Vermont watchman and State journal. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1836-1883, 1882-01-25
Some Educational Questions.


educational matters He says many people
in the south, especially farmers, oppose edu-
cation. He gives extracts from published
communications, written by successful
and influential farmer" on the subject, as
follows
This writer says: ut can't be proved that
liberal education scattered broadcast over the
land makes people better or happier Too much
schooling makes young people proud and lazy,
and units them for the common troubles and
hardships OF life.
" Educated boys as general thing are Of
no count they won't work in the fields or In
the workshops they are too stuck up OF too lazy,
so they take profession or 'laze round.
"People are getting little too smart already,
and reckon we bad not better encourage too
much learning.
at is no part or business of the state to edu
cate the children. The system OF free public
schools does more harm than good in the long
run. There is too much free education in this
country, and am glad some Of the strong men
are writing and talking about it.
Education IL not 50 big thing as some OF our
people think; we are spelling hundreds OF young
men who would have made good useful, working
boys in the fields and in the workshops"
Mr.. Case says; al wish to prove, if pos
sible, by the actual experience of the edu-
Gated farmer, mechanic and laborer, that
these assertions are not correct. l wish to
prove that good common school education
does make man better off in every respect,
let his occupation be what it may"
We can hardly think of a better argument
in point for Mr. Case to use in this discus
sion than the case of his opponent. Here is
man, evidently with a tolerable educa-
tion, who is both successful and influential.
Education does not appear to have hurt him
much But Mr.. Case must not suppose
that Tennessee, or the south, has the monop-
oily of this kind of men. We have got a
plenty of them in New England. We have
heard good many of them crate, and as an
editor have received, and sometimes printed,
their communications. We even have an
agricultural editor who insists that our COM
mon schools are now as good as farmers
need, and who will try, by garbled quotations
and invidious comments, to cast odium upon
writer who urges any improvement of our
school system. Anybody who tries to pro-
mote some good work will find this kind of
opposition springing up in his path. While
there is free speech there will always be op-
position; aud where there is an opposition,
there will always be scribes who will voice
the opinion of the " contrary minded" This
is entirely right. 1t is far better for good
movement to meet with opposition than with
listless, do-nothing acquiescence. Feeling
on one side stirs up feeling on the other, and
the result is that something is done. These
opposition writers are merely the teasers Of
public opinion. Their function, however
inglorious, is useful and necessary one in
a community where the public voice must
be heard, and where the majority must rule.
The side that has right and reason with it
wins at last, in any community that is not
dying of rot.
But Mr.. Case, as a master of arts, is
doubtless acquainted with the classical ad-
age, "it is well to learn from the enemy"
When man undertakes to argue on the
wrong side he must be sharp to be effective,
and if the right side has any weak spots, or
any cracks in its armor, he will smite there
with all his force. Mr.. Cases "infuenti al
farmer" may be selfshly seeking to monop-
olize education for the "higher classes" to
which he, like many southern farmers, prob
ably believes himself to belong, but he is
unconsciously helping the other side when
he alleges and proves that some sorts of edu.
cation unfit young men and women for the
practical duties of the farm, or of other in.
dustrial business. He is only voicing in the
south a conviction which Horace Greeley,
ga tribune of the people" voiced in the
north when he said, "Of all the horned cat
tie ever let loose upon the world the average
young collegian is the most uncomfortable"
Thisis practical era, and ours is prac-
tical, busy nation. We have among us a
small class of persons who aspire to culture
and elegant learning. They are very agree
able and may be very useful people in their
way, but the system and methods of ed.
ucation proper for the development Of
such class of citizens is not well adapted
| for the training of men who have in charge
the exploration of the resources OF our new
world. They have powerful influence il
our higher institutions of learning,-an in
fuence out of all proportion to their place il
the commonwealth to them is due
and from their action is derived, all thu
sting and point in the arguments of such
writer's as Mr.. Cases "influential farmer
| 1t is too true that there are great many
young men in the country, north and south
who have been "made proud and lazy and
unfit for the common troubles and hard
ships of life" by training unadapted t.
their circumstances and natural duties a:
citizens. The influential farmer hits {
wide crack in the armor there. But that il
no argument against education. 1t is al
argument against an unsuitable education
and we must all accept it as such, if we oh
ject to pride, laziness and general inefii
cheney. Rather than have boy or gin
of ours emerge from the educating ma
chine in that shape, we would choose TO
them no education at all, except such as the
might pick up at home. Educated boy
who "won't work in the fields or in tn
workshops" have not been spoiled by edr
cation, but by wrong education. II "w
are spelling hundreds of young men VIII
would have made good and useful workin
boys" (and this is true bilD, the remed
is not ignorance, but different education.
The "influential farmer might, an,
probably would ask, in reply TO this, wheI