The Evening dispatch. [volume] (Provo, City, Utah) 1891-1895, 1894-01-23
The Philosophy Of Education.


Lecture delivered by DR.. K. G. Mae
ser before the U. G. 7. A, Januar!
| -. 1894.
FELLOW TEACHERs-To even a pas
sing observer it must have become cleal
that we are standing at the threshold
of new epoch IL the worlds history
The thoughts, feelings, aspirations
and interests of men are assuming
| forms, and turning into directions fol
which existing conditions have no.
made adequate provisions; and the
very intensity of these new require
ments, impatient at the too slow adap
| tations OF the old forms to the new con.
ditions, is not only begettinz extreme
and unhealthy views, but, embittered
| by the resistance of the conservative
elements, threaten violent eruptions
which. exhausting their vitality in the
process of destroying the old, would
not have strength left to construct g
basis for the new
Statesmen, tinanciers, sociologists
philosophers, and clergymen, are
wrestling with this all absorbing pJob.
| lem without any satisfactory results,
so that the feeling even in the most
optimistic circles finds its expression
in the saying quite common before the
French Revolution: ''Apres mons lie
deluge." resting in the comforting de-
fusion, that the flood would not come
in their time.
But among all this chorus of con-
tending elements that seek, for recogni-
tion in the human society, one has been
gradually gaining an influence as a
factor in the social progress, that has
not been recognized to any marked ex-
tent heretofore. / refer to the cause OF
education.
This gradual recognition of educa-
ton as an essen tial factor in the deyel-
opment of the human race to it's final
destiny carries with it, however, a cor
responding amount of Sponsibility to
be met With by the representatives of
the cause, some Of whom | have the
honor of addressing on the present &C.
casion.
Fellow teaChers.-HOW can we meet
it? | shall endeavor to answer it I'M
der the heads of four other questions,
vi2;-Where? What? How? By whom2
wHERE2
Without attempting to detract from
the merits of the heroes in statesman
ship, philosophy, science, literature, and
the arts among any nation and at any
age, in advancing the cause of human
ity to its present high degree of devel
opment, l assert, and history sup
ports me in the assertion, that efforts
having direct bearing on the youth,
have had more thorough-going and
lasting influence upon the nations of
the earth than any other human agency.
Hence. the civilization of to-day is the
result of the combined action of these
various agencies the educational inhu-
ences among its fundamental elements.
From the Egyptians 0rientals, Greeks,
and Romans of antiquity, to the ma
tions of the Anglo-Saxon and Germanic
races of modern times, the cause of
civilization is indebted to great ex-
tent to the educational efforts marking
it's progress.
When in it's onward march from the
countries of the far off east to the
lands of the setting sun, humanity has
outgrown the swaddling clothes of
sen thar arism and is putting on the
toga of higher culture, and finds now
in our beloved country the realization
of Its prophetic dreams for liberty,
equal rights, and unlimited scope for
political, social, mental, and spiritual
improvements is on account of con-
ditions here, that are calculated to pre-
pare the rising generation for the at
tainment of blessings awaiting the hu-
man race upon attitudes of a yet I'M
known development. -
In the countries: of the old world
education used to be the handmade of
desp0tism, having to hide its divine
powers in the sterotyped forms of
scholasticism, but in the free countries
OF the west in these latter times,j edu-
cation is sthe standard bearer of free
dom and Intelligence, recognizing in
leadership but excellence. In the cities
it finds its readiest support, from the
open country it draws its most avail
able material, to the family circle it
looks as its most faithful ally, and in
the schoolroom are located its truest
representatives.
WHAT?
Education consists of two great
branches, coordinate and mutually
supporting, viz,-Conveying of infor
nation, and training. While the
former comprises not only the convey
in G of the knowledge of facts and prin-
ciples, but also the cultivation of the
capac tiles for finding and applying
them, the latter endeavers to encour-
age the pupils in a love for and habit
in the practice of the right,o the true,
and of the good. In short, while teach
ing in its closer application is directed
upon the cultivation of the mind train
ing occupies itself with the formation of
the character. A mere lesson giver,
be he ever SO expert, is no educator, for
while the latter is true artist as it
were, the former is nothing but an
artisan. Upon all the rounds of the
educational ladder, the educator has
before him the ultimate aims of educa-
tion, which are the cultivation OF a
true individuality, the preparation for
a competent membership in human
society, and the development of a pure
spiritual nature. Great problems in
deed, the solutions of which require
the labors of the noblest min DIS.
HOW?
There are princi Piles and methods at
The command of the educator. The
5ormer constitute the basis of a true
teachers labors; he uses methods in
sidentally, like an organist does the
stops on his organ. He that knows
lothing but methods to guide him in
lis labors, becomes that incubus upon
)ur professional pedant. Familiarity
With the most advanced ideas of edu |
cation is an essential requisite of a |
rue teacher, while at the same time
he has to guard himself against that |
disposition to adopt too readily and put |
nto practice every new proposition
advocated in our educational literature.
The experimentalist is only the other
extreme to the pedant, and both are
ioing more harm than good in the
choolroom. The school is a conserva-
i've institution, and the educator has to
let like wise statesman, who, while
Inn h.o e |