The Saint Paul globe., 1905-01-01
ON The RIGHT TRACK

ON THE RIGHT TRACK
We are glad to note in so many of
the addresses made before Minnesota,s
educators at their recent session the
expressed sense of recognized dis
t1nction, whose absence is the cause of
nearly all mistakes and follies that
have beset the modern educational
world. This distinction is found in the
drawing of a broad, practical line be-
tween the common and the higher ed
ucation. The confusion of these dis
tinct and separate qualities has been
source of infinite injury to both
We do not know which Is more un-
happy in its results, the Eruption of
the higher educational idea into the
field and the work of the common
school, or the assault made by those
who believe that all education should
be practical upon the work of our
colleges and universities Inextricable
confusion has come from this attempt
ed mingling of opposites and reconcile
ment of contradictions. We have come
pretty near to losing in this country
all definite notion >of education by re-
garding it as one connected whole, with
the alphabet at one end and higher
mathematics and philosophy at the
other, and no stopping place between
them
The demand that all education. in
Guiding university courses, should be
practical" by which is meant that it
should have for its prime object sue
cess in business and the getting of
money, is hideous. The demand that
all the accessories of the higher edu-
cation should find their beginning and
root in the common school, and that
the primary, the grade and the high
schools should all work simply as pre-
paratory to the university course, is
farcical. Education will be successful
and great in its results only as it learns
to distinguish the essential difference
in spheres.
First, education should be severely
practical. To it belong the realm of
the material and the practices of com
mon life. The young child should be
taught plain things. 1t should learn the
essentials and learn them thoroughly.
Thoroughness is a million times more
important than scope. The child who
knows how to do but one thing, but
knows that completely and is able to
do 1t without an error. has reached
farther than one who has dabbled in
dozen pleasant pools. Such education
is an end in itself. 1t looks, and
ought to look, no further than its rela-.
ton to the actual life of the child.
Only the smallest portion of school
children ever pass within the reach Of
the higher education, and their school
work should be adapted to their work
in the outside werld. The Introduction
into the common school Of ideas and
methods and subjects drawn from the
higher education is an injury and in
justice to the child. and gives birth to
those faneiful and time-wasting no.
tions which are commonly named
'fads."
The error on the other side is equally
| grave and irremediable The higher
education should have nothing to do
| with practical business life. 1t is an
end in and for itself. The man who
seeks it because it will aid him in COM
| mercial pursuits is like the man who
marries girl for her money. He acts
| from low motive, and must forever
fall short of the best. That education
which disciplines the man to its last
and finest fiber, which asserts inde-
pendence of thought and strengthens
| clearness and develops every mental
faculty, cannot have material motive
| behind it. 1t must exist and be pur-
sued for its own sake. TO carry the
practical measurement of benefits and
damages. entirely behtting in elemen-
tary education. into the higher field Is
to conmercialize and to hrutalize 1t.
It follows clearly from this relation