Vermont watchman and State journal. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1836-1883, 1879-07-30
7lIV 7IIIT
The Higher Education.

1t is said---falsely--th the only way to
get Joke into the brain of Scotchman is
through an opening made by the means Of a
surgical instrument. The way sone who
are Yankees by birth persist in confounding
opposition to old fogyism in the manage
ment Of our higher institutions Of learning
with antagonism to those institutions them
selves, would seem to argue a like obtuse-
ness nearer home. s ..t.t.... ,...l
We have pleaded warmly for schools and
colleges that would bring their teachings
into some sort Of practical relation with the
everyday work Of the world. We want such
institutions for the training Of the multi
tude who must do the worlds work. But
we have had no objections TO the existence
Of as many of the old style of academies
and colleges as can get living by teaching
Greek, Latin and abstract mathematics.
We do moi consider it any part Of our bust
ness to NEEDLE with the predictions Of
those who prefer that sort Of knowledge to
more modern Information. We respect the
old learning for the good il has done when
there was no other. We even sympathize
with those who love to stand in the old ways,
and if they wsuld not also persistently
stand in the way of those who would like
something else for their children, we should
never come into any other than pleasant re-
lations with them. When, not content with
going their own way in peace, they try to
smother and strangle all efforts for the estab-
lishment of industrial education, they force
a quite unnecessary conflict, and if in the
end they find themselves losers by it they
have only themselves to blame.
But it would seem that even the patrons
of the classical institutions are not quite
satisfied with all the results Of the training
their children get there. A correspondent
Of the Troy IN. " Tines, attending one
Of the recent so-called commandments, .
frees his mind thus regarding the orations of
the graduating class:
"The Pilgrim fathers were again walked up;
the valkyries revived Scandinavian mythology,
and the battle Of Tours was re-fought. The
Nibelungen Lied was re-sung. Napoleon appeared,
Of course, and Garibaldi, and Mazzini and Cavour
and Burns, and Chrysostom, and King Arthur,
and Bismarck, and Victor Hugo, and Matthew
Arnold, and not word about Grant. Two Of the
young gentlemen 'rasseled with Goethe, and
others will tussle him next year One called him
Gurta and the other Gutta. 1t ought to be dis
tinctly understood that 1t requires q very able
| man to pronounce that name correctly. One
young man made an Grafton on The Cid,' which
as an abbreviation for cider would have been Q
| live subject in Williamstown. And poor Joan OF
Arc once more A friend said that was the
twelfth or thirteenth time he had heard Of her al
commencements, and he feelingly observed, q
wonder II she would have done what she did II
she had known how much she was going to bt
| talked aboutp The exceptions were True
Wealth Of Nations, The College Graduate and
the People The Rascal a. Q Hero and Rus
sian Liberty all live modern subjects. Why car
we never hear temperance lecture on the com
mencement platform, or an Grafton on lying OF
| selfshness or business dishonesty Not q WORD
about the present exodus from the South, or Sab
bsth-breaking, or the decline Of American com
merce, or JEFF Davis revived, or the Panami
canal or the Zulu war. Tho young men will no
be long in the real battle Of life before they dis
| cover that the people are most interested II
practical questions, and they will find little tim
to even bury the dead, much less to dig up thos
already buried" f gao ~ at