A letter to the citizens of Aberdeen, on the improvement of their academical institutions / [John Stuart Blackie].

  • Blackie, John Stuart, 1809-1895
Date:
1846
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: A letter to the citizens of Aberdeen, on the improvement of their academical institutions / [John Stuart Blackie]. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    and the only way to bring up these matters to their natural level is, as I have stated in the text, to make them part of the Bursary Test. But the deficiency in Arithmetic and Geome¬ try and Greek is a much more serious affair. It is easy for young men, in these days of cheap books, to make up by pri¬ vate reading the gross deficiencies in Geographical, Historical, and Literary knowledge which the present scholastic and aca¬ demic arrangements necessitate ; but Arithmetic, Geometry, and Greek, demand more tough application, and if neglected at school, are not so easily recovered afterwards. Now the fact is, as stated in the text, that they are so neglected in the schools ; and for a thorough training of mere boys, the present acade¬ mical system is the most unsuitable that can be conceived. Arithmetic, if not thoroughly mastered at school, can seldom or never be learned at College ; and Greek taught for two years, with a vacation of seven months in the twelve, is perfectly ludicrous. IIow far the same objection applies to the rudi¬ mentary teaching of Geometry in the University I am not so competent a judge ; but surely better Geometers would be produced in the* north, if the more simple Books of Euclid and the Elements of Algebra were taught in the Schools for ten months in the year, instead of five in the Universities.