The Washington herald. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1906-1939, 1914-08-22
DR.. MARDEN'S
UPLFT TALKS
By ORISON SWEET MARpEN,
Author of Pushing to the Front" Etc.
EDUCATION WITH
APURPOSE
By ORISON SWEET MARpEN,
AUTHOR of Pushing to the Front" Etc.
Open
SIS NJ.

New York City has spent over 100000
for its plant Of vocational schools, and
is spending over $4,000 year TO main
tain it. Now this is certainly q wonder
full stride in the right direction We
have too long spent money on schools
that taught little OF nothing of practical
bearing on daily life and the business OF
making a living.
Now, therefore there is q tremendous
pressure upon the authorities to provide
vocational teaching. In the present state
OF public feeling the school that ignores
the requirements Of everyday life Is
sooner or later itslf ignord-which IS
really one Of the most encouraging signs
OF the times.
1t is becoming more and more clearly
recognized that in the present orEaniza-
ton OF Industry the workers must be
trained TO work and the State must train
them. This is a democratic country. Ed
ucation is one Of the most important
functions Of a democracy.
Business men who own stores and fac
tories are naturally most directly inter
ested in the quality OF training OF their
future employees.
The vocational schools that are now
springing up into great systems in the
large cities represent the most important
phase Of popular education At least
400, 600 children of fourteen are leaving
school for the factory this year. Over
5000 900 boys and girls between fourteen
and sixteen are working for wages They
are Unframed. over three-fourths Of
them have not reached the seventh year
Of school, and more than one-half Of them
fail to reach the sixth year. The pur-
pose Of the National Society for the Pro
motion OF Industrial Education recently
formed is to pay the salaries and trav-
ali - Gaia u-nrrarg u hn
assisting cities and States TO establish
good systms for industrial training. The
society publishes and distributes infor-
nation; provides Office quarters and pays
for the services Of a manager and his
corps Of experts, both at headuarters ana
in the State branches
Now this is certainly one OF the most
encouraging social efforts of recent years.
Its import Is really tremendous. when
one realizes the scope OF its endeavor.
The trouble with what is quantity, but
most expressively called book learning
is that It is almost invariably wholly
unrelated to the immediate needs of the
students life, while the business man IS
in a perpetual and practical university
during his whole active life. He trains
himself to solve harder and harder prob
lens, passing constantly from the simple
to the more complex. until his mind gets
of execution which would be impossible
to the man who has only book train
ing"
I believe that the average college grad
uate feels that, while he has gained In
his college course that which no money
can buy, he has also lost something Of
infinite value in the world OF realities.
His mind has been wonderful interested
in his various studies: but many of these
a. life NJ holm
to solve its problems. A considerable
part of his four years has been spent
with the things Of the Middle Ages. He
has been interested in his Greek and
Latin, but he feels that the same time
spent in studying the actual conditions
of his own day would have put him in
closer touch with his own century
Many college graduates feel that they
are somehow out of touch with their
own day and the people Of their own
times. They are not quite in line with
them. They are out of step. They hope
TO get back, expect to. but many Of them
never do.
1 have often heard college graduates
saw that they would have been very much
better of practically and would have got
ten along better in life II they had spent
two Of the four college years studing the
actual conditions of the life of their
day taking business courses, vocational
courses; that part Of the time spent in
been better than the two extra years in