Albuquerque morning journal., 1916-12-01
mr. Grille s Address to Teachers at
State Convention q Notable Effort

statements Of the Apostle Paul. All
the lauding of characters of the am
cient Greeks and Romans, much Of
which l have heard before this con-
vention in previous years, is either in
ignorance or in attempt at great
scholarship. The facts are that Soc
rates personal life should be obnoX-
ious to every school teacher in New
Mexico. Again, and this is at present
the strongest point i'm favor of the
dead languages, that the colleges and
universities require a certain number
of units Of preparation in these Ian
guages | am glad to say that this
foolish requirement is rapidly passing
and that most any good university to-
day will accept students with knowl-
edge of the living languages and grad
uate them with their "B S. degrees.
For those who wish to receive the A.
/ B. degrees a certain amount of the
dead languages is necessary, and they
should be provided for in the college
or the university, because statistics
will show that the ratio is rapidly in
]
graduates from other departments
/ than the A. b. until they are now in
/ the minority and are rapidly decGn-
/ ing. Therefore, it is unjust to re-
quire that the number of students
/ who take university degrees shall de-
vote two, three or four years to the
study of a language for which they
/ have no use. The notion of the dead
| languages furnishing one with culture
! belongs to that day when the courts
of Europe used the Latin language as
common means of conversation and
Of correspondence. Today the Eng
| lish language is one of the great Ian
guages of the world. ! should hail
with delight the day when our young
men and women should not be COM
PEELED TO acquire the knowledge of
Latin and Greek. From the stand
point of the student we may remark
that nine out of ten don't care for its
study and a majority of them never
acquire a working knowledge of them,
and because of the drudgery of the
dead languages a goodly number OF
vigorous young men have left school.
In lieu of this study which usually
makes the knowledge Of German or
Spanish of one or two years study,
we should have two, three or four
years study, which might be sutfi-
cient to make the student fairly COM
petent in some modern useful lam
guage. one years study of German
or Spanish is of no practical conse-
quence. Again l submit that it Is
only equitable and fair that the young
man who attends the secondary
school, ,Nwho may not wish to enter
law, the ministry or medicine, that
he should have the privilege of Sc
lectng such studies as shall make
him efficient in some one of the many
practical things out of which he must
make his living, Manual training as
we now have it is very Eieful and has
tendency to make handy men, but
manual training should not be con-
fused with industrial training
Let us instance a specific case. a
young man enters high school and
has selected for his work in life the
career of a business man. What
should be his training? He should
have in addition to the tecessary LAM
guage and mathematics q very thor
ough training along the line of the
development Of industries, not alone
in the United States but of the world
He should be taught a commercial
geography that comprehends the
supply and demand Of the various
peoples and nations of the world /
He should be taught the proper
noth--e, of --~okkeeping t-4as-.. count I.
ing, and the primary principles of .
commercial law: And along with all .
of this and running through it /
careful history Of the United States.
1t is of little or no consequence if he |
knows any Latin or Greek, or little or
any Of medieval or ancient history.
The Case of the Farmer.
Again let us instance another young
man who is entering school and has
for his purpose the vocation Of a
farmer. Along with those things fun
damental in language and mathemat-
les he should have such training in
science as would teach him the funda-
Iitlldio bL 6pil-NH'llll9tl ~ va llN'L'
growth, of animal husbandry of biol
ogy, and an extensive commercial
as well as the usual man
ual training Let us instance another
case Of young man who wishes to
enter some one Of the trades. How
shall he acquire a knowledge Of it2
The old system Of apprenticeship has
passed into disuso If he goes to {
factory and seeks employment he
finds a machine that manufactures {
one small part of some finished prod
uct. After some experimenting and
some injury to himself and machine
he becomes efficient in running it, He &
now has all the wages that he hopes I