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Show The Problem Of Education A PROFESSOR in an eastern college has, for three years past, been working to perfect a system through which the capacity of students, in different directions, may be ascertained, that, upon entering college, such studies as each is best fitted to pursue, may be determined upon and prescribed. It looks like a good scheme, for it is a sin of the schools to prescribe the same course of study to all students. Many a man who had he been rightly instructed instruct-ed in school, or who, had he never been inside a schoolhouse, would have made a great name, has been spoiled for life by having been held down to a course of study in the schools which he never could comprehend, which made him hate it from . B the first day, and which has kept tho germ of what f was great in him from ever expanding. M If possible the higher schools should not only H start students in the right channel, but if pos- H sible, so fit each one that upon leaving he would at least know what occupation not to try to sue- M ceed in. H Napoleon's Marshall Murat was sent to school. M The old Padre who was his teacher after two , H months fired him out telling him that he was fit H for nothing in the world except to be a soldier. H Murafs after life established reasonably clear that H the old Padre was a mind-reader. M When the war came on in 18G1 Grant and H Sherman were thirty-nine and forty-one years of H age, respectively; one was a clerk in a tannery jH the other superintendent of a shabby street car H company, and both knew that if they were not H failures they had not yet found their opportunity. H Fortunately they both attended the right school i H in youth. We see all around us every day men H who were from five to ten years in finding out H their own capabilities and what they could best H do. We see others who aro still plunging in doubt, I jH not yet certain how to proceed in order to win. ) H We see other men who without schooling have . H wrought real successes just through intuition, in- H dustry and observation. In a certain town not a H hundred miles from Salt Lake a man has built a H saloon on the highest point of land in the town, H and behind it there is a descent of 55 degrees to H the ravine below. H When asked why he opened a saloon on such H a spot he replied that he had noticed after men climbed a steep hill they always sought long H drinks. When asked what he did if he had trouble H up there out of hearing of the officers, his reply H was: "Come 'till I show you." Leading his ques- H tioner to the rear door he pointed down the sharp H hillside and softly said, "I bring 'em here and H push 'em off." H Men are often educated without regard to the H natural bent of their minds, and then, not unfre- H quently we see men who possess more than one H master faculty and these are often at war with H each other. The preacher who went to Texas to H save souls was one of this order of men. Ho H loved horses, bought a blood-mare and rode her H to Texas. He held divine worship two Sundays H with only a beggarly dozen people in the old H church. On the third Sunday he gave out the H week's appointments: H "Services on Tuesday evening. Prayer meet-" H 1 i Br , ing on Thursday evening. The regular services B t on next sabbath at 11 a. m. H At 1 p. m. I will run my mare, Iris, in a GOO- 1 ' yard race against all comers and ride my own H The next Sunday morning the church was H' crowded. The race came oft at 1 p. m. as sched- H ' tiled and the preacher's mare distanced all com- H petitors. Nine hundred and forty-seven penitents H joined liis church that day. H If men could get all their faculties to work for H good, what a blessed world this would be! |