NA TURE 



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completely based on 

 that of any other 

 until the end of 



THURSDAY, JULY 5, 19 17. 



IHE CLASSICAL SYSTEM OF EDUCATION. 



Higher Education and the War. By Prof. John 

 Burnet. Pp. x + 238. (London : Macmillan 

 and Co., Ltd., 1917.) Price 45. 6d. net. 



PROF. BURNET'S book is entitled "Higher 

 Education and the War. ' ' He states that 

 most of his criticisms were published in 1913 and 

 "are not, therefore, unduly influenced by the 

 war." That they have been somewhat influenced 

 thereby is thus admitted ; this is the chief way 

 the war comes in, for ttte work is mainly an 

 appreciative account of the German system of 

 higher education. 



As such it will be useful if only to show those 

 people who are ignorant of the fact — and they 

 are legion, as the letters from clergymen and 

 others which so frequently appear in the news- 

 papers indicate — that this system is more 

 the " humanities " than 

 country — was, . in fact, 

 the nineteenth century 

 practically confined to them. Until the present 

 century no one in Germany could enter a 

 university, or become a member of the Civil 

 Service, or embrace any of the learned profes- 

 sions without a passing-out or maturity certificate 

 from one of the "Gymnasien. " The curriculum in 

 these is almost purely classical, for of the nine 

 years spent in these schools all have to be devoted 

 to the acquisition of Latin and six to that of 

 Greek, other subjects being allowed to play a very 

 subsidiary part in the scheme of education, 

 whilst science teaching is practically nil. This 

 is an ideal "humanistic" education, carried out 

 with all the disciplinary thoroughness of the Ger- 

 man. All the governing classes of Germany of 

 the present day were reared upon it — with the 

 results which we are now experiencing. Prof. 

 Burnet seriously suggests that we should adhere 

 to such a plan of education for this country ; and 

 there are many people who agree with him. Did 

 not the Times critic describe his book as "so 

 good that it is difficult to review," and discover 

 "nothing to find fault with " in it? 



Prof. Burnet's work is an obvious attempt to 

 counteract the "Neglect of Science" agitation. 

 ^ et he is constrained to admit that very few of 

 the greatest scientific discoveries have been made 

 by Germans (he might almost have said, none) ; 

 what thev have done is to organise scientific 

 work. He states that for ourselves "what is 

 ^vanted is really a better education for the leaders 

 of commerce and industry, so that they may gain 

 a rather wider outlook than thev have at present." 

 And for this wider outlook Prof. Burnet offers 

 this German system. He tells us that the Prus- 

 sians understand these things better than we do; 

 that they organised their educational system to 

 train an dlite to do the highest work of the 

 NO. 2488, VOL. 99] 



nation. "We have been furnished with such 

 an elite by the pubHc schools and by Oxford and 

 Cambridge," which "do much of the best educa- 

 tional work that is done in this country to-day, 

 and we* should be careful not to meddle rashly 

 with institutions which are more and more 

 becoming the envy and admiration of Europe and 

 America." 



Since the beginning of the present century some 

 modification has been introduced into the German 

 system, admission to the universities and the rest 

 being possible through schools other than the 

 Gymnasien proper. But although these devote 

 less time to Latin than the Gymnasien, and still 

 less to Greek, the education of the boys is 

 almost entirely confined to languages and 

 literature, so that it remains emphatically literary 

 in character. And it may be added that these 

 alternative schools, perhaps because they are new, 

 are looked down upon by the higher social classes 

 in Germany, so that the purely classical 

 Gymnasien are yet by far the most frequented by 

 those who desire to enter the universities, the 

 Civil Service, and the learned professions. The 

 whole German system, in fact, even with the 

 modification alluded to, is based upon the idea — 

 which Prof. Burnet strongly upholds — that the 

 mind can be trained only by the study of 

 languages and literature — preferably those of 

 extinct races — as distinct from the modern Eng- 

 lish and American view that the intelligence can 

 be developed as well, if not better, by the study of 

 natural science, and that it is inexpedient to put 

 all boys and girls through the self-same educa- 

 tional mill irrespective of their innate tendencies, 

 and regardless of the fact that the particular mill 

 which the humanists advocate is neither more nor 

 less than abhorrent to the majority of healthy- 

 minded children. Indeed, like most other 

 humanists, Prof. Burnet holds that an education 

 based upon the acquisition of knowledge which 

 is of no value in after life is more useful than 

 one based on knowledge which is of permanent 

 value, and regards the sarcastic definition of edu- 

 cation as "the sum of all we have forgotten " as 

 a not altogether unjust appreciation of what edu- 

 cation really should be. He considers that "the 

 right of children to be treated as human beings," 

 which in his view is to have their school training 

 based entirely upon " humanistic " studies, is 

 now seriously threatened by those who hold that 

 the future of education may, and must, be 

 strengthened by the introduction of a basis of 

 natural science. 



Prof. Burnet's contentions are not without such 

 discrepancies as are inseparable from the pursuit of 

 a weak line of argument. For while he contends 

 that the Latin rather than the English grammar 

 ought to be taught first, "when the memory is 

 strong and the reasoning powers undeveloped. 

 Children love to learn things by heart, whether thev 

 understand them or not. . . . On the other hand, 

 they resent, and quite rightly, all appeals to their 

 reasoning powers," he states, a little further on, 



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