Bedford inquirer. [volume] (Bedford, Pa.) 1857-1884, 1861-10-25
What Is Education and what has ft
done.

What Is Education and what has Ii
done.
! How many times has this question been ask
ed during the last twenty yesrsa 1t was onct
1 thought to be--s'instructioo, nurture, training
discipline, tntion." Modern educators have
/ been analyzing the word, and tearing it TO pie
ces, until they have come to the same eonclu
sion that to educate is to instruct and train al
/ the faculties Of the mind and the body.
What has ed ucation done for mankindl L
I was wont TO be said by the uuedueated 10 time:
! past, that learning is good for nothing; that il
makes its possessors proud, lazy, &c. But il
is now known, that education has done some
tbiog--and something good, too. But, we
also know, that il has not done all that was
expected from it, aud which ought 10 have
been done BY It. Why! Because education
has been defective, or bas DOT been Of The
right kind. Tue youth have not been trained
''in the way they should go."
Buf, ouf question is not what has eduea-
iion not dane. but. what has if done? VS. are
much healthier Jhsn our ancestors. Is not that
something? We think that it is. And this
has been accomplished by our being better in
strueted in the LAWS Of health. We remem>
Der tue time, when in this eniighfeaed coun-
try, the doctor shut up his patient burning with
fever, in close room during weeks of sum
mer heat without breath oe pure air, or
drop of cool walcr for bis parched tongue
Have We learned nothing in hygiene educa-
tione The IN rtahty from disease has dlmiu,
ished more than twenty per cent, during the
last half century. True, many of our once
hardy race of Young men aud women of tbs
farming districts, by initiating the silly fash
ions Of the. city, have degenerafed from the
health and strength Of their fathers aud moth
ers; but, 9s knowledge increases. these evils
will be cured. Since the laws of he lth FIRST
began to be understood, abou, two centuries
ago, the average duration of human life ia
civilized countries, has increased RON eigb-
teen years 10 foFty FIVE; aud We have 30 doubt
bus tha by stries observance Of the Laws Of
health, mankind might be brought back TO lis
primegal age. Tnere is no doubt. but tha, IS
alan was at first created, "nsked in body and
10 mind" aud the wants of both supplied by
las Own Intelligence and industry, so mans
own toilies and vices brge enfeebled both.
In the increasing of our wealth, too, what
has not been accomplished By edncalion2 TIE
earth yields her fruits il fuurfola abundance,
not by the skill Of the mere Turner, bur by
the aid of science. a Lancaster county far
mer, few years since, remarked, that il cos,
bin four times as much to support bis family,
rs it had cost his father. Zine clothes, fne
furniture, fue eqaipsge, and-"FINE BABNs,''
interrupted his neIghbor.
''Yes, and fne houses" continued the far
mer, apparently not noticing the point of the
remark. "Why," he contiaaeds ..my son
hssn't less than Two hundred dollars worth of
books, and my fathsr's whole library consist.
ed of no; more than half dozen books, and
we scarcely ever saw more than one newspa.
pr"
sand" said the other, 'sdo you approve Of
your fathers course? Or rather, would YOU
think 1t right for you to follow in your fathers
eoursea For, this brings US to another point:
are you net four times as able to support
your family, as your father was? Does not
every acre of this farm yield four times as
much as when it was n the possession of your
fathera"
"You're right" was the response, cit does.''
-" Then" continued tho other, ssyour sons
library Is but just tribute to that science,
which has enabled you for rather necessitated
yon) to build your large and beautiful barn, and
TO ill 1t with the increased produce of your
soil. 10 all of which, the farmer aseented. |
Education, then, bas given US an increase
IF health and wealth. Are these notbinpq-
And they are the indirect results of an intel |
eetual education, although not of the right |
Kind: for, but little direct education in phgs.
cs, morals or religion, has yet been given 10
he schools.
we say, that moral and religious eduea. /
non has not been given in tie schools: aad 7
-el'gion is but seldom heard of by our youth.
exeep IN sectarian pulpts. LAUNDERING forth
t. enathemas upon all whose relg gious faith il /
ilssnilar 10 its own. Hence, morals and res
igon 1--WE mean The ''pure and undenied re-
1gtoH, spoken of between eighteen and nine
een centuries agol have not kept pace with in
ellectnal education. And physical education.
iEtls the last notwithstanding all this, religion
md morals we believe TO be on the increase.--
he result, as we believe Of our intellectual |
'nlture, inferior as 1t is acknowledged to be;
lthough not proportionally with it. Taen,
ct us discard The heresy, that some have dared
o MAINTAIN, that an intellectual education
'iane, is worse than noDe An intellectual
uiIVatlon, not Connected with moral and re-
;glous culture, bad as it is, is atil better than
J want Of morals and religion connected with
leathenlsh ignorance of every thing elso.--
We will continue this subject another ,ine.-
Lancaster Unlon.
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