The Farmville herald. (Farmville, Va.) 1957-current, 1961-05-09
English Teaching
Continued from page u

DR.. SimOnini attributes most OF
this success to the activities of
the Virginia Association of
Teachers of English which has
sponsored meetings, surveys and
teaching materials in its field
Professor James NJ. Granger, re-
tired head Of the English Depart
ment at LongWoOd. was CO.
founder of the Association in
1915, and ever since, Longwood
faculty members have been ac-
tive in supper. of its professional
activities. DR.. Simonini points
out
Criticism Made
Recently. the Richmond Times
Dispatch wrote editorially, THE
appalling number Of high school
graduates, and even collie e
graduates who can't write a
grammatical sentence or read
with reasonable f facility. has
alarmed the teaching profession
and the American public gener-
ally.
Facility with the English Ian
g1lage would seem to be the basic
educational requirement in this
country. but there are repeated
and dismaying evidences that
both in Virginia and throughout
the nation we are falling far
short of the desirable profici-
ency."
The Virginia Commission on
Public Education, the "Spong
Commission" uncovered similar
findings, but it didn't stop there.
1t added specific recommends
tons, and designated English as
a critical teaching area, to-
gether with science, mathematics
and foreign languages.
The Commission also found the
absence of administrative coordi-
nation and the absence of state
level supervisory personnel in
/ English are shortcomings needing
correction.
Trouble Spots
Where and why have the cir
cumstances arisen that could lead
to shortcomings in the field of
English field where most
admit that success is vital to sue
cess in every other field of edu-
cational and professional en-
deavor?
DR.. Simonini finds it in: Il too
great a teaching load on the indi-
Vidual teacher; ~ lack of cur
riculum coordination between
public school grades and public
school and college classes; and
~ lack of aWareness of admin
strators Of the needs in the field.
In Virginia. the average Eng
lish teachers meets with $50 stu
dents in five or SIX classes daily.
Everybody in the profession
recognizes that the ideal would
be Is students per class in about
four classes daily" DR.. Simonini
states.
ITO grade carefully, with at
tention to content and expression,
| one piece Of written work of
about $50 words, requires about
eight minutes. With overloaded
classes and demands on teachers
time for dramatics. forensics.
publication supervision. teaching
under such conditions is imposSi-
BILE. the department head states.
It is estimated a teacher would
have 60-hour work week to do
it all. They won't do it," he OBJ
serves.
English is the only field with
out supervisor in the State De-
partment of Education, he
states. reminding of the super
visOry emphasis given to such
fields as vocational education and
home economics.
1T is commendable that in
1860 Virginia raised from 10 to
"a the number of semester hours
Of preparation required for GER
sification of teachers in English,
but it must be remembered that
for many years. it was only IL
semester hours DR.. Simonini
states.
I'VE also suffer from general
apathy since many people think
nothing in the field of English
changes. Yet more developments
in the field have taken place in
the last Is to 20 years, in such
| fields as literary criticism. than