Ellsworth American. [volume] (Ellsworth, Me.) 1855-current, 1924-04-30
GRINDING OUT SAUSAGES.
President little, L. of NJ, Criticiscs
Present School System.


colleges is all wrong, says President
Little of the University OF maine.
I'VE put our boys and girls into the
school machine, and grind them out
at the other end like so many sau-
sages neatly tied with a string, every
sausage looking just like every other
sausage
DR.. Little, speaking under the
auspices of the Ellsworth chapter
of the Unitarian Laymen's League
at the Unitarian church last Thurs
day evening, used the above strik-
ing comparison in describing our
present school system. His subject
was Schools" and he held the in
terest of a good-si2ed and repre-
sentative audience.
He spoke especially of the graded
or elementary schools the high, or
intermediate schools, and the col
leges and universities, or the So
called schools of higher education.
He said in part:
IN aiming for increased atten-
dance, we have neglected some of
the main truths. We should educate
all who are ready to profit by educa-
ton, but we have taken it for granted
that every boy or girl OF average in
telligence is ready for higher educa-
ton. Many of them are not ready,
and are in fair way of abusing tNe
opportunity for higher education.
I'VE are living in a day of great
conyeniences. Everything is made
easy for us, not only for our physical
fol
also SO our schools are systema-
TIED So much work is laid out
in neat little piles for this grade,
and the next, and the next The
old ruggedness has been submerged
in this efficiency system.
ASK the boys and girls who come
to our universities why they are
there. One-third will tell you they
don't know; another third will say
that they want an education so as to
earn more money, and the final third
viii say because they want Cor their
parents want them) to enter a pro-
fession. A very small fraction, per-
haps per cent. of this one-third,
will say they want to learn to use
their mind. And that is the really
important thing of higher educa-
tonic learn how to use the mind
to find out the truth; to find out
everything about life.
This is mass production. They
enter the graded schools, with the
work for each grade beautifully
systematized and made easy for
them. They get by with an average
of IS per cent. They enter the high
school-more studies, more skill
fully taught, a little more intricate
system. Then they go to college
a little more system, little more
lecturing in place of lessons, but the
same old stuff. l am reminded of
the sprayers the farmers use in their
orchards The college instructor
is the greatest human sprayer in the
world to-day-he can spray infor-
nation over a larger body of stu
dents, and spray it thinner. Some
leaves get none, and they wither
and dry up; others get saturated,
drowned, so that no more sunlight
ever gets to them.
1T is time for some institution
to tell the boys and girls of to-day
that they cannot have everything
they want No country owes an
education to boys and girls who are
travelling at half speed. The boy
or girl who is Just getting by with c
or d in the high school is a dead
weight in college.
Education should be made simp-
Ter We should teach fewer sub
jects We should narrow down
into a simpler form the fundamental
principles of education. We are do
ing nothing to develop personality.
Character weakness in a boy or girl
is just as prominent as intellectual
weakness. This boy is habitually
tardy, this boy is shirk, this boy is
lazy, this boy is shy, These weak
nesses of character will stay with
them through life. We don't. do a
thing to correct them; we don't do
thing to develop character.
"Our educational system is beauti-
fully clothed. We have beautiful
buildings, beautiful laboratories,
beautiful system, but take off all
the ornamentation and we have
mere skeleton-dried up blood and
as door-nail-as personality
building institutions.
There are three essentials of
education worth while hitching to:
Faith, or humility-the faith
that there is something worth striv-
ing for, and recognition of how little
we know That is the beginning of
real education.
Hope, or courage-and in de-
veloping courage and building
character, school athletics is the
greatest contribution of the American
undergraduate to the world to-day.
Love, tolerance-recognit of
and consideration for the other fell
lows viewpoint.
There are but two things that
live after us-the products of our
mind, and our children, the products
of our body. This is the slender
strand passing down through us to