The Vermont watchman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1883-1911, 1888-08-22
What Shall the Public
Schools Teach

In recent number of The Forum
Mr.. Lester F. Ward has an article on
" What shall the public schools teach?"
In this article Mr. Ward maintains that
in refining upon the blessings of educa-
ton we forget altogether what knowl-
edge is for. His definition of civiliza-
ton being that it consists in "the
utilization of the materials and forces of
NATURE" he holds that, so far as the
Improvement of mans estate is con-
cerned, we know only in order to do,
that knowledge unapplied is sterile, and
is only fruitful when it makes two blades
OF grass grow where only one grew be-
fore, when it converts "raw MATERIAL
into useful objects or when it directs
into some useful channel the forces of
nature which were previously running
to waste or doing injury to man. Mr..
Ward believes that nowadays all inven-
tons are in the nature of " improve-
ments" upon pre-existing inventions,
and are chiefly made by the mechanics
or artisans of the higher grades, who
are constantly using the original de-
vices and who, through an intimate
acquaintance with these, eventually
perceive how they may be improved;
that as artisans become more intelli-
gent this class of inventions will in
crease, and that nothing but the stolid
ignorance of the working classes in the
past has prevented this from having al
ways been the chief mode of advancing
the useful arts, and the hope is ex-
pressed that in the near future the ar
tisan as well as the engineer may not
only receive a good education in the
hitherto accepted sense of the term, but
may also have such a training of the
eye and the hand as will enable him to
perceive and to effect all possible re-
forms in his chosen field of labor.
Everywhere we see the lack of thought
directed to the improvement of our ma
terial surroundings. If this is because
the importance of improving those
surroundings forms no part of the edu-
cation which is given to the youth of
the country, there is reason to believe
that any system of education which will
tend to develop the human powers of
dealing with materials and forces will
tend to raise the plane of civilization as
defined. Mr.. Ward even looks forward
to the day when the need for the use of
the human animal for the lowest forms
of unthinking labor will be done away
with, which would simply mean that
there would be less opportunity for life
among those of low intelligence, and
that the " average man" would be on
a higher plane than at present. This
tendency to educate youth so that man
may be the better able to deal with his
material surroundings is doubtless wise,
but brings forth a remonstrance occa-
slonally from those versed in the old
ways, who hasten to point out the other
sides to a mans nature which come in
contact with other conditions which he
should be equally ready to contend with
or perhaps better to appreciate. The
recently-published life of the most il
lustrious and most amiable man of sci
ence of this scientific age has suggested
TO many readers doubts of the all-sufi-
cheney of science to build up not theo-
ries, but men. Instead of lifting the
scientific vocation to the skies Gas was
probably anticipated), this epoch-mak-
ing biography seems to Miss Frances
Power Cobbe, writing of "The Scien-
title Spirit of the Age" in the COntenl-
porary RecieU, to have gone far "to
throw sort of dam across the stream
and to have arrested not few science
worshipers with the query" as Darwin
wrote: What shall it profit a man if
he find the origin of species and know
exactly how earth worms and sun-dews
conduct themselves if all the while he
grow blind to the loneliness of nature,
deaf to music, insensible to poetry and
as unable to lift his soul to the divine
and eternal as were the primeval apes
from which he has descended Is this
all that science can do for her devotee?
Must he be shorn of the glory of hui
mainly when he is ordained her priest?
Does he find his Hottest faculties afro
phied when he has become machine
for grinding general laws out of large
collections of facts?' "-lScience.