Knoxville daily chronicle. [volume] (Knoxville, Tenn.) 1870-1882, 1882-03-08
Choosing a Profession.

A question which becomes more i'm
portant every year is that which concerns
the education of young men for the pro-
LESSONS. When it is finally solved, and
set at rest, great good will have been
done to the public, and many youths
will be kept from feeling in their man
hood the heartburnings and the sense of
failure in their lives from which so many
are now suffering. 1t is useless to dis
guise the fact that the dignity of manual
labor, guided by the intelligence of
special learning, is not generally be-
lieved IN. An excuse for this lack OF
faith is drawn from the argument that
as mechanical trades are so subdivided
now that young man after learning one
branch rarely is given the opportunity
to learn another, and that, having but
little need to use his brain In his work,
he usually becomes sort of animated
machine. But is there a controlling
reason why mechanic should thus lose
his power assuming, of course, that he
has started with fair supply of intelli-
gence and energy? That there is not is
shown by the fact that some men with
no other opportunities than their fellows,
by using their eyes and wits, learn every
branch of their trades, and thereby pro-
cure commanding positions. For in
stance in the pressroom of newspaper
of this city there is one man who not
only can manage a complicated press,
but can take it apart and put it together,
and repair it if it gets out of order. Yet
he has had no special advantages over
the men whom he directs as foreman.
He has looked and learned, and he is
now highly paid for the trouble he took
to inform himself. Tt seems wrong,
then, to assert that an energetic, intelli-
gent boy will have no chance to rise In
trade. The thing to ascertain in the be-
ginning is the trade for which he is nat
urally fitted. This is hard to ascertain,
and most parents do not make the at
tempt They put their boys into any
clerical position that is open to them, or
they decide long in advance that the
youths shall be clergymen, physicians, or
lawyers. In this way many men have
been put into professions for which they
have no aptitude, and SO struggle on and
fall The question which arises is ::
Could not this evil be overcome by max
ing it less easy to become professional
man? Would not many fathers and
III uOutIdtO
pause and reflect if they knew it would
cost much time and money to make doc
tors, or lawyers, or clergymen of their
sons? But, leaving this question one
side, is it right that any ordinary man
may obtain permission to- practice upon
the public health or the public rights
after nominally studying medicine or
law for two years? AS matter of fact
students do not attend the medical or
law schools for half that period. Earn
est physicians and lawyers who love their
professions think profoundly upon this
question, and are of the opinion that not
only should the periods of study be
longer, but that no man should be ad-
mitted to study unless he has had col
legiate education, or, lacking that, is
able to pass an examination so as to
show that he has a good foundation for
special learning. Ignoramuses would
not then be so common in the profess
sions. If only fit persons are given the
right of way into the professions the un-
fit will find places suited to them, for
fond and poor parents will be forced to
study the characteristics of their chill
dren before marking out careers for
them.-N. Y. Times.