Buchanan County bulletin. [volume] (Independence, Iowa) 1869-1891, 1878-06-07
Education and Labor.
National Journal of Education


The great majority of our pupils must
work for living. By the ordinance of
Heaven, the necessity of labor is
well-nigh universal. Nature and history
alike confirm the old decree, In the
sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread. y
Teachers and school officers should care
fully inquire whether our schools are
accomplishing all they ought to do for
the working classes. 1t is grand re-
suit that all are trained to read and
write and cipher, and learn something
of the common rudiments. In no part
of the world, except Germany, are there
so few natirc illiterates as in New Eng
land.
The general intelligence of the people
is one obvious cause of our exemption
from the railway strikes of last summer
The sober, second thought prevailed
here, while madness ruled the hour else
where. But benefcent as has been the
influence of the public school in New
England, it has by no means done its
whole duty to the laboring classes.
More should be said and done to dignity
labor and prepare our youth to become
skilled workmen, as we'll as Industrious
and upright citizens. 1t is mistake to
suppose that education need create any
aversion to labor, or that those who do
the toughest work need the least school
ing.
Under the system of slavery in the
South, and until recently with the serfs
of Russia, and the equally illiterate
farm hands of England, it was held as
an axiom that schooling would make la
borers discontented, restless and unpro-
fitable servants, and that universal edu-
cation would render manual labor
distasteful and disreputable. Too much
of this mischievous legacy OF slavery
fingers among us still. The silly and
wicked notion that labor is menial ought
to be refuted in our schools, where our
youth should be early taught the neces.
sity and dignity of labor, as the primal
source of all human excellence and pro
gress. Girls as we'll as boys should be
taught, both in the family and school, that
to learn to be useful is alike their duty
privilege and interest. Education should
thus be made the auxiliary of labor. In
stead of treating it as degrading druid
gerry. education should elevate labor
and render it more skillful and produc
tive. If the true bearing Of education
on industry was taught in our schools
our youth would grow up under the sal,
utary conviction that education is econ
omy, and so far from degrading labor
makes it more inviting and profitable
because the skilled workman so fore
casts his plans that every blow tells
thus economizing his time and strength
and stock, and even in the humblest
work, accomplishing more, in better
style, and with less damage to tools and
machinery, than the boor who can use
only brute muscle. Pride in ones work
leads to higher excellence both in hi.
craft and character. The skilled artizaI
who delights to do his best to-day, viii
aspire to do better still tomorrow. Or
the other hand, the too common theory
that labor is a degrading drudgery viii
consciously demean any workman, anc
bar improvement in his trade. =
We are working people, and the
cause of the workman is the cause OF
all The problem of our day is to ele
| Ndtc WOIh NY CuuCdCIhS "uO UAoo WV"
ing the workman. The masses are learn
ing that mere muscle is weak, thai
brains help the hands in all work, that
knowledge multiplies the value and pro
ductive power Of muscular efforts. L
knowledge is power, ignorance is waste
and weakness. What man Is, stamps
an impress upon what he does, even il
the humblest forms of industry. Th'
character of the work depends upon th'
workman. Whatever elevates the labor
er improves his labor. In proportion al
you degrade the operative, even to th'
degree of serf or slave, you depreciat'
his work. You can dignity work, there
fore, in no way so surely as by elevatins
the workman. The wealth and welfare
of individuals and States, always depen
dent on labor, can be most fully secures
only by educated labor If rightly con
aucted, our schools, so far from breed
ing discomfort with the humblest pur
suits, will prepare for success in the or
dinary callings of life.