Omaha daily bee., 1908-09-20

pie are more and more convinced that
knowledge apart from moral excellepce Is
not education. II leaves the best side OF
the nature fallow. and makes impossible
the proper unfolding even OF the purely
Intellectual faculties.
Drifting from Ola standard,
In another important point recent years
have seen a sad falling away from good
old educational tradition. l mean that now
we do not. so carefully as teachers were
formerly wont to do. keep In view the de-
velopment OF the pupils as the great OBJ
ject Of education and the main criterion
AiCng with this error OF ignoring hu-
manly as the end OF education. we are II
the humanities as a means OF education
In this I fear we are farther astray than
we slppose en- happy to 6eli EYE, nat tSt
good path less thar NEST Others.
But IL Is time for a change. We can
and we must put more OF the bread Of
what has been urged as to the proper end
Of education, and It Is evident at once
the most important thing. Far less de-
ponds on II than on the teacher. Far less
de pends cn II than on right views OF the
ain. Of education A great master, Ike
Socrates. Francis Wayland, or Mark Hop
klns. determined to teach high mental and
whatever the field CT thought into which
he leads his pupils. In presence of sucn
born teachers It would never occur to you
to discuss questions CT curriculum.
Yet, after all, there Is a difference OF
better and worse between courses of study.
Certain principles exist according TO which
one car reasonably say that such or such
a study ought to have prominent place in
liberal training and that other studies de-
serve to be excluded or sighted.
The contents Of a well arranged curricu-
lum are OF four sorts. Some studies are
there because of their disciplinary quality.
Here come logic and mathematics. Other
branches, as rhetoric and oratory, justly
claim their position because they are aids
to the power OF expression. Sill others
are necessary as stirulants and tonlcs to
the moral nature. Their follows. fourthly,
the great mass Ct general educational ma
terlal, the adoption Of which ~ motived
by no one of these considerations alone,
but by its ability at large 10 form the
mind and to advance the dignity OF think
ing beings. This vast and practically in
finite realm is the proper territory for the
elective system, which ought not to be eN-
tended either to the purely disciplinary
or to the distinctly ethical portions Of the
curriculum. Wide prevalence Of election In
the course may thus be kept from turning
Incompatible new worth is lent to his
torical pursuits by recognizing, as all now
do, the absolute continuity Of development
between the older civilizations and that Of
Greece, ard between Rome and the modern
nations.
curriculum material ever opened is that Of
sociology, the Protean science of man I'm
his social nature and relations II has this
especially TO recommend II mat 1t bids
fair to be the science Of the coming cen
fury. In a larder stored with such i'm
mense variety of good food for the growth
OF mind, we should be very slow to place
one article OF diet above another, vet l
venture this judgment, that counting out
the branches absolutely essential for mere
mental drill, to cultivate the power of eX-
preston, and to build the moral nature.
and combining the view to the great mass
of general educational material, no other
discipline has quite the triumphant fitness
for place in a liberal curriculum presented
by political economy. 1t drills like the
calculus; 1t fills as does perhaps no other
study known.
II ] am right, It follows that to secure
from Il the best results, the chief time and
devoted TO history, literature, art and an
tiuuities at large.
The more l reflect the stronger is my
belief that, as few departments of study
are more profitable than the classics. SO
none are more capable of inspiring pupils
with deep enthusiasm. Any falling off Of
interest in them, such rs is alleged widely
to exist in our institutions of learning,
must be largely duo either TO poor teach
ing or to mlsdirected emphasis or wry pro-
portions of matter in the teaching.
Laundry Business.
o. ]. Fee. who has been superintendent
and manager OF the grounds at the State
university for six years, has handed his
resignation to the Board of Regents. The
request for withdrawal has not yet been
granted by the board, but 1t is understood
that Mr.. Fee expects to sever his connec-
ton with the school as soon as another
man can be secured for the position. Mr..
Fec will take a position as one Of the
laundry. He graduated from the State uni
versity in 1902, and since that time he has
acted In his present capacity.