The weekly clarion., 1869-06-10
For the Clarion.
On the subject Of EdmcafiOn.

Editor Clarion: take the following par
agraph from q recent issue of your paper:
GEN. LEE IN New MovEMEST.-The ac-
ton of General Lee, as President of Wash
ington College, Virginia, in taking up the
movement for practical and technical edu-
cation in this country is likely to make as
great an impression upon our old fogy
schools and colleges as he did in military
tactics upon our old fogy commanders in
the palmy days of the rebellion. lie pro-
poses TO place Washington College In the
mont rank of the march OF modern ideas
by adding practical instruction in agricul-
ture. mechanics, engineering and chemistry
TO its present list of studies. IL he succeeds
In doing so the Odd fashioned institutions,
where the arts of words and of ehopping
logic, with a .smattering of the dead Lam
guages only are taught, will soon be left in
the lurch by the new system, The old
schools must admit the new ideas of the age
or go under.-N. Y. Herald.
Now, it occurs to me that this this a very
good misrepresentation of Gen. Lee; not as
TO the fact of his adding practical instruc-
tiono in certain industrial arts but In assu-
ming that he thus puts himself in opposi-
tlon TO the well established course of educa-
tlonal instruction and study required in
every respectable school
The writer of that paragraph could hard
Iy have compressed more ignorance and
error into it No one who knows any thing
about Washington College, and Gen. Lee,
patron of education is to be converted into
mere drill ground for practical instruc-
tion" in certain scientific handicraft. 1t is
quite likely, and quite right, tnat Gen. Lee
as well as other Southern educators, may
wish TO add to the usual 2thetic course,
practical instruction" in the application of
certain scientific knowledges TO the leading
departments of industry; but this does not
array him against ~the old fashioned insti-
tutions." Gen. Lee may be opposed> to
faanbinO ggfha arts 4 nd ~ oh
logic, with smattering of the dead LAM
guages, and yet lay the utmost stress upon
the study of language, dead as well as iiv-
| ing, and of logic-the science Of logic, or
logic of science-in the proper education
Of the man.
1t is false to assume that s'ehopping logic"
is the thing done in tine study of that noble
and refining science; or that ''smattering"
| Is all that is gained in the study of the dead
languages" But there is deeper and a
more baneful fallacy than this implied in the
Herald's sentences. 1t gives such promi-
nence to practical Instruction. in certain
departments of industry, as to be tanta-
mount to asserting that mere acknowledge
OF skill in business, is the end and aim of
education. This seems to be the modern
idea limited at, whose prevalence is to leave
the ''old fashioned institutions in the lurch."
This Is materialiZlng the whole man, and
making his noble powers subsidiary to
money getting as Il prime end.
Now the practical cannot be Ignored,
and it certainly has its claim to a place in
all schools, but it cannot pretend to compass
the ends of education; it can be brought in
as an addendum to afford useful applica-
ton of science, or as a field in which the
faculties. developed by a sound training,
may find advantageous employment. but all
this must be consequent on a thorough in-
tellectual training, in which words. logic
and the dead languages will be found to be
amongst the most valuable instruments.
degrade these by the ''chOpping" and the
'.smattering'' process, but literature, science
and art have reaped too rich a harvest OF
blessings from the "Old fashioned instItu-
tions" to allow them TO be supplanted by the
new ideas Gen. Lee will not eXpel Ian
guage and logic from his school 0y his
:'practicaI and technical education"
w. L. j. SULLIVAN.