The Evening Star MONDAY, JULY 14, 1873.

Evening Star, Issue 3244, 14 July 1873, Page 2

The Evening Star MONDAY, JULY 14, 1873.

As the request made by the Recto* of the High School to be allowed to make a statement at the bar of the Provincial Council, has, as we think, very properly been granted, it would perhaps he out of place to make at present any further remark** on the Report of the High School Commission, the whole matter gone into by them being still as it were sub judice ; but there is one point connected wiih the general question of education in this Province, of such vital importance that the attention of the public, and more especially that of the members of the Council, ought at this time to be most earnestly directed to it. There are symptoms that can hardly be mistaken, that there exists in some parts of the community a desire that we should return to the “ good old English system " of education. If this is wished for by a majority Q"f the people, it must be done : majorities rule in this part of the world ; but if this object is aimed at only by a very minute minority, it -will be well for those who have no such d&sire to be thoroughly on their guard,, lest through their supineness and inattention a step may be taken, which they will afterwards find to their sorrow to have been one in the wrong direction. It was very unfortunate for the interests of education that, till within the last few years, the only persons that were really competent to form any opinipns deserving of notice with regard to education were those actually engaged in teaching, such asi schoolmasters and yniversity Profes-

sors; just as in ages gone by the only persons, with very rare exceptions, who knew anything about theology were the members of the clerical profession. The consequence of this was that a sort of scholastic orthodoxy came into being, and for generations he was considered to be the best and most respectable teacher, who trod most carefully in the footsteps of his predecessors. Utter stagnation was the result, of course. An English grammar school in the reign of William IY. differed not at all from an English grammar school in tiie reign of Elizabeth. In the one were made those horrible things called Latin verses, so they were in the other; in the one boys were tortured by being made to commit to memory a Latin grammar written in the Latin tongue, of which they did not understand one word ; so they were in the other. In fact there was no abomination to be found in the one which was not to be found in the other. And what was the result of all this? Occasionally there was found a lad of such splendid abilities that his mental faculties survived this dreadful treatment, and he became a capital classical scholar, while the vast majority became hopelessly muddled as far as the classics were concerned, and, we may be sure, resolved to bother themselves as little as possible with any study whatever. Those of our readers who think that this picture is overdrawn, would do well to read an amusing little book called the “ Daydreams of a Schoolmaster,” by Mr Thompson, Professor of Greek in the Queen’s College, Galway, or Farrar’s ‘ ‘ Essay on La tin Yerses; ” either of these works will convince them that a boy who has to learn to make verses, or “to go over the accidence again and again till he cannot make a mistake,” is in no small degree to be pitied. Meanwhile the world was moving on, and at last it got so far ahead of the schoolmaster, that his position in the rear became so very remarkable that he could not fail to attract general attention. Practical men began to study this question of education, and they soon found that there was something radically wrong in a system which, while it certainly produced here and there a remarkable man, succeeded in doing little or no good for the vast majority of those who had been trained under it. The consequence of this discovery has been that the schoolmaster has had to move on too, though in most oases he has been very recalcitrant. He has clung to one old idol after another, and as he moves forward we can see how many “ longing, lingering looks” he casts behind. We do not for a moment wish to depreciate the study of the classics as a branch of education; on the contrary, we have no doubt that if given in a rational way, more or less classical training may be beneficial to all, and that where there is special aptitude for it, it is one of the very best means that can be found for producing very high mental culture, if it can be continued for a sufficiently long time. But if we are told that all boys who are to receive classical instruction ought to begin, as if it was the dearest wish of their hearts to befioipe Head Masters of a Grammar School, by coromittjpg t,o ipemory the Latin accidence, and not to feel the slightest curiosity about what lies beyond, but calmly to read, mark, learn and inwardly digest that peculiarly indigestible article till it is all assimilated why, it fairly takes one’s breath away ! To what a danger are our boys exposed ! One of the Northern Judges was at a loss the other day as to what steps could be taken to prevent storekeepers from cashing cheques for people they did not know. Had we been there we might have suggested, “Let them learn the Latin accidence.” To have one or two storekeepers thus punished would certainly soon pqfc a stop to the practice. It is rather curious perhaps but people who learn modern languages do not do it in any such way, They do not purchase a grammar and commit it to memory; on the contrary, they learn as little of that as possible at first, but translate and retranslate as well as they can, making numerous mistakes of course, but picking up grammar and vocabulary as they go on. Strange to say, it is in some such way as this that persons who go to a foreign country learn tpo language of that country. No Englishman w.Qtfid ever think of going to France, purchasing a French grammar, staying at his lodgings till he had learnt it through before trying to speak French at all. If wo are told that the other system, is more productive of “ mental culture," weeau merely sa 7 in the vast majority of cases’ that hayo pome under our notice, the sort of • ■ mental culture” produced by this barbarous and unnatural method has been of a very inferior description indeed. We do hope that no steps will be taken that may tend in the slightest degree jto make our rising generation feel disgusted with jbho very name, “ classics,’’ but that numbers inay yet be permitted to get such a tincture of classical learning as may more or less ejeyate and refine them, even though they be not blessed with that ostrich-like digestion which would enable them to assimilate the whole of the propria qum maribus and the as in praisenti.