The Sweetwater enterprise. (Sweetwater, Tenn.) 1869-187?, 1871-06-29
Published by request Of the Board of Trustees.

Fuonsheu Dy request OF The Board OF trustees.
THE EDUCATION DEMANDED BY THE TIMES.
Young Gentlemen of Bolivar Male Aca
deny, Ladies and Gentlemen:
You will be greatly disappointed i
you expect from me to-day q "Literar,
Address" as has been published I woui(
deliver. l had promised to make a few
remarks to the pupils of this Institution
but did not intend or expect them t.
reach the dignity of an " Address" Es
pecially will you be disappointed if yOr
expect from Inc any effort at oratorica
display. Belonging to the most practi
cal of professions, l always prefer tc
treat of practical subjects, as much as ]
can, in a practical way.
The recent unusual pressure of proies.
sionGl duties, caused by the meeting, in
the single month of May, of four of the
courts I attend, has prevented the due
preparation of such remarks as / desired
to submit for your consideration to-day.
I can only throw out some suggestions
on the subject selected, in the hope that
some other and ADLER hand may mould
them into better shape and enforce their
due consideration. Asking, then, in the
old familiar phrase, that
You'll not view me with critics eve,
But pass my imperfectiOns by"
1 proceed to give my views, incomplete
though they are, on
THE EDUCATION DEMANDED DY THE TIMES.
The recent civil war has wrought
many changes, as seen by already accom-
plished facts, and has created demand
for still other changes. Among these is
enc peculiar to the Southern people
that of demand and necessity for a
more eminentiy practical system Of etl,tca-
ton.
Before the war, the system of labor in
the South tended, and to considerable
extent actually did render physical Ia
Dor dishonorable. The highest ambition
of the young Of both sexes was to free
themselves from the disgrace, as Wen as
inconvenience of manual labor. They
construed in no literal sense the Scrip
tural expression, "In the sweat Of thy
face shalt thou eat bread" Such as as
pired to liberal education were dcsi-
rous of q reputation for being fine, criti-
cal scholars, rather than practical men
and women. Encouraged in this, both
by parents and teachers, they spent all
their school and college days i'll master
ing, OF endeavoring to master, the diff
culties of the Greek and Latin langu-
ages, the history of an absurd heathen
and in pursuing the intlica-
cies and hair-splitting distinctions of q
highly sophistical and impracticable
philosophy. Indeed, no education was
valued unless it was of o theoretical,
philosophic and @sthetical character.
Metaphysical distractions and critical
refnements comprised the food upon
which the mind was fed. The less com
and practical knowledge the
SO o-called scholars had the better for
their fame. This ignorance of common
things removed them the farther from
The disgrace of labor, and enhanced their
reputation for learning with the great
mass of the people. Ii called upon for
q Fourth Of July Grafton or a Temper
lnce Address, the graduate of o South
ern college felt that he failed in his duty
to his hearers-did not sustain the repu-
tation of his Alma Mater-and did not
enhance his own fame for learning, if
he failed to go away back into the dead
fill his discourse with a large
amount of Greek and Latin phrases, re-
and perhaps murder, the ghosts
Of Plato, Cicero, Homer, and a host of
the other renowned men of ancient
times. The people had been trained to
expect some such absurdity as this, and
went away dissatisfied without it. They
did not consider the speaker worth their
unless he told them something
in q language they did not and could
not understand. An appropriate rebuke
to this absurd custom was administered
in the Legislature of q neighboring
State. A young member, recent gra-
duate of some college, in making his
maiden speech, interspersed it so thick
ly with Greek and Latin quotations
that none but an apt scholar could have
understood it. Immediately upon the
conclusion Of this scholarly effort, a
from the mountains, conversant
with some of the aboriginal dialects,
rose and delivered fiery and apparent
ly very eloquent speech in one of the In
dian languages, to the great amusement
Of the other members and the utter con-
fusion of the brilliant young scholar.
He claimed that his Indian speech was
rs intelligible as the Greek and Latin
one of the member who preceded him.
The result of this false system of edu-
cation was that the educated Southern
youth entered upon Business life with
little or no practical business knowledge,
and had to spend years in utilizing this
costly education. In q few years the
super critical and oyer-re6ned acquire
ments, that cost them and their parents
50 much, were thrown aside and forgot
ten in the demands and exipencies of
real life. After the loss Of ten or twelve
of the best years Of their lives, in acqui-
ring and forgetting this useless educa-
lion, they had at last to commence where
they should at first have begun. Many
Of their energies were now wasted, their
arlor dampened, and their hopes de-
prived of their rainbow hues. Too late
they saw that the powers Of mind and
body that could, if properly directed,
have accomplished SO much, were vast