Goldsboro weekly argus. [volume] (Goldsboro, N.C.) 1885-1909, 1900-10-11
EDUCATION.
BY Walter Vrooman, Founder Of
Ruskin Hall, Oxford, England.

When I hear the question, What is
the true and best education? I am re-
minded of a stranger who once entered
an American village asking every one
he met kindly to point out to him the
true road. When questioned as to
where he wanted to go he answered
that he had forgotten the name of the
town, but thought that he might reach
it in spite Of his forgetfulness if only
| some one would be so good as to show
him the true a
In study, as in travel, every road is
the true road if only you desire to go
where it leads you; the rightness or
in every case depending on
your destination.
ALI healthful, vigorous and continu-
Gus effort of min or body is education
and develops the organs Or faculties
exercised. What kind of education is
most desirable depends altogether upon
what kind of a man or woman you
wish to be-. The educational problem
cannot be intelligently stated (to say
nothing of a so1ution) until as a basis
for discussion we determine clearly the
ideal of MANHOOD or special aptitude to
be striven for.
We may discuss in%telligently the
means and routes for travelling from
one definitely determined point to an
OlICI, Oul there Gail OO uO lhl011lSeII
discussion of direction, methods or
routes for going from INDICATED start
ing points to j~uSt-better places in gen.
eral. And can be more absurd
than to suppose that in the complex
and heterogeneous social organization
of the last years of the nineteenth GEN.
fury there is but one type of educated
man, but one true education?
There is not only one, but there are
| m nv fTI1o 0611ratjnnS aS 1n9nu aG
there are different functions in society.
What should we think of a man who
claimed that the real needs of an unfin-
ished house are a cupola, a bay window
and a third story? To apply the terms
Finish" and Education" to any cut
and-dried curriculum or process is
equally absurd and illogical.
In coming to college a young man is
often advised not to form any opin-
ions until he has read the great pro-
auctions that fill the BILE book
shelves shown to him. If he follows
this advice, long before he has thus
prepared himself to hold an opinion
properly he loses the capacity for ever
having an opinion at all.
Witness in every great centre of cul-
ture the multitude VINO, having filled
themselves with earning until, like a
tin cup with it's bottom burst out, they
can take in everything without the ca
pacity for really possessing anything
are unable to utter a positive express
r sion on any subject. AS well tell a
. man to stop breathing until he has
learned to breathe properly-he would
soon be beyond the possibility Of learn
ing.
Think, hope, believe and try, always
bearing in mind that vigorous error is
the only precursor of living truth
while negation and cynicism lead only
to paralysis and death.
A rustic or a labOrer upon looking
through a window and seeing a COW en-
tangled in its rope and being gored o.
abused by another beast will instantly
hasten to rescue the dumb brute from
it's torture. Lacking the power of con
c~entration that comes of culture, hi
acts are directly and easily Influenced
y by his surroundings.
The scholar, on the other hand, i
his instincts are true to scholarly ira
ditions and good form, on looking III
from his desk and seeing an entangle'
brute gored by its fellow, will seize
notebook and pencil, with a volume o
Is bovine zoology, and while writing dow
), his observations, be heard to nurmur
What an interesting phenomenon! S
expressive of brute psychology"
It is time that we recognize tina
there are two different types of char
acter, one promnting primarily to OBJ
~servation, the other producing the ma
whose acts are recorded.
AS a practical remedy for a syster
of education that is aimless and AGA
"a demic I believe in the establishing c
a number of self-help colleges, in whic
n every student shall be a laborer a
l. well as a learner.