DARY SCHOOL EDWIN L. MILLER Northern High School Y the "reorganized secondary school" BI understand the secondary school as Mr. Clarence Kingsley's Commission on the Reorganization of Secondary Education conceives of it. For the purpose of this discussion I therefore assume that the objectives of secondary education are seven in number, as set forth by the Commission: (1) health; (2) fundamental processes; (3) worthy home membership; (4) citizenship; (5) vocation; (6) worthy use of leisure; (7) ethics. If we grant that these objectives embrace the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, is there any place left in the secondary school for the study of Latin? 1. It is dull. 2. Teachers assume that it has an impregnable place in the curriculum and hence do not sell it to their pupils. 3. Teachers assume that there is some mysterious virtue in making it so dry and distasteful that half their pupils quit the subject in disgust as soon as they have a chance. 4. The course of study may be well organized for the supernormal pupils who constituted the high school population thirty years ago, but it is absurd today. We should jeer, and have a right to jeer, at an English course that consisted of a year of grammar, a year of Grant's Memoirs, a year of Burke's Speeches, and a year of Paradise Lost. Burke's Speech on Conciliation is con To this question I reply with two "ifs." If the Latin course remains unreformed, its value in view of these objectives is consid-idered too hard for pupils in grade XII erable. If the course be made what it ought to be its value will be much greater. I dined recently with a Boston friend, who told me he had been arrested for speeding. As he had been going sixty miles an hour, his lawyer advised him to enter a plea of Nolo Contendere, which I think is Bostonian for "guilty." When he said to the judge, Nolo Contendere, that official first looked blank, next whispered to his clerk, and then said in impressive tones, "The case is dismissed!" And yet there are people who maintain that a classical education has no practical value today! I propose to outline ( I have no time to discuss) what I conceive to be the status of Latin-teaching at the present time, its possibilities, and the changes that must be made before it will attain the place to which it is entitled. Among the faults which exist today in the teaching of Latin are: by many teachers of English, yet we persist in reading Cicero's speeches, which are equally difficult in thought, and reading them in grade XI in a language which is at once ancient and foreign. As for Paradise Lost, it has been banished for years from our high schools because it does not fit into adolescent interests. Why cannot Latin teachers imitate English teachers, form a National Council of Teachers of Latin, hold a yearly convention, and find fit matter for their pupils to read? Is it because there is no fit matter? Is it because Latin teachers cannot translate any Latin except what they have studied in the teachers' courses in college? Why insist that we must read only Latin of the Augustan Age? Would it not be equally sensible to decree that we must read no English except that which was written between 1600 and 1700? 5. The writing of Latin prose is a fetish to the teachers and a nightmare to the chil dren. Its purposes, in my opinion, can be attained equally well by memorizing passages of good Latin and by writing real compositions-compositions in which pupils try to express their own ideas instead of merely rewriting, in barbarous Latin, sentences which Cicero and Caesar wrote 2000 years ago in perfectly good Latin. 6. Too much time is spent in teaching the quantity of vowels. This is defended on the ground that anything that is worth doing at all is worth doing well. A similar attitude of mind on the part of New England manufacturers has caused Michigan to become the center of the automobile industry. They had the polish but the punch was here, and now they have neither. Nero fiddled while Rome burned, and our quantitative friends might profit by his fate. These are the chief faults of Latin-teaching today. In spite of them, it is an immensely valuable study. If they can be eradicated, its place in the reorganized high school will be secure. Why it will be secure I shall attempt briefly to indicate by pointing out how the study of Latin may be made to contribute to each of the seven objectives of secondary education. Of direct education in health, probably not much can be derived from Latin. Yet the Romans cultivated the mens sana in corpore sano (sound mind in a sound body) and were wise in their health maxims if not in their practices. Virgil warns us against too much physic when he says "Aegrescitque medendo" (He is beginning to get sick from taking too much medicine). Cicero, in this sentence, preaches a comforting sermon to the sick, "Aegroto, dum anima est, spes esse dicitur" (There is said to be hope for a sick man while he is alive). "Non est vivere, sed valere, vita," (Life is not to be alive, but to be well) wrote the alliterative Martial. Latin letters ended much more sensibly than ours, with "Cura ut valeas" (Take care that you are well). The old Latin proverb, "Esurienti ne occurras" (Don't get in the way of a hungry man), if remembered, may save one's skin at a critical moment; and there is something extremely modern and, if rightly understood, wholesome enough in the maxim "Dum vivimus, vivamus" (While we live, let us live). Most of our health words are Latin, sanitary, for instance, and medical. Why not organize our Latin in the high school so that the pupils will get some of these Roman health ideas? The fundamental processes are "readin', writin', and 'rithmetic"-that is, language and mathematics. Latin's best justification perhaps lies in the fact that, in studying Latin, the pupil is studying English. The Latin teacher must herself remember and make her pupils understand that Latin is an integral part of English. Probably the best way to do this is historically. He who knows how the Christian religion, the Norman splendor, the intellectual wealth of the Renaissance were all carried over into English by Latin, and carried with them a vast vocabulary, will not undervalue the study of the language as an aid to English. Nor should the teacher fail to make clear to the pupil the fact that these processes are still going on and that not less than 75 per cent of our words today are of Latin origin. He who does not know Latin cannot know English. This one phase of the subject is, however, too vast for discussion here. I can only point out concretely a few of the considerations which lead me to believe that the study of Latin is the study of English: 1. It gives an insight into the structure of language. 2. It develops the ability to use the vernacular with precision. 3. Language is not only a tool for the transmission of thought but also for thinking itself. The Latin language, because of its logical structure, offers a particularly effective means of realizing this aim. 4. By studying Latin pupils learn to recognize and to use persons, numbers, tenses, voices, moods, and cases with a precision. that the study of English grammar never gives. 5. The study of Latin makes clear the origin, form, and meaning of English words. It gives the pupil an idea of the dignity of language. It shows him that many English words, instead of being arbitrary symbols, came into being in response to a human need. Such a phenomenon is seen in pes and its derivatives: pedal, pedestal, pedestrain, expedient, expedite, expedition, impede. Latin helps in spelling English words. Of these formulae, accident, adhesion, discipline, dissect, divide, convalesce, separate, and accommodate are types. Latin illuminates the meanings of English words, rendering dictionaries less needful. Essence, procrastinate, torture, trite, digest, infant, decimal, fraction, integral, peninsular, and molecule are good examples of this. Latin aids in discriminating between English synonyms. Who that does not know Latin has a feeling for terrible, tremendous, immaculate, egregious, fine, and splendid? The Romans themselves had some ideas about the teaching of the vernacular which are still worth our attention. Of them I mention only one, "Corrumpunt bonos mores colloquia mala" (Careless speech spoils good manners), which is a good motto for our campaign in behalf of better speech. One of the most engaging aspects of Latin-study, the home life of the Romans, is now almost entirely neglected. Their ideals and observations are often strangely modern. Did they have cats and dogs? They carved "Cave canem" (Beware the dog) on their threshold and said of one, "Catus amat pisces sed non vult tingere plantas" (A cat loves fish but does not like to wet her feet), and of the other, "Canis timidus vehementius latrat quam mordet" (A cowardly cur barks more furiously than it bites). Plautus admired mice. At least he said: "Cogitato mus pusillus quam sit sapiens bestia Aetatem qui uni cubilli numquam committit suam" (Observe what a wise beast is the cowardly little mouse. He never trusts his safety to one hole). They deprecated needless argument-"De gustibus non est disputandum" (There is no accounting for tastes). They knew the value of promptness-"Carpe Diem" (Do it now)-and no less the value of delay"Festina lente" (Make haste slowly). They hated misers-"Avarus, nisi cum moritur, nil recte facit" (A miser never does anything right except when he dies), but they valued thrift, even if they did not practice it. Cato said: "Emas, non quod opus est, sed quod neces se est; "Quod non necesse est asse carum est" (You should not buy that which is desirable, but that which is necessary; That which is not necessary is dear at a penny); and Cicero exclaimed: "O dii immortales! Non intelligunt homines quam magnum vectigal sit parsimonia" (Oh, ye immortal gods! Men do not understand what a great source of wealth is thrift). Plautus' advice to stenographers is just as good today as it was 2000 years ago-"Mulier recte olet ubi nihil olet" (A woman has the right perfumery when she has none). What is pret tier than the lines in which Catullus offers comfort to Lesbia for the loss of her spar row: "Lugete o Veneres Cupidinesque Et quantum est hominum venustiorum! Dead is my girl's sparrow Which was loved more than her eyes). And what is saner than Horace's love of the country: "Beatus ille qui, procul negotiis, (Happy is he who far from business, Tills his ancestral acres with his own oxen, Free from all supervision)? They laughed at the sick man who grew suddenly virtuous: "Difficilis, facilis, jucundus, acerbus es idem; Nec tecum possum vivere, nec sine te" (Hard, easy, jovial, grouchy, you are all of these; I cannot live with you nor without you). Probably no other subject contains more of the real metal of citizenship than Latin. Yet it is a mine practically unworked. From Livy, Tacitus, Cicero, Pliny, Horace, Virgil, and the Latin Vulgate can be dug a mass of social and political wisdom that is a good deal more up to date than most of the stuff that will be printed as such day after tomorrow, in those crimes against our forests which are known as the Sunday papers. "Bellum nec timendum nec provocandum" (War must not be feared, nor provoked) is a good motto for a republic. "Corruptisima in republica plurimae leges" (In the rottenest states there are the most laws) is a better one. Nothing could be more to the point at this minute than Horace's stanza: "Justum ac tenacem propositi virum, Non civium ardor prava jubentium, (A man who is right and sure of his ground Neither the ill-advised threats of a mob Nor the frown of a threatening tyrant, Diverts from his fixed purpose). Even the Germans steal most of their clever ideas from the Romans. The slogan with which they defaced a ruined village in Belgium "Nicht ärgern; nur wundern" (Don't get sore, only be amazed) is nothing under the sun but Virgil's "Non equidem invideo: miror magis" (I am not irritated, but I am amazed). As a vocational subject, Latin is of im mense value. It is necessary for law, medicine, pharmacy, dentistry, the engineer, the clergyman. It is valuable to the stenographer, but more so to her employer. It is equally indispensable to the teachers of French, Spanish, and Italian. To the teacher of English it is a "sine qua non" (essential-a without-which-not). The wisdom of these maxims and a host of others is of practical use every day, even in the schoolroom: "Accusare se debit nemo" (No one is obliged to accuse himself); "Allegans contraria non est audiendus" (He who makes inconsistent statements is not to be believed); "Cui prodest scelus, is fecit" (He who committed the crime, to him it is of advantage); "Nihil perfectum est dum aliquid restat agendum" (Nothing is finished while anything remains to be done). The value of a study of Latin as an aid to the worthy use of leisure is obvious. Key as it is, to some of the greatest minds of all times, it is also the key to much that is best in English, French, Spanish, and Italian literature. Some of its lighter aspects are highly attractive. Ennius' ambiguous line: "Aio te, Oeacida, Romanos vincere posse" (I say that thee, oh Greek, the Romans can conquer); the medieval palindrome, "Signa te, signa; temere me tangis et angis" (Cross yourself, cross yourself; at your peril you touch or injure me); and the modern inscription for Franklin's statue, "Eripuit fulmen caelo sceptrumque tyrannis" (He tore the thunder from the sky and the sceptre from kings). are illustrations of the hidden, attractive, and unused wealth that awaits the teacher. Why not read Tacitus' account of the Christians, Seneca's prophecy of the discovery of America, the Animula Vagula Blandula, (Oh, wandering, pleasant soul), the Dies Irae (Day of wrath), one or two scenes from Plautus and Terence, one or two poems of Catullus, several of Horace's odes, the Gaudeamus Igitur (Let us therefore rejoice), and Prof. Gayley's Gloria Victoria (Oh Glory, Oh Victory)? And the Latin teacher should remember and teach with Seneca that "Otium sine literis mors est" (Leisure without books is death). Nor must one forget Thackeray's lovely Latin lyric about Rebecca and Rowena, "Hic est Guilfridus, belli dum vixit avidus; Cum gladio et lancea, Normania et quoque Francia Verbera dura dabat; per Turcos multum equitabat; Guilbertum occidit; atque Hierosolyma vidit. *Under the stone you behold, Always he marched in advance, Warring in Flanders and France, Doughty with sword and with lance. Famous in Saracen fight, Rode in his youth the good knight, Scattering Paynims in flight. Brian the Templar untrue, Fairly in tourney he slew, Saw Hierusalem, too. How he is buried and gone, Lying beneath the greystone, Where shall you find such a one? Long time his widow deplored, Weeping the fate of her lord, Sadly cut off by the sword. When she was eased of her pain, Came the good Lord Athelstane, When her ladyship married again. Latin also affords a vast field for the study of ethics. I have time only to jot down one or two bits of wisdom that appear to me to *Quoted from Rebecca and Rowena by Thackeray. be good for adolescents as well as their elders: 1. "Abeunt studia in mores" (Industry in school passes over into character). 2. "Diem perdidi" (I have wasted a day). 3. "Fit erranti medicina confessio" (Confession is a panacea for him who has made a mistake). 4. "Mendacem memorem esse oportet" (A liar should have a memory). 5. "Disce aut discede" (Learn or get out). 6. "Differ; habent parvae commoda magna morac" (Wait a minute; small delays have great advantage).' 7. "Ad paenitendum properat, cito qui judicat" (He soon regrets, who decides hastily). 8. "Absentem qui rodit amicum, Qui non defendit alio culpante, so lutos Qui captat risus hominum famamque dicacis, Fingere qui non visa potest, com missa tacere Qui nequit, hic niger est; hunc tu, (He who criticises his absent friend, He who desires to start the careless laughter, and win the reputation of a gossip, He who can relate as facts things not seen, He who cannot keep still about This man is black; avoid him, 9. "Aequam memento rebus in arduis Servare mentem, non secus in bonis Ab insolenti temperatam laetitia" (Remember to keep your poise in adversity, and also in prosperity to abstain from unworthy rejoicing). 10. "Cras te victurum cras dicis, Postume, semper. |