The Manitowoc pilot. [volume] (Manitowoc, Wis.) 1859-1932, 1889-12-19

high school, nor can any college, univers-
i.y or technical institution pretend to do
any more than its share toward compass
ing this end. Such an education Is high
~ ideal and can be acquired IN full
Leaped and rounded measure" only by a
prolonged period of existence to be spent
studiously both within the school room
and abroad in the great theatre OF the
world.
This ideal education IS noble, but the
theroist who proclaims it deceives the
popular mind which is too ready to throw
upon the school the whole responsibility
Of preparing our youth for all the walks
OF life. The school can never assume any
such task. 1t never arose In response to
any such demand, and it is to be hoped
that it never viii yield to any such i'm
position. The school exists becase of
universal demand for an institution that
can accomplish for the child what the
time and the ability of the parents are
incapable of doing, namely to give what
he's always been called an elementary
education, an education which is never
acquired, except In very rare instances
o Inside the school room. The five mil,
| lions or illlterate whites now in the coun-
try furnish striking proof of the truth
OF this proposition.
| The function OF the school then is to
furnish the key that unlocks the treas
ury Of knowledge to do that which the
| home, the desk, the farm and the shop
can not Go. On the other hand the
school should not attempt that for which
the active fields of labor furnish better
opportunity for learning. Farming, cook
Ing, carpentcTing and blacksmithing are
living realities in the outside world, and
the best the school could ever do would
be to persist IN a feeble mockery of these
pursuits, mockery SO palpable wherever
it has been tried that the practice escapes
ridicuie only because it is not viewed by
practical men. Agricultural schools can
be justified as experimental stations en-
piaying special talent to make discover
les in fields which the common farmer
can find no time to investigate. Expert
mental cooking schools may be supported
on exactly the same principle. But the
earth would become IAN unweeded gar
den" and palates would go ungratitied If
the world depended on these agencies to
furnish hands for the pillow and ornaments
for the kitchen. But to come closer to
the question. Given one generation of
mothers who are good cooks, would there
ever be an excuse for making the cooking
school an adjunct to the public school?
Never unless the parent is to be relieved
of all responsibility or is absolutely In
capable of manifesting any interest in
her offspring. The home then, presided
over by the intelligent mother educated
by the public school, performing its time
honored functions is the proper sphere
for girl to move in while learning the
art of house keeping in all its phases.
That dyspepsia with It's accompaniment
of morose temper exists is fact few Will
deny, and many will admit that the cause
is often poor cooking. Bnt before we
burden our course of study let us be sure
that the culinary art has suffered be.
cause il has found no place in the pro-
gramme. Poor cooking is due to the fact
that the cook has inferior articles to pre-
pare, is denied the variety and quality OF
| 81, al, lo IL II, i
is scantily supplied with the conveniences
that would make the preparation of meals
pleasure rather than adrudgery. When
the opposite of these conditions exists
there is PROBABLY still lack OF the spi-
cure sense in him who is too easily salts.
fed and an absence of the true cook as.
piration in her who reaches the goal OF
ambition ere the honeymoon has. passed
But when mothers are provided with the
proper materials and utensils there is nc
excuse for their persistent backwardness
either in perfecting themselves or assist
ing their daughters in the great school
of the home, the noblest and best that
ever existed. II they under these favor.
able conditions only feel their RESPONSE
bility the rest will take care of itself, and
if this is not felt no public cooking school
will ever arouse it.
The charge is often made that our edu-
cation is highly impractical, that its aims
are culture and dicipline rather than
preparation for practical life, and the ILL
informed listener to some of our modern
critics might be led to believe that we
are educating after the fashion of intellec-
tual and aesthetic Greece of old. But the
| trouble is that the spirit of industrialism
Is so intense and the national appetite
for gaining wealth has become so keen
that we are beginning to condemn all
training whose product cannot be con-
yerted into shining dollars before the
mind becomes conscious of its possibili-
ties or the body is developed for life of
labor. Industrial education as now adj
vocated would bring the hand still closer
to the brain. 1t would destroy those
germs of ambition that cause man to
move upward along intellectual heights
| till he begins to see "a soul in the objects
of sense" 1t is useless to accuse our
/ schools of giving the children too much
/ intellectual bias while the thoughts of
/ boys and girls in their early teens are
strongly directed by outside influences
4 towards fields Of remunerative labor.
Would that the spirit of industrialism
which seeks to reduce culture to the mini
mum had far less hold on every COM
munity. Then we would not witness the
| spectacle of boys being torn from their
books when they have scarcely know
/ ledge enough for the transaction of bust
ness to say nothing of the power they
should possess in order to commune with
the master spirits of literature. Would
]