The Maui news. [volume] (Wailuku, Maui, H.I.) 1900-current, 1919-04-11
The Future Of Hawaii
And The Public Schools

are now, none but the lowest classes
of labor will perform this work. The
problems of Industrial education are
not merely problems of industry, of
education, or of economics; they are
problems that have to do with our
whole philosophy of life. Just as long
as the adulation of the world goes to
the man who makes money" rather
than to the man who makes crops,
just so long will boys leave farming
and flock to the cities.
The majority of boys and girls want
a schooling that will fit them al
Our normal school and com
mercial courses in the high schools
have grown rapidly in recent years;
similar courses in rural industries
would likewise grow. In all parts of
the mainland industrial education has
made Tremendous strides; today there
are literally thousands of industrial
schools and courses. All high schools
and upper grammer grades in Ha-
wall should have strong departments
in Hawaii's agriculture.
Universal Education
The third great educational prob
lem in Hawaii is that of universal
SAuNhNlOlls ~ tlAo L AANtht III AAthh
working people are to be educated I'M
til they are too good to work." but
that they are to be educated as good
workmen,-toward the job, not away
from it. Ignorant labor is bound to
be inefficient labor; cheap labor, in a
human sense, is inevitably very eX-
pensive labor.
One of the great ideas that the Uni
! tod Cfntac hoe oO4tnp Ot,t nf fhic 1r-o -
is not universal military service, but
universal service, - every man,
woman, and child doing most effecti-
lively that which he or she is fitted to
do. In an ideal democracy there can
be no idlers; the idle rich are as
great a menace, if not a greater
menace, than the idle poor.
Universal service demands univer-
sal education. Not merely academic
education; not merely book-learning;
but education in terms of every type
of human labor. To talk of the dig
nifty of labor" is but using an empty
phrase unless we neal to train boys
and girls, men and women, in terms
of the creative power of all useful
labor.
Our present system reaches only a
fraction of the population; and this
fraction only for a few years. Univer-
sal education involves a territory
wide system of kindergartens; schools
of citizenship for aliens; schools for
the m who are to become voters;
trade schools; schools for illiterates;
public library extension; agricultural
extension work, such as now begun by
the county agents; supervised play
grounds; schools in h~ome-making.
This may sound like a purely idealis-
tic program, but many of the states
are accomplishing it, and Hawaii is
asking for statehood. Universal edu-
cation in Hawaii a be accomplished,
not so much by the establishment Of
new institutions and organizations,
with their expensive overhead, but by
carefully-planned, gradual enlarge
ment and extension of the presentpub-
lie school system. We can afford to
make haste slowly, but ever keeping
the goal in view.
Hawaii has unusual opportunities,
and a remarkable history and back
ground, for the accomplishment of
this enlargement of education. The
,lieval idea of education was of
the cloister, seclusion, book-learning;
the Twentieth Century idea includes
every domain of human labor, and of
all the children of all the people. Edu-
cation for service; training for Ha-
waits daily work; in these Hawaii
can plan for a glorious and prosper
GUS future.