The Hancock Jeffersonian. [volume] (Findlay, Ohio) 1857-1870, 1869-02-26
EDUCATIONAL.
EDUCATION AS IT SHOULD BE.
BY HORACE GREELEY.

BY HORACE GREELEY.
1 have all my later life been trying
to express my views of Education
yet, up to this hour, / apprehend
that the attempt has not been crown
ed with entire success. Certainly, ]
still find at least one-half of the few
who condescend to remember that /
hare expressed opinions on this sub
ject, mbating and condemning as
mine, notions that ! never counte
nanceG, and sentiments | utterly dis
claim.
Let me make, then, one more ef-
fort, not by any means to exhaust
the theme nor yet to say all would
gladly say upon it, much less all that
should be said, but to place what l
think and feel so clearly before the
public that / may die undisturbed by
the painful consciousness that what l
have most tried to utter is still un-
practically said.
NV ideas may be Of little worth to
others; but, if am to be remember
ed at all in this matter, | wish not to
be remembered as the advocate of
theories / detest, and practices /
would gladly annihilate.
That Education is our highest hu-
man interest, and even more than
this-that life which finds Its cul-
mination in thorough and complete
mental culture has been successful
one, though passed mainly in pris
On or the aims house-that a we'll
disciplined mind with poverty is
preferable to riches with intellectual
sterility or weediness--that the true
end of our terrestrial life Is wealth,
not of body, but of soul, are general
propositions which no one disputes.
Such, however, is the poverty and
uncertainty of language, that two
widely diverse conceptions are in
differently characterized by the term
Education, so that, for want of prop
er definitions, he who premises GER
tain axioms with regard to one of
these conceptions, is answered by
one who has in view the other thus
distinctions are proclaimed and ag-
grsyated, when there is, perhaps, no
real difference, and abundance of
heat generated without utdeducing any
light whatever.
In its narrower, technical sense,
Education means simply instruction !;
or the imbuing of the mind with Ger
tain facts, or rules, or terms, by ped
agogic effort. In this sense, Eau-
cation begins with the alphabet/and
srSs VI = 81, a.4saiiGfes-s re scneL In
this sense, TEbion merely ETo
v;des the mi,ss with certain imple-i
ments of culture, leaving the culture
itself to be otherwise acquired-in
part by the helpof these instruments,
but in good part, also, withouttbem.
In this sense, Education does not
make the man, bat only nrs'sue pr .e
aorta;n tools to be used in the pro.
CERTAIN 0o ~ niD.self or others.
cess, "nes ense, -Bd1cation is but the
an 1ia.ch- -key-or pick-lock to the treasu-
D-ofknowledge.
Hence, when we hear men of sense
objecting that Education is relatively
worthless, or too expensive, we
must understand them as declaring,
not that true Education is this or
that, but that what they disparage Is
not true Education.
True Education begins, not with the
primer, but with our entrance on
this "visible diurnal sphere"-if, in
deed, many of the influences which
powerfully affect it do not take rise
even antecedent to this. And, as it
begins with our mortal life, SO does
it co-exist and end with it; though,
for certain purposes, it may be said
to be concluded when the subject is
fitted for useful, honorable, manly |
Tor womanly) career.
By keeping these two ideas dis
tinct, it will be easy to solve some
of the most difficult and stoutly con-
tested problems-as, for instance,
whether Religion should or should |
not be taught in schools and whether
the State should or should not pro-
vide for moral as well as mental
training thus placing itself in a |
most important parental relation to
every child.
Viewing Education, then, in this
broader and truer sense--as the
forming, training and arming OF the
man for Life and Eternity begin
ming with the mothers cradle songs
and ending with the final prayer by
the bedside of approaching death,
let me inquire: For how much are
parents responsible ? How far are
their best efforts liable to be thwart-
ed by the malign influences of want
and fortune? How much of it
should the State undertake? How
far may we trust to wha. is vaguely
termed Human Nature? How fax
may we hope to over bear malign
circumstances by the force of hap
py constitution, physical and moral ?
What light is shed upon this vast
theme by the observations of sages
and the lesson of History?
1t cannot be denied that many
children inherit vicious constitutions
from their parents-not merely de- 4,
tective or deficient senses and phys
ical frames, tainted and corrupted ,
parental error or vice, but
moral natures also depraved and in
clined to chicanery, theft, debauch-
cry and crime, from the same source.
Let those who would understand and I
respect the fearful truth on this sub I
ect consult the standard writer's on Il
human physiology, especially those {
Of the great phrenologIsts, and the
ess timid writers on Marriage. X
Whether Phrenology is science or Il
lot, its apostles have undoubtedly IL
contributed immensely to mans Ii
of himself, and the infiexi a
,le laws which govern his complex Il
,eing. If it be, indeed, a delusior, s
hen may we say st least that, as q
Alchemy was the pioneer of Chemist Il
v, and Astrology of Astronomy, so
Ias Phrenology in our own day con. s
ributed to the perception and appre. ID