Wednesday, January 25, 2012

 

Classical Education

A. B. Goldenveizer, Talks with Tolstoi, tr. S.S. Koteliansky and Virginia Woolf (Richmond: Hogarth Press, 1923), rpt. in Translations from the Russian by Virginia Woolf and S.S. Koteliansky (Virginia Woolf Society of Great Britain, 2006), p. 196 (May 11, 1899):
The conversation turned upon ancient languages and classical education. L.N. said:

'When I studied and read a great deal of Greek, I could easily understand almost any Greek book. I used to be at the examinations in the Lyceum, and saw that nearly always the pupil only understood what he had learnt beforehand. He did not understand new passages. And indeed, at school for every fifty words that were learnt at least sixty-five rules were taught. In such a way one can't learn anything.'
Hat tip: Ian Jackson.

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