The Nashville globe. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1906-193?, 1913-03-28

a misunderstanding of the truth
needed to enable us to let this dead
past bury its dead" l do not mean
for a moment to say that all men
have equal capacity. From ancestors
for generations unnUmbered every
person has received a different heri-
tage. But more powerful by far than
heredity, so far as education can eff
feet anything, is the environment
those conditions of life which sur
round the individual from the cradle
to the grave. To use a figure of
speech borrowed from another, hui
manity may be likened to one of the
great underground streams. of water.
Here and there wells are sunk. In
one place the soil has iron in it, In
another place sulphur, in another po-
tassium and so on. AS the water
rises in the well it takes on a chemi-
cal tincture from the elements of the
soil. What we want to do today is
to prevent the pure stream from con-
tamination anywhere by sinking our
wells and curbing so as to bring Cd
portunity for full development to all.
You and l as teachers cannot tell
what black boy that sits before us
today is a latent Dubois, or Booker
Washington, or Frederick Douglass.
There are more of them in embryo
than we have ever dreamed of in our
philosophy of education and of life.
They are waiting only to get the op-
portuntty to develop. How do any
Of us know which of the white BOYS
we meet on the street n will
develop into an Edison, a Wilson, or
an Abraham Lincoln There are
more latent heroes in our midst than
we suspect, If they only have oppor-
tunity to awaken and develop their
talents.
Let us turn next to the content of
Rome and the Middle Ages, before the
Rhine and the Middle Ages, before the
birth of modern democracy. In
these times the larger number of the
people were in serfdom or slavery
and, of course, their main business
was to toll and create wealth that
the upper classes might have leisure
and devote it to learning, in the
form of literature, history, the sci
ences and liberal arts, subjects which
We're for the interest Of gentlemen
OF leisure only, who. sought knowl-
edge for knowledge's sake. But with
the growth of modern democracy in
the last 300 years, with the increas-
ing development of inventions and
manufactures, there has come a ris.
Ing tide of demand from the peopIe
that they shall have some knowledge
and some culture for the elevation of
their lowly lives. In addition. the
occupations that engaged the time
and the attention of the lady and
gentleman of leisure of the past are
not the occupations of the men and
women in a democracy. Also, we
nave cast aside the "dead-hand" of
d%1sapproval upon manual labor and
instead of leveling down some men
and the work that they do. democra-
cy is leveling up all men and the
occupations in which they are en-.
gagged. So 1t comes about that the
ditch digger. the farmer, the me.
chanic, workingmen and women in
all the avenues of industry, are be.
ginning to want to find education
and culture through the develop.
ment in the lines where they know
most, where they are most interested
and where their capacities have
greatest outlet.
Besides, they are demanding that
much Of the literature and Other
liberal studies which were wont r.
be confined to only the upper classes
the leisure classes, shall now be dis.
tributed to enlighten and to uplift
all the people. In fact the very life
or democracy demands that this ave.
nue. of intelligence be thrown wide
open to all the people. It comes
about, therefore, that the best thought
as to the content of education would
not limit it to the few liberal arts
and sciences, but education should
include everything that develops
pody' mind and spirit. Thus, you