--- title: Improvement Era description: Monthly periodical of the Mormon church, 1897 onward. This library holds the issues of November 1897 to December 1930. authors: - Peterson, E. G. collections: - periodicals tags: - magazine - improvement-era periodical: Improvement Era volume: 19 number: 12 published: 1916-10 publisher: Young Men’s Mutual Improvement Associations publisher_place: Salt Lake City language: en type: magazine reference: 'E. G. Peterson, "The Meaning of Education. VI: The Ideals of the Schools," *Improvement Era* 19, no. 12 (October 1916): 1101–1106.' source: url: https://archive.org/details/improvementera1912unse transcription: Transcribed from the Internet Archive scan of each issue (the item for each issue is named in the issue's own source); unnumbered advertising leaves are omitted, printed page numbers are kept as page markers. identifier: improvementera1912unse start_page: 1101 end_page: 1106 rights: status: public-domain basis: US publication 1930 or earlier (published 1916-10) source: https://archive.org/details/improvementera1912unse publication_year: 1916 note: The Internet Archive item metadata carries a blanket "© Copyright by Intellectual Reserve, Inc." notice. The library owner judged it inapplicable because this issue was published in 1916, before 1931; a scan-level notice does not restore copyright. --- # The Meaning of Education. VI: The Ideals of the Schools The Meaning of Education EY DR. E. G. PETERSON, PRESIDENT UTAH AGRICULTURAL COLLEGE VI — The Ideals of the Schools The faculty of any publicly supported educational institution should construe itself to be primarily a body of hired men and women in the employ of the citizens of the State. Teachers should assume the attitude of servants merely. Such an attitude instead of belittling- the profession of teaching will rather exalt it. To be great in service is to be truly great. Leadership in such service is true leadership. Very revolutionary changes have been made in our educational system within the last three decades. Within this time the conception of the people as well as of educators has undergone a change from conceiving of education as a secondardy influence in the life of an individual, to conceiving of education as a primary influence. The old conception of an educated man was that he need not necessarily be a useful citizen, but rather that he be decorated with a profusion of so-called culture, frequently to the exclusion of practical things. The school system was something set apart entirely from life itself. Students consequently passed through the grades, the high schools, and the colleges with the firm idea of preparing themselves away from human affairs and of training themselves for the companionship of a select few who constituted a rather exclusive group of what may be called snobs of the intellect. NO USEFUL PLACE FOR SNOBS OF THE INTELLECT The development of the last three decades has proceeded very vigorously along many lines of human activities, and not least in education. The coming of the people to a full realization of their power and their influence in the life of the state and the nation, has caused them to question not only our politics. our business and our social structure in general, but also our education. They have raised very pertinently the question of efficiency in our educational systems. They have asked if four years of high school and four years of college do not unfit rather than fit a man for the life which the majority of us must lea r1 . As a result, educational institutions have been put to work and 1102 IMPROVEMENT ERA those who have followed the situation closely cannot deny that a most salutary thing has happened. One of the necessary effects of the practicalization of our education has been the introduction of agriculture into our schools, because agriculture is our most basic industry, the thing after all upon which all prosperity rests. A glance at statistics is sufficient to prove this. The State of Utah, according to the best data, has a total area of 52,598,000 acres. The State produces annually (taking a recent year as average) over 6,000,000 bushels of wheat, over 4,000,000 bushels of oats, over 1,000,000 bushels of barley, 204,000 bushels of rye, over 340,000 bushels of corn, 909,000 tons of hay, 3,600,000 bushels of potatoes, and over a half million tons of sugar beets. Thei State contains approximately 140,000 horses, 88,000 dairy cows, 356,000 other cattle. 85.000 swine and practically 2,000,000 head of sheep. The State in 1912 produced 46 bushels of oats per acre, the yield per acre in Utah being exceeded by that of only two other states. In 1913 the State of Utah produced on an average 180 bushels of potatoes per acre, the nearest competitor in the western states producing 170 bushels. Utah produces an average of 2.33 tons of hay per acre, the average production in the nation being 1.31. The vield per acre of sugar beets in Utah excels all other states. These statistics are sufficient to indicate the enormous farm business of the State of Utah. It is very natural that the citizens engaged in this great industry, and with proper regard for the future welfare of the State, have indicated a desire to have the basic subject of agriculture introduced into their schools. AGRICULTURE, A NATIONAL ISSUE Agriculture is a national issue. The welfare of the nation is very nearly a matter of the welfare of the farm. The prosperity of the farmers means very nearly national prosperity. Good yields on the land mean prosperous business conditions. It is therefore important that the nation pay that deference to agriculture which the importance of the subject demands. We find as a result of a keen appreciation of the subject by the statesmen of the nation, that a nation-wide, campaign for better agriculture and for permanent soil fertility has been undertaken. The entire organization known as the United States Department of Agriculture, with its influence reaching into every state, is a national defense against the wearing out of the soil and the wearing out of the people on the land. The nation-wide system of Agricultural Colleges is a local defense built for the same reason. Those who have followed the situation closely are firmly convinced that a wiser piece of legislation was never passed than the original Mor- THE MEANING OF EDUCATION 1103 rill Act of 1862, creating Agricultural Colleges, and the supplementary acts thereto. The population of the United States in 1900 was approximately 76,000.000. In 1910 it was approximately 92,000,000, an increase of 21%. The increase in crop production during the same period was only 10%. In 1902 we exported 31% of our wheat and wheat flours. In 1912 we exported only 13%. Our importatation of crude food and crude animals in 1902 amounted to $120,000,000; in 1912 to $230,000,000, practically doubling in ten years our importations. Our imports of food stuffs, partly or wholly manufactured, in 1902 amounted to $93,000,000; in 1912 to $196,000,000. The number of beef cattle produced in this country has fallen off 32%,' in six years, while the population has grown at the rate of 21%. It takes no keen observation to discern that we are approaching the limit of self maintenance. Arable land in the United States is about one billion acres. Land under cultivation is about five hundred million acres. We have about five acres of tilled land for each person. Economists maintain that our population will double in fifty years. These statistics are startling in that they indicate the gigantic industrial problem which we are facing, the problem of intensive cultivation, of continuous soil fertility, and back of it all the problem of incorporating into our educational system the fundamental features of our agriculture, and building a permanent and high rural civilization. Our very welfare as a nation depends upon this. PRACTICALIZE The largeness of the problem is its very danger. We are apt to be intemperate in our introduction and in our support of this subject to the: unwarranted exclusion of other necessary and fundamental things. Of recent years- the demand has been very great for the introduction of agriculture into not only the college and high schools, but also the grades. It is believed by many that attention should be paid in the grades, not so much to the utilitarian subjects as to the basic subjects of mathematics, English, history, geography, and related branches which are a part of the education of every intelligent citizen. The problem of adequate preparation of teachers for carrying out the instruction in agriculture, in high schools and colleges and grades, is another consideration. Ahasty demand that agriculture be incorporated into all the grades, before our teaching force is sufficiently strong, would be an intemperate thing. It is apparent that people demand, and justly, a making over of their public schools to the extent that real mind development be accomplished in the young in 1104 IMPROVEMENT ERA the place of much thai has been mere memory work or routine of doubtful, intellectual value. Problems in arithmetic should have a local bearing. Study soils and crops and animals. They may he the object of the most elementary as well as the most vigorous and advanced instruction. Tn many ways we can practicalize our school instruction and lose not one whit of its intellectual vigor. Study the things at hand and the things that have to do with our daily life, but maintain vigorously the fundamentals of mind training. Agriculture as a department of study should be made a strong and permanent part of high school education, and it should be introduced into the grades just as rapidly as stability will permit. I have taken so much time to say this word about our public schools because they are the greatest single force in the Republic. Any popular reform in education must be done through the elementary schools. Of the 19,000,000 students who enter the public schools of the United States, less than two per cent, (330.- 000) enter college. The college or university must train the leaders in the state or it misses its largest opportunity, but it affects the Ynasses only indirectly, so I believe we are coming more clearly to understand that a state's elementary education should be fashioned closely after the needs of the state, as represented in its students, development taking place with temperance. Astate's higher education should be an embodiment of the idealism of the state. This idealism in our new west implies a thorough-going democracy in the class rooms and laboratories of the institution, and a wholesome equality of opportunity in the public life of the school. It implies further an incorporation in the course of study of the institution of the social and industrial features of the state and a straightforward attempt at the solution of the state's problems. A SANCTUARY OF THE PEOPLE further implies a sanctuary where are garnered from year It to year and from age to age the finest traditions of the race traditions of art, of music, of literature, of law, of noble deeds on the field of battle, and sometimes nobler deeds in times of peace, of men and women who have had great inspiration of things that were good, and such iron in their souls that they have suffered if need be to death, that their ideas might live. Often, thankfully, great contributions to our civilization h?-"e come without dramatic effect or even hardship. As we advance in knowledge we come to know values better. Such a contributor to our civilization is Galileo, such is Luther, such is Helmholz, such is Montessori of our own day, such is the Greatest Teacher of all. THE MEANING OF EDUCATION. 1105 And the world has many great leaders, men and women who scorn our social usages, which are still of lamentable iniquity but always improving, always better than yesterday, and live a life of high devotion to duty. They are our reformers, whom alas, we seldom distinguish from our demagogues until they have gone. , Our colleges should be custodians of this tradition, constant exemplars of the best motives of the people. They should be free from the taint of favoritism and partisanship. They should be clean to the very bone and spotlessly clothed with justice and high honor. The people will love such institutions, especially the men and women who toil with their hands. Such will be an answer to their prayer that they may have their share of dominion over the land and the sea in that it will prepare them for this dominion, an/1 it will be an answer to their greater prayer which has pierce:! heaven for many blind centuries, that their children may have that equality of opportunity for God's blessings which the sacred pages promise, and which every good instinct in man justifies. LOGAN, UTAH The Toll Young Manhood came to the Valley of Hope, In his strength and his courage and pride, And joyfully builded "Love's Retreat" For sweet Purity, his bride; And Purity, queen of his heart, was queen Of his home with all of its joy serene. There were fertile fields in the Valley of Hope, There were meadows broad and rare, There were sparkling streams and glowing flowers And sunshine everywhere. Abundance smiled where the soil was tilled, And the mountain sides were treasure-filled. And so young Manhood built and planned, With never a thought of fear; And laughed aloud at the warning voice Which told of a demon near Of a powerful, horrible, hellish ghoul. That took from the valley yearly toll. 1106 IMPROVEMENT ERA And children came, as the years sped on, Eight sons and daughters two, And strong of limb and fair of face, And honest and brave and true, They made the joy of the home complete The joy and the glory of "Love's Retreat." And Manhood ever in youth and prime Regarded this nook secure; Nor joined his strength with his fellowmen In making it doubly sure; Though often the demon took his toll — About six times a year a human soul. Serene old age now turns the key To "Love's Retreat," and lo! With agonizing cry she pleads, His queen of the long ago: "My boy! my boy! oh, spare my boy! Give back to me my light and joy! "When all my darlings left the nest But this one alone —and there He gave his cheer to my lonely heart, His love and his boyish care They have poisoned him — that glassy eye Reveals the truth —my boy will die! "Ah, well! 'tis best, if God wills it so There be those who are worse than dead, 'Mong the sin-defiled in the awful mire To which Rum's foul path has led My boy, oh, would I could die for thee, Ah, woe is me! ah, woe is me!" Age stood with staring eyes, aghast, Nor heard nor seemed to know; — A moment only then he fell, Death-stricken at a blow. And the woman's wails were beyond control, And the Rum-fiend gloated with double toll. Still the demon lurks in the Vale of Hope, And still, with increasing greed, Stalks forth where the heart's best treasures are, His hungry maw to feed; And pain and anguish and grim despair Are still his consorts everywhere. provo, utah Annie D. Palmer