Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1890-12-28
REFORM In SCHOOLS.
The Remarkable Speech Recently
Made by Emperor William.
DEAD LANGUAGES ARE DOOMED.
The Time Has Come to Educate Young
Germans, Not Young Greeks
NATIONALITY HAS BEEN NEGLECTED


In Berlin at the first sitting of the School
Reform Committee. An abstract Of his re-
marks on that occasion has already been
printed in The DISPATCH, but further
points are interesting. When the discus
sion was opened the Emperor expounded his
own views on educational reform in a speech
lasting more than half an hour. In aGdi-
ton to what has been printed the Emperor
said:
Several points will come up for discus
sion that will still remain in utter darkness,
and therefore think it as well that 7
should state nv own opinions. 1 may OBJ
serve that this is no political school ques-
ton that you have to discuss, but one that
has to do only with the technical and pro-
iessorIal measures necessary if we are to ed
cate our growing youth in a manner beGt-
ting the demands of the present day and the
exalted position of our Fatherland among
the nations. should have been glad had
this inquiry been called, not by the French
word enquete. but by the German word
Frage, the old German word for enquete,
and therefore let US know it merely as the
school question:
THE SPIRIT is WRONG.
II have studied the IA points of the pro-
gramme and think they may easily mislead
you nto framing all manner of schemes.
This should greatly regret, for the chief
thing is to grasp the spirit and not the mere
form Of the subject. l have therefore put
on the paper the following points: School
hygiene, apart from gymastlcs'-this mat
ter should be most carefully considered
the reduction OF the curriculum'-thatis is
to say, what shall be taken out?-'and plans
for instruction in subjects suited to the
various professions. Is the groundwork
considered in the examinations? Is over
pressure impossible in the future? What
control is there to be alter the completion Of
the course? Are regular and extlaordinary
inspections to be made by various higher Of
fetal bodieS?'
81 lay these questions on the table, and
whoever wishes to inform himself further
may look at them. The whole question has
developed itseli gradually and quite spon-
taneouslY, and hope you will confer on the
nation an effective benefit. / must remark
beforehand that if 1 should become some
what severe, this severity does not refer to
anyone personally, but to the system as
whole.
NEEDS OF LIFE NEGLECTED,
'If schools had done what they ought to
dol speak from the heart, for 1 have been
at a classical high school myself and know
what is done there-they should have taken
up the cudgels against social democracy of
their own accord, and the teachers should
have so brought up the rising generation
my poraries-that they would have
furnished me with material to work with in
the State in order to master the move-
ment more speedily. That, however,
has not been the case. The last occasion
on which our schools exercised decisive
influence over the mind OF Germany was iu
1854, and from 1866 to 1870, when they in
culcated the idea of unity everywhere. The
empire was united in 1870, and there the
matter stopped, though the schools should
have taken their cue from the new order Of
things, and made it clear to young people Z
that the new State organism existed in order
to be preserved.
Since 1870 philologists have sat as beati
possidentes in the classical high schools and
have concerned themselves more with the
lines on which education should proceed
than with the formation of character and
the needs of modern life. Their principle
is that the pupil must know as much as pos
sible, whether it be Of use in after life or
not, and il one tries to point out to these
gentlemen that young person must be pre-
pared with some kind of practicality to face
lite and its problems, they answer that the
province of the SCHOOL lies, not in that, but
in mental gymnastics. L believe that this
standpoint will have to be abandoned.
MUST EDUCATE YOUNG GERMANS.
His Majesty then discussed the variou,
features OF the reforms which his own ex-
perience at the High School of Cassel had
shown him were necessary, and alluded
with great emphasis to the neglect OF the
principle of nationality. 1--WE should edu-
cate young Germans, not young Greeks and
Romans, and for that reason the chief sub
ject in the high schools must be German.
and not Latin, with smattering of Greek,
as in the monastic education OF
the Middle Ages. The German
essay must be the center round
which all else revolves. and by a Youths
German essay in the final examination
should be able to measure the extent of his
intellectual culture. Not single one Of
our II Latin essays was ever written with
out cribs, and they were then marked
good; but if we had to write German
essay on Minna Won Bernheim we got the
marx hardly satisfactory The Latin essay
must therefore, be abandoned, for it leaves
II should also like to see the national ele-
nent fostered by questions on history,
and legendary lore, and espe.
,ially on German history. That L myself
know so much of it is dUe solely TO the
and absorbing lectures of
Privy Councillor Hinzpeter. But that ID
ust the salient point.
NO MORE HIGH SCHOOLS.
Our young people are bewildered and un-
informed precisely because they know moth
ng about the development OF our conditions.
ind are ignorant that their origin dates back
% the era of the French revolution. All
his must, therefore, be made clearer to
hem, in order that they may better under
itand the questions of the day"
His Majesty then proceeded to advocate q
reduction in the school hours and in home
york, which have brought about an over
production Of highly-educated. people.
Prince Bismarck saying about the pro-
etariat, that it was made up of the people
who have passed the examination on leaving
,he high schools, is perfectly correct. All
he so-called hunger candidates. especially
he journalists, are high school boys run to
ieed." His Majesty was indeed
severe on the subject
,f journalists. He declared that he
would not license any more high schools,
lnless it was absolutely necessary, as there
we're more than enough already; nor any
emi-classical high schools, as they gave
'niy halfand-half education. The speech
vas listened TO with the utmost attention
Ind interest. 1t constitutes a pronounce
nent in favor of practical and common sense
from source which is certain to
- IL