The native American., 1838-07-14
WHAT IS A USEFUL EDUCATION

II WHAT Is USEFUL EDUbA IlO4f
We put the question in reference to the grea
body Of American youth, who are TO earn theii
bread by the sweat of their brow, and, under
Providence, to WELD the future desiinies of our
country. Two principles should govern: Teach
them TO provide for themselves honorably, under
any ordinary contingency,---an qualify them to
become useful to society. The times, as well as
universal experience, abundantly admonish ms,
that however the children of wealth may indulge
IN Incidence and diss pation--while their means
last,--the great mass of American youth must,
and ought, to depend upon their labor for their
fortunes and their usefulness. Fortune is at best
precarious; patrimonial dependence is uncertain,
and reliance upon the friendship or charity OF
the world or upon office, is frail and of en- de-
basing. SelEdcpendence is the only sure stay.
We are the most Willing to help those who help
themselves. Productive labor is the legitimate
source of all our wealth, individual and national;
and this labor is profitable to the individual and
to the nation, in proportion to the measure of
scientific knowledge which guide and direct its
operations. Hence it is of primary Importance,
that our youth should be efficiently taught to
labor, ana that their minds should be early i'm
bned with that kind of knowledge which will in.
struct them in the principles of their business,
render it honorable, and make them independent
in conduct and in fortune.
We have, TO be sure, colleges and academies
in abundance, more than can be well supported,
or that can be made economical aud useful. But
these are in measure consecraed to the learned
Iprolessons-to the privileged few--lor they are
privileged, inasmuch as they the exclusive re-
cipients Of public bounty in the higher branches
of learning. Productive labor derives little or no
advantage from their teachings. Few of the
he VIII, tha,r b.llc caalr for %
livelihood in the laborng arts. They learn to
look upon labor as serve and demeaning, and
to seek their level in what they consider the
| higher classes Of society. They do not go to
these schools to learn to work, or to learn to live
| by work, in the common meaning of these terms -
but to learn 10 live without work-above work.
| They are virtually Withdrawn from the producing
classes. These young aspirants flock to the
learned professions, and the genteel empoyments,
as the avenues to honor and to office; and not
wthstanding that labor is taxed heavily in one
way another, to supply their real or imaginary
wants: yet the gentcel professions have become
| SO overstocked, and the threshold of power SO
thronged with supplicans, that hundreds and
! thousands are thrown back, as parasites, upon
society, exhibiting the melancholy spectacle of
men born TO be useful, but unable, or unwilling,
from the bias of wrong education, to become SO.
Ilad tneSe men Deen taugnI 70 look upon ldDOT,
as it truly is necessary, healthful, independent
and honorable employment, and been Instructed
in its principle and its practice while young, they
would have cherished its interests, respected its
virtues, and checrlully shared its tolls and its
pleasures. We seek not, by these remarks, to
pull down that which is, but to build up that
which is not 1t is not that we love part less,
but the whole more We should raise the stand
ard of labor, without depressing that Of literature.
| We have common schools too, muni6cently
endowed, where all may acquire the rudments OF
knowledge, but the rudiments only. They teach
nothing Of the sciences which are necessary tc
the successful prosecution of the arts-and give
no instruction in the best models of practice
They neither learn the boy how to provide fol
himself nor fit him for extensive usefulness.
They lay the foundation, but they do little to
build up and beautify the temple. i