The Intellectual Development of the Canadian People: An Historical ReviewBourinot, John George
History
The Intellectual Development of the Canadian People: An Historical Review
Bourinot, John George
Canada -- Intellectual life; Canadian literature -- History and criticism
offering opportunities to large and constantly increasing classes of men
for pursuing professional studies--a want which is deeply felt, and
which sends every year many students and millions of dollars out of the
country. Where in the United States can a young man prepare himself
thoroughly to become a teacher of the ancient classics. A simple college
course is not enough. The Germans require that their teachers of Latin
and Greek should pursue the classics as a specialty for three years at a
University after having completed the gymnasium which, as a classical
school, would be universally admitted to rank with our colleges.... If
an American (or a Canadian) wishes to pursue a special course in
history, politics and political economy, mathematics, philosophy, or in
any one of many other studies lying outside of the three professions,
law, medicine, and theology, he must go to Europe. Again, whoever
desires even in theology, law and medicine to select from one branch as
a specialty, must go to Europe to do so.' Hon. Mr. Blake, in his last
address as Chancellor of Toronto University, also dwelt very forcibly on
the necessity of _post graduate_ courses of study in special
subjects.--_Canada Educational Monthly_, Oct. 1880.] John-Hopkins
University in Baltimore, Michigan University, and Cornell University,
are illustrations of the desire to enlarge the sphere of the education
of the people. If we had the German system in this country, men could
study classics or mathematics, or science, or literature, or law, or
medicine, in a national University with a sole view to their future
avocations in life. It is true, in the case of law and medicine Laval,
Toronto, McGill and other Universities in the provinces have organized
professional courses; and there is no doubt a desire on the part of the
educational authorities in these institutions to ensure proficiency so
far as the comparatively limited means at their command permit them. It
is certainly a noteworthy fact--lately pointed out by Mr. Blake--that
during the last five years only one fourth of the entrants into Osgoode
Hall were graduates of any University, and three-fourths were men who
had taken no degree, and yet there is no profession which demands a
higher mental training than the Bar. In medical education there is
certainly less laxity than in the United States; all the efforts of
medical men being laudably directed to lengthen the course and develop
the professional knowledge of the students. Still, not a few of our
young men show their appreciation of the need of even a wider knowledge
and experience than is afforded in the necessarily limited field of
Canadian study, by spending some time in the great schools and hospitals
of Europe. Of course, in a new country, where there is a general desire
to get to the practical work of life with as little delay as possible,
the tendency to be carefully guarded against is the giving too large
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