The daily star-mirror. (Moscow, Idaho) 1911-1939, 1914-06-11
The State and Education
An Address Delivered by
By DIR. 3. O. SLSSON
cises of the 1914 University
day Morning, June 10TH
An Address Delivered by
By DIR. e. O. SLSSON

exercises held at the university aut
itorium Wednesday morning, June Il
by DR.. E. o. Sission, state commission
| er of education
From the point of view of the state
education is a great business opera
l ton, like irrigation, agriculture, min
ing, road building, and forestry. l
represents an enormous money in
vestment; counting interest on fixe
capital in the form of land, building
and equipment. The state expend
annually on schools of all grades no
less than $4,00O,OO000 Nor is thi
all of the economic investment; near
ly 100000 children-of age from 6 tt
30-are putting in their time il
schools. On most conservative es
innate 10000 of these are of wage
earning age, so another 4,O00,, 200 dol
lars might well be added to the econ.
omic investment in the business o.
education.
Human Element UppermOst.
In spite of the great Importance Of
the economic investment in education
it is the smallest part; the human ele-
ment is, of course, the real stake in
the game. We are throwing into the
process the very lives and develop
ment of our children-1O0,00 of them
Even from the standpoint of cash
these human units are the real es-
sence of the investment. Capitalizing
human units at a moderate figure, say
$4,000 each, we have total money
value for these 100000 children of one
billion dollars, two and one-half times
the total assessed valuation of the
state. If we have any faith in educa-
ton, enough, let us say, to believe that
cent to the human unit, then a years
schooling for the 100000 would add 10
million dollars to the capitalized value
of the state. Anyone who is familiar
with certain forms of vocational train
ing has seen years schooling regul-
arly add from 25 per cent to 100 per
cent to the wage earning capacity of
the learners. Doubtless the enthus-
last for schools will resent the petty
one per cent which we have proposed
as the net economic result of years
school; let the one per cent be an ir-
reducible minimum for the benefit of
the sceptics, and let the rest fix their
own figure, assuming two per cent
increase of efficiency, and SO 20 mil
lion dollars addition to the capitalized
value of the state, or if you please,
10 per cent, with 100 million profits.
School on the Defensive.
Meanwhile let US not be too secure
even of our one per cent increase; if
we could only be sure of that we
could compute all the opponents of the
school taxes. Unfortunately there are
those who dispute. even that modest
claim, and go so far as to accuse the
school, at least in it's more advanced
grades, of actually diminishing the
economic value of the human units
entrusted to it. We may as we'll ad-
nit that the school, even in its hour of
greatest prosperity, is ON the defen-
sive, and there is more than a sus-
picion, painful as the admission is,
that some of the attacks are not en-
tirely unjustifed. We need not go |
so far as Richard T. Crane, self-made |
iron millionaire, who declares that all |
schooling above the eighth grade is |
useless or worse than useless-from |
the business point of view; not so
far as Gorst, son of an English minis
ter of education, who denounces the /
schools as veritable
curse; nor SO far as Boris Sidis, faith
er of the famous boy prodigy, William
James Sidis--now possibly somewhat
On the wane, being of the advanced
age of sixteen or seventeen; Sidis
he elder raves against the present
system of education or numbering
genius and engendering mediocrity
md inferiority. Many other more mod
crate, yet still denunciatory, voices
ire to be heard; not the least for
some years has been that of the adj
nired and ubiquitous Ladies' Home
Journal, which has been diagnosing
md prescribing for the sick system;
appiIv tha ncOpcpiOus SOhar cance ,
# the American people has been proof
gainst the insistence of the pedagogic
hysic of these prescriptions and has {
urvived by the simple expedient of t
gnoring them.
But the educator can make no more G
erious mistake than to ignore these
ymptoms of unrest and dissatisfac
on. The Gorst's and Sidis's are I'M c
oubtedly extreme, but they are the 1
ltra voices of many whose dissatis- f
action, though silent, is real and pro- @
,und. c
The Educators Problem. t
The fact is that education calls for S
ltelligence no less than enthusiasm.
he educator, face to face with the
rowing child, inspired by the vision n
growth and perfection, is not crit S
al enough of the operations of the s
,hools. He finds it easier to be en- n
lusiastic than judicial, he loves not u
isely but too we'll, at least when he il