The southern sentinel. (Winnfield, La.) 1883-1910, 1884-11-21
Specialism I'm Education.

Speclaiism III Education.
The same feature of the great educa-
tional problem which has been so vigor-
ously discussed in England and in the T.
States of late years,-namely, the grow
ing necessity for special rather than cen-
erat instruction,-is now being strongly
agitated in France to good purpose Oul
of political animosities great reforms are
often born each party tries its utmost
to probe and expose the weakness of the
other; and perfect indeed must be the
educational system maintained by one
party which offers TO weak points to the
assaults of the other. There can be no
| question that some of the educational re-
forms inaugurated by the Extreme French
Radicals were both necessary and praise
worthy; and these. notwithstanding the
violence Of the opposition they provoked.
are likely to endure. But the one very
dangerous system Of the present educa-
tional system. which had been previously
undiscussed. is now being exposed un-
mercifully in the heat of political conflict.
While the radical directors of public ed
ucation had developed the practical and
utiiitarian programme of instruction. they
had also vastly enlarged its scope and in
creased its difficulties. Within TWENTY
five years the progress made in science
and all branches of learning has been
unprecedently rapid. and the old-fash-
ioned educational plan has now become
unadapted to the purpose of training men
successfully for practical vocaiions. Still,
the old-fashioned plan was not bad in its
day;--it was very Successful from the
time of the consulate to the end of the
empire, during seventy years.
Parents trusted implicitly to the judgment
of The State in regard to such matters;
and the State simply gave them the choice
between scientific and a literary educa-
ton. The former might include studies
for the army, navy. or the higher indus
trial callings; the latter included law. the /
fine arts. medicine, and what are called
the liberal professions. To-day, howey-
er, this simple and well-designed Napo-
leonic programme is insufficient for the |
student. A general knowledge of science
has become simply impossible to acquire. |
So enormously expanded has literary
knowledge been, that it is now seriously
mooted whether the study of Greek aud
Latin is any more necessary than the
study of Sanscrit, Hebrew, and Arabic.
Certainly the annals of Oriental studies
during the last fifty years ought TO suffice
10 show that even a life spent i'm the ac-
luisition of one dead language, the results
IF the most Jealous individual labonare
small and almost without just recon-
)ense.
Says an excellent French writer ON the
dilemma: $50 have u general
dea of geography, of history. Of mathe-
hatics, OF physics, Of natural history,
imply means to know nothing at ALL
md the obligation Of learning little Of |
'verything entails the result Of knowing
mt little of anything. The graduate is
imply youth who has learned to talk {
bout everything without knowing any /,
hing. The superior man. the man of ,
orce, the man who makes himself felt i'm | /,
he world, is the Specialist Man of :
,ne book. a science requires absolute q
real completeness; you can |
ot talk about knowing little geometry, t
or example ;-you either knew geome- 7
~ oryou do not know it at all; and {
nat is all there is about it!-' y
There is no answer to these facts. The G
EDUCATIONAL system Of every civilized a
ountry must soon be specialized to a '
reatcr extent than has ever been propo- | d
I'd; and each separate branch of study il
lust eventually ramify off into many
ther branches. The future must be pre-
AIRED for specialism; and it is very GER
lin that many Of what we now consider
Ggic professions must be sooner or later
parated into four or five distinct bran p
les. Tie result must OF course entail =
tnre social conditions much more COM u
ex than those of ofto-day-T-D. ="
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