22 UNIVERSITY OF COLORADO STUDIES 



acquire both English and French in the public schools. But English 

 has the greatest literature that the world has ever seen; both English 

 and French are world-languages, while the German ceases to speak 

 his German when he goes abroad, using French or English even in 

 the German dependencies. Why, then, is German taught in ele- 

 mentary schools? I suppose there is but one true answer: it is 

 because we love the German language, the German literature and 

 the German people. 



But in education it is our duty to keep a distinct curb over our 

 likes and hold to that which is best for the child. If the educator 

 chooses the pleasant path, how can we blame the child for doing the 

 same ? And here we come to the very heart of the crisis. Modern 

 languages are not studied from any one of the reasons assigned at 

 the beginning of this paper ; the great multitude are studying French 

 and German largely to escape the more difficult and disciplinary 

 studies, such as mathematics, Latin, Greek and the severer forms of 

 science. The modern-language teacher may be too easily satisfied 

 with his victory over the ancient classics, complacently pluming him- 

 self on the numbers that frequent his courses rather than on the work 

 accomplished. Then, too, he compares his language-work with the 

 language-work of the Greek and Latin teachers after Greek and 

 Latin had ceased to be the main part of the course of study. Greek 

 and Latin are immense civilizations as well as very difficult languages. 

 They cannot be acquired in a few odd hours sandwiched into courses 

 of study. 



Most of the best writers of English never had any instruction in 

 English. Their elementary schooling began with Latin grammar. 

 They learned to read Latin, talk Latin and write Latin; it was their 

 literary vehicle. They were at home with the great writers of antiq- 

 uity, reading them easily. Latin and Greek were their ordinary 

 studies, the things of course, the things with which they were famil- 

 iar. These languages are remote in sentence structure, remote in 

 genius from the vernacular: the university student of former times 

 got more of a reaction in turning from classics to English than the 

 student of today gets in turning from English to French or German. 



