Essex County herald. [volume] (Guildhall, Vt.) 1873-1964, 1907-03-22
Five rlinute Educ ltional Talks.

Five 1inute Educ ltionai Talks.
THE NALUE 81 EpUCNIIuN. TIE c"Si .
sid. of education IL uit-u triorr the .
public. Practically every one H. a cnu-
munity can tell What irs sch" !, cost
how many can tell What is the producing
po yer of the schools: Everything must
h.. tra slated into dollars aud r-rtS ON
a-days To he given ap understood value.
Very we'll what have the >chnoiN ul tn
c.suuirv produced aud what are they
capable of pro luciugt The reason why
America is progressing 50 fast Is because
there is 80 much good trachmg. II
there were five times rs much, the figures
indicating our national wealth wonli in
crease by leaps aud bounds.
Important as wealth i, there are other
things greater. Ovrrtowrling all the
products of mines, factories, fields. or
what not. the greatest pro lnct of a ma
ton is men. Ii in attaining the ltsSer
ends this greater product is dwartrd 81
stunted in any way, the nation Is poverty
stricken though its wealth is reckoued
in thousands of billions. 1t is the
American idea to depend upon the
schools for the creation of AN intelligent
democracy and as stand the people so
stands the nation. But more than this,
the God of Nature plants in nearly every
child the possibility of great service.
Sufficient education can make almost
any one nobly useful to humanity. The
school gives the state it's character.
mutiplirs the efficiency of the peoll-.
aud creates wealth Ivy increasing wis
dom. Why have We not gone forward
faster?
Whatever is said of education pre-
snmes that the instruction is good.
Nowhere is the true nature OF false econ
omy better illustrated than in the bust
hess of education. Ths salaries paid
for teaching do not represent value re-
criyed III the ordinary business seusp.
Teachers salaries are not "cunppnsa-
tions" though it is often hard for the
business man to understand this aud
distasteiul to the teacher to admit it.
Neither do they represent charity. Per.
haPs the best way to explain them is to
say that they represent an attempt to
strike an average of the old method
where each child paid his private fee
for attending school. The community
pays lump sum in place of the many
small fees. In this way we may con-
slder a teacher salary as a tee. In the
final reckoning one school may I've found
to have produced results one hundred
times more valuable than another and
the teachers may have received the same
salary. BY making the fee paid for
instruction too small to secure cOmpe-
tent instructors, tie community NAV
suffer untold loss. by securing compe-
tent teachers, the gain that will come
TO single life may more than pay
the total Investment. Multiply this by
all the lives that have been brought into
the influence of these schools and the
result will he found to be beyond com
pntation. What "a magnificent waste
can come to community through par
slmony in school management! No
community can afford this loss. But
then, the payment of a large fee does
not always ensure good teaching with
ont honest and skilled supervision.
The value of education to the future
depends upon what we now put into it.
Home and Church seem to he disnte
grating. Unless the best can be kept
III the schools OF the country as leaders
and inspirers of the rising generations,
our history will be Il dreary repetition of
the story of The nations that have gone
down before our time. Men not dollars
constitute the wealth of nation and
the value Of our educational institu-
lions is determined by the character of
the output.