Evening star., 1925-02-18
THIS. AND THAT
By CHARLES E. TRACEWELL.

When a man is 10 or Is years out
of school and college. one day he is
| likely to ask himself some such ques-
| tion as the following:
Now that have been out about as
long as WAS in, what have I learned
since I left?
Education, whether one likes it or
| not, is not confined to the classic
| halls Of grade school, high school
| and college or university. This
| thought may come as q blow to those
days with fervor.
Yet education is something We re-
ceive every day Of our life, from the
| first wall which heralds our advent
| to the last sigh. Consciously or un-
| consciously, we are always learning
| something.
Books played their part in educa-
tion during school days. and have
yet much to do with the year-by-
year education of the man with
enough common sense to realize 1t Is
not thing set apart, but something
that comes home to a mans hearth
| and bosom every day OF his iife.
Teachers played their part in that
formal structure called Education"
When we left college we dispensed
the main, reverting to the process Of
education which Is the usual one OF
nature, l. e., conscious and uncon-
scious assimilation OF facts and fancy.
Thus the college of hard knocks"
has been the salvation of many q
man, in and out of college. Ask al
most any honest man-or woman
| with an A. B. degree, or an NJ. A. de-
gree, and he--or she--will tell you
that perhaps the best part of what
they got out of college was in the
tivities" and the everyday inter-
course incidental to student life.
Yes. we have all been learning
something since we got out Of school.
just what ono has learned, Of
course. varies with the Individual
No ono can speak for another in this
| matter. But, from q general stand
point, believe tho four main div1-
sions of learning sinoe school days
| are about as follows:
/. How to earn q living.
2. The conduct OF life. rs,
3. Finance.
4. Health.
1t is exactly in these four endeav-
ors that modern classical education Is
lacking. The student, with some ex-
| cepttons. goes through eight years Of
grade school, four of high school and
four Of college without taking any
particular courses" in the above four
great subjects.
1t may be that as a student he had
a particular aptitude for mathe-
matics, and SO came to be an assist
ant instructor In college, and later q
full professor. In that case his school
days did teach him how to earn a liv-
ing. He was an exception.
There are always exceptions.
Some men may have learned tho
conduct OF life during school days,
others assimilated knowledge as to
money and Its conservation, others
managed to pick up enough health
lore to carry them through the rest of
their days.
The majority OF the students, how
ever, did not and do not. The ordi-
| nary classical education Of this great
country Of ours, built up in a day
when there were but three so-csl&ed
learned professions the law, the
ministry and medicine - failed and
still fails to put much stress on my
four great subjects.
These are things ono has to learn
for himself after school days, in that
greater education, which Is living.
Happy was the man who, through
ability or necessity, saw this during
the days of formal education and be-
gan these courses" Of his own VOLT
ton.
Formal education which does not
formally take up the problem of
| earning living has just to that ex-
ent failed in that practical applica-
tion Of thought to activity which Is
the contribution OF America to the
| world.
1t is not enough that some of the
work done In college can be applied
later to earning ones living. Earn
ing a living is fundamental, after