Arizona republican., 1917-01-29


 the delicacy and difficulty of the edu- cational problem, that doubt would have been swept into the sea of ob- livion by letters that I received awhile ago in a certain city, when l an- nounced that I was to speak on the educational problem and invited con- fidental suggestions from anybody who cared to help me The response was generous. Letters came from teachers, eX-teachers, university pro fessors, and educators, enumeratinS weakness and evils in our educational system that are both numerous and grave; but not one of the writers touched directly the vital educational problem We need better teachers; teachers Heserve peter pay; firmer discipline should be maintained; poli- tics should be eliminated from school control; text books should be insisted on that are more than paStebOard padded with paper; scholars should be trained. not stuffed; fundamentals should be taught in the lower grades, instead of leaving the pupils to learn reading and spelling in high school but not one of these is the educational problem. They are all elements of the problem, but not the problem itself.
 The educational problem of our na- tion involves the whole vast and diff ficult question of how to so modify and improve our public school educa- tion as to make it effective in giving US citizens capable of self control and able to contribute their share toward the well-being of the whole people and of the world. This statement of the problem will be repeated and empha- | Ciz t, la,, ceed.
 If l am right in my statement of the problem, I believe that most educators will concede that I am right also in my proposed solution of the problem i The solution of the problem that propose is this:
 i First, get into the minds of the rank and file of the common people right , ideas of the nature and purpose of | education.
 | Possibly this will be criticised, on ! the ground that it is task as great as to solve the problem itself. Well, a | problem so vast and difficult has no easy solution. Unless we wake up to realize how great is our task, and set ourselves with wisdom and determina- l ton to it's accomplishment, we shall have an educational problem up to the very day on which we commit suicide ! by our failure to solve it.
 Some persons seem to think that education is the putting of brains into an empty cranium, the. supplying by ar tificial means something that mother nature left out or forgot to put in. An old farmer in the east brought son of his to the president of a college 1 and told him that as the boy was not quite bright, he and his wife had de- cided to send him to college to be edu- cated and turned into a minister. That ! aged couple have lots of company Parents seem to think that the func- tion of the teacher is to perform some magical surgical operation. by which their semi -idiotic child shall be fitted for pedagogy, law, medicine, or the ology.
 Some years ago the newspapers re- ported a wonderful surgical operation performed in West Virginia. A mine boss was almost killed. by falling slate the back of his head being completely crushed and he rendered unconscious His life was despared of; but a skill full surgeon removed the brains of a calf and substituted them for thos, which had been so badly lacerated iT the mans head. It is said that tine man recovered; but that the poor call just stood around the pasture, no moving unless started by some one even it's jaws having to be started il order that it might eat. and stopped when it's meal was finished.
 The parent who sends to school { child of about the intellect of that poor mutilated calf. expecting him to grad uate with the brains of man, vii have an experience similar to that O a certain man about whom l heard You will remember that when Moses came down from Mt. Sinai he found 1 the people lowing down before golden calf and worshipping it, ant that he rebuked Aaron for making th' calf for the people. But Aaron ex cused himself by declaring that tn, people brought their gold, he put it il the fire, and there came out the calf So this father of whom 1 speak sen his son to college and spent severa thousand dollars in trying to educat' him only to have him come home a big a fool as he was when he wen away. With sorrow, shame and dis gust the father exclaimed: "I put il my gold. and there came out-thi
 calf"
 Others regard education as the pro cess by which their children are turne' into money making machines. Tn | highest ambition such parents have fo their children is that they be rich; an the children most heartily second thei parents unholy ambition. If aspira tions after the good, the pure, tn beautiful, the unselfish, whisper to tn child's soul, they are run down by thi iron money making machine, an flung bleeding and dead from the trac of life. There is no room for moral or religion in this sort of Education but, on the other hand, the educatio fulfils it's function in proportion as so blunts the sensibilities and sharp ems the wits as to enable the machin to crush weaker men and women an devastate the country without gettin the driver behind the prison bars.
 In the home, in the school, and i the church, in books magazines an newspapers, the clear visioned mus hold consistently before the educa tional astigmatism of the nation tn truth that education is not for the pur pose of manufacturing flesh and blood braWn and brains into machines, bu for the purpose of developing man hood and womanhood to the hlghes possible efficiency. This is d republic The people are the nation. Self-evi 1 dently our education must make tn citizens capable of self control, or the will be controlled by others, and tn nation will become an oligarchy. In S far as the claim is true that the gov ernment has already passed into tn l handc nf nolifico- cop1mprcial Oli