Show J NORMAL DEPARTMENT i Is Our Education Too Practical THERE is nothing like like- progress to tellus tell us what our ideal of progress should beThe be The social forces force in primitive societies societies' are speaking relatively blind forces all movements are ten tentative like those of a lowly organized animal which has been beem transferred to an unfamiliar environment it must explore its new world before it itcan can form any sort of definite notion as asto asto asto to what it should do in it So it is in education which is is simply the effort of the race consciously to to adjust itself to higher conditions material material material ma ma- social moral and religious religious- Though many of these conditions are of its own creating they cannot all at once be understood in their true significance by more than a mere fraction of humanity humanity human ity at any given time So just as the true meaning of progress can be well understood only by races which actually have progressed we can determine what is the true end of education only by going ahead and educating and we are in no worse case in this regard than in any other if we wander many years in inthe inthe inthe the wilderness of false theory before before- arriving in the promised land flowing flowing- with milk and honey But arrive there we will finally if there is any dependence depend i ence in human aspiration based upon a a. a careful study of past and present Butin But But- in order to advance at all nay in order to educate at all we must have some end in in view some ideal before our minds must have formulated some theory however vague of the needs of ourselves and of those who come after us Moreover a a perfect educational ideate ideal I y r 1 c t f. f f iio j can only be developed out of of the relatively relatively relatively rela rela- imperfect ideals which it supplants supplants supplants sup sup- plants therefore it is by the discussion of these that we may hope to r reach ach something better Very often educational ideals are referred referred referred re re- to as being low simply because they are practical as though the terms were synonymous synonymous- A writer in the September number of our University r Quarterly styles what he calls our present day practical education the bread and butter theory of education that education which will prepare one to earn ones one's living He might far better have named it the so called so-called called practical education so much lauded by certain educators tors of today today today to to- day the education which is best calculated calculated calculated to enable one to get hold of somebody's somebody's somebody's some some- body's else living The j bread and butter theory of education the present writer riter knows of as being very popular in our country at the present time is the theory that that is the best education which will enable its possessor to get hold of bread and butter in the easiest possible way after some one else has produced it The fact is that we are really just as asfar asfar asfar far from a truly practical cal education as we are from the moral education the of which is so often deplored The only term which can he be appropriately appropriately appropriately applied to what is undoubtedly the prevailing educational ideal in America is commercial We think of its money value its value in exchange not of its productive value and it is by byno byno byno no means impossible that the best in industrial industrial industrial in- in education will prove to be entirely harmonious with the highest moral education It will be a dark day indeed for our civilization when it is generally c conceded that there is something something some something some some- thing morally degrading about earning ones one's bread and butter it will be as black lack a time as ever harbingered the final t doom of a decaying nation when labor s ts k even of the roughest most arduous kind kindis kind kind- is not held neld in most honorable esteem est em it j jwill jwill will be an unmistakable sign that American Ameri Ameri- can freedom is but an illusion a myth a form in which there is no substance at atall atall atall all when moral ideals moral feelings are held to be he of worth wh when n not the instigators of moral acts And this is isby isby isby by no means an impossible condition Men are graduated from our colleges every year who have run the whole gamut of noble and beautiful ideals but are yet in the very very deepest sense moral l lepers enemies lepers enemies to society of the most dangerous type type men men who are able to analyze a moral act as they would a passage of Homer who really have moral feelings feeling but never take the trouble to act upon them and who generally become mawkish sentimentalists lists ever gravitating between periods of backsliding and of repentance repentance bound bound forever fast to tov the wheel of remorse I repeat we have no practical education education education tion worthy of the name nor just at the present time is there very much demand for forit it We We- have a number of technical schools it is true but most of these have been commercialized out of existence exist exist- ence The trail of the serpent is over them all King Caucus has hasa a a very powerful rival in America King America King Business Business Business Busi Busi- ness and business rarely ever ha has much to do with production or with honest work of any kind in our trust forming stock stock jobbing jobbing town town booming booming age The objections of the idealists and culturists against practical education are of altogether too vague a character If they mean the education so often misnamed misnamed misnamed mis mis- named practical doubtless those who advocate the truly practical edu education will be very willing t to join hands with them for they too want moral education They too want an education of moral feeling that will make it a guide to right action and though h they may not agree that modern culture of the kind given iI in colleges will give that education of the feelings they are very certain that the commercial education now prevalent cannot do it What our schools high and low need most of all is an infusion of sociality- sociality altruism if you will using the word in its popular rather than in its scientific sense Abnormal egoism is the curse of our our society It pervades the business world the political world the professional professional professional world the social world world even even the moral and religious world j and as a consequence the educational world Moral education has to do only with the regulations of our actions toward each other that is to social action The sooner educators realize this the better it will be for the coming generation Education must fit the individual for life in society on the basis of justice j jand and the functions of the individual will willbe willbe willbe be industrial productive social and moral Nor will it be found that with this end in view and constantly striven for there will be any of the powers of the mind left undeveloped For mans man's mental superiority over the brutes is just because of his sociality The first and important all-important task is is' to check the prevailing prevailing prevailing pre pre- egoism This done the way is clear towards a consistent educational ideal moral and practical tt |