The Catholic times. [volume] (Columbus, Ohio) 1951-current, 1954-07-09
Just Among Ourselves
Passing Comment Considered or IneoD.id.r.'.

Some fine day,-perhaps distant day in the most
uncertain of futuresr-a teacher of high school
classes is going to arise and tell startled world
just what impossible task is currently laid upon
the shoulders of secondary" educators. We hear
plenty. heaven knows, of the scarcity of teachers,
and of the poor salary paid to teachers and of the
educational red tape in which teachers are entang-
led. But the real trouble to teachers,-esp especially
in the secondary or phrenehc area of the educa-
tional efforts not in the things named; this
trouble is a matter of odd unpredictable irrepress-
ible, bizarre bits Of humanity called pupils, and
sometimes laughingly, students
The medium of education is language Unless
teacher and pupil have q common speech, little
can pass from one to the other. Some say educa-
tion putting in, and some say it is drawing
out in the of developing. But neither process
is workable without common instrument of COM
municaton. And some day the secret will be out:
that modern pupils in high school do not speak the
English language. BY that same token they do
not understand it, And here is teacher problem
indeed
Would you thqk ii possible-and high school
teachers know it is a fact,-that after four years
of high school, pupils are in ignorance of the
meaning of many simple words? And words mind
you that have been carefully gone over in class,
with attention 10 spelling, pronunciation, and use
in sentences. Such words abfogate, catastrophe,
decorum, anecd0te anthesis attluence, digress,
Would you not suppose that twelve years of school
ing plus special instruction and exc e, would give
modern young people some notion of what these
words mean? Well you are wrong
What is teacher 10 think when, after hours
of earnest and professionally skilled effort to i'm
part such basic information at the meaning and of
ordinary words, he upon a paper with such
nonsense as this "Abrogate, to abandon He abro-
gated his friends?"
High school pupils are not leather headed They
are not stupid. But the areas of their interest and
the OF their school instruction simply
worlds apart The people who are required by law
10 spend their adolescent years IN school benches
are class interested in thousand things, but
the language IN which they are 10 achieve or fail to
achieve the status OF educated persons, is not ia
mlar on their tongues or in their ears.
These young Americans, the hope of our nation.
tell you about the great and nearly great of
Hollywood. They know the latest iargon from the
comic books which anything but comic. They
are up in their sports AID they know their own
date line thoroughly But they are ignorant of the
language of their fathers, and it is doubtful if in
ten Of them could read the Declaration OF ndepend-
ence inelligenty tell YOU anything of what they
had read when they had finished the document
What is to be thought of the young graduate
and of whom bright things are said in the year
book and The class-prophecy, who thinks that the
dfflaeHce is verb meaning ito influence
peope?" What is to be said OF classmate of this
hero who believes that catastrophe means "the
noise and disturbance following Calamity?Y And
what of the giant Of mind to whom antthesis means
disease of the lungs"
We read in little books of schoolboy "boners" the
implausible definition of anecdote as "a remedy for
poison" But, actually that definition was
gwen and with serious intent, by no less than six
out of thirty in recent test in English for high
school seniors And one in ten who took the same
test believed that deconm1 is class or group of
persons: THE decorum OF gentlemen left the room
And the word anthology was distress and dis
aSter To hall the pupils subjected TO the simple
review Some thought that anthology is The sci
ence of human life" Others shifted il off as "A
subject studied IN college Example He took anthol.
ogy his first semester" One pupil with some gm.
merng of Greek originals which he could never
resognze, defined the word az "A bouquet of
flowers"
The word addmout brought to light the state of
some juvenile minds you will have TO adamant
this subject II you hope to pass" Genius could not
produce the equal TO that sentence II ranks only
ond TO the remark of the pupil-Fourth Year
TO be re,4-who, in review of the opening lines
Of Millions LAHegro, explained In times of peace
the knights had nothing else TO do, they joSt
with another for the eye of damse'
70 three of five the word disress was complete
ly meaningesS,-Nell. not so much so that the in
competents we're unwilling to supply definition
or give illustrative samples of use, such as "Di.
gress people are not many And This business will
fail If the company does not dgress energet-
ieally'
Is II any wonder that teachers sometimes feel
like saying, what price education?" And without
a working knowledge of the mother tongue how
shall education ever be fact? Nicholas Murray
Butler once sad-and no has dared TO declare
him wrongs-that the first mark of an educated man
IS his ability 10 handle his native speech with un
dersanding, grace and flnency
II is strange that this marked inatention TO cul-
tivated speech. this fine and fundamental ignorance
Of the meaning of words one cut above basic Eng
lish should be characteristic OF a day when educa-
tlonal methods and visual aids, and audio tech
nques. and all The mechanics Of schooling have
reached such high degree OF refinement Or is
II stranger Maybe we have so refined the processes
which make for mechanical and scientific smooth
ness in lmnarting knowledge that we have neglected
the somewhat important item Of what is to be I'M
parted