Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 75.djvu/400

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THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY

In other words, the more Latin and the less German a student has the more likely he is to need financial assistance.

6. It has been claimed that there are not enough students in the high schools studying German, who are not studying Latin, to distinctly increase the number of possible college students.

The Lake Forest records show that the amount of Latin per student is not increasing, but that the amount of German is steadily increasing.

Students Entering
Lake Forest
Total Number Average Latin
per Student
Average German
per Student
1903-4 53 2.93 1.01
1904-5 42 2.69 1..15
1905-6 57 3.21 1.33
1906-7 59 2.97 1.19
1907-8 58 2.65 1.47

The United States Commissioner of Education's Reports show that the proportion of students taking Latin is not increasing while the proportion taking German is increasing faster than that taking any other subject.

Letters of inquiry to the high schools in the larger towns of Illinois and the adjoining states show that with them the proportion studying German rather than Latin is even larger than is given in the United States Commissioner of Education's Report for those states, the small high schools being included in the Report as well as the larger ones.

Letters from other colleges where the languages are placed on an equal footing for entrance show that a considerable proportion of their students, particularly men, enter without Latin. (The colleges where the languages are placed on an equal footing are nearly all in the north central states.)

President Hughes, of Bipon College:

We have eighty freshmen. Thirty-six offered Latin for entrance requirements. Forty-four did not offer Latin.

President Plantz, of Lawrence University:

This year we have 173 freshmen, of whom 63 presented Latin as an entrance credit. I think the number presenting Latin is steadily decreasing.

Registrar Densmore, of Beloit College:

Of the class entering in September, seventy-eight had Latin credits and sixteen were without Latin credits; of the latter the large majority were men. In general, a large proportion of the men enter without Latin. I do not think that we feel that the policy of taking in these men has lowered the standard of the institution.

Registrar Hiestand, of the University of Wisconsin:

I think I may safely place the number of students with part or full Latin preparation, entering the College of Letters and Science, as between 60 and 70 per cent.