The Advocate and news., 1898-02-23


terror OF the college walls!
For those, then, to whom the long,
expensive general course Is out OF the
question, to say nothing of the supple
mentary special course, we must provide
out Of our teeming national wealth the
facilities for instruction on practical
lines That a youth cannot spend four
years In high school, four years in q
college, and from one to four years more
In special technical or professional
course, Is no reason why he should not
be allowed to spend year or two under
competent instruction in learning trade
or preparing himself for the farm.
| What, next, should practical educa-
| ton include? ! answer: First, prepara-
| tion for the work of wealth producer
and want supplier. We must teach our
girls the science and train them in the
art Of domestic life. We must prepare
our boys to cultivate intelligently the
soil and market the produce; to handle
tools and machinery to build engines
and run them; to develop and apply
electricity; to survey roads and cut tun-
nels and build ships; to manufacture
and sell goods; and to perform the other
functions Of members Of an active IN
dustrial society.
The truly practical education cannot
stop simply with the making Of boy or
girl a wealth-produclng machine. It
must go further; 1t is our task to educate
not Isolated Crusoes, or work CATTLE but
citizens-members of society; and pa
triots-lOvers of society. Society Is of
more Importance than is any indlvidual
not only so, but each individual finds his
life in society; his prosperity or ad-
versity is bound up with that of the
great social organism of which he Is a
cell. What can be more practical, then,
than to teach future citizens the laws
underlying the life and growth of that
organism; his place in society; his du-
ties toward it and It's duties toward him?
Rome fell, it is said, through failure in
the crop Of men; If our nation shall
perish it will be because of failure in the
crop Of citizens. Selfshness, seeking
individual gain at social cost; avarice |
and lust OF power leading to the perver-
sion Of common wealth. into private |
property; the swinish philosophy that |
each Is entitled to all he can get; and |
the anarchistic doctrine that leach may
do as he will with his own"-all Of these
are agencies that are sapping the founda-
tions Of the social ediflce.
Where. next, should this practical ed |
ucational course be given? answer,
first, in such institutions as are already |
provided, and in many more that should |
be provided for the purpose; in agricul-
tural and mechanical colleges; in man
ual training schools; in institutes Of |
technology; in the engineering depart
ments Of universities; and in night |
schools for those who must earn their
bread by day. Every State and every
large city in the Union should through
funds raised by taxation, levied on those
best able to bear 1t or otherwise spe-
cially privileged, make provision, not
indirectly, simply, but directly, for fit-
ting each young person within its bOr-
ders for the life Of an economic factor
and of citizen as well.
But the public schools are, after all,
the peoples schools; they, too, must be
brought into line. Their work hitherto
has been too general and abstract. The
movement already begun, to emphasize
in them the practical as we'll as the
PuA0ly aCdueulLcJ SnOulu constantly De
encouraged. The boy should be taught
not only to cipher, but to saw; not only
to parse, but to plant; not only to draw
maps but to draw building plans; and to
balance ration as well as to balance a
ledger. What sound reason can be shown
why children in an agricultural COM
munity should not, by systematic in
be made familiar with the
principles of plant life and growth, the
of soils, the habits Of in
sect pests, and the preparation of whole
some meals? Or what solid argument
can be offered against the proposal to
teach the children in a mechanical COM
munity the processes by which they will
earn their bread and serve their society?
1t will be argued that so highly special