Anti-slavery bugle. [volume] (New-Lisbon, Ohio) 1845-1861, 1853-12-31
ntisfelIanrouS.
Prom The Homo Journal.
LATIN AND GREEK.

j. ttin and Greek in schools The article is written
with candour and ability. The reviewer admits
that persons who are destined TO a literary career
must, n matter of course learn Latin and Greek;
but lac protests against their occupying the chief
place IL the programme of an ordinary school.
beg to recommend this able aud candid article to
the perusal Of all who arc interested in education.
Long a9O the conviction forced itself upon my
mnd--igainst my will, for am inordinately fond
Of classical studies, and would gladly devote my
lfo TO them--that the greatest part Of the time
money ana labour spent in our schools upon the
acquisition of Latin and Greek, is worse than
wasted Therefore, welcome the UesimiRstcTsI
convincing article, and feel confident that it will
not be uun0uential npon the opinions even Of
classical teachers
Atleast as often as once a month, | am Informed
by some article, lecture pamphlet or book, that
the word Education is derived from the Latin
Edqceie which signifies to cduce or lead out. No
such thing, MessFs Pedagogucs. 1t s derived
from that totally different word, Educore, which
means to nourish, to foster; in short, to do for q
child what its nurse does. Please correct, in fu-
turc editions of your invaluable works Cicero
hts it happily in his well known sentence, Edtca
o5SfcfrtS, ecat natrir INSTITUTE pgdagogus, which
may be interpreted, The midwife educH Tor, ac-
cording to the authors referred TO, EDuCArEsl the
nurse nOurishes, the schoolmaster regulates The
sohoomaStcr is n boy-tamer.
1t would be absurd TO aludo to so obvious an
error, If it had not given rise to many hundred
noomprchensible aud. therefore, deusivo pages,
about drawing on, the mind" mental discip-
line" and 50 iUrth-f it had not confirmed many
teachers ia misapprehcnsion of the nature Of
their task. 1t seems to me that food is what the
mind wants, and the food of the mind is knowl-
edge. The mind is growth, and Graves nutriment.
Discipline is for the morale. Discipline is required
TO render pupils courageous, porscyering. consider
atc pulitc sincere and scfp0sscssed. In an ideal
system Of education the tanning process and that
of nourishing the mind by knowledge, would pro-
oced simultaneously The school lesson would
foel the mind the thorough aud patient acquisi-
ton Of it would strengthen or discipline the moral
forces the recitation would be II lesson in sincerity
c-d graceful behaviour. Certainly that school
must bp accounted the best in which these opera
lions arc most intimately and most uniformly
blended. Why have one class Of studies for dis
ciplinc only, and another class of studies for
nJnrshmcnt only when there are studies which
ut once inform the mind and develope character
which both impart useful knowledge and present
useinl dilhculties? The reviewer has nm apt il
lusration upon this point "a merchant" he says,
"ought, on one hand to discharge hs business
duties and on the other, to preserve his health by
bodily exercise. But if his business itself require
him to walk ten or twelve miles day, is he to be
told that this walking cannot be counted as exer-
else, and that he must walk other ten or twelve
miles for the sake of exercise and for that alone
we declare our inability to wherein this sup
posed case differs from the theory which would
range on side the particularly useful, and on
the other the educational, and build high and broad
between them partition WALL
have stated my belief that the labour spent
IN our schools upon the attempt to acquire tho
classical languages is ,rorSc than wasted. First
because only the rudiments Of classical learning
can be acquired in our schools. Give graduate
Of Yale or Harvard Greek author whom he ha:
never read and ask him to translate page or two
ol-band. Can lie do it? Try him. Ask him tC
Nyri.o you a q short essay in Latin, or translate
chapter of Irving into Latin. Can he do it? Try
him. If he is a candid man. and has learned Lat
in and Greek enough to know how little hc knows
Of them, he will frankly confess his inability. Ill
will confess, that he has spent ten years in trying
to accomplish something and has not accomplished
it. But he has been Disciplined! Perhaps he has
But the operations Of nourishing the mind witt
knowledge, and acquiring moral power by discip
line, have not been simultaneous. hRowtcdge b.
has not obtained. If nc reflects upon his menta
condition. ho will be lost in wonder at his igno
rance and every hour of his carly experience o
life win remind him Of it. To some students,
an aware, the acquisition Of even the rudment
Of a language is instructive, and few teacher
POSSESS such vast knowledge of their subject
that tLcy can make them SO to many. But hoy
rare such pupils and such teachers are one mus
have spent life in school to know! | can fame
II teacher so skilful as to make the multipl
Gallon table means of nourlshing the mind a
well Us of trying the patience; and have know
fifty teachers destitute Of skill that thei: pupil
derived not particle Of nutriment from lessons
,shonGniy, or Virgil, or History. 1t was lk
eating saw-dust bread, which gives the teeth pcni
to do; but the stomach finds nothing in it. II
were not for the school-library where the hungr
studeAs can browse at their own free will, and c;
tae mcatll food they have appetite for, and whic
is, therefore, good for them, am afraid many
our young gentlemen would get very short ALLOW
Gnce of education; 1. c. mind nourishmcnt. +,
my own part, have the hardihood TO avow, that
obainei gro i deal more valuable and interestin
fnowleigo from reading The Pirates Own Rool
I Il my trgtt tKvo ~
l!a: Oyog many classical recitation room migl
lq written rs an appropriate motto, "SAwDr'
crrYcD HERE"
Then, consider what Latin and Greek dispac
An educated man, nj present, requires for Il
proper transaction Of lis business, as well rs 1,
ihe full enjoyment Of his life, knowledge
FTcnch German and Spanish. Our streets swar
with people To whom those languages are naty
We have most Intimate relations with countries
wAi.h thcy nre spokcn; and there are books
those languages which we ought to read, want
read, but clnaGt read without knowledge Of Il
language IN which they are written Much III
is great and nutritivo in the ancient teratures e.
be obtained by translations; but the world of G'
Inan and French iiteratures must remain almost
tsyTu iicOg q those who do not read French al
German Those languages can be learned al
thoroughly, too in an ordinary school course, al
lhey are, when thoroughly learned permane
acquisitions. Need anything be said here of t
shameful ignorance among the educated elias
respecting the world we live in, the bodies ,
inhabit, the history Of which we are the resui
the language we speak? Sweep Latin and Gre
from our schools and we might, in generation
two. gettO know few things; college-bred N
dyspspue might gradually cease to be synonymo
terms. Who knows?
The practical dificulties in the way of such
sweep are great, aud they can be fully understo
by teachers only. Frenchmen, as general thir
cannot teach American boys. Germans do bett
hut not we'll. The modern languages, to be taup
with the utmost efficiency, must bo taught
American teachers, who have been over the grou
and know whore the shoe pinchcs Teachers co
petent TO 90 this are at present extremely few
i3r is the number rnIh greater who are com
tent 10 present the natural sciences they IN
heprescnted In order to excite the enthusa
and Rorrish the mind of youth Teachers tl.'
n. u. aLa ElI.folr