The Manning times. [volume] (Manning, Clarendon County, S.C.) 1884-current, 1920-04-14
some DEFECTS IN
OUR EDUCATION
Editor The Manning Times

Editor The Manning Times:
The human race has always been in
terestcd in the question of education
primarily so, because men were born
INTO the world III entire ignorance, and
from time immcmorial have had the
unhappy experience of the lack of an
education. In order to consider in
telllgently some defects in our edu-
cation, it may prove best to undertake
To give definition of education, how
ever dangerous such an experiment
may be, since scholars from the dawn
of civilization have differed with re-
spect to exactly what constituted an
education.
A knowledge Of mathematics, in
cludng geometry or comic sections or
what not, could hardly be deemed an
education, although an acquaintance
with the principles Of mathematics
may be, and as a matter Of fact, is an
aid to an education. A knowledge of
phllology and the literature of the
race are noble aids in the direction of
the intellectual liberty of men and
have been the charming companions
Of scholars and gentlemen since the
dawn Of culture, but no one could
reasonably contend that a familiar ac-
Quaintance with the history and litera-
ture of the race constituted in them
selves an education.
The natural sciences, including bot
any, zoology, biology or astronomy or
what not, are more and more being
considered as necessary to an cduca-
ton, and scholars have uuarreled
among themselves as to whether the |
natural sciences should take the place
of literature in any sane system of |
education, forgetting all the while that
none of these things constitute, in and
of themselves, true education, al
though each and all Of them play a
very important part in any system of
culture.
In our opinion, true definition of
education is so simple that the little
child can be made to understand the
principle of it, and it is strange indeed
that scholars and the wayfarng man,
though fool, have erred therein, since
question Of becoming educated.
Education then, from our standpoint
is simply the intellectual ability or
capacity of regarding all the relations
Of life from the standpoint of the COM
mon good.
Our view of education should be ap-
piled in the home and should include
every single member of the home,
whether it be the father or the little
babe or the cook. The old dictum that
Everybody works except father and
the baby" should be discarded and
each and every member become a
busy bee in the domestic hive in work
ing towards the happiness Of every
other member Of the family and ac-
tuaiiy living and breathing the idea
that in order for the home to become
a complete success and place of rest
and joy, each member of the home
must pool his or her particular talent
for the benefit of the common good, =,
and in such an institution, education
will have commenced at the birth of
the babe in lieu Of at seven years of
age, education will have become a
daily matter in lieu Of so many years
at the high school or at College, and
education will have been completed
when, and not until, the home shall
have become dissolved by death.
The old view Of education required {
a period Of four years at College, and
after that, hasty forgetting of all the :;
information acquired during the four
years at College, but under our view {
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