The Snowflake herald., 1914-02-28
AN ESSAY ON EDUCATION
written and composed by A. G. Nc
Closkey, March Z, 1877

Education is the development
of power. A true education con-
sists in a symmetrical develop
ment of all the powers: physical,
intellectual, social and moral.
1t has been said that "The true
purpose of education is to cherish
and unfold the seed of immort-
ality already sown within us; and
to develop to their fullest extent
the capacities of every kind with
which God has endowed us. /"
Education is one of the essent-
ial elements which every person
should possess in order that he
may accomplish the greatest sue
cess in life.
The earliest education is that
of the family. The child must
acquire those little arts which
will help in maintaining the
economy of the household. 1t is
safe to say that the earliest
schools were those of the priests;
the training required for cere-
monials, the common life apart
from the family, the accomplish
ments of reading and singing af
forded nucleus for the organ
ization of culture and an opport-
unity for the efforts of philoso-
piers in advance of their age.
Convenience and gratitude con-
firmed the monopoly of the clergy
upon the responsibility of educat
ing the few people who were in a
position to avail themselves of
the opportunity of acquiring an
education at that early period of
civilization. We learn that at that
time the Jews had little effect on
the progress of science, but our
obligations to the priests of the
Nile Valley are great indeed;
much of their learning is obscure
to us, but we have great reasons
to conclude that there is no
branch of science in which they
did not progress at least SO far as
observation and careful regist-
ration of facts could carry them.
At Rome, until Greece took her
conqueror captive, a child was
trained for the duties of life in
the forum and senate house.
The Greeks were the first to de-
velop a science of education dis
tinct from ecclesiastical training.
They divided their subjects Of
study into music and gymnastics;
the one comprising all mental;
the other all physical training. At
that time music was at first little
more than the study of the art of
the expression, but the range of
intellectual education which had
been developed by distinguished
musical teachers was further
widened by the Sophists until it
received a new stimulus and di-
rection from the works of Soc
rates, whom we learn was one of
the most famous philosophers the
world has produced, and of course
this places him in the very front
rank as a great teacher. Plato
is the author of the first system
tic treatise on education. Such
are some of the leading ideas of
education that the old world has
left us.
The literary education of the
earliest generation of Christians
was obtained in the Pagan
Schools. The first attempt to
provide a special education for
Christians was at Alexandria,
and since then education has
been the principal object of our
youths and the wish of our
parents to secure the same for us
and no effort should be spared
by the parents, especially, and
by everyone interested in educa-
ton, in general, land we all are)
to help boys and girls to realize
the benefits derived from school