The perils of learning in English
Young children should be taught in their mother tongue instead
WHEN WINSTON CHURCHILL was at Harrow School, he was in the lowest stream. This did not, he wrote in “My Early Life”, blight his academic career, for “I gained an immense advantage over the cleverer boys. They all went on to learn Latin and Greek and splendid things like that...We were considered such dunces that we could learn only English...Thus I got into my bones the essential structure of the ordinary British sentence—which is a noble thing.”
This article appeared in the Leaders section of the print edition under the headline “Babel is better”
From the February 23rd 2019 edition
Discover stories from this section and more in the list of contents
Explore the editionDiscover more
Lessons from the failure of Northvolt
Governments blew billions on a battery champion. Time to welcome foreign investors instead
How to make a success of peace talks with Vladimir Putin
The key is robust security guarantees for Ukrainians
Javier Milei: “My contempt for the state is infinite”
Argentina’s president is idolised by the Trumpian right. They should get to know him better
Tariff threats will do harm, even if Donald Trump does not impose them
The risk of a trade war is uncomfortably high
Peace in Lebanon is just a start
Donald Trump must build on Joe Biden’s belated success
From Nixon to China, to Trump to Tehran
Iran is weak. For America’s next president that creates an opportunity