The progressive farmer. [volume] (Winston, N.C.) 1886-1904, 1891-05-12
EDUCATIONAL.
EDUCATIONAL SCIENCE.

chiefly IN France ana Germany. liz
principles upon which classic educa-
ton have rested since the sixteenth
century are today contested by the
democratic and unitarian spirit which
governs more and more u modern
societies. The protest rlised by the
encyclopedias of the last century has
not ceased to augment and find a sup
port more and more powerful in public
opinion. The imperiOus necessity of
practical and scientific attainments IN
every career opened to the activity OF
the citizen has shattered old frame
works, and the men entrusted with the
direction Of public instruction are
graphing with this ir~refutabie neces-
sity proclaimed by all the organs OF
opinion, and their desire to preserve. a
tried organization which has given to
France. for two centuries, it's literary
and artistic pre- emince in the world.
Hencea fuctuation ofsystems, methods
and programmes continually refash-
toned for ten years past without ones
being abI4to perceive a fixed period to
this state of perturbation. Hence also
the ~solicitude in families, hesitating in
respect to the impulsiOn to give to
their children: too often are they driven
to fall back upon the accredited repre-
sentatives of the old regime, stead
fastlyseated in a sort of intellectual and
moral immobility which they have the
address to cOnciliate with a fruitful
mechanical preparation at the exam
nations and meetings of Our modern
mandarimates. Plato said long ago:
Lessons that one instills fOrcibly into
the mind do not remain there. Make
use of no violence towards the children
in the lessons We give them; manage in
some way or other that they educate
themselves while at play, in this wise
ye will be better prepared to become
acquainted with the dispositions of
each me-. 1t is necessary to lead-chil-
dren to war on horseback, let them ap-
proach the thick of the fray. Ye will
put aside those who will have discOv-
cred more patience in toll, more cOur-
age in danger and more ardOr for the
sciences" In a word, one should in
cite by first trials in education the
tastes and the aptitudes, in order to be
enabled to discern them and properly
utilize them; but one a arrive at this
essential result only by leaving to the
child certain degree of leisure in order
to develop himself in accordance with
the special aim that he prefers: only it
is necessary to force him to work.
Secondary education for a long period
has maintained character exclusively
classical and analogous for all it's
vOtaries. In it was proposed, first and
foremost, to form men and to preserve
ahigh literary culture. This culture,
in fact, constitutes a portion of the
moral strength of the nations, and it
thus c~onspires even to their power and
their material PROSPERITY, No people.
perhaps, in modern times, has derived
greater advantages from this prestige
than France. 1t is upon the study of
the literary and artistic masterpieces
created by the Greeks and Romans
that this culture is chiefly based; it is
thus that she maintains herself. Such
has been the conception of classic in
struction since the epoch of the renais-
sance: it is still dominant here, and it
is based upon this current opinion, in
accordance with which a young man
who has not passed through his
humanities does not belong to the elite
of his generation. 1t thus binds very
many families to have a kind of educa-
ton given to their children, which per
haps, at a later period, will render
them very little real service in prac-
tical life. Literary education has
found it's most elevated and most eff
cacious formula, in my Judgment for
the cultivation of the mind in instruc-
ton in ancient languages. That in
modern languages would not have the
same efficacy, for the reason that
modern literary culture is derived
from ancient culture and remains sub
ordinate to it, at least in principle.
Whatever may be the brilliancy and
the originality of modern culture, they
have not realized in either literature or
the arts, models superior to those of
antique culture, especially that of the
Greeks. So long as n shall propose
to himself as the essential aim in Sec
ondary instruction, to form cultivated
minds, there is consequently no reason
to hope for any equivalent results, by
the simple substitution of instruction