Newark post., 1922-12-06
FOR GOD AND COUNTRY
e Bureau of Service Citizens of Delaware
By r. w. COOPER

When education is thought of as
that which happens in a boy or girl
in the years of their development into
manhood or womanhood, the term in
cludes in it's scope all agencies Of So
ciety that may in any way affect the
developing child, and includes as its
final objective all of the relationships
and activities of the mature man or
woman. Education thus conceived is
life playing upon the growing youth
so as to beget in him such responses,
aims, ideals, desires and habits as will
enable him to live normally, etfec-
lively and happily. 1t is not mere
book learning, nor mere intellectual
development. Nor does education aim
make them think alike or act alike,
but rather to put them into contact
with the varied forces of society IN
such way as to make them respond
naturally and develop normally into
strong, noble, active men and women.
Education, therefore, must be
thought of as beginning at birth, per-
haps even before nativity, and as con-
tinuing so long as man pursues an
active and useful career. He live
and learns, through the varied dlsap-
pointments and enthusiasms of youth,
through the absorbing and trying ex-
periences of mature manhood, through
tbe less strenuous but richer and fuller
life of the calmer, older years, through
the declining stages when the foot
shuffies, and the hand loosens, and the
fact sets resolutely towards the grim
unknown as if on a new quest into
promised but distant land.
All of these experiences Of a man
are educative, and each stage is right
ly preceded by preparatory educa-
tional process, the elements of which
can be separately noted and measured
bv every one of US. They together
compose the mystery we pursue, as
life, which we never quite understand,
but which is the only thing we know
at all. Education thus becomes an
intelligent pursuit of life and COM
prises all the things felt, done, and
understood that make up life.
Education may be good or bad. 1t
is good if it reaches the objective
stated above; it is bad just in so far
as it fails to attain that high aim.
If failure to attain is sin, then an edu-
cation that is limited, confined, or one
sided, or that leaves the youth at
cross purposes with society or without
a sane and balanced view of his own
life in the world, is bad education.
A good education specifically aims
to develop the growing man into
workman at some useful form OF
labor. a worthy and active member of
the community, the State, and the
nation, an intelligent voter in local
and national affairs, devoted friend
of all things that are true and beau
tiful, and of good report, an upstand-
ing man among men. Education
would like to make sure that a man,
or woman, will become all of these
things in lifetime.
The chief agencies that assist in
the making of man, and which are,
therefore, to be held responsible both
for what happens and for what does
not happen in the education of gen
Grafton of young men and women, are
the home, the school, and the church.
What these three agencies are in any
State or nation will largely determine
what the rising generation will be-
come in that State or nation. In one
way or another, in one aspect of them
or another, these three agencies pro-
duce the reactions and establish the
habits that characterize us as men
and women. They produce civiliza-
ton.