The Richmond Virginian. (Richmond, Va.) 1910-1920, 1914-02-25


here in the annals OF education. such
as Washington and Lee and Madison,
but 1 may briefly refer to the edu-
! cationai chart of the one who was
mot conspicuous in your roll of edu-
Gators, the great jefferson.
II is very encouraging to teachers
generally that one who wrote the
Declaration Of independence and
served as President of the United
States should choose as the browning
work OF his life the founding of an
educational system for his State
Jefferson turned from his Part in
planning and organizing govern
ment TO inquire into the welfare Of
It's own people under that govern
mcnt. He saw their conditions and
their prospects. The promised land
was before them. He might have ad
vised individual Enterprise in land or
minerals or commerce. He chose
education.
His range began with the primary
aud included the university. His ex-
pressed purposes were:
~ To give To every citizen the In
formation ne needs for the trans
a ,tion os his own bisness;
81 To. enable his to caculate for
himself. and to express and preserve
his .dens. his contracts and accounts.
In writing
q; To improve ~ reading, h~
morals ant faculties;
80 To Understand nt5 duties 10
his nctghhora and country, and ~ dis
charge With competence the functions
crnGded 20 him ~ either;
80 10 KNOW his rights; to exer-
Sc VITA orde- and Justice those he
retsdrs: to choose with decretion the
eGi, AIRY % .hose hs delegates; AMI
% nottca .le,r conduct with diligence,
WIKI car 3or and judgment;
~ Aaa la general to observe
With Intelligence ana faithfulness all
'h4 social relations under which he
shsl - p,acrG.
He favored pr.a.:caI learning. His
chctGsstry, na,urul a.suory. anatomy,
'.st6.o:ns, iaz modern languages,
a.s srtn, t.rin PIES q. Justice and in
tsrnahona! relations came direct
sr-sr, the laboratory Of daily contact
The comtcun!ty WAS his educational
uuis ttr saw 1t thai early day hat
i, Ia .ha community that largely de-
2res cur education that indce1 out
sida tho community there Is little
nsvt .. education. The State was his
organic community
This community purpose made COM
rarnity definition imperative. =, did
not destroy .Es Individual and pc
peculiar It did not oppose religion, it
90 avord the peculiar in religion. 1t
dla not oppose the private school, it
provided the public school. 1t did not
create the Individual artisan; II pro-
vided the general principles of craft,
principles that would apply to a
group.
we should not be pessimistic. It
must be recognized that we live IN
times vastly changed from those of
q hundred years age. and yet there
is rugged wholesomeness, and a
lofty simplicity in the lements of edu-
cation proposed by this great demo-
crat, May IL not be helpful to us to
recall these prieiples here in the
midst of the scenes where he lived
and acted
A great educator said to me that
i, was not the curriculum that gave
Ms our problems. yet | am constrained
10 believe that howeer pressing our
j administrative problems they subor-
aluate themselves, finally to the cur
riculum.
Tina -prurra444-th a. has been pre-
pared for us offers a variety of topics
and vet they all relate themselves to
economic and the social. To consider
+ iRGSe great IUflutinSittdtF III a. SCltthE
/ where the spirits of the historic great
look down upon us and to be wei
coined to institutions and homes bJ
a. worthy lineage is an opportunity
that calls for our best effort and our
sincerest gratitude.
Following the conclusion of Mr.
Green's address Richard T. Devinc
was introduced and spoke along the
line Of Educational Social Economy.
Mr. Devine said in part.
The persistent problems of socia
economy are poverty, disease apt
crime. for which the conventional
remedies have been respectively re
lief medicine and iails. The soCia
economist discovers by experience tbs
relief is no cure for the first. nor med
icine for the second, nor jails 70
The third. Relief. medicine and Jail
are no doubt needed. Tor our sins, un
Ill we learn how TO apply real rene
dies; until we have social program
adequate to our problems. but. con
ceiyed as remedies. they are all aiik
Inadequate. obsolete. undemocratic
uneconomic-~tha is to say wasteful--
and uneduc ationai--tha is To say
stupid
II we agree that neither puhlic-re
lief nor voluntary charity. howeve
necessary and valuable they are. ha,
IF uuyerty. We are driven q step fur
Their to an analysis Of its causes, t.
the discovery OF its tap-root cause
Il we can find that--if there is an,
such thing, Socialists find Ii in exploit
tation. Anti-Sociaiists, when they nav,
a clear cut philosophy on the subject
are apt to find II In economic ineff
cheney. Being neither a Socialist no
an anti-Socialist. but an impartial stu
dent of social economy--as OF cours
many Socialists and Socialists az
also-~~I am constrained to combln
the two partial explanations into on
which ! think really explains the lar
ger part of our poverty. 1t Is. in fact
the exploitation of the exploitable
the underpay Of those who can be un
derpaid the overwork of those wht
do not know how to secure leisure
the lack of protection of the subnor
NAL: the cultivation for commercial
profit OF vicious habits OF depravet
appettes, OF human weakness, thu
play of unrestrained greed upon indi
yiduals who do not have resisting pow
err. in the form of social control, ha:
has never been brought into Elective
counter play
The school itself IN the natural or
e, rizer Of the knowledge which i
5imparts or rather the imparting O.
knowledge and its application to SO
cial ends should not be two processes
but one If the organization of knowl,
edge for the common good does no