The San Francisco call., 1898-04-08
BOLD ATTACK ON
 CLASSIC METHODS Outbreak of @, SmOldering Controversy at the State s.
 University.
Professor Flagg Denounces the Sys tenn of Marks and Examinations
 In Vogue at Berkeley.

BERKELEY, April 7.-Assocate Pro- lessor Isaac Flagg of the department of classical philology at the State Univer- sity, in an article in the latest number of the university magazine on Ihe Trans lation Habit" makes a number of state ments likely to startle his fellow mem bers of the faculty. He denounces as "detestable" the system of marks and examinations which is at present fol- lowed at Berkeley, and declares that ab- solute freedom from prescription Is neces- sary for the attainment of scholarly standards and enthusiasm.
 Professor F'la~~ incidentally takes a fling at the degree of bachelor O. arts, as conferred at the University of California at present. He declares it is based upon an impossible theory, and that the mat ter is a mischief that will have to be rem
 edied when the university comes to be reorganized for academic freedom. Professor Flaggs criticism is not con-
 fined to the State University, but extends
 to high schools and other educational in-
 stitutions all over the State. He char
 acterizes the method of teaching the clas- sics at present in vogue as "a travesty of true learning, accepted daily in our schools and colleges, with fatuous com placency, of students who have not read that which they are required to trans late.'
 He thus sums up the effect which the l
 "ln the domain of scholarship transla- tion and grammatical analysis have been converted into counterfeit adumbrations of the true arts of reading and writing"
 When the University of California
 finally comes to be organized for aca- demic freedom. there is other mischief
 attendant upon an impossible theory of the degree of bachelor of arts. In the is- suing of recommendations for teachers certificates covering specified branches l n learning the rnmnIatiOn of tain number of courses therein, we are confronted with a new form of prescrip- tion, which bids fair to outdo the old one in it's degrading and demoralizng effects Prescription, disguise 1t as you will, may always be known by the shapes that fol- low in it's train; the schoolboy spirit where the scholarly spirit ought to pre-
 vail, '1esson- -bibbing' in the place of spontaneous inquir-- the impertinence of graded marks of merit-everything to foS- ter puerility and repress true manly and wOmanly aspiration.
 Marks and examinations, viewed as in centives to study. are uetestable. Yet to what higher motive is it possible to ap- peal with a body of students who are not free moral agents, but the tools of an arbitrary, complicated system of inter- ference? Scholarly standaros and enthu- siasm are attainable only under nat ural adjustment of relations, and this IS defeated by any scheme of prescription" Professor F'laggs views on the proper
 method of teaching the classics are not generally shared by his fellow instruct OrS Professor Edward E. Clapp, the neau of the department of classical philology, entertains views on the subject radically different from those Of his associate classical students there are two broadly defined groups. each following, more or less closely, the classical ideas and ideals of the two professors.
 Whether Professor Clapp or his follow CTS will take up the gauntlet which Pro- lessor Flagg has boldly thrown down is
 the question at present agitating uni yersity circles.