In addition to the public schools and higher educational institutions maintained by the State, there are many private schools and colleges, which offer fairly good facilities for general and special educational training. The Catholic church provides many schools that are well equipped for primary education.
A weak feature of the educational system of Chile, which possesses many excellent and commendable qualities, is the fact that the State schools are crowded with pupils from the wealthy families, to the neglect and exclusion of the children of the poor. The result is the education of a class in which the majority are ambitious to engage in the professions, rather than in the trades, agricultural and commercial life.
What Chile needs for the development of her varied and rich resources is engineers, mechanics, and men trained in agricultural and commercial pursuits, instead of musicians, artists, professors and politicians, for whom the government is expected to provide employment.
The fact that over sixty per cent. of the population is illiterate is due to various causes. The Chilean Roto is without ambition for himself or his family, and until education is made compulsory he will not attempt to lift his children above the low intellectual level in which he and his ancestors for generations have been content to live. He has yet to learn the importance to himself, to the State and society, of education, and mental training. Another drawback to primary education in the rural districts is the geographical and climatic conditions of the country. In many places the territory is sparsely settled and schoolhouses far apart. The country is mountainous, and in the winter season streams become raging torrents from the excessive rains, making journeys across country impossible for children of school age.
LANGUAGE
Spanish is the language of Chile, as it is of all South American countries, except Brazil, but in Chile it has taken on idioms until it differs in many particulars from the pure Castilian. Like all Latin languages it lends itself to elaborate speech, pleasing compliment, plentiful platitude, vague and uncertain meaning and is a charming means for the exchange of polite pleasantries. It possesses qualities that commend it especially for diplomatic usage, as the ordinary sentence, written or verbally expressed, can be construed to mean one thing or another to suit the desire or convenience of the person giving it utterance. These qualities, however, render it unsatisfactory as a commercial language, which should be direct and definite in meaning.
Perhaps no other language is so easily acquired by foreigners, and none is more beautiful and attractive when correctly spoken and properly enunciated than Spanish. There are no silent letters, and each word is pronounced as it is spelled. The verbs are irregular, but once the rules of grammar are learned, it is a matter of comparative ease to acquire facility of speech.
The Chilenos, like all Spanish speaking people, emphasize all verbal expressions with elaborate gestures. Their gesticulations are graceful, and instead of being objectionable, are attractive. They are born orators, and the average Chileno can deliver a most effective speech on any and all occasions, on short notice or with small provocation. Even small boys will harangue a crowd with well-chosen words formed into beautiful sentences, and delivered with splendid oratorical effect. This is true in the larger sense also, and the speeches delivered on public occasions, and in the legislative halls are as a rule excellent examples of the art of oratory. The meaning is often vague, and the language ambiguous, but the diction good. A speech delivered in Spanish in a well modulated voice, emphasized with sweeping and graceful gestures, is both pleasing and dramatic in effect.
In Valparaiso, the principal port and commercial city in the Republic, English is more generally used in the transaction of business than any other language, Spanish not excepted.