The farmer and mechanic. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 18??-19??, 1912-06-04

slow TO learn and that is not yet
~enmnIetelv learned. But we lose noth.
inp BY making citizenship the ideal
We have enriched the meaning not
only Of citizenship but of educatloh,
The old threefold aim Of educational
effort-body, mind. and Conscience
repains intact. Citizenship does not
substitute a new aim; II mercy vital
ICES the old aims by giving them
definite direction and daily exercise.
We are beginning to see that educd-
ton is not a preparation Tor hle-ll
is life itself. The increasing interest
in ciyics and history. the teaching OF
agriculture in the common schools
the library movement. the new real-
cation Of the possibilities of the re-
mote country school. the emphasis
put upon community service, upon the
economic and industrial phases or
educatiOn-all point to a newly
awakened consciousness of the vital
relationship between education ana
citizenship.
A few years a~o the citadel Of de-
mocracy in the South was the court
house. Today it is the publlc school.
Ii is not surprising that 50 cautious d
leader as ex-President Eliot recently
declared that Americans must look
to the South for the most interesting
developments now taking place IN
public education. A new force has
been disengaged in the South, a force
that we call educational statesman
ship. a craftsmanship yltallzed by the
p%rospeCt of Industrial supremacy ana
by the vision Of a regalned national
leadership.
The pupil, then, who leaves the
public school without the ideal OF
citizenship as service, has not only
~,-l- 900 H. m n
American public school system but
is himself an indictment Of the meth
Cd by which the system, in his own
case, has been carried out. Among
the new demands laid upon the
teacher is thai of vocational direction.
1t has long seemed to me that Vo-
cational guidance, if not vocational
training. is the duty of every school
under the supervision of the State.
The time is doubtless coming when
every high school faculty will serve
as a m on the vocational
guidance of every pupil committed TO
their charge They can merely Sug-
gest. it is true, but, by conference
with the parents. they are in a posi-
ton to suggest wisely and we'll. There
would be fewer round pegs in square
holes and square pegs in round holes
if every teacher set himself to study
not only the capabilities Of his pupils
but the corresponding needs of the
community, SO that y helpful rela-
tionship might be established. The
new ideal of citizenship is after al
an ideal not merely of training but
of finding the thing that fits the
training.
Idealism in american Literature.
No nation can be called idealistit
unless it has a literature and a Htera-
ture that embodies lofty ideals. There
was a time when America was though
to be dominated by crude material
istic aims, and, without investigator
5 American literature, foreign critics in.
; ferred that this too must necessarily
, reflect a m~ateria1iStic purpose. Tha
, time has passed. and passed forever
{ Among European nations we owe j
chiefly to the Germans that our liter
allure as a whole is beginning to b.
. justly appraised for its characteristic
. idealiSm. In 1896 Edmund Gundel,
=, German biographer of Poe declared
! that the essential trait Of American
: literature was It's splendid idealism
. In 1902 Louis p. BetZ, another Ger
4 man student Of Poe, spoke Of the in
teresting contrast between the QUITE
C and the inner life of the America
people. the outer life characterize
q by a seeming mater1alism, the inne
life by the Excelsior note. In 1S9
Eduard Engel. the author Of an ex
a cellent little book on American litera
8 ture. used his striking language
4 The most distinctive note in Amer
can literature is it's idealism. A
great American writer's, all thoS
whom the Americans consider grea'
;, have been without exception idealist!
almost, in fact, ultra-idealists It
no accident" be adds. that from a
American poet. from Longfellow, tn
world should have received that eS
% quisite poem whose refrain. 'E1
~ C%elSior.' has become the WatChwOr
, of idealists in all lands" THAI
high praise but it is just. Every his
- tory Of American literature ought.
seems to me. to contain at least on
chapter entitled "Idealism In Amer
a. can Literature" Such a chapte
- might show the idealism in our orr
~ tory. our fiction. or our lyric poetr