Newark evening star and Newark advertiser., 1915-03-02
LESS COUTURE,
MORE VOCATIONAL
WORK IN SCHOOLS
Osborne Tells Teachers a Cir
Needs Cooking instruction
More Than Greek.


PERTH AMBOY, March Ed
mund 3. Osborne, Of the State Board
of Education, was the speaker at the
March meeting Of the Teachers As
ISOLATION lecture course held In the
high school auditorium In Perth AM
boy, yesterday afternoon. His sub
ject was THE Need for RevoIutioniz-
ing Education in America" Mr.. os-
borne said in part:
'The more learn about cduca-
ton the bigger 1t bullzs IN the scale
OF important things.
Il suppose it is more necessary 70
exist than it is to be educated, and.
therefore, agriculture is the most i'm
portant business In the world. But
would rank school teaching next b.
Importance. And 1t lis clear thai
civilization must go forward Oh
all fours with Improvement IN
education. Upon the average.
the teachers of America are
underpaid, and they do not get the
social recognition that the lmportaaer
of their greart business entities them
TO. There are lot of mighty fine
but not nearly as many as we need.
Better pay will help TO get n
more good men and women, but
proper recognition by the commu-
nifty of the Importance of the teach
ing profession VII do a lot more TO
get exceptionally able men and
women TO take up the work.
Empowered, self-sacrificing men
and women, who pour out Their lives
In the most important service thai
can be rendered TO the community.
should be honored as great physi-
clans are, and as great servers Of ths
common good should be, whatever
their work.
"In my opinion, school teaching 5e
particularly to be recommended to
wealthy young men and women who
are in earnest about wanting to DO
something useful and have no ambi-
ton to make more money.
"I have the impression that no city
In the country Is doing half enough
vocational work A lot of very sin
cere and intelligent people think thnt
the chief business of the schools Is TO
give the children culture and that the
so-called practical side Of educs
ton should be Incidental But an In
the big thing, by all odds the nost
important. is to equip these children
for life and work-to start them on
the road to efficiency.
For his own happiness. 1t Is vastly
more important to the child that he
be trained to work efficiently, so be
can make living. than 1t is that he
have any kind or amount OF culture
But If he is properly trained to make
a living. he will get real culture just
the same, but It will be incidental
It's very fine for a girl to have Latin
and French and music and know
how TO cook and sew and keep house
hold accounts, but II she can't have
all this. the average girl had much
better learn how to cook and sew and
run a house in business-lfke fashion
than to learn languages and music.
''It is pretty plain that the educa-
/ tional system of America is based Or
| the old English idea of the training
that is needed to fit the son or daugh-
ter of q gentleman for his or her
station in life.' The more we think
about il, and the better we under
stand il, the more we shall shift the
emphasis IN education from culturt
to training for work. And this VIII
mean a great increase In practical.
vocational work"