Evening times-Republican. [volume] (Marshalltown, Iowa) 1890-1923, 1903-12-18
EDUCATION WITHOUT COLLEGES.

| What is an education, anyway, ant
who Is an educated man? Is a questio
that often arises in current discussion
| not infraquently to disturb the medita-
looks back upon life's weary years al
what might have been. 1t is needless
for newspaper to suggest a lexicc,-
graphers definition of an education
for that is available to every person
who possesses a dictionary, but 1t can
be given as news to many that there
are more ways of securing an educa-
ton than spending four years at coll
iege. The college education is. as a
rule, the besf because it preEerss for
and even invites that greater o.de stion
which comes in after life, ana the coll
lese education today commands more
respect from the business world than
1t ever DID. hut a man can be educat-
ed who never went to school a day,
paradoXical as it may seem.
The thought and reading that a man
gives to the affairs of this world is
what determines his education. TIE
boy who goes thru college entering at
the front door and retreating down the
rear stoop, is not an educated pro-
duct. He must have absorbed some
learned information and. above ALL de-
velope6 capacity to think, to exercise
his mind systematically. consecutively.
and to start at correct principles. The
man of the world who. tho denied
school advantages, has studied the car
penter's trade until he became a con-
tracing builder master builder or ar
chitect, has educated himself in car
pentry, not because OF. his dexterity in
putting shingles upon roof but be-
cause of his mind capacity to grasp
all the conclusions, the causes and
effects in mechanics, the harmonies of
building. the knowledge of men and
VI OuaiiiGs0 diAaii iiSNSSSaAS " AsAASS
him above his fellows. to the position
of master craftsman.
education. It is the narrow schooling
OF the average, self-made man. Scien-
tific education is much broader The
college educated man sees in the
world more things than the tools and
problems of his craft. He is able to
and does actually think upon mMtitud-
inous subjects and not only knows
something about. but actually takes
pleasure in thinking upon subjects
other than his own business. But even
this broad education is open to men
outside Of the college and Is often
by men and women who DO
their reading, their studying, their
mental training in the seclusion of
their homes, turning out most credits
able form of homemade education.
1t Is here that the daily newspaper
performs its mission as a schoolmaster.
Few printers can set type on high class
journals, without becoming, eventually
fairly well educated men. Likewise
people who read daily newspapers
must absorb an education.
Well directed lessons are constantly
being dictated for the editorial coll
umns of the first class newspapers. Re-
Gently there appeared on this edi-
torial page a lesson in social econom-
les that taught true economics in the
same language as the average text
book. 1t happened TO have been pre-
pared by man college trained In po-
iticil economy and history, once
for college work as an in
structor in economics aud history.
When reader gave thought to the
reading of that editorial he was study
ng political economy. Likewise the