Evening star., 1914-10-11

The trade opportunities for the man
ufacturers and merchants of the United
States which have
The Teaching been opened up be-
| ~ c,,,;,h cause of the Euro
| pean war have served
to awaken educators of this country to
most glaring defect in the American
| school systematic general failure OF
schools to teach Spanish. the principal
language of the Pan-American repub-
lies. Until the beginning of an investi-
cation now under way in the United
States bureau of education few per-
sons realized how surprisingly few
high schools in the United States teach
the language spoken by the people of
the South American countries in which
American business men hope to CAP
| ture more trade
Out OF more than than 5000 high
schools OF the United States which
nave reported in the governments in
vestigatlon less than 300 teach Span
hiah tIn: wore dhan one-third of the 900
located in two statesScaiifornia have
ing seVenty-f1ve and Texas fortv-one
Only three American high schools
nll lannuapa prlVate1teaeh at pt, Portuguese. the
area far exceeds that Of the
eontinental ,J taa United States. There
are are lz'aoo high schools in this
country. and it is believed that the ma
in their courses were naturally the
nrst to report. Even if the number
which teach Spanish runs up to 400 or
eoo' IT Will not be an encouraging
showing for the educators of this coun-
try VINO are expressing regrets that
up TO the present time more attention
has not been given to the modern ian
suaees, especially to Spanish.
-, ahIr.y Ir times as many high schools of
ish.. and there are forty students Ia
boring over Latin books for every one
VINO is taxing Spanish. Government ed
ucational experts submit these figures
IN IN showing that the small amount of
noteworthy when compared with the
teaching work given to Latin in Ameri-
can high schools
A curious side light on the assumed
Importance of Latin in schools in the
United States is afforded by the fact
that in Latin America. where the
whole inheritance is Latin, the subject
is not taught in the schools. In some
OF the countries of South America the
schools are forbidden to teach Latin.
South Americans for discarding Latin
is that this is a practical age and
requires practical subjects" It may
be noted that all educated South
Americans know English.
While Latin is no longer a required
subject In most public high schools, for
all practical purposes 1t is as strongly
intrenched as ever. Even in high
schools where Spanish is offered as a
subject it may be pursued for two
years for Latin. The special force Of
this situation is not being felt in con-
nection with all attempts to extend
American commerce to South America.
The Importance of Spanish at the
present time is such that DR.. P. p.
Claxton. United States commissioner
of education, has written to all Sec
ondary schools urging that the subject
be taught more than at present. DR..
Claxton calls attention to the special
need for both Spanish and Portuguese
at the present time. He says: I'VE
should offer instruction in the Spanish
and Portuguese languages to much
larger extent than is now done. and we
should teach in our schools and coll
leges more of the geography. history.
countries"
The current educational theory is
that Latin holds it's place because Of
the demands of the colleges. Officials
of most secondary schools of the
United States realize that their insti-
tutions are still under the domination
of the colleges. AS long as the general
public believes that Latin iA necessary
experts say that the high school will
be unable apparently to replace 1t.
even in the case of pupils who need
something else, with a subject like
Spanish, which has a practical value
in addition to it's cultural value.
The investigation of the federal bu-
reau of education into the teaching of
Spanish and Portuguese in the United
States is intended to cover high
schools, colleges, seminaries, night
schools, Y. NJ. c. A. schools and other
institutions. 1t has been found that
many of the private educational or
ganizations are attempting to meet the
demand for Spanish. DR.. Glen Levin
Swiggett of the University Of Ten
nessee is directing the investigation
for the bureau.