The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1871-07-02

The subject OF popular education, IN which
every American is or ought to be interested +,
is brought prominently before us about this
time every year. The colleges and seminaries
and educational institutions of our land hold
their annual commencements in June and July,
and turn out, so far as they may, accomplished
and scholarly young men and young women.
Already several Of our most popular colleges
have passed through those interesting moments
and have sent out each its batch of graduates,
who, though their minds may be stored with
book knowledge, have still to learn the most
important lessons Of life, and to unlearn or
to forget much Of what seemed to them and to
their instructors of the first Importance in
their college course. Yale and Harvard and
Brown and Amherst; Princeton and Union,
Columbia and the City College, together with
Williams, St. Johns (Fordham), st. Xavier's,
and a number of others of less prominence,
have presented us with the results Of their
last three or four years training. They have
sent forth between four and five hundred
young men armed with the certificate OF
scholarship from the trustees and faculty Of
those institutions. Rutgers Institute, here in
our own city; Packer Institute, in Brooklyn
Vassar College, in Poughkeepse, and
Wesleyan College, Cincinnati, and our own
Cooper Union have graduated a less number
of young women. They, too. have now to
begin the real education Of lfe-an education
which cannot be obtained from books or in
colleges, but only by the kesnest observation
of manners and men--of the different phases
and thoughts Of our everyday life.
Americans are presumed to be an educated
people. They are intuitively lovers Of learn
ing, and the facilities extended for a thorough
so liberal that there Is barely an excuse for
any lad of ten years not knowing how to read );
and we venture to say that Of Americans there
is not one in u thousand so lacking. But
while this fact must be admitted it is quite
pertinent to ask, Are we really an educated
broadcast sense we must decidedly answer, No.
There is not among us that intense love of
learning, and especially of scientific learning.
for its own sake, which the universities and
Swans Of England, France and Germany
manifest. Our knowledge is much more diff
fused than theirs. We have great many
more men of medium culture and learning,
but comparatively few, il any, who could take
the places of Huxley or Tyndal, or Darwin OF
Leverrier, and others of this class Of scholars.
1t is a disgrace to our national Intelligence
and love of learning that the choicest profess
sorships in our colleges and universities are
filled by foreigners. We have certainly brains
enough among our people to constitute more
of them good and excellent teachers but they
don't seem to take kindly to teaching. There
must be cause for this. What is it2 One
reason we believe to he the general haste of
Americans to amass wealth. aud as college
professOrships do not present immediate pros
poets of realizing this the chairs must remain
vacant unless we can get foreigners to ill them;
and where the endowments are very small.
or are perhaps wanting altogether, the prospect
of obtaining even foreign professor is not
very fattering. The highest degree of culture
is not generally appreciated by Americans,
else we should not be inclined to offer such
meagre salaries to our college professors. The
groundwork of our college and common
school education is also at fault. We offer
premiums for numbers rather than for intelli-
gence, and the public school principal or the
college professor who can show the largest
number Of students will receive the highest
salary. This graduation is unfair and destruc-
tive to the first principles of education, which
should make it sought after for its own in.rin-
sic worth. And not until we can make school
aud college instruction pleasure rather than
task shall we succeed in turning the attention
of our young men to the art Of teaching for
its own worth. AS it is now, graduating
classes are only too glad to escape beyond the
college walls, and scores of them rarely visit
those institutions during the remainder of their
existence.
Scientific education, too, is practically, If not
wholly, ignored in our colleges and universi-
ties. We have few men among us--so few,
indeed, that child might count them--men
like Draper and Doremus, Agassiz and Sill
man-whO have written and can write intelli-
gently and Interestingly on scientific subjects
but with our ample facilities and boundless
wealth we ought TO have a score such where
we now have one. And instead of sending
our students ont to scan the domain of know
ledge they ought to be set down to that
branch of learning for which they may have
the greatest fondness and aptitude. 1t must
be known to many Of our readers that nearly
all our scientific text books, and especially the
latest works, are the productions of foreigners,
reprinted for our use. The tendency of this
age more than Of any other is toward special
isms in education. Ia the medical profession,
for instance, we have men devoted specially
to treating diseases of the eye and ear others