Rensselaer Union, Volume 7, Number 13, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 17 December 1874 — EDUCATIONAL PROBLEMS. [ARTICLE]

EDUCATIONAL PROBLEMS.

The following is a synopsis of a lecture on “ Educational Problem#” recently delivered by the Hon. Carl Schurz before the Young lien's Christian.. Association of Chi cago: In no country was education so much discussed as in the United States. They looked upon education, for example, as a purifier of public morals. A better general education was always pointed to as the remedy for every moral uL When the question, however, arose as to what was the best form of popular education, how few were prepared with any practical idea on the subject. Education should not only be so directed as to store up specific things in the pupils’ minds but also so as to enable them to work and live and bear themselves in the World. Their ancestors had been, perhaps, well enough educated for their day, but what suited them did not suit us, and consequently the education of modern times should be equal to the necessities of the generation. The man of to-day had to know very much more than nis great-grandfather knew, and yet the time for learning appeared to be as brief as in old times. How, then, was the time at the disposal of the new generation to be bc«i employed? Of course specific things had to be learned, but they should be able 1 • • say how they were to go ahead with tin learning after they had left the school < . the university. The young mind shou i receive fire and impulse from early trai.i----“li, his own experience of his education in Germany lie had to say that he accjuiTed much knowledge which had since been lost, but he did not, therefore, consider that his time was thrown away. He had learned the discipline of mind which was carried into the busy walks of every-day life. He did not wish to be understood as holding that specific points were of no use. They were. That was not to be denied; but there was no doubt that the pupil always learned much more outside of the school-house than within it. Then there came up the question of training children too young. The question was always asked: “How arc you going to teach a mere baby?" It nad been related of John Stuart Mill that his father had made him learn Greek at a very early age, and people held that if young Mill had not been gifted with an extraordinarily strong mind he would have been rendered an idiot by his early education. It was just as rational to hold that the brain of an American baby who could speak German would be destroyed. The child was apt to learn from the very earliest dawn of its reason, and could be gradually brought along without strain or excitement to learn more and more. “in some the perceptive faculty was much more developed than in others. This could be seen by the excellence in detail of some. One person could look Upon a tree and not be able to describe it, because he was unacquainted with vegetable laws, while another, who had been trained, could tell about it. A lady could meet another lady in the street, and, afterward, would be able not alone to tell what she wore, but, also, by a singular process of the mind, might be able to correctly estimate the cost of the material [Laughter.] It is a pity that so muen natural intelligence could not be devoted to better uses. Fathers and mothers should cultivate the perceptiveness of their children. They should answer their childish questions in regard to all proper objects that present themselves. This method of education was mutually beneficial. Fathers; mothers, brothers and sisters, in thus training the infant, also trained their own minds. Having taken the infant out of the first stage, the school age was next approached. How was the school education to be rationally carried on? The lecturer said that there were some customs in the schools which were inimical to intelligence. Astronomy, mental philosophy, and other text-books of ponderous names •were placed in the hands of pupils, and, strange to say, the pupil who recited his lesson most literally correct, never using any language of his own, was considered the best scholar. No system could be better devised to foster and cultivate human stupidity. [Laughter ] The bov or girl forgot all about what cost so much trouble. For example, there might be a —question as to what a cloud was. One boy, on the day of examination, might be able to tell all about it from the words of the text-book. Another boy might not remember a word of the text, but could tell the vaporous nature of a cloud. Ask these, two a few days later the same questions, and it would be found that the specific urchin had a good chance of becoming a first-class dunce [laughter], while the unspecific boy, although somewhat awkward at first, might develop into a very brilliant man. This reminded him of an anecdote in one of the works of Goethe, where he introduces a boy so full of learning that he had really forgotten who his own father was [laughter], and his sire, in wrath, sent him to a mon- / astery, where it was not needful to learn anything that was useful. The lecturer then proceeded to deal with other branches of specific education., Following one peculiar line of education was to be deplored. Knowledge should be as general as possible. Fortunately for the masses of the nineteenth century popular books were so common that all could be supplied at little cost, and the grand opportunity should not be neglected by the rising generation. Such knowledge might be"useful when the boy might develop, by a process of political evolution, into an Alderman, or, perhaps, a member of Congress. [Applause and laughter ] The lecturer advocated the founding of popular libraries whenever and wherever possible. Nothing could be grander in the way of education, and he did not believe that there would be any opposition to such a spread of knowledge. One of the great obstacles in the way of educational progress was the miserable pay,.which teachers received, not only in America but in every other country that he knew of. Heroic self-sacri-fice was not the food in which to nourish a progressive education. Teachers could not be first-class until their profession was so remunerated as to make them satisfied to remain in it during their active life. ' l Mr. Schurz then proceeded to deal with the question of female education. All branches of knowledge should be open to them, and they should be encouraged to in their battle of life, not alone in teaching, but in medicine. law, or whatever other profession the lady might choose to follow. {Applause] i. \ \ ® In one thing, however, he could not agree with the .more advanced female thinkers of the age, and, at the risk oL being considered old fogy, he would say that he believed it was not good for

woman to be alone. [Laughter and cheers. 1 Her natural destiny was to get married. Any other destiny was simply unnatural. In this he believed not alone every young lady, but every young man, in the audience would agree with him. [Laughter.] But it might ha asked, Would he have woman simply educated for the purpose of being a household drudge? Not at all.. He would have woman, as he had said, well educated, to fit her all the. more for her duties as a wife and a mother. Some of the fastidious might find fault with him for saying “ our girlsbut he much preferred the fresh, unsophisticated, noble, blooming, natural girl to the painted, powdered and bccurled modern young lady, j [Long-continued applause.] One of the greatest curses ol modern society was the pernicious habit of having married couples board at a hotel or a boardinghouse. It was the custom which weakened marital and home ties, because it removed muduaY care, aQ d left the mother not a queen, but simply a dweller in her own household. Every wife ought to be the queen of her own house. Why then was the custom so much indulged in? Because girls were apt trained in youth to household duties, and they shrank from them. This was a great error in the early educa•ion of the female sex. Some girls were led to believe that they were uost attractive when they made hcmselves frames for the exhibition of -ilk and satin garments. In answer to -he question: “ Why do you not marry ? -are you not able to feed a wife?” the ! young man of to-day would reply : “ Yes, i 1 am able to feed a wife, but not to clothe 1 her. ’’ That might be very vulgar, but i it was very true, and bachelor cluba | flourished upon the modern extravagance of women. Until girls learned that it was an error to think more of the value they carried on the outside of their persons rather than in their minds and hearts, bachelors would increase, and marriages would daily grow less. The lecturer related the anecdote of the grand Roman matron, Cornelia, who, disdaining gems, was asked where she kept her jewels. She took her querists to her nursery, and, pointing to her bright and happy children, “There are my jewels," she said. Woman had ever been the center of luxury. In this age she was more so, perhaps, than in any other. She might be very attractive to the beau, but was a terror to the husband. Girls ought to be discouraged in extravagance, and encouraged in frugality, particularly in the line of dress. This was the great evil. When the marriage institution declined, population, and consequently the nation, declined. This was a law of nature. Girls should be taught to be useful, for the more useful a woman was the more ornamental was she too. When Roman statesmen wished to compliment some splendid matron they said: “She is at home spinning.” Young ladies should be taught that honest w T ork w r as not degrading, but the reverse. The lecturer next dwelt on the evils of American cooking—hot soda-biscuits and half-done pie. There were ten dyspeptics., in America for every one in England, France, or Germany. This could be ascertained from any medical practitioner. Why was this? Because our girls were, in the higher circles of society at least, taught to look upon housekeeping as a kind of degradation. They were taught to do nothing that was practical—unless to go shopping, which was the most unpractical things they could do. [Applause and laughter.] A common boast was, “I have” no occasion to work.” The pride of a true woman ought to be to work, even when not com pelled to do so. Some newspaper correspondent had recently expressed his surprise at finding, on visiting Germany, the Prificess Bismarck carrying a hunch of keys at her waist and attending to the duties of her household. The German people respected that eminent lady more Hhan if she wore the same weight of diamonds. [Great applause.] Diamond# would only prove that her husband had money. The bunch of keys proved that his wife had both hgart and head. [Applause.] One of the greatest evils of woman in America was emptiness of thought—nothing to do—which interferes with the happiness of most fashionable women. Napoleon had once asked a lady what should be done to make France a greater nation than she was. The. reply was: “Give the -nationn good mothers ’’ That is exactly what America needed, and the end and aim of all good people should be to educate the young generation of females so that they might be good mothers. They should be taught how noble it was to follow the path of duty rather than of pleasure—to abandon tbe foppery and frippery of fashion, and to learn to rear and educate families. [Applause.] It would be useless to try and reform the nation in a political sense unless there was a higher basis of female education which might be conveyed to the home circle. It was not by making a woman a general or a member of Congress that she was to be elevated. It was by educating her up to a standard that would reform the nation, operating through the social influences, in which woman has always been and ever must remain more powerful than man. [Loud applause.] * j The next point touched by the lecturer was the constant complaint made against the working classes that they were given to intoxication. -Why was it ? Because man would seek relaxation, and because the reformers or crusaders did not substitute something that would wean them from the old method. But man must have relaxation, and if the promoters of temperance would advocate the establishment of popular places of amusement they would do more to reform the morals than all their statutes, or hymns or prayers could do. The lecturer then went into a dissertation on education in general, and rehearsed. by way of recapitulation, the main points of his discourse, especially advocating the making of home light, sunny and cheerful. He also advocated the cultivation of the beautiful in the minds of the young. A German philosopher had once said: “ Happy is the man who has a hobby.” The expression was rather coarse, but it was correct in fact. Evefy man who had a pursuit, a relaxation. wal happy—happier than the dull rich man. who knew not what to do with his time. Collections of butterflies and bugs were often made a means of amusement. even by cultivated men. He did not go so far* as to say" that a criminal could be reformed by making him catch 1 bugs and butterflies [laughter]; but had that criminal been taught yrhen young to have a taste for some such innocent recreation he might have avoided the con- | vict's cell. He said to the business-men that they, top, should have some means of relax'ahorticulture, agriculture, floriculture, or some other branch of industry—-• for leisure hours. He had no time to go

into the great subject of morale ducation, I which he was compelled to reserve for another occasion.