The Savannah morning news. (Savannah, Ga.) 1900-current, 1902-11-16

tory schools give more attention to
Latin and Greek, admittedly studied
chiefly for their disciplinary value,
than they do to English, which is the
! living tongue, the medium of practi-
cally all communication between man
and man in this country.
Every employer of clerks will verify
what | say on this point. The ma ority
of the applicants for situations at
the banks, the offices of the big trans
portation companies, the mercantile
houses and other business concerns are
unable to write proper letters of appli-
cation. Their handwriting is bad; Oft
en- they cannot spell. The old thor
oughness of elementary training, the
hard digging at the work of laying the
foundation of education, in the mastery
of English and arithmetic and the ac-
QUESTION of clear legible handwriting
has been abandoned in too many
schools.
There are exceptions, for which the
country should be thankful. and
surprisingly large number of these eX-
ceptions are found among the elemen-
tary schools conducted under the aus
pices of the Catholic Church. In them
the former thorough teaching of the
three RS" seems to have persisted;
and while no one can be more sensible
schools are doing than myself, / must
commend the elementary methods of
the Catholic schools to the public school
authorities in many cities.
Value of Solid Foundation.
1t was his mastery of the English
language and his thorough mental
training that enabled Horace Greeley,
innocent of schools, to come to New
York when a young man and rise from
| the compositor's case to one of the
| most commanding positions in the diff
cult and important profession of jour
nalism; to become a factor in the his
| tory of the greatest nation on the earth.
| The career of the elder Bennett was
| much like Greeley's. Each founded a
great newspaper, which is known and
respected wherever the English lam
| guage is read or spoken.
| 1t was his patient mastery of the
| elements of education, achieved for
! the most part at night, in tie college
| of the fiaring pine knot, that enabled
Abraham Lincoln, though handicapped
| almost indescribably, to win the high
| est place in the gift of the nation at
| the time when the nation needed just
such a man at it's head These, by the
| way, became men of truly liberal edu-
| cation, despite their lack of college
| training, and they are only three of
many who, lacking the opportunity to
train themselves in college, yet found
| time amid the stress of actual life and
achievement to broaden and liberalize
| themselves by general reading and the
| study of those topics with which their
more fortunate fellows were able to
acquaint themselves in college.
There are many living men, who,
though lacking college advantages,
have found true liberal education in
| the university of the world. James ].
Hill, for instance, though never stu
dent in school of higher grade than
| the academy in a little Canadian viii
| lage, and obliged to make his own way
| from the age of 16, is more familiar
with the classics in the original than
most college graduates and his criti-
cal knowledge of art is superior to that
of most professional art critics.
! Of a different type is Russell Sage,
| who, though a highly educated man,
| despite his disadvantages as to school
ing, has preferred to study along spe-
| cial rather than general lines all his
| life. Mr.. Sage saw the need of educa-
| ton when working for a very small
wage as 'The Boy in his brothers
| grocery store at Troy He paid a
| school teacher part of his weekly pit
| lance to teach him the three RS" at
night after both had done the days
work by which they earned their liv-
| ing. And while Mr.. Sage possibly could
| never have passed an examination that
would have admitted him to college.
| he grounded himself we'll in the ele-
ments and afterward made good use
| of the foundation in building UP a. SUI
| perstructure of thorough knowledge of
| the subjects which interested him. They
| included trade, finance and politics
and he has been conspicuous in all of
| them, his now half forgotten political
career having been a very successful
one. In his way Mr.. Sage is one of
the best educated men in the world.
To mention a fraction of the men
who have become educated outside or
college would be simply cataloguing
| many of the worlds best known men
and the names of those given. familiar
to everyone, are sufficient
1t is clear, then, that the non-coI-
lege man has plenty of chances. hut
for all that every young man should
avail himself of the best and most al
vanced school that he can get. Ne
4 must train himself thoroughly IL he
would achieve, whether he can 90 n
college or not
Finally the chief essential of real ed
ucation, acquired either in coIIeoa or
the worlds great school, is thorough
and intimate mastery of the element
airy branches-the three R's"Nor
which the superstructure of all real
education must be reared.
Thomas L. James.