Direction: Read the passage and answer the question. Behind this lack of linguistic training lies the fact that we represent what is geographically one of the largest blocks of population under a…

Direction: Read the passage and answer the question.

Behind this lack of linguistic training lies the fact that we represent what is geographically one of the largest blocks of population under a single language. Your Dutchman cannot carry on his business for one day without the probability that he will have to use English, French and German. Even your Englishman values his holidays on the Continent. On the other hand, the American will not face the need for a foreign language between Montreal and Laredo. The many foreigners with whom he may come into contact are damned by him for their non-Americanism and he expects them to take the initiative in speaking his language. This hostility to other language is carried by the American tourist as a protective cloak wherever he goes; and if in Mexico or in French Canada, the natives will not adapt themselves to his habits, he is perfectly content to confine his contacts to those who defer to him.

Thus, for the average high school student, even the living languages are dead issues. This is also true for the study of living cultures other than his own. It is only in American history that he has received what may be a thorough historical course. These courses in American history are often so coloured by prevailing public opinion, and even by statute, that they constitute rather exhortations to patriotism than attempts to find out what really happened. When our authors of high school textbooks must publish two variations of a history of the Civil War, one for the North and one for the South, there is not much impartiality to be expected nor can such courses in history serve the purpose of orienting the student to the world in which he lives.

There remains the course in English as high school subject which may have some cultural value. In the hands of a devoted teacher with personal cultural interest this value may well be present and even high. Against this, it must be remembered that neither the material rewards nor the social status of the teacher in the average high school is enough to secure teachers of any particular cultural interest. The great majority of high school teachers of English are young women of no special intellectual attainments, who are awaiting the time for marriage. The average student entering the average college is able neither to write a passage of acceptable English nor to read a literary book with any understanding.

The protective cloak referred to in the first paragraph is intended to give protection against