Staunton spectator and vindicator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1896-1916, 1906-05-11
Economy in Education

Gan address delivered at the Harrisburg
bv Prof J. F. Messenger, of the State
Normal School at Farmville.)
Virginia is now awake Ito the neeC
of better educational advantages fol
her children, and it may not be out OF
place to consider briefly the economic
side of the case. The most practical
economists are the managers of great
Industries. What can we learn from
them The captains of industry pay
more for skilled labor because they
know that it brings greater returns on
Investment. If the man who receives
$5 day does not bring to his employ.
er as great or greater returns than ten
men who can be had for SOC apiece
would the So man be employed ? Ger
tainly not. 1t pays to employ skilled
workmen. That is the reason busi-
ness men do it. The cost of labor is
measured by its products. Raw ma
terial is always cheap. A diamond
would not be worth any more than a
brick if there were no lapidary to polish
it. AS with Jewels, so with children
it is the forming and polishing that
gives them value. The skilled teach
er will increase the value of child as
the skilled workman or lapidary will
increase the value of a jewel.
The child is the raw material out of
which humanity is made and the school
is the factory in which the work is
done. In commercial factory, un-
skilled hands make the cheap articles
and skilled hands make the ones of
higher grade. What sort of product
do we expect from the human factory
which we call the school system of
Virginia? If we wish the best possi-
BILE product. we must send the raw
material to the best workman We can
get.
A man has a money value, and this
value may be increased by proper
The increase in actua! value
which a good school brings to COM
is many times greater than
the amount it costs to maintain the
school. Hence every dollar paid to a
good teacher is a good Investment be-
,anse 1t brings large returns.
A compulsory education law is q |
good thing under some clrcum-
tances, but when every school is
10 we'll taught that both parents
Ind children feel that every day lost is
/ bargain missed, there will be little |
rouble about school attendance. The
We are facing today will |
never be solved until they are solved |
~ the teacher; but the teacher must |
lOt only find the solution, she must be
he solution.
1t has been said that with Mark Hop
Inns on one end of log and a student |
n the other, there is a university. |
ust give us the Mark Hopkinses and |
We shall have university in every |
district. 1t takes the whole world a |
century or more to produce genius
Ike Hopkins or Pestalozzi, but we
lave very effective substitute for
is training. If we can
lot have a Pestalozzl or Hopkins in
very district, we can have a young
nan or woman who is qualified by
having the best training available.
This training should include the equiv
llent of four years course at High
school and some professional training
besides. The high school work is in
;ended to give that knowledge which
,he world in it's experience has found
TO be most essential for the Individual
who wishes to understand the world
about him, to get along with his fel.
low men and he useful citizen. Pro-
fessional training aims at the under
standing of our doing. 1t stands for
fair knowledge of the mental process
es involved in learning, and of the
forms of presentation suited to those
processes, and for the art of putting
principles into practice.