--- 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: 21 number: 8 published: 1918-06 publisher: Young Men’s Mutual Improvement Associations publisher_place: Salt Lake City language: en type: magazine reference: 'Peterson, E. G., "The Meaning of Education—IX," *Improvement Era* 21, no. 8 (June 1918): 682–685.' source: url: https://archive.org/details/improvementera2108unse 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: improvementera2108unse start_page: 682 end_page: 685 rights: status: public-domain basis: US publication 1930 or earlier (published 1918-06) source: https://archive.org/details/improvementera2108unse publication_year: 1918 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 1918, before 1931; a scan-level notice does not restore copyright. --- # The Meaning of Education—IX 682 IMPROVEMENT ERA closed my eyes, rejoiced in the wonderful love of this manly man, and silently thanked God that all was right with the world. I was the happiest girl in the world when we two, as hus- band and wife, at last entered the little cottage that had been planned by ourselves. The house, though small, was all we wanted; It expressed our ideals of a home. In it, we put every labor saving device possible so that we should not require a maid. We were so fond of privacy. Such pleasure I had in keeping that little house fresh and clean. There were just we two. The homey talks of our first wedded year will impress me forever. Heaven was becoming a habit with us. "My little homemaker," Jim would often say, as I sat on his knee after supper when my work was put aside, "It seems as if nothing could make us happier than we are right now. Do you think so, girl?" I truly thought that we could never find greater happiness than we had then. Our lives were so harmonious, so blissful. But the time when we truly lived was yet to come. It began when we heard our first babe's cry. It was in the early spring time. We had lived sanely, and had done all we could to give our coming babe a fair start in life, and when, after a night of ex- treme suffering and pain, I heard that little cry and saw that little form, I thought it was heaven indeed that I was slipping in- to, as I fell into a sound sleep. When I awoke, all was quiet save the faint coo, coo of a lonely mourning dove. I looked out the eastern window. The sky was aflame with the crimson light of the dawning day. A baby's coo came from the little being by my side and then, oh then, I felt the dawning joy of motherhood. "Little mother! Noble little mother!" The voice sounded like music to me as I sensed that the dearest man in the world was kissing my weak, limp hand. "Dear little mother," he breathed again. In his face I saw such a look of compassion. Ah, truly he did appreciate my gift. Together we had suffered and together we joyed. "Dear Marian," he said as he kissed the bud of promise by my side, "This is Heaven's sweetest gift, and through you, — brave little woman, we have gained it. If I if I could only tell — you " but he stopped. There was a break in his voice. "Oh, that's all right, dear," I smiled happily as I stroked his bowed head. "That's all right, dear, I must bear such things you know. It's my profession." Bunkerville, Nevada The Meaning of Education By E. G. Peterson, A. M., Ph. D., President Utah Agricultural College IX — The Learned Must Turn the Wheels The strength of a democracy is in its education. The degree of stability of free grovernment is directly attributable to the degree of enlightenment which prevails among the citizens. Free government is impossible without a strong elementary and higher school system. The tragedy of Mexico is the tragedy of ignorance. The safety of world democracy is assured because of the prevalence of thought. The free press and free untramelled schools make the long survival of autocracy an impossibility. Yet with this great hope and this great ideal, which reaches even beyond the bounds of nationality and encompasses humanity itself, we must recognize that in America there are salient defects in our educational system. A statement of these defects should not blind us to the great service which education has rendered in America and will continue to render whether or not these errors are corrected. And withal the faults are few compared with the virtues. But the faults are important, even critical, and may have a serious deteriorating effect upon the whole fabric of free institutions. The outstanding fact of education in America today is that to too large an extent the teacher is unhonored. It may be appropriate to contrast the treatment of scholars in Germany and in America. Oscar Bolza, at one time Professor of Mathematics at the University of Chicago, failed to find in America the appreciation of learning which existed in his native land, Germany. He returned to his little university town in Germany at a great sacrifice in money but a great increase in esteem after many years of valuable service in America. His return was celebrated as is a great political or athletic event in America. And it was only private philanthropy as represented in the University of Chicago which enabled America to pay more than Germany. The people did not know and appreciate Bolza. A statement of some of the great items of strength of Germany does not at all lessen our detestation of the blasphemous and criminal spirit which now dominates that wonderful land. Germany does honor learning. America to such a degree does not. We would not secure Germany's results by Germany's methods. Democracy is an education as well as a system of government. Respect for learning will arise from public conscious- 684 IMPROVEMENT ERA ness, it will not be imposed upon our people by an enlightened dogmatism. We will be slow on the road to achievement but we will be sure. A majority of our hundred million must have wisdom before the nation is wise. In an autocracy only the ruling caste need be efficient; the caste can then impose the methods of efficiency upon those below. A study of Germany is valuable therefore only in that it teaches us certain desirable attainments. God forbid that we should ever think that any degree of efficiency or orderly development is worth the price of liberty. Learning itself in America is to too great a degree looked upon only as one among many means toward other ends. There is not in America today that love for learning and that ennoble- ment of teaching which will be necessary if our Government survives the gruelling test of the present and the possibly more exacting test which will follow the declaration of peace. For this war will not be ended when the articles of peace are signed, but the perfecting influences which have been aroused by this struggle will call in a more exacting way than ever before every individual and every institution to the test. Leaders of our life are chosen from other professions and not from teaching, in a measure which may surprise us. The great engineers, McAdoo and Hoover; the great journalist, Lord Northcliffe; the great lawyer-statesman, Lloyd-George; even our ministers abroad are drawn from the field of journalism, from the legal and literary calling and elsewhere, rather than from teaching. Bamberger, railroad builder, and other leaders of our State, are chosen from the successful business men of the State rather than from the teaching profession. The great reforms in Utah are being led effectively, although aided of course by teachers, by others than our great school teachers in the State. And it is my conviciton that the absence of great teacher leaders is due, not to blindness on the part of those who are in charge of our affairs, because I sincerely believe they have chosen the best, but due to the fact that for too long a period of time the teaching profession has been in a measure deserted by some of our best teachers, and the strong, to too great an extent, have gone into other walks of life. There is an atmosphere of unreality in educational work today, and the people know it. They do not trust, as they should and as they will in the future, the men who handle our educational affairs. There is a reality in driving a right-of-way in the face of powerful competition for a new railway from Salt Lake to Ogden and the people know the reality of it and honor the man who achieves. Woodrow Wilson was all but forced by the smothering superficiality of Princeton into the more practical avenues of ef- THE MEANING OF EDUCATION 685 fort. He himself is reported to have remarked that if Princeton was to become a finishing school for fashionable young men he would have none of it. Edison is a self made man. Lincoln was a self made man. Jack London's genius could not stand the atmosphere of the University. From the days of the scribes and the Pharisees there has been a certain intellectual intolerance or snobbery in education. We have got to brush this aside. We have got to make trail blazers, constructionists, of our graduates or give way continually. We have got to put overalls and working jackets on our young men and working aprons upon our young ladies. To be sure much of the very savor of America comes from the relatively few (compared with the many who should) who survive our educational atmosphere and get the great good out of it. The conventions play too large a part in our curriculum. It may be indeed inherent in any organized study. But it can and must be said to the credit of educational methods in America that through the school system pass the vast majority of those who assume prominent place in American life. Only one per cent of the youth of America get to college, yet from this one per cent come seventy-five per cent of the men who earn $10,000 per year. So the mill run is fair. But I speak here particularly of those who make of learning a business. Let me repeat that with all its weakness our greatest strength is still our education and the results which it achieves, and we will all never cease to bless those noble, underpaid teachers who taught us first about the great questions of patriotism, of integrity, of loyalty, of sacrifice. But we must all speak for a broader conception of the dignity of teaching, for more strong men in the profession. We must all speak for higher salaries for those who are strong and must banish the weak to less responsible employment. Jesus Christ, none other, is our ideal. Salaries, however, cannot produce teachers. There must be willingness to sacrifice. Great teachers will teach whether we pay them or not, but the majority will not teach in the class room but from the press and factory, pulpit, office, and otherwise. I say, without fear of successful contradiction, that Utah has as ardent a love for education, for learning, and for scholarly achievement as any region upon earth. We have the opportunity to have a school system in Utah which will equal or surpass not only anything in America but anything which the world has known. With the heritage of sacrifice, of devotion and industry, and of intellectual and spiritual courage which is the sterngth of this State, we may go higher than those great nations of old, and we may surpass even the great culture that