The Milan exchange. (Milan, Gibson County, Tenn.) 1874-1978, 1884-04-05
Industrial Education.

Our whole educational system is anti
Industrial Its whole tendency Is to in
culcate indirectly, if not positively, that
education is intended to lift the labor
ing classes above the necessity of man
ual 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 compensations and induce
ments held out are mainly to this end.
A large portion of the community are
honest in the opinion that man does
not need an education to be q farmer.
Hence it is low and degrading occu
patton unfit for man of education and
refinement. And the boys who go to
and are educated at classical schools
feel that they have higher order of in
telligence than the student who obtains
q scientific and practical education.
Could the world, however, see and fully
realize the struggles, defeats and dis
couragements 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 disconso-
late and degrading life is that of an am
bilious young man starting out in any
of the learned professions, struggling
in doubt and neglect for half life time
before they attain 4 remunerative prac-
tice.
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 a marked degree. But what is the
reason? When young man obtains a
good practical education, in which the
whole man is improved and polished,
| the world has so many demands for him
he is almost compelled to accept liberal
offers to enter the many fields Of indus
| try whose doors have been standing
open for his coming.
An agricultural college is not spe-
cial school to convert students into
farmers, as the Touring mill turns
wheat into flour. 1t is college having
four years as a course of study, in which
| it is intended for the student to obtain a
broad and liberal idea of the sciences,
with thorough knowledge of their
practical application to the business of
life. 1t is no wonder that young man
thus educated and trained should,
when leaving college, be induced to &C
cept positions of profit and honor. II
can not be helped, and it will continue
to be the case, until the demands foi
practical men are supplied by some 9th
er means not now in operation. So in,
compatible and antagonistic is their in
fluence on the students where agricult
ural and mechanical colleges have beer
associated and combined in one institu
ton with classical schools, that the re
suit has invariably been a failure of the
industrial department. AS we said il
the commencement of this article, all o
the spirit and tendency of the schools
are against the industrial. Where tn,
students are permitted to decide wha
course of study they will pursue, tn,
frown which is cast upon manual labo
by the advanced classical scholars il
the institution is more whitening thai
| the ordinary young student can bear
Industry is the noblest lesson a boy O
girl can receive. Without industry lif
Is failure, and without true appreci
alton of the dignity of honest toll, n,
education is complete, and true man
hood and womanhood remains, to
limited degree, undeveloped. - I0U,
state Register.