The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1902-11-09
CONCERNING EDUCATION.
A Little Essay Bearing on the Real
Meaning of the Word.

Spectator" in the Outlook
The Spectator used to cherish a fond be-
lief in formal education, which, alas! as
the years go by, has become dimmed and
shorn of many of its glories. 1t would be
hard to say when this disllusion first be-
gan for the Spectator, or when he first
appreciated the fact that one may know the
right educationally and still the very
wrong pursue, but he is under the impress
sion that the first trailing cloud of glory
which he saw float away was cut off by
the shears of a remark dropped from the
lips of a man who most unquestionably
knew better. when 1 was down to
home" said this learned one in easy
mood to the Spectator, and the Spectator
almost tainted with the shock-he was
younger then.
What is it to be educated? The Spec
tator, in an earlier stage of conviction,
would have said that to have graduated
from a representative college would be
education sufficient for all of the ordinary
purposes of life. To-day he knows that
while the ordinary purposes of life demand
that a man shall be at home in place of
to home a college education sometimes
falls short of supplying what is required.
Not long ago the Spectator heard the small
daughter of most cultivated and delight
full parents remarking to her mother.
Mamma, dear, L don't think Mrs.
is quite a lady. She asked me to-day,
Was you coming up the road?'" The
little daughter received instant, if gen
tie, lesson on the wrong of calling any
creature common or unclean." so you
see one may be very lovely lady and yet
speak the poorest English, was the sum-
mary of the discourse. Then what should
L have said?" the little maid insisted, and
the mother hesitated. You might say she
was uneducated," was the final answer.
statement
the Spectator knew. Uneducated! Had he
not heard slips in English, before which
this one small error paled, from graduates
of the first colleges in the land? And did
he not know that the poor lady in question
was an educated woman-so called? 1t was
not at all question of ignorance with her.
She knew better. 1t was simply the alb
sence of the habit of cultivated usage in
common speech. So far as her personal
and known standards had taught her the
little lady was right. Her charming, SEN
sitive and cultivated mother was her set
standard of lady, and If the definition
was narrow the ideal was high. AS a
matter of fact the whole situation resolved
itself, in the Spectators mind, into this
query: Can one well educated be still most
uncuItivated? The Spectator is very sure
that positive line can be drawn between
education and cultivation, and that one
may travel very far along the road with
the one, lacking almost wholly the other
The ideal condition is. however. the pos
The Spectator has a friend who is to
him a ceaseless source of wonder. What
are you to think of a man who can pass
through the first preparatory schools in
the country, one of the first colleges, one
of the most scholarly universities for grad
uate work, and come out of that mill a
man of essentially common mind. unable
to apply-in any cultivated sense or for
his own growth-any of all that he has
learned? The Spectator has such a one
as friend, and is attached TO him, too. He
is a thoroughly good fellow, and no fool,
either. 1t is to the Spectator a wonder
of the ages how that same man can have
learned so much, and passed examina-
tons as proof of his learning, and know
so little and continue to be so small man
in culture How did he contrive to slough
off so successfully, as he emerged from
school after school, all of the best that
should have chung TO him?
What is 1t to be educated? The Spec
tator likes to think of the word as a
greater. finer richer word than its popular
use implies. He would even like to say
that the great schools of learning. primary
or collegiate, that cannot even give a man
fair English in spite of himself have very
little to do with the matter, save as posi-