On the report of the Commissioners appointed to inquire into the condition of the principal public schools : a paper read at the monthly evening meeting of the College of Preceptors, May 11th, 1864 / by W.B. Hodgson.

Date:
1864
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: On the report of the Commissioners appointed to inquire into the condition of the principal public schools : a paper read at the monthly evening meeting of the College of Preceptors, May 11th, 1864 / by W.B. Hodgson. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh. The original may be consulted at the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh.

    17/18
    that has grown up as new knowledge since then. The time must come when we must make a selection and a sacrifice. I think it has come now. (Vol. ii. p. 49.) The great practical remedy suggested by Mr. Neate almost exactly coincides with what I have advocated for many years. He proposes that the learning of either Latin or Greek should be post- poned till the age of 12 years [I would say 14]; boys being up to that time taught their own language and one foreign lan- guage, together with something of the literature of either; also arithmetic, some portion of natural history, and, of course, the facts of their own history; in all which those boys more especially that come from public schools are almost incredibly igno- rant. (Vol. ii. p. 49.) If the age of 14 were adopted, the course of instruction up to that age would be, and ought to be, considerably enlarged. Mr. Neate goes on :— I bebeve a boy so prepared would learn more Latin and Greek between the ages of 12 and 16, than he does now be- tween the ages of 10 and 18. But in order to ensure this, great improvements are needed in our methods of teaching. (Ibid.) This proposal, heretical as it may appear, is supported by high and ample authority; but, not to stray too far from the Report before us, I will quote only a short passage from a pamphlet, Oxford Reform and Oxford Professors, published in 1854, by H. Halford Vaughan, Esq., M. A., one of the Commissioners, and then Regius Professor of History in the Uni- versity of Oxford:— I believe it might possibly be found that we have hitherto learned the classical languages painfully, imperfectly, and unseasonably, — slowly imbibing rules by rote and by the ear, be- cause we learn them at an age too unripe for a rational appreciation of such abstract propositions, and losing thereby great part of the discipline so much boasted in the course of acquisition. (p. 30, note.)* * We begin too soon, and we begin the wrong way. Rousseau says that one of the great arts of education is to know how to lose time. We ought Of three plans which have been devised, and two of which are actually in operation in various places in this and other coun- tries, for evading the ever-increasing dif- ficulties of the present system, this is, I am convinced, by far the simplest, the most effective, and the one destined ulti- mately to prevail. Against the other two plans, whether that of having side by side, in the same institution, a collegiate and a non-collegiate department, or that called in France hifurcation, by which boys who have been taught together up to 14 and 15 diverge, some to the modern or non-collegiate, others to the ancient or collegiate side of the school,—there are very grave objections. On both the Com- missioners report with caution rather than approval. The third plan, according to which all boys up to the age of 14 should be taught together all the subjects really most important for them all to know, whatever their lot in life,—classics being reserved for those who should remain long enough at school to profit by the study, to learn, in his sense, to lose a little more time, to delay a little longer before we begin teaching Latin and Greek.—Sir Thos. Wyse, Educa. Reform, 1836, p. 166. We are of opinion that the study of the learned languages ought not to be commenced till the higher functions of fancy and feeling begin to stir, and a taste for literature and reading begins to bud in the soul.—Professor Blackik, 1842. I must say that in fixing upon ten as the earliest age [at which the study of Latin or Greek ought to begin], I am by no means convinced that it is best to begin so young. Judging from several instances which have come under my own obser- vation, I am strongly inclined to believe that twelve, or even fourteen, would be a better period for commencing Latin.—Dr. J. H. Jerrard, formerly Classical Examiner in the London Uni- versity. Has the idea ever been suggested, that the public schools should take nearly all of classical study on themselves [i. e., relieving the prepara- tory schools from it] ; that they should at, least give up an entrance examination in Greek, but require a higher standard in reading, spelling, history, &c., and French, which might thus form one of the principal previous studies, and then would not be so much required afterwards In this case, our sons would not go on to public schools with so much Latin and Greek; but I be- lieve they would have a far greater capacity for classical studies, and pleasure in studying, than they ever now have.—Letter signed C., in Times, 12th May, 1864.