The Penn's Grove record., 1905-06-30
The Penn Grove Record
FRIDAY, JUNE 80, 1905.
Advantages of a College Education

Advantages of a College Education.
The benefits of higher education are so
numerous and SO far-reaching that they
can not be enumerated or adequately es-
timated within the limits of a brief article.
But it is hoped the following reasons
with those previously given will be sug-
gestive to parents and young people.
I. HIGHER CAT IS MORE VALUABLE
THAN ELEMENTARY EDUCATION.
The Importance of elementary educa-
ton, as bearing upon the occupations of
life and as a foundation of higher educa-
tion, is almost universally conceded. But
it is not so generally known that higher
education is ever more valuable than ele-
mentary education. 1t gives the better
discipline and the more complete Fnowl-
edge. The student grows more rapidly
in the high school than in the elemen-
tary school and more rapidly still in col
lege than in either of the Others. Edu-
cation gives higher value to every faculty
it touches, and the higher it's type the
greater its value. 1t takes the highest
possible degree of education to fully
develop mans slumbering powers. And
the higher attainments count most. 1t
is not what a man knows in common
with other men, but what he knows and
can do more than others-the little mar
gin at the top of the scale-that places
him at the head of the column.
The schools below are dependent upon
the schools above for their broad and
well trained teachers. Indeed the char
acter of our common school is dependent
almost entirely upon higher education.
"The common school is always feeble
and inefficient when high schools, acade-
mics, normal schools and colleges are
wanting. Educational science teaches
that educational improvement works
from the top downward, and not from
the bottom upward" Higher education
has usually gone before and has been the
chief factor in developing elementary and
secondary schools. This does not mean
that a person can become educated in
any department of knowledge without
first learning the elementary branches
which equip him for advanced study.
But it means that historically colleges
and universities are older and that out OF
them have come the men and the infu-
ence which have developed the great sys-
tenn of popular education. The uplift Of
the higher upon the lower, is n of the
most essential truths bearing upon edu-
cation.
II. BENEFITS OF A COLLEGE EDUCATION TO
THE INDIVIDUAL.
Many aspiring young people are earn
estly inquiring if a good education really
pays for the necessary outlay of time,
money and effort. All educated people,
confidently answer, yes, it pays.
First, in Saving Time. 1t always saves
time to get ready for ones work by
sharpening in advance his physical and
intellectual tools. In the race of life the
well-prepared man soon overtakes and
passes him who started ahead poorly pre-.
pared. Take two boys, fifteen years oil
age, Of equal capabilities, let one spend
the next ten years in educational prepare
ton in academy, college and professional
school, which brings him to twenty-five,
and let the other enter upon his vocation
at once. Large observation confirms the
exnectatinn that the first will acrnmnlish
work from twenty five to thirty-fve,
than the second will in twenty years,
from fifteen to thirty-five, and the adj
vantages of the college man will continue
to increase more and more. Surely it
saves time and energy to get a good edu-
cation.
Second, II Pays in Dollars and Cents.
A few years ago the United States Com
missioner OF Education in Washington
sent out to all the great centres of labor,
a series of carefully drawn questions, the
object of which was to determine the
relative value of intelligent and uninteli.
gent labor in merely earning wages. The
tabulated answers show that a district
school education adds so per cent. to the
wage-earning power of a man, a high
school education adds 100 per cent, and
a college education adds 200 per cent.
Thus the wage-earning power of a COL
lege man is over 600 times as great as
that OF the uneducated man. Besides
the pecuniary advantages, there is also a
great increase in manliness, happiness
and usefulness. And the advantage is
still greater when we turn from the mere
physical to the more mental lines of lab
or. A great painter whose work brought
fabulous prices, was asked, "What do
you mix with your colors?' "Brains."
SAID the master, "Brains." The more
Drains we mix with our various industries
the better they pay.
Third, 1t Pays in Position and Influence.
A large proportion of the great men of
the church and the nation have been
college men. Only about one-half of one
per cent of the mail population of our
country receive a college education vet
his small per cent wins more than one.
nall OF the higher positions in all the pro-
LESSONS, though these positions are usual
ly open to the other 993 per cent. OF the
men OF the present century who have at
tanned enough professional distinction to
o. noticed in the cyclopedia of American
Biography, we find that 40 per cent of
the congressman were college men, 60
per cent of the physicians, 60 per cent
OF the lawyers and so per cent of the
clergymen. And in the teachers pro-
fesslon the college graduate is fast taking