The Hartford republican. (Hartford, Ky.) 18??-1926, 1919-05-09
THE BUSINESS MANS VIEW
OF PUBLIC SCHOOLS
Criticism No. q.

man, looking back upon his own ex-
perience in school life, and as an OBJ
server of present-day methods. is
this: Whereas, there are three kinds
of static man-power, the efforts of
our school system are primarily di-
rected toward the development of
only one of the three.
As | see it, static man-power is
first Intellectual, or head power"
second, emotive or "heart-power,"
and, third, physical, or hand-power;"
and our school system, taken as
whole, is primarily directed toward
the Development of "head-power;"
almost entirely ignoring the develop
ment of "heart-power," from whence
springs moral law or righteousness in
the sense of rightness, and all too in
effectually attending to the develop
ment of the physical power of the
child. AS business man, there
fore venture to suggest that our
school system should be radically re-
vised to the end of so shaping its
mode of procedure that there will be
uniform effort looking to the de-
velopment of the whole" boy aud the
whole" girl; the development of
heart" and hand" as well as head
| am well aware that there is ten
dency at work in this direction. nota-
I III TT,
means whereby the child can use his !
hands, and thus learn to do useful !
things while in the school-room. | !
refer to the teaching of domestic |
science and manual training and the |
teaching, more and more, of the use
full arts which can be utilized in in |
dustry and in many phases OF COM 1
merce. l claim, without fear of sue
cessful contradiction, that as yet
there has been but little effort along
the line of training the character of |
the child; in other words, the develop
ment of what call "heart-power" in
distinction from the work of the
head and hand.
Business men are fast waking up to
the fact that just as ability is the re-
suit of the development of intellectual
power, so is reliability the result of
the development of constructive emo
tive power, best described possibly. in
the language of the business man.
as 'heart-power." and | believe It is
one Of the good signs of the times that
the man engaged in business is
awakening to the fact that the best
ability is reliability
More and more is the business
world placing a premium on reliabili-
ty and dependability; and we all
know that stuf1ing the head with
facts pertaining to the arts and
sciences, and all the rest of the cur
riculum taught in our schools, col
leges and universities will not alone
beget reliability in the individual.
We all know it to be fact and not
theory that it requires both correct
nourishment and correct use to re-
suit in education or development of
the physical muscle. Neither of these
two processes alone is sufficient. 1t
requires both of them, and one is
just as essential as the other.
This, however, is not a law of the
physical man alone. 1t applies to the
intellectual and the spiritual ele-
ments in mans being. Any of the
constructive faculties or qualities of
head or heart will educt or develop
II rightly nOurished and rightly used
That is to say, if the mind of the
child is fed on the right mental food
while in the schOol-room. and his
work involves the doing of things re-
quiring the exercise of constructive
qualities, then the qualities which
result in service-rendering power
cannot help but grow, develop and
unfold.
As one author, whose writings |
have been privileged to read, puts it:
RN plus RU equals f, which inter-
preted, means, right nOurishment
plus right use equals education.
More and more the business men
Of the country appreciate the rela-
tionship of physical fitness to the SER
vice-rendering power of the indi-
vidual, and while here, there and
yonder, many schools are, to some de-
gree, paying attention to this matter,
feel-and in this l am by no means
alone-that there is much room for
improvement in respect OF physical
culture in our schools.
The education of the body is just
as important as the education of the
intellect; and the education of the
heart is, If anything, more important
than either of the other two.