THE STUDY OF LATIN

New Zealand Herald, Volume LIII, Issue 16382, 9 November 1916, Page 6

THE STUDY OF LATIN

[ The University Board of Studies has decided by 14 votes to 5 that Latin shall not remain a compulsory subject for the B.A. degree. It is indicative of the archaic quality of educational conceptions that such a question should be discussed in the second decade of the Twentieth Century, but it is satisfactory to know that broader and more intelligent ideas are gathering strength in the educational world. There was a time, of course, when Latin was one of the essential keys to the storehouses of human knowledge and when its acquisition was necessary to students of every lore. That time has completely gone. It is no longer the common language of Christendom. It is of no direct value in most of the sciences or in many of the arts. It has its use and its place, and will long remain as a necessary «ad favourite study of multitudes of students throughout the world, but it has obviously lost its ancient claim to preference and privilege. The possession of another language than one's own is undoubtedly a condition of the higher learning, for only by mutual understanding ca the nations be united in the common work of civilisation ; but the compulsory study of Latin in this age of multiplied subjects and unavoidable specialisation actually retards higher education. The present generation must expect to suffer educationally through the prejudices and misconceptions which have arisen from the once-useful methods of bygone centuries, but there is no reason why it should not gradually reform its practices and work forward into a better and broader state of mind. To condemn modem educational tendencies as " utilitarian" is to ignore the positive utilitarianism which once inspired the study of Latin and was the natural justification for the esteem in which it was held.