Iowa County democrat. [volume] (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1877-1938, 1884-08-01
THE TRUE EDUCATION.

THE TRUE EDUCATION.
An address delivered by i. o. Wright Secretary
of the State Board OF Charities and Reform;
at the graduating exercises of the Mineral
Point High School, July ., 1854.
CONCLUDED.
Whether our daily labor is with
head or hands, we need to keep up
our habits of study. Moreover these
post graduate studies should not be
disciplinary studies; they should not
Latin and mathematics "to coldly
furnish forth the marriage feast" Of
the mind with culture. We need not
regret ten or twenty years after we
leave school, if we find we are rusty
on such studies. The value of such
disciplinary studies is not in retain
ing their details in our minds, but in
having studied them once. The time
we now have for study may be better
spent upon those subjects which add
to our information, which extend our
views, which feed our imagination
and provoke us to new thought; and
of the many things which we might
take up, we should choose that which
is best for our present purposes or
most to our tastes. One thing however,
we should do: we should familiariZe
ourselves with the masterpieces
of literature of all ages, and
drink in their spirit. They are not
so many or so lengthy, but that in
the course of a few years, we can
read all the best things in English
literature, and the best things that
have been translated from foreign
literature. And the masterpieces of
art have been reproduced i'll models
or engravingS SO cheaply that we can
all have some of them and drink in
their spirit too. Let us keep up a
habit of study all through life. Let
US seek the best society in books, in
art and mankind, and thus may we
all from year to year realize more and
more the power which high thinking
has to purify and ennoble the mind.
have spoken of the education which
fits us for our work in life and of the
education which gives culture to the
mind. There is still third education
of more value than either of the
others,-the education of character
1t is true that honest work in life
has great effect on character, giving
it strength and purpose; and 1t is also
true that intellectual culture gives
dignity and grace to the character.
But the moral life has province of
it's own, co-equal with body and mind,
and it is only indirectly influenced
by them. The moral nature needs its
own education in its own ways. We
cannot afford to neglect our moral
education. Our essential manhood or
womanhood consists in our moral
character. Take that away and all our
worth as men or women is gone.
True manhood is greater than strength,
or beauty of body, skill or position,
or culture. 1t rises above the con-
ventional distinctions of society, and
above the physical or mental gifts of
nature, and brings US into the like
ness of divinity, and makes us sons of
God. True faith i'll Christ and a
Christ-like life are the only means
by which we can perfectly attain to
this true manhood. An imperfect
moral character can indeed be FORMED
without christian faith; and such a
moral character may have many eX-
cellencies. Naturally good disposition.
the influence of good education and
a strong purpose may indeed secure
good degree of virtue; but the higher
elements of moral character all depend
upon a living faith in Christ for their
ucation is complete without this, the
crown of all our character. Without
Christian character, all other educa-
ton is like the stalk of lily without
the flower, or a house without a roof.
Would that all our students in all
our schools might all be growing in
the christian graces and gifts as they
grow in the graces and gifts of the
mind, and thus be endowed with an
education as eternal and as indestruct-
ible as the soul itself.
If these things are true they define
the limits of the work of our pub
lie schools. The education of the
school stands midway between the
education of the shop and the educa-
ton of the church; it is the connecting
link between the material and the
spiritual. The education OF the school
is therefore work by itself, having
its own aims, its own methods and its
own results; but still work which
both receives help from and lmparts
help to both work shop and church.
Alone it can help to make man, but
not a complete man. For that all
three forms of education are needed.
The work of our public schools is
an honorable and useful work; but
in exalting it we need not claim that
it is everything. That work which
supplies material food, and that work
which supplies spiritual food are each
of them at least as important as that
work which supplies intellectual food.
Nor can the school any more than
the church or workshop afford to stand
alone, or be at strife with other lines
of labor. The church. when 1t is at
war with intellectual culture runs
into fanaticism; and when it Is at
war with the working world, runs
into asceticism. The working world
when il neglects the church falls into
materialism, and when it neglects the
school it falls into what the Germans
aptly call Philistinism. The cry
generation ago was that it Is cheaper
to build school houses than 5alls and
poor-houses. We have built the
schoolhouses and yet the Jalls and
poorhouses are just as needful as
ever. 4 school education IS not
moral education, except incidentally.
Its chief work is with the intellect:
And we need not be Disappointed
now that our school system has failed
to realize the unfounded expectation
of a generation ago. In its true WORK
it has done wonders. So at the present
day there is great cry made 70 make
our public schools places for training
skillful mechanics and housekeepers-
That is founded upon an nnreasonaple
idea of the true work OF the puuiIc
school, and il ever attempted VIII ALSO
fail.
The three pillars of free state, are