Part 1 (1/2)
Thoughts on Educational Topics and Institutions
by George S Boutwell
THE INTRINSIC NATURE AND VALUE OF LEARNING, AND ITS INFLUENCE UPON LABOR
[Lecture before the American Institute of Instruction]
Words and ternifications; and we often find definitions changing in the progress of events Bailey says learning is ”skill in languages or sciences” To this, Walker adds what he calls ”literature,” and ”skill in anything, good or bad” Dr Webster enlarges theis the knowledge of principles or facts received by instruction or study; acquired knowledge or ideas in any branch of science or literature; erudition; literature; science; knowledge acquired by experience, experiives us a rhetorical definition in a negative form, which is of equal value, at least, with any authority yet cited ”And though a linguist,” says Milton, ”should pride hiues that Babel cleft the world into, yet if he have not studied the solid things in the so much to be esteemed a learned man, as any yeoman or tradese is but the instrus useful to be known”
This is kindred to the saying of Locke, that ”reatly learned, but _ a broad definition, if we accept Milton's statement that its end ”is to repair the ruins of our first parents by regaining to know God aright;” for this necessarily i to the nature of our existence, to the spot and scene of our existence, with its mysterious phenomena, and its comparatively unexplained laws And we must, moreover, always keep in view the personal relations and duties which the Creator has ie of these relations and duties is one for; the disposition and the ability to observe and practise these relations and duties, is another and a higher forian, the school of the practical Christian Both ought to exist; but when they are separated, we place things above signs, facts above forht always to be united; but when by error, or fraud, or usurpation, they are separated, we observe the forms of law, but we respect the principles of justice This is a good illustration of the principles which guide to a true distinction in the forive to the word _learning_ the broadest signification It is safe to accept the statereat poet, that a es, and yet not be learned; even as the apostle said he should beco cyues of e of the languages, the sciences, and all literature; but it includes also much else; and this much else may be more important than the enumerated branches The term _learned_ has been limited, usually, by exclusive application to the schoolmen; but it is a matter of doubt, especially in this country, upon the broad definition laid dohether there isin the schools, or out of them This remark, if true, is no reflection upon the schools, butwas confined to the schools; and, though we can never be too grateful for their existence, and the fidelity hich they preserved the knowledge of other days, that is surely a higher attain of the world exceeds the learning of the cloister, the school, and the college
In a private conversation, Professor Guyot ive to your schools,” said he, ”credit that is really due to the world Looking at America with the eye of an European, it appears toless, in the cause of education, than you are inclined to believe” For one, though I ought, as ive a qualified assent to the truth of this observation
There isus which we cannot trace directly to the schools; but the schools have introduced and fostered a spirit which has given to the world the power to make itself learned It is much easier to disseminate what is called the spirit of education, than it was to create that spirit, and preserve it when there were few to do it hoe
For this we are indebted to the schools Unobserved in the process of change, but happy in its results, the business of education is not now confined to professional teachers
The greatest change of all has been wrought by the attention given to feeneration is not compelled to rely exclusively upon the school and the paid teacher, public or private, but can herself, as the teacher ordained by nature, aid her children in the preparatory studies of life This power does not often ular system of domestic school studies and discipline, but its influence is felt in a higher home preparation, and in the exhibition of better ideas of what a school should be And we may assume, with all due respect to our maternal ancestry, that this fact is a modern feature, coiven rise to some excesses of opinion and conduct; but the world is entirely safe, especially the self-styled lords of creation, and ard to sex, and leave the effect to those laws of nature and revelation which are to all and in all, and cannot permanently be avoided or disobeyed
The nuely increased, and they often appear where they ht least be expected We speak of the revival of education, and think only of the change that has taken place in the last twenty years in the appropriations of money, the style of school-houses, and the fitness of professional teachers for the work in which they are engaged; but these changes, though great, are scarcely en or utter the sound which sy, or qualities, are brought before us? We _should_ see a person who, in the pursuit of knowledge, is self-e gives, is able to appreciate the qualities of others; and who, h of inventive power to devise means by which he can lead pupils, students, or hearers, in the way they ought to go We naturally look for such persons in the lecture-room, the school, and the pulpit And we find them there; but they are also to be found in other places There are thousands of such ed in the active pursuits of the day They are farmers, mechanics, merchants, operatives They do not often follow text-books, and therefor are none the worse, but much the better teachers Insensibly they have taken on the spirit of the teacher and the school, and, apparently ignorant of the fact, are, in the quiet pursuits of daily life, leaders of classes following soation And in one respect these teachers are of a higher order than _some_--not all, nor most--of our professional teachers They never cease to be students When a arb of the teacher, and throws off the garb of the student, you will soon find that person so dwindled and dwarfed, that neither will hang upon the shoulders This happens sometimes in the school, but never in the world
The last twenty-five years have produced t features in our civilization, that are at once a cause and a product of learning I speak of the Press, and of associations for mutual i its centre in the city of New York, is more influential than the press of any other country It h, if colish press, the chief difference unfavorable to A editorial articles In enterprise, in telegraphic business, maritime, and political news and information, the press of the United States is not behind that of Great Britain
It iven subject is usually lish press; but it is by no means certain that public questions are, upon the whole, better canvassed in England than in America Indeed, the opposite is probably true Our press will follow a subject day after day, with the aid of new thoughts and facts, until it is well understood by the reader
European ideas of journalism cannot be followed blindly by the press of America The journalist in Europe writes for a select few His readers are usually persons of leisure, if they have not always culture and taste; and the issue of thepaper is to them what the appearance of the quarterly, heavy or racy, is to the cultivated American reader
But the American journalist, whatever his taste may be, cannot afford to address himself to so small an audience He writes literally for the raphs and articles are often read by millions of people in Aood test of the standard taste and learning of the people Our press answers the demand which the people make upon it The mass of newspaper readers are not, in a scholastic sense, well-educated persons Newspaper writers do not, therefore, trouble thees with their professors, but they seek rather to gain the attention and secure the support of the great body of the people, who know nothing of colleges except through the newspapers We have always been permitted to infer the intellectual and moral character of the audiences of Demosthenes, from the orations of Demosthenes; and may we not also infer the character of the American people, frole issue may often be found an editorial article upon some question of present interest; a ser mind of the country or the world; letters frolobe; extracts froinal essays upon political, literary, scientific, and religious subjects; and iteeneral interest for all classes of readers This product of the press, in quantity and quality, could not be distributed, week after week, and year after year, anorant class of people
It could be accepted by intelligent, thinking, progressive , we find the newspaper press equally essential to the best-educated persons a us The newspaper press in America is a century and a half old; but its power does not antedate this century, and its growth has been chiefly within the last twenty-five years What that growth has been may be easily seen by any one ill coeneration with the daily sheet of this; and the future of the American press ressive influences a us, of which the newspaper must always be the truest representative
Within the same brief period of time it has becoether for educational objects
As a consequence, we have the lyceum for all, libraries for all, professional institutes and clubs for merchants, mechanics, and farmers, and, at last, free libraries and lectures for the operatives in the mills Where these institutions can exist, there ; and where these institutions do exist, and are sustained, the learning of the people, whether high or low at any given encies--lectures and libraries, for example--are not free from serious faults It may seem rash and indefensible to criticize lectures upon the platform of the lecturer; but, as the audience can inflict whatever penalty they please upon the speaker, he will so far assuhest object of a single lecture, and when sought by ers as the desirable object of a whole course, the lecture-room becomes a theatre of dissipation; surely not so bad as other forms of dissipation, but yet so distinctly marked, and so pernicious in its influence, as to be coeneral support Let it not, however, be inferred that wit, humor, and drollery even, are to be excluded from the lecture-room; but they should always be employed as means by which information is communicated Between lecturers equal in other respects, one with the salt of humor, native to the soil, should be preferred; but it is a sad reflection upon public taste, when a person whose entire intellectual capital is wit, hu But it is a worse view of human nature, when men of real merit and worth depreciate the to do what, at best, they can have but ill success in, and what they would despise themselves for, were they to succeed completely Shakspeare says of a jester:
”This felloise enough to play the fool; And to do that well, craves a kind of wit:
This is a practice As full of labor as a wise man's art: For folly, that he wisely shows, is fit; But wise men, folly-fallen, quite taint their wit”
A kindred ress, and demands aliment from our public libraries In the selection of books there is a wide range, from the trashy productions of the fifth-rate novelist, to stately history and exact science It is, however, to be assumed that libraries will not be established until they are wanted, and that the ill not be pressing until there is a taste for reading soeneral Where this taste exists, it is fair to assuree elevated The direction, however, which the taste of any community is to take, after the establishree, upon the selection of books for its shelves Two dangers are to be avoided The first, and greatest, is the selection of books calculated to degrade the er is apparent, and to be shunned needs but to be seen
Books, of more or less intrinsic value, are so abundant and cheap, that coe collection that shall not contain works of real merit But the object should be to exclude all worthless and pernicious works, andit mental food better than that to which it has been accustoative, rather than positive; but, as books are comparatively worthless when they are not read, it becoreat moment to select such as will touch the public mind at a few points, at least It is indeed possible, and, under the guidance of some persons, it would be natural, to encuht ever re only the contributions made to mould and mice