Modern Education

Says Mr. John E. Todd, in a letter recently printed in the New York Times: "The chief objection to the elective system adopted some time ago at Harvard, and more recently at Yale, is that its tendency is to produce specialists instead of men of broad culture and liberal ideas. Deliver us from men who know but one thing. The man who knows but one thing. The man who knows but one thing does not know that, for he does not know it in its relation to other things. What a college ought to give is a liberal education, preparatory to special studies and pursuits. Latin and Greek should be retained as the basis, or rather the beginning, of such an education, except for those who are so constituted mentally that they can never do anything with languages. But Latin and Greek should be used, not as fields for grammatical gymnastics, but as the keys to the treasures which they unlock.

Grammars should be wholly discarded, except by those who intend to become scientific and professional lingists. The dead languages should be taught as the living ones are. Pupils should be made to read rapidly and much, so as to acquire ease and facility. By the time a boy enters college he ought to be able to read most Latin and the simpler Greek authors fluently and intelligently. Then he should be taught something of the literatures, ideas, sentiments, manners, philosophies and arts of ancient civilization. In addition to Latin and Greek, or in some cases in substitution for them, certain modern languages, especially German and French, should be taught, and in precisely the same way. Antiquity is good, but it isn't everything. Modern languages have their excellencies as well as those which are ancient, and certainly they have far more important practical uses. Some knowledge of the German and French literatures is essential to a good education. Surely the shrewd wit of Moliere and the philosophic penetration of Goethe are at least as well worth being familiar with as the pretty folk lore of Hmoer or the coarse buffooneries of Aristophanes. Certain minds could better be introduced to these various literatures through translations, the use of which has been recommended both by precept and by example even by so great a thinker as Mr. Ralph Waldo Emerson."