Albuquerque morning journal. [volume] (Albuquerque, N.M.) 1903-1926, 1921-06-26
WHAT CONSTITUTES AN EDUCATED pERsoNe

writer of conspicuous ability undertakes to
answer this question in the June issue OF the
Atlantic Monthly In opinion she utterly fails
to do 3d. Her failure is due to her effort to be
concrete and specific TO what q person must
know in order to be considered as educated. She
does not name a single item, the possession, or
lack of which, is necessary FOR person to be
educated.
The fact that each person is at liberty to erect
for himself his own standard Of what constitutes
an educated person leaves many conclusions in the
air There is no authority, whom we recognize as
the one to fix the standard by which we shall
do measuring.
ANY person who becomes acutely conscious OF
his relation to a sufficiently large number of
things in his environment and correlates and
absorbes them into his personality is entitled to
be considered as educated. The diversity, rather
than the number, of these consciousnesses estab-
fishes the degree Of the education.
child may learn by note depend upon a
trained ear to know by instinct whether to say
twas" or were" An unframed teacher could
draw from the child the same mental effort and
accomplish the training OF the ear, yet teach
the child the exactly wrong use of the two words.
The child must become conscious of the fact
that custom among discerning people requires the
use of each of these words in certain relations He
must know the reason why they are go used ana
what brought about their present usage. With these
things within the range Of his consciousness. he
discerns and discriminates ana no longer depends
upon his
If this consciousness covers sufficiently large
and diversified number Of words we regard It as
filling the requirements. Yet consciousness of no
particular word would put Its possessor into the
class of the educated would the absence OF
consciousness of particular word take him out
of The class of the educated. The resulting ian
guage-consciousness instead OF any specific data,
is what we seek for the child.
The same thing APPLIES numbers and their
relations. No specific fact is necessary, yet suf-
ficently diversified group Of specific conscious
nesses TO correlate themselves into number
consciousness is necessary.
To know red from green or blue, is to know a.
color fact. Enough Of these facts Will result in
general coor-Conscou BUSINESS.
To teach a girl that red is an unbecoming color
for her does little of itself to help her When
she receives a sufficiently large group OF color
consciousness and form-c consciousness, she be-
comes dress conscious and the new acquisition OF
her personality makes itself apps 'ent Yet it is
resultant of many facts and not any particular
coor-fact formfact which reflects itself in her
dress
Sufficient sclence-facts make science
consciousness sufficient history facts to make
a history-conscousness, and on down the line
OF all the phases of learning. the ends seek
in education
Finally all of these word-consciousnesses and
dress consciousness and ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
and history consciousness correlate themselves
and absorbed into general consciousness of
the ego and make trained personality instead of
Hvolunteer' personality That person is educated |
He Is highly educated moderately educated or
poorly educated. according to the diversity and |
svidness of his consciousness and his ability to |
torrelate, absorb and express them |
The writer whose article inspired this effusion |
failed to realize what she inflictng the |
Journals readers.