Deseret evening news. [volume] (Great Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1867-1920, 1908-12-22
Modern Education IS Sacrificing
Its Qualities Of Liberal Culture
Says President Schurman.
SPECIALIZATION THE CAUSE.
Is Being Secured at Expense of
Fundamentals to Which Uni
versities Must Turn Back.
Cornell, He Says, Is Looping on High
ly Specialized Courses in Favor
or General Subjects.

Cornell, He Says, Is Looping OF High
/ Iy Specialized Courses in Favor
or General Subjects.
| Tonight's meetingsAt the taber-
| nacle, 1880 p. M, lectures by Supt.
Alderman. and Mrs. Miner, guests OF.
1 the association.
$3.50 p. m. social session at the
| Odeon hall. y
| p M, department meetings at high
| school buildings.
| Tomorrow-Final meetings with bust
ness session and election of officers q
2 p. m.
Declaring that modern American uni
| versities, in their haste to break away
| from the narrow and restricted educa-
| ton Of their forefathers, have SELF
! ously overlooked some of the funda-
1 mental aims OF education, President
| Jacob G. Schurman delighted and NOV
| ed./to frequent applause q large audi
| ence OF Utah teachers this morning.
The occasion was the third session Of
| the fifteenth annual convention Of the
state Teachers association, and was
/! the final session which President
! Schurman will address, as he left salt
Lake this afternoon for San Francisco.
! His address was preceded by an inter
esting paper from Mrs Florence Miner
| Of the associated colleges OF Detrolt,
Michigan, upon the theme of the teach
| er and her poblem of controlling young
| pupils. IA
| President Schurl1lan spoke upon the
subject oc "Educa tional Changes and
/! Progress. " and in his opening sentences
| he declared that all that has been ac..s
complished by modern education IN me
! production of literally cultured men
! was accomplished IN Greece for genera
| tons and that from the Greek system
| grew up achievement In poetry, IN, the
jHfne arts, and In q cultured manner OF
| life, that has not been excelled by any
modern attainment. IS
GIRLS HAD NO CHANCE.
I For the Greek girl he did not speak
so well. She had no chance IN the
Athenian culture. nor did the Greek
man of common birth. Apart 2Som
the biological science, he said. every
1 thing to which we attach Importance
| In our school curriculum was practtsed
by the Greeks. and today our aim IN
education is still to produce liberaliy
cultured men such as walked through
the streets of Athens $500 years ago
The Greek girl did not have. any OBJ
| portunity, for the educational problem
there centered about the boy Who had;
a simple schedule requiring him to en-
I gage in gymnastic exercises which
j produced physical results we have
Inever equalled, and to commit to mem
DRY the great poems OF his language
| especially the poems of Homer.
MEMORY TRAINING.
| nWhen some OF YOU older men in
| this audience were boys, great stress
was laid upon committing to memory
| sections of poetry. Perhaps this did
not develop reasoning powers, it did
I, develop the memory. 1t was largely
| by memorizing Homer that the Greek
boy attained the culture of that gen
Grafton which produced the greatest
| examples of the fine arts. | think
we neglect today. the proper cultivation
| OF the memory and also training that
| can come through committing to mem
| CRY sections of good poems.
SLAVES DID THE WORK.
| "fll the Greek educational system
| there was no place for merely useful
! subjects. Athens had small popula-
ton of tree men and a large popula-
| ton of slaves, and these slaves did all
/ the manual labor, which we today
| honor with place In our course of
study. Slavery is gone. Then there
| was serfdom, and that has gone. Now
the aim of modern democracy is to
| give every citizen an equal chance to
| develop the best possibilities that are
! in him. Our aim is to give back to
society from our schools men and Ho-
men fitted for the highest efficiency
! OF service in any line they may choose
| to follow. This, it might be said, is
| the glory of American institutions.
THE problem before us differs from
s.1,a ftov,r
MODERN EXPANSION.
First there was a general classical
| course, inherited from the middle ages.
! 1t had place for Latin, Greek, mathe-
! Inatics, natural philosophy, logic, and
| ethics, and 1t produced some OF the
| older men in this audience.
THE perpetuation of this course be-
| came impossible in American univer-
sites because there was an influx Of
new subjects demanding attention,
such as the modern sciences, the living
languages. French, German. and Eng
| lish. And there were also the utllt
arian subjects. and subjects which
| for one highly esteem, History. econ
| omics, and politics. The consequence
| has been that these new subjects are
now co-ordinated with the old in i'm
| portance, and that our universities in
| tendency are becoming intensely demo-
| cratic.
| FAULTS OF SYSTEM.
1t was in handling thu newest mat
| tiers in the world of education that
| President Schurnan declared we were
| going too far, and forgetting funda
| mental aims.
| I'VE now demand that attention be
| given to agriculture. domestic science.
! to technical courses he said. mot
| merely designed to produce an en-
| gineer, for instance but mechanical
| engineer. an electrical engineer a pow
| er station engineer, q mining engineer
! / have become convinced that for Il
decade we have gone too far III this di
| rection, and you younger Cornell grad
| yates will find that since you left the
| campus we have Topped off some ofFour
| technical post graduate courses. We
! need fundamental culture for every
| specialist. Therefore we have decided
| that man is better educated for a
! technical position through having Sc
cured broad UNDERLYING cultNra. than
! because of any technical training. car
| ried to an extreme. We want our
| engineers to go 10 the school OF the
| ear tyy,, 1-tln then we