Montgomery County sentinel. [volume] (Rockville, Md.) 1855-1974, 1883-07-20

SHAM EDUCATION.

Charles Francis Adams, .Jr in his
address before the Phi Beta Kappa So
cicty of Harvard University, last week,
attacked the system which now prevails
in the colleges of making Greek and
Latin the basis of liberal education
He was graduated from Harvard in
1856 OF the education he received he
said:
Such training as got, useful for the
struggle | got after instead of before
graduation, and it came hard while |
never have been able--and now no mat
ter how lsng ! may live, never shall
be able to overcome some great disad-
vantages which the superstitious and
wrong theories and worse practices Of
my alma mater inflicted upon me. And
not on me alone The same may be said
of my cotemporaries, as have observed
them in success and failure What was
true in this respect Of the college Of
thirty years ago is, | apprehend, at least
partially true of the college of to-day
1t fails properly to fit graduates for the
work they have got 10 do in the life that
awaits them
The college fitted us for this active,
busting, hard hitting, many tongued
world, caring nothing for authority and
little for the past, but full Of its living
thought and living issues, in dealing
with which there was no man who did
not stand in pressing and constant need
of every possible preparation as respects
knowledge and exactitude and thorough
ness--the poor old college prepared US
to play our parts in this world by COM
polling US, directly and indirectly, to de-
vote the best part Of our school lives to
acquiring confessedly superficial knowl-
edge Of two dead languages.
We are living in this world of to-day,
and it is the business Of the college TO
fit men for it, Does she do il? AS |
have said, my own experience Of thirty
years ago tells me that she did not do it
then. The facts being much the same,
I do not see how she can do il now II
seems TO me she starts from radically
wrong basis 1t is, TO use plain Ian
guagc, basis of fetch worship, in which
the real and practical is systematically
sacrificed to the ideal and theoretical.
Latin | will not stop TO contend over
That is small matter. Not only is it
comparatively simple language, but
apart from its literature-for which |
cannot myself profess to have any great
admiration--it has its modern uses. Not
only is 1t directly the mother tongue Of
all southwestern Europe, but it has by
common consent been adopted in scien.
tific nomenclature. Hence there are rea-
sons why the educated man should have
at least an elementary knowledge Of
Latin That knowledge also can be nc.
.quircd with no great degree of labor. -
TO master the language would be an
other matter, but in these days few think
Of mastering it.
How many students during the last
thirty years havo graduated from Harv-
ard who could read Horace and Tacitus
and Juvenal, as we Goethe and Momm-
sen aud Hcine II there have been ten
| certainly do not believe there have been
a score. This il is to acquire language
A knowledge Of its radimcDts is n wholly
different thing; and with knowledge
of the rudiments Of Latin IA require
ment for admission TO college am not
here to quarrel No. SO Greek.
The study Of Greek. and | speak from
the unmistakable result Of my own indi-
vdual experience in active life, as well
a. from that Of long continuod family
experieDcc-th study Of Greek in the
way it is additionally insisted upon as
the chief requirement TO entering college
il a positive educational wrong IL has
already wrought great individual aud
general injury, aud is now working it,.
II has been productive Of no compensa-
ting advantage. 1t is a superstition.
| would rather myself be familiar with
the German tongue and its literature
than be equally familiar with the Greek
| would unhcsitatingly make the same
choice for my child. What have said
Of German as compared with the Greek
| will also say Of French as compared
with Latin On this last point | have
no question. Authority and superstition
apart, am indeed unable 10 see how an
intelligent man, having any considera-
BILE acquaintance with the two litera-
lures, eau, as respects either richness or