Two Ain'ts

The sins of the parents are visited upon the children nowhere so noticeably as in the children's vocabulary. Wherefore teachers of Public School No. 58, Manhattan, have devised a discipline, published last week, of fining each school child five cents for each "ain't," "he don't," double negative, etc. The punishment of the child is thus visited upon the parents. One small boy ran up a bill of 40c, obliging his mother to invent eight errands for him to run at a nickel per errand.

The money is put in a school fund. Fines for talking in class, gum-chewing, untidiness swell the total but violated grammar is chief source of revenue. Like any system, there is a defect. Thrifty pupils come to regard bad grammar as a luxury. Said a seven-year-old economist: "Sure, I use bad grammar, but I wait till I'm out in the street, see?" Said a self-indulgent eight-year-old, displaying a dime: "Momma give me two ain'ts for my birthday."