The Winslow mail., 1925-03-27

the limited number who do start to
the high school, only very small
percentage complete the course and
go to college. The serious indict-
ment against our schools over the
entire country, then, is that they do
not reach a large number of our
boys and girls and hold them until
they complete their education. All
over the country, hundreds of thou
sands of children every year who
drop out of school at the compuI-
sorry age limit are utterly unpre-
pared to take up any work in life.
They go into our stores and shops
and manufacturing concerns, and
do children's work at children S
wages. They have no opportunities
to learn the business and get into
line of promotion. What little they
have learned at school is not called
into use and is quickly forgotten.
In a few years, they find them
selves grown into men and women
with children's occupations and
children's wages. There seems to
be an exception to this last state
ment in this community, since the
railroad shops offer good wages to-
young men and women, and later
grown men and women. Doubtless
there are many exceptions to the
statement throughout the country,
but the assertion is true in the
overwhelming majority of the COM
munities in the United States.
Problem of Education Largely
Industrial.
"There never was a time in the
history of this country when the de-
mand was so great for the educa-
ton and training of the entire in
dividual as it is today. There is
no less demand for culture and
scholarship in the broadest mean
ing of the terms, but there is more
demand for education that will
meet the practical needs of life. 1t
is a demand for training that will
help the boys and girls use them
selves skillfully in their life work.
1t is not a demand for the direct
COoCl11uS VI Lie II duCo ~ n1uCn DIS
it is a call for the utilization of
everyday experiences.
"There are in this country ap-
proximately one hundred ten mil
lion people, Counting five per-
sons to the family, there are TWEEN
ty-two million families. Counting
one bread winner to the family,
there are twenty-five million bread
but the most casual obser-
walton will convince anyone that
two out of every five, rather than
one, must and do toll for a living,
forty-fOur million bread
winners. There are in this country
about one hundred twenty thousand
of the gospel, one hum
dred twenty-five thousand lawyers,
one hundred thirty-five thousand
doctors, and about seven hundred
thousand teachers-a little more
than one million engaged in the So
called learned professions. Let us
say that there are about one mil
lion merchants, superintendent
of the vast business en-
erprises-men and women who do
the headwork in the country's
business. 1t is apparent, therefore,
that of the forty-four million bread
some forty-two million
must work with their hands. 1t is
too, that the problem of
education is industrial as we'll as
academic. 1t must exalt the dig
nifty of labor; it must establish
habits of industry; it must give
ability to apply oneself to the prob
lem in hand; it must meet the de-
mand for accurate, skillful work.
in the past has been too
academic-that is, it has held too
closely to the textbook and has shut
the door to nature and to life. Now
that educators are trying to solve
it, it is not proposed to do any less
headwork-that is, not any less
thinking it is proposed to do
more handwork to supplement the
headwork.
"The late Lyman Abbott, in dis