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Show A JESUIT SCHOLAR. Th Rev. T. Broanahan, S. J., of Chicago, Chi-cago, has come into- very dosorved prominence because of some articles on education that have recently come from his pen. Father Brosnahan has called attention to the weakness of the I system in vogue at Harvard college, which is preaching the saint that ex- f ists elsewhere in all non-Catholic insti- tutions. Commenting on Father Bros- . nahan's' latest article, the Chicago Times-Herald remarks: ltev. Timothy Brosnahan of this citv is incensed against President Eliot and his sahool at Cambridge. Speaking of the methods which are pursued in Harvard, he says: "There are no recitations, reci-tations, but conferences, and it may be said that a conference is held when J a -student, if he feels like it, goes to his professor and has a talk upon his studies." Then the critic asks: "Has Harvard any logical ground fur demanding de-manding that elective courses lie choin by the students instead of the faculty?" And he indicates his own opinion by declaring that the requisite pr.M,f is not forthcoming and adding: "There is no principle, no unitv of purpose pur-pose in what are called the large, locw, vague and plausible fallacies of Plies id en t Idiot's elective sysem." Considering that the trend at Har vard is the trend in most institutions i of learning, the subject of "confer ences" as substitutes- for recitations and of optionals as substitutes for prescribed studios may be discussed in a more general way, but rather for the strengthtning than the weakening of l ather Brosnahan's position. Jt takes u once again to the question of dici-Mine dici-Mine and we may sal of recitations as we have of prescribed studies, that th. y have a genuine disciplinary value whi'e the conferences have none . " hough the outcry against marks and : K, ? hau- co thoroughly popu lated by this time, it is not, we think. altogether rational. The idea advanced is that study should be for learning's saks, not for the mark, and that the parroUike repetition of the ttxt-book which the marking system encourages is narrowing in its - tendency. But whatever the truth of the criticism, it fihould not blind us to the dangers of the broad-gauge plan which are too oftenauverloooked in the reaction. Without With-out an examination and a record each day the sense of duty and responsibil-itv responsibil-itv is decreased, and when even attendance at-tendance at the conferences is not required re-quired every semblance of immediate discipline disappears. This is a long transition from the whining schoolboy creeping unwillingly unwilling-ly to school, and we are not so sure that the whining and the unwillingness unwilling-ness were bad signs. They told of Hitmething to be done which should give the boy a preparation for the labors of his later lift when there could be no esrape from work by dodging marks and conferences. j |