Newspapers / The State’s Voice (Dunn, … / Aug. 1, 1933, edition 1 / Page 1
Part of The State’s Voice (Dunn, N.C.) / About this page
This page has errors
The date, title, or page description is wrong
This page has harmful content
This page contains sensitive or offensive material
STATE LIBRARY A PAPER FOR THINKING DUNN, N. C., AUGUST 1, 1933 NUMBER The emphasis In the modern schools is placed upon English ra her than "upon the classic languag es. Yet it seems that the result i» distressingly unsatisfactory. lj conceive that it is a rather’diffi cult matter to learn English without a knowledge of Latin and Greek. Nevertheless, it seems - that present-day etuden/ts leave college without knowl edge of fundamental principles or facts that are independent of the Latin and Greek contributions to the language. An Astonishing Question I recall the 1 astonishing question" of a teacher of j^gh school English a few years ago'. ' The chair man of his school board had suggested to him that all teachers of English should have studied Anglo Saxon. _ The yUung man, teaching English'in one of the city high schools* was wise enough to keep his ig norance a secret from the school board member but soon got a chance to ."ask mb what Anglo-Saxon is! The wonder is' how a youth of ordinary.intelli gence could ;go> through high ecool and college with out learning, what ?the ; Anglo-Saxon language is. ena bow l?e cotflcL be:recommended - by anyl compe tent authority fftrteagfier. Of English. But there is the fact. Abd *>believe,that many others are ig norant od toets tu._eesen.tial jto "a, knowledge of E». n , gltehi- ' * -i h- t. ;tS .. >?- • . perhaps* bttid*«tpi>Ve£ beln|f- taught the grayer < prfnciples;oft~; forget __ ♦. that. -group of'.lt^guMWP'.&re coinage-graduate?. ~Hvwhler,e qtrMtfbar^ long too __—__a iJ+-'m.''t «ww«^4/\h iimi nra iri in the State, dtecasaqg <9*kt nwt^er,. ihut that, wgis b«* fore the grammar school $ays- of ^recent*; OtflMre graduates. But it woulfl. be Interesting^ to find aomesotf the -st^peqts of . the schools in the day of Etiehier s-^pBimmax and-discover whether that, dis eussion of the subject rnadeany impression upon them, o? whether. th«ir minds/without further study of the subject,. are utterly blank regarding the Aryan group .of languages; If so, it would he sug gestive that the' attempt:to teach that point was made too early, and that perhaps much, of the teach- . Ing of Eiiglislj .to lhds and lasses .1st of no value for the same reason. However. I am disposed to think that too much .of‘ the time devoted to* English in the schools is spent in the, perhaps critical, study of the classics, and that too little time' is given to creating a curiosity about thie language! itself. School*. Attempt In Do What Their Work la'Really Preparatory Per . I hava formerly-suggested the folly of an English class’1 spending a period or two studying .‘‘Thana topsis, 'the work of a 19*year old boy, instead of studying the thing® that made it possible for the 19-year old Bryant to write such a poem. In short, the schools,seem to be undertaking^ not only In En glish but also in other subject®, to do the work that the school is supposed to prepare the students to do afterwards. Reading "Thanatopsis" and other En glish classics should be a matter of pleasure! to the youth founded in the principles - of the language, and he should need little assistance In interpreting . the works of the largely, unschooled Bard of Avon or the creation of the youth Bryant. UI assistance is necessary, it is certainly evidence ofi A low “1. q." on the part of th e average member ot the class that bodes little good to the quick-witted member-who must be fed from thesame baby spoon used for the bunch that can never hope to^grow Into full stature of intellect and be able alone ;to frazef with pleas ure and profit upon the classic ewardst - The bright ^udent should resent having hit mental .pabulum Pro-chewed or predigested as he would resent his mother’s chewing for him his share of the dinner and passing over to him for-- swallowing, as ^ras the wont .of mothers: with their infants in the days before the (scientific• -preparation • of •baby.-s fcodj a method which* geeiiuMo have been adopted in a mental way by modern ..schools with persistent' application beyond the infant stage. ■ < ■ Buch a method ^necessarily, produces weaklings—r a1 matter that is of little lmpqrtance so far as the ^herently impotent is concern^dj” .but jot grievous moment with respect to the exceptional student, who Comes out of school: unversed in the fundamen * tale Of language in general ; and the -'genesis and phases' oi|‘ developmlemt of the English in particular, - Los* Through Lack of Source Knowledge I am disposed to agreei with- the gentleman, re ferred to in the outsat of this article, that) all teach ers of English should have studied Anglo-Saxon, if only briefly—long enough at least to discover that the English language is -derived from a. language that had-all th© cases of Latin or Greek and ver bal endings galore,-which are represented--in the modern JCngish iby only -a,few relied of the mother lamguage,- whlch dan be accounted for. only , by a ref erence, to the Aglo-Saxon. It seems to me that the very the in th© expression “the mow the better,” which can be explained' only by a reference to An-' glo-Saxon grammar, should awaken the curiosl-/ of any a4 udent desirous of actually} - knowing the gene -sis- and structure pf his native .language.- . Yet it-is doubtful if one English?teacher dn-ten.can success fully account for or parse those two the’s. Also, when a student of the language finds that big group of “ceivfeis&-like ■ perceive, concetye, e1 c. he should be curious -to discover their origin.,And when-he finds-, that*, they-are -essentially the' Latin cipere, he should, be curious to ltnow how and why , the change in tlie form' occurred, and whence! their arrival in the language. And. fight Jhefe he would , find’ Grimin's-Lawin-operalion—the^v.i>fting.e«senr t$ljy.A 0. ^ 'faUrh'fr clupages ThiYB^bdep' cmade inf the 'eeut'sif Qf • cohf»t>ro, •'oficurHng, •lJ h^ tBtsMbe 'real 4h{eS«ist thfch is- necessary *to make him, ah English scholar ’he. would - proceed to learn* - the significant of - each,. even- if he -should not" have the prlviiVgpVf acquaint tin£| himself with thfe(m in their nation habitat—the" - Latin,. yVnd then her Should) discover’ that: theie prefixes attached In torn . to a given root;word teake up a large; part of the English voeabulai^. And*, when fie learns that eacfi^yone Words is a definite Latin word ' with its; own several hu- H ance», he will begin to see tha# the study - of foe LatinJ is, af ,er all, the shortf-cut. to a knowledge "of ' - the English vocabulary. And .'shouldn’t fie Wonder how many Greek words fie is unconsciously using _\ when ho thay be told that every TlngHsh 'wordwith ph in iti is of Greek origin. And when, he looks at an unabridged dictionary and is tow that «wieid«v' ably--more than fiaM of the; words -in-it are of Latin and Greek origin arid the • most -of' the -others of Anglo-Saxon origin, shouldn't hi . fe^in to'de plire that false conception of the impractiG% whlch has so largely deprived-this-modern youth oi! an ‘ Op portunity to study the source materials of-hls -moth or tongue and to secure the keys to the spelling add defining otl thousands of ordinary SJngHsh'TVofdr* How Grimm’s Law illuminates:"7:* ‘ - To the should ' soon a p p T J c novice in | the study of • '■■■% words it be very ip p are n t" how^the a t i o n of. Grimm's %w illuininaiWt S such words as aggregate—Latin ad.abd gregarV, 'to _gr<oup or jump toge^ieiv_or tfitT yery woi^ iiiu.mi-^,i ,nate itpel^—La^ln. in and luminate to throw light. upbp, and ^ tly)usand^ethers identity, is -tpp| | niieRsure obrivWd- /;^thp4:’. i:': A :-^rou^|^g ___ • the. y£ry omission. fl^ re&Iiy' : important things' -thatK". ' I,, have observed as wanting in the knowledge nffy to know them. ^- ^ '!*?*& V* - * i.;. :• .%.WW** **1. -SfSsgf ■-.' '*•• ■T'&h Sometime ago, in writing of the effects of the railroad from Hope Mills to St, Paul and thence to both Idimherton;. and.'Elizabeth-tQwn,'I said that the railroad had been the maker of,- St. Paul and Eliza bethtown, “if Elizabethtown has yet been made.’’ It-had been thirty-years since I had visited the cap ital of old Bladen and I could not then, visualize it as anything but the samel straggling village of a third of a century ago; But Imagine my surprise and gratification a few weeks later to find it a mod ern town and with a progressive citizenry which promises much for the future. , Elizabethtown has been recreated, and I suspect I must attribute as much of the transformation to the bridge across the- Cape Fear as to the coming of the railroad a quarter of a century ago.- — Isolated as- it was ,-bv the railroads >intbe earlier period the old village was further immensely Handi capped by the lack of a bridge and ;by. the necessity of all visitors from, . the eastern half of the county having to cross the Cape Fear on a ferry flat and for a price-at that. Then, also.the broad-expanse of country between Elizabethtown and-the county., line near Garland was practically unpopulated. Today the development of White Latael has largely counter ■balanced tl>e poverty of-the area as an .agricultural •section ond -has not only .added many-a..dollar to Elizabethtown's Cosiness but also has furnished it with a near-by resort of much recreational value to the citizens of the old town. The beautiful lake so long lost in the -wastes ot Sj«slernuBladen has been dlscovevred and much.to tbe^dvantage of Elizabeth town. When 6lad«n was Ai*-Empire in Area.., Time was wliert Bladenwas am empire In area. I was fortunate in flndlng;the historically minded H/ li. -Williamson, :attjorney and former membsp of^ -the }egieiature> who had- the'.informafion„ps to ea,rj&c -of: the county- -upon .imipiediate-.. tjg|p -Taming to the proper page in the,-Colonial.Records, -.he 't&A-She boundpries. about as .follows: • Begin-** . ping.at the jnputh:Blyingstou.Greek, .on;.,Black • 4 River, up the: Black ani its. wwt^rnmost branch tifc Its head; beginning at‘the month .-of, Idvlngston Creek the \ southern boundary extended; the boundary of the government, as dMLtbp • P9rtlta."‘ , ern boundary from the head waters pf Soutdi River. * The /Mississippi River was the western boundary; - j. Was the Site of Ou«n fn- Ptaddn? - >»■ When 11 first heard the reading- of the boundafj^t^ immediately jumped to the-concluston that Dmin was '' not encompassed in, the boundaries .of Bladen. the “weSOermost branch of the'.JBlack? is Bouth River, known in Harnett as the Black, which flows between Bunn and: Erwih. But a few days ago as I crossed the Harnett-Sampson line' along the Mingo swamp, I began to consider -if the. ..form® strip of Cumberland, which only , a, few .years,. ... . was annexed to Harnett, and which extended the north side of Mingo, was not '.indicative of tlp^- ayr ceptance pf-5Hnffo,.aai th^ principar^t^^^^Wff'tfliat j “westermost' branch of Black River”- instead ^ritav-hati we now know as the Black between Dunh apd Erwin* Otherwise^ It is hard to account for. Cumberland*'' which was cut out of Bladen territory, -poasesstoE . ' the territory to the north and west. of. Mingo Creek, whicH #<i lately furnished ^t^e j^egjacle oj ^ mile strfp of Cumberland Iyjngi;ji>^twtgen \^j and 1 Harnett for -several miles. ^S^,.cfujd. ote,;ina|^ .; of the counties -of i the’anss***?.-.;,?, -.- -a***; t; Records of i'Uuids in jl’eiwietsds... : Mr. Williamson further informed me that -were old land records in the archives of ^Bladen-of land deeds or slants. Jn the .province1*©* ^ennesee^ in'.the county of Bladen. Think of lh £ .latjtfft ££n , at the present stale of Tennessee ft hrg^ihce,pf. Bla den county! - ^.j1 Foe whom Namet. { > " Ih ’reply to the .question as to,-whether Elisabeth- ; towft- was riamed tor “the .VlRgiiK Queep,or one gf the . ’ -.late/ ^Elisabeths.'. Mr; v^ljiamsgn raying, fhat tte lawn mejraps^to have l?eeH pamejr for ’ •Jfcr <toeehi But. for the sfweetjjeiart .of^tbe -man wha N sold - the land fop the town j*Itrar. Only orta,ttod^ tiori Supports:this" view, however. Tft -there seems f h> be ho documentary,. Support of .the queenly, prl!gi» . pf.' the. name.- . In jtbat^ case,. the orgl tradition .fc ^easft Turn ^ - x* -v -rfjv .
The State’s Voice (Dunn, N.C.)
Standardized title groups preceding, succeeding, and alternate titles together.
Aug. 1, 1933, edition 1
1
Click "Submit" to request a review of this page. NCDHC staff will check .
0 / 75