The Bennington banner. [volume] (Bennington, Vt.) 1858-1894, 1889-06-06
"a PRACTICAL EDUCATION FOR
THESE days.

"a PRACTICAL EDUCATION FOR
THESE DAYS"
The last number OF Hdrper's Weekly
contains an address to Teachers" by
Charles Dudley Warner bearing the
above title. 1t is an admirable essay on
the subject, and though it is intended
mainly for educators, its doctrines are
30 sound that it will be read with inter
est by all those whose attention is drawn
to the subject, provided they care, and
who does not, for the education of our
youth. 1t should be said that its ideas
are old fashioned and are in danger OF
being set one side by the commercial
and unitarian tendencies of the day.
Against what Mr.. Warner calls this
popular attitude toward the whole sub
ject of education" he protests. He de.
fines this popular attitude" to be, de-
mand that the education in the district
school, in the high school, and in the
college should be practical and he goes
on to say
by practical education is meant, not
discipline, but the acquisition of knowl-
edge or OF knowledges that can be turn
ed to immediate account in the struggle
in the world for money or for place,
There is q demand that in the lower
schools handicrafts SHOULD he ee&Sht and
in the college wide range of elective
studies, not selected by experience as the
best for evoking the mental powers, but
chosen with reference to the acquisition
of some species of Information that will
be Immediately serviceable in some
h.toinnoo or NrnfaooIAnal mn
suit"
All this is wholly wrong says Mr.. War
ner. 1.-The idea of discipline is," he
says, "almost entirely dropped out oil
this scheme of education, and the stand
ard of a successful life it holds up i.
wholly a material one, We for
get that the really valuable thing in life
is within us as the Greeks believed, an
equal development of the mental, the
moral and the physical-a personal evo.
luton which enables us to get the most
out of the life Of each day. II we neg
lect the discipline that tends to this, il
makes no difference how much we &C.
quire, life is practically for us failure.
Perfectly sound doctrine, Mr.. Warner.
The danger of the opposite idea. he
says and truly too, is to encourage a
spirit of communism and anarchy. By
an undue exaltation of the popular idea
of education we are, he says, led to "set
an Inordinate estimate upon the value of
money and of luxury, and to undervaue
the simpler and nobler enjoyments
which depend upon the mind. 1t is no
wonder that the so-called working
classes, who were never in all history so
oil Tod hA,,anI nd oil h.,
now in this country, taking note of the
materialism of the so-called richer
classes and of what they seem to value
as the supreme good fife, namely, lux
ury, easy living, the indulgence of the
senses, should be uneasy and want to
turn things upside down."
Mr.. Warner objects too, and with rea.
son to the so-called practical education.
that it is in the end very far from being
practical. Lacking the essential element
of mental discipline, on which he dwells
with great force all through the "Ad-
dress, such an education, is after all, a
delusion. 1t does not give its possessor
power to discriminate between the true
and the false, and leaves him the "prey
of illusions" I'm such time of gen.
orally diffused information. he says, sit
seems strange that 80 many should be
the prey of illusions in political econo-
my, in finance, in sociology with 30 little
logical power of discriminating between
the true and the fallacious. But as the
acquisition of knowledges will not make
a man virtuous, so it will not necessarily
give him the balance of faculties that
will preserve him from illusion. As a
matter of fact, the people whom we call
practical, are just those most apt to be
led away by specious appearances and
inconseGuent reasoning. With vivid
perception of facts, they are most likely
to muddle causes and effects. n
The power seems wanting of subJecting
deductions to the ordinary tests of logic.
In respect to the conduct of life, half
education-that Is to say, what is insist
ed on as practical education-is very
inadequate furnishing of a human be-
ing"
he pays high compliment to the
great scholars and scientists of the world
who are pursuing their noble studies
without thought of pecuniary advan-
tage to themselves, in the following Ian
guage For my part, l believe that il
there were not plenty of men in the
world living in the high converse posi-
BILE in this (the Creek and the like use
less studies, our whole intellectual life
would tend downward. just as the pur-
suit Of applied science would grow more
and more mercenary and ignoble, and at
length come to an end, if the unmer-
cenary investigations of the students OF
pure science were not continued in abso.
lutte disregard of any practical result"
Mr. Warner earnestly protests against
our educators giving way to the mater
ializing tendencies of this age as follows:
This application OF the practical test in
is right in the line of the ma
terializing tendencies of the age of ma
chinery and of uniformity. If the
schools and the universities give way to
it, what hope is there for us ?" He be-
lieves fully and only in "that kind of
education which concerns itself un.
with the higher parts of our ma
ture without reference to any material
purpose. He is Enthusiastically fol- "men-
tai discipline" rather than learning"
for studies which will "liberalize the
mind, broaden it and Strengthen the
reasoning powers.
NO DANGER, ne says, out the spec
ializing tendency of modern life will
sufficiently narrow and concentrate the
scholar upon special purpose. And
whatever the pursuit in life, the man is
not half q man, the woman is not half
woman, il their horizon Is bounded by
the attainments and objects that have
got the name of practical"
He pleads in closing "for the intellect
ual lite as against the material; for lit
erature that does not concern itself
principally with knowledge as against
encroachments Of knowledge devoted
only to gain; for the education that will
left the youth above envy of material
fortune, giving them resources that
bring contentment and satisfaction of
he spirit, and enable them to endure
cheerfully the inevitable equalities of
condition"
We would gladly have found room for
the whole of this sensible address, but
must content ourselves with this brief
epitome of it.