90 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



very great importance. It proves at least this, that there are in Ger- 

 many men of acknowledged ability, undoubted honesty, and sincere 

 love of education, and able to judge of the system from personal ex- 

 perience, who desire such a change in the preparatory schooling as 

 would permit a student to go to the university without having studied 

 Greek at all. Is it a sign of a shallow mind to discountenance in 

 America, under circumstances that make the experiment far less likely 

 to succeed, what is thus proved to be partially a failure even in Ger- 

 many ? Is it true that those who hold such views are justly charge- 

 able with a wanton desire to destroy a well-tried system of " thor- 

 ough " education, in order to introduce new-fangled notions of their 

 own? 



But the gymnasium is not the only school that prepares for the 

 university. At present another school in which less Latin and no 

 Greek are taught, called " Realschule," has also the right to give its 

 graduates a certificate of " maturity " which entitles them to member- 

 ship in the university, at least in some of the courses of the "Arts" 

 department. This fact should, therefore, be borne in mind : that the 

 German universities do admit students who, instead of Greek, offer 

 other studies, very much as Harvard would have done if the proposi- 

 tion of its faculty had not been overruled by the sujierior board. The 

 professors of the German universities mostly favor the " gymnasium," 

 from which almost every one of them was graduated, but they are not 

 so unreasonable as to set up their own individual preferences against 

 the intelligent views of a considerable number of highly educated peo- 

 ple who are not professors. Hence, whatever the example of German 

 universities may teach us, the lesson of intolerance is not taught by 

 it ; at least not of intolerance in the sense that the views of an intelli- 

 gent minority must be absolutely disregarded by the majority. 



The German " Realschule " teaches science and mathematics, Lat- 

 in, French, English in connection with the other branches, German 

 language and literature, etc., common also to the gymnasium. It 

 is claimed that this course is not so beneficial to the student as that 

 of the gymnasium, and a ten years' trial of the Berlin philosophical 

 faculty seems to have proved this. We will not here enter upon a 

 discussion as to the probable causes of this failure of the Realschule 

 beyond stating the well-known fact that hitherto the Realschule has 

 not been generally patronized by those who aspired to the higher 

 education of the university. The prejudice in favor of the old, well- 

 tried, and splendidly equipped gymnasium was so great that this 

 school naturally attracted tlie majority of those who wished to go to 

 the university later. The course of the Realschule (i. e., that of 

 the first order or class, there being also a lower order or class) is just 

 as long as that of the gymnasium, but the graduates of the Realschule 

 are few in number, and it is the exception, and not the rule, when one 

 of them finally attends the university. Hence it is manifestly unfair 



