WHAT BOYS LEARN.

Taranaki Daily News, 30 September 1924, Page 5

WHAT BOYS LEARN.

VALUE OF THE CLASSICS. CONTROVERSY AROUSED. DISCUSSION IN AMERICA. . By Telegraph—Press Assn.—Copyright. Received Sept. 29, 8.50 p.m. New York, Sept. 28. Th© 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. Suddenly, however, it has become the centre of a raging controversy. A dispute over the value of denominational, as compared with Governmentcon trolled schools has also become involved, and publicists and educationalists are divided into bitterly opposed camps. The American Classical League, which obtained an appropriation of fifteen thousand dollars from the Rockefeller Institute to inquire into the status of Latin and Greek studies in American Government schools, has issued a series of long reports, which have been widely published in the Press, deploring the partial limitations placed upon the study of Latin in various parts of the country, and presenting statistics showing that students who take Latin are 13 per cent, higher in their other studies than those who eschew Latin. Reports are bitter concerning the low estate into which the study of Greek has fallen, and condemn the practice which deprives anxious students of the right to pursue the Hellenic language. Opponents depreciate the study of Greek and Latin as valueless for students, who, without advancing beyond intermediary education, must earn livings. They declare that where students or parents of students desire such studies, they are easily available. Professor Sharp, of Boston University,, formerly a Minister in the Methodist Episcopal Church, condemns denominational schools, characterising them as an old world educational idea imported from England and completely at variance with the idea of democracy and) tending to breed antagonism and suspicion. “There is only one institution large enough to embrace all the diverse elements of our civilisation,” he says, “and that is th© Government school.” Professor Sharp’s opponents declare there is room for various kinds of schools in the United States, stressing the phenomenal growth of both denominational and Government institutions, notably since the war- The State of Oregon has been divided over the paroI chial school question, which to-day is ' probably the largest political issue there. The State Legislature has passed a law forbidding parochial schools.