The Manitowoc pilot. [volume] (Manitowoc, Wis.) 1859-1932, 1913-11-13
EDUCATIONAL.
(BY G. VI. MEISNEST.)
THE NEW SCHOOL YEAR.

year. No one can doubt 1t who sees
the troupes of children on their way to
the school room, all bearing evidence
of mothers patient care. A sight Of
the merry, bright-faced children who
are equipping themselves for life's SER
ious work ought to be cure for pes
simism. A school census showing the
number Of boys and girls at study is
guaranty as to the nations future.
The course OF instruction, beginning
with the kindergarten and ending with
the university, is intended to cover
about sixteen years Of the life af each
generation-it it seems long time when
one looks forward to it, but it passes.
quickly and happily. There is no way
in which these years can be better
employed; no amount of money that
can be made during the years covered
toy the school course can be as valuable
to the individual as the information col
lected and the training secured. The
interests paid by bank, the dividends
earned on stocks and the profits accru-
ing from other investments are small
compared with the returns which an
education yields. Money is only valu-
able because it will buy other things,
and there are some things which money
cannot buy. Dollars will not bring to
the untutored mind solace for wasted
opportunities.
One of the advantages of age is that
it can assume the right to give advice;
let me use this presumption and offer
a word of counsel. To the younger
students, the most valuable thought
that can be presented is that each les
son is important. We can find an il
ustration in the brick. A single brick
is about as useless thing as can be
imagined, but large number of bricks,
properly laid together make wall,
and the walls, joined, make house.
Ii brick is missing from the wall
there is a hole, and If many are miss
ing the holes are so numerous that the
wall becomes insecure. A lesson may
be compared to brick. A single
lesson seems unimportant, and yet the
lessons properly joined together form
an education, and an education is of
the highest value. If we could look
upon an education MS we can upon a
wall, we would see the hole caused
by a lesson missed. We can not do
this; but we do know that when many
lessons are missed the education is de-
fected. 'Never miss lesson' should
be the motto during the earlier years
until study has become pleasure, and
then admonition is Unnecessary.
The greatest danger that the inter-
mediate student has to encounter is
that Of leaving school before the course
is completed. Society ought to be able
to rely upon the parent to keep the
child in school, and yet there are par
ents who seem to be ignorant OF the
value of education. Would any parent
think OF cutting off boys arm and
sending him out with one arm to COM
pete with boys with two arms? Such
a thing could not be thought Oft
would be too cruel to be described by
words. And yet in this age the father
who deliberately deprives his son of
the opportunity to secure an education
and sends him out half educated to com.
pete with the boys who are well edu
Gated is more cruel than the father who
would cut off his boys arm.
But let rs suppose that the student
has passed through the first and Sec
ond stages, has been careful to attend
every recitation and has completed the
entire course, what then? Is that all?
BY no means.
An education is means to an end,
not an end in itself. Whether the edu-
cation will contribute towards the hap
piness of the individual and toward his
usefulness 10 the community depends
entirely upon his lfe's purpose. just
as the railway engine or the automo-
bile can be guided but can do tremend-
GUS harm when not controlled, so the
education may be helpful or harmful
according to the use made OF it. Here
again resort may be had to an ilustra-
tion. The buzzard and the bee may be
taken as representing two views of life.
The buzzard scars high but never gets
so high but that 1t is looking for some
thing to eat; when 1t dies it leaves
nothing to make its existence remem-
bered. The bee, on the other hand,
has an instinct for sweetness; it knows
where the honey Is. 1t feeds upon the
best while it lives and when it dies 1t
leaves monument OF honey to make
the world glad that it has lived The
buzzard must be buzzard, and we can
not blame it for it; the bee must be a
bee and deserves no credit for it; but
man is free to choose which he will i'm
itate, the buzzard or the bee. Some
initiate one and some the other There
are those who, however high they go,
are always looking for something To
eat, something to wear, something for
themselves; when such one dies. the
world is not grieved. There are others
who produce more than they consume,
and when they die leave the world
richer than they found 1t.
TO those who make the right use Of