Some Intellectually Dishonest Arguments -- And Some That Are "Plain Dumb" -- Against the Study of Foreign Languages

Abstract

IN THE past year or two I have been collecting occasional newspaper clippings dealing with the subject Why France Fell. Nearly all the people who make bold to offer their simple (and you can take simple in any sense you like) explanations of what after all is a very complicated matter, obviously see in the military defeat of France an opportunity to say See, I told you so! It was the Jews (Communists, Industrialists, Popular Front, Catholic Church, Capitalists, Labor, or whatnot) that caused the downfall of Each, out of his particular bias, blames the one thing concerning which he has a prejudice or a mind-set. This reaction is somewhat like that too commonly observed among the overstuffed element in American life whenever anything displeases them; their necks get red and their faces apoplectic as they blame it all on Man in the White House--or his wife, or his sons. France fell for a multitude of reasons, not the least among which were German military efficiency, German unscrupulousness, and the blindness and somnolence regarding the Axis menace from which not only France, but England, the small European countries, and-until Pearl Harbor-in large measure the United States, alike suffered. To attribute the military disaster that befell France to one factor alone betrays lack of perspective and, in some instances, an active prejudice. An example is the attempt by one American educationist to fasten the blame for the French debicle on what he called the aristocratic French school-system. This surprised a good many people who had come to look on the French schools as among the best in the world, as one of the great achievements of Republican France. But this gentleman had the answer, or thought he had, and apparently felt no restraint about popping off on the subject. A similar argument has been brought forward to discredit foreign language study. It is also simple, and betrays the bias of those who advance it. Unfortunately it betrays something more than bias or prejudice; it is obviously meant to be smart, subtle, a clever bit of word-juggling to make a point-as if the maker were looking around for approval of his cleverness and saying There! That puts you in a fix! What a smart boy am I