appeared from our high schools and colleges, so that most of the students could not take Greek even if they wanted to do so. C. The true purpose of education. Lapp and Mote, Learning to Earn. Chap. I. I. To prepare each individual for a life of service. 2. To develop the natural capabilities of each and every person, so that he may fill a useful place in society. D. The Negative will prove I. That the study of the dead languages is very harmful as a form of mental training. 2. That the knowledge acquired from the study of the dead languages is absolutely useless to the average person. 3. That the study of the dead languages is not necessary for nor materially helpful to other studies. 4. That the study of the dead languages entails an enormous social waste. 5. That the study of the dead languages is strongly opposed by the majority of the able and disinterested people. I. The study of the dead languages is very harmful as a form of mental training. A. It gives a narrow one-sided training. 1. It is chiefly memory training. (a) It expends rather than trains the memory. (Bain, Education as a science p. 367) 2. It encourages acquiescence. (Spencer, Education; Intellectual, Moral, and Physical. p. 79) 3. It develops narrowness and snobbishness. (Classical Journal 13: 147) 4. It does not develop initiative. B. It does not develop the intellectual powers. I. The power of logical reasoning. 3. The power of independent inquiry or bold investigation. 4. The observing and reflective powers. (Adams, A College Fetich) C. It turns attention away from the realities of the world. 1. Language is merely a tool of value as we make use of it. 2. The intensive study of the dead languages uses the best years of the student's life on grammar, syntax, inflections, vocabulary, and translation of a few fragments of ancient literature. 3. It is chiefly the few language-minded students who take more than a mere smattering of the dead ́languages, and these are the ones above all others who do not need this form of training. 4. Language study does not develop the habits and the qualities of mind necessary for men of thought and action in the affairs of life in the twentieth century. D. The universal use of illegitimate helps makes absolutely impossible the good results that are claimed to follow from the slow and tedious grind of studying the dead languages, but instead makes the study conducive to dishonest methods in other things as well as making the so called culture very superficial. 1. Handy literal translations. E. Claims often made and never proved that students who have taken the dead languages do better work in other studies, even if proved, would not prove any superiority for the training obtained from the study of the dead languages. I. 2. As a general rule it is the abler students who take (b) Many weaker students change their course In the professional and scientific schools comparisons are usually meaningless. (a) Students who have taken the dead languages F. The men of this generation who have taken Latin and plished less in life than men with a practical mod- II. The knowledge acquired from a study of the dead languages is absolutely useless to the average person. A. Direct use of this knowledge is seldom if ever made. 1. The knowledge acquired consists of: (a) Details of inflection, grammar, vocabulary, etc. of a dead language. (b) More or less ability to translate slowly and tediously. (c) A smattering of the facts of ancient history. (d) Some acquaintance with primitive pagan civilization, with its highly immoral mythology and childish superstition, its human slavery of white men, its gladiatorial fights, its very corrupt government and society, its brutal dungeons, its horrible warfare with spear and sword, its frequent murders, its wholesale robbery of its colonies, its utter intolerance and contempt of the rights of other nations. 2. Not one student in a hundred makes any use at all of any of these facts. 3. All students soon forget practically all of this information. 4. It is outrageously absured for high school and college students to go through the dull and dismal grind of learning all this useless nonesense. B. Most of the high school students taking the dead languages do not pursue them long enough to get their supposed benefits. I. The head of the Latin department at Adelbert College said in 1915 "It is of course foolish for anyone to take Latin without Greek," but over half a million students in American high schools are 2. About one third of the students in high schools (b) Many take only two years to make the re- (c) Some high schools are only three year schools. C. All beautiful or useful thought in the dead languages has been well translated. I. To know the facts of ancient history it is not necessary to learn the dead languages. 2. Persons who study Plato, Aristotle, or Cicero for the knowledge to be obtained from their works, invariably do so by reading a translation. 3. It had never been considered necessary to know Latin or Greek to read understandingly the Holy Scriptures.. III. The study of the dead languages is not necessary for nor materially helpful to other studies. A. It is neither necessary nor helpful to the learned porfessions. 1. Many of our ablest lawyers, jurists, physicians, surgeons, clergymen, engineers, authors, editors, business men, etc. never studied any dead language. (a) Abraham Lincoln. 2. The fact that the terminology of some of the sciences and some of the words and phrases used in the law are Latin or Greek words does not prove that it is necessary or even helpful for one to go through the long, dull, dismal, and stupifying grind of learning the dead languages in order to make a success of one of these sciences or professions. (a) Such Latin phrases as "habeas corpus” “ex post Facto" "in quo warranto" are no more difficult to understand that such terms as "right of eminent domain." "Garnishee" or "legal tender." (b) Practically all knowledge of the dead languages is so soon forgotten as to make any professional man who has studied the dead languages just as much dependent upon his dictionary as his associate who never wasted any time on them. (c) To most scientific and technical terms a knowledge of the Latin or Greek root would give little meaning and would often cause confusion. (Bain, Education as a Science. p. 375-6) 3. Useful and practical studies would be a far better preparation for the professions and sciences. B. The study of the dead languages is not necessary nor helpful to an elegant and forceful use of English. (Bain, Education as a Science. p. 374-8) 2. 1. Many persons who have used English most elegantly, forcefully and most accurately never studied a dead language. (a) Abraham Lincoln. (b) William Shakespeare. Henry George. (d) W. D. Howells. The claim that without studying the dead languages or at least Latin it is impossible for the average person to gain a complete mastery of English is ridiculously absurd. (a) (b) (c) This claim for the dead languages was not made until quite recently. While this statement has often been made, it has never been proved. The Negative asks for proof, for some real evidence. Opinions do not make proof, especially is this true of the biased opinions of financially interested parties. |