THE New Zealand Herald AND DAILY SOUTHERN CROSS. THURSDAY, APRIL 16, 1908. ENGLISH IN THE SCHOOLS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLV, Issue 13726, 16 April 1908, Page 4

THE New Zealand Herald AND DAILY SOUTHERN CROSS. THURSDAY, APRIL 16, 1908. ENGLISH IN THE SCHOOLS.

The complaint made by Mr. C. J. Parr, at yesterday's meeting of the Auckland Education Board, should serve to call public attention to a very prominent evil—the wretched way in which English is pronounced by an unfortunately large number of the rising generation. The Herald has time and again pointed out that our. educational system has failed to provide for the correct speaking of the Mother Tongue by public school pupils, and we are confident that the report on the subject to be supplied by the Chief Inspector will show that the extent of the evil is in no way overestimated. The educational service is doing .1 very great work, a work extending into practically every household in the Dominion, for the State steps in wherever the need arises, excepting in those isolated back country districts which will remain until roads and railways provide easy means of communication, even in Auckland Province. In this province alone over 33,000 children were last year enrolled in the public schools, the staff employed in their tuition numbering close upon 950, inch-ding 100 pupil-teachers. There are many imperfections in the service, many staff-grievances still to be removed, many points upon which improvement may be asked for and hoped for, but whatever is wanting and whatver shortcomings arc visible, it cannot be said that the Government, the Board, and the public take little interest in the general question of education. On the contrary, there is a vast sum of money spent yearly in this national direction, and there is every disposition to consider favourably any reasonable scheme put forward for the advancement of education. Yet in spite of this, there can be no doubt that what may well be considered the primary purpose of education, the speaking of good English, has been most lamentably neglected. It may be quite true that, in the average, the 33,000 children attending our provincial public schools speak better English than they would if there were no public schools at all. But the fact remains—and it is one which is bound to force itself upon public attention until it is faced and remedied—that the pronunciation of an immense number of those who have passed and are passing through our schools varies in a woeful manner from the unquestionable standards. ' ■ /

That public schools may have a most beneficial influence upon the pronunciation of the language has been proved repeatedly in various parts of the world, the very finest English being admittedly spoken where it was taught in its purity by well-speaking teachers. We regret exceedingly having to point out that while the great majority of our provincial teachers speak excellent English there are a very considerable number, of all grades, whose accentuation and pronunciation are calculated to demoralise the speaking of their impressionable pupils. That this condition of things exists, that a teacher who is expected to have an adequate knowledge of an infinite variety of more or less unnecessary subjects is not expected to have a reasonable and ordinary control of English speech, indicates that the matter ha-s not been regarded as sufficiently important to demand special consideration from those in authority. And this is probably the root of the whole, evil. Where teacher-, may speak as they like it is difficult to see how scholars can be prevented from copying common errors and from imitating bad pronunciations and accentuations which notoriously follow the lines of least effort. If it is correct that the proper speaking of English is educationally as necessary as a knowledge of the simple rules of arithmetic and of the way to spell common words— we maintain that it is— then the remedy can be made to follow swiftly upon the heels of a recognition of this educational maxim. For if teachers are required to learn how to speak English correctly they will soon learn it—if they have any capacity for learning, as every teacher worth having must have. And if the care of teachers is directed to pronunciation, by that being given an adequate value in the inspections, the evil will very speedily disappear. There may always be a certain amount of mispronunciation ; and we shall never have a universal level of perfection in the speaking of English any more than in the writing of if. But what we can secure an-u what we ought to secure is that every child who is passably well instructed shall speak English in a creditable manner, and that D" other accomplishments shall be regarded as making up for lack of what ought to be a fundamental consideration in our educational system. If the public would intelligently support the Education Boards in this matter a few years would certainly see a radical improvement in our colonial speech, for ihe evil is not confined either to Auckland City or to Auckland Province.