Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1914-01-27
aHistrllansous 8saains.
THE OBJECT OF EDUCATION
Important Subject Ably Discussed BY
President HadIey Of Yale University.


President HadIey Of Yale University.
From the Youth Companion.
What do we go to school for?
The answer Of most people, whether
young or old, will be, I'VE go to school
to acquire knowledge" But that Is not
quite right. A man may have acquired
a great deal of knowledge without be-
ing in the proper sense Of the word
! educated, without having got the kind
Of good out Of his studies that we all
recognize as essential. The most learn
ed man is not necessarily the best edu-
Gated man.
| Those Of US who are old fashioned
enough to like Scott, remember the
picture which he draws Of the school
master, Dominic Sampson, in Guy
Mannering." Sampson had been TO
college, where he had proven himself
a diligent but indiscriminate student
He knew after his own fashion all
kinds of foreign languages and all
kinds of obtruse science; but he could
not make use Of one-tenth Of what he
knew. His brain was like an attic,
stored 80 full of all kinds of materials
that he never could find the thing he
wanted. Its operation was described
] by his friend, Colonel Mannering,. as
resembling that Of a native Indian ar
my, formidable by reason Of its null
titude, but liable t. be thrown into en-
tire confusion by sudden attack in
any direction.
Contrast with such purposeless
learning the picture that Conan Doyle
draws Of Sherlock Holmes, carefully
use; knowing the things he wants to
know; impatient when Watson calls
his attention to the fact that the earth
revolves around the sun, because that
cannot be Of any possible use to him
in detecting crime. That Is his object
in life; and so he hopes to forget an
irrelevant fact Of astronomy as soon as
possible, lest 1t crowd out other knowl-
edge which may be more essential.
The educated man or woman Is much
more like Sherlock Holmes than like
Dominic Sampson.
Shall we then say that the object Of
education Is to give US useful knowl-
edge? That is one step nearer the
truth. If we interpret our words right,
1t is the exact truth. But there Is dan
ger that we may interpret our words
WRONG, and in that case they will lead
lis far astray. For there Is a great
difference between the knowledge that
seems likely to be most useful and the
knowledge that really Is 80.
What is Useful KnowIedse2
To nine boys out of ten useful
knowledge means the knowledge Of
facts that they will need to use. If
they are going into business, they
want to learn facts about money and
commerce. II they are ambitious to
become scientific experts. they want to
learn facts about science. II they hope
to enter politics. they want to learn
facts about government and society.
They think that, IL school has taught
| them these facts, it will save them the
necessity of learning them by practi-
cal experience.
But that Is not the way things ac-
tually work. The number Of impor-
tant facts is so large, and the capacity
of the human brain so small, that the
chance of learning in school the exact
set of things boy is going to need
in after life is very slight indeed. His
books have described one set Of busi-
ness methods or scientific processes;
there are nine chances out Of ten that
the place where he works will use an
other set Of methods or processes, and
that the first thing his chief will ask
him to do is to forget all the things he
thought were going to be useful.
It is not facts that we need to learn
in order to make our knowledge use
full We must learn how to find out
facts, how to put facts together, and
how to value them properly.
The man who is skillful in his busi-
ness Is not the one who has the most
details at his command, but the one
who can get the details he needs most
quickly and accurately.
The Lawyer and His Facts.
Ask a successful lawyer what is the
law on a certain subject, and the
chances are that he will be unable to
answer you at once. His first response
will be, Il must look up the statutes
and opinions on the subject" He does
not pretend to remember all the acts
Of the legislature or all the decisions
of the courts on doubtful questions. If
he tried to carry such things in his
head, he would have no head left for
anything else. The thing which he
knows and other men do not know Is
where to go to get his information as
to the statutes and decisions, and how
to read what he finds so that he will
know exactly what it means.
That is the essential thing that dis
tinguishes a good lawyer from a bad
lawyer; and it is the same capacity
which in a wider field distinguishes an
educated man from an uneducated
one. Inc educated uldH HdS ptcH
trained to look up references in
books, to read exactly and attentively
what the books say and to understand
the meaning Of what they contain. 1t
is not the things that he has read that
count; it is the ability to find out 9TH
er things by reading, whenever he
needs them.
The Importance Of this power to
read intelligently is not always recog-
nized. Many a man will tell you that
the things you learn from books are
less valuable than the things you find
out for yourself. If he simply means
that the facts you have learned from
books are less valuable than the facts
that you have learned from experience
he Is probably right. But If he means
that the power you get by knowing
how to use books Is less than the
power that you get by finding things
out for yourself, he is wrong. The man
who can find them out from books has
access to the accumulated experience