It is the hobby of many of you who
are teachers, also, and I know you want to
hear it discussed. I mean the growing
effort to teach English and English literature
to children in the natural way: by speaking
and hearing,--orally.
We are coming to a realization of the fact
that our ability, as a people, to use English
is pitifully inadequate and perverted. Those
Americans who are not blinded by a limited
horizon of cultured acquaintance, and who
have given themselves opportunity to hear
the natural speech of the younger generation
in varying sections of the United States,
must admit that it is no exaggeration to say
that this country at large has no standard
of English speech. There is no general
sense of responsibility to our mother tongue
(indeed, it is in an overwhelming degree
not our mother tongue) and no general
appreciation of its beauty or meaning. The
average young person in every district save
a half-dozen jealously guarded little
precincts of good taste, uses inexpressive, ill-
bred words, spoken without regard to their
just sound-effects, and in a voice which is an
injury to the ear of the mind, as well as a
torment to the physical ear.
The structure of the language and the
choice of words are dark matters to most of
our young Americans; this has long been
acknowledged and struggled against.
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