The Laurens advertiser. (Laurens, S.C.) 1885-1973, 1912-09-11
Editor The Advertiser:


Riggs of Clemson College discusses a
phase of education that is very much
to the front nowadays. 1t is what is
called education for practical life.
1t is not a question peculiar to
south Carolina, or to the United States
as for that matter; but it is one that
is being discussed in nearly every
part of the civilized world However
from observations of the writer while
he was in South Carolina this sum-
mer 1t seems to be in rather acute
form In that state at present.
Just what an education should be
depends on the person answering the
question. How much Of the cultural"
and how much of the practical"
should enter into it, and where the
practical should be introduced are
questions that will never be settled.
But there are few broad principles
that should be considered along with
any individuals opinion in the mat
ter. 1t is when we get away from
these that we fall into serious falla-
cies.
In the first place, the advocates of
education for practical life" assume
that pretty nearly all of life is ma
terial-that it consists of factories
ana yards of cloth, land and bales of
cotton, iron in the ore and then in the
finished product The problem with
them is to convert the raw material
into the usable article. This consti-
tutes much in life, it is true. but it
Is not the chief thing, and should
never be made the guiding principle
in the lower schools-the schools be-
low college grade
Life includes much more than our
materialists will admit. 1t has been
Two thousand years since the Great
TEACHER expounded the doctrine that
ne Is lmmaterial. The elemental
things are of the intellect and soul.
How often we lose sight of that. es
pecially during periods of prosperity.
to find out later that In abandoning
that doctrine we had turned and at
tempted to embrace a shadow. The
view we have of life matters immense
~; and 1t seems that there is setting
In reaction in the educational world
against the vanities of materialism
The signs are few, but they are sig
nlfcant. Harvard, the first of the
great colleges to advocate vocational
training, is swinging back the other
way. Vocational training there has
not actually made good. 1t has fallen
short of what it's advocates used to
say 1t would do. Another hopeful sign
OF the times is that philosophy is turn
ing to the immaterial side again. M
Bergson. who is having so much in
huence on the thought of the world
at present, is proclaming anew that
the primordial things in life are un-
not measurable, things
qualities, not quantities. That means
that man is not to be considered as
or cash register.
1T is charged that the schools of
away from life. The allegation can
not be substantiated. On the contrary.
the school of that time, if it was
worthy of the name, gave the student
very profound views of life. Even in
the study of Greek and Latin, which
our friends so belaDor, there was
study Of life, The great thoughts
and emotions set forth in the Clas-
sizes are as vital today as they were
centuries ago. Moreover, the student
was exercised in those things that are
of prime importance-in industry, ac-
curacy, discrimination, appreciation of
the aesthetic, and many other quail
ties Of the like sort. The men those
schools turned out and the service
they did are a refutation of the charge
that they did not educate for life We
may condemn the old method, but the
new materialistic idea, which we are
told should be at the bottom of educaA
ton, has been tried in some places
for a considerable time, yet it has
not proved its right to supplant the
old. The immense sums that have
been spent on many forms of indus
trial education, have not been from
a practical standpoint, productive of
too great returns. In fostering ideal
ism, surely, they cannot be called a
highly successful investment Put
ting 1t on the ground of the first, we