Better Schools (Paperback)

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1912. Excerpt: ... CHAPTER XV Language The most discouraging subject in the whole school curriculum is that known as language--the English language. The demands made on the child are simple; merely that he express himself orally and on paper, accurately and freely. It is not demanded of him that he express great thoughts, but simple, everyday thoughts. In a word, it is demanded that he be able to convey to others what he has in his mind. For this we give him eight or nine years, not to speak of the high school. What are the results? They are most unsatisfactory. I speak of the country as a whole. About thirty years ago a mighty revolution in the teaching of English swept the country. It was mainly a revolt against instruction in technical grammar, and a demand for direct instruction in langage by simply giving the children plenty of English to write. The revolution spent its force, and its outcome was beneficent. We paid more intelligent attention to getting results, and on the whole there was improvement in the use of English. But the improvement fell so far short of any reasonable standard of good writing, that it may be described as inconsequential. The outcome of language teaching is unsatisfactory almost everywhere. The result of eight or nine years of persistent instruction is pitiful. The high school is emphatic in its condemnation of the results. It matters not that the remedies suggested by the high school teachers are utterly inappropriate and inadequate, and it matters not that the high school does little better with the material received than the elementary schools have done; the estimate of these teachers is worthy of consideration. Indeed, the grammar school teachers are only too well aware of the correctness of the charges. Everywhere throughout our broad cou...