Southern standard. (McMinnville, Tenn.) 1879-current, 1884-04-12
Industrial Education.
Iowa State Register.

Iowa State Register.
Our whole educational system is
anti-industrial. Its whole tendency is
to inculcate indirectly, if not positive.
ly, that education is intended to lift
the laboring classes above the necessi>
ty of manual toll. The teachers and
supporters do not make this the main
object nor do they intend that this
shall be the result. And yet the COM
pensations and inducements held out
are mainly to this end. A large por-
ton of the community are honest in
the opinion thst man does not need
an education to be farmer. Hence
it is a low and degrading occupation
unfit for a man of education and re-
fnement And the boys who go to
and are educated at classical schools
feel that they have higher order of
intelligence than the student who OBJ
tains scientific and practical educa-
ton. Could the world, however, see
and fully realize the struggles, defeats
and discouragements which young men
have to undergo and suffer when they
go out into the world from the classical
college to enter the arena of life, they
would have different estimate of the
two courses of study. The most dis
consulate and degrading life is that of
an ambitious young man starting out
in any Of the learned professions, strug.
Cling in doubt and neglect for half a
life time before they attain a remu>
nerative practice.
There is an objection raised against
agricultural colleges, that those who
are educated there seldom return to
the farm. 1t is true this has been the
case to marked degree. But what
is the reason? When a young man
obtains good practical education, in
which the whole man is improved and
polished, the world has 50 many de.
mands for him he is almost compelled
to accept liberal offers to enter the
many fields of industry whose doors
have been standing open for his com
ing.
An agricultural college is not spe
cial school to convert students into
farmers, as the Touring mill turns
wheat into flour. 1t is a college having
four years as course of study, in
which it is intended for the student to
obtain a broad and liberal idea of the
sciences, with a thorough knowledge
of their practical application to the
business Of life. 1t is no wonder that
a young man thus educated and train
ed should, when leaving college, be
induced to accept positions of profit
and honor. 1t cannot be helped, anG
it will continue to be the case, unit
the demands for practical men are
supplied by some other means not now
in operation. So incompatible and
antagonistic is their influence on the
students where agricultural and me.
chanical colleges have been associated
and combined in one institution with
classical schools, that the result has
invariably been failure Of the indus,
trial department. AS we said in the
commencement of this article, all Of
the spirit and tendency of the school:
are against the industrial. Where the
students are permitted to decide what
course of study they will pursue, the
frown which is cast upon manual labor
by the advanced classical scholars il
the institution is more whitening thar
the ordinary young student can bear.
Industry is the noblest lesson boy Oh
girl can receive. Without industry
life is failure, and without a true ap
probation of the dignity of honest toll
no education is complete, and true
manhood and womanhood remains, to
a limited degree, undeveloped.