Evening times-Republican. [volume] (Marshalltown, Iowa) 1890-1923, 1905-06-02
DR.. Nathaniel Butler, Of Chi
cago, Delivers Commencement
Address Thursday Night
7H,RTlErH CLASS FINISHES
Twenty Young People and Large Au-
dience Listen to a Most Pleasing
Address on "some Present Day
Ideals, in Observation-Disclosures Prizes
Are MISUNDERSTANDING Of Class.

Before twenty bright and happy
young people comprising the class Of
'O5 of the Marshaltown high school,
and a large audience composed of ad-
miring friends and relatives of the
class members, DR. Nathaniel Butler,
of the University of Chicago, delivered
the commencement address at the
Odeon Thursday night. DR.. Butler had
the closest attention Of his audience
turnout the entire delivery of most
pleasing address on Some Present
Day ideals in Education. Musical
features of the commencement exer-
cises were numbers by both the girls
and boys glee clubs of the high school,
and Incidental to the closing of the eS-
ercises;, the announcement of the Nor
gan prizes for the year was MADE ps
Superintendent Crane. The stage
was prettily decorated in the seniors
colors, maroon and light blue, q pro-
fusion Of carnations, palms and pot
ted plants adjoining either side and
the rear.
The. high school girls glee club, I'M
der the direction OF Miss NJ. Elizabeth
Pratt, supervisor OF music in the public
schools, sang as an opening number
Schuberts "Serenade," and responded
as an encore with welcome Pretty
Primrose Flower" DIR. C. L. Gould, pas y
tor of Methodist church, delivered the
invocation. after which the high school
BOYS glee club, with Miss Frances
Morley as accompanist. sang .The
Clang of the Forge" (Rodney-Veazie),
responding to hearty encore with the
old-time college song, The Bullfros
on the Bank" Superintendent Crane
then introduced DR.. Butler, who spoke
for over an hour in manner so pleas
ing as to captivate his audience with
the sound, logical truths he SO ABLY
presented. DR.. Butler dealt with the
necessity of young poole obtaining an
education, and compared the require
nents of the present day with those
of even a generation ago. He showed
how the world demanded trained
Young men and women, in this, the day
Of young men and women, and ap-
nealt,d to his audience for reallza-
ton of the changes that had taken
place in the present day requirements
as compared to the days Of our grand
fathers. He paid his tribute TO tHe
lf-made man, but showed Where the
self-made man had succeeded in spite
of his lack of advantages, and not pc
cause he did not receive the early
training that IS offered the young
men and women of today.
DR.. Butler is most pleasing and IN
teresting speaker, and while not max
ing any pretentions of oratory, his ad-
dress was Of that wholesome sort, that
leaves an impression in every mind
He spoke in part as follows:
.srhe notion that education is con-
Germ merely of the early years OF life,
and is to be regarded as definitely nm
ished when school days are over is a
notion thoroughly outgrown. We I'M
derstand rather that education is a
lifelong process; not only school, but
also life, and ones vocation educates
him. But when we talk of education IN
general we mean that part of it which
is accomplished in the schools, in dis
tinction from that part which is ac-
con.plished outside of school. And so
far as the schools are concerned we
mean by education the process with
which a boy or girl is concerned in
high school and college in distinction
from what he is doing when he is
studying for his profession or learning
| a trade.
"This process Of education then, has
for it's object, to make an individual
alert and alive and available at the
highest point of efficiency. Education
has the same relation to the whole
man that the gymna SUM has to his
body We do not send a boy to the
gymnasium to teach him any trade
or craft or calling, but to make him
hearty and available as a physical be-
ing, and so we do not send a boy or
girl to the high school for the purpose
of making him specialist or an ex-
pert but rather to make OF him ma
terial out Of which a specialist or ex-
pert may best be made. 1t has been
well said that high school and col
les,e are to convert iron into steel in
order that the professional school may
shape that steel into an instrument. We
refuse to specialize too much in the
high school, not because we do not be-
lie.ve in specializing, but because we
want to specialize most effectively at
the proper time.
"The purpose Of education then is to
realize the possibilities of the whole
individual. In order to do this we are
setting ourselves against two or three
radical mistakes in educational think
ing.
"The first of these mistakes is that
of attempting to do the work in too