The anti-monopolist. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1874-1878, 1877-12-27

Muncie National bank. Liabilities
unknown.
Here are some sound and sensible
views upon education. We have long
thought that our children ought to
know more about the living world
around them and less about the
language and literature of dead
nations. The study of the classical
tongues is simply remnant of the
ancient supremacy of the Roman
empire over barbarous nations. To
this day the language Of the courts IN
Hungary is Latin, just as our scientific
terms and medical prescription, are.
Every now and then some poor wretch
is killed by the druggist mistaking
the meaning of a rigmarole OF bog
Latin on some doctors prescription,
whose life would have been saved if
plain English had been used.
amos Noyes, "a leading lawyer OF
Newburyport, Mass, in an article on
classical education, expresses these
ideas:
There are twenty times as many
persons instructed in Latin and Greek
as can ever use these languages. Our
system gluts and over-supplies the
market, SO that 10 out of 20 are
financially worse off than if they had
not been lured by the cheapness and
great prizes which they fancy only
within the reach Of those who know
Greek.
Free classical education is a failure
as a matter of culture. TO offer it, as
is now done, to all without reference
to their taste or future prospects, is
the same as to throw pearls before
swine. In Newburyport, Salem,
Haverhill, etc., there are from 60 to
100 boys and girls studying Latin. and
half that number studying Greek.
But of all these not more than two or
three persist unto the end. A class Of
so begins, but dwindles to 5 or s.
The remaining IS per cent. have
abandoned forever the sshumanities'
over which they have lost the best
part of two or three years. Lost. l
say, because as a matter of culture it
would have been Infinitely better to
have expended the hours devoted to
Greek and Latin to Latin alone, or to
French. A smattering of Latin is OF
some service, but a smattering of
Greek is as useless as phrenOlogy'
Classical education is a failure used
rs discipline when carried too far;
and to impose on all, whether they
have aptitude or not, is carrying it
| too far.
| BY offering Greek to every one, you
induce many more to study it than
otherwise would. It draws off at.
tention from natural philosophy
chemistry and botany by taking time
that would otherwise be devoted tc
them.
II is to pernicious business because
it contributes nothing at all to the
industrial faculty or power of dealing
with the concrete. 1t draws off an
nually from industry and bushes:
thousands of boys, confines them fol-
four years more in high school until
their physical constitution and energy
is measureably impaired. He who nj
IA could have left school with I
knowledge of grammar, reading
writing. geography. and arithmetic
sufficient for doing the business of ar
Aston or Stewart is retained in schoo
till Is and crammed with Latin. Greek
geometry. algebra, ETC., when h
comes out habituated to a sendentary
employment. and enfeebled bodily by
Iit.-with no taste for business activity
of any kind. with supercillious i'm
portance frequently, too old to begir
at the bottom rung of the ladder in z
factory or store with boys three OF
four years his junior. and too incative
to compete with them. and too igno
rant to beginhigher up.
Now, when you find nearly all the
business talent and money-makinG
men to be men without the high
school culture. and find the higf
school graduates filling some subordi
nate positions as clerks or book
keepers, you have alright to presume
that there has been loss of energy
or nhvuina1 r-iror anI of huSinpS