Audubon Republican. [volume] (Audubon, Iowa) 1894-1925, 1895-03-14
THE DIRECTION OF EDUCATION.
The most important, if not the most


obvious. gains in the modern economic
arts are in the ways of saving labor
The century ofinyention which is near
ing its close will remain forever mem
orable, for the reason that it has vastly
increased the resources OF civilized
people. 1t is indeed likely that close
analysis of the conditions would show
that, in mechanical employmentS, the
productive power of men has increased
not less than hvefold over what it was
| in the later years of the eighteenth
century; the last hundred years having
| teen greater in results than all the pre-
vious ages during which our kind had
| been learning the lessons Of employ
ment. The ancientS conceived the
world as Relatively simple. We recog-
niZe it as infinitely complex. TO them
the earth appeared to be limited
realm, whose stores could be readily
| inyentOried. We see it as universe
holding an inexhaustible store of things
unknown, all OF which may be made
usesul to man.
BY the diversity of employments
which have necessarily arisen in our
modern life, we precelye, or at least are
| beginning to discern, that in our fellow
| men there is another universe as rich
| in resource as the physical world. SO
| long as the occupations were limited i'll
their variety, as they were until this
developed age, it was a relatively
simple classification which had to be
provided to Include the several kinds
of talent that could be of service to
society. Above the plane of the com
mon herd, whose peculiar capacities
were no more considered than are those
of the sheep in the flock, there were
but a dozen or so fields of endeayor in
which talent was of value. The act
ivities of the statesman, the soldier,
the priest, the jurist, the physician, the
architect, with some few minor Occu-
patiOns, represented the walks of life
upon which man of capacity could
well enter. When placed by birth or
the chance of life in any vocation, lit
tie account was taken of the special
qualities that he might possess. DIFF
ferenceS in power were of course well
recognized but diversities of talent,
those peculiarities Of nature which,
developed by education, might fit the
person for particular mplishments,
were, until our own time, commonly
disregarded.
Even in our day, the diversity of men
that peculiar accommodation of the
mental parts which fits each individual
for specific duty, and makes every
fairly educated person especially suited
to some of the manifold tasks of society
has not been formerly recognized. We
non onlu N NJ a ~ rpnrb Of
the facts in the endless shifting of our
population to and fro among the yOca-
tiOnS, as each man looks for the exact
kind Of labor which he is fitted to do.
LabOrers and employers are eyer seek
ing to avail themselves of this diversity
of talents; in fact, large part Of the
gain in the economic efficiency Of the
labor of our time has doubtless come
from this very modern system whereby
the man may make a trial of his talents
by esSaying various forms of work,
until he finds the task which is his
birthright. Human intercourse is in
It's nature so limited that it ordinarily
reveals only very small part of the
latencieS of the individual. Immemo-
rial custom has Infatuated us to accept
the little of our neighbOr which is dis,
closed TO us in his aspect or his speech
as satisfactory indication of the man.
For the simpler purposes of life these
signs of quality are sufficient, but in
this new day, when we have to fit men
to do deeds of exceeding variety and
deliCaCy; when, in a word, we have to
adjust the man to his duty in u way
that was not necessary in the ruder and
more primitive conditions of civiliza-
ton, these rude tests will not suffice.
In their place must come a system
wherein each person shall be explored
for capacity, and the task of muturing
the talent shall receive the attention
which we already devote to our
mechanical cOntrivances, or to our
domesticated animals and plants.
There are those who hold that all
capacity is common or united quality ::
that if a man have mental power it may
be turned in any direction, so that from
the same strong mind we may, accord
| ing to the nurture, make the poet, the
statesman. the soldier, or the diseoverer
| of natural order. ! doubt if any ex-
! perienced teacher, who has been will
| ing to be taught by his experience, will
affirm this opinion. The evidence
which comes to him is to the effect that
| capacities are special; that though men
tai strength must be the foundation of
all ability of profitable sort, the direc-
ton or set of the individual capacity is,
in substantially all cases, determined
by the conditions of Inheritance; that
it is implanted in the individual by
events which were shaped before he
came upon the earth. 1t may be some
what qualified by the powers of educa-
tion, but the essential form remains to
guide the stream of life. AS at present
contrived, our educational systems
proceed OH the assumption that persons
of the same sex and age are substantial
| ly alike; and further, that the aim of
training is to bring the young to GER
tain standard modes of thought and ac-
ton which experience shows to be best
for people according to their social or
intellectual casts; in word, to bring
| them into an ancantal q nanasSaru Stata