The Cordele dispatch. (Cordele, Ga.) 19??-1971, 1916-09-06
THE CALL FOR EDUCATION.


is so difficult to impress upon the
young in time for them to get the best
training; the everyday world has so
much the habit Of passing on to the
business cares of hurrying scram'
BILE for gain; there are so few left
to stir their young lives to the greater
possibilities until thousands of boys
and girls make the terrible mistake
of starting out with little or no prep
aration for the struggles of manhood
and womanhood. 1t is the habit rather
than the exception for them to begin
life long before they are ready. Where
ever there is one who enters the walks
of life unprepared, unframed, unedu-
Gated, that boy or girl misses a caree'
of usefulness that God means for every
well ordered soul.
Ten to fifteen years ago represen
tatiyes of the institutions of higher
learning all over the south went about
addressing audiences where people in
terested in education were gathered
They made inspiring talks, and the
boys and girls who heard these speak
ers became anxious about completing
thei; training. Many of these were
poor boys and some entered agree
ments whereby the one worked for the
money that paid the others way in
college The one studied two years
and came out to work while the Other
went to college. Many a college ed
ucation was completed in that way
This plan is yet in vogue among the
more ambitious Georgia boys at Mer
Ger and Emory. Some of them have
gone to the University of Virginia and
Harvard in this way and they have
equipped themselves.
But over the state, in the homes o.
the good families where reside the
boys and girls that make the men ant
women of the future, there seems less
interest in education. Training foI
the duties of life has less of the
thought of the young people than il
former years. If this is not true, it il
certain that we see less of it and heal
less of it than in the day of our boy
hood.
The. interest manifested in the ole
days was strongest in the religious de
nominational schools. But the interes
of that time even in the denomination
al school seems to have passed with
other fashionable things of the age
1t is rare thing for the boys ant
girls of a community in Georgia nov
to get into a real educational revival
Following the teachings of certain
misguided church leaders over the
state and an occasional extremely jeal
Gus religious writer, the poor mother
have begun to shelter their daughter!
from the harmful effects of the un
christian education that isn't. The
fathers who never go up to college anC
investigate for themselves because
they have not the time, and who cal
do no better than accept the charges
as being made, have now the habit o
believing their boys will fare bette
at home than under the voices of in
fidel instructors that do not exist.
The modern college is somewhat re
moved from the old idea of foot wash
ing in church. The college that serves
the present day is genetic and pro
gressive in spite of the fogyism of the
good old preacher back home. Free
dom of thought is the watchword OF
higher education for all mankind Nc
religion in all the world fosters static
and sterotyped theology less than does
the Christian religion.
Present day college training harms
the religion of the boy and the girl fal
less than the insincerity and dishon-
ceaseless change,-is always at work
The religious perspective of today is
not that of tomorrow. Fathers ways
of doing things were the best in the
world Mothers ideas were noble as
those that ever dominated a soul. But
when Mother and Father rose above
the things said about higher educa !
ton and sent the girls and boys on tt
college for their own good, they were
but fulfilling the demand of future
years and a time that would require
much more of the boy and girl.
Is it better that we spend our time
trying to destroy our schools, when
there is so much need of higher
training? Is it better to keep the
boys and girls away from school at
false alarm? No person
can estimate the terrible cost to the
young men and the young women of
about infdelity of in-
structors in our colleges. The real
truth was never more trampled under
foot than now. There is now less inf
deity in Christian schools and colleges