Maine Alumnus, Volume 30, Number 6, March 1949

The University of Maine DigitalCommons@UMaine University of Maine Alumni Magazines University of Maine Publications 3-1949 Maine Alumnus, Volume 30, Number 6, March 1949 General Alumni Association, University of Maine Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.library.umaine.edu/alumni_magazines Part of the Higher Education Commons, and the History Commons Recommended Citation General Alumni Association, University of Maine, "Maine Alumnus, Volume 30, Number 6, March 1949" (1949). University of Maine Alumni Magazines. 139. https://digitalcommons.library.umaine.edu/alumni_magazines/139 This publication is brought to you for free and open access by DigitalCommons@UMaine. It has been accepted for inclusion in University of Maine Alumni Magazines by an authorized administrator of DigitalCommons@UMaine. For more information, please contact [email protected]. F in an ces . To meet the expense occasioned by expanded enrollment, rising costs of supplies and equipment, and the necessity for increasing salaries and wages, the Trustees requested the last Legislature to provide in addition to the regular Mill Tax funds a special appropriation of $350,000 for each fiscal year of the 1947-49 biennium. The additional amount appropriated for the support of the University activities at Orono was $175,000 per annum, and it was necessary to increase the tuition of all students by $50 per academic year to provide the additional income needed. The University has maintained a balanced budget during the biennium, but the outlook for the next two years is less hopeful. Costs of maintenance and equipment continue to rise. W e must pay higher salaries in order to retain and recruit a competent staff. The financial outlook is further complicated by the fact that receipts from tuition will go down as the percent age of veterans in the total enrollment decreases since the University now receives the non-resident tuition fee for each student eligible for the educational benefits provided under Public Laws 16 and 346. Excerpt from Biennial Report President Arthur A. Hauck (This is the fifth in a series of statements giving background information on your State University.) Vol. 30 MARCH, 1949 No. 6 Published monthly from October to June inclusive, by the University of Maine General Alumni Association, Business office, The Maine Alumnus, University of Maine, Orono, Maine. Subscription price, $2.00 per year, included in annual alumni dues of $3.00. Member: American Alumni Council! Entered as second-class matter at the Post Office at Orono, Maine, under act of March 3, 1870. 4 The CLASSICSi at M AINE by Frederic Peachy (The following is a talk given in January them in terms that the most obscurantist both from the cultural and practical point of this year before the University Semi of critics may easily understand. I shall of view; and mind you, they apply only nar. The author, who joined the faculty summarize them briefly. First, what he in September as Assistant Professor of to the study of the Latin language in sec Classics and French, was educated in calls application objectives: ondary school. They are based moreover England and in France, where he attend not on the intuition of Classics teachers ed Marlborough School and the Univer “ increased ability to understand Latin alone, but upon the investigations and sity of Paris before returning as a gradu words, phrases, abbreviations and quota ate student to Harvard University. He tions occurring in English; increased scientific conclusions of specialists in the holds the degrees of Licence es Lettres ability to understand the exact meaning fields of education and psychology. If I and Diplome d’Etudes Superieures from of English words derived directly or in attempt to add anything to these defini Paris, and of A.M. and Ph.D. from Har directly from Latin, and increased ac vard. He has taught French at Harvard curacy in their use; increased ability to tions, it will be in an effort to restate in and at Brown University. During the read English with understanding; in my own terms some of the broader aims war, he served in the Marine Corps, and creased ability to speak and write correct of education as I see them, and to answer and effective English through training in spent two years overseas with the First a few current objections to general edu Division.) adequate translation, in short improved efficiency in the use of the mother tongue; cation in arts and sciences, and to classi increased ability to spell English words cal studies in particular. HE topic of this discourse is one, of Latin derivation; increased knowledge I think, of more than academic gen of the principles of English grammar and First of all, I cannot but disagree with eral interest, and one on which I shall a consequently increased ability to speak those who insist that general education speak from the local as well as from the and write grammatically correct English; must bring exclusively practical results, increased ability to learn the technical especially in preparing boys and girls to general point of view, assuming that my and semi-technical terms of Latin origin listeners may be curious to know just employed in other school subjects and in earn themselves a living. The primary what is being done at this university in professions and vocations ; increased abili aim of education is to educate, that is to the field of Classics, and what the pos ty, finally, to learn other foreign lan corrupt the youth of today, as Socrates guages.” sible future status of the Classics here did in his time, with a measure of intel may be. First of all, however, I should Secondly, disciplinary objectives: lectual training; not to instruct, for ex like to talk about the Classics, and about ample, a new nation of shopkeepers in “ the development of certain desirable the oldest of the arts and the youngest of education, in general. habits of sustained attention, orderly pro- the sciences, that of making money. No Before a group of educated people cedure, overcoming obstacles, persever ance ; ideals of achievement, accuracy one should expect to get direct material such as this, I am sure that I need hardly and thoroughness; the cultivation of rewards out of education, any more than rise and defend the Classics against ne certain general attitudes, such as dis a group of professionally patriotic vet glect, opprobrium or ignorance. As teach satisfaction with failure or with partial erans should expect to receive automati ers by profession on the other hand, we success; the development of the habit of discovering identical elements in different cally a bonus from their government are often called upon to restate to the situations and experiences, and of making treasury, regardless of present need or public at large, to say nothing of our stu true generalizations; the development of merit of prior service, for doing what dents, exactly what we understand the correct habits of reflective thinking ap every citizen should do for only a small Classics, and their abiding educational plicable to the mastery of other subjects of study and to the solution of analogous temporary remuneration, that is for serv value, to consist of. The Classics may problems in daily life; increased ability, ing his country in time of war. When be said to include, first and foremost, the finally, to make formal logical analyses. the materialists start trying to influence study of the languages and literatures of Thirdly and last, historical and cultural the content of general education, they are ancient Greece and Rome; and secondly, objectives: trying to make us follow false gods, and the political, social, artistic and philo we should tell them politely but firmly sophical history of ancient civilization. the development of an historical perspec to peddle their papers elsewhere. Such special fields of study as epigraphy, tive and of general cultural background palaeography, and archaeology provide through an increased knowledge of facts Let us go back then to the very be relating to the life, history, institutions, ginning and define, ideally, the purpose keys to the primary sources of such his mythology and religion of the Romans; tory. More generally and broadly, a pro an increased appreciation of the influence of the primary school, before going on gram of classical studies will include of their civilization on the course of from there to the secondary school, and Western civilization; a broader under those subjects which have traditionally finally to the university. In primary standing of social and political problems school, the traditional offerings are sum been associated with a classical curricu of today; increased ability to understand lum, within the larger field of arts and and appreciate references and allusions to marized in song: sciences. In any case, the content of such the mythology, traditions and history of Reading, and writing and ’rithmetic, the Greeks and Romans; the development a discipline, even as more narrowly de of right attitudes toward social situa Taught to the tune of a hickory stick. fined, is far from negligible. tions ; development of an appreciation of In dealing with mutinous and mischie • The permanent value of such studies the literary qualities of Latin authors vous spirits aged six to twelve, the rod read, and development of a capacity for must not be spared, else the child is has been formulated often enough, not such appreciation in the literature of only by Classics teachers, but by edu other languages; a greater appreciation spoiled. But this self-evident and archaic cators and educated men in other fields. of the elements of literary technique em truth is only a part of the picture. The ployed in prose and verse; a better ac They are basic studies in a liberal educa three Rs are of course far more impor quaintance through the study of their tant.

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