Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1912-06-26
AT COLBY.
Continued from Page seven.3

We are familiar with the definitions
of education. Many people object TO
definitions and think that in proper
ton as we are vague and unintelligible
our thought and our discourse are pro-
found and wise There can be no OBJ
jections to definitions except the dam
ger that we PERSUADE ourselves that a
definition goes deeper than il really
does and so becomes superficial in our
thinking; or that we allow ourselves
TO become so familiar with the terms
of our definition that we finally lose an
appreciation of its real meaning This
appears to be the case with our def
nitions of education. What we need to
do is neither to despise or revise them.
but To see that we lay to heart their
real meaning.
No doubt the economic value of vo-
eational studies is the occasion of the
present interest which they are ARGUS
ing An actual economic necessity has
drawn our attention to them. AT least
seventy out of every one hundred
boys never enter the high school. They
leave school early to go to work earn
ing wages. They are without any de-
gree of manual skill; they cannot earn
desirable wages; they cannot render
any valuable service to society. They
cannot achieve for themselves and
those dependent upon them. desira-
bic social position. In the large towns
especially, it is pitiable and even ira
gic. To meet this social situation is
the purpose of the trade school and
the bureau of vocational guidance, SO
large feature of educational and
even municipal activity in most Of the
great European and American cities.
But this is not the whole story for
vocational studies. We have learned
that they have high educational value
in the same way that other studies
have which are included in the general
curriculum. In the elementary grades
and in the High school we
value all kinds of manual and
constructive processes because we
have learned that the brain and the
nerve centers are most wholesomely
and rapidly developed when they con
troll the motor machinery of the body
in acts of skill. Further, these pro-
cesses give to the student broader
knowledge of the actual world in
which he lives, a keener appreciation
of physical realities, truer judgment
of the significance of industries, broad
er intelligence and broader sympathy.
In our great cosmopolitan high schools
we are providing these courses not on
~ for those pupils who will emerge
out of the schools into trades and tech
meal employment, but also to those
who are destined for further cultural
courses and for the further traditional
learned professions.
! do not ask the High school or the
college to concern itself over much
over what my son is going to do for a
living. But | do ask Il to concern it
self very much with seeing to 1t that
when he leaves the college he has a
sound and strong body, free and in
dependent character, the ability and
intelligent oppinion. d taste for the
finer things of life. broad human sym
pathy. some knowledge of the natural
world, the capacity for taking respon-
sihilities, and, if he is capable of it,
the capacity for leadership. ! do not
ask that he be introduced to early
specialization-not because ] do not
believe i'm specialization, but because
] want him 10 specialize effectively at
the proper time. Herein, as ! appre-
bend 1t. we find the function of the
college.