Life, 1914-02-26 · page 33 of 40
Life — February 26, 1914 — page 33: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This page is primarily **advertisements** interspersed with one satirical piece on education. The main content is "Class in English," a classroom satire mocking progressive education theories of the era. A teacher asks students absurdly complex grammatical questions using made-up or overly technical terminology ("adverbial and binominal adjectival and descriptive non-interrogatory clause"). The students give common-sense answers ("There ain't none"), and the teacher criticizes their natural speech as wrong. The satire's point: Modern educational pedagogy has become so theoretically elaborate that it defeats practical learning. Teachers focus on jargon rather than teaching students to speak correctly. The exasperated teacher's final lament—"Have I taken a four-years' course in modern pedagogy for nothing!"—encapsulates the joke: excessive training in educational theory produces poor actual teaching. The surrounding ads (cigarettes, canoes, automobile tires, shade rollers) are period-typical commercial content with no satirical intent.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
LIFE An Opportunity. For Sale: Itala rotary valve motor car, 7 passenger touring 35/50} H. P. in perfect condition and/ almost new. Limousine body, can be had which has never been | used. Fully equipped —extra shoes, etc. Address OPPORTUNITY, 17 WEST 31 ST., NEW YORK Class in English (A Slightly Exaggerated Version in Order to Bring out a Great Truth.) Scene—A _ public school recitation- room. One teacher and fifty-two pupils, Temperature 75. 'EACHER: Attention everybody. Remember, we have only forty- five-minute periods to study the Eng- lish language, five minutes of which have already gone. (She writes on the blackboard this sentence:) 50 Blue Peters packed in our patented paraffine box Order Now and You SSS “BLUE PETE CIGARETTES Price $1.25 pos ‘Condition perfect in any Leon! ad Will Order Regularly BLUE PETER GIGARETTE. CO., 76 Beaver St., N. Y. ‘Broadway 2 EEE “The plowman homeward plods his weary way.” Now we will begin. Inquisitive Boy (raising his hand): What are the parts of speech? Teacuer (serenely): You are out of order. We do not teach parts of speech now. You must have been talk- ing to your grandmother—a very repre- hensible habit. Attention: In the sentence I have written, point out to me the adverbial and binominal adjectival and descrip- tive non-interrogatory clause which re- lates to the pronomial participle. Bricut Boy: There ain't none. Bricut Girt (next to him, quickly raising her hand): He don’t speak right. Teacner: What is wrong about the expression used? Boy 1x Corner (who reads the comic section of the Sunday papers, grinning): Everything. TeacHer: Very well. Now give an instance in the sentence of an inter- i P LOTS ZANT FOND LAYS Sk Weta rere ee, sali hem, (No bree rach you how to write gma. No pre- rite now for free Teountes mo nortan FierUeE scsooia. sib ets toads CMs FARTSHORN SHADE ROLLERS Bear tho script name of Stewart Hartshorn on label. Get “Improved,” ao tacks requi ed. Wood Rollers Tin Rollers Figure Now on That ld Town Cancé It will get you out into the open air, away from common haunts—give you rest and exercise in one. Send for the “Old Town Canoe” catalog and get ac- ‘quainted with canoe con- struction. 4000 canoes in stock. Agentseverywhere. OLD TOWN CANOE CO, 1332 Middle Street Old Town, Maine, U.S.A. = Kelly- Springfield Automobile Tires Tire-making is like acroplaning. careful hand, and an absolute knowledge of qualit masters in both profession: and Tubes have been longest in the field and they still are al KELLY-SPRINGFIELD TIR! ron Avetics The Wears Tie & Rother Co, Colon Ross Ruler Co. Deaver, Cola. oe It requires experience, a trained and in materials. The elly-Springfield Tires ve all others. Cor. B’way & 57th St., N. Y. Detroft. Clacinnatl, San Francisco, kren, O. s are those who survive. E COM! PANY. ta, Boston, Seath'n Hdwe & Woodstock Co.. Ltd., New Orleans, La. Central Robber & lnspote, Sea Sopply Co.. 1 Ted. ‘Cos, Inc., Syracise. N. locutory, adverbial, dependent action interrelated to the principal subject. Alsa what is the predicated, peri- phrastic inference surrounding the inferential paradigm? From the class: (Silence and shuf- fling.) Teacner (desperately): Have I taken a four-years’ course in modern pedagogy for nothing! (Ete, ete, ete.) Thirteen Mistakes in Life San Francisco, Jan. 10.—Here are what Presiding Judge Paul J. McCormick has announced as “Thirteen Mistakes of Life” “To attempt to set up your own stand- ard of right and wrong.” “To try to measure the enjoyment of others by your own.” “To expect uniformity of opinions in this world.” “To fail to make allowance for inex- perience.” “To endeavor to mould all dispositions alike.” “Not to yield in unimportant trifles.” “To look for perfection in our own actions.” “To worry ourselves and others about what cannot be remedied.” “Not to help everybody, wherever, however and whenever we can.” “To consider anything impossible that we cannot ourselves perform.” “To believe only what our finite minds can grasp.” “Not to make allowance for the weak- nesses of others.” “To estimate by some outside quality when it is that within which makes the comicbooks.com