The Marietta journal. [volume] (Marietta, Ga.) 1866-1909, 1894-04-12
The Present System of
/, Education Inadequate.
A USELESS EXPENDITURE OF TIME.
The Man Who Has a Skilled Hand and
Brain is Always Ready for
Amy Emergency. :.

l
public, as we'll as to the educators,
the conviction that the present sys-
tenn of education is inadequate to
the demands Of the day. The great
public, which is more directly inter.
ested in school m sthods than the
educators themselves, are waking
to the conviction that there is much
useless expenditure of time and
effort in putting the boy or girl
through the course of study in the
schools. This conviction is not
limited to any class Of intelligence.
1t is perneating all classes. With
this more complete view of educa-
ton comes among the higher classes
greater respect for skilled labor.
In these days when riches suddenly
take to themselves wings and fly
away; VIXEN there may be luxury
one week and penury the next, it is
necessary for every one to be pre-
pared for these emergencies. The
exigencies in business life cannot
always be foretold with accuracy.
The laws that govern the evolutions
OF commerce are to certain extent
the same In their tendency and as
unerring in their effect as those that
govern the evolution of nature.
1t has long been a great mistake
of the rich to educate their children
in the efflorences of knowledge, and
to teach them to view manual labor
as lowering in its influences. But
self preservation is one of the first
laws of nature and there are com
paratively few people who would
rather starve to death than work
with their hands. The instinct OF
nature is strong with US all, and
there is 1hat consciousness in every
one, at least in nearly every one,
that forces him to labor in order to
save his own life The complica-
tons Of social conditions and the
consequent competition iu all de-
partments OF industrial and pro,
fessional life, together with these
sudden disappearance of fortunes,
are impressiug upon the minds OF
all, the rich as we'll as the poor, tn e
necessity of being forearmed. The
man who is armed is always ready
for an attack. The man who has a
skilled brain and hand to tall back
upon is ready for an emergency.
If society is to be coDpactly built
and enduring We must all contribute
our labor, not only to make it So,
but to keep it Sc. We have now as
much Of the disintegra ting elements
as we Deed. These are the criminal
classes, the paupers, the insane, the
bedridden, the homeless, the aged,
the infrm. We have in this wide
domain many that are needy, but
are not yet the wards of the public.
With the increase of the population
comes an increase in society's bur-
dens.
The complication in social cor di-
tons must be evident to every one
that will take the trouble to pene>
trate the slight crust which en-
velops life in the United States.
The only way to put an obstacle
in the way Of this alarming increase
in our non>producing clsse, or nom
contributing classes, is to educate
our children to become producers
and contributors. The present sys.
tenn of education is good 60 far as it
goes, but it does not go tar enough.
1t all members of society were
producers as we'll as consumers
there would be less necessity for
poor houses. Practical education
might, and undoubtedly would les
sen the tendency to crime. An idle
brain is the devils workshop is a
saying as true as it is old. Thomas
Carlyle's ringing sentences may be
quoted here. Say the great philos.