The Emporia news. [volume] (Emporia, Kan.) 1859-1881, 1879-07-25
DIR. CORDLEY's LEcTuRE

DIR. Cordley's lecture on Education"
at the entertainment given by the men,
bers of the Normal Institute, at the NJ.
E. church on the 18th inst, was of unu-
sual interest, and we regret that we can
not present it in full. The following ex-
tracts will tend to indicate the tenor of
the reverend geptleman's discourse,
though they necessarily convey but a
meagre idea of the excellence of the lee
ture throughout:
There are few truths so fundamental
that they cannot be too often called to
mind, and there are truths so universal
in their application that even at the risk
of being terse, we must still keep telling
"the same old story" The educator is
not to stuff the mind with facts,
but to fasten and direct its growth
You may stuff man full of facts and
yet not educate him a particle You
may crowd him through the best curric-
ulum of study ever devised and leave
him still an uneducated man. Education
is cultivated growth. 1t is not what a
man knows, but what he becomes, that
denotes the amount of his education.
Education is analogous to culture.
The mind of child is not blank on
which anything may be written, but it
has in it the germs of what it is to be.
You cannot change these germs, but you
can foster their growth, or you can
dwarf them. They can be shriveled by
neglect, distorted by abasement, or de-
veloped by culture. The aim of educa-
ton is to awaken thought. The mind is
to be strengthened by continuous thought
and prOtracted activity. The power
generated is of more value than the
knowledge accumulated. Minds are of
different types, different capacities and
different grades, but all are capable of
growth and culture.
Minds differ as much as the plants of
the garden. Nay, vary in size, quality
and use, and thus society in all its parts
ger growth and higher culture.
The question of Education, then, is
not question of more knowledge. 1t
is not whether man shall know twelve
things or only six. But it is to decide
whether what there is in man as a
germ shall come out as developed
power. 1t cannot put in q mans mind
what God has left out, but it can bring
to full size what God has placed there.
You wish to be teacher and you need
a special culture to prepare you for your
work. But to attain the best success you
need culture broader than your profes-
sion. You need familiarity with the
branches you teach; but you need far
wider range of thought than that which
your work brings into play. 1t is q
grand thing to be good teacher. But
manhood and wOmanhood should be
predominant In the teacher.
Every man should be broader than his
profession. The merchant should not be
all tape and buckram; the editor should
not always suggest scissors, and the tail
or should not always remind us of q
goose. We do not like doctor that is
all doctor, who is always OrdOrOus of
drugs, and about whose presence there
is always flavor of aloes and a sugges-
ton of lances and pilLbags. Some min
listers seem all ministers. Their presence
suggests nothing else. There is a sane
titled softness to their tone, and a pious
reserve to their smile, as if it were meas
ured out by conscientious principles.
Their presence suggests funerals and
collins; there is an aspect of corpse
and an odor of camphor about
them. So there are teachers who
are all teachers The ear-marks of their
profession are ever visible. In the old
time you expected to see q gOose-quill
growing out of their ears, and birch
rods spring into being spontaneous as
they passed along the street. A teacher
should so bear himself as not to give oc-
casiOn for youthful depFavity ever to call
him "Old Comic Sections" or "Old
Kaurnits." The teacher should be so
manly or so womanly that the teacher
should not obscure any of the qualities
of humanity. OF all these characters we
want to think of them as citizens and
liberal gentlemen, and then think of
them as earnestly engaged In these diff
ferent pursuits. A man should endeav-
or TO excel in his profession, hut he
should strive also to be more than a
mere professional.
Methods of teaching are important,
and every teacher should seek the best.
But culture is not dependent on methods.
ANY method that quickens the seed and
starts its growth, has done its work. .
And your work continues after you
have left it. 1t keeps right on growing
from the beginnings you made and the
lines you started. Your work will be
greater in ten years time than when you
leave il and will keep multiplying and
repeating itself in all years beyond. The
work you have undertaken is worthy of
your best thought and your best endeav-
ors.
why lie. your baby suffer and perhaps die.