The Marlborough Express Published Every Evening. WEDNESDAY, APRIL 19, 1893. SCHOOL INSPECTORS' ENGLISH.

Marlborough Express, Volume XXIX, Issue 90, 19 April 1893, Page 2

The Marlborough Express Published Every Evening. WEDNESDAY, APRIL 19, 1893. SCHOOL INSPECTORS' ENGLISH.

♦-■ ■ "The Queea's English 11 and also "the Dean's English " are familiar enough names to all students of the language but it has bsen reserved for the Secretary of toe Grafton (Auckland) School Committee to write a treatise on " School Inspectors' English." We have on previous occasions pointed out how much information could bs giv«n scholars were teaohers to occasionally giva a lesson from the matter contained m the eolnmna of the daily presa, from whence historical, geographical and grammatical points can easily be adduced, and educed, Possibly m many cases the grammar of less responsible individuals than Sohool Inspectors would often be brought to book, for we should learn m the properj scholastio terms what a syllepsis, and a trope mean, and be told by the advanced scholars, or their teachers that, when arguing, our syllogisms were not correctly put whether the arguments were defensible or not. When however the Chairman of a School Committee has the temerity to criticise the English of the Inspectors we cannot expect to escape. At thn last meeting of the Auckland Board of Education Mr Nield wrote cemmenting on the number of grammatical and other errors m the Inspectors' report. Not to spoil so good a document we subjoin the New Zealand's Herald's condensed report ; "1. In page 2 the following sentence occurred : — ' On other occasions we hava expected to hear a geography, grammar, or other oral lesson given.' It was clear that three different kinds of lessons— not one feiHd— were what the inspectors intended to convey ; then the article should have been used with every one of the three adjectives. According to their phrasing, strictly taken, there was but one kind of lesson referred to —of a geographical, grammatical, or olhar oral description. What kind of lessoa would that be ? 2. < A good plan m teaching lower classes is that the teacher display a picture or object. 1 It should have b9en ' a pioture or any object.' The merest tyro m grammar would be hardly excused for making such an error. 3. 'No teaohor should enter sohool without having thought out and prepared the lessons he intends to give.' 'Intenda' should hase been «intended, 1 for the intended preceded ' having prepared ' and • having thought. 1 In most schools the scholars ' showed ' a greater oapacity for dealing with the simple problems which ' form ' a part of every paper set.' The past tense ' showed ' and the present tense ' form ' do not constitute a proper sequence m English, 4. 'In the three highest classes.' There ia but one highest class, not three. This showa the superlative tsrm misapplied.. 5. The comparative degree fared no better than the superlative. 'In most schools the scholars showed a greater capacity for dealing with the simpler problems which form part of •very paper set.' Greater capacity for what? Mr Nield referred to several other alleged errors of a similar character. 6. The construction of several expressions was not consistent, such constructions as 'necessity of ' and ' necessity for ' being both used. Mr Nield conduced by Btating ; s That j

errors like the foregoing should appear m the annual joint report of four inspectors of schouls— which was, of course, presanted to both Housoe of Parliament, and circulated throughout all Now Zealand, is nothing else than a reproach to our public system of education ; and that the critioal and delicate work of examining every yenr the upper standards m cur schools, and also tha pupil teachers m grammar and composition, should be entrusted to persons unable to write a fairly passable annual report, is a matter calling for the Board's most serious attention." The Inspectors' reply to the effect that they fail to see that the alterations suggested by Mr Nield would be any improvement, which is tantamount to sayißg that they either cannot or will not defend their own English. Moit likely the gentleman named is one of those pedants who like to show their superiority over the ruck, and if the English language is so abstruse as to require fine distinctions of the kind drawn the sooner the pedagogic gives way to simpler forms of expression, the better for both teachers and language.