The Jamesburg record., 1901-08-17
Value of an Education.

Said DR.. y. c. Schaefer, OF Harris
burg. Pa, il the Journal OF Educa
ton: An Indiana jury awarded S599,
90 for the killing of boy. 4 friend
of mine, who is a superintendent il
West Virginia, called that award ar
outrage. l asked him why. He
answered, To say nothing Of the
value OF the boy 5 personality and all
that boy is to his father and mother
at home, the commercial value Of the
BOYS time at school is more than the
award of that Indiana jury . l ask
ed him how he made the calculation.
He said, You find the value of a
boys time at school by substracting
the earnings of life of uneducated
labor from the earnings of life of
educated labor" Then he gave me
calculation that I have used this
year before every Institute, for I am
anxious to get itinto the daily papers,
ohaveitcarriedt to every school-room
and put upon every blackboard SO
that the pupils may carryith home and
discuss it with their parents.
He said: "If an uneducated man
earns 81. so a day for three hundred
days in the year, he does very we'll:
and if he keeps it up for forty years
he will earn 81 5ox3oox4o, or SI8,-
900. An educated man is not gen
orally paid by the day, but by the
month and by the year. If you will
strike an average of the earnings of
educated men, beginning with the
President of the United States, who
earns $50, 900 a year, the presidents
OF the insurance companies and Of
large railroad companies, and run
down the scale until you come to the
lower walks in point of earnings
among educated men you will admit
that 81 900 a year is low average for
the earnings of educated labor. For
forty years you have $40, 900 as the
earnings Of an educated man. Sub
tract SI8, 900 from $40, 900 and the
difference, or S22, 600, mustrepresent
the value of a boys time spent at
school in getting an education. "You
will all admit that the man who works
with his hands tunskilled labor puts
forth as much muscular effort as the
man who earns his livelihood by his
wits and education. Now, if S22,
600 represents the value of time that
a boy spends at school in getting an
education, what is the value OF
a day spent at school? The aver
age school life Of every boy and girl
in Massachusetts, is seven years of
two hundred days each; let US say
that it takes four years more to get a
good education. Reckoning eleven
years of two hundred days each and
you will find that the 1900 days at
school are equal to S22, 900 and a
simple division on the blackboard will
bring home to the comprehension of
every boy that every day at school
properly spent, must be worth $40.
What sort of letters do we get at the
school department? One director
asks whether it is a violation of the
compulsory law if farmer keeps at
home his eleven year old boy to p1ow,
because it costs SI.oo a day to get
some man to do the work. While he
is putting gI.oo into his own pocket
he is robbing that boy of $40 in the
shape of future earning capacity. Is
not that high-handed robbery by a
father of his own child ?"
Says the Elmira Summary-"Ten
dollars a day" that is the value in
motiey of every day spent at school
How many realized this when they
were going to school? Very few,
probably. But when the earnings of
educated and uneducated men are
compared it IS not to be gainsaid.
THERE'S only one point to be re-
membered, and that is, the manner
in which the days at school are
spent. For if they are not spent
right, then they are not worth ten
dollars. If school is a bugbear and
the studies are bores, as they are to
some boys, then the ten-dollar gain
is out of the question But if school
is a delight and thestudies a pleasure,
then comes the ten dollars a day
profit.