Vermont watchman and State journal. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1836-1883, 1875-11-17

aud usefully to the world. lie says, truly,
that this practical teaching would benefit
even the three per cent. Of professional pu-
pills, because the great bulk Of professional
work is furnished by the industrial classes,
and must necessarily regard industrial habits
and rules. Sixty per cent, says he, Of
Kansas law cases, congregations and pupils
are furnished by Kansas farmers. Would not
the pews be better filed, and the cases and
schools better handled, il professional men
could speak as wisely Of plants as Of stars,
and could initiate the tact and example Of
Him who addressed the farmers not of Pal.
estine only, but Of the centuries, in the
words, consider the lilies Of the field, how
they grow ? Again Forty-two per cent
Of the people of Kansas are females and
from first to last our system wholly ignores
them. Have they no use for knowledge in
girlhood, womanhood, wifehood Is there
nothing the cook or housekeepcr would be
better for knowing no information that
would help the milliner or printer to earn a
livelihood easier Is it more difficult to
teach the laws of health or household econ
omy than the principles Of grammar or
algebra ?"
As regards the question Of culture" or
"mental discipline" upon which so much
stress is laid by those who advocate unprac-
teal studies he remarks with force;
" II the branches Of such course were really
proportoned in the ratio Of their use by the in
dustral classes is it not clear that by the study Of
these branches the mental faculties Of the indus
trialists would he exercised practiced, disciplined
just in the degree that the industrial yocations re-
quire mental power? Is 1t not clear that a course
precisely adapted to a lawyers work will best de
yelop the faculties which he most uses Suppose
these to be the logical faculties, apd that the
stone-cutter or dress-maker most uses the psrcep-
tive faculties win no., then, course precisely
adapted TO their work best develop the faculties
by the use Of which their living is earned Per
haps it might be well for the friends Of the three
professional pupils to give the friends Of the
nnety-seyen industrial pupils gentle rest re-
specting the superlati,e glory Of the classics
and abstract mathematics as means Of mental
discipline"
DIR. Anderson well understands the risk he
is taking in proclaiming these radical opin-
ions. lie knows the violence, the malevo-
lence, with which these heritors of monkish
traditions, who control our educational sys.
tenn through all its branches these profes.
sional men who do not desire the people to
know too much-will attack every man who
dares to call for a really popular and practi
cal system of education for the working
youth of the country. lie says
/" These principles mean educational war, a wal
that promises ten Bull Runs for each Vicksburg
or Gettysburg yet, nevertheless, probably aftei
our day, 1t will finally have its Appomattox; be
cause when the people have realized that III,
course of study is to the public schools what tn,
rudder is to the steamer, when they have realized
how directly the present course i.desgned for tn,
benefit Of the professional classes, and when In,
indust ial masses have become satisfied that
course ensuring an education directly valuable IL
their yocations is possible aud practicabe-wher
that day comes, all the capital invested by pub
fishers in text books all the opposition arising
from consciousness that the knowledge and ex.
perence acquired by years Of professional teach.
ing endangered-all the man-milnery OF cul.
re'--all the owliSh pomp and contemptuous sniff
from the sky-curled nostrils Of such Quixotic sci
entists as those represented by the American As.
ISOLATION which has just expended its only thou.
sand dollars given for the adyan, emcnt 4 Amer.
can science, in monograph, to contain what {.
known about fossil butter1ies-the whole of thes,
elements cannot finally prevent, though they ma,
delay, the lifting Of the peoples common school.
from the line which leads to professional power
over to that other kndlier, better line, whicl
shall yet more grandly lead to industrial knowl
edge industrial skill, industrial power, wealth
happiness--for The people are hdaStridlisis'
We have given much space in our small
department to these utterances of mar
who is a true philanthropist--a lover o.
men-and who professional man himself
is yet more friend of justice--a friend o
the people-a true follower aud preacher Of
the doctrine of Him who loved the peopl,
and rebuked the professional classes of His
day the scribes and the pharisces, in thai
they bound the people with heavy burdens
which they would not themselves touch Will
so much as one Of their fingers. We trus
that our =" treason may not be past all for
giveness, If we conclude with the hearty
hope that Vermont may sometime have jus
such an institution, and just such man t.
preside over it, as the Kansas Agriculture
College, and its president, the Rev, DIR. j. A
Anderson.