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Show UNSATISFACTORY EDUCATION. From far off Porto Rico, so recently auriexed and yet, seemingly, so distant come to us whispers whis-pers of discontent. There is no need of alarm. There arc no pronunciamento3 on the bill boards, no revolution in the air. Xcvertheless dissatisfaction dissatisfac-tion exists not with the government as such, but with some of the methods of our- paternal administration. adminis-tration. One of the grounds of complaint is the conduct of the public schools. We hope these remarks re-marks 'will not be misconstrued. We will not attack at-tack the institution. We wish merely to criticize some of its alleged misdirected methods. Shortly after our acquisition of Porto Rico, a ready-made educational system was imposed upon the island. It bad worked well here, it would do likewise, there, so hundreds of teachers, trained for an English-speaking country, were shipped over and set to work teaching the young idea how to shoot. "To the amazement of our otherwise capable pedagogues the young idea, it is said, did not learn and what's more, will not lcam if the present course is pursued. The pupils arc willing, and anxious to be educated. The parents are favorably disposed. What is the trouble? An anglo-Saxon 'bull' ' Education is given through the instrumental- I ity of language , Ours. is English. The Porto Ric- ans.are Spaniards, naturally they speak the Span-isiy.l.riguago-an'd nothing else. Wc have made the mistake 'of using' '".yaflgft & "" speech. Eng-.. . ' i - I hsh v.ore.-j have no meaning for the mind that knows them uot. We have put the cart before the horse. Let us use the Spanish as a means of giving an American education to our little brown brothers. broth-ers. Make a thorough knowledge of Spanish one of the prime requisites of our teachers in our new possessions. Let them use that language p.s the instrument of teaching English. Let them speak to their pupiit. so as to be understood by them and the difficulty will disappear cs per enchantment, and new citizens Avili become American, though li-linguists. |