The times dispatch. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1903-1914, 1913-07-13

oiOli 10 CSiIdlHly Vic IIlOSC Interesting
example. Twenty years ago men were
still taught business in a business
house. If lad wished to learn book
keeping, he was placed under the
tutelage Of some gray-beard, whose
first thought was to impress the boy
with the mystery Of his craft If he
wished to learn shorthand and type
writing, he was regarded by some as
not truly going to school,
A broader horizon has given us a
better perspective and has shown us
that commercial education offers both
the means of procuring livelihood and
the means of acquiring technical train
ing. The day is past when the boy
learns bookkeeping while serving as
office boy. He has at his command the
facilities of good schools, where trained
men can give him, not only the routine
of his calling, but that thorough equip
ment which will make progress easy.
The commercial college, in short, has a
place now of small prominence in the
new educational system, mission by
no means slight in equipping new
generation for greater things.
Teaching Teachers.
In the same way, the new educa
tional horizon includes all those activi-
ties which aim at teaching the teacher
to teach, whether in school, in college
or in university. Once it was our belief
that this ended with the equipment of
the young man or young woman to
maintain discipline while explaining to
his children the boundaries of Virginia
or the Latin third declension. Now we
have come to see that the kindergarten
has place not less important than the
preparatory school, and that we are
not meeting the needs of the day unless
we are preparing young women to
train the tots who are to be the col
lege students of another ten years.
Indeed, one may reckon as among
the best signs of the time that new
educational outlook which finds place
for the kindergarten and the kinder
gartner. We used to think, in other
days, that it mattered very little what
was done to improve the mind of the
child before it became seven years of
age. Our schools were not nurseries,
we avowed, and we closed many of them
to our children until they became seven.
Now we have come to see that in many
respects the training Of the child before
it is seven is at least as important as
educating it after that age. Surely any
one who will follow the remarkable
work done by Madame Montessori and
her disciples will have most profound
respect for the kindergarten and it's
place in our system.
Education in Art.
Nor have we overlooked, in our new
view of the world Of education, the
worthy and honorable place occupied
by art. We have at last opened our
minds to understand that when we
teach people to see and to depict the
beautiful in life, we have made them
better and more cultured. That the
South has needed better appreciation
of the beautiful, all Of us appreciate.
We have passed through an era of
mediocre ugliness in sculpture, in paint
ing, in architecture, and we have about
us abundant proof that he who neglects
art may expect ugliness. How beau.
tiful the America of the next genera
ton will be depends upon how much
of art we put in education and in life.
When, therefore, we give place in our
educational system to schools of art we
give ourselves the pledge of new
beauty.
Education in Music.
Along with art, we are giving to
education in music that exalted place
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