The examiner. [volume] (Louisville, Ky.) 1847-1849, 1848-06-24
What fs Educaf5onS-AnsWerea.

swered, as follows, by MIR. David Stow
honorary secretary Of the Free Norma
Seminary, Glasgow, in a small work recent
ly published on the subject OF Naliona
Education:
"What the education is that will best en-
able man to educate himself, ought sure
iy to be the sovereign question. Is it 10,
struction, or is il training9 Is it tn,
amount Of elementary knowledge commu
nlcated, or is it the exercise of mind requi
red by which the pupil may educate himselfI
I'LL lately, the term used to define educa
ton, was INSTRUCTION. Give religious in.
struction, it was, and is still said, and this
will be sufficient. Teach the poor to read
the Bible, and forthwith you will make
them holy, happy and good citizens-good
parents-obedien children--kind and COM
passionate-honorable in their dealings
and crime will diminish. Hundreds Of
thousands have received such an education.
Are such the results! We trow not. Have
we hit upon the right kind of education, or
The proper mode of communication Will
all the instruction it is possible to give pro-
duce the results which are so fondly antici-
Pated? Will all the telling, or teaching,
or instruction in the world, enable person
to make a shoe, construct machine, ride,
write or paint, without training-that is,
without doing Will the knowledge Of re.
igious truth make good man without the
practice of it? The boy may repeat most
correctly, and even understand in general
way, the precepts, "Avenge not yourselves,
but rather give place unto wrath, "Render
not evil for evil. "Be courteous" but see
him at play among his companions. neither
better, nor perhaps worse, than himself, I'M
superintendent, and his conduct unreviewed
by, parent or schoolmaster, and what do
these ScEiptural inlunctions avail him when
engaged in quarrel! Reason. is dormant,
passion reigns Tor the time, and the repeated
exercise of such proPensities strengthens the
disposition, and eventually forms evil habits
The father cannot be with his child to train
him, whatever his business may be, during
the day, and healthy boy will not be tied
to the apron-strings Of his mother-out he
will go, and out he gets TO the streets, to be
with such companions as he can pick up.
"ln education. as hitherto conducted in
school, even under the most highly -intellec-
tual system, we have had instruction, and
not training. Schools are not SO construct
ed as to enable the child to be superintend-
ed--the master has not the opportunity oil
training, except under the unnatural re.
straint of a covered school room, and it is
imagined, or at least stated, that children
are morally trained without their being
placed in circumstances where their moral
dispositions and habits may be developed
and cultivated; as il it were possible to
train bird to fly in a cage, or race-horse
to run in a stable.
"Man is not all head-all feeling-or
all animal energy. He is compound be-
ing, and must be trained as such; and the
varied powers Of mind and OF body, al
though distinct, so act and react upon each
other, that ii is difficult to say where the in.
fluence Of the one begins and that Of the
other ends. The intellectual, to a certain
extent, influences the physical, and uic,
uersd, while the moral influences both, anC
is influenced by both in return. The mos
influential and successful mode of cultiva
ting the child is. therefore, when his whole
powers are daily and simultaneously exer
cised; and no injury can arise to his variet
powers Of body and mind, provided they b
fed, and not stuffed-trained and not merel,
instructed.
chow do We purpose morally, physical
| ly, and Intellectually, TO elevate the mas
OF our population. among whom there
not, on the part Of parents, either the OF
poriunity or the intelligence to accomplis
this object! If done at all. it must be a
most exclusively performed by the schoo
trainer. Ii is not noto done by the schoo
master, aud cannot be accomplished By th
parent. Therefore our youth are CROWN
up unframed in moral, and even an il
tellectual point Of view, although it is al
nounced that ''the schoolmaster is abroad.
In reality, we have much said, and littl
/ done. The truth is forced upon our after
,ion, that teaching is not training.
"The Sabbath school was. and still il
too weak and powerless to contend with Ii
, sympathy of numbers. there being eve
when best conducted. only the teaching ,
: one day set against the training of an o.
posite tendency during the other six days
} the week. In the Sabbath school there WI
I the teaching of the master. ,rithotst syHp'
!, thy set against the sympathy and training
e the street, and frequently even Of the fam
: ly. Need we wonder, then, that the OF
+ days teaching or instruction was (and sti
n continues to be) OVERCOME and counteractt
y by the six days raining"
III In other words, the conviction at whit
n MIR. Stow appears to have arrived is this
l. that no mere teaching, no learning of le
/ sons or catechisms, no more putting on 4
!: memory large variety Of psalms or 9th
IS exercises, is education. Besides technic
,, instruction, training is indispensable
u Good habits require to be enforced and co
y firmed by practical acts, by doing tn
D. which is right. as well as merely KNOWN
D, what is to be done. For saying as muc
educationists have for many years suffer
IS abuse. II is gratifying to find person
s Mr.. Slows position vindicsting 50 sound
Of principle in educaion.-C Chambers Jo'
t. nal.
en- f - Me- 11vc1ei@1