cs,
and easy science. Boys who had obviously no special aptitude would be
kept on at the simple subjects. And if the result was only that a
school sent out boys who could read French easily, and write simple
French grammatically, who knew something of modern history and
geography, could work out sums in arithmetic, and had some conception
of elementary science--well, they would, I believe, be very fairly
educated boys.

The reason why intellectual cynicism sets in, is because the boys, as
they go on, feel that they have mastered nothing. They have been set to
compose in Greek and Latin and French; the result is that they have no
power of composing in any of these languages, when they might have
learnt to compose in one. Meanwhile, they have not had time to read any
English to speak of, or to be practised in writing it. They know
nothing of their own history or of modern geography; and the blame is
not with them if they find all knowledge arid and unattractive.

I would try all sorts of experiments. I would make boys do easy
precis-writing; to give a set of boys a simple printed correspondence
and tell them to analyse it, would be to give them a task in which the
dullest would find some amusement. I should read a story aloud, or a
short episode of history, and require them to re-tell it in their own
words. Or I would relate a simple incident, and make them write it in
French; make them write letters in French. And it would be easy thus to
make one subject play into another, because they could be made to give
an account in French of something that they had done in science or
history.

At present each of the roads--Latin, Greek, French, mathematics,
science--leads off in a separate direction, and seems to lead nowhere
in particular.

The defenders of the classical system say that it fortifies the mind
and makes it a strong and vigorous instrument. Where is the proof of
it? It is true that it fortifies and invigorates minds which have, to
start with, plenty of grip and interest; but pure classics are, as the
results abundantly prove, too hard a subject for ordinary minds, and
they are taught in too abstruse and elaborate a way. If it were
determined by the united good sense of educational authorities that
Latin and Greek must be retained at all costs, then the only thing to
do would be to sacrifice all other subjects, and to alter all the
methods of teaching the classics. I do not think it would be a good
solution; bu