The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1897-10-10
THE PRACTICAL IN EDUCATION.

The increase of facilities at the agri-
cultural school at St. Anthony Park.
in response to a greatly increased de-
mand upon that institution, is to us q
most encouraging educational sign. 1t
indicates a growth of appreciation Of
the value of the practical in education,
and realization of what the majority
of our boys and girls need, that has
been sadly wanting in the past. There
was a time, it will be remembered,
when the agricultural department of
the state university had, we believe, a
single student on it's rolls. It is not
merely the increase in attendance, re-
quiring a steady construction of build
ings at the state agricultural school,
that makes the change, but it is the
adoption of a curriculum having a
distinct and direct relation to the af-
fairs of daily life that commands at
tention and approval.
There has been a singular absence
from our blind theoretical worship of
education as an end in itself. rather
than means to an end, of any realt-
cation of what it ought to mean ir
the individual case, and of what it
ought to mean when it is furnished
free of charge by the state We have
taken up, foolishly enough, the old
idea of liberal education; that is. the
idea of Of
was intended from the beginning, and
has been used for centuries, to fit men
for one of the three so-caIled learned
professions, and have carried that
down to the very groundwork of our
system as the thing which the state
owes to it's citizens The assumption
is palpably illogical and absurd
The only reason ever given
why state should offer free
education to it's children is found
ed on the argument that it is a part
of it's duty to prepare them for citizen
ship. The university and, to a large
extent, the common schools and the
high school, as preparation for the
university, are adapted to fit the pupil
for professional life Now, good citi-
Zenship and professional life may and
do coeXist, but they are not at ali
Identical; and. in the case of a large
majority of our people, who are not
destined for professional life and not
fitted for it, the whole public educa-
tional system is seen to be awry. No
one would approve it, if the state were
to pass law requiring every pupil to
take three years course in painting
and sculpture. Why not? These forms
of art are of the highest value, and, If
every man and woman were a genius
as painter or sculptor, undoubtedly the
average of citizenship would be raised.
The reason why such provision is not
made is obviously because but small
percentage of human beings are fitted
by nature or destined by circumstance
to pursue the higher forms of
art; and that preparatory work
spent upon it would be a waste
Of money to the state and Of
time to the pupil, leaving him in the
end more lily prepared for actual life
as he must find it than if he had not
been educated at all.
Precisely the same argument applies
to education for the work of physician,
lawyer or clergyman, If the subject of
it Is not going to be either. Yet that Is
what our educational system has been
and still is. AS consequence, it
crowds the professions with the addi-
ton annually Of thousands of new
corners, who would be better off in
some other calling. It makes thousands
Of others, who have to stop short Of
entry into professional life. discon-