Essex County herald. [volume] (Guildhall, Vt.) 1873-1964, 1907-04-05
FutpAY. ArEIt. :. l9u5
Five rlinute Educational Talks

" \ \ ! .
i an editorial tr"m the E>,.N County
HERALD Of April Il, 1925:
Our sshonl hoard >e-ul> af iast to have
come to its seus,.>. ia -sttl l>hiug classes
for manual training, Tor such pupils -
are at all likely e. np,.,l this ia after lie.
Personally, Ne hope to 500 he day "he"
every cml vii have thi> Instruction.
whether lie asks Tor it or not.
There has been too much mam cuI
turp. aud too little bodw heart. aud
hand training, ia our public schools, for
a generation ur NOR. II has developed
a sort of false notion a. to the place
that manual labor has upon earth; aud
the result has been the breeding SIT OF .
kid-glove-and-Silk stockings young men
and women, who must not soil their
hands, no matter " hat the necessity Tor
self-suppurt.
There has been an over-production OF
slip shod steuographerS. who could only
get five dollars week, aud weren't
worth that, aud of dainty clerks who
had neither mind nor muscle that would
help lift them beyond the pink ribhons
which they could measure off much
faster than they could calculate the cost
for Aud all this time We have been
suffering from tough steaks, poorly made
coffee. aud dearth OF honest laborers
at any price.
We hail the day when the schools will
teach everything that belongs to house
keeping, gardening, carpentry, etc, aud
when every child will be given his
birthright privilege OF an education that
shall be compulsory if it must, III fitting
him for a useful place i'll life. The
ornamental may safely be left to the
accident of fortune, while the child is
being given something that will keep
him from forced ideuess and the doom
does not know how to do one useful
thing while there is vast army Of
applicants Tor every place that hires amy
one for the so-caled '.polte" services.
SO long as great number never get
beyond the lower grades and only a
very few reach the high school, it is
we'll to paw attention to the crying needs
of the great ma ority. The greatest
good to the greatest number should be
our motto, hereafter, and not GLOW
much show for our money
1t has been difficult to install new
aud different course of study in the
established system There is still the
old animal idea of inherited instinct, by
which the child tends. as minimizing
people have it, to be just as good, to do
lust as much, and to act as we'll, as his
father aud mother !; just as a dog in
herits the instincts of its kind If We
We are not. Ideas and whatever is
gained by education are not inherited
This shows how human character cat
progress it also shows how it has tue
power to degenerate. 1t is vastly easier
to go down than to rise.
When we say that what was good
enough for us is good enough for ON
children, we must take care that we dc
not mean that the children are to have
worse education than We had But
then supposing that children have al
opportunity equal to that OF tie parents
that would still be unequal to the
Increasing difficulties Of our civilization
Incidentally, we might remark that
the purely literary education has largely
come from an unwillingness on the part
travel the rugged road over which they
themselves have passed. This is a
mistaken kindness, though we'll meant
Manual labor must employ the great
MA jority of mankind, and when any
considerable part of a community is un-
able or unwilling to enter this field
idleness, disappointment, and failure
await all except very few OF them.
Let us. then. have more industrial
classes, and more good teachers OF
manual training; and let us never be
satisfied short of experimental farms
Kitchens, hospitals, offices, etc.