CLASSICAL LANGUAGES.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXI, Issue 18827, 30 September 1924, Page 7

CLASSICAL LANGUAGES.

VALUE TO THE STUDENT.

CONTROVERSY IN AMERICA.

Australian and N.Z. Cable Association. (Reed. 10.5 p.m.) NEW YORK. Sept. 28.

The question of the value of the study of classical languages has often been debated in the United States, but in recent years it has been quite dormant. Now it has suddenly become a raging controversy. A dispute over the value of denominational schools, as compared with schools controlled by tho Government, has also arisen.

Publicists and educationists have been divided into bitterly opposed camps. The American Classical League, which obtained an appropriation of 15,000 dollars from the Rockefeller Institute to inqniro into the status of Latin and Greek studies in American Government rtchools, has issued a scries-of long reports which are being widely published in tho press. These reports deplore the partial limitations placed upon the study of Latin in various parts of the country. They present statistics showing that students who study Latin are 13 per cent, higher in their other studies than those who do not study that language.

The reports are bitter concerning tho low estate to which tho study of Greek has fallen. They condemn tho practice which deprives anxious students of tho right to pursue the Hellenic language.

Opponents of the classics depreciate the value of the study of Greek and Latin. They assert that it is valueless for students who, without advancing beyond intermediary education, must earn their livings. They say that where students, or their parents, desire such studies they aro easily available.

Professor Dallas Sharp, of Boston University, condemns denominational schools. Ho characterises them as the outcome of an old-world educational idea imported from England, and completely at variance with the idea of democracy. He says they tend to breed antagonism and suspicion. There is only one institution large enough to embrace all tho diverse elements of civilisation, he declares, namely, the Government ichooL ..-,',

Professor Sharp's opponents say there is room for various kinds of schools in the United States. They emphasise the phenomenal growth of both denominational and Government institutions, notably since the war.

The State of Oregon has been divided over the parochial school question, which to-day is probably the largest political issue there. A law has been passed forbidding parochial tchools.