The main issue for yeshiva high school and first year BM is to learn how to make a leining. The problem is two fold. the first, is to understand how the gemora is organized and to be able to able to follow the shakla v’tarya. The second, and frankly the harder of the two, is learning the translation of technical terms. Back in the day, the primary tool for translation was Jastrow. Yeah, he was a shtikel apikores but the translations were extremely accurate. The system of learning inside and going to Jastrow when necessary, gave one the tools for life long learning. Along comes the Soncino Sha’as. While the translation was also quite accurate (frankly, more accurate than Artschroll). The daf by daf format was distracting and required less internalizing translation and p’shat.
Enter Artschroll. With Artschroll the system is reversed. The English text and explanations become the ikkar and the original daf is just for reference. Now, that’s fine in that it opens up learning for those who may not have developed the skills alluded to above and adds to the general accumulated understanding of p’shat, but it eliminates any requirement to actually know how to learn.
So the maskana seems to be that Artschroll has its place but it is not a substitute for learning inside.
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