The herald and mail. [volume] (Columbia, Tenn.) 1873-188?, 1877-08-31

The Preparatory or High school in
America, the Grammar school i'm Eng
land and the Gymnasium of Germany
occupy the same relative position to
the colleges or universities of their re-
SpCctive countries. I'm connection
with college il is called the prepariI-
tory or sub-cellege department. In
the best system of education its curri-
culum comprises, in mathematics,
arithmetic, algebra, geometry and
trigonometry, with its application 10
navigation and surveying; in Latin,
grammar, reader, Caesar, Sallust,
Ovid, Virgil, prose composition, as in-
clu,Ied i'm Bingham's or Harkness'
grammar and ArnOlds composition,
through first part, or their equivalent;
i'm Greek, grammar, four books OF
NenophOn's AnaI,asis and two in Her
otlotIls, and Jones' or Arnold's Greek
Prose Composition, or their cquiva
lent. \ good parallel coursein English
will of course he included. The work
of this school is thorough drill in the
forms and principles OflanguagC, and
i'm the formulie and principles ofmath-
ematicS; which drill simply means the
constant repetition of those forms and
principlCsan and their repeated applica-
ton. TO enter preparatory school Il
bows hOuld be familiar with the four
fundamental rules of arithmetic, and
should read fluently. 1t il i'm its dis
cipline andcOurSc OfStudy intended for
boys. \ college or university with Il
more extended course in these, together
with other studies, takes up the work
where the preparatory school leaves il,
and continues ii. Its course of study
and discipline are adapted to -Dlen.
The purpose of this paper is to discuss
their relation, whether they should he
combined under one administration
and management, or should be entire
ly disconnected.
The true principle, it seems to me,
is the concentration of university
work with diffusion of preparatory
work.
The expense of Il university makes
an endowment an Indispensable pre-
requisite. This involves cOnccntra-
ton necessarily and prccludes the pos
county, much less one in every COM
munity.
The university should not make use
of its endowment to compete with the
schools of those friends who furnished
the endowment. When they do,
they dccapitatc the schools by taking
from them their best scholars, and rob
them of those enthusiastic students,
whose character and scholarship inn
part life and VigOr 10 the teacher and
school.
There are in every community n
f9w ambitious boys with an elevated
ideal standard of excellence, who by
diligence are daily approNimating that
standard, whose thirst for knowledge
is increased by every draught. These
students constitute the nucleus around
which the school clusters; the heart,
so to speak, of the entire body, and
when the university completes with
the school, and these boys enter it,
the energy and life OF the schools are
gone. The friends of education should
protest against the colleges competing
with their school, and should with
hold an endowment if ii il tO he used
as Il boomerang to destroy their own
educational life.
IL brings the greatest good To the
greatest number that the university
aud the preparatory school he entirely
disconnected. BY combining them,
the hest educational advantages are
furnished to the few, and the number
who have fair opportunities are ma
terially diminished, while, hy di5con-
Meeting them, fair opportunities are
presented To the many; and this meth
od in no way diminiShcS the number
who have the highest advantages.
When the lifc-giving power of the
school is lost by having it, bestpatrOn-
age diverted Ia the colleges, this life
riving power is not added to the col
| leyc: because the boys join the Subor-
| tlinate department, and their influence
is not felt as factor, because they are
| subordinate.
| Their association is with the worst
element of the college, because they
are the public characters who are most
frequently and most prominently on
| exhibition. The good students are at
| work, and are seldom seen by the pub
| lie. Hence the model student of the
| village schools too often returns from
college to dissappOint the eXpecta-
| ton of friends, and are representatives
| of college culture, a. it is always said
| that he was in college, not that he was
I'm school in connection with col
lcge.
Young mon govern themselves
| bows need supervision, restraint and
compuIsion. The discipline adopted
TO one is not adapted to the other. In
| school the teacher stands iii TOGO pa
| rcnfjs, addresses his pupils by thcil
| pivcn names, and adopts such Il cOdC
J of laws asyOu would find in ANY well
regulated family. III college the pro
f,,SSor stands in TOGO DldgisfT0tus, ad
dresses the young men by their sur
names, with Mr.. prefiXed, and adopts
such n code of laws as will he found II
| well-goYeTned State. While charac
ter il i'm its formative state it IL dlffi
cuIt To determine the relative value o
discipline and scholarship. Mhll'
there can be good discipline and infe
rior scholarship, there cannot bc infe
rior discipline and good scholarship
DiscipIine is then necessity fOr-boys
Colleges take but slight supervision
over their students when off of rccita
ton, and lay no restraints upon then
with reference to absence from thci
nrpmiseS-nOt even at night. Tn
Students are never called to accOun
f,r failure in their lessons, and rarCl,
for failure to attend recitation. The.
are stimulated to their work only by
sense Of duty, o desire to excel, and b
the prospective examination andgrad
inc which are far in the remote future
They select their own bOartling-hOuse
and change them at viii. When
Young man l. ready to eHtor college
he is q young man; his parents, hi
3 | comDaniOns treat him as young MAJ
and Professors in college must likcwis
treat him as young man. There is
date whei, lie must assume the tOJ
mriEs, the responsibilities nf manhoo,
and why not upon his GHiFanpe int
college? The law draws a line b'
s.wecn his majority and minority,
4 priucipIe perfectly arbitrary, as thei
are many OH each side Of the line ~;
nu.,ht TO he on the other. No safe
] line, IL seems to me, could be adOpte
than the beginning of IL college cours
where the standard X an elevated on
and rigidly adhered tG.
Bows ready To begin pPet'aFatOI
course are too tender in age to be a
Loved such large liberties. They nee
.,,,,eryisiOn in school and out
, school. They must he required to pc
form their tasks, as they are not o
enough tO know what l. best for then
and at that age they can not alwa.
he sufficiently stimulated by a sen
of duty or desire for 0Xeellenc
They must often I've detained as deli
. omeiIts, ahIiionishcd for shOrtcOminj
and misdoed-. Penalties, too, mu
I've inflicted fGF iGfFapti9H Of law or f
| ,,,;au;ou Of dutN Ii is not itet:fSsti