The Columbia herald. [volume] (Columbia, Tenn.) 18??-1935, 1914-05-22
accepted theories q. education,

other as technical education
When we speak of liberal education
we mean q course Of training thai
best fits man asa member of ma
ton and for manhood simply. Liber
IL education contemplates the man
and the citizen first, and the worker
second Technical or vocational edu
cation contemplates the worker and
cts the man and the citizen take
are Of himself. Fiato said: "The
only education WHICH in our view de-
serves the name is that which con-
templates the man and the citizen.
That other sort of training which
aims at the acquisition Of wealth or
bodily strength or mere cleverness,
apart from intelligence and justice,
is mean and illiberal and not worthy
to be called education at all" What
Plato means to say here Is that when
people would attempt to belittle
training in philosophy, religion and
poetry, as of no real service in the
education of our youth, they forget
the practical aim of such instruction,
for "its aim is the nobler life of a
man as an individual and as citi.
zen."
Having made this generalization,
let us look little more closely in
regard to the relative efficiency Of
liberal and vocational" education.
Each has in the past made for
manhood and good citizenship. More
than four thousand years ago, we
find Egypt with an extensive educa'
tional system. It was wide spread
and effective SO far as it could be-
There were great Libraries thre'out
the land. But the training Of its
people was thro the family to techni
cal arts only. While the priests had
a wider education and access to the
they were cruel and mar
row, while the training given the
people only resulted in awe and sup
erstition among the masses. In
Sparta the celebrated laws of Lycur
gas only aimed to discipline the free
citizen in his duty to the State, with
the result that Sparta became des
potic socialism. The laws of Scion
lat Athens imposed the education OF
the free citizen as duty on each
father Of a family. In Athens music
literature and patriotism, made up
he training of the youth. This
system was the best and most liberal
developed, up to the date Of which
speak. Yet there was then neither
science. psychology or an elevated
religious ideal among the Athenians
and tho cultured they fast became q
nation Of refined liars. The Persian
youth absorbed his education through
his association with his elders, by
whom he was taught to be truthful
generous and brave, for himself as
well as for the state. The Per.
slams were not an intellectual people
and this want Of abstract intellectual
interest helped to make their i'm
|perial power so short lived. The an
Gent Hebrew while having the thee
logical idea as the dominant note in
his education, yet lacked that science
psychology and love Of philosophy
which is essential to liberal educa
ton, and which contributes most tc
the development of the man and the
citizen, as such. But in pro-
gress of time, in modern Europe the
educational systems extended them
selves to the development Of what
we know as colleges and universities
requiring definite curriculum, then
the great free school systems and
finally mechanical and industrial
schools and colleges. When in the
new psychology entered the schools
as factor in the work Of effectively
and efficiently producing the best
materials for the scientific study Of
child training, there was new era
in the theories of education for the
very young, which found expression
in Froebel's kindergarten system
And it is this phase of the subject
the education of the child, and the
proper training of the youth, that We
are especially interested in today
There is today a restlessness abroad
about this very thing, of the bes
and most effective means to employ
for the proper education Of our chill
dren. Many parents today seem fas
cinated with the thought of the chile
becoming educated-or rather pre-
pairing itself for al education, with
out having to work and without an
lnoyance to the parent or interruption
of her time. Some modern parents
are perfectly willing to pay for thu
child's education, provided they are