Page:Jesuit Education.djvu/155

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THE RATIO STUDIORUM OF 1599.
135

mathematics and natural sciences. What, then, should be said of Compayré's statements: "The Jesuits leave real and concrete studies in entire neglect. ... The sciences are involved in the same disdain as history. Scientific studies are entirely proscribed in the lower classes."[1] Indeed, in the Old Society, the sciences were not taught in the five lower classes; there the Jesuits concentrated the efforts of the pupils on the languages; but in the three highest classes they applied the students with the same energy to the study of mathematics, sciences and philosophy.

Having thus far analyzed the Ratio Studiorum, we may be allowed to quote the judgment of Mr. Quick on the Ratio Studiorum: "The Jesuit system stands out in the history of education as a remarkable instance of a school system elaborately thought out and worked as a whole. In it the individual schoolmaster withered (sic!), but the system grew, and was, and I may say is, a mighty organism. The single Jesuit teacher might not be the superior of the average teacher in good Protestant schools, but by their unity of action the Jesuits triumphed over their rivals as easily as a regiment of soldiers scatters a mob."[2] This system "points out a perfectly attainable goal, and carefully defines the road by which that goal is to be approached. For each class was prescribed not only the work to be done, but also the end to be kept in view. Thus method reigned throughout – perhaps not the best method, as the object to be attained was assuredly not the highest object (sic!), but the method such as it was, was applied with undeviating exactness. In this par-

  1. History of Pedagogy, p. 144.
  2. Educational Reformers, p. 508.