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CHAPTER XX

SUMMARY-IDEALS AND AIMS IN THE TEACHING AND STUDY OF ENGLISH, WITH SOME CRITICISMS OF PREVAILING PRACTICES.

In conclusion we may attempt to summarize some of our leading points and to supplement these with a few after-thoughts.

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I. Literature and Language must be taught from their own distinctive point of view, the point of view of Art. They are not information studies; they are not sciences; they aim to develop, not knowledge, but power, imaginative sympathy, sensibility, admiration. This means that when a teacher passes from a lesson in Geography, let us say, to one in Reading, her point of view must undergo a complete change. Now she has quite other aims than those pursued in her geography work; now the whole atmosphere of the class room has altered. She has been dealing in her geography work with facts and their logical connection; now she is dealing with the emotional interpretation of facts, with experience in its relation to human hopes and fears, fancies and imaginings, desires and duties, ideals and aspirations. The fact is now of less importance

than the spiritual rendering or interpretation of it, the emotional response to it. Has she been telling the little people about the winds-breeze, gale, hurricane -and the points of the compass — polar North and tropic South? Now she turns to poetry, and lo! the wind has become a human presence for the child:

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"O you that are so strong and cold,

O blower, are you young or old ?

Are you a beast of field or tree,

Or just a big, strong child like me?"

and by and by the naïve imagination of the child, which conceives of the weird horseman riding by in the moaning darkness, will become the adult imagination which, with Shelley, feels the "wild west wind" as the very "breath of Autumn's being."1

What we too often find is that the teacher has not this fundamental perception of the meaning and function of Literature. Literary products are handled grossly, for their fact values; or, in the higher grades, as products the merely intellectual comprehension of which calls for certain explanations, grammatical or allusional. But what has to be worked for is spiritual discernment and emotional apprehension. This defect is not to be wondered at. To handle Literature as such requires not a little culture; and culture, in the form of æsthetic

1 The difference between the scientific and the poetic statement of a fact is concretely and happily illustrated by Edmund Clarence Stedman in his "Elements of Poetry."

insight, is the last requirement we have made of our teachers. We speak out of experience as a teacher of teachers; and we assert that the teacher who knows what the specific and proper office of Literature is, as distinguished from that of Science, is a rare and precious exception; and rarer still is one who can distinguish a first class poem or short story from a second or third rate one, or can apply the fundamental canons of literary criticism.

Let us hasten to say that the teachers are not wholly, nor indeed principally, to blame in this matter. They are not always taught, nor are they always in their teaching expected, to deal with Literature as such. We have already cited an illustration of this from the Language Number of New York Teachers' Monographs. We pointed out that the examination questions on the "Lady of the Lake," which were put to the graduating classes in public schools to secure admission to the High Schools, included not a single literary question among the ten of them, but that the paper was a grammar paper almost entirely. What teacher can do good literary work with such a paralyzing test to prepare for? How can she prevent her term's work from being other than stupid drudgery and rude butchery, which must disgust her pupils with Literature altogether?

II. Passing from appreciation to usage, the fundamental principle to be followed is that the mastery of

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language is a matter of practice, practice animated by interest and enthusiasm, guided by good models and by wise counsel and criticism. Children learn their native tongue by imitation; and imitation continues to be, throughout the school course, the chief factor in language work. The rules of Grammar and rhetorical precept are later and comparatively unimportant means to the end sought. Of models, the most influential is the teacher herself; the influence of book models is heavily discounted if the teacher's own practice is not exemplary and winning. And by example we mean, first and foremost, oral example. Here again we have been very slack in our requirements, very low in our standards. The shortcomings of the average teacher as a writer are serious enough (we speak after much reading of teachers' compositions, note-books, etc.). Their unguarded spoken language, however, is worse than their written productions. The standard to-day (thanks to the energetic efforts of such men as Superintendent William H. Maxwell) is rather higher, doubtless, than it was a few years ago when Dr. Rice reported the results of his observations; but it is still ridiculously low. One still hears at times bad grammar and idiom; while as for any stylistic quality, revealing literary or artistic feeling, how rare it is! We also look in vain in the average school for good, cultivated pronunciation, clear enunciaation, pleasant tones, a proper use of the vocal organs. Again we say, small blame as a rule to the teachers,

who neither by training nor examination are impressed with the importance of these things. And this brings us to our next point.

III. The basis of all literary training is oral. The ear is the arbiter of speech; the mouth, not the pen, its greatest instrument. Not "Does it look right?" but "Does it sound right?" is the first and fundamental test of language; it is the ready test of everyday life, and the final test of the great poets and masters of Literature. We are more and more a reading and writing people, to be sure; and yet we must not undervalue the practical importance of oral proficiency as an element of success in life. To be "well spoken" is still a strong point in a man's favor in many walks of life. The pleasant voice and delivery, the breeding implied in correct speech, the evidence of character and culture in the touch of distinction in the vocabulary, the power of graphic description and narration, these things have sometimes even a commercial value; while ability to read and recite agreeably, to debate and argue effectively, is almost everywhere a valuable asset, and in certain callings - political, ministerial, legal — an indispensable condition of success.

We must gain the ear of the child; that is at first our only resource as teachers; and our chief resource it ought to be at all times. We must cultivate the child's auditory taste as, in our art work, we must cultivate his visual taste. It is well known that many of our errors

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