The Houston daily post. [volume] (Houston, Tex.) 1886-1903, 1899-12-10


ture. The Latin scientific course, the
| name given to the third OF Tulans's y a.
| curricula. requires no Greek and only one
| year OF Latin The freshman studies are
the same as those prescribed in the lit.
erary course. while the remaining three
years work lie identical with that pre-
scribed for aspirants for the b.
s. degree. consisting largely OF
the natural sciences togeths~ With
mathematical and modern languages 1t
| is easy TO understand why the term
scientific is applied to this course, but why
the prefix Latin occurs is inexplicable 10
one not acquainted with the history OF the
arts degree. This third b. A. curriculum
was established TO meet demands made
upon the university authorities. for the
Tulane catalogue informs us that IT has
been added to meet the suggestion OF
many, as specially adapted TO preparation
/ for the medical department.
/ Other studies than those having In view
the profession Of medicine are allowed TO
uursie the LA scientific course" This
third B. A. curriculum In Tulane fairly
represents the present degree OF advance
ment toward the coordination OF college
studies. Most men are now wilnns mat
the arts baccalaureate be conferred upon
graduate II only Latin be one oil tne
studies by means OF which ne mas acquire ~
liberal culture .
There can be but one other phase In
the evolution of the b. A. degree. Even
now there are indications that this iourth
phase is at hand Harvard no longer re-
quires Greek and Latin as collegiate
studies. her classical requirement not ex-
tending beyond the Latin OF the secondary
school. The eminent Greek scholar rrot.
Goodwin, in the Phi Beta Kappa address
delivered at Harvard in 1890, stated with
evident regret that a Phi Beta Kappa
could graduate from that Institution with
out having read a word OF Greek or Latin
during his college career. Concerning
the decadenee OF time-honored ideals he
remarked: 81 regret this breaking up,
but we must accept 1t as stubborn fact'
Times have indeed vastly changed since
the middle ages, and educational ideals
also have changed to meet the new ro-
qurements of the changed civilization.
Already some of the leading universities
OF America have accepted without qua'-
fication the doctrine of equivalence OF
studies and, with a desire to foster all
studies and to discriminate against none
have made it possible for the B. A. de-
gree to be obtained regardless of train-
ing in either of the ancient classics. Some
other institutions, as we have seen to in
the cases OF Harvard and Tulane, are not
far from the adoption OF a similar policy,
for their absolute classical requirement
is really OF little consequence.
ll0re is testimony
other quarter also. During the last ten
years there has been much discussion OF
problems pertaining to both secondary
and highar education OF high school and
college professors there have been con-
ferences, at some of which the question
of election of studies has received no lit
tie consideration. AT these conferences
1T has he no Inusual thing to hear such
statements as these, which we're made at
a, of ha Nnryb trn1
ton of colleges and secondary schools
held In the city of Chicago. April l and 2,
1898: $50 far as Latin is concerned, it
is a well known fact that the trend of
universities today is in the direction OF
dispensing with Latin as an absolute
admission requirement A student who is
a candidate for the B. A. degree is now
permitted to enter Harvard. The Uni
versity of Pennsylvania, Stanford, Cornell.
not 10 name others, without Latin
president Rogers of Northwestern uni
versity) Il was for thirteen years
professor of Latin in Tulane university
at New Orleans. | love Latin dearly Dat
l am against requiring 1t for all courses
anywhere. "--( president Jesse of Missouri
university The committee of ten, which
was appointed in 1895 at the Denver meet
ing OF the National Educational associa-
ton to investigate the question of col
lege entrance requirements and which !
of five college professors and
five teachers engaged in secondary schools, /
made two or three preliminary reports. /
and then submitted its final report last
July as tie result of four years ieXhaustve
study. In the first preliminary report, /
made in 1896 by Chairman Nightingale, |
himself a man trained in the classics as
a student and for more than twenty years
as a teacher, an honored member of many
classical conferences, occurs this para
graph. which represents the views of a
great number of teachers in the secondary
schools, college courses ought to be so
adjusted that every pupil at the end of
a secondary course recognized as excellent,
both in the quality and quantity of us
work, may find the doors of every college
swinging wide TO receive him into an at
mosbhere of deeper research and higher
culture along lines of his mental ap;i-
tudes. We do not mean that secondary
should DO purely elective, tut
that this elasticity based upon PSYCHIC.
logical laws. should be recognized by The
colleges. There is no identity OF form, .
either In mind or matter, In the natural
or the spiritual and since power TO adapt
ones self to the sphere for which nature
Resigned MIN. is the end OF education.
every student should find in the college
and university the means by which mat
power. may be secured. II this principle
s correct-and who shall prove It's lal-
acy why is not the sdegree> OF p. :. Or
IN. h. of equal dignity and worth with
hat of A. B.? Or, in other words why
hould not all degrees be abolished or
moulded into one which shall signify that
4 man or woman has secured thar higher
best suited to his talents and {
he far-reaching purpose OF his life?" In
he last report of the committee is to be
ound series of recommendations in the
orm of resolutions. the sixth of which s
IdVocates four units, |. e., four years. of
raining in foreign language study as a {
ollege admission requirement and as |
onstant in the course OF study OF The
econdary school. Truly Prof. Goodwin
made no mistake when he said that We
must accept the breaking up OF old ideals l
Is stubborn fact. G
Whether many other American institu- !
ions will follow the lead of Cornell and !
stanford and adopt the policy of confer. !
Ing B, A. without regard TO the classics I
AN not be foretold with certainty. The I
ourth stage in the evolution of the de- {
,rec may have fatal attack of arrested !
development, but the evidences, only an b
Insignificant portion of which has been a
'iven In this paper, are sufficiently strong {
q create the belief that Latin, as well n
IS Greek. must become reconciled TO ne v
m n M NM