Los Angeles daily herald., 1873-11-09

mental gymnastics was borrowed from
bodily gymnastics. In feudal times
useful labor was regarded as menial
and degrading, and the superior clas-
ses were compelled to seek the activity
needed for bodily health in artificial
means. The old Greek gymnastics
was system of athletic exercise, cul-
tivated for the attainment OF physical
development, and had no reference to
the preparation Of men for the Occu-
patiOns of Industry. The ancient phi
Iosophers held, that it was as degra-
ding to seek useful knowledge as to
practice useful arts, hence subjects of
no practical utility were chosen for
intellectual gymnastics, and to acquire
mental discipline
Professor Youmans, speaking of the
traditional or classical system of the
colleges as means of mental disci-
pline, says: "That system is neither
an OutgrOwth of the proper education
of childhood, nor does it flow on into
the intellectual life of manhood; 1t is
a foreign body of thought uncOngenial
and unfllliated, thrust into the aca-
demic period and destroying the unity
and continuity Of the mental career.
The young student is detached from
all of his early mental connections,
eXpatriated to Greece and Rome for a
course of years, becomes charged with
antiquated ideas and then returns to
resume his relations with the over
flowing current of events in his own
age. The radical defect of the tradi-
tiOnal system is that it fails to recOg-
nize and grasp the controlling ends of
culture. Iisled by the fallacy that
through scheme of aimless exercise
for discipline, mental power may be
accumulated for universal application,
it sees no necessity of organizing edu-
cation with explicit reference to ulti-
mate and definite purposes, and it
thus fOrfeits it's right of control over
the educational interests of the time.
For if the student, after having faith
fully mastered his collegiate tasks,
finds upon entering the world Of ac-
ton that his acquisitions are not
available-that he has to leave them
behind and begin anew-then his
preparation has been bad one; time
has been irretrievably lost, power ir-
revocably wasted, and the chances are
high that he will give the go-by to
modern knowledge and thin down his
intellectual life to the languid nursing
of his classical memories"
Says DR.. John w. Draper, of the
University of New York, in speaking
of the defect of the ancient classic as
a means of education: "The vague
impression that such pursuits impart
training of the mind, has long sus-
tanned this inappropriate course. 1t
also finds an excuse in it's alleged
power of communicating the wisdom
of past ages. The grand repositories
of human knowledge are not the an
cient, but the modern tongues. Few, if
any, are the facts worth knowing that
are to be exclusively obtained by a
knowledge of Latin and Greek; and
as to mental discipline it might rea-
sonably be inquired, how much n
youth will secure by translating daily
few good sentences of Latin and
Greek into bad and broken English.
So far as preparation is required for
the subsequent struggles and conflicts
of life; for discerning the intentions
and meeting the rivalries Of competi-
tors; for skill to design movements
and carry them out with success; for
cultivating clearness of perception
into the character and motive Of
Others, and for imparting decision to
our own actions; SO far as these things
are concerned, an ingenious man
would have no difficulty in maintain
ing the amusing affirmation that more
might be gained from mastery of
the game of chess than by translating
all the Greek and Latin authors in
the world"
Says Professor Huxley i'm lecture
on liberal education: "But if this be
a fair picture of the results of classical
teaching at its best, what is to be said
of classical teaching at it's worst. /
will tell you. 1t means getting up
endless forms and rules by heart. 1t
means turning Latin and Greek into
English, for the mere sake OF being
able to do it, and without the smallest
regard to the worth or wOrthlessness
of the author read. 1t means the
learning of innumerable, not always
decent fables in such shape that the
meaning they once had is dried up in
to utter trash; and the only impress
sion left on boys mind is, that the
people who believed such things must
have been the greatest idiots the
world ever saw. And it means finally,
that after dozen years spent at this
kind of work the sufferer shall be in
competent to interpret passage in an
author he has not already gotten up;
that he shall loathe the sight of a Greek
or Latin book; and that he shall never
open or think of classical writer
again, until, wonderful to relate he in
sists upon submitting his sons to the
same process"
Says Herbert Spencer: "Tf we in
quire what is the real motive in CIV
ing boys classical education, We will
find it to be simple conformity to pub
lie opinions. Men dress their chill
dren's minds as they do their bodies,
in the prevailing fashion. A boys
drilling in Latin and Greek is insisted
on, not because of their intrinsic value,
but that he may have the education OF
gentleman, the badge marking a
certain social position, and bringing
consequent respect"
Says Professor Tyndall: "As long as
the ancient languaBeS are Vie Hieais
of access to the ancient mind they
must be of value to humanity; but it
is as avenues of ancient thought, and
not as the instruments of modern cul-
ture that they are chiefly valuable to
man."
might give pages of quotations of
like tenor, from such distinguished
educators and writer's, as Dr. Bernard,
John Stuart Mill, DR.. Wayland, Gold
win Smith, DR.. Whewell and Others,
but it is unnecessary. All these dis
t;nnu;Shad xyritara and thinkarS while