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Untitled Article
intendance is exercised , except inf the lowest classes , those of the languages , which very few Englishmen think of entering ; such is the miserable state of classical learning there . The Professor receives his fees at the
commencement of the session , authorizes the student to attend his lectures , but never considers it as liis duty to observe whether lie really does attend , or call him to account if he plays truant .
Now there may be something very attractive to a juvenile fancy , in the prospect of this emancipation from constraint ; but should it . not be exactly in the same degree alarming to a prudent parent ? To what hazard does he put both the morals and intellectual improvement of his child ,
by sending him at the age perhaps of sixteen , just emerging from the watchful discipline of a school , to a land of strangers , to associate with the promiscuous crowd , which such a place of education collects , far from the sight of all whose authority might have influence over him ! What will
it avail that different branches of science are taught by men of the first eminence , if it is left to the option of a youth , in whom the habit of application cannot be very strong , supposing it to exist at all , to determine how often he will attend their
lectures ? I impute no blame to the eminent men who teach in that University ; for , I am not sure that upon the whole things are not best as they are : but I am sure that any parent who sends a son thither , unless his
habits of application and self-government are most decidedly fixed , exposes him to a very awful risk . At the University of Glasgow , more care is taken to secure the regular attendance of the students at the hours of lecture , though they are equally masters of the rest of their time . The
system of examinations , though much less efficacious than it might be made , awakens diligence and emulation . But the excessive numbers which crowd the class-rooms of that University , make it almost impossible that the
proficiency of a student should be such as it might be , where more attention can be paid to each individual . # * ji ^ classes of G reek and Lati n she w tfae , evil of excessive numbers most ^ triikingly , both because the overflowing is the greatest in them , ( a
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Scotch College being hot only a Cm lege , but a grammar scK < il ) Z because it is far more diffic ult t teach a language accuratel y to mil a multitude , than to lecture with I f fett on chemistry or mortf philosophy The defect is not in the teachers but in the system . The professor Of
Greek stands deservedly high in re putation , not only as a scholar , but as- a disciplinarian and a lecturer— -bu t he cannot , any more than the Frehch Marshal who was sent to defend Lyons , achieve impossibilities . 1 leave it , to any of your readers to calculate
how often each individual can be ex amined in a class of 150 , meeting for examination once a day y and to all who have attempted to teach a language to say , what effect they could expect to produce under such a system . Some may be disposed to argu < - with Dr . Palev in a similar case , " that
we must sow many seeds , to raise one flower ; ' * that we must take the chance of instruction being improved by those to whom it is addressedj and that more than this is impossible , where many are to be taught at once .
This may be satisfactory to one who reasons on the matter , without any personal interest ; but I should think no parent would very calmly contemplate the probability that bfo own son might be represented by one of the seeds , which , by this broadcast
sowing , are lost , or choaked , or at best get no depth of earth , when a little care in the placing and the corerring would have secured its vigorous growth and abundant productiveness . Is it presuming then too much to
hope that those parents among us , who are tempted by the name of a University to send their children to finish their education at either of the places to which I have alluded , wi consider with themselves , trhetftcr stu
they have that decided turn for «« - dy , which can dispense with all ¦ perintendance of the employiw" » « their time , and such a strength « ffood principle as will be in no «»• | er from the removal of old ntf ««» and the occurrence of untried temj tations- If not , perhaps they - think that they shall consult t » ar tellectual and moral improve ^ ter by placing them in « ? gV such as the ii » t # » tioB at Y °£ »^ . sent * where utfder the wnmedw serration of Hifiir teacher * «**
Untitled Article
288 Necessity of a Dissenting Education for Lay Dissenters .
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), May 2, 1815, page 288, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1760/page/24/
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