Page:Jesuit Education.djvu/311

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ADAPTABILITY OF THE RATIO STUDIORUM.
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one hour weekly from the third class on, therefore an increase of seven hours Latin weekly in the whole gymnasium. The new "School Order" of 1901 demanded most emphatically a thorough grammatical training. Books for translating from German into Latin, which in 1892 had been done away with almost entirely, were again introduced into all the classes.[1] By these regulations, the Prussian Ministry, taught by the experience of nine years, and convinced by the arguments of the foremost schoolmen of the Kingdom, acknowledged that the "reform" of 1892, in several important points had been a mistake, a deterioration. It was thus proved that some of the much decried old methods were, after all, the best and safest.

Within the last decade a novel experiment has been made in Germany, that of the "Pioneer Schools" or "Reform Gymnasia." These schools are to be the common foundation of all higher schools: Gymnasium (classical), Real-Gymnasium (Latin scientific), Real-Schule (scientific). During the first three years one modern language is taught, French in the schools of the Frankfort-type, English in those of the Altona-type. In the fourth year the schools separate. Latin is begun in the Gymnasium and Real-Gymnasium, English in the Real-Schule. In the sixth year the Gymnasium introduces Greek, the Real-Gymnasium English.[2] Whilst a great number of educators vigorously oppose this system – some say "the experiment should never have been allowed" – the most advanced "reformers of the universe" expect great things of it; to them it

  1. Lehrpläne und Lehraufgaben für die höhern Schulen in Preussen, 1901. pp. 28-30. – Messer, l. c., p. 157.
  2. See Russell, German Higher Schools, ch. XX. – Viereck, in Educational Review, Sept. 1900.