Durango semi-weekly herald., 1902-08-07
DOCTOR SNYDER
ON EDUCATION.

At the teachers institute yesterday
afternoon. Dr. Snyder gave the fol
loving lecture
Education. as | stated this morn
ing, has taken very broad outlook
and it is really called life. Herbert
Spencer said that education, stands
for complete living Another author
said that educatio is living. We
might modify it and say teaching is iiv-
ing with children. and to thoroughly
have life in the real sense of the word
he is the individual who does the most
work Tor little children.
The first impulse is life preserva-
tlol. There are very few people but
wn.t Try to make a living. to earn a
doAar. Only tramp does not try
to make a dollar 1t is considered
proper and respectable to earn enough
TO keep oneself This Impulse has
brought up to the law of the survival
of the iittest. In the lower order of
the animal kingdom. the swiftest dom
mate, and those that cannot run so
fast succumb to the swiftest The
fox Is swift; consequently he lives on
the jack rabbit and those who cannot
escape him. The impulse of self pre-
seryation has given rise to the law
of self sacrifice of the lower for the
higher. and when it is taken from
a purely animal standpoint it is the
taxing of another animal and devour-
ing II. From the human standpoint
it is taking all you can get. and keep
ing all you take. This is the develop
" nft III
Otherwise it is called the length of
human life.
Human life has three dimensions
Man must develop his powers and
make the best of them. Man
must take the best out of the raw ma
terial that is given him. He must
develop his physical nature for his
own self preservation. A man edu
Gates his daughter that she may be
able to do something for herself when
he is gone. He does it to protect
her The impulse grows out of self
preservation, out of the length of life
THE development of the initiative
is the subject of a great many ques
tions agitating the people today. One
set wants the government to do a
great deal. another set believes in
throwing responsibility upon the in
dividual. That government which
does the least and gives the individual
the most mower to act for himself pro
vides him the best opportunity for
the init atiye, Today socialism forms
quite subject of agitation. Posi-
bly, it is no greater now than in the
itttf ie utfth or Z
robs the individual and takes away
from the length of life. | want you
to see that this first question not only
reaches into the field of the school
teacher, but enters the realms of the
politician and statesman. and you will
find that all popular government tends
to violate that fundamental law of the
impulse of self preservation. tends to
eliminate competition.
"The teacher wants to so lead the
child that he will develop the child's' in
itiatye, and not plan and work all the
time for the child but plan and work
with the child. Planning with the
children is better than planning for
them. Some day they are going to
step across the line, where they have
got to plan for themselves. We want
to live with the children. Teaching
is living with children. The life of
the school room is closely related to
the life outside, and it brings us down
to this idea of self preservation.
Another impulse came into opera
tion when humanity made itself mani
fest. We don't see much OF it in ami
l. nj ic oil
rifice The lioness will sacrifice her
self for her young but she will not
sacrifice herself for the tiger cub, for
the puppy nor for the kitten. 1t is
quite a selfish sacrifice for her own
Under the impulse of human sym
pathy, has developed the law OF self
sacrifice of the lower for the higher.
The man who bakes the best loaf of
bread that he is capable of, sacrifices
himself for me. He Is above me
so far as this is concerned. He is
superior who puts his best soul into
the loaf of bread. The laborer who
breaks rocks for the ballast OF the rail
road. which cannot do, is superior
individual and is sacrificing himself
for me. for the railroad that brought
chanics. 1t is the sacrifice of the
higher for the lower. The first law
operative in work is to make a living
out Of it. but the more man develops
himself, his length or individually the
more he has to sacrifice. The preacher
the lawyer. every individual who has
positive business, "A business that is
desirable. that doesn't tear down so
ciety. is sacrificing himself to the ex-
tent of his ability. 1t is sacrifice
of the higher for the lower. You
may say that preaching is greater
than teaching. teaching greater than
mechanical work But it is only a
matter of degree. They are SC
bound together that we cannot say we
will surrender any one of them. Sell
sacrifice is the development of the
homo Centric instead OF the ego cen
tric.
Individuality Is length. personal
ity breadth. Find a man who does
mot garrfu.g who Inac pnt want IN