OCR Text |
Show BETTER SPEECH WEEK PLSKNED Stress to Be Placed on Correct Use of English in Public Schools. This week is "Speech Improvement:" week in the public schools of the city, and during the next five days the teachers teach-ers of the grade schools and the Junior high schools will make particular efforts to instruct the pupils in the use of better English. Attention will bo called in every class to mispronunciation, voice qualities, errors er-rors in grammar and common faults in the use of words. It will be the aim oi the teachers to develop the ideal of clear, correct, accurate and pleasant speech in everyday life. "Speech Improvement" week is being observed nationally, and the schools of the nation are emphasizing the necessity for the use of pure Engiish. The endeavor to arouse an interest in the use of bettor English will not be limited to the school children, but will be e. tended to homes, to business bouses and to the public generally. Various songs set to familiar music will be used in the classrooms to popularize the campaign for better speech. Examples of both the best and the worst in diction will be used for purposes of contrast to impress upon the pupils the desirability of the former. One poem in particular which all teachers teach-ers have been requested to read to their classes is the following by Richard Monck-ton Monck-ton Milnes, an Englishman: "Beyond the vague Atlantic deep. As far as the farthest prairies sweep, Where forest glooms the nerves appall, Where turns the radiant western fall. One duty lies on old and young With filial piety to guard. As on its greenest native sward. The glory of the English tongue. That ample speech! That subtle speech! Strong to endure, yet prompt to bend Wherever human feelings tend. Preserve its force expand its flowers! And through the maze of civic life In letters, commerce, even in strife, forget not it is yours and ours." |