What the Schools Teach and Might Teach

by John Franklin Bobbitt

FOREIGN LANGUAGES

German has long been taught in the elementary schools. Until less than 10 years ago it was taught in all grades beginning with the first. More recently it has been confined to the four upper grades. Beginning with the present year, it is taught only in the seventh and eighth grades. The situation is so well presented in the report of the Educational Commission of 1906 that further discussion here is unnecessary. They summarize their discussion of the teaching of German in the elementary schools as follows:

"Such teaching originated in a nationalistic feeling and demand on the part of German immigrants, and not in any educational or pedagogical necessity.

"It aimed to induce the children of Germans to attend the public schools, where they would learn English and be sooner Americanized.

"For 15 years [now 25 years] past, German immigration has almost ceased, and other European nationalities, as the Bohemians, Poles, and Italians, have taken their place numerically.

"The children of the earlier German immigrants are already
Americanized and use the English language freely, and those later
born, of the second and third generations, no longer need to be taught
German in the schools beginning at six years of age.

"It is demonstrated by experience and by abundant testimony that children neither from German nor from English-speaking families really learn much German in the primary and grammar grades, that is, from six to 13 years of age.

"Hence the Commission recommends that the teaching of German in these grades be discontinued and that the German language be taught only in the high schools.

"It is admitted that those who begin German in the high school, after the second year, can keep up with and do as good work in the same classes as those who have had eight years of German in the primary and grammar grades and two years in the high schools."

The form of argument that once was valid for including German in the elementary course of study may now be valid for Polish, Hungarian, Bohemian and Italian, for the children of the first generation of these nationalities. Properly done, it is a means of preventing the children's drifting from the parental moorings. After the first generation, it would not be needed.

It is impossible, in the limited space at our disposal, to discuss comprehensively so complicated a topic as foreign languages in the high school. One group of educators sturdily defends the traditional classical course, with its great emphasis on Greek and Latin, while another group as urgently insists that if any foreign languages are taught, they must be the modern ones. These opposing schools of thought are profoundly sincere in their conflicting beliefs. Each side is absolutely certain that it is right and is unalterably of the opinion that there is no other side of the question to be even so much as considered. Anything that agrees with its own side is based on reason; anything opposed is but ignorant prejudice. Under the circumstances the disinterested outsider may well suspect that where there is so much sincerity and conviction, there must be much truth on both sides. And undoubtedly this is the case.

Latin is a living language in our country in that it provides half of our vocabulary. Pupils who would know English well should have a good knowledge of this living Latin. If the Latinists would shift their ground to this living Latin and provide means of teaching it fully and effectively for modern purposes, it is possible that the opposing schools of thought might here find common ground upon which all could stand with some degree of comfort and toleration. When Latin study of the character here suggested is devised, it ought to be opened up to the students of all courses as an elective, so that it could be taken by all who wish a full appreciation and understanding of their semi-Latin mother tongue. Such a study ought to be required of the clerical students of the High School of Commerce. In the meantime, however, all will have to wait until the Latinists have provided the plans and the materials.

In the new so-called English course in the academic high schools required foreign languages are omitted entirely. In the third and fourth years German or Spanish is made elective. This gives rise to several questions. If the foreign language is studied simply as preparation for the leisure occupation of reading its literature—the only value of the course in the case of most who take it—why should not French be elective also? By far the largest of the world's literatures, outside of the English, is the French. The Spanish has but a small literature; and while Germany has excelled in many things, belles-lettres is not one of them. Another question relates to the placing of these electives. If one is to study a foreign language at all, it is usually thought best to begin earlier than the third year of the high school, so as to finish these simple matters that can be done by children and gain time in the later years for the more complicated matters that require mature judgment.