The Van Buren press., 1874-03-31
A Coed Mue.tisn.
This is from Edward Everett:

TO read the English language we'll,
to write with dispatch a neat, legible
hand, and be master Of the first four
rules of arithmetic, so as to dispose Of
at once, with accuracy, every question
of figures which comes up In practice
call this good education. And if you
add the ability to write pure grammatical
English, regard it as an excellent edu-
cation. These are the tools. You can
do much with them, but you are helpless
without them. They are the foundation;
and unless you begin with these, all
your nashy attainments, little geology.
and all other ologies and osophies, are
ostentatious rubbish.
We wish the above were printed in let.
tiers of gold on the walls of every school
room, seminary, college and university
IN the land-for it contains great truth,
too often lost sight of, too often treated
with superciious contempt. Mr.. Everett
was one of the most accomplished schol
ars America has ever produced, and the
peer Of any abroad; yet he recognized
how little was required for good edu.
cation, and how incomplete any educa-
ton is without that little. There is o
tendency nowadays in this country, and
perhaps elsewhere, to cultivate the flow
ers of education at the enpense of the
stalk, and sacrifice the essentials for the
sake of the non essentials. A knowledge
of ancient languages, of the higher
branches of mathematics, and of the va
rious departments of physical and men
tai science, is certainly desirable; and
when there is the requisite taste and
leisure for it, may be acquired with profit
as well as pleasure. But thousands OF
scholars, male and female. are made to
absorb "a little Latin and less Greek
before they have mastered half the diff
culties or seen half the beauties Of their
mother tongue. Thousands are crammed
with what Everett calls the ologies and
osophies before they are thoroughly
versed in arithmetic, and thousands more
are loaded down with fancifui accom-
plishments before they have any accurate
comprehension of the substantials. In
many respects the education fthe pres
ent day is vast Improvement upon that
which prevailed fifty years ago, but in
some respects it is decidedly inferior.
The superstructure Of the educational
edifce is more elaborate, but the founda-
tons are weaker. We have met young
gentlemen who were graduates of re-
spectacle institutions Of learning, and yet
were unable to write twenty sentences OF
unexceptionable English without fear
ful amount of labor and perplexity. We
have met young ladies who could chatter
huently in French, copjure sweet music
from the piano, and trill song in what
is supposed to be very choice Italian,
and yet were almost ignorant of the his
tory of their own land. to say nothing OF
any other. We have met both young
gentlemen and young ladies who had
grappled rhetoric, political economy,
logic and geometry, whose reading was
miserable and whose spelling was dam
nable Fifty years ago the branches OF
the tree were not SO broad and beautiful,
but the roots were deeper and stronger.
Commend us, after all, to good, old
fashioned common school education,
where the three RS" were driven into
the boys and girls so that they remained
forever Such an education is sufficient
for all the ordinary purposes of life, and
it opens the door for higher culture
whenever and whereverit is wanted. But
no higher culture is worth rush which
ignores the fundamentals, and that these
fundamentals are more or less ignored
in this progressive age, is lamentable
and disgraceful fact.-N. Louis Repub-
icdn.