The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1908-11-28

A large number of superintendent of
schools in New England held a meet
ing recently and during the course of 1T
they promulgated declaration of their
beliefs in the principles Of education.
In 1t was this statement:
I'VE believe that in our complex
school system special effort should be
made to teach the fundamentals. While
the vital quality of education should
not be neglected in favor of mechanical
routine, yet the business world has a
right to demand that our schools should
give a thorough training in essentials
and our schools should not fail to sat
isfy the demand"
In the curriculum Of the schools all
over the country the same general con-
ditions prevail like those in the New
England schools and in this pronounce
ment of New England school teachers
there is something of confession that
there has been justice in the complaint
of business men, throughout the entire
land, that the schools have not been
furnishing graduates able to write,
spell, cipher and deal efficiently and
adequately with the demands of prac-
teal life.
of the modern methods of education,
including the fads and fancies held in
such high favor by many so-called
educators. have untitled many an
otherwise sensible youth for the ordl-
nary business affairs of life.
OF many of the young men gradual
ing from high schools and even from
some of the colleges and entering upon
an active business life, who can cor
rectIy write in and read in two, three or
four languages but incorrectly In
English; who is familiar to a degree
with the movements of the sun, the
moon and the stars, but who knows
nothing of the movements of COM
merce; who can repeat the incidents OF
the history of the whole world from its
very beginning, but who is ignorant or
the current events of Importance; who
can analyze the arts of the great mas
tiers. but who is baff1ed by any one of
a bookkeeper's sheets-of such young
man and there are far too many OF
them-it may be honestly remarked
that he is heavily handicapped in the
race of practical life.
1t is a matter of common knowledge
that some eminently successful bust
ness $1,000
perience has taught them to beware OF
applicants for employment from the
purely classical colleges and also from
MANY of the high schools of today.
Great business success is not every
thing in life, it is true. Money making
is not the only road to happiness. But
it must be borne in mind that the main
business of life is to make living.
Il,
tastes and wants are cultivated far be-
yond his capacity to make living IS
to certain misery. There IS
probably a great deal of truth In Inc
remark that much intellect is not re-
quired to make money. But the pee
and the ant are the best types of the
business men in the world, for they ad-
here strictly to system and perseVer-
ance On the other hand, too much
learning of a certain kind and to which
many educators are all too prone In
dispensing, calls for riches. Beaut1ful
homes, books, pictures, travel'-aH
these are required to meet cultivated
tastes, and they call for money. All OF
them are most desirable, to be sure, but
an education is faulty which makes
them almost a necessity and which
does not prepare a young man so that
he can go to work and provide himsel1
with these things in good time the
most acute misery in the world Is not
among those whose possessions and
outlook are narrowed down to we'll
nigh naught by lifelong poverty, but
among those who see enticing things
they cannot reach, dream wonderful
dreams they cannot realize, and TO
whom the world is wide and beautiful
and their particular cell small and
dark.
There lis an old saying that the
world owes every man living" ana
this is true in a sense. There Is no
doubt though, that the state owes
every citizen, or prospective citizen, an
education in the fundamentals that VIII!
enable him to get on in life. But when
the state or the city, instead OF prop
erly fitting him for this, really units
him for it by a false education, 1t does
him a grievous wrong.
Higher learning and cultivation Oh
things esthetic are not to be con-
demned. by any manner OF means
They are as essential to the happiness
and usefulness of the individual as they
are to the progress and development OF
the race. But they must be Of the
not of the foundation.
The first things that go to make
great nations are not the learned
scholar. the famous artist, the mar
velIous musician. No. indeed, although
they may add to its fame The sine"s
that make a nation strong and great
are the practical farmer, the skilled
mechanic and artisan, the honest and
successful merchant. The nations true
peoples real pride-are
not in its libraries. its halls of art. Its
tenopIes of music, fine as they all are,
- a., So farms its factories and its