New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1900-05-06
SOME EDIC4TIONlL TENDENCIES.

Our London correspondent recently gave an
interesting and most suggestive account Of the
experience of an American boy at one Of the
great preparatory schools Of England. where he
was practically rejected because. though he was
we'll verscd in general branches of study, he had
not made specially of grinding out III
Latin and Greek. At about the same time it
announced that the founders Of a Eng
sh university had decided 10 model their insti-
tuition largely after certain American examples,
and also that important American college
had almost entirely dropped the classics from its
regular course in Arts, formerly known as the
classical course, al least TO the extent of entire
ly emitting both Latin and Greek from the
trance requirements and Of emitting Greek from
the course leading to the degree OF Bachelor of
Arts. These facts We're sufficient to set many
man 10 thinking seriously about the contrast be-
tween some English and some American educa-
tional methods, and about the tendencies which
are now manifesting themselves SO strongly in
! this country in the direction of breaking away
from what has been called the college fetch"
of the classics
There be doubt, from the accepted
American point OF view. that ii is folly to make
boys Of from twelve to fifteen toll over machine
made Latin and Greek verse to the neglect of
the English language and the practical sciences
On that score there hundreds of incom-
parably better preparatory schools sea altered all
over the United States than the famous English
school 10 which our correspondent referred. In
deed, we can scarcely believe that the system
there prevailing is general throughout English
preparatory schools. The high standard and
practical character of current English scholar
ship forbid it. So far as 1t does prevail, its
supersession by the American system or by
what has hitherto been the American system
must seem desirable. For, as our correspondent
reminds lis. while the making of Latin and
Greek verse Is not prerequisite to admission to
an American preparatory school. the STANDARD!
OF scholarship required for admission to college
is higher At the chief American colleges than at
the great English universities. 1t seems not
unreasonable to conclude, therefore that it is
actually wiser for young Englshmen to come
hither for college education than for young
Americans to go to English seats of learning
1t would he grievous mistake however for
any one to jump to the conclusion that our col
Iege courses are all they should be- or that
either in high school college there is entirely
adequate instruction in the English language
How well the boys who made wooden hexam-
eters in classic tongues at the English school
could use their native tongue We are not In
formed. But ii is painfully oby ious that the
average boy at an American schoo-yes and
the average young man graduated from an
toieSe-iH spite OF the fact that he
has not been required TO waste his time on
mechanical limitations Of Horace is far too slen-
DERBY equipped to the vernacular with accu-
racy and grace. 1t Is, no doubt comforting to
know that while Latin and Greek are being
shelved increasing attention Is being paid to
poetry in the EliZabethan age and TO the re-
yival Of romanticism in the eighteenth century
But how about the ability TO speak and write
English prose correctly In the closing year of
the nineteenth century? That is the thing we
are most interested in should be most in
terested in; and there can be nothing more sure
than that II II is neglected large part of all
else we may achieve in literature and liberal
arts Will prove TO be vanity Of vanities
The true student of intellectual processes and
development knows, II the superficial observer
does not realize. that upon the accurate use of
the mother tongue depend the efficiency Of the
scholar and the utility Of nearly all that has
peen learned. There is no more prolific source
or error OF groundlass dlsagreements and OF
misdirected effort than ignorance of the Ian
euage winch is the medium of thought Such
ignorance distorts crpples or misdIrects thought
and blunts the perceptve faculties II makes
lts victim unable either to express what is In