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Show UNCl SUM fEPATF NCLE SAM has vMI&fcr Eonn lnt0 a new Sr'Wtir bU!iines- Not sat-J sat-J I B 1 lslied wiln coining fl G H I n ione, raising I chickens, acting as xvJaL'i messenger boy, do-V do-V ing a real estate 7 business and at tending to a thousand thou-sand and one other jobs which he has selected for himself, he has decided to become a professor of literature in the University of the Common People. To this end he has just Instituted one of the most novel schemes ever Inaugurated Inaugu-rated a course in literature for the benefit of all the people of the United States and its insular possessions. The bureau of education is at the head of this university of literature, lit-erature, a university where the sole cost of tuition is to evince interest in the lessons, a university univer-sity which confers certificates of merit in lieu of degrees and guarantees guar-antees that all students will receive re-ceive benefits in direct ratio to their application. Dr. P. p. Claxton, commissioner commission-er of education, is the man who is at the head of the literature movement, and from all indications indica-tions the course will be an exceptionally excep-tionally popular one. "We are receiving scores of applications ap-plications every day from persons who desire to share in the benefits bene-fits of our reading courses." Doctor Doc-tor Claxton told me when I Inquired In-quired as to the response which the movement was meeting with. "If the applications continue to come in at their present rate and there is hardly a day that does not. show an increase over tue oay Detore wo shall be hard put to handle all the correspondence attached at-tached to the courses, and congress will have to make additional appropriations appro-priations for the betterment of the literary lit-erary taste of the people. "It was in order to brhrg about this betterment in the state of the reading public," continued Doctor Claxton, "that the bureau of education decided decid-ed to iustitute this series of courses in literature. At present we have ten divisions of the main course mapped out. These are: "The great literary Bibles. "Masterpieces of the world's literature. litera-ture. "A reading course for parents. "Miscellaneous reading for boys. "Miscellaneous reading for girls. "Thirty books of great fiction. "Some of the world's heroes. "American literature. "Biography. "History. "Seven of these courses have been completed, and we are engaged In answering an-swering hundreds of queries concerning concern-ing them. -The other three will be finished fin-ished in a short time, and then the government will be in a position to. do a most humane thing to tell persons of every age what they ought to read If they desire to improve their minds. That, of course, is the primary object ob-ject of this literary course, and we firmly believe that if only a fraction of the persons who have already evinced interest in this movement apply themselves them-selves to the work which we have mapped out, the improvement in the literary taste of the country at large will be marked." m discussing the first of these courses Doctor Claxton said: "Among all the books of the world a few are so pre-eminent for content and style that they deserve the right to be called the 'great literary bibles,' the foundation stones upon which rests the entire literature of the world, of whatever language or age. M' wa few N tf I jf-gP ! "There are the 'Iliad' and 'Odyssey' of Homer, the 'Divine Comedy' of Dante, and the great dramas of Shakespeare Shake-speare 'The Merchant of Venice,' 'Macbeth,' Hamlet' and 'Othello' and Goethe's 'Faust.' "These books should be read by all who would know the world's best literature lit-erature and life. The bureau of education educa-tion therefore has chosen them for its first course in reading, and we have been very pleasantly surprised to not that the majority of persons who have evinced interest in this movement have inquired particularly about the 'bibles' and their supplements, the 'literary 'lit-erary masterpieces.' We have been of the opinion that the majority of people would find these selections a little heavy for their , reading and would prefer the works listed under the fiction heading. But nearly every inquiry .which has reached us from adults has specified tha the writer desired de-sired particularly to familiarize himself him-self with the first two courses. "To everyone who inquires concerning concern-ing the course we send a blank, to be filled out and kept as a record in Washington, and a list of the books of the special courses designated. We advise that the reading begin as soon as possible and that, when possible, the books be taken in the order named. But thf", Is not essential to the obtaining of the certificate of merit given by the government in lieu of the usual college or university diploma or degree when the student completes the entire course and submits sub-mits satisfactory evidence of having read all the books on the first two lists within three years from the time of joining the reading circle. "The second course Is intended as a supplement to the first and includes nine books: Job, Isaiah, Deuteronomy,. Prometheus Bound' of Aeschylus, Virgil's 'Aeneid.' 'The Nibelungenlied,' Cervantes' 'Don Quixote,' a number of plays by Moliere and Milton's 'Paradise 'Para-dise Lost.' "Completion of these two courses will firmly ground the student in what are usually known as the 'classics' and will enable him the better to appreciate appre-ciate the other and lifhter reading to be found in the other lists. "The reading course for parents, which is under the direct supervision of Miss Ellen C. Lombard, secretary of the home educational division, includes in-cludes a number of books dealing with problems of everyday life in the home. The volumes on this list Include In-clude books on practical motherhood, marriage, development of children, care of babies, domestic economy, shelter and clothing, domestic science and a number of pamphlets and bulletins bul-letins issued by the department of agriculture and dealing with the canning can-ning and preserving of fruits and vegetables. "The boys' course includes a few of the more exciting books upon the lists of American literature and world's fiction, and in addition such books as 'Hans Brinkcr,' 'The Jungle Hook,' 'Westward Ho!' biographies of Lincoln, Lee and Franklin, addresses by Lincoln and Washington, Cleveland Moffett's 'Careers of Dangers and Daring' Dar-ing' and Bulfinch's 'Age of Chivalry.' The careful perusal of these books will, we feel, pay large dividends not only upon the moral character of the boy himself but upon the future "vel-fare "vel-fare of the country at large. "The girls' course Includes only one or two of the books recommended for boys, but it parallels the other course in that it advocates the reading of a selected few of the world's masterpieces master-pieces of fiction and the more Juvenile Ju-venile of the American authors' works 'Alice in Wonderland,' 'Little Women,' 'The Mill on the Floss,' 'Evangeline,' Helen Keller's story of her life and the four books dealing with house furnishing, fur-nishing, the preparation of food and the physical side of girlhood and womanhood wom-anhood are among the other books recommended." |
