Macon beacon. [volume] (Macon, Miss.) 1859-1995, 1871-07-22
Practical Education.

A very perceptiblC change is taking
place in the views of those interested
in educational matters. Instructors
both in Europe and America are be-
ginning 70 Reriously ask themselves,
is it best to continue to drill the
young in the dead languages SO
many yearsp Can they not attain
just as much mental training, and far
more knowledge that will valuable
be to them in the everyday affairs
of life, by devoting to other branches
of study portion of the time which
Is now given to Greek and Latin ?
The public, generally arc beginning,
to PROFOUND the same inquiries.
Mill and Huxley have recently spo-
Ken on the subject, and Robert Lowe,
Chancellor Of the English Exchequer,
now reiterates the sentiments to
which they have given expression.
After stating, in an address before
the London Institute of Civil En-
gineers, that his own education was
devoted mostly TO learning some
thing of the literature and the Ian
guage of q people who have long
since passed away-a people who
knew very little of nature, very little
of the world in which they lived,
very little indeed Of anything except
the squabbles and quarrels in which
they engaged with one another" the
Chancellor added "When l think
of the celebrated battle of Marathan,
all our enthusiasm, about the 1872 who
persisted on that occasion on the side
of the victorious, and compare it
with the great drama which has
been enacted in another part of Eu-
rope within the last seven or eight
months, | cannot help feeling how
small were the matters to which our
early attention was directed. Why,
a good colliery accident, under the
auspices Of those professional gentle
men whom / see around me, would
throw one of those great events of
ancient times completely into the
shade" Studies of this character,
the Chancellor continued, though
beautiful and attractive, are marrow,
email, and unsuitcd to fit a man to
take part in the great drama of life"
The aim instruction of teachers
should be TO impart which will be
required in future days." which
can be available for the convenience
and advantage Of mankind" Youth
should be taught concerning the
occult influences which surround us,
of which the ancients, to whose histo-
ry and productions, we have devoted
so much of oar time, knew nothing.
They should be instructed how to
seize the great forces in nature, and
so to "imprison, and regulate them,
that they shall serve man, not
only like the most obedient and
faithful servants, but with a power,
which no fabled giant could possess"
There are very few graduates of col
legcs and Universities, in either the
Old World or New, who will not, to
a greater or less extent, endorse these
views who have not come to feel, from
their own experiences, that there is a
radical defect in that educational
curriculum which prcscribos ancient,
TO the exclusion of modern classics,
who do not kcenly regret that
they did not devote some Of their
early years of study to acquiring the
| German and French and other live
languages, which could now be made
of great service in tho social
and business affairs Of life. The
College of the future must keep the
living present more in view than
the dead past.-Hearth and Home.