Orleans County monitor. [volume] (Barton, Vt.) 1872-1953, 1872-02-12

1u1co anu Suggestions are Io1lOWeu. Tic
English language will be spoken and
written correctly. T. E. JAMESON.
Supt. common schools in Irasburgh.
A PLEA FOR CULTURE AS Dis
TINCT FROM SPECIAL EDU-
CATION.
From Ex-fov Bulock's address at the dedication of
the Worcester High School
Among modern theories there has been
of late an increasing tendency in favor
of specific education for the special de-
partments of active life, and this drift
Of opinion has already greatly modified
the courses of study in most of the col
leges. There | believe it ought to stop,
and not invade the more elementary
sphere Of the public schools of the state.
AS | understand it. boys and girls are
not sent here to learn apprenticeship to
any particular calling, or trade, or bust
ness in the world The numerous utili-
ties and pursuits of our busy community
should not be permitted to give any
special direction to the training of pupils
within these walls; for the education
they should receive here is of another
kind, which underlies all the oecupa-
tions of practical life. If you expect
your children to acquire here special
fitting for any particular one of the
working activities that pervade the city,
then let the steam engine, the iron lathe
and the lap-stone be introduced as part
of the intellectual machinery of the
school. No, my friends, -steam, ma
chinery, physical forces, are indeed a
part of the agencies of our civilization
and culture, but they are not its factors
or its elements The education by which
the mind itself is trained to reflection,
sagacity, abstraction and generalization.
is of far higher value than any material
advantages which ensue from the follow
ing of any particular useful art.
[ know full we'll that this school be-
longs to grave and earnest community,
which, in all its conditions and both sex
es, is engaged through every hour Of
working time in the arts of labor, by
which we grow worldly great and indie
pendent; but [ know as well that the
same discipline and training which will
prepare the young for that high social
state that is grounded on intelligent re-
Election and study, will also clothe then
with the strongest armor for the arena
of the physical forces in working life
Unquestionably. the great thing yor
seek for among this population compel
ing for the highest production, is the
highest degree of art and skill; but ar
and skill is another name for menta
power; and mental power is precisely
what it is proposed to manufacture il
this building.
| pray, therefore, that you will no
grudge the few years taken from thu
productive labor, too often the prema
ture labor of the child, and passed with
in these consecrated walls, and that yol
will not criticise the style Of education
because it may seem to you abstract ant
ideal and not Immediately pertaining t.
your own practical trades. The idea
always has been and must be large
part of the education of youth, for thu
nature of youth is ideal, and you coulC
not educate it if it were otherwise.
But though the schools are profitable
for such utilities, they confer other anc
transcendent benefits, which benefits be
long to higher plane of consideration
Your plan contemplates more enduring
riches for your children,-the wealth o
the immortal mind, quickened to ascend
ing gradations of knowledge ennoblec
by constantly charging circumference,
of thought, strengthened by subiectinE
the ever new events of the physica
world to the reason and understanding
and relieved amid the trials and sorrow
of this life by that exhilaration and sol
ace which, after religious faith letter
can best bestow Made familiar will
the delights of elevated reading, you
daughters will share the companionshi]
of the true masters of the race, who's
words breathe wisdom and pleasur
through the leaves that are brough
within the reach of every class and eve
ry family. That they shall become pro
found, you may or may not expect; no
is that the essential thing you look for
there is an elevated level below the high
est, upon which it is your worthy ambi
ton that they should stand. IF wo
man, to great excellence of character,
/ (wrote Sir Thomas More to his daugh
ters), ''unite even moderate portion Q
learning. | deem her possessed Of NOR
real good than if she had the wealth c
Cresus and the beauty Of Helen" An
Erasmus, his friend portraying the dc
nestle circle of More, where he laugh
his daughters in grade of studies b
no means above those pursued in thi
high school, pronounced it superior t
the academy of Plato, for he said
seemed to resemble ga practical schoC
of the Christian religion" Encourag
the cultivation of your daughters in tn
higher spheres of the authors of our lar
guage, until, fleeing of their own accor
from the clouds of dilettanteism an
frippery which hover about them, the
find higher satisfaction in the rich sin
plicities of Addison or the divine carol
of Jeremy Taylor