The true northerner. [volume] (Paw Paw, Mich.) 1855-1920, 1882-08-11
PRACTICAL EDUCATION.
Influence of the Commercial Spirit In
Hts Bearings Upon intellectual De-
vclopment. #Eta


Hts Bearings Upon intellectual De-
vclopmenL .la
From the st. James Gszette.1 ~
The extraordinary annual increase OF
competitive examinations is only sign
OF the extent to which the commercial
spirit of the times has overshadowed all
education. We may rest assured that
Bacon toiled for years, a poor law
student in Gray's inn he regarded his
studies not only as of no use, but for
pleasure and for ornament His genius
had, perhaps, too strong an originality
to refuse TO bow to any times, yet had
Bacon lived now, il is but toe probable
that his earlier years would have been
spent, not in that solid thought which
has made him master of the highest
rank, but in the absorption of digests
and those other intellectual works which
form the ready reckoner of the specu-
lator in examination honors. Such
leaders of thought as Mr.. Emerson have
long or Q to us that we are training up
generation OF library recluses, devoted
to the disentombing and reproduction of
the ideas of earlier and stronger
thoughted generations it Is certain that
to original thought and production (and
how much of a nations charac'er and
power is implied in that one word
"original ?") accumulated examina-
tons are an absolute bar. The office
of education is, we take it, to enable
man to think, to enable him to feel, and
to lnculcate facts. By the study of facts
thought is generated, and thought is
crowned by feeling, since man can on
ly be said to know thing when he feels
it. The commercial mind, however, is
trfe narrow, is eminently practical, and
it has in educational matters taken of
late definite standpoint, and insisted
ON limiting both general and probes
sional training to the cultivation OF the
first division, the accumulation OF facts.
This is essentially the work that the ex-
animation test, as at present applied,
performs. 1t does not, it cannot pro-
Tess to inquire by what processes the
mind has arrived at its facts it simply
assesses the number of facts absorbed,
and doles out its rewards in proportion
ate ratio. 1t is as if we should Judge
horse by the sickness of his coat, and
to take no account of the arsenic adj
ministered to obtain that sickness.
These last remarks may seem unduly
bitter but we believe that there are few
thinking minds which are not profound
ly dissatisfied with the tendency of our
modern education to resolve itself into
scheme of continual examination. The
idea is distinctly modern one, the out
come of the intensely practical charac-
Ger of be commercial mind. If we ex-
anime the wisdom of our ancestors We
shall find that, in one form or another,
they have always attached import
ance, not to the passing of an
occasional isolated test, but to
the training which develops the
man, and TO ms both his intellect and
character. This is a secret of the infu-
ence which distinguished birth has been
able to exercise. 1t has been generally
felt that the fact of belonging to we'll
known family is satisfactory guarantee
of that training which fits man for big
parts. 1t is recognized by every one
that, for the adequate performance of
the duties Of life, a mere knowledge of
certain isolated facts Is avery insufficient
equipment. A general knowledge of
men and affairs, powers of reasoning
and energy to master the various prob
lens which present themselves from day
to day-these are the qualities which
lead to success. Further, to take
wider view of life than that which is
summed up in the word "success," we
enter upon question of unlimited ex-
tent as TO the color, the wealth of feeling
aud imagination with which tho posses
sion of a cultivated mind clothes the
whole of the p assessors career. To en-
large upon this would be to dilate in
platitudes upon matters of general con-
sent; but herein lies the vast difference
between the education of olden times in
this country--confined though such edu-
cation unfortunately was, to a favored
few-between the state education of
France and Germany at the present
time, and our own system of submitting
in everything to the test of competitive
examinations.