e and unreal, that the study of it is childish and
unpractical.[72]

=Courses in the ancient languages=

Many classical courses are designed primarily to teach the classical
languages themselves, or to give mental training through the study and
use of these languages. Until recently most American colleges required
for admission an elementary knowledge of these languages involving
commonly at least three years of preparatory training in Greek and
from three to five years of preparatory Latin. Now, however, many
colleges provide courses for beginners in Greek, some also for
beginners in Latin. For example, courses for beginners in Greek are
given at Bryn Mawr, University of California, Chicago, Colorado,
Columbia, University of North Dakota, Dartmouth, Harvard, Idaho,
Illinois, Johns Hopkins, Kansas, Lafayette, Leland Stanford, Michigan,
New York University, Northwestern, University of Pennsylvania,
University of Tennessee, Vanderbilt, Vermont, Washington University,
Wesleyan, Williams, Wisconsin, Yale, and elsewhere. Courses for
beginners in Latin are given, for example, at the Universities of
Idaho, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin. Ordinarily these courses resemble
in general plan and method the corresponding courses in secondary
schools; but inasmuch as the students are more mature, the progress is
much more rapid.

=The "Natural Method"=

In some institutions the attempt is made in teaching ancient Greek and
Latin to employ methods used by the teachers of modern languages. Some
classical teachers have even adopted to some extent the so-called
"natural" or "direct" method of language teaching[73]: commonly such
attempts have not been very successful, and where some degree of
success has been attained the success seems due to the personality and
enthusiasm of the individual teacher. Others have contented themselves
with devoting a part of certain courses to exercises designed to show
the students that the classical languages were at one time in daily
use among living people and were the media of ordinary conversation[74].
Students in such courses commonly memorize certain colloquial phrases
and take part in simple conversations in which these phrases can be
used. Such methods, skillfully employed, undoubtedly relieve the
tedium of the familiar drill in grammar and "prose composition," and
may help materially in imparting both a knowledge of the ancient
languages and a facility in reading the ancient authors.

An inte