Green-Mountain freeman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1844-1884, 1879-11-12
What Is " EducatiOn?"

jonathan Lawrence, on the matter of
Education.
1t seems to US it would be well to define
and limit the term somewhat. to give
some sort of bounds to it, so parties dis
cusslng the matter may talk of the same
thing, and to that end we would suggest
to Bro. Lawrence that he enumerate what
branches he would have taught in schools,
and what more properly comes under the
head OF home tuition. And here comes
the pertinencc of Farmer Wife's query,
whether the ignorance of bread. making
in girl graduated from an academy
SHOULD be properly charged upon the said
school; Is it properly duy,or should it
be, OF an academy or high school to teach
bread-making, and pastry cooking, and
sewing and knitting, and clear-starching
and ironing. and darning Stockings, and
Qor cur schools are fer boys as well as
girls) cobbling and tinkerng and clock
cleaning, and how to milk, and teach
calves to drink? All these things are part
and parcel of the great whole of human
knowledge, and if knowledge and educa-
ton are synonymous terms, Il part of ed
ucation. Is this what you mean by edu-
cation, you who are discussing it, and are
these things what you desire introduced
us studies into our common or higher
schools?
We had considered the term "educa.
ton as used in a narrower sense, rather
process than an requirement, II mental
and intellectual growth and development
rather than the gaining of specific and
definite knowledge With this idea OF
what the word means, we have considered
woman may be able to darn stockings or
even add to that the ability to make good
breal, and still not be a we'll educated
woman. Or that " man might carry a
nod, or groom horse, or guide a plow
perfectly, and still not be an educated
man. And, vic versa, Il woman or Il
man might be a well educated person ant
still not be able to do the things named
TO our mind education, knowledge
learning, training, all have diff rent shades
OF meanings, not different in the way rec
differs from blue in colors but as one
shade OF blue differs from another.
We believe education to be most desira-
BE, bat we believe II man may have the
specii; knowledge gained by experience
or learned from precept or example,
which will enable him TO successfully
perform certain duties and labors to a de-
gree of perfection which no amount of
education without that specific knowledge
would enable him to do.
We think we can see the value in edu-
and the languages, of chemistry and bot
any and mineralogy, OF natural and mental
philosophy; and used rs means of menta,
training and d 'velopment, of enlarged
intellectual grasp. of increased mental
activity, we can see no difference whether
the mind so trained should in after life
choose one field of labor or another. In
choosing the field of labor, these things
assume other relations TO the individual
and become the tools of his trade. If he
choose astronomy, he will need mathe-
MATES rs an active aid and assistant in
his work, and not as part of discipline
and mental growth, though its constant
use must promote the mental strength, Us
the constant use Of the blacksmith's arm
gives tirmness and power to its muscles.
SO ne in treating this matter have spoken
Of The education impaired by colleges as
fittmg man for the law or physc or the
pulpit We do not believe that boy who
has gone through college is from that fact
ANY more fitted for either of these profess
sions than he is for tho farm or the work
shop. Whichever he may take he will
have to learn his trade or profession !;
learn to properly apply and use the mental
tools OF observation, perception, COMPARE
son, ETC., which he has been acquiring and
sharpening during his college course. If
he chooses medicine, he brings his tools
to that workshop. He goes 10 the dis
wards and operating room of the hospital
and learns his work The graduate
choosing law takes an entirely different
course; the student of divinity still anoth-
er; the farmer yet another, and all are
alike the better fitted for their work for
the mental training they have received, but
none of them by the education they have
received have the knowledge needed to
enable them to successfully pursue their
chosen path. That they must acquire in
another and different field We believe
that colleges very properly conine them
selves to the fitting of the young mind for
taking up and mastering thevarious trades
and professions in life, without attempting
TO become complete and universal in
structors in those trades and profess ions.