THE OLD IN THE NEW

"New education on every bush" is the criticism leveled at modern education by Horace D. Taft, headmaster of Taft School, in a speech before the annual meeting and smoker of Hotchkiss School in New York yesterday. Aiming his attack at secondary schools in particular, Mr. Taft declared that a great many students are admitted to the Universities of the West with certificates from schools "that ought to be closed by law." Parental interference, school boards, and money stringencies all play their part to block the path of progress. The whims of individual educators are unavailing without a solid foundation of education in the old style; Latin, Greek, and Mathematics.

Conservatism is the grand old guard that brings the radical and the idealist back to a necessary compromise with the facts. The delicate balance between these opposing forces keeps history level-keeled, mankind level-headed. In his stand on the Prohibition question as well as in his condemnation of faddism in education, Mr. Taft shows himself to be a conservative, and a conservative of mighty calibre. His attack on new educational schemes and his plea for the old scholastic methods raise the serious question as to whether the swift pace of modern affairs has not tinted modern education with superficiality.

To such a question, the college undergraduate would reply that mathematics still exist and that the sciences have partially taken the place of the classics. It is true, however, that specialization in college is often attempted without a sure foundation in the ancient fundamentals. In directing his criticism against the type of faddism that allows each preparatory school student to choose the subjects that he likes, Mr. Taft touches a sensitive spot in modern education.