The Barre daily times. (Barre, Vt.) 1897-1959, 1905-09-21
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
The Higher Education" and our Boys
and Girls.


and Girls.
Editor Times: | have noticed fire.
quently Of late that in speaking edi-
torially upon educational matters The
Times seems to bewail the fact that so
few boys attend the high school in Barre.
as compared with the number Of girls
who do so; and the other evening the
editor waxed sarcastic in femarking
that the boys had become dread win
ners.'
Now, SO far from seeing anything
wrong on regrettable in this state of
affairs, I think it shows an altogether
creditahle and healthy condition exist
ing among the aspiring youth Of our
city. Why should not the average well
developed boy seek TO acquire a trade
at which, in few years, he has every
prospect Of earning a fairly good liveli-
hoodg
That so many more girls than boys
attend high school is easily accounted
for BY the very obvious fact that in
Barre there is little or no industrial out
let for the girls, and parents reason
that they are better attending high
school than doing absolutely nothing.
Now, it may be exceedingly mortho-
dox to say so, but for years ii has APP
peared to me that there is something
Of error in our system of high school
education. Children are sent there and
the attempt is made to train them in
branches of learning for which they
have neither taste OF capability. For
example, many are sent TO learn draw
f,,r, -
entirely lacking, or at least not worth Gull
tiyating; others labor at stenography,
who would not gain even fair proficiency
in the art in fifty years; again, others
are tortured at languages ancient and
modern who have no capacity whatso-
ever for acquiring them, and SO on all
through the range Of subjects embraced
by what il called the higher education
believe emphatically that too much
value is put upon this so-called higher
education. In a multitude OF cases the
years spent in its acquisition are wholly
wasted, because that which has been
learned turns out to be Of no practical
value in the occupations that a large
number are obliged to follow Book
Keepers and stenographers are drugs in
the commercial employment market at
the present day. An advertisement for
an eight dollar-a-week clerk in one Of
the big Boston dailies recently, brought
about five hundred applications!
Elementary education is essential to
everyone; but this system of trying to
educate boys and girls in branches for
which they have no natural aptitude,
Is alike opposed to economy and common
sense.
My conclusion then IS, that boys
physically capable of learning manual
trade should be permitted to do so, un-
less they show decided prediction in
another direction, and upon examination
by skillful teacher give evidence Of
ability and natural qualification for the
particular line Of study they wish to
pursue. The lack Of a high school edu-
cation win never obscure real ability
or genius, as witness the long list Of
men who have become eminent in the
worlds history and whose early educa-
ton was of the most meager descrip-
tion. An embryo Shakespeare, Carlyle,
Joseph Hayden OF Michael Angelo will
be discovered ii existing, no matter
what may be his social circumstances
on educational disadvantages; so we may
safely leave the average boy to follow
a manual trade, and the average girl
to acquire a knowledge Of cookery and
housekeeping. Although neither Of them
be able to coniuoate Latin verb, dis
play a serappy acquaintance with chem
istry or algebra, or even be able to
cross the Tous Assinaum, they will have
the happiness which comes only TO those
who live and labor in the sphere for
which they were intended by wise and
kindly Mother Nature.
JAMES NcADAAI.
Barre, Vt, Sept. 10th, 1905