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DISCUSSION. 
205 
DISCUSSION. 
Mgr. W. T. PoynTER, of Shelbyville, Ky.: I have another objection to the paper, 
seside its tendency to add another burden to the preparatory school, already overbur- 
ened, and incompetent to do its work thoroughly. Now we are told, in order to 
srepare for that wonderful elective system, that modern fad, we ought to take on a 
whole lot of sciences in the preparatory school. Gentlemen, it cannot be done. That 
s all there is about it. Down in my State I am known as rather progressive in reli- 
rion, but I am an old fogy in education. When you talk to me about your new edu- 
cation, I don’t see it, and I don’t believe it is there. I believe in this: The public 
schools lay the foundation of education; the preparatory schools take up that work and 
it the pupils for college, with Greek, Latin, and mathematics. The colleges take the 
pupil and fit him for something higher ; and when he gets through with the college, they 
et him go to the university, where he can make an election. But the tendency to-day, 
;0 find out the affinities of the child of thirteen or fourteen years, and find out what 
;hat child is going to be fitted for, is, and must be forever, a failure. Every practical 
;eacher knows that a pupil coming into a school will pick out the easiest course of 
study, in the age in which he comes. Did you ever see a pupil who came into a school 
where there were two or three courses of study. if left entirely to his own desires and 
nelinations, who would not take the easiest ? I have had hundreds of instances in my 
school, where girls have cried for a week because I forced them to go into Latin. And 
afterwards they thanked me that I forced them to take that study. Down in my 
sountry, a few years ago, it was an almost unknown thing for a girl to study Latin. 
We have heard every year,—what good geometry is going to do a girl. And the idea 
of a girl studying Greek was not heard of. What we need in the primary and prepar- 
tory schools is fewer studies and more deference to those studies. 1 have heard more 
about science since I came into this room than I have heard for years: 
Dr. Moses MERRILL, Head Master of the Public Latin School of Boston : It is very 
tortunate for the last gentleman that he was not speaking in New England, or he would 
nave been called a heretic. But he does not care for that. I agree with him, although 
1 am from New England. I was quite comforted by the way in which this question 
was arranged, as to whether the amount of time given to languages in our secondary 
schools (as they are) should be diminished in order to make room for a more extended 
sourse in physics, botany, and chemistry. I don’t think we have ever had the ques- 
sion put in that form before; it is a good sign. Heretofore it has been, Ought not 
-hese studies to be added to the course in the secondary school? I think the last gen- 
:leman is completely right. We cannot add; we must restrict. It seems to me, also, 
we must settle in our own minds what the degree of A.B. is to stand for. It 
has been, until within a few years, supposed that it ought to stand for nothing but 
‘he linguistic preparation for college, with a continuance of the classical studies in the 
rollege. And that was true, especially with the Eastern section of this country. That is 
rot the sentiment now. Therefore, what must be the preparation for college? It 
must be divided. The school or parent must settle early in life the course of study the 
thild shall pursue to get a liberal education. I am very glad that things are getting 
:qualized. The boys in New England are dropping Latin and Greek, and the girls of 
she Mississippi Valley are taking them up. So we shall have more equality as time 
goes on, 1 believe thoroughly in the discipline that comes in the study of the lan- 
guages. Iam as much of an old fogy as the last speaker. I think I would have the 
zirls and boys begin their classical studies at eight or ten, and be prepared for enter- 
ng college at sixteen or seventeen, and know something about languages, and not try 
0 know only very little or nothing about a great many things. 
i think I would have a prescribed course continuing in a large measure in the 
sarliest part of the college course. Still all these other subjects are very important, 
and perhaps, when it comes to practical life, the most important. The number of those 
's comparatively very small who, on entering into life, take up their vocations on the 
oreparation in colleges and secondary schools that comes from a study of the classics. 
Therefore there must be a division. Secondary schools must be founded and carried 
bu on the plan of preparing children for college outside of the linguistic course. I 
nave in New England, I think, obtained evidence that the study of the classical lan- 
zuages, so called, is a very great advantage to boys and girls who are going to pursue 
1 scientific course. It is certainly true in the institutes of technology. We have