The Brookings register. [volume] (Brookings, Brookings County, S.D.) 1903-1971, 1915-03-18
A BOOST FOR STATE COLLEGE

over an entrance to the EGi1burg
university is carved in stone a Latin
inscription whose translation is: ED
cation is to know where to find a
thing" That represents the idea and
the purpose of higher education in the
last century. If over n of the new
buildings going up in many a higher
institution of learning in the United
States today an appropriate motto
were to be chiseled, it might well
read: Education is to know how to
do a thing"
This difference between knowing
and doing is larger than might at
first be realized. Some generations
ago, when people were not acquainted
with their own world, when the fields
for investigation were u~nexplored, ma
tural yearning was for an opportunity
to know. And those who learned were
likely to display their learning in the
form of culture. But, charming and
informative as are the essays of a
Bacon or a Macauley, they leave the
worlds work quite undone. Since
their time it has gradually impressed
itself upon mankind that the highest
achievement of education is to be of
service. And so it is no longer enough
for those who have sat at the feet of
learned instructors to set forth what
they have acquired and allow the
world to find it's own ways of making
use of it.
The higher purpose of education to-
day is to make its results of real help
to humanity. That is not meant in
the restricted sense. There are hun
dreds of fields of activity where be-
fore there were but tens of them. The
teacher must cover a greater field than
ever before; the farmer must make his
land perform what was once consider
ed impossible; the professional mar
finds that he must be more than a
mere money-maker if he is to gain the
%pinnacles; the technical man finds
hundreds of opportunities for the use
of his training and knowledge which
fifty years ago did not exist. In thous-
ands of ways men can be of service to
their fellow men. The greatest SER
mons in this day are set forth in daily
life. The most altruistic member of
the generation is quite as likely to be
a business man as the member OF a
profession. What one of us may do
here today or tomorrow may carry
some relief or some message to men
and women hundreds or thousands of
miles away.
This is why the trend in modern edu-
cation is quite properly away from the
more limited task of teaching where to
find a thing and up to the broader and
bigger effort to show young men and
young women how to do things in this
busy and complex world.
A representative of a manufacturing
concern the other day in conversation
gave a concrete illustration Of what
is meant by the newest conception Of
the meaning Of education. His firm
uses great quantities of chemicals.
They were imported from Germany.
When the war broke out the supply
was cut Oh. Steps were taken to Sc
cure the production of a supply in this
country. And n Of the things that
were learned was the difference be-
tween the American chemist and the
German chemist. In this country
chemistry is a profession. Those who
enter 1t expect q fancy position. They
want to work In q mahogany ONCE. at
tired In spotless and fashionable
clothes. and drawing . high-ngured
salary. But In Germany the chemists