The Bossier banner. [volume] (Bellevue, Bossier Parish, La.) 1859-1952, 1913-05-29
THE EDUCATIONAL VALUE OF "NEWs.' -

THE EDUCATIONAL VALUE OF "NEWS.'
What is s'news' to-day will be history
Tomorrow No one would be bold enough
to deny that history is one of the most es-
sential branches of modern education, yet
the proposition that the study of the news
of the day is of equal value, is, indeed,
but part of the study OF history, would
probably be challenged by many. Those
who value history as a study cannot con-
sistently, however, deny to the study Of
news an equal value, for it is plainly ap-
parent that the happenings to-day are but
the progress of history. 1t the knowledge
of what the world did and thought hun
dred years ago is of value in education,
then it must be of equal if not greater
value to know what the world to-day, the
people about US in our own and in neigh
boring lands, are doing and thinking.
The most marked and significant ten
dency in education to-day is the deeper
appreciation of the modern spirit. We
may observe this in the revolt from the
classical studies, and in the undermining
of the schools and universities. Latin and
Greek have been dropped from the courses
in many an institution long proud of its
classical reputation; and where these an
cient languages have been retained in the
curriculum there has been fight to justify
their retention-as mental gymnastics.
The tendency is seen also in the increased
interestin science, especially those sciences
that are practical and that touch the quick
and pulsing life of the hour. 1t is seen in
the broader study of history and in the
tracing of the unbroken threads that, when
duly seen, bind US hand and heart to the
most ancient of peoples, to the earliest
PHILOSOPHERS, religions and myths. The
past is interesting to us moderns chiefly
because it has been demonstrated that we
issued from it, and are its children and
heirs.
In other words, so intense is the interest
in modern things that ancient things to
awaken any interest in US, must be shown
to have an intimate connection with the
immediate present, to have been necessary
in the great Revolutionary process. The old
Roman that said that he was man and
that, therefore, nothing that was human
wss alien to him, would look we'll on a
modern board of education. He had the
true modern spirit. To keep abreast of the
times we must know what the people Of the
day are doing and thinking. 1t is of far
greater value to us to know what England
and Germany and France are to-day, and
what the people of these and our own
country are thinking, feeling, and doing,
than it is to know all of ancient history.
We must know something of the great
current that is sweeping onward. We are
not merely to drift with the flotsam and
wreckage. To be part of the current,
we must know what it is, must move with
it-not be dragged along. The only way
to learn the nature of the current, to be-
come part of its vitalizing force, is to keep
in touch with the spirit of the hour; and
the newspaper is the only text book of this
science.
Some object to the newspaper because it
has so much to do with politics. But Free
man said that history was past politics and
present politics is future history. And
Hobbies called politics "the art by which
the affairs, both of armies and cities, are
conducted to their ends" Politics is, in
deed, the history of tomorrow. Some Of
US may not fancy politics, but it is the
greatest force in nation at almost any
hour Of its history. The newspaper must,
therefore, and should have much to do with
politics.
Another objection to the use of the news
paper is that "news" is uncertain, and
that what is learned to-day may have to be
unlearned to morrow, or something quite
different in its place. Those who make
this objection to the newspaper fail to re-
member that the most valuable source of
facts that the historian ever finds is a file
of old newspapers. If the ''news'' as it
is published, is so inaccurate, so untrust-
worthy, how does it happen that it stands
the fiery ordeal of time and historic inves-
tigation. The newspapers of to-day con-
tanning accounts of debates of the Con-
gress on the tariff and other important
questions and of the bloodshed in Mexico:
describing the work on the Panama Canal !;
noting the triumphant march of industry
in its varied fields and chronicling the dark
events transporting throughout the world
and a thousand other interesting and sig
nficant things-will some day be eagerly
sought as the foundation of the history Of
the wonderful year 1918. The newspapers
are constantly making the rough draft of
history. Later, the historian will come,
take down the old files, and transform the
crude but sincere and accurate annals of
editors and reporters into history, into lit
erature. The well-informed reader must
study the newspaper. In no other way is
it possible to learn what the outside world
or the people in the next State, or the next
parish, or the next town or the next street
are doing and thinking.
New York Herald: Let man but "do
unto others as he would that others should
do unto him, "love his neighbor as him
SELF" play the good Samaritan to fellow
fallen among the thieves of lust and greed,