Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1889-06-10
EDUCATION FOR ALL.
Interesting Comparisons Shown at
the French Exposition.
THE NEW ORDER OF AFFAIRS.
Progress of the Various Nations in Knowl-
edge and Arts.
JAPAES EXHIBIT A REAL SURPRISE.

IAh1S, a une S.-1ne eQucau0nal e1nlDl
in the Paris Exposition demonstrates clearl,
that new era is firmly established in tn,
thought of the world concerning the means
methods and objects of schooling. The evo
luton in education has been from the mi
nority in the highest social plane, toward
the majority in the lowest social plane.
AS it has proceeded the standards have
been subjected to a revolution, eomplett
and without doubt permanent. The models
OF the academies of Greece, with their alb
stract disputaIions, served the little area Of
rejecting mankind until the invention Of
printing.
The industry of secluded students and the
zeal of enthusiastic copyists preserved the
texts which constitute Tor all ages the foun.
dations of culture, but their multiplication
BY machines did not for two centuries seri-
ously affect the conventional procedure OF
training few out OF every thousand for
the duties appertaining to professors of
sacred and profound learning, who il turn
passed few others in each thousand along
the beaten paths of Hellenic and Roman
authors and presented them upon the
threshold of metaphysics, which few crossed
except for proftless wrangling.
A NEW ORDER OF THINGS.
The idea of including within the scope of
education the industries of civilization re-
mained for later ages, when the daring of
the sailor and the tread of armies brought
the distributed races face to face. Democ-
racy and commerce and the slowly operating
spirit of Christianity, which they have in
part antagonized and in part promoted,
combine in our own time to establish a new
order.
The total effacement of the antiquated and
exclusive privilege Of higher culture is
shown in every portion of the Exposition.
Higher instruction there is, preserving the
monumental works of earlier genius in
literature, but the new epoch, while cherish
ing these works, has a different means of
developing intelligence.
1t is resolved that creation shall accom-
psny reflection. 1t is not merely literary;
1t is industrial. 1t is not solely for the re-
1inement of the minority; it is for the good
of the entire people. Its most benefcent
quality is its devotion to beauty and truth.
While aggrandizing the material and recog-
nizing the fact that education, like liberty,
is universal right as well as a universal
prudence, the principle of the new epoch is
that thought shall be turned into skill.
THE TRUE OBJECT.
This may not be the noblest idea of cul-
ture. 1t is doubtless more sublime to write
a great poem than to discover a secret in
chemistry, to construct perfect machine or
to furnish textile manufacturers with more
distinguished colors and richer designs.
The question of the time is not how TO i'm
mortalize rare spirits, but how to render life
happier, more rejecting and more virtuous
for the great body of people, to whom the
arts and trades are as indispensable in
modern ages as was the meditation of old to
the GenObite or pomp to the privileged
participators in courtly splendors. The
rule of the abstract is past.
Socrates contempt for initiative arts has
entered into practical philosophy. The
French educational exhibit presents this
revolution in education with remarkable
comprehensiveness. The first country to
cast off traditional exclusive literary train
ing secured its pre-eminence in fine industrial
art and its monopoly of the most profitable
industries into which design enter are ex-
planned.
\ A GREAT EXHIBIT.
In addition to representation of the en-
tire school system of Paris 20 of the 81 de-
Vartments of the Republic have respective
places in the educational building. The ex-
hibit is under manifold auspices, manifest
ing the ceaseless activity of the people
The national system finds augmentation
through benevolent societies, through mu-
nicipal and communal organization and
through private enterprise; but whatever
the form of administration the process and
principles are identical.
Mind training, beginning with the primary
grades and passing up through high schools
into colleges and universities, is constantly
accompanied with the training of the eve
and the hand throughout all the sciences
and all the arts. The exhibit, ramifed
through every division with invention,
decorative and constructive industry, is a
school where ali may study with advantage.
Were Germany represented the eficacious-
ness of this rational combination of literary
with executive for the decipline of the |
people in thrift and thought would be not |
less clearly demonstrated.
BOUND TO COME.
That it will become the code of the most |
enlightened, progressive and conservative |
nations of Europe is apparent in the unity |
which pervades the various international |
contributions. Belgium, combining in her |
economic character the greatest density of |
population with the largest diver ity of oc-
cupation and the most uniform distribution |
of wealth, with the minimum of pauperism,
ranks after France.
Closely following her are Holland and
Switzerland. Abreast of them are the
French Colonies in Asia, 0ceanica and
Africa. American visitors should seek
these colonial sections. They are not in the
exposition building proper, but in struc-
lures illustrating the aboriginal architec-
ture of Oriental people, along the Esplanade
des Invalides. In the composition of their
contents primitive antiquity is side by side
with the most refined evidences of modern
subtlety in education.
The surprise is, however, furnished BY
Japan. Nothing more delicious or gratify-
ing in quaint variety can be imagined than
the kindergarten work of Japanese children.
JAPAN's SHOWING.
The venerable Elizabeth Peabody, who
introduced Froebel's system in the United
States, has not lived long enough to
see American children as happily
in proportion to their num-
bers as is the little world of
the presumably benighted East. The
statistics show that there are
nearly 5000, 900 children and 70, 900 teachers
in the elementary schools of Japan. The
exhibit presents view of the entire system,
from the kindergarten up to the university,
md is as scientific and orderly as the system
)f France.
Particularly important is the work shown
BY japanese schools for the blind, and for
leaf mutes. A relief alphabet and various
Jeries OF models are in use. In the former
the letters are on pressed paper, and are
beautifully reproduced in wood by the
pupils. They also have relief apparatus
combining sylIables on the principle of the
Food method in vogue in our primary in
truction, and which was from the Germans.
The skill of the deaf mutes in wood earV-
No roainfinn rnndelinr In CLAW and in de-