The Vermont watchman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1883-1911, 1884-08-13

to the fact that the methods of instruction
are cumbrous and complex, and overloaded
with non.essentials. Pupils in the public
schools are kept at work upon arithmetic
from eight to ten years. Is it necessary
to devote so much time to this one
scienceP The reason why one-seventh of
the years allotted to human life are con-
sumed upon the study of arithmetic is
that the science has been developed in
most of our textbooks to needless ex-
tent; great many superfluous subjects
are introduced the applications of arith.
metic to all manner of possible and inn
possible transactions are extended 80 far
that life becomes a burden to many a
pupil before the book is finished. If the
teaching were confined to the simple
arithmetical processes and the more COM
mon operations of mechanical and COM
mercial life, sufficient knowledge of the
science could be impaired, and two or
three years saved for other studies. The
same criticism applies with equal force to
geography and grammar. Does it not also
apply to the higher education Does not
the gravamen of the complaint respecting
the classical teaching in our academies
and colleges lie against the way in which
the classics are taught, rather than against
the fact that they are taught Is it not
possible to give pupils better knowledge
of Latin and Greek than they now get in
much less time than they devote to these
studies Such seems to be the judgment of
many modern students of pedagogy. Here,
for example, is formidable arraignment
of modern methods of teaching, made at
the last commencement of Adelbert Col
lege, in Cleveland, by Mr.. W. j. Chamber
lain, a gentleman who was once profess
sor in that college, before its local habita-
ton and its name were changed. The
Western Reserve College had a great repu-
tation for the thoroughness of its scholar
ship, and its methods were such as prevail
in most colleges. Speaking of these
hOuuOubS AAls SudmOOLldlu says budL bu6
time was wasted that was spent in
college, and before and since, in ten years
| of teaching-spent in the microscopic
study of Greek accents, manifold dialect
forms, multiplied rules and exceptions in
quantity, and in Latin and Greek COM
position" Mr.. Chamberlain's bright talk
before the Adelbert alumni is very quota
BILE; and the teachers who read the
Christian Union Care they not multi
tude y will be glad to get few bits of
his experience and his criticism:
"If may return for moment to the cru
| chile of my own mind, | find that read Greek
to-day far more readily than when graduated
or even when left off teaching the language,
| ten years later but | could not place the
| written accents correctly on a line of Greek to
save my life. can scan Homer and Electra
| with greater ease than then, but cannot give
one in ten Of the rules for quantity and meter
| to show why scan Tor rather ready Greek
poetry as do. Nor did these microscopic rules
| ever help any one to learn to scan"
Mr.. Chamberlain thinks that Uncle
Sam " Taylor of Audover was as much to
blame as anybody for the introduction of
this method of teaching the classics.
"He was good drill-master, but his drill
was on non-essentials He required tithes of
mint and anise and cummin.' For example:
What other word or form Of that word Homer
| might, could would, should or must have
used il he had not used that form? What vari-
| GUS forms the Attic, Doric and Ionic prose and
| poetic writers might, could, etc, use? What
and where the accent must have been in each
| OF the said supposable cases. etc? Now, what
| Is the use? IL the boy shows by his translation
that he knows this word, in this form, the
meaning, shade of thought and grammatical
| connection, why not let him off, and go on
studying Homer? 1t isn't necessary to dump
| the entire grammar, lexicon, and classical die
| tionary upon each Individual line of Homer
repeat that this minute dissection and
| microscopic examination Of the Greek text
believe to be destructive to the life of real lin
guistc, and especially literary scholarship
The letter killetb, but the spirit maketh alive
The peach plucked ripe from the bough is lus-
cious food; but analysed by the chemist into
its elements, or frozen in the ice-chest and
sliced into filmy sections for the slide of the
| microscope, it is neither food nor refreshment.
The engine gliding over the smooth track need
not redrive every spike. | speak strongly, in
dignantly, as a lifelong lover of the Greek lam
guage and literature, and full believer in its
value in the curriculum; and speak thus be-
cause believe that, unless we strip the quib-
bling non-essentials from the classics the spirit
of the age will strip the classics from the col
lege COURSE"
This faith that the classics can be
taught more expeditiously and success
fully by other methods has its foundation
in experience. Mr.. Chamberlain has tried
it, and knows whereof he affirms. He
gives signal instance of the success of
the method he urges in the case of girl
of sixteen, who desired him to help her
overtake class that had been studying
Greek for two long terms:
81 told her she WAS to study Greek as old
English, or as one source OF English, to learn it
by its resemblances to the English and to the
Latin, which she had studied a year. The al
phabet was conquered in an hour; not commit
ted but its letters learned to read at sight.
For the characters, as she was shown, are
nearly all essentially like the English, Or at
least, sugges. the English equivalent. Accents
were ignored, except in a few cases where they
are help and not a hindrance. Then she took
| a page of the Anabasis and pronounced the
| words exactly like English words of the same
| spelling, Persistent reading, with assistance
| and correction, gave her fairly fluent pronun-
| citation in three hours The next evening trans
| ation began. She hunted for English aud
| Latin words, and found the root OF almost
| every second word to be an old acquaintance.
| Then infections and con ugatons were studied,
not committed until the various cases. genders,