The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1903-08-30
Speculation in Education.

From the farm and the workshop will
even as those of the present generation
are, for. the most part, of similar origin.
The way toward success is long
ger, but our strides are greater. Special
ization is an inviolable law of nature, to
which man is no exception. How
shall we recognize this in education? -
Prof. s. w. Willitson, University of Chi
cago, in lecture at Ohio University.
In all lines of human effort the special
list is the leader of men. Men who are
not merely educated in the lore of the
ancients and scholars in the old accepta-
ton of the term, but men who have de-
voted their energies to the investigation
of one pursuit and who are thorough in
what they have learned The lawyer has
become specialist in some particular
branch of law and makes his reputation
by reason of his ability in that particular
line. He no longer, merely graduates
from a lawyers office, but takes a special
course of study in the line to which he in
tends to devote his life. The doctor no
longer reads medicine and then takes brief
lectures, but takes up a speciality in med
'cine of surgery and prepares himself for
that in which his talents will enable him
to excel, and in place of the old family
doctor we have the specialist who gives
his whole time to certain diseases that af-
ilict humanity. In every line of human
effort men are deVoting themselves to
some special part of their profession. The
same tendency is seen in the study of the
broad field of agriculture. The agricul-
tuTal training at our colleges of agricul-
ture is rapidly leading to specialization.
student finds that his special adaptation
is not to general soil culture but to some
particular branch. The chemical labora-
tory attracts him, and he devotes the
greater part of his time in the latter part
of his course to this, and becomes an ag-
ricultural chemist and some short sighted
men think that because he does not so
back to the farm that the education is a
failure. But agriculture has gained IN
the making of a real specialist in science
on which agriculture so much depends.
Another man may find that veterinary
science is his forte and specializes ac-
cordingly, and the farm is a gamer there
by. In like manner the dairyman is made
a specialist, the farmer specialist in the
improvement of the soil, and the gardener
becomes a specialist in plant life, and each
in his special pursuit takes the place
where he becomes the best fitted to be a
leader of men. The mere getting OF a
smattering of knowledge of a general ma
ture may make the jack of all trades, but
never the leader. Agriculture is such a
broad profession and so many roads lead
through it that the student must become
a specialist in some one of them if he is
to reach the highest success. Education
for mans life work is what is making
this nation the leader in industrial pur-
suits. Even in colleges of agriculture the
chair so long denominated the Professor
of Agriculture no longer attempts the
whole round of agricultural instruction,
but specialists are at hand in the labora-
tory of chemistry, of biology, of veteri-
nary science of live stock husbandry, and
on the great laboratory, the farm, and the
roads to success open out from each one
of these attracting the men who are fitted
for each. And the further this speclall
cation is carried the more effective the
work of the college becomes. The col
lege of agriculture is rapidly becoming a
great university, where men can work at
their speciality and become experts in some
one line, all aiding thus in more thor
ough manner to uplft the work of the
farm. The work of the college, then,
must not be measured by the number who
go back to cultivation of the soif but by
the numbers who have become experts in
some particular line that tends to the de
velopment of the whole. 1t is important
then, that the young men who are study
ing agriculture should, early in their
course find out the particular branch in
which they can excel and then devote
their energies to becoming an adept in it.
In this way only will the farmer be a
thorough farmer, the dairymen thor
ough daiTyman and the stockman and
gardener experts in their work.