"WRONG AGAIN"

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 6, Issue 4, 14 September 1942, Page 4

"WRONG AGAIN"

PRECOCIOUS YOUNGSTER ■'<*231230* NATURAL EXPRESSION" A district high -school inspector tells a good story of an experience he had in another town, which reveals the precocity of youngsters and. the manner in which children of the modern age take* speech which may perhaps be described euphemistically as being in the vernacular, very much as a matter o£ course. The inspector was taking a junior class and questioning a scholar in spelling. "Dog" was the word, which the child correctly in mod-. cm styde, "Da—(short "a)")—og." The inspector then asked how the word would be written and was told by way of explanation to first write "o.'* This he did on the blackboard, and to obtain the "da" sound he was told to add a stroke also. Desiring

to thoroughly test the child he purposely put the stroke in the wrong place, but was quickly told that he was wrong, and had made it "ho," He tried again, but was corrected when he made the word "po." Once again he tried, making the word "90." This, however, was too much for another young scholar, who ejaculated out loud, "Hell, he's wrong again."

Commenting on the occurrence the inspector remarked that what had impressed, him most, was that the class took the child's comment as: a quite natural expression pf what they evidently took to be liis own stupidity.