IN SCHOOL.
"Every successive generation becomes a living memorial of our public
schools, and a living example of their excellence."--_Joseph Story._
In these days we learn many things in our schools--even music. They
surely must have a purpose, all the studies and the music as well. Let
us in this Talk see if we can find what the purpose is.
It costs our Government a great deal to educate the children of the
land. There are now nearly twenty million children in our country.
That is a number you cannot conceive. But every morning of the year,
when it is not a vacation day, you may think of this vast number
leaving home and going to school to be taught. I am sure the picture
will make us all think how wise a Government is that devotes so much
to making us know more, because by learning more we are able to enjoy
more, to do more, to be more. And this makes us better citizens.
Year after year, as men study and learn about what is best to have
children taught in school, the clearer it becomes that what is given
is dictated because of its usefulness. Arithmetic teaches us to
calculate our daily affairs. Grammar teaches us to listen and to speak
understandingly. Penmanship and Spelling teach us properly to make the
signs which represent speech. Geography teaches us of the earth on
which we live, and how we may travel about it. History teaches us how
to understand the doings of our own day and makes us acquainted with
great men of former times, who by striving have earned a place in our
remembrance.
As we go on in our school education, taking up new studies, we find to
a still greater degree that what we learn is for usefulness.
Arithmetic becomes mathematics in general. Grammar is brought before
us in other languages, and branches out into the study of Rhetoric and
Literature. History is taught us of many lands, particularly of
Greece, Rome, and England. And, bit by bit, these various histories
merge into one, until, perhaps not until college years or later, the
doings of the countries in all the centuries of which we have
knowledge is one unbroken story to us. We know the names of lands and
of people. Why Greece could love art, why Rome could have conquest;
why these countries and all their glories passed away to give place to
others; all these things become clear to us. We learn of generals,
statesmen, poets, musicians, rulers. Their characters are made clear;
their lives are given to us in biography, and year after year the
story of the earth and man is more complete, more fascinating, more
helpful to us in learning our own day.
Then, besides all these studies, we are taught to do things with the
hands. After the Talks we have already had about doing, we know what
it means to have training of the hands. It really means the training
of the thoughts. We are training the mind to make the hands perform
their tasks rightly. It is the same in the science lesson which
teaches us to see; actually to use our eyes until we see things. That
may not seem to be a difficult task, but there are really very few
people who can accurately and properly use their eyes. If there were
more, fewer mistakes would be made.
Thus we can see that school work divides its tasks into two general
classes:
First, the learning of facts.
Second, the actual doing of things.
You will readily see that to do things properly is possible only when
we know facts which tell us how to do them. That shows you at once the
wisdom of the education you receive.
Now, let us imagine that school life is over. For many years you have
gone faithfully every day to your place, you have done your tasks as
honestly as you could, and said your lessons, being wounded no doubt
by failures, but gladdened again by successes. Now, when it is all
over, what is there of it?
Well, above all things, there is one truth of it which it is wonderful
people do not think of more frequently. And that truth is this: The
only education we may use in our own life is that which we have
ourselves. No longer have we help of companions or teachers. We depend
entirely upon our own personal knowledge. If we speak it is our own
knowledge of Grammar that is used. We cannot have a book at hand in
order to know from it the words we should use. If we make a
calculation about money, or do anything with numbers, it must be done
from our knowledge of Arithmetic, and it must be right or people will
very soon cease to deal with us. Then, if we have a letter from a
friend, we must of ourselves know how to read it, and if we have aught
to say to another at a distance, we must be able clearly to express
ourselves in writing, so that we may make no mistake in our meaning.
And this, likewise, is to be said of all the rest. Our knowledge of
History, of Geography, of men of past times, of the boundaries of
countries, of cities, of people, of everything, must come from
ourselves. And, further yet, according as we have been careful to see
in the right way and to do in the right way while we were under
instruction in school, so we shall be likely to see and to do when we
are not in school, and no longer have some one over us who will kindly
and patiently correct our errors, teach us new ways, and give us
greater powers. We may, of course, go on learning after our school
days are ended; and really much of the best education comes then, if
we will immediately set about correcting the faults which we find in
ourselves.
Indeed, many men have gained the best part of their education after
leaving school, where, perhaps, it was their fortune to stay but a
short time.[67] But we must remember that the habits of learning,
doing, seeking, are gained in early years, and if they are not gained
then they rarely come.
Now, what have we learned about schools and school-tasks? We have
learned a little of the purpose which lies in the education we
receive; that out of it must come the power to do and to know; that is
our own power; not that of any one else. We have seen the usefulness
of school-studies, and how practical they are in our daily life.
In all this Talk we have said nothing about Music. If, however, we
understand what the other studies mean, what their purpose is, we
shall learn something which shall be valuable when we come to study
the meaning and purpose of music in schools. That shall be our next
Talk.