The Telegraph-courier. [volume] (Kenosha, Wis.) 1888-1946, 1910-05-19

against what he terms the lack OF
practical education in the high schools
of the state and this morning officials
of the Kenosha high school received
d letter from Mr.. Cary urging them to
take new view of the high school
work. The letter which is the third
of series along the same line is as
follows:
Madison, Wis, May 10, 1910.
TO superintendent, Principals and
Teachers:-
What is school education for?
81 want my children to get an edu-
cation so they may get living by the
use of their wits, and not have to work
as | have done. Such remark as
this I have often heard, and J have
no doubt the speaker usually has in
mind life of ease and dignity in a
profession, an office, or some other
lucrative position in which he thinks
there is nothing to do but read news
DdDGlOy OuIOhC NISdlO anu HCdL ~ AAUoA
starched shirt every day. Sometimes
the speaker is pessimistic or bitter, and
feels that his own life of hard, unre-
munerative labor is necessitated by
lack of schooling
The man of independent wealth some
times says, &" I want my children to
get an education for the sake of social
distinction; [ abominate these new
rich people with their boorish ways,
their crude speech, their ignorance of
the ancient classics. Ny children
have both time and money and they
must get the polish, the culture, which
they can get only in the best schools"
Often the speaker is himself too cul-
tmed to state the facts so badly, but
this is what he has in mind.
Another says, 81 want my boy to go
to school and study something that will
help him earn living when he gets
out of school. Much of your school
education takes from boy all notion
of work with his hands and leaves him
unfit to do anything useful. He must
then go to special school for long
period in order to learn how to earn
living, Give me the kind of education
that leads somewhere without going
around Robin Hood s barn or bankrupt
ing man in moderate circumstances
in putting his children through
school. -
Says another, "I want my child to
get an education for the sake of the
mental discipline, and the moral quail,
ties that develop under good teachers
and good instruction; it is the making
of man. do not care much what
he studies, but do care much who his
teacher is, and how he studies. I
want his intelligence developed, his
habits correctly formed and his ideals
placed high"
But what shall you and say of the
purpose of education? The high school
has at least four aims--three real and
one fictitious. These aims are Gull
ture, discipline, utility, and preparation
for college. [ shall omit the last as
oXtraneous to the discussion.
Culture is term that is vague in
meaning for the reason that every one
who uses it puts his own meaning into
it. To the dude it means an artificial
mode of speech, together with flowers, a
little French, and often a slavish imi-
tation of his British brother. To the
man of academic training it generally
means knowledge of the "humani-
ties,'' especially Latin and Greek. In
the best sense of the word, it is often
taken to mean about all that is best
in personal worth-sympathy, refine
ment, intelligence, knowledge, efici-
ency.
Discipline is more definite in mean
ing and is used to designate the out
come of close mental application for
a considerable period upon various
studies that present serious problems
for mastery. One element in dis
cipline is the habit of continued men
tai concentration, regardless of the
pull of the environment.
Utility is equivalent to usefulness, es-
pecially the Immediately useful; as
agriculture for the farmer, typewrit-
ing for the typewriter, trade for the
artisan.
To sum it up, the high school is call
ed upon to develop general intelligence,
store the mind with knowledge of the
world and its ways of dealing with
people, give firmness of texture to the
mind and train it to use it's own
stores of knowledge to the best ad.
vantage. To this may we'll be added
the training necessary to get the stu
dent into some useful employment
without too much delay, if circum
stances require it. Intelligence, alta
bility, power of concentration and the
possession of much disable knowledge
make combination that spells sue