GREEK FOR GIRLS
By EDITH ARCHIBALD In his Presidential address at this year's annual meeting of the Classical Association Sir Richard Livingstone referred to " the remarkable figures in the Girls' High School at St. Albans, where of some two hundred girls in the upper part of the school over sixty are at present learning Greek." In this article the headmistress of St. Albans High School discusses the value of Greek in schools in the light of her own experience.
AT this time when we commemorate the beginning of their heroic struggle, not unworthy of a great past, it is perhaps :specially appropriate to give some account of a plan followed for some time in one school to foster the study of the literature and history of the Greeks, so that, in spite of the sometimes conflicting claims of the many subjects in the present-day curriculum, Greek may have the place which is its due as an essential part of a liberal education. In the majority of girls' schools it may be taken for granted that French is the first language studied. This is generally followed later by another language, which, in a large number of cases, may be Latin. According to the plan to be described, Greek and Latin are placed on an equality. French is studied first, and the second language, added when the Lower Fourth Form is reached, may be either Latin or Greek. Thus the two languages learnt may be French and Latin or French and Greek. During this year the history syllabus consists of Greek and Roman History taken popularly and in outline, thus providing a background for the study of the ancient languages. All learn Greek and Roman History. An opportunity is given later of adding the second ancient language, if desired, by an intensive course. The special subjects characteristic of girls' schools—Music, Art, Housecraft- have their usual place.
What is the main object of the plan? The production of classical scholars? Scholarship is for the few. Would it not be wiser to leave Greek for the Sixth Form? But there are some advantages from its presence at an earlier stage in the curriculum. The plan arose primarily from a profound conviction that the studiuM generale of a school gains by the presence of Greek. If Greek is to have an assured place in the school course, this can be better achieved by inserting it in the Middle School rather than by leaving it to fortuitous possibilities later on. Another factor was the desire to make Greek available for others than those who may later read classics. According to this plan Greek does not oust Latin, nor does Latin drive out Greek. Each supplements the other, and at the same time it is certainly true that Greek has a special appeal for some types of minds impervious to the excellences of Latin. It may not be irrelevant to suggest that if classical propaganda is to be based solely or even mainly on the usefulness of Latin, to the exclusion of Greek, a most valuable asset in classical apologetics may be lost.
Setting aside the exact linguistic training through which either ancient language can strengthen all the language-teaching in a school, Latin and Greek represent characteristic values differing in their precise kind. The contribution of Greek differs from that of Latin as Greek differed from Roman, but of all subjects Greek is perhaps the one which can, to the widest extent, enrich the content of the education given. To say nothing of the more intelligent understanding of scientific terminology, so largely baled on Greek, there is an added interest in scientific study for those who have some first-hand knowledge of those Ionian Greeks, the intellectual adventurers who laid the foundations of philosophy and science.
In response to their own request, it is interesting to note, instruction in Greek has been given from time to time to a Sixth Form group specialising in Science. In the course of five terms it has been found possible to read some carefully chosen passages of prose and verse and to study in rough outline the development of Greek thought. It may be of interest to mention the case of one Grecian who specialised in science, and is now working as a doctor of Medicine in the Far East, who invariably carries with her on her travels her Homer and her Greek New Testament. In another Sixth Form group, including those specialising with a view to University Entrance in classics, English and modern studies, Greek was made the basis of further study in each language represented. All joined in one class for informal explanatory talks by a classical member of the staff on Aristotle's Poetics, extracts from which were read and discussed in con- nexion with the literature of the different languages. Such a course 'does not necessarily involve a knowledge of Greek in everyone, although it is greatly facilitated by an acquaintance with Greek on the part of some members of the class.
It is hardly necessary to do more than indicate the uses of a knowledge of Greek in history-teacl- ing, when, for instance, present-day events can be viewed in the light of the chronicles of empires and tyrannies in the ancient world, nor, with regard to English, need the value be emphasised of a contact, not merely through translation, with some of the literature which has been the inspiration of so much of our own, such as Comus, Lycidas, the poems of Matthew Arnold. To students of the English language there comes the more adequate understanding of such periods as the Renaissance and of the works of such men as Erasmus and Sir John Cheke. It may be suggested that too much is being claimed for the value of a study which must in the present conditions of school curricula be all too limited. But if Greek is taught with intelligence and enthusiasm, it may well become for those who learn it " the golden key to unlock treasures," as Gibbon described it. Could not Greek, like Latin, have its own defined place in school courses in the interests of a wider and more liberal education? Need this golden key continue to be for most a treasure not indeed unknown but out of reach? 011 v iAcAci0ov,2 . . . dAA' oe c ESiwavi briKerdai "Left forgotten . . . No, they did not forget it, but they could not reach it."
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