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About The Alliance herald. (Alliance, Box Butte County, Neb.) 1902-1922 | View Entire Issue (July 2, 1914)
EDUCATIONAL TENDENCIES Icttire of SiipL I'jiH M. (Him at Klglith tirade Jrta44n Exercise In Alliance are going to witness many change I pie are becoming Interested In the and practical knowledge. I Know! In our educational system, yet I wiah ' practicability of our educational sys to beunderatoo.1 as bellevln? In the teni because that meana If It Is not efficacy and the efficiency of the edu-; practical that the people will demand catlomil system of today. I have small patience with that type of a street corner philosopher who sits around on a dry goods box,; that it be made so. only the other day I was reading a little playlet that It Is unpardonable heresy to say o, but I fail to see how some of the subjects now taught will helo the boy much who intends to be a frm- and onre more ask'''1 ,hat be b or meant How Corn, and that in all king set. 'Go down and git her agin probability he had misinterpreted jan(1 brin Der "P on lne wal, 01 ln them but still he was not dismayed er. O, we are told that such sub- emphasizing the contentedness of; the American people to allow some city agin and frow her down sebenty times seben.' And they went dowa and they got her and they brought dalned a minister of the gospel. The her up and they frowed her dowa A lecture that will long be remem bered by the many people who heard It waa delivered at the AUiance and Box Butte county eighth grade grad uating exercises, In Phetan opera bouse, May 26, by Prof. Karl M. Cllne, superintendent of Geneva city schools and principal of Alliance Junior Normal. The Herald has a class of readers who are Interested In the great cause of education and for this reason we are delighted to give those who did not have the privilege of hearing It the opportun ity of reading It. Mr. Cline Is a pleasing and forceful speaker and of course It was more entertaining to bear him deliver the lecture than to read It, but those who will take the time to peruse the followlag will and It both interesting and Instructive. Nnpt. nine's Lecture I consider It very muck a privilege 1o participate in these graduation festivities today but the condition in which this audience finds Itself re minds me of the inquisitive and ubi quitous vagrant who chced to be wandering near the insaae asylum and waa pursued by an escaped luna tic Vainly he fled, only to be fol lowed and at last from sheer weari ness he sank by the roadside, mo mentarily expecting that his last bour had come and fervently breath Ins a prayer to him who holds the 'Winds of the heaven In the hollow of bis hand, when lo, the escaped man iac merely touched him upon the shoulder and said, "Tag, you're it." And so, ladles and gentlemen, I fear that you have been tagged today and that you are It and that you will be forced to endure any sort of a ram bling discourse which I may relieve myself of upon this occasion. In speaking to such an audience as this, composed largely or In part of people In all activities of life, I feel rather as did the grocer's wife who, tending store during her hus band's enforced absence, gave to a gentleman who asked for a bushel of potatoes only two pecks, and when told that Jt takes four pecks to make bushel, she apologized by saying, "Well, you mtiBt excuse me for I am new at this business, since before I was married I always taught school." .An J bp, tadles and gentlemen, hav ing always taught school, I am not sure that I can say anything which will vitally Interest and affect you. I have chosen to speak to you to- whittles wood, chews tobacco, puck-' PHc mu" to themselves, era up the corners of his mouth Into The scene was laid In the court loom a vinegar banel expression and say,: of Judge Destiny and the prisoner at the oar was me veneraDie uncie that the world Is full of grafters, that the world is going to the devil and wishes between spits of nicotine for the good old times. Why, lad'and gentlemen, do you know that It Is a historical fact that the translation of the hieroglyphics on the oldest pyra mid of ancient Egypt has revealed that the most ancient writing known to man. the most ancient message from the dead and the forgotten ages prisoner? of the past, written five thousand i n,D,t years ago is a wish by an Egyptian nesslmlst for the good old times. Sam. What Is the charge against this prisoner," said Judge Destiny, and the clerk read: "General indif ference and disorderly conduct." "How old are you," said Judge Des tiny. "One hundred and thirty-seven years," replied Uncle Sam. "A mere baby," said the Judge, "but what are the exhibits against the And the clerk read, "Ex subsidized press; Exhibit B an Impractical system of educa tion." "Enough," cried Judge DeB- Jecta develop his mind and train his I elders of the church finally told him gebenty times seben and they picked . .,,,. . .hn.o tiny, "say no more. Who are the were good old times, but what . complainants against the prisoner?" about the grand old times of today! "The people of the United States of and the magnificent possibilities of I America." said the clerk. "And tomorrow. I believe that the world I here re they?" asked Judge Des Is getting better and growing more tiny. "They have failed to appear," efficient. When I stop and consider replied the clerk. Judge Destiny that the average loss to the treasury : leaned back In his chair and refiect of the United States during the ad- vely dismissed the case, saying, ' I ministration of Martin Van Buren! cannot hold you. Uncle Sam, because was eleven dollars and seventy-five the principals In this case, the peo cents lost and unaccounted for In ev- P'e ot the United States of America. , .1 1 ,in,.r- hun.ii.,! 1 are not even willing to take the that in l'olk's administration it was! time and trouble to appear agnnot four dollars and eight cents lost and 'you. unaccounted for in every one thous-j Therefore, ladies and gentlemen, and dollars handled, In Buchanan's ; we should be glad for these critl- admlnlBtratlon, three dollars andrisms in some of its features, it is a eighty-one cents were lost and unac-' matter of congratulation that the thousand ! judgment and tls true they, do, but not to the extent that he could tell a sick horse from an able bodied one. And not to the extent that renders his Judgment keener In the practical lines of his business. Now, ladies and gentlemen, In speaking to you In this fashion. I ap preciate that I am on dangerous I mntal eronnrt. akntlnir nn in nnU nnnn va. I SUCn as ry thin Ice, and I wish therefore to be thoroughly understood. Bear in mind that I am not declaring that some of the subjects of our present curriculum have no place at all in our educational system for they do have a place. A man who is going mat ir te could answer to their sat-:UD the franmenta and dere were isfaction one question which they j twelve baskets full, five barley loaves would propound to him about the Bi- anj four fishes." ble they might ordain him a minis ter. Ills face wreathed itself in smiles and lighted up with a glow. He knew all about the Bible and was confident of his ability to Indulge in and vocal perambulations, they might desire. The question which was asked was, "What place has woman occupied in the Bible?" The old man waxed' eloquent and Now it Is clearly seen that the ol4 negro aspirant for the right to eat vellow leged chicken knew some thing of the Bible. He had heard ef Eve and Ruth, of Jezebel and Aha, of the marching around the walls ef Jericho and the feeding of the five thousand but his knowledge was se Jumbled together as to be of no prac tical assistance to him. Unless the schools Insist upon a greater degree to Btudy pharmacy or medicine will have to know some of the subjects Pf snakes nd then dere was now taucht because thev will h the demon harvest hand who technically applied to his business. ,nto the wheat fields, followed three and a man who is going to be an en- hinders and shocked eighty acres of glneer will have to delve deep Into higher mathematics because they are technically a part of his occupa orated In this fashion: "Now woman Df thoroughness and accuracy, to a lesser degree, of course, we may ee pect to find frequent illustrations ef a hit and miss educational trainiag. There is another phase of the edu cational system of Nebraska which it seems wil lin a very few years un dergo at least a degree of transforst- jation and that phase is with regard has occupied a very important place in de Bible, dere was Eve the muth er of all trouble, who was not afraid Ruth went beardless wheat in one day, then dere was Jezebel, the wicked wife of to the operation of rural Bchools. Ia King Ahab and de king went up on tlon by my point is this, all the boys the walls of the city and railed air KOvernmental and girls in this country are not go 1790 when this country began its existence, only one- counted for in every one dollars handled. In Lincoln's, seventy-six; Johnson's, fifty-seven; Grant, twenty-four; Hayes', three; Cleve land's, two; and In the administra tions of McKlnley, Roosevelt, Tart and Wilson that not one cent has been lost In all the funds handled by people of this country are taking the trouble to appear against it, and if it is Impractical in some of its fea tures, there is I believe a very potent reason why. Education today and specially In this country 1b Intended for everyone, for the masses, for the common people, while back in the the national government, I cannot j good old times, It was Intended mere but think that we are growing more ly for a privileged few. In China a efficient and that we are Improving. ' man educated himself, not to live but When I stop and consider that to die as a Chinaman first began to many years ago the school board of amount to something after he was Lancaster, Ohio, refused the use of 'dead. In Greece only the Eupatrids their school building for a debate on the aristocratic element received the the railroads and the telegraph be cause they were not mentioned in the Bible and were devices calculat ed to lead Immortal souls down to hell, when I consider this, I think learning of the times. The same was true of Rome, of early England and France, and in a large degree is true in European countries today. While In the United States there are that we are Improving intellectually. 1 now 395,000 students In the colleges and the normals besides the millions in the common schools. Necessarily, the education designed for a privil eged few would be a very different kind of education from that designed for the common people, and the edu- It is true that we are improving, that we are advancing, that we are progressing. Why, only recently I was reading that the laundries had discovered a means whereby they can use sawdust instead of soap. I cannot vouch for the veracity of this cation that would be practical for assertion but I suppose that it is, the man of the privileged or leisur true, as I recall receiving from the led class might not be practical for laundry last week a collar that look-the man who toils by the sweat of dav unon the subject of Hducatlonal I ed like It had been washed with a his brow. And right here has been Tendencies, a subject as big and as 'saw and had been ironed in the dust .our difficulty. Too long have we ed broad and as great as this magnifl-!but be that as it may, none can gain-lucated our people In a system of ed cent country of ours and I am glad, j say the march of events or the prog- ucation originally intended for the that there is such a vital ' resa of humanity. j people with leisure time to live a proposition facing us as the tenden-j And the march of events and the 'cultured life. Too long we have ies of modern education, because progress of humanity have witnessed j modeled our education after the edu this means that education ia in Bomei great changes. Why you know back cation of the past. Too long have way or manner uuder going the pro-'iu the good old times of the ages we been preparing our pupils for col cess of change and transformation. 1 past, In P'te of Biblical declaration ! lege rather than for life. Too long de peoples around him and sez, "Now j thirtieth of the people lived in cities I knows I Has a wicked woman, but and towns while now fifty. per ceat the next question is. What Bhall we f 0ur population is urban. There tlO Wif her?' And the peoples SezJhna hen n wmwWfnl nnrt nnnrcwod. Take her upon the walls of the city ented concentration of population ia and frow her down.' And the king cities and so tremendous and bo cob- ary walk of life an ordinary educa- Bz 'Dat uits me. go down and git tinuous has been this growth that a tion that will be helpful and of n"r and bring her up on the walls of universal cry has been raised of some practical value to him. I be- ae clty ana rrow ner aown. Ana . Back to lhe Land. Back to the Farm. lieve that the time is coming when they went down and they got her u has been repeatedly urged that if we will still be teaching the sciences and they brought her up on the walls iwe modify our rural schools bo that Ing to be physicians or electrical en gineers or have kindred occupations. Give those who wish to be such, ed ucation as they may need, but give to the ordinary fellow In the ordln- ha8 our education been allowed to be formal and disciplinary, rather than practical and helpful. We are glad ; to note a wonderful change in this ; regard and especially in the last ten years; but I ask you to reflect, la dies and gentlemen, as to what our And It should. Education should ad- that "man is his brotber s keeper, -vance with the times. It should not , Individuals and peoples lived a life rust with the ages. It is a matter of of seclusion and isolation. The congratulation that we are not thor-j world -was not, neither was any na oughly and entirely satisfied with i tlon or country, bound together in our educational attainments but1 one grand neighborhood or commun that there is a tendency to change, ailty. Instead of great ships to carry tendency to seek better things, a; the commerce and great cables to; aims In high school education have tendency to grow and to advance. It j bear the messages of one people to j been. We have taken our pupils, is a matter of congratulation that ' another, caravans often stopping i girls and boys, dull and bright, bad educationally we are not contented long enough to sow and to reap a j and good, ilch and roor, put them like the rugged and tattered negro j crop were the only connecting forces into our educational mill, fed them who when asked If he wanted to 'of distant peoples, while now it 1 the same food, treated them with earn a quarter, in a self satisfied and! would take five hundred thousand; the same medicine, assumed that an ignorant air replied, "No. Bah, 'camels to transport the wheat which; things equal to the same thing are thank vou. sail, but I done has a 'during the busy season passes ever; equal to each other, that what was quartan." any one of our great east and wet j good for one would be good for all, There nn mnr vir.i nmnosH ion ' railways In a single day. Ir nd then we have turned our educiv- before our country than the one of Socrates, the eminent Greek phil- tional crank and started our educa educating Us citizens, because the'osopher, compared the people of his tional mill and tried to make all the .time, to whom the lands around the boys and girls in this great country Aegean sea were the whole world, to j just alike. We have taken these pu- present and the future depend upon them. General Grant while presi dent of the United States once said, "If we have another contest in the future of our national existence, I ants and' frogs about a marshy pool. , pils, girls and boys, dull and bright, But how changed, how different to-j bad and good, rich and poor, nave administered to them in copious quantities large amounts of trigon- day. All the world today Is a neigh- predict that the dividing line will ! borhood. one community, oouna in- not be Masou and Dixon's but will be separably together by steam. electri-;onietry. geometry. Latin and th? like the line between patriotism and In- city and a hundred inventions. An-land If they have had 6trong mental telllgence on one hand and Buperstl-lclent tradition tells of a time when j constitutions and strong armed par tlon and ignorance 00 the other."! the stars sang together. Is not ihatients and could be made to stand the Therefore. I hold that it ia pertinent j time today? Cooperation, organlza-: strain for four years we have turned and applicable to enter into a discus- tlon. oneness In every activity of life J them out; no, not turned them out, s'on as to the drift and tendencies of 'has been and is the trend of the I graduated them out, to an expectant modern education. I would wish to j times. Today financial failures in wars you at the outset that, while I j London are felt in San Francisco, to day a case of scarlet fever in a tene ment may cause death in a palace. am c.t self satisfied enough to think that everything is as it should be, yet this will not be a pessimistic or doom like discourse forfeiting Im pending destruction because I am somewhat ot an optimist. I ass not a real optimist because a real opti mist is a man who can have both of tils feet rut off by a railroad train and then be glad that they are gone but hard hearted and unsympathetic world, prepared for life. Prepared for life, no. Formally educated, yes; culturally educated, yes; prepared All admit, none deny, the prog-J for college with disciplined minds, resa of civilization, but all do not admit, for some deny, the progress ot education. They tell us that commerce. Invention, warfare and myriad of other activities have ad vanced but that education has either yes; but prepared for life, no. An education that is merely formal and disciplinary can never fully prepare for life. It develops your brain but the day Is coming when we will think that our brains can be developed to h.u thev were cold tnvhow. but t or stood still. And what is the in- I am somewhat of an optlsalBt; en-! dlctment so often read against our .7h nf an nntimiat (a believe that ' educational system of today? It the world is getting better aud not pulled back on the traces of progress , a better advantage by practical edu cation than by mere disciplinary ed- going to the dogs, enough of an op timist to believe in the adaptability and the ultimate excellence of mod ern education, and while I believe we ' Annotate hialnlv I ti lha nllocrutinn Ihut it is not practical and that it does not produce results. We should be glad to hear such a criticism. We should be glad to know that ths peo- ucation. The time is coming when the boy who is going to tend store or till the soil will not seek to devel op merely a finely disciplined brain but will seek to develop a finely dis ciplined brain and with the same ef fort store ia that brain some useful of hpysics and chemistry but in stead mere technical sciences we find them to be applied chemistry and applied physics, applied to us in a particular and a practical manner. I believe that the time Is coming when the farmer boy and the aver age town boy will not spend so much t'me on cultural subjects for a dis ciplinary education but will take more work In English because it teaches him to read, write and to talk better his native tongue, will take work In business law, will know how to enter into a contract with his fellow men because this he has to do every year of his life, will take work in agriculture or business because he demands and has the right to more than a disciplined mind, the right to a useful education and the right to a practical start in life. I was reading only the other day that the dishwashers' union in San Francisco at their last meeting found that one hundred of their members were college graduates. We believe, ladies and gentlemen, that the time is coming when no such travesty can be written on a college education because we believe in a college education, we believe in high school education and we believe In common school education, but we are glad that the tendency of the times is to teach the boy a useful trade without having to send him to the reform school to get it, that the tendency of the times is to study more about Box Butte county and less about Afghanistan and the Him ayala mountains. An old negro was hired to sweep a scnoot nouse. lie uia a poor jod of it and when they pointed out great streaks of dirt on the floor he declared that it was not dirt. "No, sua. boss, that am not dirt, that am house moss." The time is at hand when we are slowly but surely clean sing our Bchool houses of Intellectual house moss. But we should not ex pect this transformation In a day. It will be the work of years and while we are in the midst of this change, there looms up a tendency gigantic in its every aspect. We shall be re- luctaut to take out old requirements and yet we shall be constantly intro ducing new requirements and there will be a tendency to ask bo much of our pupils that no knowledge will be thoroughly and accurately acquired There will be a tendency to sacri fice definite and dynamic knowledge and our pupils may graduate from siuuol with a jumbled up knowledge L. . 1. .....1 hi .-. In stiocific, comparable only to the knotoleJgti U..i tiie old negro bad of tuo people. This story is so very old that I think that I may be safe in saying that it came out of the ark but yet it is so applicable and bo pert inent to the point which I am tryiu to make here that I think that I shall risk your wrath and fury and tell it to you, even though you have heard it before. The story is told of an old negro whose life's ambition had been to be ordained a minister of the gospel but all of bis efforts had been fruitless and all of his attempts had been in vain. When they asked him why he thought that he should be a minis ter, he fervently cried: "Why, you knows, de oder day, dat I was lying out in my yard and I sees in de sky the flaming letters, P. C, the flaming letters of fire, P. C, which I knows to mean Preach Christ." After be had been given another examination he was told that the letters no doubt of the city and they frowed 'herMhe rural boy can receive eome ad- down. And agin de king sez. 'GOVanCed education at home on the down and git her agin and bring her farm ne wjh 8tay at home on the up on the walls agin and frow her farm and that the unusual growth ef down seben times.' And they went 'cities will be thereby curtailed, down and they got her and they j while we most heartily believe in brought her up on the walls of the tne establishment in some manner ef city and they frowed her down seb- advanced rural schools, vet I doubt en times. Ana the king sez, lio down and git her agin and bring her up on de walls of the city agin and frow her down seben. times seben.' And they went down and got her and brought her up and frowed her down seben times seben. And the if thia will prevent a further popu lous lncreise in cities became the growth of out cities has bee a due to industrial forces and economic caus es. Let, me Illustrate. Suppose that (Continued on. page 11) Service is what you want in care for your auto. We employ only careful and competent auto mechanics. Most modern garage in the west. Plenty of room. Auto Accessories Five paggenger Buick for hire. Experienced drivers. Alliance Garage (Inc.) MMIW.W. A. . ..- - - - ...... - j-t. . .. I It's the most talked of ear in the world. i I ! ; ill Sterling: merit has sold it to over 530,- 1 000 poople of evorj nation the world j over. Ford service and guarantee are j III both included in the priee. This means j S a tot to any auto buyer. j J ! $550 is the price of the Ford rsa- j! & HI about; the touring ear is fJOOv hi somplete with equipment. Get cat- 1 jj slog and particulars. j ! KEELER COURSEY CO. j H At Alliance fcnkntg