The Newberry herald and news. (Newberry, S.C.) 1884-1903, 1886-06-23
placed the roof upon it. Mr.. Web

|
ster says that finished means polished
to the highest degree of excellence
complete, perfect; and cites as a use
of the term q finished poem, q finished
ed1cation, but no one ever knew a
man who had a perfect, or complete
education, or one that was polished
to the highest degree Of excellence.
A poem would not be styled fin
! ished which stopped in the midst of
a sentence, nor can an education be
finished while there is more to be
learned. All education should com.
bine the practical with the theoreti.
cal to make it most valuable, and it
should be especially directed to the
avocation in which the man expects
to engage in life. OF course the
fuller the course of instruction which
any man can pursue the better
equipped he will be for life. The
great want of the present day, in my
opinion, is system of thorough tech
biological schools.
Our farmers, for instance, send
their boys to college and expect them
to graduate and return to the farm,
but by far the majority of them dis
appoint these expectations by going
into some other business. The plant
er is disappointed, and in many in-
stances concludes that there is some
inherent antipathy between agricul.
ture and education. Such a conclu-
sion does not follow. He has given
his son an education which fits him
for the counting house, or professional
life, or for mining, or for the work of
teaching. The boy has received no
agricultural education and he leaves
college knowing more about dozen
other occupations than he does about
agriculture, and he naturally drifts
into some business that he knows
something about. When physician
wishes to make his son a doctor, he
sends him to college as long as he
thinks best, and then graduates him
from a medical college. If he
stopped that boy when he left the
literary college he would not be apt
to become physician; but after he
takes the medical course he is better
qualified to practice medicine than
to engage in any other avocation,
and the result is, that nine times out
Of ten he follows the profession for
which he was educated. So the law
yer, the civil engineer, the merchant,
and the professor all have convenient
schools in which they can have their
boys trained to follow the avocations
of the parent. There are no conven.
lent schools in which a boy may
cultivate the science as we'll as the
practical work Of mechanics, CT ma.
chinery, or agriculture. He might
be entered to work in some machine
shop where he would learn only so
much theory as is necessary to
operate the manufacture in which
they were engaged. This, it strikes
me, should be the work of the States
University. Itwould certainly prove
of great value, for with such a sys-
tenn the practical talents of the youths
of the State would be cultivated.
Boys striving for an education can.
not afford to enter machine shops
and quit their other studies in order
to cultivate a talent for machinery or
mechanics which they do not expect
to follow as a business, but tbeH c06f6
advantageously tabkeet axe these schools as
q part OF collegiate course. With
these departments added to our
State University and the curriculum
raised to a post graduate course the
harmony of our educational system
would be complete. I maintain that
the State should support it's Univer-
sity in such way as to avoid, as far
as possible, competition with the ex-
listing colleges in the State. 1t
should supply that class of instruc.
ton which is not accessible in the
other institutions in the State, and
and should not seek to crush them
out by using the taxing power of the
State to offer free tuition to the sons
of men who are able to pay for it
thereby seeking to induce an attend
ance which they might not otherwise
be able to secure. This odious fea.
ture of our State University ought to
be removed as a simple matter of
justice and right. The purpose here
should be to build up and carry for
ward the work of education, not to
pull down or injure any good work
that is being done in the State. 1t
is related of Gen. Robert E. Lee that
during one of his fercest battles in
Virginia, while commanding the Con-
federate army, be had selected an
elevated knoll slightly behind the
line of battle from which to observe
the fight and direct his army. On
this knoll stood spacious shade tree
under which the General and his
ctoH uoro c+ond;nn in their fatione