The daily Gate City. [volume] (Keokuk, Iowa) 1855-1916, 1866-10-30
For the Gate eify.]
EDUCATION.
NUMBER J..

Education does not consist in learning .
given amount of facts. but IS rather GER
tain development of mind which maj en-
able us to dispense with learning great
many things. The tyro must con his optics
sentence BY sentence, and fix in MS memory
each proposition. and each demonstration
while the man who is otherwise educated can,
in most cases, very readily conclude how !,
ought to be, and so knows his optics without
learning. To be educated is not so much TO
knor as to know hotr TO know, 70 have ability
to know on short notice. Some one has re.
marked, in substance, that an educated man,
With week s preparation, can tell US more
about a subject of which hewas almost ignor
ant. than an uneducated man can ever tell us
though he may have known the subject prac>
tically for years.
| Webster was specifically a politician, in
the undeeraded sense Of the term, yet farm
ers, mechanics, commercial men, and men Of
science meekly received instruction, in their
various departments, from the generous
store house Of his thoroughly disciplined
mind The greatest instructor of modern
times has we'll said, expert men can exc,
cute, and perhaps Judge ofparticulsrs, one by
one but the general counseln, and the plots
and marsLaliing OF affairs, come best from
those that are learned
The true idea of education is not so much
stocking of the memory with facts, and
theories and conclusions as it is strength
ening and sharpening of the intellect NAich
will enable US TO absove memory from her
function, in SO far as it relates TO opinions
and deductions. That mind is better educated
which can, a priori, reach its own conlasions
from causes aud established facts. ilIan the
mind which entirely oyerleaps the process of
reasoning, aud merely remembers the cons
cluson. The one marches steadily and
knowingly on to results, the other stumbles
apon them uuawares, and is startled by their
suddenness. The one knows il is So the
1 other knows il must be 90 the one knows il
has been SO, the other knows it triU be SO
the one knof the past. the other knows the
future. The iruest education Is that which.
aa much as possible, makes us independent
Of the know .ige Of others, aud enables us
~ help curse lees 20 truth, instead Of taking
= at second loud. True education is con-
tented with TIE whereas" and trusts itself
- reach The therefore false education
learns by not, the therefore, and entirely
ignores the whereas. The former rs de-
/ selopment o. mind the latter development
Of, memory. |, requires the years and lsbors
OF maturity to reach the one, while children
can easily attain to the other
No one will dispute, that in trimming the
mind. tina, regimen should be adopted which
will best urge forward the growth of the in
,ellectual faculties. And we should adopt q
system which will be lifelong at last. The
mind may grow while the body is decaying.
Maturity of intellect is something which We,
as immortal beings, hope to be an imposs-
b,lity. The in6rmities Of the physical may
check the devsioment Of the intellectual, but
cannot suppress it. Il is grorth that
We should should stimulate and
train for-a growth that will
not reach PERFECTION in time, whatever may
be the ripe fruits of the great hereafter.
And we need haye no fears OF m over.
growth. Intellectual giants are not so use.
less as physical giants.
! Two systems of education find ad vocates-
the general AMI the specific The advocates
Of the first argue that all persons have need
Of certain amount Of general training,
4 without reference TO the manner in which
they are to spend life. They urge that knowl.
edge should be acquired and priced for its
own sake. and not for the possible practical
good it may bring Us.
The second claim that men should educate
in the direction Of their particular business
or profession, and not waste time in acqsir>
ing that which they will never have occasion
to use, And Sc the one would have us learn
many things, tn other only one thing Those
WHO speak for general education rest in the
mere attainment Of knowledge, and use il
as means only from necessity on the
other band, those who speak for specific ed
ucasion use their knowledge solely - means
TO tue attainment, of some more necessary or
more desirable end They use knowledge,
~ they use horses or oxen, to save themselves
labor, or to assist them in the making Of
money, or for show, or pleasure, or soms
other such purpose.
In another numbdr the merits and delscts
Of thess two syssems viii b somewhat cou>
pared.
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