Newark post., 1912-09-25

same thing as an argument for the teach
ing of the classics, or for the attempt
to teach them, to pupils who spend time
upon them which should be given to other
things. Miss Tamar Hirshenson, though
she combines, with great ability, pleas
which would do credit to the ablest in
structors at Yale or Johns Hopkins and
with consumate skill marshalls the ar
guments which support, to the mentally
fashionable mind, if not to the cultured
the teaching of the classics in the schools
is not in reality pursuing the discussion
OF the advisibilitv of teaching the class
ical course, which is the subject of the
general discussion. but is defending the
classical course for itself, thus transfer
ring the debate from its former ground
10 the question of the value of the class
les. Arguing. not from the standpoint of
democracy but from that Of the leisure
class. she leads the unwary to feel that
by establishing the value of classical
studies TO those who have mastered them,
she has established the claim that they
50 adroit debater, supported by re-
markable ability in English and so wide
reading, only the most direct methods
will avail, and l call attention, as is nee
essary, TO the fundamental fallacy of her
attitude; which refuses the question as
to Why the young should study that which
they can not use in preference to that
which they can use. and declines the is
sue raised by our demand that children
he no longer required. or even encour-
agej, to spend their time upon the i'm
practical
On the safe ground Of the value of the
classical to people with leisure and with
classical tastes, she can not assume to
have answered the question which has
Ieen raised. in these columns; the ques-
tion of the advisibility Of teaching the
classics at the public expense 20 the
rh.!lreH of the average home. In re-
diving TO her | must turn aside. some
what from "A discussion Of the advisi-
bility Of teaching the classical course,
bat do so quite willingly, for her contri-
button to the debate is worthy Of the ef-
fort.
In sreaking Of our srhool days "a
e.ircation she says that what educa-
ton ought to he j, The problem of the
working man and the working woman, -
Il shouIJ he apparent to her that to
solve it for the benefit of the working
man and working woman it must include
the means of securing "bread and fire. -
Without these, education for the average
pupil is not a help but is lost opportunity.
The present classical course. in so far as
il is taken in the high school, and by
= most Of the students in college, is TAX
ing from the youths the foundation
stones of the home and substituting
gingerbread ornaments for towers
that will not be built. Throughout her
paper Miss Hirshenson writes as one liv.
ing in an age where opportunity for re-
numerative work all the year. education.
the luxuries of life, are perpetually with
in the means of the common people. She
would have students ready to discourse
not upon what happens, day after day,
primarily, but upon what happened in
days long past. In her praise of the
ancient and the beautiful she neglects the
necessary foundations of education.
which are not mere reading, writing,
arithmetic and geography but ability far
beyond this which might be acquired in
time now being wasted. In her supposi-
ton that "a purely manual and practic-
al education fails to broaden life she
ignores the observed facts as to mental
impulses into the hands and other mem
bers which is the foundation of all in
tellectual vigor which is inherited and of
much of that which is acquired, and
and sympathetic observation. No great
leader ever arose from an ancestry that
had not developed through the relation
of mind and hand. Moses, Paul Jesus.
Renan, Lincoln and the great of
the earth were thus developed. She
praises the Greeks who sang and
carved, but whence came their culture?
Whence breathed that fire and beauty
which she would have America more than
match! When Homer sang, blind beggar
perhaps, through alien cities, when the
Athenians gained leisure and expressed
themselves in the glories of the Acropo
lis, from what classics had they drawn
their power? From the goat pastures of
Sparta and the laboring oar that drove
their fishing boats among the islands.
From the blacksmith s forges, the win
moving of wheat, the pleasant sounds of
useful toll echoed the voices of the gods
and walked the forms Of Juno, Venus,
and the divine Hermes. SO with all
great peoples. No classical lore of the