Worcester morning daily spy., 1898-01-13
OUT AND ABOUT
PROS AND CONS OF COLLEGE EDU-
CATION EXPLOITED.
Debate at Woman's Club-Plenty of
Opinion and Discussion--Ide Birth
day-Clark-Hil MeClellan-Armsby
Weddings Second Parish Club.

opinion and Discussion-Ide Birth
day-Clark-Hil McClellan-Armsby
Wedding Second Parish Club.
That the club women Of Worcester
favor college training for either boys
or girls above every other form of edu-
cation was shown conclusively Wednes-
day, when the expediency and prac-
ticability Of such training was discussed
with animation at the Woman's Club,
| The debate was the first one
to be held in the. club and
! education committee, Mrs. Emma G.
| Marble, chairman. 1t formed one of
the most interesting programs the club
has known, and ought to be sufficient to
dissipate the prejudice which exists in
the minds of some against the enter
tainment furnished by the club MEM
bers.
The question was as follows: ere
| solved, that a college education gives
our boys and girls the best possible
preparation for the duties and response
bilities Of life" The leaders We're; At
firmative, Mrs. Carrie S. Ward, Mrs.
Mary e. Whiting; negative, Miss Ellen
A. Kimball, Mrs Emma e. Foster.
Mrs. Ward opened the debate. 'fWe
have passed through the pioneer stage
of development in this country" she
said, "and are now in the money-get-
ting stage. The next era will be one of
development, in which will appear the
true value of a wide and liberal edu-
cation. Till it comes people will con-
tinue to ask why they should send their
boys to college unless they are to enter
a learned profession. Now, the aim of
| - e.. -t,,o-
or a professional life, but to educate for
life in a general sense, and its special
purpose is not so much the acquisition
of knowledge as the development of
power. Every man makes more with
training than without 1t, and the four
years of training which the college lad
receives occurs at a time In
his life when it is Of the ut
most value. But with the de-
velopment of the mind comes develop
ment of the soul, and in this respect the
personality of professors has marvel
Gus effect"
Continuing, Mrs. Ward made an en-
phatic plea for the athletic training
which the college gives as being force
for good morals and temperance. Al
ready it has developed a new sentiment
among students. and to grow old be-
fore ones time is regarded as disreputa-
BILE.
Then on the side of adaptability and
| quickness the college man has greatly
the advantage over other men. There
are few self-made men in the country
who do not feel their lack of education;
| self-made men always want their sons
| to go to college, and are the ones who
endoW universities. DR.. Chauncey De-
pew, who has observed college gradu-
ates as they begin to work on the rail-
roads as conductors, agents and the like,
! testifes to their superiority in UNDER
standing principles and executing or
ders. In Journalism, college education
| is almost a necessity. In conclusion
| Mrs. Ward likened the college graduate
| to a trained horse about to run race.
All doors swing open before the man of
knowledge. The rich man can make his
money open the doors of enjoyment; to
| the poor man it is given to open them
through knowledge.
The negative side was opened by Mrs.
Foster with the declaration that she
most thoroughly believed that college
education was not the best preparation
for every child, as every one who had
| brought up more. than one child must
have discovered. Children vary in their
Unborn mental power, and what one
!
of another child, his equal intellectual
". We can not expect mechanical fruit
from a linguistic mind, or biology from
an artist. If the poet is made, SO is
the scientist. Arthur Henry Hallam
failed to illustrate Cambridge, because
| of his repugnance to it's mathematics,
and Prof. Richards of the Institute of
Technology has testified that he was
Ounce until at the age of 10 he began
studying science.
Mrs. Foster went ON to say that she
had even begun to question whether the
| high school was beneficial to all. The
veneer of culture derived from the study
of a distasteful branch was dear price
to pay for the disgust engendered and
the dishonest habits of shirking culti-
waited.
But even if a college training were
the perfect education, there are many
young persons so limited in mental
growth as not to make college desira-
Bile. For many a practical life is pref
cradle, because 1t tends to cultivate
characteristics which are not cultivated
to a great extent in college, /. e., faith
fulness, truthfulness and industry. Il
would not have these leave school at IS
or 10, said Mrs. Foster. If neither the
| college nor the technical school are for
them, there ought to be some other
kind of school, perhaps a workshop,
where they could spend a part Of each
day, with studies that would have a
practical connection with the needs Of
their life.
Culture and polish are only tools; skill
to use them is not taught at college.
Too many college graduates make the
| mistake of thinking that they are
equipped for life. Is there not too great
a divorce between college life and prac-
| tical life? Especially in the case Of
young men, we know that they are
/ placed under unnatural conditions while
at college If a student is really a stu
dent, he may get the equivalent of
what he has lost in going to college, but
II ne is student only for the sake of
getting on the foot ball team, some
4 other preparation for life would be much
| better.
As Mrs. Ward had limited her re-
marks to considering college train
ing for boys, Mrs. Whiting, the second
speaker upon the affirmative, devoted
her efforts to proving the advantages Of
a college training for girls She first
took up the general objection that is
made against girls going to college.
which is that the training they receive
there will tend to unfit them for domes-
/ tic life. She thought that with Frances
| Willard, Lucy Stone and Mrs. Alice
Freeman Palmer before us as examples.
no one need fear that the girl collegian
would become unwomanly, and that, as
| for instruction in domestic matters. the
girl who went to college stood quite as
/ good chance Of learning housekeep-
ing and child culture as the average
4 erfv- 81 In ,f,af1r 1..r-s mi.