Evening star., 1931-12-27
End Intellectual Lock Step
Continued From First Page J

to work Whole States, their peoples
income reduced by economic changes,
ask the second question.
Nothing could be more beneficial to
the Nation in the years to come than
an aroused public interest in education.
Great changes are needed in our proc
ess of education. They will not be
made until millions of our people, in
cluding 100000 school boards, begin to
think seriously on what constitutes edu-
cation and how 1t differs from mere
schooling"
In q monarchy or government by
dictatorship, the education of the mass
OF people is relatively unimportant.
The intelligence and motives of the
man or men at the top are the all
important factors in the welfare If
such a nation. But here we have a
far different situation; more than
125,o00ooo people trying to govern
themselves wisely by majority political
action. Lack of knowledge, of under
standing, of intelligence among the
mass OF the people of republic would
be Of serious consequence. Thomas
jefferson expressed that thought very
clearly in the beginning of our Gov
ernment when he said: Those who
expect to remain free and ignorant in
state of civilization expect that which
has never happened and never will
happen"
President Hoover has given express
sion to the same thought in these
words "Self-eovernment can succeed
cnly through an instructed electorate
The more complex the problems of the
Nation become the greater is the need
for more and more advanced instruc-
ton"
More Education Funds.
That thought has animated each
succeeding generation in this country
to devote more and more Of the public
funds to educational purposes. There
was time in the worlds affairs, not
many centuries ago, when 90 per cent
Of the people could neither read nor
write; when education was high priv
tlege, reserved for a chosen few. But
in America, for many years past, edu-
cation has been one of the "inalienable
rights" and the public conscience is
shocked by the fact that there are a
few million people in the country who
are unable to read or write That num-
Der is being reduced rapidly. OF that
work I shall say more later.
During the last two years the Ma
tional Advisory Committee on Educa-
ton, appointed by me with the sane
ton of the President, has been study
ing all of the relations of the Federal
Government to education. Mr.. Julius
Rosenwald made a gift of 100000 to
cover the expenses of the committee
Their report is now before Congress
and in the hands Of the public. 1t
strongly urges the decentralization of
education, the restriction of the Fed
eral Government to research, informa-
ton and advice and the unification of
all of the educational forces now scat
tered in different departments in
Washington
These recommendations are in tune
with the traditions and ideals of the
Nation. At the same time the COM
mittee recommends that the Importance
OF education be given recognition by
the addition Of Secretary of Educa-
ton to the cabinet. This cabinet officer
would represent educational research.
1hlS would be a new feature in the
cabinet, which IS primarily an execu-
tive and administrative body.
Wide Differences.
There are wide differences Of opinion
on this question. Some of us think
that it would be Instantaneous to
confuse research and administration and
that the future of Federal education
a commissioner of education or some
one bearing a similar title If there
Is to be change, 1t must come through
action Of Congress.
1 look out Of my Office window in
washington md see beautiful marble
memorial u man unschooled but
educated: Abraham Lincoln The very
TACT that he was unSchooled but rose
to fame and an undying place in the
NQfiNI1's o,.% o1ool.l
SANDS OF young men to acquire an edu-
cation. His own generation and sue
ceeding ones have visualized the bov
Lincoln lying on a cabin floor. study
ing. by the Pickering light of log fire.
the few books Re had walked many
miles to borrow. A humble woman and
country man teacher opened the whole
world OF knowledge to Lincoln when
they taught him to read and write and
cipher But they did far more than
that, for they gave to the Nation the
man who was to preserve its unity.
Without those first teachers of Lincoln,
now olterent our national destiny might
have been! Here was a type Of edu-
cation now practically unknown: self
determination of what and when and
how to learn
hardly less informal was the edu-
cation of Thomas Edison. whose in
ventions may be said to have revolu-
tionized the world. He spent only a
lew OF his boyhood years in school,
usually at the foot of his classes. His
teachers found him difficult pupil,
so his mother taught him at home. He
read, or his mother read to him. en-
cyclopedias, histories, anything that
was available that contained mfor1na-
ton. Simple books on electricity and
chemistry came his way and he was in
terested
Simple Experiments.
At 10 or II. with his mothers assist
ance, he was performing simple eY-
periments A year or two later his
mother and father consented to his
taking a job as railroad newsboy so
that he could have funds with which
TO buy more experimental apparatus.
His education was gained by work
and experience. With more formal
scientific education he might have ac-
compliShed even greater wonders But
on the other hand, it is possible that
scientific schooling according to rigid
pattern, might have stif1ed his native
talent, dulled initiative: deprived the
world Of the benefit of his genius. AS
in the case of Lincoln, real education
was acquired practically without
'schooling.' But each boy followed his
natural bent; each had the timely help
OF those who recognized intelligence
and encouraged its development and
application
Now. by force of economic necessity,
we are again beginning to differentiate
between schooling" and educating We
are beginning to see that half mil
lion dollars spent on new school
building may be less productive Of
profit to the children and the COM
l11unity and Nation than hundred
thousand dollar school and million
dollar" principal or teacher who can
be hired for much less
We are beginning to see that schools
can't be operated like sausage ma
chines-material put in at one end and
a uniform product taken out, all fitted
for use. at the other. Human material
is much too different to respond salts