We shall do away with Latin in
our schools also, but i should be sorry to
see that because of the splendid mental
training that Latin affords. Its disciple
nary value is very great. Yet there Il.
no good reason why modern languages
should not be taught in a way that
would give them a real disciplinary value.
The great trouble with American
schools in regard to foreign languages
has been that all our efforts have been
directed to turning out good Americans.
whereas We have too often succeeded in
turning out only SNUG Americans. The
great value of foreign languages has been
disregarded here out of a sense Of false
patriotism. We have made no efort tol
encourage the foreign immigrant TO keepl
up his native language besides acquiring
English, and the result has been that all
the great wealth of foreign language
brought into the country by the teeming
millions Of our alien-born population has
been thrown away. However, there are
signs that Americans are waking up to
the importance of this subject and that
the day Is at hand when foreign lang
uages will be appreciated here at their
true worth. That means there is going
to be a great Improvement in the manner
In which they are taught.