The Press Saturday, December 3, 1927. The Basis of Culture.

Press, Volume LXIII, Issue 19174, 3 December 1927, Page 14

The Press Saturday, December 3, 1927. The Basis of Culture.

Those who maintain that ability to use one's native language reasonably well should be the first essential of education will be heartened by action taken recently by the University of Hawaii, which makes disqualification from the University possible for continued use of poor English. A similar requirement has been enforced in the public schools of the Hawaiian Territory during the past two years, and its success has led the president of the University to announce that " the University will extend direction "of spoken and written English to " all branches of study, making good " English a requirement in all classes, " with a separate inclusive report upon "which will be based each student's "standing with respect to use of Eng- " lish." A special member of the staff will watch the English of students; those who show marked deficiency will be required to undertake special work, and those who show continued deficiency may be required to leave the University.

According to the Honolulu correspondent of the Christian Science Monitor, world-wide interest is being taken by educators in this experiment; and for the sake of the world one hopes that this is so. For the culture of the world cannot afford to ignore so important a decision, and since in English-speaking communities the standard of speaking and writing is often deplorably low, they have a special duty to observe what is being done in Hawaii. Compared with France and probably other countries, English culture is weakest in the respect paid to the national language, and American standards are lower than English. In the Dominions English carelessness has been inherited. The amount of slipshod English, bad English, "woolly" English in use is deplorable, and the University should be foremost in setting a standard. Surely if education means anything it means the capacity to speak and write one's native tongue reasonably well —to be clear in statement and, save where such things are permissible, to eschew colloquialisms and slang. Education should produce an orderly mind, and such a mind should be able to express itself clearly, simply, and with due respect to the magnificent language it is privileged to use. There is a widespread idea that English is a " language " and that men and women with a bent towards subjects other than languages need not bother about it. This is the conception that the University of Hawaii is trying to correct. Every student in that University is expected to be able to express himself or herself in good English. The student of engineering, of chemistry, ■ of mathematics, and even of plumbing (if there is such a faculty) is required to write English well, and why not? English in this sense of the word is not a subject for specialisation; it is something common to all studies. A student may be brilliant in his knowledge of engineering and science, but obviously he is only partly equipped if he cannot express Himself properly. Materially as well as culturally command of English is most valuable. Give two civil engineers of equal technical capacity a report to write, and which will be valued more by those who have to find the money—the man who takes ten words to say what could be said in five, and is slightly indefinite about vital matters, or the man who is sparing of words and clear in his conclusions? The waste of words in our public life is deplorable. What Ministers cost the country by telegraphing a dozen words when six would suffice we shall never know, and there is the appalling case of Hansard. We may hope therefore that the governing body of our own University will note what is being done in Hawaii. It would be unreasonable to expect our colleges to teach the graces of style or flights of rhetoric, but it is not asking too much to demand that before a student is admitted to any degree he shall show some capacity for expressing his thoughts clearly in standard English.