Lawrence democrat. (Lawrenceburg, Tenn.) 1884-1925, 1894-04-20
OBJECT OF EpucATlun
What the Schools DO r Young Men no
Women in the Race OF Life.


Women in the Race OF Life.
Once upon time, dull, unthinking
man asked the teacher of a public
school what was tn, use of all this
elaborate education to which the pu
pills were treated, "Why," said he,
do you teach them all these things?"
10 help them get living" replied
the teacher. But this meant nothing
to the inquirer, for he brought up In
stance after instance of decidedly ig-
norant men who had amassed fortunes
There are many people who take this
limited view of education, who when
ever there is talk about higher intelli.
gence, advanced methods and more
comprehensive investigation, will turn
| about and assert that man needs only
reading, writing and spelling, and pos
sibly not these. in order TO get rich and
be prosperous.
For such it may be said that educa,
tion is waste of tilae. They would
neither know nor care how to make use
of it, unless, indeed, during the process
they developed ideas and intelligence
sufficient to enable them to compre-
bend what this system of mental al
chemy means. There are persons in
| the world who can never be educated,
| do with them what you will; they are,
and ever will remain dense, stolid,
ftupid, selfish and short-sighted.
But the higher forms of education
are not meant for such as these. They
are reserved for those who by nature
are able to grasp the greatest thoughts
and turn them to account The sledge.
hammer may in due course of time re-
duce rocks to powder, but the lightning
| pulverizer performs this act with a
| precision and dispatch that fairly takes
| the breath away from the beholder.
| The one is reading, writing and SPELL
ing, the other is comprehensive educa-
ton of high order. 1t is scarcely
worth while, in this day and age of the
| world, to use the spinning wheel, the
! pick and shovel, the fail and the hand
loom, when science and steel, brains
and betting can accomplish in one day
the work that aforetime consumed
months or years. TO harness the forces
of nature to our chariots, to press the
elements into our service, to turn the
antagonistic properties of matter into
means for removing distractions from
our pathway is the result of education
thought and the development of ment-
al capacity.
1t is not necessary to be college bred
in order to do this, and education does
not always mean the ability TO say off
page after page by rote, but to grasp a
subject, thoroughly understand its in
tricacies and know the why's and
wherefores of all of its contemporary
interests One may invent machine
that will revolutionize an entire branch
of service and yet be unfamiliar with
classics, and not even know the mean
ing of the more abstruse propositions
that philosophers delight to cogitate
over; but the inventor must understand
the laws that govern the forces with
which he experiments, and must in the
nature of things be learned in the par
ticular line that he has chosen to fol-
low. 1t is a great mistake to imagine
that one must be college-bred in order
to be termed educated
Given the capacity to read, write and
spell with fiuency and accuracy, and
many man would acquire all of the
necessary branches with but little diff
Guilty. Others may be drilled under a
college curriculum from years end to
years end and never be able so much
as to earn his salt
1t is evident, in view of circumstances
continually coming before our notice
that in many cases it is quite as much
the man that makes the education as
the education makes the mann. Y.
T,a1Uar