The Meaning of Education

THE MEANING OF EDUCATION 705

those thousands of clean-browed women who preside in the homes of Utah, the mothers who have reared this race of strong men. Here you will find culture sometimes without great learning, and sometimes with sound learning, culture which shows itself in a fine regard for the rights of others, patience, purposeful devotion, industry well applied, reverence for sacred things, sacrifice in the interest of the generations to come, and through it all out- standing faith. Such culture has. come from the rough experi- ences of life, toil that the children may be served, conquered heartaches because life has been hard and the future slow to unfold, shattered hopes only to be built again, cruelties of a some- times heartless human system of life which crushes those who unknowingly impede, and even from the pain which is the price paid for the privilege of parenthood. All this human experience enriches the mind and the soul, if it is met in proper spirit, and if it is interpreted soundly. To be sure, if life means only the material thing of living it, such ex- periences only harrass and embitter. If life means a stage of preparation, a testing fire in which the gold and the dross are separated, such experiences only add meaning to existence. So, a college is only a thing which in its idea and its embodi- ment many wise generations have built, and with which we boun- teously are blessed, to hasten human experiences. A college should be a concentration of life's experiences. Here in shorter time than elsewhere we should learn the fine things the world has done in the past, the rich store of science which thousands of generations have accumulated, the arts which man has developed from the art of tilling the soil to the art of painting a picture. It may take you ten years out of school to learn what you could learn in two years in school. If a college does not give the young this better opportunity, it fails. We sometimes encounter the being who enquires "What col- lege have you been graduated from?" and disdainfully refuses to admit your standing unless you can name an institution of learning. How much more sound the question "What rough :

experiences have you battled, and was your mind calm and your faith undaunted at the end?" Bless the men and the women whose experiences reach back in the rough places of our early life, the canal diggers, the range riders, the desert reclaimers, the home builders, and the ones who made possible the fuller oppor- tunities of this age. There are more educated men out of college than in college. College is only a help, an improved modern institution toward culture, and as such is one of the great blessings of modern life, to be carefully guarded and nurtured that it may serve the thou- sands who deserve. I.OGAN, UTAH