W.H.D. Rouse

William Henry Denham (W. H. D.) Rouse (1863 - 1950) was a pioneering British teacher who advocated the use of the Direct Method of teaching Latin and Greek. Rouse was born in Calcutta, India on 30 May 1863. When his family returned home on leave to Britain, Rouse was sent to Regent's Park College in London, where he studied as a lay student. In 1881 he gained a scholarship to Christ's College, Cambridge. Rouse gained a double first in the Classical Tripos at the University of Cambridge, where...See more

William Henry Denham (W. H. D.) Rouse (1863 - 1950) was a pioneering British teacher who advocated the use of the Direct Method of teaching Latin and Greek. Rouse was born in Calcutta, India on 30 May 1863. When his family returned home on leave to Britain, Rouse was sent to Regent's Park College in London, where he studied as a lay student. In 1881 he gained a scholarship to Christ's College, Cambridge. Rouse gained a double first in the Classical Tripos at the University of Cambridge, where he also studied Sanskrit. He became a Fellow of Christ's College, Cambridge in 1888. After brief spells at Bedford School (1886-1888) and Cheltenham College (1890-1895), he became a schoolmaster at Rugby School, where he encouraged Arthur Ransome - against his parents' wishes - to become a writer. Ransome later wrote, "My greatest piece of good fortune in coming to Rugby was that I passed so low into the school ... that I came at once into the hands of a most remarkable man whom I might otherwise never have met. This was Dr W.H.D. Rouse." Rouse was appointed headmaster of The Perse School, Cambridge, in 1902. While in charge, he restored it to a sound financial footing following a crisis. As a teacher he believed firmly in learning by doing as well as seeing and hearing: although the curriculum at the Perse was dominated by classics, he urged that science should be learned through experiment and observation. He was a strong personality, described by the archivist of The Perse School as the school's greatest Headmaster: "Rouse was strongly independent to the point of eccentricity. He hated most machines, all bureaucracy and public exams." He retired from teaching in 1928. See less