LETTERS TO THE EDITOR.
SCOTTISH UNIVERSITIES.
[TO THE EDITOR OF THZ " SPRCTATOR.1 SIR,-I read in your issue of a fortnight ago a letter by Professor Ramsay, of Glasgow, which ought not to be left without reply. With much, perhaps most, of the letter I agree, but there are one or two points which call for remark. Unfortunately I now write at a distance from any copy of your paper, and if my memory fails me as to Professor ltamsay's expressions, I hope I shall be excused, provided I hold by the substance of his argument.
The two leading questions touched upon by Mr. Ramsay are those of entrance examinations and open teaching.
Regarding the first, I would advert to two points of great im- portance. 1. I am at a loss to know whether Mr. Ramsay desires things to remain as they are or not. He tells us that in his junior Latin class he subjects his students to an examination on entrance. But this is not to be confounded with an entrance-examination. He does only in this matter what all competent teachers of classics and mathematics do when they start with a fresh class—viz., ascertain for themselves the precise depth of the ignorance with which they have to contend. Such an examination serves the purpose also bf separating those who know something from those who know absolutely nothing. But all alike are retained within the junior class. Ought this to be so? It will be said by those who put themselves in the unfortunate and hopeless position of defending the citadel from within, that even the absolutely igno- rant will obtain more benefit from the University classes of five and a half months than from the teaching of secondary schools in nine and a half. If this be so, then it follows that the teachers of secondary schools are as hopelessly bad as the University teachers are pm-eminently good.
The efficiency of the Scottish Professors n6 one doubts, but it will be difficult to show that even they can do for boys whose minds are almost a blank as regards Latin as much as can be done by secondary schoolmasters in nearly twice the time. It is not so. I have used strong expressions as to the ignorance of the junior Latin classes in Glasgow University (expressions appli- cable probably to all the Scottish Universities, save Aberdeen), and I will continue to do so, until Professor Ramsay tells you what per-centage of those entering the junior class gain 80 per cent. of marks for the examination-paper which he places before them. For what is that examination-paper ? I have not the "Glasgow Calendar" within reach, but I can trust my memory far enough to say that it is of the most elementary kind. The body of it consists of the translation of an easy pas- sage from Cresar's Gallic War,—which, moreover, has been, if I am not mistaken, previously prescribed. I say an easy passage, and the questions on the syntax are also on the easiest portions of the easy passage. Then there are general syntax questions of this nature,—Decline pse, res, and so forth. Then one or two simple sentences follow, consisting of a few words, each to be turned into Latin. Am I not very much within the mark when I say that only those who gain 80 per cent, of marks on such a paper may be said to know any Latin at all, at least in a Uni- versity sense? In such a sense may not those who get fewer marks be said to be absolutely ignorant, if a boy may be said to be "absolutely" ignorant of anything relatively to a standard? There is some difference between a University and a school, even in the modest sense in which the latter term is used in Scot- land, and I venture to say that it is a monstrous thing (I use a strong expression deliberately) that boys, whether they be fifteen or fifty years of age, should be seen in the classical department of a University who fall to gain 80 per cent. on such a paper as is set before them. It is simple ludicrous to find boys there who fail to get 50 per ceni.
2. Your readers ought to know that the' curriculum for a degree in the Scottish Universities extends over four years, but that those who pass an entrance examination may take their degree in three years. To do this they must drop some of the classes. In the classes dropped are, of course, those in which the subjects are taught on which they have been examined. Instead of taking two years of Latin and Greek and mathematics, one year in each of these classes suffices. Yet those who pass this examination are, if I understand Professor Ramsay rightly, in very many cases sent, with the advice of their teachers, into the junior, and not into the senior class, with this consequence, that the lads will take the senior class in the following year. Now on this one observation suffices,—if the examination so passed does not fit lads to enter the senior class at Oahe, there is a serious defect some- where. Either the senior-class 4ork is pitched too high for the examination, or the examination is-too low for the class. The in- tention of the University Commissioners is thus frustrated by bungling somewhere. A remedy at once suggests itself, which I shall not explicitly name, lest it should seem invidious.
3. Professor Ramsay objects, as I understand, to open teach- ing,—that is to say, to the granting by the University Court of the licentia docendi to competent graduates, whose function would be similar to that of privatim docentes in the Universities of Germany. I do not propose to enter into this question here, and to exhibit the arguments for and against, or the limitations under which such licences should be granted in the Scottish Univer- sities. I confine myself to adverting to Professor Ramsay's remarks on this reform. He says that the competition of teachers has been the bane of our secondary schools, and suggests the inference that it would be equally hurtful in the Universities. There is a fallacy here ; there never has been any competition in the secondary schools of Scotland between masters of the same subject and of the same class, or "form," as you say in England. If there had been, it would have been, I do not doubt, hurtful, because they would all have starved. But only for this reason would it have been hurtful. So in the Universities, the starving of the Professors has to be guarded against, but I am much mis- informed, if a return of the income of the Arts Professors in the University of Glasgow, drawn for six months' work, would alarm even their most attached friends as to their being able to survive a little competition.
Far better than these privatim docentes, says Professor Ramsay, would be more teaching power, and more subdivision of the Latin classes. There are already three Latin classes, there should be four, and teachers appointed, all working under the Professor. I presume the Professor would draw the fees, and the Treasury would pay the teachers ! Is this not to constitute a grammar- school within the walls of a university ? And if boys who scarcely see their way through amo have ta spend the first session in studying that profound work, Smith's " Principia Latina," they will have to spend three sessions (which in Scotland does not mean three terms, but three years) in the Latin and Greek classes—three out of the four years of the degree cur- riculum. Would this be tolerated by the professors of the other subjects of the curriculum? I hope not. It would defeat all their efforts to secure a reasonable amount of attainment in logic, metaphysics, moral philosophy, literature, and natural philosophy.
The fact that a Scottish Universities Commission is about to be issued is my excuse for asking so much of your valuable space.—
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