The Manitowoc pilot. [volume] (Manitowoc, Wis.) 1859-1932, 1902-10-23


a keen moral conscience, we'll trained
intellect is a most valuable acquisition.
A good man endowed with fine intel
lect can be of more service to his fellow
men than one who has not A few
thoroughly broad and high minded men
OF means and intellect could transform
a community or s6ate and teach the
lesson Of unselfishness very effectively,
yet any one person can teach that lesson
in an effective way, though in lesser
degree, no matter what his standing or
rank is 1t is the privilege of every citi-
zen to be unselfsh, and it is the privi-
lege of the school to prepare young men
and women to make this lesson as ef
fective as possible. The great problems
Of the nation of the future must be solv
ed by the rising generations, something
more than intellect will be needed to
solve them and to supply this necessary
complement to the intellect, the school
must inculcate in the minds Of the young
spirit of justice and uprightness coupl-
ed with broad sympathies such as shall
recognize the fundamental principles of
unselfishness-that all classes of society
are kin. Even today there is no lack of
just laws, nor lack of an approximate
conception of right; but there is lack
of courage to administer these laws i'm
c.rtialy, because mans selfshpess will
not permit him to stand for the right
for fear of endangering his own comfort
and welfare. We concede without a
question that the ruling motto in the
commercial world is, Every man for
himself Furthermore, we are danger
ously near recognizing that motto as a
general truth in our lives! Can this
motto and Liberty and Union" live
side by side very long9 Can there be
any question then, as to what the broad
underlying purpose of the school must
be9 To teach the young men and wo-
men to mold the present condition of
the life about them so that they may at
tain to the IDEAL Every Man for HUI
manity".
Such training in its development
has Of course its practical phase, and
there are mauy problems on the way to
the attainment of such an ideal. We
are not justified however, in fixing a
narrow and short sighted goal for then
all the plans formulated from such q
standpoint will be out Of proportion.
Reasoning from our general proposition,
The Making of Good Citizen, we dis
cover that the first practical requisite is
a commercial one, namely that man
should be self sustaining, able to earn a
living either in the field where mental
skill is required, the profession, or
where physical skill is required. the
trades. That the public schools are do
ing this only in a very limited way is
obvious even to the casual observer. 1t
is the aim of most schools to be on the
accredited lists of the Universities for as
many courses as is possible, depend
ing on the equipment and teaching force
of the schools in question. This indi-
Gates clearly, that undue emphasis is
laid on the subjects preparing for col
lege, those which make for professional
training. That the schools, when the
means are adequate, should give this
preparatory training, if desired by stu
dents is not disputed, but the criticism
of the aim lies in the fact that it is so
biased and one-sided The training for
the trades is relegated to secondary
place, and even where it receives
passing recognition it receives little,
if any, rigorous encouragement given
the professional preparatory training.
Through this condition the training pre-
paratory for trades receives no material
help, and more than that, it is robbed of
the dignity which it ought to have on a
plane equal to that of the professional
training. In my own experience hav 9
observed case after case where parents
forced their boys to take up profession
al career, because they were ashamed to
see the boys take MP some trade. In
each case the boys had dislike for a
higher training, and in several cases {:
positive inclination toward learning some
trade. The result can be read from the
stated conditions, and if the parents had
been at all observing they could have
seen the outcome of such course. The
boys failed, not only in college, but they
had secured the little learning" which
made it dangerous thing, for 1t
proved stumbling block in that it
made them too prord to work at a trade,
and they were driftwood in the great
commercial sea, for the time being, lat
or to become parasites of society, a
check on civilization. The schools are
to blame for such conditions in meas
ure. for they give no proper recognition
to labor or a manual training and hence
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