The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1921-04-29

Education"-Deut. CAB; Prov.
3:13-1S; Luke 2:52.
The BIunder of the Book Taught.
Old-fashioned folk are chuckling
quietly at the news coming out of the
meetings of professional educators in
the past few months. These peda-
gogues are apparently waking up to
what the rest of us, not so befogged
in book-born theories, knew all along,
that the modern school fashions, with
all their frills and fads, do not really
result in education. Cramming boys
and girls with a great variety of+'up-
to-date" subjects, especially of a
practical character, does not pro-
duce educated men and women. These
new ideas in school work. which range
from manual training" in burnt
leather and beaten brass to the de-
vastating of natural reticences and
reverences by instruction in social
hygiene" have not worked out into
Dra1n-poWer Or strength of character
Such innovations, which have sup
planted the teaching of the Bible and
relglous exercise in many places, have
not borne fruit in a higher grade of
education.
As a SIMPLE matter of everyday OBJ
serVat1on, modern education has got
Tar away from the root significance of
the word education" itself. Its mean
ing, as every schoolboy knows, is to
lead out" True education is a
bringing forth of latent powers. a de-
Velopment of what is within one. If
implies giving life a chance to grow.
It's real aim is to ripen capacity into
apillty and into wisdom. Education is
not something added on-after this
mad fashion of introducing almost
every conceivable reform and hobby
INTO the public school system-but it
is the symmetrical maturing of in
herent possibilities
Inc Bible Versus Pedagogues.
Strlk1ngly, the Bible SAYS little
ABOUT education and much about wis
uom: modern pedagogy says much
ABOUT education and little abolt wis
dom. In the Scriptures we find none
OF the modern heresy that mere book
learning can transform life.
our "hlghbrows'' have gone daft
over the power of education as a
panacea for all ills. Now no man of
sense would belittle the advantages of
eoueatIon' out neither would he i'm
part TO 1t functions which it does not
possess. This foolish, wicked and
wandering old world is not going to
De mace right merely by more secular
education. If it were, Japan would
be the moral model among nations;
ana universities would be assemblies
of saints. That going to school does
not necessarily make young people
more moral and noble and patriotic
everybody who is interested in reality
rather than in theories understands
perfectly.
That there exists an unmistakable
tendency in education to depart from
the Bible ideal of wisdom is apparent
to one who will take a square look at
present conditions. The worlds COL
leges are crowded as never before in
history, and in them are a countless
RI
women who are our hope of human
leadership for tomorrow. Neverthe-
less, those who know colleges best say
that there is slump in idealism. A
few days ago, laid down the most
popular student publication of one of
the great American universities with a
feeling of heavy-heartedness it was
filled with cheap. sophistication, vul-
garity, cynicism, disrespect for wo-
manhood and a general pose of "See
what registering, gambling, drinking,
carousing, gay blades we students
arel' OF course, the conduct of the
student body does not square with
their own portrayal of it: the latter
was merely immaturity posturing as
worldly wisdom. Nevertheless, the eff
feet was depressing.
The old fashion of electing clergy
men as presidents Of institutions of
higher learning is rapidly passing: a
business man who is a money-getter
is preferred. This is less important
than the fact that the condition which
the old order implied is also passing.
There are some colleges today that
seem to be without a spark or flash
of inspiration or idealism or religion.
Avowedly, they are merely training
young men for professional positions;
they are frankly on a commercial
basis. The craze for vocational
training has swept educators off their
feet; altho, happily, the leaders are
now turning back to the earlier, saner
and more Scriptural ideals.
What the College President Said.
The Bible idea of education is not
the acquisition of a mass of facts
and theories, all soon to be forgotten.
1t is rather the development or the
spiritual aspect of man. Clearly, from
the days of Moses to the letters of
Paul, the Scriptura1 conception of hui
man growth is that man should know
that God is, and that His nature re-
lates Him personally to the affairs of
wise is true wisdom. Gods existence
and Gods will are the supreme fac
tors in the training of the human
spirit. That there is a living God, and
| that He means something, and means
| it tremendously. to every mortal life,
| is the heart and height of the Bible
teaching about education. To know
God is not only essential wisdom; 1t
| is also life eternal.
All of that sounds like Sunday
school moralizing, doesn't it? Really,
if is the most practical truth in the
whole world: It is the final compen-
dunn of the uttermost wisdom of the
teachers of the race. The truly wise
are they who see straighest and hold
steadily to the great simplicities and
integrities of life. They believe the
fundamentals of reverence, truth
honor dlItv DafriotisO and service
and believe them implicitly. A SUI
preme moral purpose moves them.
Their powers are all trained to serve
these great ends.
Some years ago I was talking with
the bead of one of the three largest
universities in the United States. He
fairly startled me with the tensity of
his earnestness as he told me of the
condolences brought to- him by stu
dents; and of his own absolute convic-
ton that Christianity. applied, per-
sonal. life-changing Christianity. was
2 he act .1f