The Forrest City times., 1902-09-19
SOUTHERN
EDUCATION
NOT ALWAYS IN BOOKS.
While the Book fs Necessary There
II Much In Education That f.
Not Set Down Therein

In this day of so much talk about
education, which seems to turn upon
plans for sending children to school,
it may be well to pause now and then
to consider the careers of men who
have been really educated-that is,
fitted for useful lives. Many of these
have had to deal with facts, and not
with books. They have been their own
teachers, and practical experience has
been their school.
There is danger that opportunities
III the country for real education may
become more and more limited. So
great emphasis is laid upon book
learning that the mass of folks are
! rapidly falling into the habit of re-
gaiding book learning as education,
when il 10 nothing of the kind. Edu-
cation may be well assisted by the use
Of books under the guidance of com
petent teachers, but the mistake
should not be made of depending en-
tirely upon the books. That will, in
the majority of cases, result in the
very opposite of education, which is
the training of boys and girls to
think and act for themselves in such
advance the real interests of their
fellows. So it is well for the self-edu-
Gated man not to be forgotten."-
Southern Farm Magazine.
This is well said and it can not be
said too often. 1t seems in most of
our schools that nothing can be
learned except with a book. Nine
teachers out of ten are helpless with
out book in hand. All geography
is in the book. OF course there is none
out-of-doors. There was no arithme-
tic until somebody-a plague upon
him.-wrote one. History was in
vented by the man that discovered
dates. He had to invent it in order
to have somewhat to put his dates.
book is necessary; so is a servant.
A book is a good servant If it is
good book; but it is a terrible mas
ter.
"Self-educated!" How much there 10
in that word. No one is ever proper
~ educated unless self-educated. Tho
only true school or college is ono
where the student may have the op.
portunity to self educate" In the
vast majority of our schools the
chine into which lessons are poured;
and he is expected to grind out an
swers like cornsheller. And we call
that "educatiOn." The word has been
warped and wrested from its real
meaning. Send a boy TO school and
college and let him learn lot of facts
from books and he is said to be ed
ucated." Let him study botany and
geology out-of-doors; let him become
close observer and clear reasoner
without books and he is still ''unedu-
Gated" He must cram books, books,
to be educated"
In his excellent book. The Rebuild
ing of Old Commonwealths, Walter II.
Page gives this conversation with q
country schoolmaster:
what would you think of schools
where men should now be trained to
occupations-sch schools here in this
neighborhood, to make plows, wagons,
furniture everything
''That'd be a mighty good thing;
but that amt education" was the re-
ply of the teacher.
We may truthfully say Of much Of
the book learning, that amt educa-
ton" The south needs schools where
the boys and girls may learn Ito
think and act for themselves in such
a way as to lead happy lives and to
advance the real interests of their
fellows"