The Meaning of Education

The Meaning of Education BY DR. E. G. PETERSON, PRESIDENT OF THE UTAH AGRICULTURAL COLLEGE

IV — Education and Economy The people are rightly demanding more and more as days • go by that economy and efficiency be exercised in the schools as elsewhere. And such a demand is wholesome. It isnot merely mercenary in its effect. It is moral as well. Waste and needless expenditure are immoral. Educational institutions, of late years, in many parts of _ Amer- ica have gone mad over buildings. It has been intimated that a college is not great unless there is an imposing array of big build- ings on the campus. It was a great educator who said that a col- lege consisted of a teacher, a student, and a log upon which to sit 1 do not know but what we may now, under the modern labor- atory idea, even eliminate the log. Because we are coming to study more and more upon our feet, working can well afford to save the people's money with our hands We by refraining from building too many costly structures in the name of education The students must be taught the value of a dollar for their moral as well as their economic salvation. Life in our college^ and our other schools must be so regulated that the young men and women are made to realize the necessity of living on the least possible and necessary. Expensive habits of dress and ex- travagant expenditures otherwise should be discouraged Thev should be made to know the extent of human labor that goes into each dollar they receive from home. It would indeed be fortu- nate if every man were placed under the necessity of earning at least a part of his expenses while attending school. Such neces- sity would put more meaning into the word, would be more truly educational than a great deal which comes merely from books And the vigorous exercise of his mind and body which this activ- itywould make necessary would put such iron into his soul that he would be strengthened throughout his life. C e ge a man would not be an idI e desultory SUch u would It ^! ube v? life itse And thin- f. this is what colleges and high must become-hfe itself. schoots The people will n?t much longer sup- port he idea that men and women to be prepared for life should hfe an mad Hve " an artifidal atmosphere / V° ktninT The modern college must be practical— o? learning. of life-like- wh.ch is another phase of the idea that institutions must be econ-

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omical. Frederich Froebel originated the kindergarten idea, the most important educational advance of the last century. It prac- ticalized the teaching of children and has had an influence since on all educational methods. Expensive equipment and costly buildings, always will be of secondary importance to wise teachers. Let us invest more in the great teachers we have and less in brick and stone structures. The frills must be cut out of the school year. Too many va- cations, delays in starting and stopping work, the encroachment of social and athletic activities upon the prime business of the school, should be reduced to a minimum. Economy demands that the school year be as concentrated as possible. The school year for the majority of students (though, of course never probably for all) might very well be arranged from November until March, thus allowing much of the harvesting and spring work to be done before beginning and immediately after school. Such an arrange- ment is now in operation at the Agricultural College, and these shorter courses are becoming more popular each year. The vast majority of students, however, enter in September and continue until May or June. The shorter course may be an arrangement of quite general adoption in the future. Under present condi- tions every effort should be made to condense the year's work into as short a time as practicable in order to enable the student to engage in the equally valuable and educational activity of the farm, the home, the shop, and the business office. The people of Utah are devoted to education. They will make any reasonable sacrifice for education. But they should not be asked to give extravagantly of their hard-earned means to follow the whims of educators, to build monuments to the po- litical sagacity of so-called educational leaders. Education should not be expensive. In a last analysis it can be simplified into train- ing of the body to be clean and strong, the mind to be alert and industrious and disciplined to hard and long tasks, and the morals and the spirit of man to be just, temperate, charitable and honor- able and imbued with faith. These are the fundamentals and they require comparatively little besides a wise teacher and a truth-seeking student. To be sure, in professional training, in agriculture, home economics, agricultural engineering, mechanic arts, commerce, and training in such professions as law, medicine, and mining, in order to demonstrate the facts and principles of modern science, somewhat elaborate equipment is necessary. And it is the part of wisdom for these professions, or those at least closely related to our dominant industries, to be taught well. But the large and possibly the prevailing part of educational effort will be and should be directed to the fundamentals of character formation. LOGAN, UTAH