24 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



man, and decide that there is nothing at all to complain of. That is 

 the way they always do when fault is found with their neglect of 

 health and bodily culture, and when, every couple of years, complaints 

 are made of the overloading the pupils with work. Moreover, if they 

 withhold and deny their opinions in deference to Government, how can 

 any dependence be placed on their conclusions ? At a recent meeting 

 of practical-school teachers, one of them spoke against the extension 

 of the study of Latin in the practical-school, and moved a resolution 

 in reference to it. One of the wiseacres present promptly objected 

 that this ought not to pass, for he knew that the authorities laid great 

 stress on Latin ! . . . Conventions of physicians have advanced as a 

 chief reason why admission to the study of medicine should be refused 

 to practical-school graduates, that by this means the social position of 

 physicians would be injured." 



To this may be added a few sentences from Herder : 



" And then can a view, although it should be recognized as the 

 true one, destroy prejudices deeply rooted since youth, which have 

 become a second nature to the instructors ? . . . Can it so seize upon 

 pedantic souls that when it shows itself in full light it shall cause them 

 to act in accordance with it ? . . . Oppressed spirits ! martyrs of a 

 Latin education ! O that you could all cry aloud ! " 



The reason why the two most widely known German writers can 

 not be quoted with Herder, Pfizer, Richter, and the others, on this 

 side of the question, is thus stated in the pamphlet before me : 



" If it occurs to any one that testimony from Goethe and Schiller 

 is almost entirely lacking, let him remember that neither of the poets 

 had attended the higher Normalschule of his time. Schiller was a 

 pupil of the Karlsschide, which had long ceased to occupy the narrow 

 ground of the classical-schools of the time, and Goethe received a care- 

 ful and varied private instruction, and hence did not suffer from the 

 contemporary school education." 



Leaving now the course of study of the classical-schools, the author 

 proceeds to dispel a delusion which the utterances of numerous speak- 

 ers and writers during the past year has shown to prevail even more 

 in the United States than in Germany. 



" Since we have made so many and, in the eyes of many persons, 

 so spiteful attacks on the classical-school, it might be supposed that 

 the modern practical-school is the El Dorado in which we see our peda- 

 gogic desires realized. It is, indeed, astonishing, we declare it thank- 

 fully, what a fresh and active life the practical-school, formerly treated 

 in such a step-motherly way by the state, has developed in often vic- 

 torious competition with the sluggish, though officially fondled and 

 fostered, classical-school ; how brightly and sturdily there have come 

 up in it not only the natural sciences, but also, to the shame of the 

 classical-schools it must be said, the study of the German language 

 and literature, but we must remain true to our ideal of education and 



