OCR Text |
Show New Light On Manila Schools. (Communicated.) When the American public school system was established in the Philippines Philip-pines the school authorities were astonished as-tonished and delighted to see the interest in-terest in their schools shown by the natives. What was considered inexplicable inex-plicable in this sudden thirst for knowledge knowl-edge and constantly increasing attendance attend-ance was the preference of the Filipinos Fil-ipinos for the schools where English was taught by American women. The natives were believed to be a lazy set and were carefully so described in every official report to Washington.' Why then they should elect to tackle a difficult foreign language was a puzzle, puz-zle, especially when schools were available avail-able in which English was not required The American school system certainly j does not possess inherently the anti- toxin for the extirpation of the germs J of laziness; neither can it create, .even, before being tried, the abnormal thirst I for knowledge which the Filipinos were seemingly exhibiting. Recent information informa-tion from Manila would seem to offer at least a partial explanation' of this" paradoxical situation. Let us follow the teacher into the school room: With 125 Tagalog word3 at her command she begins operations. She addresses the class in a carefully prepared speech which completely . exhausts ex-hausts her vocabulary. The children look edified, but had not understood a word. In the first English lesson occurs oc-curs some word of which she does not know . the Tagalog equivalent, and which she attempts to explain by a gesture. . The unresponsive stare of the class indicates failure. t She tries the deaf and dumb language with the same result and in desperation resorts to a grimace. When she sees that the children chil-dren are becoming red in the face from i suppressed emotion she gives it up. I After a ehort period of plain sailing another obstreperous word blocks the way. She painfully constructs an explanation ex-planation in Tagalog. It is a good sentence sen-tence and would have passed anywhere in the United States, but these benighted benight-ed children flatly refused to understand their own language. But the fame of that teacher as a linguist,- sign-talker and contortionist spread like the cholera. All the children chil-dren of the city wanted to see the free show and the school was crowded every day of the week. A circus, just at that time, would not have made expenses. This whole business is, of course, a pitiful farce, and the Filipinos will sub-. sub-. side into their natural ways when the j novelty of the American ways has worn i off. Our occupation by the Philippines has certainly created conditions which demand a different educational system ; there. Whether it will be also a better j one remains to be seen. One bad step . has already been taken. The attempt to change the language of 10,000,000 people of a foreign race is the product either of besotted devotion j or of corrupt scheming to place on the ! shoulders of that devoted people the j maintenance of numerous fat but su- I perfiuous offices. No nation has ever succeeded in doing this, and it will be a waste of time, energy and money to Us to undertake it. |