Western Reserve chronicle. [volume] (Warren, Ohio) 1855-1921, 1868-09-30
The CHRONICLE.
From the st. Louis Journal of Education.
Results Of Education.
RY A. z.

We can here do little more than
briefly name some of the general re-
suits of a thoroughly celebrating dis
cipline. If, however, the aims of
education were more thoroughly
studied, and more clearly cOmpre-
hended by our educators, we should
soon witness the evolution of a more
wise and systematic course and plan
of instruction. 1t is generally claimed
that our present system embraces the
training of the physical powers, the
disciplining of the intellectual facul-
ties, and the culture of the moral
affections and emotions; that is, the
full and harmonious development of
the entire man. We may live to wit
ness the day when the masses will eX-
perience this high destination of our
schools, but we are confident that at
present they are very far from its
realization. The number of men, at
present, who possess well-trained and
evenly-balanced minds is compare
lively small. Men of intelligence and
men of cultivation there are, but who
will pretend to deny that almost the
entire American people are living be
meath their possibilities in nearly all
that pertains to perfect manhood and
mind.
"The intellect" says Aristotle, sis
perfected not by knowledge, but by
activity" That is, the child is to use
the senses and reason. With this
principle, united with that other, that
in the education of a child we begin
with the concrete, we proceed with
the training of his p~erceptive faculty.
If we carry out these principles in the
instruction of any child, he will GER
tainly succeed in acquiring ready per-
ceptiOn and quick apprehension and
so all the other faculties may be as
certainly developed, since the mind,
like vegetation, if properly directed
and cared for, enjoys a rapid and
healthy growth. How many there
are who are slow to understand; whose
''wit comes too late 2" This want was
a detraction from the powers of the
lamented Lincoln. He was a slow,
but sure, thinker; but had he received
instruction when young in a primary
school like ours in st. Louis, thus
gaining a quick and clear apprehen-
sion, might he not have been one of
the most rapid thinkers? Education,
so far as the intellect is concerned,
comprehends the formation of the
mind that is, the elevation and eX-
pansiOn of the ideas, and the training
of its various faculties to the perform
ance of their appropriate functions.
Thus, education enables its posses
sOr to fix his thoughts with all the in
tensity of which the soul is capable
upon any subject, and at any time
which is a power that will enable him
to surmOunt every obstacle, and tri-
umph over all opposition. This power
of close and systematic thought, of
untiring and complete investigation,
enables man to arrange, combine, and
apply the facts and principles of the
known universe. 1t prepares the
mind to master the principles of
science, to grapple and analyZe the
abstruse propositions of mathematics,
to thread the labarynthian maZes of
metaphysics, to Unravel the sOphis-
tries of false logic, and, in fine, to
grasp the mightiest thoughts, and
range the widest fields of truth. \
thorough and liberal education gives
clearness and rapidity of apprehen-
sion, shrewdness of comprehension,
accuracy of Judgment, tenacity of
lllGlllOlN anu tlAlAAAGAN dDAAANl
as a less valuable result, it stores the
memory with useful information,
giving the mind a large fund of accu-
rate and assimilated knowledge, and
an acquaintance with a great variety
of subjects.
Education, in a moral point of view,
establishes the principles, regulates
the heart, enlarges the sympathies,
cOrrects the prejudiees, and makes US
cosmopolitan and hOspitable in mind,
while it gives us those higher qualities
of the human soul, sincerity and vigOr
of purpose. "A good education makes
a good man." Parton's Coming
| Man." will neither use tobacco nor
intoxicating liquors; and we may
add, that neither will he be dwarfish,
selfish, inefficient, but noble, philan-
thropic, and mighty.