Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1908-02-11
ESTABLISHED 1925
Tuesday, February II, 1908.
Educating the Head and Heart.

Educatih9 inc Heao anu 1edrt'
Prof. Arlo Bates makes a telling plea
for his speciality when he asks Tor the
giving of more attention to the study
of literature in the colleges and less to
the bread and butter accomplishments,
which latter he would leave to the
technical and professional schools. II
his desire is to be met by any of the
colleges, it may well be by MS alma
mater, Rowdoin, whose best traditions
ARE in the line Of literary achievement.
Boston Herald.
The views expressed by Professor
Bates on TIE occasion referred to by
tho Herald have been advanced of late
with equal earnestness and visor by
other emrent educators. Professor
Phelps Of the department of literature
at Yale, in speaking before recent
gathering of Yale graduates, said Il
have taught at Yale for 10 years, and
/ have never SO far as l know taught
anything useful, and | hope / never
shall. The business OF a college is not
to give bargain counter education.
We should hang some pictures on the
walls of young mans soul. Let him
come to. us an unlocked cub, something
of an Indian, and let him graduate an
educated gentleman"
The old-time college education edu-
Gated the head and the heart Of the
Whit hn tanlanrIy
been mere towards the training Of the
hands and has given emphasis TO those
courses which would give the young
lnan the earliest and largest financial
returns after his graduation. Happily
this has not been the policy at all col
lcges ,r with all young men, but it has
Decn Il tendency of the times, and
while Il change from the old methods
was inevitable it will be q dep)Orable
thing indeed for the world if the
classics. literature and philosophy are
neglected in our higher institutions of
learning. Without them such a thing
~ culture is impossible and so-called
higher education becomes travesty.
Too many boys. trying to make short
cut into the active business OF life,
make their choice Of n technical profess
sion too early and then regret at leis-
IRE rs long as they live that they did
not first secure q liberal education.
They become skilled in the tecknicali-
ties but they have very little perspec-
tive of life. ard. while they may have
more money in their pockets, they are
lacking in things which as they grow
older they realize are more precious
than gold
In the course of the address OF Prof
essor Bates which the Herald COM
nents upon above. he spoke as follows:
The highest responsibility of the col
first and incomparably its highest duty
is To the public. to the country, or, if
the term does rot seem so wide as to
tend toward vaeuenesS. to the race. A
college is. above everything, the guard
ian of intellectual, moral and aesthct
ic ideals. In its supreme duty of
creating and nourishng ideals its
most efficient instrument is literature
Literature is the record Of the highest
human wisdom: it is the product of the
deepest human experience; the express
sion of human Thought in it's moments
OF greatest illumination. However, the
term may be carelcssly applied To I'M
worthy writings. 1t in truth means
those noble works which present the
Puintessence of human achievement
Obviously by no other means can be
college so effectively or so vitality adj
vance the general good as by diffusing
an appreciation and Il reverence for
This choicest heritage of mankind. i
nave always cherished secretly the
feeling that Bcwdoin, with its price
less past. With its gracious surround
1nss, with its fortunate escapes from
. ~"'h iiiNtiS anu Sltulu he me
foremost of American colleges in car
rying on the literary tradition. What
the college is and what it does must de-
pend today largely upon what we. the
alumni. wish in our hearts that it shall
be For myself, l would have the policy
OF the college shaped with one chief end
III view. l can conceive of nothing
nobler for our alma mater than that
among American colleges she should
stand pre-emircnt as upholding the
might. the glory, the Inspiration Of
literature
rhere is no denying the strength
secretary Taft will have in the vigor-