The farmers' union. (Memphis, Mo.) 1891-1895, 1892-12-01
THE NEW EDUCATION.
METHODS OF SCHOOL MEN
FAST BEING SUPPLANTED.
No Man Is Loss Van Because He
Walks Ectween the finw Hand es or
Vie Il. tho blacksmith Hammer at
the Anvil,
No I iStEctiOn.

Time was when no man was classcd
with educated people unless he had
studied in classical college. The
dead languages, mathematics, history,
and Il sort of mummery called logic,
were the basis of the old educational
system. This old system, hc it under
stood. was not entirely bed in its cf-
fects; it served TO train n.any q gener-
alton of good and great men; i. was an
effort toward better education, aud,
as beginning. served good purpose.
But the methods OF the school men
are fast being snpplan ed by better
methods: and to-day many of the fa-
nous colleges and universities that
We're built On the old foundations. and
that long followed the old lines with
dogmatic persistence, are changing
their ideas and their methods and their
courses of instruction. and at present
the educational world is in what may
be called transition stage, following
neither the old WAYS strictly nor Yet be-
ing committed to the new.
But there are schools and colleges
that have left the trodJcn ways of the
past: there are among the thinking
and growing educators of the present
time men who dare to risk being called
heretics that they may advocate new
and helpful IDEAS, and that they may
teach the new doctrines that the hands
and brains should be trained together,
and that the men who are TO work on
the farms and in tie shops. and the
women who are to manage household
affairs, should be educated for their
future work.
The new education demands that
every man and woman. whether in
tending to follow professional or an
industrial calling, should be educated
as broadly as ossih!c and at the same
time trained as thoroughly as possible
in line with intended work or business.
Can serious fault be found with an
educational system that has such AIMS
and that is planned to accomplish its
purpose? Ger. ainlv 10 one who be
lieves in starting out with the best
equipment for lites duties will object
to such system. The mistietoe and
the lily OF the social world. who toll
| not nor spin, may insist that a kncNl-
| edge of music ard art and the human
tiles should he the true test of cduca-
ton and culture; but the plain pcol le
| who have always been the real force il,
advancing civilization, will turn TO
, the new as surely as tho blade nf grass
| grows up toward the sunlight.
And what schools teach according to
the new system? Are there any col
leges of $ anding that have left the old
and are teaching men and women the
sciences that apply to the business OF
the farm and the household?
The host Of agricultural colleges and
hundreds of special schools make eIo-
quent answer to these questions. But
be offered Not all the colleges named
Agricultural are true to the name.
In some states the funds see aside for
agricultural colleges have been given
to colleges with agricultural anncxcs
| These do not and cannot truly repre-
sent the new education: for in them
the influence of the old scholastic
method is bound TO assert itself. and
make students in the special depart
ments feel that they are not really 8
part of the institution they arc in. The
college, to be q rea' agricultural eel
| lege, must be entirely distinct from 6
literary institution.
Tynes of the last sor. Of agricultural
colleges are to be seen il several states
In these all the officers AMI teacher:
are in sympathy with industrial ednca
ton. From president to janitor the,
believe that no man is less man be
cause he walks between the nlow han
dies or uses IL blacksmith $ hammer
than If he stood behind the none,
changers desk or the minister's pull
pilt. These institutions are conducted
in harmony with the idea tha: no call
ing can honor an honorable man, hu
that any honorable man honors an,
calling. They make no distinction
between the woman wiiose hand
knead the bread for her family and th'
woman who earns bread for her fanl'
by practicing meticine.-Farmers
Friend.