The Manchester journal. [volume] (Manchester, Vt.) 1861-current, 1915-12-23

the basis OF liberal education an
without them we must forever renal
in Ignorance All right for educatio
in an autocrafy; all right for the lii
eral instruction of the chosen few
But how about John Jones daughter
who will be obliged to drop her Lati
as she rolls up her graduation essay
and William Smiths son, who mus
substitute for his studies in trigonom
etry and Shakespeare, studies in tn,
art OF providing for a wife and fou
children on a dollar and seventy-fv,
cents day?
Did you ever stop TO think that al
the mathematics you have had occa
sion to use since you left school coult
have been learned in the little rec
schoolhouse in five years? Yet now
adays we are treated to four years oi
number 1.-THE juvenal word for arith.
metic), four years Of arithmetic, a
couple years Of algebra, plane, and
perhaps solid geometry, possibly trig.
onometry, and year Of review to
drive the others in. And still our high
school graduates cannot for the life OF
them work a problem in partial pay
ments or figure without consulting
their tables the number of bushels of
potatoes which will fill a certain bin.
How many years do we spend in
learning to write and where can one
find more miserable scrawler than
the average college graduate The
ordinary high school seniors reads as
woman with a hobble-, skirt walks.
Ask your sweet girl graduate to To-
cate some important waterway in our
country and she is just as apt to reply
with the one | knew, "The Erie Canal
connects the Great Lakes with the Pa
cifc Ocean by way of the Connecticut
River" Ask your Shakespearian star
to compose decently written applica-
tion for a position or express himself
in public on some issue of the day.
What does the average boy or girl
care whether Caesar lived in 100 or
300 B. c. Is it matter Of vital con-
Germ to him whether it was William
the Conqueror or Peter the Hermit
who led the Normans' to the Conquest
Of England in 1866? | believe we have
laid too much stress on the history of
Greece and Rome and not enough on
the history of our own country. 1t is
our native land and not Persia or
which should inspire us to
he best that in us lies. People are
not living to-day with the ancients,
hey are living with the moderns, and
% one reference to the Battle of Mar
lthon you will find ten references to
he Dictator of Europe, the billion
lollar indemnity and the Man of Blood
md Iron.
Nature parts more readily with her
Useless and antiquated organs than
10 we with out antiquated notions
Whereas we were once provided with |
functioning intestine, we have now
nly the vermiform appendix. And /
he bony framework Of tail, which |
n the lower animals used to serve as
n admirable balancing organ, in man
oes not protrude through the skin.
Pleas do not misconstrue my
1eaning Ruthless destruction of ex-
sting institutions is folly and wicked
ess unless we have something to
uild in their place. What is to be the
one and marrow of our universal edu-
alton, if we subordinate the tradition
subjects to the place where they
'gically belong?
Did you ever hear Of scientific
lrmer, a green, gawky lad Of Is
ears, who could make two blades Of (
rass grow where his father could {
lly make one? Reading in a text [
,ok Of agriculture together with good s
tactical experiments with different +
ills and soil needs, made him. Did t
~ ever read of the boy just out of t
hool who could go into shop and be n
/ Industrious, intelligent mechanic, i
I'd not merely a cog in the machine ? s
training made him. Do d
u happen to know the fellow who
uldn't get quadratics through his S
ick head, but who now Las ? thriving 81
vertising business which is being d
on sound lines and is grow p
g bigger every day? We lost him. 81
le correspondence school made him. il
wv about that chap who used TO
little his desk in the midst Of the "
story lessons? He had lots Of en- ii
gy stored up in his hands and fin j
RS, but we couldn't seem TO make c;
Ich use of it, But we have since put RI
a course Of manual training and he II
S taken a new lease Of lIfe. And 0,
1t girl, who although she repeated II
ometry three times, couldn't get the th