University Missourian. [volume] (Columbia, Mo.) 1908-1916, 1909-10-05
AIM OF EDUCATION TO
TRAIN FOR CITIZENSHIP

The fact that never in the history
of the schools of Boston has there
been such a demand for admission tc
the Mechanic Arts High School is
alleged to be straight tip to the op
ponents of industrial education as tC
the trend of the times. Perhaps so;
and yet the trend of the times at any
particular moment is not certain tC
be in the right direction The trend
of the times in one generation is not
unlikely to be reversed by the trend
| of the times in the succeeding gener
alton, while both these trends may be
set at naught by the third. No tips
from Boston or any other locality are
necessary to show what the trend OF
this immediate time is with respect
to industrial education.
Nor is it necessary to emphasize
the pugnacious attitude of certain
champions of Industrial education as
against every suggestion that may be
made and every query that may be
raised with respect to the new move
ment which seems to imply doubt
or criticism. Such suggestion or
query is usually taken by the more
assertive OF these champions as evi-
dence that the propounder is per Sc
an opponent of Industrial education,
when the truth may be, and probably
is, that he is a far more thoughtful
and useful friend that the clatterer
is. There are these who recognize
the value and inevitableness of in
dustrial education who still cannot
share in all the hopes which are some
times expressed for it, and who
deprecate most earnestly the attempt
which is making to exalt restricted
Industrial education by depreciating
all other education. The best cham
pions OF industrial education are not
guilty of this. but the championship
which takes this course is yociferOuS
and persistent. And this is a misfor-
tune. 1t is a misfortune not alleviated
by any contemplation Of the crowds
who are going into the industrial
school,
He who points out that the supreme
office of school education in democ.
racy is to train men and women ana
citizens, rather than lawyers and
physicians and mechanics and stem
Cgraphers, is not necessarily foe to
industrial education. He is, in truth,
one of its most serviceable allies if
he succeeds in impressing on the
conductors of the industrial schools
the vital truth that they are doing
a poor job if they succeed in no more
than turning out boys capable OF
boxes and earning ten dollars
a week on the day of graduation.
The responsibility does not stop with
turning the pupil into an accom-
plished mechanic so that he may be
sure of providing his own board and
clothes. Eminently desirable as these
things may be, they fall far short of
what an American public school, in
dustrial, commercial, cultural ought
to turn out. What the schools should
produce is men with some breadth
Of information, with some faculty of
thought and discrimination, with some
faculty of thought and discrimina-
ton, with some power of application,
with some capacity for work-and,
more than all, with definite and posi- |
tive moral character. We are quite
aware that other influences than those
Of the public schools operate in the
development of American youth; |
nevertheless, the schools which do not |
have these ends clearly in view in
their courses of instruction and in
their methods of teaching lack-and |
lack grievously.
These things can be pointed out by
sincere friends of industrial education
and nobody has a better right to
punt luSIl Oul III view Ol lie
marked tendency in some industrial
schools toward the strictly utilitarian
and the still more marked tendency
Of some supporters of industrial edu-
cation to place all the emphasis on
the utilitarian, they need to be said
The atmosphere of the workshop" is
a favorite phrase to describe certain
idea of the industrial schoolroom, and |
to an extent it is we'll; but remember
that these boys are to go by and by
into an atmosphere which is by no
means all workshop. 1t is desirable !
that they shall get ready for that
New Bedford Standard.