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Show I A BAS THE BAUD OF AVON. r At the meeting of the Chicago Public School principals' Association, last Iriday, Professor ' William B. Watt rose up and utterly condemned s the wit, the morals, the wisdom and the art of I one William Shakespeare. He said that no student stu-dent should be encouraged to read such "stuff"; that the so-called master was "overrated"; that s he was behind the times; that he was a bad pun- ster, vulgar, illiterate, immoral and incorrect both i as to form and matter. Mr. Watt suggested that the modem student be pastured in modern fields, and that Shakespeare be relegated to the worn-out I region of bad spelling, bad puns, loose morals and obsolete forms. ' It does not matter who is Watt. ? He only expresses in audacious words what has long been the practice of the teachers in school and church, who, knowing nothing of substance, sub-stance, dwell forever upon forms. He is but one of a myriad of preachers and peda gogues who believe be-lieve that an inane platitude well-spelled and prettily pret-tily written is better than the mighty thought which is the soul of deeds and the secret of all wisdom. "I believe that Shakespeare is vastly overrated," over-rated," quoth Watt. In a speeling-bee there can be no doubt that William Dean Howells, or even Ella Wheeler Wilcox, Wil-cox, would put William Shakespeare to shame, and it is by such standards that Watt would meas ure the master. Weber and Fields' jokes are certainly cer-tainly more up-to-date, and when it comes to morals, Halph Connor has the Bard of Avon beaten beat-en both ways from the jack. Instead of the "Com-i "Com-i edy of Errors," Watt would doubtless prefer Ezra Kendall's "Gravy," or "Sis Hopkins Her Book," as being both modern and moral. Most school teachers are like Watt. They are ; so engrossed in rules and formulas, so awed by the sheer mechanism of their work that they forget for-get its purpose and miss its potentialities. They do not know that a .noble thought misspelled or mispronounced is far better worthy of the memory mem-ory than drivel done into faultless English. More fine penmanship has gone into the editor's edi-tor's waste-basket than ever found its way to a delighted printer. The hired man at the linotype can spell better than you can, but ho Bneers himself him-self sick when he has to set literary hog-wash. Most school teaching is an effort to show the young "how to do" with never a thought of "what to do." It is all method and no meaning; all manner and no motive. You shall spell words thus! But what shall I say In words? Whatever you know! Thats it! What do you know when you have B learned to spell correctly, to write copper-plate, B to calculate accurately? You probably know little or nothing about anything "that matters." But B the school teacher doesn't care. Probably he B knows as little as you. But it is not his business B to know. It is to teach methods without regard B to meanings. He is the boss Marionette the B Punch of pedagogical puppetry and you are Judy B " and the baby. He whops you on the head, squeaks B rujes and orders at you and throws you out of B the graduation window. He has taught you "how," H but not "what" to do. B The churches are much like the schools. The B bell rings and you bow your head. A candle is Bm lighted and you beat your breast. The cathedral Bs is a palace of marble and gold and jasper. The K bishop's tunic is of linen and lace and his vest-BM vest-BM ments weighty with precious metals and gems, fH each worth the life of the pagan who dug them. B -n there are hungry women and children 'jH 'round the corner, to whom the light of a candle is the bale-light of a coffin and ot whom every bell Ib a knell. Christ died for them, but they cannot eat prayer books, nor stay their bellies with a 7 weekly wafer of unleavened bread. The church is teaching them "how" to do, but never a word of "what" to do. It is easy to preach to a famished fam-ished man, but at last he mu3t go forth and loot a bakery. The boy who has learned his catechism cate-chism may go home and break" his mother's heart. I had a schoolmate who wrote all the prize essays. He is now "librettist" for the filthiest leg show in the United States. He knew "how," but not "what" to write. He spells better than Shakespeare and his jokes are right off the bat; quite up to the Watt idea! I saw a man hanged in New Mexico for murdering his best friend. He recited the Lord's prayer and an act of contrition, and when he was burled, his friend's wife wept upon his grave. Always the modern teachers seem to be standing stand-ing closer to the forms of things. As if one could He eloquent who has nothing to say; as if one could move the heart and stir the intellect with well-spelled words and rhetorical periods thjat mean nothing; as if one must be generous and gentle and loving because ho can recite an hundred hun-dred lessons from the Bible; as if one must be a gentleman because he has fine raiment; or a lady because one does not work! John H. Raftery in St. Louis Mirror. |