The Mena weekly star., 1916-06-22
NEED EDUCATION
 FOR EFFICIENCY
Dean | II. Miller Points to Three systems in Use in England. Amer iea and Germany and Effects on
 Industrial Preparedness.

We need education for a greater democracy in the United States if We are eyer to be indusirially pre- pared or if our young people are to become fully efficient in the every day walks of life, says Dean J H Miller Of the Extension Service of the University of Arkansas and the U. S. Department of Agriculture We need more training for the VOca- tiOns ln Arkansas and elsewhere. Too much of the pupils time m school has been spent in studying those subjects that do not fit him for life. Our educational system has been. in fact and reality, prl- vilege for few instead of the right of all IL has tended to set apart all who have completed the course of study into a professional or semi professional class. Our courses, re- eardless of what they have been in tended for, prepare for but few vo- cations and principally for those that do not call for manual labor. We have neglected the sciences and this has been great mistake. Ihot- full men of England and France at this time are admitting their mis- take in not magnifying in their school both the sciences and me- chanics.
 Dean Miller says further, that England American and Germany have the three most representative types of system of education to be found in the world. Education in England has been an education for the aristocracy that does not honor labor. In America our educational system has magnified civic affairs and professional vacations chiefly In Germany the doctrine of eiii- ciency in all things that young peo- | pie may have to do has been upper most in the minds of educators.
 Our system is inefficient since we have apparently assumed that all lchildren would attend high school and college and we have taught them only those things that may be called preparatory for high school ' or college. Consequently, we have neglected 90 per cent of our boys i and girls since these drop out before i the i2th school year.
 These boys and girls for the most part take up some kind of a job i in our towns that does not require 1 any skilled labor We have failed to recognize the fact that it is just as important that our schools should train boys to be good carpenters as Tit is that they should train them to I be good lawyers and teachers. As a result, Arkansas is spending little for the education of her farmers and not dollar for the education of l it's great armx of skilled and un- 1 skilled workers, s,-carpenters, me- i chanics and tradesmen.
 Our high schools today appeal al- most entirely to those who hope to earn their living with their heads
 and not their hands. This is a great
 mistake. since the largest number oi
 boys and girls cannot easily train for the already oVer-cr0wded pro-
 fessions. Then. too, under our pres ont school system. boys and girls dc mot stay in school because there is mo particular attraction in the sub- liects given. That boy who goes tC
 school for the love of algebra anC Latin is, indeed, rare one and Il has been proved turnout the older lsections of the United States and in Jour great cities that boys and girls
 are attracted and remain Ill school
 longer because vocational and in-
 dustrial subjects are being taught
 Yet, there are less than 20 schools in
 Arkansas doing this work. We must
 realize that We cannot become Q
 great industrial static, even with
 our great industrial wealth, until we
 develop our boys and girls along
 industrial lines.
 The schools of today should fos- , ter a stronger spirit of democracy
 by maenlfying the common vOca-
 tions and by training the boys and girls Co be efficient in ordinary vO- lcations necessary for the develop ment of industry and trade. This training should be given not only
 m the high school but in the grades simply because economic conditions
 force many bright boys and girls
 tO leave school in this state before
 they have finished the 9th grade. We should have manual training, hor- tieulture and agriculture beginning
 as far down as the ith grade and we
 should introduce domestic science and ant cooking and sewing as ear l ly in order to reach the boys and girls who must leave school as soon
 as the law permits them to do so.
 In addition to making our boys
 and girls feel that the trades are not beneath their dignity. our
 schools must magnify farming as
 a vocation We must not oniy mag Inify the study of agriculture in the lcountrv schools. but we must teach
 the boys and girls in the towns and Ieitles that farming is a profession
 not to be despised and that the
 scientific farmer must know as much about his work as a man who lis a master of one of the trades We must teach our boys and girls how to produce enough food for our own people and they must know how 10 saye our soil fertility
 Much is said at this time of pre- lparedness for war and We have a | National COmmitte on Industrial 1 Preparedness, but most of our boys land girls are not being taught to bt l personally efficient in any lines and l consequently. we can never be real I ly industdially prepared or efficient. f believe our industrial interests 1 will soon hegin to feel their share of the cost of the great war Espe- cially will this he so after the war is ] over. Many thousands of fhe hest