The Meaning of Education: Faith and Education

The Meaning of Education BY E. G. PETERSON, A. M., PH. D., UTAH AGRICULTURAL COLLEGE

I. FAITH AND EDUCATION

An institution of learning which does not put faith in the minds and hearts of the thousands who come and go in its halls is violating its highest privilege and denying its students the great-

est attribute of character. It is sometimes thought that schools and colleges deal only with matters of the mind, with the development of the intellect. If education means what it should, it deals not only with the mind but also with the body, to produce physical efficiency with the ;

moral nature, to produce clean living and thinking and, most im- ;

portant of all, with the spirit of man, to produce faith, which man- ifests itself in constancy, devotion, sacrifice and vision of the worthy ends to be attained. Without all these developed, man becomes one-sided. He must have, if he is symmetrical, health of body, vigor of mind, high moral standard, and spiritual ascend- ency. The last is the highest quality. Quite largely our development as individuals is in these gradations, although the stages of development overlap. Each stage is recognized because of the preponderance of one or another quality of development. First we must train the hands, the legs, and the body, in general. Then we must train the mind, if we rise to our proper destiny. We become, because of this train-

ing, intellectually keen and vigorous, and often over-balanced be- cause of our worship of the purely intellectual. We must next, or at the same time, develop our moral or ethical standards. These include particularly honor, temperance of thought and act, sexual integrity, and charity. Next and last, and presuming in measure all the others, we must develop our spiritual nature. Men progress through these gradations of body, mind, morals and spirit, to varying stopping points. You have seen the merely physical man, the man efficient in physical prowess and dexterity. but undeveloped beyond this stage in such degree in mind or mor- als or spirit. You have seen the merely intellectual man who an- alyzes wonderfully, who is a master critic, who builds theories and hypotheses which challenge successful refutation. Such a man may or may not be developed physically, to any marked extent he may be even a moral dwarf, and may be a comparative ;

stranger to things of the spirit. You have seen the highly moral

628 IMPROVEMENT ERA man who has honor and charity and is temperate in thought and yet who may not lie developed, comparably, mentally nor in- act, deed spiritually. There is a relationship between age and the attainment of these qualities.Youth, in a measure, is the physical age. Young and middle manhood is the mental and moral age. Maturity and old age is the age of the spirit. Any satisfactory educational scheme recognizes these stages, and these natural progressions. Such work as cleaning up the house, hoeing in the garden, carry- ing in the wood or coal, and doing the other simple manual labor in connection with caring for a house or garden is the initial edu- cational stage. To teach things of the mind is the second educa- tional stage. — Analyze, criticize, theorize, postulate this is the joy of the young and developing. To build a system of ethics is next in the usual individual's history. How should life be lived to fulfil the highest moral obligations? is a question which calls for answer. So there develop standards of honor, temperance, and charity. Finally comes that finer thing, wisdom, the full fru- ition of all else. Let us think of this as faith which for its full exercise requires health of body, health of mind, health of morals. Let us not worship anything purely physical in its beauty or its worth, let us not worship any purely intellectual image or

theory, or philosophy, let us even see that moral conquest is not the end let us develop faith which is the fruit of a matured spir- ;

itual nature. Faith gave us our nation, our state, our religion and our homes. No knowledge of human science or the arts would ever have driven men to redeem the deserts of Utah not even;

moral supremacy would have conquered such a task. Such a conquest represents spiritual ascendency over nature. And so with those other stirring epochs in the history of our nation, and of our entire civilization. And so with that fine sacrifice which we associate with motherhood. Faith conquers all. So, educational institutions must not make merely mental — gymnasts of our young men and women people with merely keen minds. The people have built their schools and given to educators the privilege of helping to produce in their sons and daughters rounded citizenship, calm intelligence, coupled with high moral purpose and soundness of spirit. The marvelous power and privilege of modern education must not fall short of this full purpose.

LOGAN, UTAH