Evening star., 1922-07-05
HUGHES CONDEMNS
MENTAL MIGRANTS
National Educators ToIe
Concentration Is Need
of Schools.
By the Associated Press.

By the Associated Press
BOSTON, July 5.-The blessing Of
democracy will flow only "in so far
| as 1t represents the rule of an in
telligent and cultured people," Secre
| tary Hughes declared in a paper on
the Aims in American Education"
read here last night before the Ma
tionaI Education Association
The American IDEAL" the Secre-
tary said. land it must be maintained
IL we are to mitigate disappointment
and unrest, is the ideal of equal
educational opportunity. not merely
for the purpose of enabling one to
know how to earn a living, and to
MT into an economic status more or
less fixed. but of giving play to talent
and aspiration and to the develop
ment of mental and spiritual powers"
The increased demand for educa-
tional opportunities and the extraor-
binary efforts to supply new facil-
tiles, particularly for higher educa-
tion. were encouraging. Mr.. Hughes
said, but he added that there was
apparent much confusion with re-
spect to. the standards and aims" of
education.
Vocational training, the teaching of
the means to earn a livelihood, he
said. would be taken care of, but he
added:
Democracy cannot live on bread
alone. 1t is not enough that one
shall be able to earn living, or
good living. This is the foundation
but not the structure. What Is need
ed is to have life more abundantly."
1t was important, Mr.. Hughes con-
tended, that the door of hope be
kept open" by maintaining opportuni-
ties and standards of general educa-
tion. thus giving to those who start
a fna NJ
slender advantages the chance to
rise.
This is of especial Importance to
our working people, he continued,
who are not to be viewed as mere
economic units, but as our co-lahorers
in the great enterprise of human
progress"
AS to educat tional standards he said:
1T is impossible to provide system
Of general education and ignore the
lists are just as dangerous as the ma
terialistS.
Life. Not Pnstime.
Life is not a pastime and democ-
racy is not holiday excursion. 1t
needs men trained to think.
THE sentimentalists must not be
allowed to ruin us by dissipating the
energy that should be harnessed for
our varied needs"
The true object Of education was
to give training (which will enable
one to make the most-that is the
best-of ones self" Mr.. Hughes said,
adding:
we must realize that the founda-
tions should be laid in few studies
of the highest value in self-dis-
cipline. This means self-denial. hard
work, the inspiration of teachers with
vision. and an appreciation of the
privileges and obligations of citizen
ship in democracy"
In elementary schools this meant
training which insists, at whatever
COSTS" the Secretary said. ''on the
mastery by the student of the sub
ject before him-on accuracy. the
lack Of which, l regret to say. is now
CONSPICUOUS in students Of all grades
Insists on Fundamentals.
In high schools and academies, he
said. it meant that we should stop
scattering in the present "bewilder-
ing and Unsuccessful attempt at COM
tai, substantial studies. thoroughly
mastered should be substituted, he
said, adding:
CT am not of those who believe in
the classical and mathematical train
ing, and l do not think that we have
found any satisfactory substitute for
it. But the important point is the
insistance upon concentration and
thoroughness."
Mr.. Hughes held that too much had
been done in colleges to encourage
intellectual vagrancy' so that col
lege education. outside of technical
schools, may mean little or nothing"
I'VE have given too scant attention
to the demands of training for citi-
zenship," he said. That implies ade-
quate knowledge of our institutions.
of their development and actual
working 1t means more then this
in a world of new intimacies and
complexities. 1t means adequate
knowledge of other peoples. and for
this purpose there is nothing to take
the place of the humanities, of the
study Of literature and history
MIR. Hughes explained that he
meant not history "of the distant
past" but recent history with suffi-
cient acquaintance with the past to
understand the extraordinary hap
penings and developments which
have taken place in our own time"
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