The Julesburg grit-advocate., 1920-01-01
HE NEED OF EDUCATION


cestors Of five thousand years age1
were Of As high mental capacity 81
the average men and women Of today.
Given the advantage Of our edueetion
and training they would have besa h-
feriOr in no way to US. About ~ CO.
ly difference between these ancsstees
and ourselves is that we have ~
chance to profit by the accumulated
experience and knowledge Of the raes
handed down from generation TO gea-
Grafton. and il We fail to receive the
education and training that provides
the means Of profiting by this heri-
tage we are very little better off tben
they.
Like a rolling SNOWFALL, we find
knowledge grows continually. A well
trained and educated man Of one gen.
Grafton would be lost and helpless In
the next were he suddenly transplant
ed without IN opportunity to learn the
new conditions.
Let q country fail to educate its
youths for one generation and the
work of centuries would be undone.
It is not enough that the young peo-
pie be educated, but they must be-
trained to a point in advance OF their
predecessors. The standards Of ten
years ago are not those Of today.
What would have been the result in
the World War if our soldiers had been
armed with the guns and cannons OF
the old muzzle loading type and sent,
to the Front in France? The com
munity or parent that permits its
young people to be equipped with
muzzle loading educations and sendp
them out to face modern business and
modern social conditions of life 10 just
as surely sacrificing the young folks
as the nation would have been sacfi-
ficing our soldiers by sending them
to the front with muzzle loading arms. i
The need of each generation is not
education merely. but education which
definitely trains them for successful
and happy life. 1t does not matter
whether this training is received in-j
the shop, field or school.
l have paper in front of me that
contains the following:
l) That of the 1000 900 recently
discharged soldiers, nearly all OF
whom are eager for opportunities t0sl
extend their education for vocationatl
for citizenship, and for genS
eral culture, few can go to college, and
fewer still will enter ordinary higk1
schools and practically all must de
pend on such opportunities as the edui
cational extension agencies may offeI
(2) That millions of laboring men
and women are eager for opportunities
for instruction, especially in things
to economic, civic rights
and duties, and better living.
(3) That millions of women recent
ly enfranchised are now about to be
endowed with the right of suffrage by
the ratification of the nineteenth
of the Constitution of the
United States, are eager for oppor
tunities for instruction in regard to
forms of government and civic and po-
itical problems.
ca That millions of foreign-born /
men and women among us, both of
those who have taken out citizenship
Diapers and those who have not, altho /
able to speak, read and write the
English language, need to be instruct
ed in regard to the geography, his /
tory, ideals, manners and customs, and
industrial and economic opportunities
m this community. /
(5) That 2,25O,OOO boys and girls .
are every year attaing their majority
and entering the ranks of active cit.
zens with the right of suffrage at
time when the problems of active .
are more numerous. com
plex and difficult than even before in
our history. and that few of these
have had any adequate instruction in
the principles of democracy and in re
gard to the vital problems with which .
they must deal. Less than one-third .
of them have any high-school educa-
ton and less than one-eight have
graduated from high school,"
Such people are seriously handi-
capped in life and none realize it bet
ter than they-when it is too late,
Parents who neglect to see that their
children are going to school or who
keep them out on this or that pretext
are just as surely crippling the boy or .
girl as tho they had permitted the loss
of limb.