Mineral Point tribune. (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1869-1938, 1907-11-14
EDUCATION.


by ex-Gov. Hoard:
Hundreds of men have attempted 10
define the meaning of education IN
single phrase. They say education Is this
or education is that, but the reply
comes: Yes, it is all that, but it is more.
To our mind true education is process
of being taught how to know and how
to do. knowledge in the abstract is not
enough, no matter how much we may
have stuffed our minds with it. We see
such people at every turn. They are
great absorbers Of knowledge but small
doors. Then again we find people, plenty
of them, who are full of energy, but
their doing lacks knowledge. They are
rude, crude and abortive in their doing
That means a great waste Of effort for
it lacks the skill that discriminating
knowledge would impart.
with fully nine-tenths of the Ameri-
can people, the kind Of an education
that they most seriously need is indus
trial education. They must work; there
is no help for it. few can maintain
themselves through philosophic or lit
erary education. And, more or less the
minds of all hunger for the knowledge
that such education unfolds. But here
comes the great fact: Thou shalt work.
Wealth does not enable one to escape
it for without constant work and care
riches flee away. Poverty intensifies the
necessity of labor. But poverty causes
ignorance and ignorance is cruel to la
Dor, causing increased hardship and less
remuneration, making life harder to
bear. The great mass of mankind have
worked in the dark more or less. Educa-
ton comes as one bearing light. At
once there is a sense of relief. We see
what to do. SO all the people that labor
should unite as with one voice in the
demand that the schools should teach in
such way as that the scholar may la
Dor more inteligently Too much has
the idea prevailed that education is for
the purpose of helping people live with
out work. Such mistaken thought is a
curse and hindrance to the worker.
John Corbin writes in the Saturday
Evening Post that the University OF
Wisconsin is the greatest and most use
full of all the Universities Of this coun.
try because of the great utility of tho
education it imparts. He especially com
mends three of its four colleges in this
respect, that of Agriculture, Law anc
Engineering Here we have a judgment
as to the proportion in which the Uni
versty has answered to the ruling ne
cessities of the life Of the people OF
Wisconsin. The college of Letters anc
Science does not SO directly apply to the
demands of life, yet, the University
would be incomplete in its judgment OF
life, did it not provide for study OF
what is known in literature and science
and thus stimulate toward further dis
coveries.
"But the utilities of our life, public
and private, call for three-fourths OF
the power and force of this great state
school and so they should of all subsi-
diary schools. 1t is great thing tc
teach boy or girl how to work wisely
and to the best purpose. The judgment
of the people is growing more critical
in this respect. l. is time that the
meaning of the word. Education, took
this shape in public judgment The
great political necessities of our nation,
the preservation Of our democracy, the
putting down of the spirit of lawless
wealth, and its corrupting effect on so
ciety, al call loudly upon the forces OF
education that they teach toward labor
aud not away from it, =