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VIEWS.
VIEWS.
A CHANGE WANTED.
The chief object of education should be to teach the student to write and speak the English language, and to educate him as much as possible with reference to his after pursuits in life.
Do the present University courses effect this to the extent that is desirable?
As some changes have recently been made in the University, and it is now starting out, as it were, under new auspices, these questions are very pertinent at the present time.
To write the English language well requires constant practice and the study of best authors.
In looking over the university catalogue one is struck with the little attention that seems to be paid to English composition. The writing of essays seems to have little prominence.
The want of diversity between the different courses also strikes one very forcibly.
For instance, in all the courses, whether scientific, classical or modern literature, botany, zoology and chemistry, are found at the expense, as it seems to the writer, of some branches that would be of more importance to certain classes of students. The study of chemistry, for instance, is undoubtedly of use, if not indispensible, to the student who intends to become a physician or farmer, if subsequently followed up; but to the student who intends to study law or for the ministry, of what practical benefit is the little knowledge acquired in a college course in this branch. It is safe to say that three-fifths of the students, by the time they graduate, have forgotten the little they have learned in such branches.
A little well learned is infinitely better than a great deal half learned.
As a mere matter of discipline of the mind,there are many studies much more servicable than these, especially when studied at the expense of other studies much more useful to the general student.
Let, then, those study these branches who desire, but do not compel all, whether they wish to do so or not.
To those conversant with students' life here, and their studies, the tendency to cram is striking. There is no student, unless of very extraordinry ability, who can do justice to more than three solid studies such as mathematics and the languages. There have been here, however, instances of students taking two distinct courses at the same time, and frequent instances of students taking four and even more solid studies at the same time.
It has always been the tendency of Western institutions to 'cram' their students, and that is the great reason why the best Eastern colleges make more thorough scholars than the Western.
One thing well learned is worth a hundred things half learned, and this should constantly be instilled into the minds of the student.
Impress upon them constantly that to graduate is not the sole object of a college course; but to graduate, that that which has been studied has been well learned, and that those subjects have been studied which will conduce most to assist them in their pursuits in after life.
QUERY- Does the Oratorical Association claim that the three from each literary society provided for in its constitution, are representatives, respectively, of each society?