The herald., 1898-01-02

v1dual notions of the elementary school
Higher, or college education gives 6
still broader outlook than does the sec
ondary. AS said by Commissioner Har
ris: THE best definition of that part o.
higher education which is found in thu
college is, that 1t teaches the unity Of
human learning" In mathematics, II
science, In history, in language, in philo
sophy. in sociology, and in art, mar
sees from world point Of view and be
gins to compare one field of thought
with another, thus comprehending theil
INTERPOLATION. Therefore, as even from
a practical standpoint, the high schoo
man eXcels the one with an elementary
education only, so should the college
man, by just as much, excel in practica
affairs the man whose training has not
| extended beyond the secondary school
1t is more easy for the college-bred mar
to change his way of thinking and thus
escape the necessity of being compelled
to follow blindly his old course or a
course marked out by another. He is
more able to reason from cause to ef-
feet, and, therefore, should be more
practical and progressive. The profess
sions Of law and medicine and theo-
logy, indeed, almost demand this
broader training to raise most men who
attempt to practice them above the
ranks of second-class practitioners.
From the liberal point Of view, the
college curriculum contains much that
appeals to man as subjective, that is,
to the perfecting of himself as an end.
He studies history no longer from the
narrow standpoint that he had in the
high school, but comprehends the grand
sweep of human events and the relation
that he personally holds to the past and
to the future Of the race. He appre-
ciates the relation that science and art
hold to the progress of civilization. He
comes in most cases to love some line
of Intellectual work more than others
and continues to pursue 1t after he
leaves college. He even, perchance, has
hobby, drinks deeper and deeper
draughts from the "Pierian spring."
and forgets himself in the absorbing in
terest aroused by some line of study
and research. The liberal part of his
higher education "liberates'' him from
time to time from the sordid conditions
of life; he becomes, indeed, an "heir
Of the ages"and catches glimpses of his
future as a child of immortality.
History and observation show that
higher education has tended in the past
to lean more to the liberal than to the
practical side. Thus it is that we see
so many college men who are impract-
ical dreamers. They are not men of
deeds because their thought has led
them away from considerations of the
world of action into the realms of specu-
latiOn. They might have made good
mechanics or business men if they had
gone from the high school into the shop
or the store, but their liberal education
so far outweighs the practical that they
become comparatively helpless members
Of society. And because of this fault in
our system of higher education the lives
of many are practically ruined. AL
though liberal education, synonymous
to many with u college education, is al
most Indispensable for one who is to
follow one of the learned professions,
it is not proved that the course now Of
fered in most colleges is best for all
men. AS the college curricula now
stand, they point directly towards
professional career for their students
We are thus filling the country with too
many who are educated CO above work.
ing with their hands for a living. Ger
many is considering what must be done
to limit the number who go from the
gymnasium into the university with
view to becoming lawyers or physicians.
This country must consider like uues-
ton ere long.
A true ideal would lead us to formu-
late such college courses as would give
a wise proportion of studies for both
liberal and practical training and thus
encourage all to look forward to col
lege education.
The true university is supposed to give
a still broader education than that
of the college. 1t would be better to
say deeper, for specialization is the or
der of the work there. Thought, in it's
different departments, completes it's
circle and the student returns from the
broad congratulations of his college
course to practical investigation of
some particular subject in accordance
with the laws that he has already learn
ed. On this specialization depends all
progress in the arts and sciences. The
man who would give something new to
the world must, therefore, unless he is
we'll endowed by nature for
by himself, go beyond his
college course and give some years to
special work in university. The profess
sional man who would make the
greatest success and do the most good in
the world whether as a physician, law
yer, or as a teacher of divine truth, will
take a broader and yet a more special
lied course than the college, or even the
bare requirements of a professional
school can give him. The higher educa-
ton obtained in the university is, there
fore, more practical than that of the col
lege. Thus we see another completion
of the circle of learning from the practi-
cal to the liberal and back again to the
practical.
But in all of this educational journey
from the elementary school to the higher
realms of the specialist in the university
the subjective training of the Individual,
as such, must not be lost sight of. The
liberal education, the personal culture
that ought to come to him by right of his
should grow year by year
till he is lifted up above the plane of
mere sensuous living and working, into
such higher realms Of wisdom as will
help him to attain his true end as a son
and heir of the eternal and omniscient
God.
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