The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1895-06-09

all commensurate with what they cost.
Trade schools are what the colored people
need above cv rything else.
Now, from the grammar school. children
who want to pursue their studies. seek adj
mission into the high school which to be
fruitful, ought to be scientific, literary.
eminently practical. but not classic; use-
full both TO the individual and to the com
munity. BY not classic, / mean that
Greek and Latin ought to be banishei from
its curriculum ana left to the branch of
higher education to be taught in colleges
or universities to which they really be-
long, and in that respect l must confess
that your secondary education does not
compare favorably with that of Europe.
But professor, Latin and Greek are re-
quired for the entrance TO our colleges
and that's why they must be taught in the
high school
This is a very poor reason, allow me to
say: Foreign languages are also required
ana yet they are not taught, at least here,
Besides, as President Eliot Of Harvard
who, you will admit, is a most competent
man in such matters. has well said: THE
high schools do not exist for the purpose
of preparing boys and girls for college
Their main function IS to prepare for the
duties of life those children whose parents
are able to support them while they re-
main so long at school, This seems 10 be
also the lued OF your commissioner oil e0u-
cation, who asserts. in his report TO the
committee of ten, that the high schools
of the country are, of all parts of our edu-
cational system, the most defective
Without entering into the much debated
question of knowing whether or not dead
languages are an impediment or a benefit
to the youth | maintain the fact that
these languages do not belong to the curri-
culum of our high school, whose motto
Oh 10 Each thing n y-fY Mo
Let those who intend to become lawyers,
clergymen, professors or physicians study
Greek and Latin in the college, If they
think they will derive some benefit from
their knowledge. But for those children
that do not wish to enter the university,
and who stand, If you please, In the pro-
portion of 81 per cent, is IL not an abuse,
nay, a crying injustice to compel
them to devote the most pre-
cious time of their youth in
studying Latin for three years and Greek
for two years when everybody knows that
in order to yield literary value these Ian
guages have to be studied for six and
seven years? The Latins and Greeks are
all dead and we do not live with the dead
but with the living. The American people
are an intelligent, inventive and CONNER
cial people. Let us keep American edu-
cation in touch with American genius.
Then, professor, you think that dead
languages are of no value and that the
years passed in studying them is wasted7
You can put 1t that way If you like.
Yes. this is true for 81 per cent of the
pupils of the high school, and 1 am now
speaking for those 81 per cent For them
l would drop Greek, Latin and singing,
not because / fail 10 appreciate their val
ues, but because / cannot ignore the fact
that in our days of great activity, of
serious difficulties, Of haste restlessness
and competition these studies mean AT
least partial exclusion of Something i'm
mediately available TO the children in the
preparation for the great work Of getting
a livelihood. A preparation that, IN the
very nature of the case, must take preced-
ence of everything else, because the time
now devoted to it can be applied to better
purposes.
Il know well that in educational mat
tiers. just as In everything
else, reforms are hard to OBJ
tain and that some people who being
too fond of 'statugus or routine. are
Mortified at the word progress. In spite
of dismal failures they viii maintain that
dead languages are the basis Of all edu-
cation Don't try to tell them that Il
may have been so three centuries ago
when Latin was the language of science
and the spoken tongue of the savants
These Latin fanatics are the same who
will prove to you that Alexander's horse