Askov American. [volume] (Askov, Pine County, Minn.) 1914-current, 1936-12-17

duced especially in the last two oil
three decades, but we still have some
distance to go before reaching the
goal of informed public opinion.
America, the land of opportunity
has taught the world many things
notably how to produce, but in the
field of education, l believe, we car
learn something from my little native
country of Denmark. 1t was Rev
Grundtvig who brought forth the folk
schools for young men and women
where the students are taught love
of country. its traditions and institu-
tions, it's history and the history OF
the world, where they learn to sing
and appreciate literature and in gen.
eraL, develop a wholesome attitude
toward life. The folk school which
permeates the life of not only Den
mark, but of the other Scandinavian
countries of Sweden and Norway, has
no doubt been most important fac
tor in keeping those countries out of
war ever since 1864. 1t has given
the Scandinavian people wider hori-
zon and nobler aspect on life and de-
veloped thought in direction other
than killing. The folk high school
with it's purpose of universal educa-
tion has reduced illiteracy in Den
mark to one-tenth of one per cent.
Ability to read and write and to have
general understanding is very import
ant in any democracy, so that we may
make intelligent use of the ballot.
My great concern is that our higher
institutions of learning should con-
serve and develop culture as is being
done by the folk schools. There is
danger that culture will suffer eclipse
in a machine age Even now there
are signs that culture is being swal-
lowed up by the mere gadgets and
mechanics of civilization, by speed,
convenience, comforts, Injuries.
My friends, it is we'll to remember
that the only thing which keeps us
from being savages or barbarians is
culture, and sometimes it is not strong
enough to prevent this reversion.
Civilization is culture or it is nothing.
No one, who is wise, laughs at true
culture and everyone who is wise tries
for it. Culture is that which grad
ually and slowly transforms the clum-
sy apprentice into the skilled work
man, the hating, stumbling amateur
into the poised, self-pCssessed master.
Culture is the fruit and crown of the
whole educational process. And
throughout the years the teaching
staff of the University has had num-
erous personalities who have eXem-
plified and incarnated culture. And
today the worthy president of this
great university embodies and carries
forward in his person your great ira
dition of culture, the cultured gentle
man. $50.
Can Work I'm Broader Field.
Just one or two further points be-
fore l close. American colleges and
universities should be more than mere
repositories of facts, more than mere
registers and rubber stamps, more
than dim and furnished mirrors of
economic change. If they are merely
this they are degraded to promote
vulgar mediocrity.
Our higher institutions of learning
should not be centers of propaganda
functions to study and to compare,
and to hold before the eyes of men
and women the vision and the pattern
of greater human welfare and achieve
ment. This it seems to me is the
challenge which comes to modern
educators. They need not be fol-
lowers only, but can be leaders in
a forward march for human welfare
True enough liberty is likely to be
abused. 1t may degenerate into Ii
cense, but in this connection one
should not forget the great educator
statesmen and women who have put us
all in their debt. Among them were
Horace Mann, William James, G..
Stanley Hall, and Charles w. Eliot
These educators with prop etic vision
gloried in their liberty and they did
not abuse it. Rather, they fulfilled
it. May we not do as well?
1 want to take this opportunity to
salute the pioneer educators and adj
ministrators whose labOrs and fore
sight did so much to make this Uni
versity the great institution it is
today. You are familiar with their
names-BroOks, Hutchinson, FOlwell,
Northrup, Maria Sanford and others
who combined the culture of the east
with prophetic vision.
AS at few other times in history
we are beginning to realize that the
relation of the state to education is
vastly important. Since the begin
ming of the present century the right
of the state to provide education has
been justified on the ground of the
resources of the commonwealth and
of the benefits derived therefrom.
AS one looks over the world today
he can but wonder just what will
be the future relations between edu-