But education for a livelihood is not the highest purpose of education. What education can do, and perhaps all it can do, is to produce a trained mind. George E. Stoddard says that the aim of education is to develop a structure of thought and to improve human relations. A university is not a dictionary, a dispensary, nor is it a department store. It is more than a storehouse of knowledge and more than a community of scholars.
University life is essentially an exercise in thinking, preparing and living.
Today, however, the customs and demands of society are such that the responsibility of training the child to live well is largely and in too many instances shifted from the parent to the teacher. In the ideal state, the teacher would be but the parent's ally, training the mind and encouraging worthy habits and fostering noble traits of character inculcated by wise parental training and example. But in reality, the teacher, instead of being merely an ally, must become the foster-parent in training the child in the art of living. If that were all, his responsibility would be great enough. But it is not all.