Sturm believed that the mother should have charge of the child for the first six years of its life. In his ten years' course he required ten years of Latin, six of Greek, besides rhetoric, logic, religion, and music. He introduced the practice of translating Latin into German and then translating it back into Latin.[60] His course took no account of German, history, mathematics, or science. He thus sought to reinstate Greece and Rome, but entirely neglected those things which prepare for life. Williams says, "With regard to Sturm's plan of organization, it should be borne in mind that it is the very earliest scheme that we have, looking to an _extended_, _systematic_, _well-articulated_ course of studies for a school of several teachers, in which is assigned to each class such portion of the subject-matter of the course of instruction as is suited to the age and stage of advancement of its pupils."[61] This course of study attracted the attention of all Europe. Karl Schmidt says that in 1578 "his school numbered several thousand students, among whom were two hundred of noble birth, twenty-four counts and barons, and three princes--from Portugal, Poland, Denmark, England, etc." Paulsen, while not belittling the work of Sturm, thinks that the celebrated course has but little in it different from the courses of the Wittenberg reformers. He says, "If Melanchthon had had the planning of a school course for a large city, it would have been much the same (as Sturm's). The Saxon school plan of 1528 was effective only in small cities and country places. The basis of both (Melanchthon's and Sturm's) is the same,--grammar, rhetoric, dialectics, with music and religion. In the large schools, like those of Nuremberg and Hamburg, a beginning of Greek and mathematics was added."[62] Sturm's course has the merit of definiteness, thoroughness, and unity. There seems to be some doubt as to his success in carrying it out. It is certain that but few students completed his course compared with the number who began it. Instead of sixty to seventy pupils in the last class, there were only nine or ten. The influence of Sturm, however, spread not only over Germany, but also reached to many other countries, and his Strasburg course of study shaped the work in the classical schools for many years. TROTZENDORF (1490-1556)