Devils Lake inter-ocean. (Devils Lake, Ramsey Co., Dakota [N.D.]) 1884-1905, 1903-03-06
AN ABLE PAPER.
Read by Professor Dewar at Fargo Re
Gently.

fISRe3Q QV EIOI6SSVL ~ 3
Gently.
The following is an abstract of an
address before the State Teachers
Educational Association at Fargo, by
supt. r. S.. Dewar, Of Devils Lake:
Secondary education is expensive,
but the people will stand for it pro-
viding they see results. But there
must be results and tangible results
in the shape of a practical education,
an education that fits fer the life of
today.
The test Of the subjects fitness for
the curricum will be its utility.
Why should a practical study not
have as great in educational value as
a pure. culture study, SO called AT.
ter all, is there much difference be-
tween practical aims and culture
aims2 Do not both seek the highest
welfare Of the individual-his happi-
ness? The insect seeks the flower for
food, but pollination is accomplished.
The masses seek the education for
practical life; may not the higher life
be the result? This utilitaranism of
the twentieth century born. in the
needs of the people, may have its
roots in richer soil and may yield a
more glorious fruitage than the wisest
among us now dream Of.
President Eliot, of Harvard, says:
1--WE may fight at every turn the
idea that there is more cultivation to
be gotten from subjects which have
no application in daily life than
from those which are capable of appli-s
cation. Other things icing equal, a
practical subject should have prefer
ence over a non practical subject on a
pnodern High School programme.
Why should a boy swing dumb-bells
when a wood pile and an empty wood
box invite to a more useful, more.
symmetrical physical development. !
A short time ago, English history,
science and economics were treated as
if they had little IL no educational
value. Today, thanks to President
Elliot and other educational reform
ers, they are seated amongst the elect.
II is now being discovered and tardily
admitted that manual training,
domestic economy, commercial train
ing, scientific agriculture and other
subjects born in the travail of indust-
rial and commercial evolution of
modern life are worthy of modern
consideration. Is it too much to hope
that out of the immense explanation
of knowledge since the eighteenth
century we may develop new subjects
which may become more effective in
draining and in discipline, and more
suited to modern needs than the old Z
That commercial and industrial life
yield a splendid mental discipline we
have ample evidence in the case OF
Hill and Hanna, Morgan and Nc
Clurg, Amour and Rockefeller and
many others we might name. J. J..
Hill is said to be the best disciplined
man west Of Chicago. I might also
add he has the finest private art col
lection in the west. That CONNER
cialism yields some culture we have
evidence in the case of Andrew Car
negie, whose recent address on being
installed rector of the Aberdeen Uni
versity, ranks with the best efforts of
British statesmen and scholars, deliv-
cred on similar occasions. Last year
President Eliot, of Harvard, had the
honor to be one of a commission of
thirty-s six selected men to study the
problems presented by industrial
troubles of the times. Few of the
thirty.six men had a classical disci-
pline, but said President Eliot:
nsAfter being in conference with those
mon 1 am not inclined to assert that
the keenest or most vigorous minds
are those that got their strength and
keenness in classical discipline"
Did the civilization of Greece or of
Rome, or that of more remote ages,
ever produce 80 large . number of in
~tellectual giants az the twentieth CEN
tury; men with keen. vigorous, alert
minds; men Of great resources and
great executive abilities; men who
handled the worlds trade and com-
mercially as their g~randfathers hand
led corner groceries? No school
ever existed in any cline OF time that
gave the training discipline now
given by industrial and commercial
life.
II we are to adjust our High School
instruction to the needs o. the people
we must include in the High School
curriculum, manual training, domes-
tic economy, commercial training and
agriculture. I am painfully aware
Of the many difficulties to be over
come before these newer courses will
have established themselves; but that
they will establish themselves in time
no one can doubt. For they meet the
real naads Of fha naOnla.