The Birmingham age-herald., 1923-04-18
PURPOSE OF EDUCATION

POHPOSE OF EDUCAIlON
 United States Commissioner of Ed ucation J. J. Tigert, addressing the Southern section of the Classical As sociation of the Middle West and South in Birmingham recently on "The Conservation of Human Talent" eX- pressed alarm at the apparently in- creasing tendency toward abandoning classical education by many of the schools and colleges, or at least push ing this character of education in the background in favor of more practical training which may be directly applied to increase production, broader con- mercial achievement and larger accu- mutation of wealth. The speaker em- phasized the value and importance of classical education in the development of higher ideals and better civic stand ards. "Without education and truth, those things which make for the ideal" he declared, "no nation can stand" and he pointed out the danger of un- dertaking to employ education almost solely for the purpose of industrial, commercial and agricultural develop ment.
 In it's broader sense classical educa- ton is the foundation of all educa- tion. That is to say, insofar as 1t in fluences human conduct, elevates standards of human character, devel- ops broader views of patriotism and strengthens the peoples respect for law and order. These things cannot be accomplished as they should be, without the creation of ideals, which, after all, constitute the foundation upon which progress in all fields of effort is made. The real purpose of education is not, as many erroneously suppose, direct application to the so- lution of business problems. Its sphere of usefulness lies in its development of the habit of thinking. Few highly educated men retain for many years the detailed information they acquire at the university. Most of them would prefer to forget good deal of this in its concrete form. But their col lege education taught them how to think not only in the solution of prob lens arising in after-life, but along lines of higher planes of citizenship, better standards of government, greater respect for and enforcement of law, all of which are essential for progress in material development.
 In another state is a city which has more than twenty-five monuments that cost the people of that city and state mora than two million dollars. Some times visitors express the view that such expenditures were largely waste because those monuments do not di- rectly produce material wealth. But the people who paid for those remind CTS of the splendid deeds performed by the men whose lives are thus me morialized look at the proposition from a different viewpoint. They say ihese expenditures represent practical Investments and will produce practical esults in the development of higher deals and better citizenship, both of
 lich find application to the more material fields through broader
 ,hievement and superior workman ship, whether they be in the fields of government or those of business.
 There is no such thing as real endowment without the power of thought. That power is supplied cer-
 nly as much through classical edu- cation as any other kind. The creator
 thing is greater than the creation. That IS truism. To produce the light kind of creator is therefore the purpose of all education, and es- oecially of classical education. There leed be no fear of America running mad over commercialism and the itch
 ' gold so long as the American peo pie are equipped to do their thinking along wholesime lines. Freuuent complaints that man is too theoreti- cal or idealistic are not well grounded in the light of history. The great achievements of the world have come rom theorists and idealists or those vho appropriated their principles and thoughts.