New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1904-01-18
TWO views OF EDUCATION.

Some questions concerning the practical value
Of popular education TO the State are suggested
by the special correspondent OF THE London
Times" who has been accompanying Mr.. Nose
ly's educatio commission on its tour in this
country. Or perhaps II would be more accurate
TO call them questions concerning the kind OF
education that IS of value to the State. The
commission. or the correspondent, observes
decided difference between American and Eng
lish educational systems largely due, as he
thinks, 10 the difference In popular feelings tow
ard them. I've in England" he says, think
that national character viii keep US going
without more education; herein America
men hold. not that education is the only thing
ito save a nation, but that to neglect it may
spell ruin" Assuming this statement Of the
British and American attitudes to be accurate
As 1t doubtless is TO large degree. the inquiry
is suggested Which is the more correct? Or is
there difference I'm national character and
needs commensurate with this difference In
view, making the British view the better for
Great Britain and the American for America?
The latter question may pretty confidently be
answered In the negative There Is not much diff
ference between the two nations This nation was
chiefly and predominantly English In It's founda-
ton, and that original leayen continues 10 this
day to leaven the whole lump. We are uniquely
cosmopolitan. Yet we have unique powers of
assimilation. At least We have had them
| hitherto. so that the alien multitudes have be-
come Americanized, which is not the same thing
an AngllciZed. but is nearer to It than ANYTHING
else In the world. Moreover. while 1t has long
been truism that American citizens need edu-
cation for the States sake. since they are all
rulers Of the State, that has become little, IL
any. less true concerning British citizens. Ap-
| lv how ctr
with similar needs. taking these widely differ
ent views of the subject.
There are doubtless many who hold that too
much esteem, relatively speaking, has in Amer
lea been given 10 mere book learning" That
is not TO say that the percentage OF literacy is
too high, for 1t could not be, nor yet that Sec
ondary or even higher education is too wide
spread But other things are too much neg
lected 1t is not that there should be less ''book
learning" but that there should be more of
something else to accompany it and to make Il
or more practical value. 1t is probably true
that many persons have been, or have seemed
| to be, educated beyond their stations"-if we
may use the phrase without offence They have
been SO far educated as TO become dissatisfied
with what they regard as work" and TO be-
come enamoured of something higher" Accord
ingly they have abandoned the farm, or the
WI fAoHOP' III Which luey might nave attained
success with profit to themselves and to their
fellows and have vainly striven to make their
way in some overcrowded profession or 'busi-
ness life" In great city. 1t has thus been said
and not without some apparent ground that the
high schools and colleges are n prolific cause
OF abandoned farms and congested cities
That ground must, however, be regarded as
more apparent than real The trouble IS not
| that these persons are too highly educated. but
that they are not symmetrically or completely
educated. Their intellectual education is not
properly accompanied with development and
culture OF character. The fact is not sufficient
ly impressed upon them that 1t is at least as
dignifed and profitable, and as worthy of a
high school or college graduate, to be farmer
as to be third assistant junior lawyers clerk
They are not sufficiently made to understand
that all the dignity of intellectual attainment
In the world can never overtop the dignity of
honest. useful profitable labor. 1t is not sufi-
GENTLY fngrained into the very fibre of their be-
ings that the man of high education has no
more right TO despise labor, even manual labor
than the workingman has to contemn high edu