The Prince George's enquirer and southern Maryland advertiser. (Upper Marlborough, Md.) 1882-1925, 1901-06-14

| anu dle VII "alIiiS N'SSo'Siy "
some great mind. Until announced
education must take its shape and its
colorings from the end you have in
view for the girl or boy under treat
ment.
The children of medieval times were
educated to accept facts, so called, and
conditions as ends. Reasons and
causes were irrelevant,-yes, calcu-
lated to produce mental dyspepsia, il
digestion were attempted. 1t was not
orthodox to inquire why this or that
condition prevailed. 1t was heterodox
in the extreme to ask the origin Of this
or that condition. To-day, Edward
the VII of England, William ii of
Germany and the Gar of Russia think
it treason to ask by what right they
assume to speak of "my army" "my
government" "my throne The edu-
cation suitable to these conditions is
simply the acquiring of facts and ends.
They exist, and this justifies their con-
tinuance. This process, develops ma
chines,-not thinkers. AS we become
more enlightened, the principles of
social and political life become more
and more apparent. The end of edu-
cation assumes form which requires
of the man or woman, hoping to attain
up to it, the concentration of every
latent energy to the development of
every faculty in his or her being. Not
content with conditions as they are.
Not ready acceptance of definitions,
axioms so called, nor demonstrations,
simply because they have stood the
test of time to this date!
The education suitable for our sys-
TEN Of government, as first conceived
in our Declaration Of Independence,
and more fully expressed in our Con-
stitution, calls for the highest order of
training whereby each individual
acquires the power of keen incisive
thought and full appreciation of the
dignity and sanctity of the individual.
This is the nearest approach the world
has ever made to true social and polit-
lcal principles. Our educational pro-
cesses should he so shaped that our
rising generation Of men and women
will have developed in them a keen
appreciation of this great principle.
From this highest standpoint, then,
there can be but one answer to the
proposition before us. Training, and
not facts, is the end of education. In
further support Of this view, l cannot
refrain from giving just here the def
milton of education by that great
teacher, Thomas II. Huxley, who per-
haps clothed more pupils with an ire
sistable enthusiasm for full develop
ment than any other teacher who has
ever graccd class room on American
soil.
He was truly the Arnold among our
galaxy of the trainers of our youth.
He says that man or woman who has
been educated, who has been so trained
in their youth, (note if you please, not
filled wih tacts in their youth)-that
their bodies are ready servants of their
wills, and do with ease and pleasure
all the work, as mechanism, it is
capable of: whose intellects are clear,
cold logical engines, with all parts Of
equal strength, and in smooth working
order; ready, like steam engines to be
turned to any kind of work, and spin
the gossamers as we'll as forge the
anchors of the mind: whose trained
minds gather with ease the great funda-
mental truths of Nature and the laws
Of her operations. One, who, no
stunted ascetic of stuffed facts, is full
Of life and fire, but, whose passions are
trained to come to heel by vigorous
will; the servant of il tender conscience,
who has been trained to have all beauty
whether of nature or art; to hate all
vllencss; to respect others as himself
Where can we find better pattern
than this to shape our methods by?
| know that it is usually claimed
that sufficient time is not available to
give reasons for all the facts in text
books, and the causes for all the ends
with which they abound. ! claim it is
infinitely better for the child to be ig-
norant of many of the facts and ends
found in the limits of the eighth grades
of public school work. 1t, in lieu of
them, you can substitute conscious
ness on the part of the child that lie is
possessed of a power to trace the rea-
sons for facts and the causes for ends.
1t is far more valuable to the man of
twenty-one years ofage to be possessed
OF the power to earn a competence
than it Is to have competence given
him, with no power to earn more or
retain what he has That child who
has, by the study of Arithmetic. alone
gained the knowledge that the whole
subject IS homogeneous mass of con-
nected and associated thought from
cover to cover, each process growing
naturally out of that which precedes
it, and not heterogeneous bundle of
| disconnected and disassociated thought,
i say, that child, with this apprecia-
ton, is an individual infinitely better
! educated than one who has completed