English Is Where You Say It

In San Francisco, 3,000 U.S. English teachers got together to discuss ways & means to keep their language alive. After hearing what New York University's Thomas Clark Pollock had to say on the subject, they elected him president of the National Council of Teachers of English.

Dean Pollock thought that it was no crime to sometimes split an infinitive, and that a preposition was often a good word to end a sentence with. But, he added, they should "avoid pushing every new or seeming truth we meet to the edge of folly. It is folly to conclude . . . that there are no standards of good usage." The dean thought that good usage varied with time & place. At a football game he had heard a man ridiculed for talking about a "foul" when he meant a "penalty." Said Pollock: "The English language is used in one way in formal writing, in another way in pulpit oratory ... in the courtroom ... in private conversation . . in the ballpark [and] the public forum . . . The students need to learn the appropriate word in the appropriate level of usage."

San Francisco State College's President J. Paul Leonard carried the ball a little farther. Said he : "Too much time is spent on rules the pupil forgets, and writing compositions on subjects in which he has no interest nor any information." English teachers were kidding themselves if they thought "that a child cares whether he speaks correctly . . . until he feels the social pressure of his own group." Another fallacy, said Dr. Leonard, was the common belief "that a boy or girl can learn to express himself correctly, clearly and effectively by taking regular courses in English composition in school." The University of Minnesota's Dora V. Smith agreed. Said she: "The type of writing most used today is the personal letter. Young people don't write about the Roman Empire or Colonial life in America -- they write of their day-to-day doings. Our problem is to teach them to write interesting personal news letters."

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