The record-union. [volume] (Sacramento, Calif.) 1891-1903, 1899-06-11
MISFIT EDUCATION.

MISFTT EDUCATION.
It will be scarcely said that Mr.. Q.
p. Huntington had counsel with Re-
becca Harding Davis before he ex-
pressed himself so forcibly concerning
misfit higher education. 1t is not likely
that Mr.. Huntington knows the es-
sayist to- whom we refer, or has any
idea what her views are, nor for that
matter is she widely or much known
as a writer upon educational topics.
But it happens that she is quite in
harmony with the idea of which Mr..
Huntington is an exponent, and In, the
North American Review she spoke
her mind very freely upon the subject.
She goes beyond Mr.. Huntington in her
declarations, and extravagantly pro-
nounces a. curse, for most part, that
which We regard as a blessing-the ed
ucational system of the country. Her
idea is that there is too much rush to
booktsa1 education Of youth, that there
is no blessing like the education we
can use; but that the education which
we cannot use is a curse
Intellectual education she insists win
tics to show that crime has not de-
creased but has rather increased with
the expansion of educational facilities
She however owerlooks the fact that we
reckon as crime now, a large class of
offenses which formerly were not so
Il !
ably Increased in greater proportion
than has the population, so, too, have
the facilities for and the temptations to
1t and that neither of these can be hon.
estly charged against the educational
system.
The fact that the larger number Of
convicts can read and write is not.
We take it. proof that reading and
writing are conducive Of criminalfty.
But when she comes to the declaration
that there is in higher education a
great deal Of misf1t education-and this
appears to be her conclusion-she is in
Zine with true Judgment
1t is not that there is too much edu-
cation, she declares, but 1t is not given
: with the wisdom and discrimination
which should obtain It does not. as
1t should. develop the individual ca
pacity; 1t does not, as it should, seek
out the quality of the mind Of the pu-
pill and train 1t fully towards full de-
velopndent, and in a way that will make
1t of.Tractica1 usefulness to the individ-
nal In tdS rf, w; -, ~, - x,-or,5
Our,educat1onal system does not, as it
should, she holds, give youth a GER
tain character of capital with which to
go into the business of the world, since
the professions are enormously over
crowded, and youth is taught-if not
Taught it is acquired-to look down
with contempt upon on the trades and
manual labor Proceeding from diff.
ferent premises and along different
lines, the lady reaches much the same
conclusion contained in Mr.. Hunting
tons remarks which have awakened SO
much debate, namely, that in higher
education there is great deal of mis-
fit education, and that knowing this
to be SO, society is derelict Of duty,
If 1t does not apply corrective.
The evil of trusts and combines is
in the first place much exaggerated
In the second place the matter will reg
ulate itself. Under the irnmutable laws
of trade this must be. The combine
contains within itself, when extended as
at present, the elements of defeat. A
few great trusts will survive and what
ever the law they will continue to exist
in one way or another. But when the
whole country rushes into combinations
of trade. to lessen production and raise
prices, the inevitable result must be a
reaction from within; fact is. already
the signs are to be seen of the disselu-
ton Of trusts. Too many investors in
them are producing conditions which
will operate precisely as ifsno trusts ex
listed. As contemporary well says,
all human endeavor has its limita-
tons The point beyond which equi
1ibriuin cannot be- maintained is sure TO
be reached, and then the tumbling of
the trusts will be eQualed only by the