“The best results in the teaching of English in high schools cannot be secured without the aid given by the study of some other language. Latin and German are especially suited to this end.
“Every teacher, whatever his department, should feel responsible for the use of good English by his pupils.”
One would like to say much on the study of language generally, and not only of its mere formal elements—of the “fossil poetry” to be found in figures of speech; of the metaphors which express the same thought in different languages. I give the names of some useful books, but there are many other good grammars.
| Name of Work. | Author. | Pages. | Price. | Publishers. | Remarks. | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Lectures on Language | M. Müller | 1100 | Longmans | Indispensable. | ||||
| Lectures on Science of Thought | M. Müller | 660 | Longmans | Full of interest. | ||||
| Philology | Peile | 100 | 1s. | Macmillan | Excellent. May be used as a class-book for children. | |||
| Etymological Dictionary | Skeat | 7s. 6d. | Clarendon Press | Very necessary for language teachers. | ||||
| Etymological Dictionary | Brachet | Clarendon Press | Introduction specially good. Required by all who teach French. | |||||
| English Past and Present | Nesfield | 450 | 3s. 6d. | Macmillan | Very good for upper classes. | |||
| English Grammar | Hyde Clarke | 150 | 1s. | Crosby | Suggestive for the teacher. Contains much that is interesting. | |||
| Comparative Philology | Sayce | 400 | Trübner | |||||
| Primer of Phonetics | Sweet | 120 | 1s. 6d. | Clarendon Press | ||||
| Visible Speech | Bell | 80 | 2s. | Volta Press, Washington | The large book costs about four dollars. | |||
| Ecriture phonétique | - | Passy | 1s. 6d. | Firmin Didot | Clear and easy. | |||
| Les sons du français | ||||||||
| Phonétique des deutschen | Victor | 5s. 6d. | Heelbronn | Somewhat difficult. | ||||
| Introduction to Phonetics | Soames | 280 | 3s. 6d. | Sonnenschein | A very useful introduction, adapted to English, French and German. | |||
| Expressive Reading | Meiklejohn | 360 | Holden | Very good. Contains a suitable selection. | ||||
| Plea for Reformed Spelling | Pitman | Pitman | ||||||
| Spelling Reform | Gladstone | Pitman | ||||||
| How to Teach Reading | Stanley Hall | 40 | 1s. | Heath | ||||
Amongst English grammars I may mention those by Morris and Mason, various books by Dr. Abbott, and the Parallel Grammar Series. There are good grammars, too numerous to mention, suitable for school use.
CLASSICAL STUDIES.
By W. H. D. Rouse, M.A., formerly Fellow of Christ’s College in Cambridge, and a Master at Rugby School.
Aim of a girl’s education.It were idle to expect that classics can be studied with the same thoroughness in girls’ schools as in boys’. Girls’ schools have grown up with other traditions; music and drawing and modern languages have so long been the staple of a girl’s education, that it is perhaps too late now to make any radical change. Nor is it clear that even if possible, it would be well to substitute classics for these subjects. If the object of girls’ education be, as many think, not so much to turn out finished scholars as to give an intelligent and sympathetic interest in life, this can be better achieved by grafting classics upon the existing curriculum, than by ousting other studies for the sake of these. Nevertheless, there will be many whose aim it is to give themselves to teaching as a profession, and some who are scholars born, and willing to spend their life in research and study. A good school must provide for these; and we have to consider how to combine the interests of both classes. The result will naturally be a compromise: the average pupil getting less than the average boy gets, while the few specialists will need to make up for lost time, and to compress their work into a shorter period than is usually given to it. The object of teaching will be the same in any case: a mastery of the matter perfect as far as it goes; and at the outset, the methods will be much the same.
Importance of Latin in all schemes of higher education.It is scarcely necessary to insist on the value of Latin for every educated man or woman. It is not only valuable as a thorough training of the mind, in close reasoning and unremitting attention; nor only as opening to the student a literature of great interest: it is actually useful in a practical way. It is the key to all the Romance languages; Latin once mastered, French and Italian, Spanish and Portuguese are brought within easy reach. Almost all that has then to be learnt is the grammar of these languages; for the body of the words is already familiar. Certainly much study and practice will be needed before these languages can be spoken; but is it nothing to be able to read? Men who are preparing for the Civil Service in India learn Sanskrit; not because the Government is interested in the training of their minds, but because this is the key to the spoken dialects of India. As this dead language is practically useful in learning Hindi or Bengali, so Latin is practically useful in learning Italian or French. Then again, the grammatical drill is much more rigid and effective in teaching Latin than in teaching French, Italian, or even German. The relation of action to object, the subordination of thought to thought, the dependence of an oblique statement, all become clear to the mind in English or French when they have been made clear to the eye by Latin. Nor must we forget that without Latin no one can really understand English, especially the English of such writers as Milton and Bacon. And besides these advantages, Latin has a direct use in several professions, which are now or may yet be open to women: in medicine, in the law, in letters; and even in business a knowledge of it, as already pointed out, will enable any one to become fit for foreign correspondence with far less difficulty than otherwise.
We will assume, then, that Latin will be begun even in girls’ schools early enough (say at thirteen or fourteen) to get through the grammar, without undue pressure, by the time the specialist will wish to begin Greek. There may be at that time a certain amount of work yet to get through which a boy of the same age would have done; but this will have to be done more quickly, that is all. It must not be slurred or neglected, certainly; but the student will probably find that the work progresses at a rather quicker rate than might be expected, because the mind is already better trained and stored than is usual at that stage of the study.