The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1914-09-12

i:1-9. 1898.
BY WILLIAM T. ELLIS.
Two men are before my minds eye.
One is a venerable Turk, whom met
in a village under the shadow of the
Taurus mountains. In Asia Minor. He
was unframed in the schools, but he
Of human nature, dignity. and rever-
ence. and he had won the esteem of
his community. The quiet, courteous
and assured way with which he car
ried himself revealed the strong, wise
man. I count him educated in the es-
sentials Of manhood. even though a
ten-year-old boy in this western world
knows more about the sciences than
he. The other man at the moment in
my memory is seated in an aristocratic
wealth. social position, and the adj
vantage Of a university education and
much travel. But he 10 ignorant Of
life, Unbalanced in his judgments.
puerile in his thinking, and as naively
selfish as a child or a savage. Him I
deem an uneducated man. despite his
degree. For education is the training
Of all Of ones faculties to relate them
selves sanely and efficiently to actual
life.
Education" means ito lead out"
and the higher education is also ito
lead up" inspiring man with the fear
of the Lord, which is the beginning
Of wisdom. We have not learned life
until we have learned God.
Whatever helps a person to sweep
a wider horizon in his vision; and to
view life's happenings with poise and
detachment, whether that agency be
university or an experience of per-
sonal adversely. is good education.
The stored mind is strong; mental
ity grows like the body, by being fed.
Knowledge is a tested route to wis
dom; but meditation is a surer. What
digestion Is to food, meditation is to
knowledge. The end Of all education
Is to teach a person to think clearly,
strongly and practically.
He that studies only men will get
the body of knowledge without the
soul and he that studies only books,
the soul without the body. He that to
what he sees adds observation and to
what he reads reflection is in the right
| road to knowledge, provided that in
scrut1ntzing the hearts of others he
neglects not his own.-Colton.
One regrettable fact about the adj
vanced education of many young per-
| sons is that they have been alienated
| from their homes and families and
the "Old fashioned ways of the lat
ter. The tragedy of this gulf which
school and college have created be-
tween students and their parents is
known only to the mothers and faith
ers who have endured it. Usually.
also. the explanation is that the chill
| dren have not won to even the be-
ginnings of wisdom, else they would
value the real worth of the parents
| whose greatness of loyalty and service
and sacrifice Is beyond the power of
l the schools ho-fOU ANY adnCA-
ton which makes a boy ashamed OF
his mother and father is a bad edu-
f! cation.
Prof. Amos r. Wells calls ''the
seven colors Of the spectrum of edu-
serve. to speak, to act, to direct. to
| feel and to be-"
| A gentle heart is more to be de-
sired than a stored brain. For edu-
| cation is successful in so far as it
trains one to live helpfully and hap
PLY with other people.
| A shrewd lover of nature, who has
invested his talents in helping boys
and in unfolding the lore of woods
| and stream and buried Indian treas
union of his college class. II was dis
| appointed to find the fellows all talk
ing OF their success in terms OF mon
ey. Most of them thought 1t was
enough to tell how much money they
had made; we heard little about
| what they had done for their neigh
bOrhoods or for the state. Surely q
dollar mark is not the truest sign OF
7, an educated man." That observation
! struck the weak spot in much Of our
modern views of education. Thou
sands Of young persons are going to
college nowadays, not because they
want finer culture. or a wider fell
lowship, or admittance into the
charmed circles OF the arts and
sciences, but simply in order to en-
able them to earn NOR money. II
that Is the first and last goal OF an
education. then it is not. in the old