Mr. Lowe's educational theories examined from a practical point of view / by Hely Hutchinson Almond by Hely Hutchinson Almond ... . 1990.

Date:
1868
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Mr. Lowe's educational theories examined from a practical point of view / by Hely Hutchinson Almond by Hely Hutchinson Almond ... . 1990. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh. The original may be consulted at the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh.

    26/40 (page 26)
    Why in their Greek lessons. I will venture to say that boys have a far more definite, satisfactory knowledge of words which have been learned in this way, going to the very foun- tain-head of their history, as it were, than if they learnt their meaning by studying any branch of modern literature—say the platform oratory of the year. I will just take a Greek lesson I happen to have immediately in hand, and I will only take ten lines, from line 200 to 210 of the 'Alcestis' of Euripides, and we will see what knowledge of English words can be made to hang upon their originals. I do not for one moment suppose , that any man teaching a class would stop at each word to give lits derivatives, and follow out the line of thought suggested by ,vthem. One or two are as many as would fix themselves in the ipiind at one time:— I Chirurgeon; philosopher ; philanthropist; phthisis ; maras- |ma; barometer ; microscope ; microcosm; pneumatics; helio- trope ; heliocentric; aphelion ; perihelion ; actinism; cycle; epicycle; optics ; evangelist; angel; cachexy; despotism ; palaeology; palaeontology; phrenology; pantomime; mechanics. I daresay this is a point of detail on which some may dis- agree with me. But I am fuUy persuaded that the Greek lesson affords the very best opportunity for gradually intro- ducing a boy to scientific terms and scientific conceptions. If you stop a few minutes and give a short explanation, e.g. of Actinism, a boy does not forget 'AktI'^, and he has learnt something upon Actinism which he is less likely to forget than if it had been crammed out of some repulsive compilation. The other utility of a knowledge of Greek which I shall men- tion, is the power it gives of reading the Greek Testament. If you want to teach a boy to read accurately, observantly, and critically, if you wish to introduce him to the most perfect specimen of artless and graphic narrative, of simple and elo- quent discourse, let him read the Greek Testament. For the rest—I know that our noble English version is sufficient for the unsophisticated mind ; but who that knows the full force with which a scientific habit of thought prejudices against a settled belief in supernatural revelation, but wiU be thankful that he has to oppose to the crudities of human speculation and the cold pressure of the stately tmiformities of material law, the still