234 INTERNATIONAL CONGRESS OF EDUCATION.
[t is they who set on foot the museum ; who help to edit the school
magazine ; who encourage the ‘Old Girls’ Clubs,” which keep the girls
who have left in touch with their school and help them to carry on intel-
lectual work at home. It is they who start the school ¢ Kyrle Society,”
for beautifying the classrooms with flowers and pictures ; they who spend
hours for weeks beforehand over rehearsals for the Christmas play or
tableaux. It is they who initiate the vast amount of charitable work
now done in our high-schools out of school hours; for they know how
important it is to our children’s characters to be made aware of the
sorrow, suffering, and poverty ahout them.
We hope that enough has been said here to show that although the
yoal has not been and never can be reached, yet some of the high hopes
of the Women’s Educational Union in 1871 have been fulfilled.
DISCUSSION.
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Thesis + “In cases where a choice should be made, which should come
first, Latin or some modern language, in the course of study of secondary
schools 277
DR. C. W. PrArsoN, of Beloit College, Beloit, Wis.: There are two or three consider-
ations that seem to lie at the very basis of this subject. I am unhappy when I find a
young man presented for examination to enter college who has insufficient instruction
in Latin, although his German may entitle him to a place in the class. Ihave a belief
that the form of speech which we get in the study of languages is the most valuable
sart. In the Latin language we have a system of forms which are most complete—of
cases and indexes. The child learns these forms, and they become fixed criteria for
2im. He expresses a certain thing for that particular form. If he learns modern lan-
guage first, 1t may be an excellent thing for him afterwards, in conversation and in
pronunciation, but he has not had the drill in form that he gets bv a thorough knowl-
sdge of the Latin language.
I have visited parts of Europe, and have been in families where German and French
are spoken equally well, and I have not found in such families that they have thereby
acquired that particular drill that our pupils get by a thorough study of the Latin lan-
guage, in the secondary school. There is a great thing in that it is a part of the drill of
fhe mind. It causes the mind to fix upon a certain form, just as it is valuable for the
child to learn to set type ; he becomes acquainted with the forms of the words. So with
the Latin language. He becomes acquainted with the form of the particular word in
a particular case ; and he learns that there are cases, and agreements, and correspondences
and forces. That is a great thing. And for this reason I should say that the Latin
ianguage, according to the proposition set forth, should be chosen first.
There is one consideration, however, in which the modern language would be very
valuable. I believe it is generally understood that in the beginning of any modern
language, very much of what we know to-day as the modern method should be the
speech rather than the form. The pupils are taught also so much of the form in the
zourse of grammar that they can begin to read, and they learn modern language by
reading it and observing its form. A great many students take a modern language
simply as an opening to the literature. To my mind it seems clear that Latin should
come first, and then French naturally follows after the Latin. It is a Latin tongue,
and it seems to me that French should naturally follow Latin. I might sum up by
saying this, that the place of any study in the secondary course should not be fixed
wholly for the information that is given. If you put in German before the Latin it
will be possible for it to be taught scientifically. But if it be taught simply that so
many words be learned and so much pronounced, it will not be so valuable. Latin can
nardly be taught that wav. It is taught by the form which is valuable to the student.
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