Paxton High School - Reflector Yearbook (Paxton, IL)

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8 Paxton High School Reflector clear his emotions, desires and interests by means of them, words have fulfilled their original purpose. “Shor.ny” and all or us, no doubt, comprehend the venerable German’s meaning, but the effect of his choice of words, was anything but pleasing. Gur purpose in our “Better English Campaign is a clear expression of ideas by means of good choice of words. Good diction is a worthy aim. Our friends—or rather enemies—who use slang and shift the responsibility of “better English” to us, may ask, Why did ‘rihonny's lather use poor diction? He got his ideas across!” And we gladly explain, Gcod usage regulates our choice of words.” Language is a growing thing—the language of our fathers may be defective in some respects now, for some words come and go. National acceptance and usage give us our power to permit one word in our vocabulary and cast out another. There are two forces which, today, tend to weaken the legitimate and refined power of good diction. One is the daily newspaper—great as is its value in scores of ways. Its purpose is to educate the people with the latest news of the day. and it often takes glaring means of attaining this end. The striking sentence, the statement, condensed at the price of good English.” are ever present in our daily editions. Such words as enthuse” and “donate.” have been coined without respect for the standard which says— aronse enthusiasm, ar.d make a donation. A second type of poor diction is provincialisms. The people of southern Illino's use the word, “kin to mean relative, yet that sense of the word is ro longer permissible as gcod English. Our neighbors from eastern I’nited States, add. er, to many words ending in vowels, saying “plazzer.” “verander. etc. A young woman, a graduate of Kadcliffe College was even heard to say. “Oh dear! I must not forget my umbrclier.’ Hut we can not always criticize, for these people think our choice of words equally peculiar. They think unusual our use of “sack” for “bag,” “bucket for “pail.” and s«ch expressions as ornery,” and “I reckon.” Most of 11s allow such words t creep into our daily speech and must admit that “by their speech, ye shall know them.” There are three types of people whose expressions we do rot wish to copy 1st. the man who speaks in general terms. He may deliver a lecture, yet upon leaving his presence, we say, “That man could not talk.” Probably it is because he talks about pleasant days and pleasant parties and pleasant people and does rot know how to put the right word in the right place. He does not knew—and probably does not care—that each word in the English language has a meaning and a purpose different from every other word. , The man who leads his speech with superlatives, we are not apt to1 follow—for he is very boresome. He wearies 11s with descriptions of awful, horrid, terrible, frightful things; and he disgusts us by their contrasts— elegant, fine, lovely, nice and splendid. His brother, the bookish talker, may attract more admirers. For even some modern Americans still seem to enjoy sitting open-eyed and hear-

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Paxton High School Reflector 7 .are pronounced by the niost scholarly and cultivated teachers and speakers. An Interesting list of common words, which are frequently mispronounced. was presented, and the proper pronunciations given. The following are a few of these words. If you have forgotten how to pronounce them correctly, or never knew, follow Miss Lateer’s advice and consult your dictionary. By the way. Miss Lateer urgently advised all high school students to choose for one of their clcsest and best friends, a good dictionary. These are »he words: Illinois, automobile, advertisement, equation, exponent, dis- course. laboratory, extraordinary, municipal, almond, hospitable, regime, illi trate, finance, February, Italian, abdomen, attacked. Attention was also directed to the errors so oiten made by students (?) who may be described as intellectually languid. For example some sort of mental languor can only account for the condition of the high school student who, in reading, pronounced the word “congressional,’’ “congrega-Loral.” or the word ‘legends,” legions.” Oral speech errors, due to slovenly articulation and indistinct enunciation. were net over looked in Miss Lateer’s talk. These are generally due to complex of mental and physical laziness. MISS WIGHTMAN’S TALK On Monday, Feb. 28. Miss Wlghtmar, of the Commercial department, talked upon the subject, “Business English.” Miss Wightman knows all about this subject, and presented selected phases of it with clearness, den-niteness and force. Sue emphasized the business letter, presenting in detail. the various rules applicable, the principles and conventions that have become recognized and established—whether in relation to content or form, salutation or subscription, or in the envelope address. Her discussion of the great variety of formal and complimentary salutations and closings was t specially interesting and Instructive. MISS CORBLY’S TALK On Wednesday. March 9, Miss Corbly, instructor in French, gave a ■carefully prepared talk on the general subject. “Diction.” Your reporter, finding it rather difficult to reflect its content adequately, prevailed upon Miss Corblv to reproduce it in form for publication. We are sure that it will be read with increased interest by all who heard it. and will be appreciated by either Reflector readers, who may have been absent or who are not members cf the school. Here it is: Two patriarchs of German descent stood on the street corner, conversing. One of them called to his son. Johnny, who was loitering near by, “‘Shonny! Run the alley down and bring home some meat for dinner.” “Shonny” did as directed and upon his return interrupted his fond parent’s speech. Tiien he received this German volley on the subject of good manner'-, “Shonny, when two gentlemens is talking, you must not conversation in!” This is the same man who reported that he had a new “Buck auty-mobile from St. Louis, with a chiffonier to run it.” Words are the expressions of ideas, and as long as the speaker makes

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Paxton High School Reflector 9 ng a torrent of words poured forth, the meaning of which they can not even guess. Micawber liked to make an impression, so Dickens makes him say: “Circumstances beyond my individual control have, for a considerable lapse of time, effected a severance of that intimacy which, in the l'mited opportunities conceded to me in the midst of my professional duties • has ever afforded me. as it even mus. continue to afford, gratifying emotions of no common description.” Micawber doubtless made an impression on his hearer —and we still smile at him today. In these days when good English” is one of the signs of culture, refinement. and good taste, let us make car motto, “Correct grammar first— then, the right word in the right place.” a « tt It is believed that the recognition cf the importance or the “Better English” movement indicated by these assembly talks is doing much 10 reenforce and dignify the more specific and detailed work that is being done, incidentally and otherwise, in the class rooms. Morever, the conviction is becoming more general among teachers and students that the responsibility for effective training in the ar. of using good English can not be wholly placed upon the teachers of the grades and the high school instructors in the department of English, but that all other teachers must share in that responsibility. A mastery of good English can only he acquired as a result of many fences. These forces must be Kept active in every department of school work, until correct speech habits are formed, and ur.til in the student mind the highest ideals of good English become sufficiently permanent and attractive to take the place of all school room Instruction and training as incentives for each individual to work out for himself some worthy degrees of facility and propriety, of grace atd effectiveness in the use of our beloved English language. Only some small, though very essential beginnings may ne reasonably expected from elementary and secondary school instruction. The larger possibilities of a mastery of its treasures of wisdom and of its most skillful and effective use. may only be attained by long years of reflection and study, and of literary labor and toil.—O. J. B. OTHER “BETTER SPEECH TALKS TO BE GIVEN Other talks on the better use of English will he given before the close of the year. Among those already provided for are the following: “Wrong Use and Correct Cse of Verts”—.Miss Hummel. “Adjectives. Adverbs and Prepositions to Watch”—Mis3 Dooley. “Vocational English”—Mr. Eator. The Relation of ‘Better Speech- to ‘Better Thinking1 -Mr. Cunningham. “Beauty and Power of the English Language when Correctly W ritten or Spoken”—Mr. Bainum.