diom, special
conversation classes, and the like--if only for the simple reason that
a language that is not used soon falls into desuetude and is
forgotten. But assuredly the so-called elementary, intermediate, and
advanced courses in French and Spanish (as given in college) do not
fall under that head. They exist in the college by _tolerance_ rather
than by sound pedagogical theory, and the effort now being made to
force all such courses back into the school by reducing the college
"credits" they give is worthy of undivided support. Not only are they
out of place in the college program, but the burden of numerous and
often large "sections" in these courses has seriously impeded the
college in its proper language work. The college in its true function
is the clarifier of ideas, the correlator of facts, the molder of
personalities; and the student of modern languages should enter
college prepared to study his subject from the college point of view.
Much of the apparent "silliness" of the French class which our more
virile undergraduates object to would be obviated if a larger
percentage of them could at once enter upon the more advanced phases
of the subject. It is, then, to their interest, to the interest of the
subject, and to the advantage of the college concerned, that this
reform be brought about.

=Aim of the teaching of Romance languages in the college=

In any case, the function of a college subject can be stated, as
President Meiklejohn has stated it, in terms of two principles. He
says: "The first is shared by both liberal and technical teaching.
The second applies to liberal education alone. The principles are
these: (1) that activity guided by ideas is on the whole more
successful than the same activity without the control of ideas, and
(2) that in the activities common to all men the guidance of ideas is
quite as essential as in the case of those which different groups of
men carry on in differentiation from one another." As applied to the
Romance languages, this means that while the college must of course
give "technical" instruction in language, the emphasis of that
instruction should be upon the "ideas" which the language expresses,
in itself and in its literature. It is not enough that the college
student should gain fluency in French or Spanish, he must also and
primarily be made conscious of the processes of language, its logical
and aesthetic values, the civilization it expresses, and the thoughts