Asheville daily citizen. [volume] (Asheville, N.C.) 1890-1900, 1891-07-30
EDUCATION IS DISCUSSED
DIR. j. l.. M. CURRY'S ADDRESS
LAST EVENING.
A Thoroughly strong Plea for
Manual schools by One Who is
Thoroughly COnversant with
Education in all its Phases.

| Thoroughly COnyerSant With
Education i'm all Its Phases.
DR.. ]. L. M. Curry addressed a repre-
sentative gathering of citizens yesterday
afternoon in the rooms of the Lyceum,
on the subject of manual training
schools, and of the Importance of their
adoption in connection with the city
graded schools.
The speakers vast and varied expert
ence as scholar and statesman, his ex-
tensive travels, his position of trust as a
distributor OF the Peabody Fund, his
intense love for the people OF his native
Southland, and the earnest desire for
their wellbeing, make invaluable the
suggestions he may offer for their ele-
walton and peculiarly qualify him to lead
mems minds in the intelligent discussion
OF ways and means to obtain the de-
sired end.
The speaker remarked as Introductory
that his talk would he on a matter con
nected with the future prosperity of
Asheville's schools, white and black, a
matter that grows more important each
year, one of vital Importance to the life
and prosperity OF the whole nation, but
IN which he had no personal interest.
In this progressive age nothing has
made greater strides than the matter of
education. The extraordinary budgets
published and distributed each year by
the European nations regarding educa-
tion within their states are evidences of
the marvellous advancement madcin this
science. The establishment of public
schools is regarded as the greatest act Of
the epoch. There is nothing comparable
to it.
The public school idea is of recent
growth, and is the outcome of the belief
that all men have a God given, inaien-
able right to be educated. A right to be
shared in alike by the girls; YOU must
throw open the doors of all schools from
he university down, to girls as well as
boys.
BETTER Teachers Needed.
All immediate Improvement is demand
ed in the teachers of / he country S schools.
The best Teacher must be secured, and in
his selection the questions of politics,
sectionalism or whose brother-in-law he
is, should not enter. There is no Mason
and Dixon line in grammar or arithmetic,
nor should there be in geography. Who |
is he or she? What does he or she know ?
Has he learned child-nature and can he
apply the knowledge in the school-room? |
These are the foundation principles. The |
best teacher is he who knows what to
teach and how to teach l.. Sucll tcaci-
ing is science, and those fortunate per
son who possess the art are equipped
with special preparation, and their ser.
vices must be paid for, and well paid for,
and are worth all they cost.
More Complete Education.
Further improvement must be in the
character and kind of education. The |
whole man, not part, must be educated.
Man is complex creature md every
part of him must be educated. Herein |
lies the fault of college instruction, it is |
tragmentary, incomplete. There is too
much OF the Chinese method of instruc-
tion, of training the memory only, of
past generations. The education has
been too literary, exclusively literary, too
solely for the mind. The aim has been
to make Latin and Greek scholars, few
doctors, few lawyers, and there stop.
Manual Training Schools.
There are three kinds of schools. First,
the chronological, where architects and
the various kinds of engineers are made.
Second, the trade schools, where bows
and men are taught to make finished
article-are taught trade. Third the
manual training schools where hand and
eye are disciplined, trained and taught
along with the mind. manual train
ing school in connection with the city
graded school is the crying need of to-
day. At little cost room and the nee.
essary apparatus can be had wherein to
teach boys the rudiments and principles
of mechanics, where they may acquire
manual skill and dexterty, not to be
machine nor part of a machine, nor to
do work merely routine, nor to be taught
the trade. This is the practical educa-
tion that gives the boy something to
start on, and such education is entirely
practical. Manual training schools in
successful operation in Philadelphia.
Washington, Toledo, Des Moincs and
other cities prove this to be fact. The
boys who go from them, can at once take
up their ltework and be rid of the drudg.
cry that attends the early years of the
average apprentice. He has learned the
principles of manual dexterity and is
ready to put them into practice. He has
been taught the application of science to
industry.
Practical Education.
What's the boy fit for who is turned
out of school or college today? What
can he do? 1t is deplorable fact that
he is fit for nothing. 1t is a sad fact that
more utterly useless, or helpless being
does not exist He is waiting for some
thing to turn up. or is of the large and
rapidly increasing number who are seek
ing clerkships in stores or banks. He is
not to be blamed, he is not fit for any
thing else; his education has made him
non-producer, has moved him away
from the producing class. lawyer, as
a lawyer, adds nothing to the property
OF the country, nor does an editor as an
editor. These and other professions must
be filled but they do not add one red cent
to the products of the country. Ths
boys need to be fitted for the active
duties of life before they leave school.
European wisdom.
The United States has given more
money for the purposes of education than
any country on the globe. The European
countries, by the system of practical edu-
cation of their manual training school,
are fitting their boys to occupy the posi-
tions that require skill and command and
obtain the highest compensation. Their
scholars are taught sense of ohserva-
tion, and the other senses are developed.
These are taught from the beginning, and
they get more than book knowledge; his
constructive powers are awakened now