LEARNING FOREIGN LANGUAGES 561 
LEARNING FOREIGN LANGUAGES 
By Dr. CHARLES W. SUPER 
ATHENS, 0. 
ae we consider that in all the high schools and colleges of 
christendom, with few exceptions, the pupils are required to 
study one or more foreign languages, we can not but admit that the 
subject is one of the utmost importance. And more than this: in the 
public schools of many of our large cities thousands of children are 
engaged in the study of English, which is to them a foreign language. 
Since in the latter case the end in view is solely and directly practical, 
we need not consider this phase of the problem further in this connec- 
tion. It is only within the memory of many men now living that the 
value of such studies has been called in question; or more especially, 
the relative value of the ancient and modern languages. A few decades 
ago the latter had either no place or a very subordinate one in the 
educational curriculum. Every young man who entered college was 
required to have some knowledge of Greek and Latin. In a few insti- 
tutions he might pursue a modern language, or perhaps two, but this 
part of the course was perfunctorily gone over because regarded as 
subordinate. After a score or less of recitations from the grammar 
the student was put to reading. ‘Then a few master-pieces were in 
whole or in part rapidly gone over and that was the end of the program. 
So far as the principles of language-structure were concerned the 
student was supposed to have learned them along with his Latin and 
Greek. Gradually, however, the modern languages received an in- 
creasing share of attention, until at the present time in many of our 
largest universities not five per cent. of the students take Greek, while 
neither Greek nor Latin is required for graduation. In most high 
schools the former is not taught, and in all it no longer occupies the 
post of honor. In this country the contest between the progressives 
and the conservatives was carried on without much bitterness; but in 
Germany the latter contested every inch of ground and the discussions 
of the relative value of ancient and modern languages often gave rise to 
acrimonious debates. It was in fact a contest between the ins and the 
outs; between the college professors and what may be called the enlight- 
ened public; between the traditional views of education and the prac- 
tical, not to say imperious, demands of the age. Under the old régime 
an education was supposed to serve a sentimental rather than a practical 
end. It was not necessary for either law, medicine, or theology, since 
