Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1911-12-21
LATIN AND GREEK DISCUSSED
Vermont Section, New England
Classical Association, Met Here.
College Professors and High school
Principals Give Views on Tenching
of Ancient Languagcs-Lunch-
con served to Visitors.

The sixth annual meeting of the YER
mont Section of the Classical association
of New England was held at the UNI
vcrsty of Vermont on Saturday. There
was an attendance of more than 6o, IN
Guiding teachers from 10 high schools
.anc academies. TWO sessions were hein'
one in the morning and the other III
the afternoon and at noon the NsltlhS
teachers were entertained at luhcneon
in Morrill, hall by the ladies of the de-
partment of home economies Of the uni
versity Professor Myron r. Sanford OF
Middlebury College. president OF the sec
ton, presided at the meetings.
At the morning session Dean ferkins
who is acting president OF the university
in the absence OF President Benton, I'm
welcoming the members of the section
to the university, spoke of the value of
the classics to the man OF science. say
ing that from his own experience AS
a scientist he believed that there Is no
better preparation for the study of
science than some training In both Greek
and Latin.
FIRST YEAR CLASSES NEED BEST
TEACHERS
1hc irSt paper or the morning was
presented by c. $. Reynolds. student in
Middlebury College. on The Teaching OF
Latin in the High School from the View
point of the Student" The student in
the high school said the speaker too
often finds Latin embarrassing, and so
comes to regard It as useless, because
the teachers of first-ycar Latin are
usually inexperienced and themselves not
to-.
more enthusiastic teachers Of Latin dur
ing the first two years Of the high school
course, the study of Latin would prove
both interesting and useful and the stu
dent would no longer consider it bore
| In the discussion which followed. Mr.
Putney of the Burlington high school.
said that experience proves that If the
best instructors in the school are as
signed to the frst-year classes, few stu
dents drop either Latin or Greek before
the end of the high school course.
COLLEGES REQUIRE TOO MUCH
Pricipal a. 5. Hartman of Middlebury
| high school spoke next on equality VS.
| Quantity" He placed the responsibility
| for much of the superficial work as well
as lack of interest on the part OF many
| students, upon the present college re
| quirements. These make it necessary to
| cover SO much ground that a careful
| study of the language. which alone can
| give a proper knowledge of It's essential
| rlidiments, is impossible. He suggested
that the colleges allow moro discretion in
! the amount to he read in preparation for
| college. and require a thorough knowl-
edge Of the most common words and
constructions. In this way he believed
better results would be obtained
LET ENGLISH AND LATIN CO.
OPERATE.
| Prof. G. Il. Wright of Mddlebury Col
lege. the next speaker. described "A meth
of Of cooperation between the English
and Latin departmentsas follows: a short
passage of Latin is assigned for written
translation into English at sight
The written TRANSACTIONS, after hav-
ing been corrected by the Latin
instructor. are carefully discussed
by the latter and the English in
structor together, and the results of this
discussion are given to the class at its
next session by the English instructor,
who compares different renderngs and
shows the reasons for prefering one or
another. The result of this method Is a
students in both English and Latin. The
speaker gave n most interesting ilustra-
ton Of this method as applied to a pas
sage from the OdeS of Horace.
WHY THE CLASSICS ARE VALUABLE
The last speaker Of the morning was
Professor j. f. Messenger of tho Uni
vcrsty of Vermont, whose topi' was
'Thc Classics as Preparation f.;
Teaching Professor Messenger said
that the study of Latin and Greek WIS
of great importance to everyone who In
tended to make teaching his profession.
! For the teacher who does not expect to
teach Latin aud Greek. however he did
not think the classics should he taught
for the purpose of giving a KNOWLEDGE
of antiquity or history or the history Of
literature on even for mental discipline,
because for this purpose other studies,
in his opinion. may serve equally well.
He would have the prospe-tiy teacher
gain from the study of the classics an
enlarged English vocabulary. an increas-
cd language consciousness and an enrich
ment of verbal associations The an
Client languages are helpful also because
of the loftiness of their imagery, and
finally, by reason OF their very remote
; ness they serve rs the best Illustrations
} of the principles Of the psychology Of
language.
This paper produced lively discus
} sion. Professor Emerson Of the Univer-
; sity of Vermont. among others, said that
J the value OF the study of the classics was
due to the fact that they put the student
| directly In touch with the greatest minds
) in the worlds history.
HOW THE Dull. PUPIL HELPS.
AT the afterUoon session Professor "
= Burrage of Middehury college, speak
Ing on "Tho HelpfuIness " the pull
PUPIL said that the duh student malo
II necessary for the teacher to exclude
from his instruction everything but tho
essential, and to present this in the clear
; est and simplest way.
J frof X. II. White Of Middleburv COL
lege' Followed with a paper on "A Defect
and Remedy, the defect being the
students lack OF a good vocabulary. and
the remedy proposed, the mcmorziug at
. every lesson of a certain number of the
"ofds which occur most frequently
LITERARY CONCEPTS TRACED BACK
The meeting closed with a paper by
Prof' VI, '. Oe!e of the University of Yer
mont, on THE Classical Origin of Certain
Literary ConCeitS." The speaker .mpha.
SIZED IN" need OF thorough KNOWLEDGE
~ 'ireek ANA Roman literature for all
no Wish a. iDtarnr.t .,,,,r,,,i.. a.. tit