Louisiana capitolian. (Baton Rouge, La.) 1879-1881, 1881-08-25
LOUISIANA STATE UNIVERSITY
AND A. AND N. COLLEGE.


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In this era Of regeneration, when
the South is shaking of and breaking
away from the ideas and methods
which prevailed prior to the tremen-
dous civil war and the social and NOR
al revolution which grew out of it,
the tendency of the parents OF South
crn children is to give them such
practical educations as will fit them
to enter into the arena Of life and
perform their part in the rehabilita-
ton and development OF their native
land.
The youths of the South cannot hope
to compete successfully with the
youths of the North, East and West
in the practical business of life until
they are educated IN those branches of
useful knowledge which are essential
in all communities in which there axe
diversified industries. All the cOndi-
tons that prevailed before the aboli-
ton of slavery being changed, 1t Is
plain that we should change the
character of the education Of our
youths to meet the altered circums-
tances. High scholastic attainments
are all very well, and few specially
gifted and wealthy persons may
indulge in the luxury of pursuing the
study of the classics and of the high
er branches of art and literature, but
the great mass of Southers boys should
be taught mechanical, agricultural
and Industrial arts generally. There
should be less Greek and more Geom-
try, less ethics and more engineering,
less culture in the Concord sense and
more carpentry.
Our boys need to be taught how to
build houses, how to curtivate the
soil scientifically how to use all the
implements of the work, man, how to
run, survey and build railroads
short, how to be helpful to themselves
and to their State. The higher
branches can be taught at the same
time it is true, but they can also be
left to the leisure of after school
life better than the more practical
and useful information.
This seems to be the idea of the
faculty of the Louisiana State Uni
versity and Mechanical and Agricul-
tnral College located at Baton Rouge.
"Our effort" says the President,
Col. VIM. Preston Johnston, "is to
give the education contemplated in
the Federal grant to the college; that
is to say, one both liberal and practi-
cal" 1t is intended especially for
those who expect to devote them
selves to the industrial arts, or to ag-
riCulture in Louisiana and affords
an opportunity, no whcrc else to be
had, for a youth to learn the things
which are most important in fitting
intelligently to cultivate and handle
the staple crops of the State-sugar,
cotton and rice. With these are
joined instruction in horticulture and
the domestic arts, and in "a few of
these branches of general and special
culture which help to make the home
of the planter or mechanic comforta-
BILE, respected and contented. Other
institutions may excel in their own
particular lines of education but we
assume as special province Of our
college to prepare young men for the
life of planter or plantation me-
chanic.'
Those parents who wish their SONS
to take the University courses, which
embrace Latin, Greek, English,
French, mathematics, the natural
sciences, mental and moral science,
drawing, astronomy, history, politi-
cal economy, constitutional and in
ternational law and military science,
can, of course, have their wishes
gratitied, as the gentlemen compo-
sing the faculty, from the distin-
guished president down, have no
superiors in their several lines. 1t is
to the interest of the people of Lou
is!ana to patronize this admirable in
stitution where liberal education
can be obtained at a merely nominal