St. Landry democrat. (Opelousas, La.) 1878-1894, 1889-09-07
HIGHER EDUCATION.
BY PROF. A. j. JONES

AAlnscflal EDUCATION Is &c drive ana fldlcule
put of the domain of common sense every
hing worth knowing, everything that
pertains to classical or higher culture
he extenuation is that the masses of the
world, in their poverty, have neither time
nor use for anything that does not help to
give them their daily bread. The truest
philanthropy is to teach them how to make
living.
Obviously, this is misconstruing the
Question, the greatest of all questions that
concern the intellectual culture of man
Kind. To my humble thinking, such an
dea OF education is simple heresy. 1t
1oes violence to every instinct of our souls
makes life an endless drudgery, a dreary,
nterminable cropping in universal dark
Ress, With not ray of light or star of
pope to draw the yearning gaze from the
gloom which lies beneath our feet to the
szure of loftier destiny.
y The object of education is culture; and
when attained to it is to be applied to all
he customary transactions of daily inter-
sourse. 1t will give both beauty and en-
Doyment to the most ordinary pursuits of
Life. You cannot teach man to make an
honest living by the rules of arithmetic;
&whether he will do so is not question of
knowledge, but question of character.
Where are hundreds of able bodied men
who do not make an honest living not
because they have not the knowledge to do
20, but because their souls have not been
educated to understand the honor of work,
or as it is called in hackneyed phrases, the
Sdignity of labor.
1t Seems to me, therefore, with due def
Ference to adverse opinions, that it may
appropriately be said that the mania for
poaftoo cd IL
advancement is q sort of philanthropical
can't grounded in the fallacy that mans
Happiness depends on his capacity to make
and accumulate money. Undoubtedly, if
#every human being on this earth had all
his physical wants supplied, we would in
"a certain sense be more happy than we
are. But such a condition of things is
hardly conceivable, much less probable;
Sand the creation of new wealth and re-
Sources will not help it There will be
Srich and poor as long as man strives and
8errs; and judging from the experience of
THE times, the greater the aggregate
xamount Of wealth the more it concentrates
Eitsesf in the possession of the few, the
broader it makes the chasm between itself
and poverty.
Education, then, should turn within, and
Inst without. It should develop man,
and not make tread mill of him. It
should appeal to his higher faculties, ex-
hort his sense of honor, warm his affec-
tions and cultivate high regard for his
fellow men. 1t should elevate him in his
Econscioue ness, strengthen him in his vir-
tues. and above all crown his self-esteem
in the full perception of personal freedom
and responsibility.
Iappeal to you, patrons and benehciaries
of the public schools of Louisiana, from
the standpoint of higher education.
knowledge of reading, writing and arith-
metic alone will hardly bring one close to
the high ideal of life, which is the trust
of intellectual culture. 1t is true afull
collegiate or professional course is not nee
essary to guide us to taste and desire for
higher culture. The public high school
Pcan and will Jay an ample foundation, and
therefore perform not only high mission,
but sacred duty to those same poor whose
private means will not afford the same;
for rdisdirected practical charity would
AGnJy alleviate their condition with NOR
of bread as daily sustenance requires,
"a six days of hopeless drudgery per
eek. Those very schools do the greatest
mount of good Gbere it is most needed,
]Iby diffusing their heavenly light among
Sthe hard fated who suffer most, but who,
In the end, may become the brightest OBJ
iects of human destiny. And better for
lis and our country would it be if every
man and woman emerging into manhood
and womanhood were equipped with at
least the enlarged comprehension of duty
and right and moral dignity which the
popular high school education cannot fail
15 impart.
The practical man rises and says these
schools are not only useless, but hurtful;
u&eless, because those who can afford the
luxury of higher culture should obtain
It at their own expense; hurtful, because
to start the dreams of high ideals in the
mind OF the average beneficiary OF the
public school is 60 educate him above his
station and prospects, to unfit him for the
hard and simple work which is his mani
fest destiny or at least to make him more
unhappy than he otherwise would have
been, by engendering wants and longings
which lie cannot satisfy, and of which he
would have happily remained unconscious
had he never gone beyond simple interest,
or the parsing of the pronoun in the hrst
person, singular number
Let us waste no time to combat such
fallacies not to say inhumanities 81 as
these. Education stands altogether ON
higher and more independents grounds.
No consideration of practical utility or
material interest can make true education
ANYTHING but higher or ideal education
An education which makes the man, not
the machine which teaches how to live,
rather than how to make living; which
teaches what to be, rather than what TO DO
This Is the culture which makes charac-
~. All education, therefore, Is lntrlnsl-
csllv and necessarily practical but most
"a Iii IL that which tends to moral ana I'D.
talIacfnaI elevation When directed TO
the pursuits Of material objects, 1t ceases
il IL education. aud becomes mere train
inc for special and narrow purposes.
rrba saloon is an institution which de-
Il arvas no quarter Ii is the chief source
Brf crime and poverty. II is the worst
Es.,ay,v If the home, the church and the
Fschcol III ID the most dangerous snare OF
Iyonng men and boys. 1t is the principal
~ N the workingman. II is one OF the
.S3cS,iaf means of destroying life and health.
$Tba hest life insurance companies WILL not
!; usnra saloon keepers ct all, no matter now
Tstronp and healthy and tempe rate they
nav AZ. Accurate calculations OF me sta-
|g<;st;cs have taught them not to take such
$3.50 The reason is plain. The saloon Is
i 10 49, ,,lsca &c deaJh. The saloon causes
,ronsrty adjoining and near u, ana across
81 II st-aat from ii. to depreciate in value
n hissts everything it touches, and taints
~ 49,. IN +, avery direction. It is the curse
"a &. ,,,a.itv the grief Of the righteous,
~ block In the way OF all pro
- - tha invention of the devil Inc
80, ,,,,,st %. The deep mutterings OF
rdi0nation in the hearts Of mil