EDUCATIONAL DEPARTMENT. WHAT IS EDUCATION? T. J. MORGAN, LL. D. What do we mean when we say a man is well educated? Of course, in a brief article only general statements can be made. In a broad and true sense education includes all those forces which bring a man to his highest development. Education does not mean simply knowledge, but it includes also the power that a man has to use his knowledge. To say that a man is a well-educated man, a man of scholarship and culture, power, and fit for leadership, is to say that all his natural powers have been well trained; that he has wide range of knowledge; that he is a man of good sense; that he is able to use his talents to good advantage. In the brief sketch that I am about to draw of the process of education which is developing leadership among the dominant races of the world, I will indicate only the most promi nent. 1. Heredity. It is undoubtedly true that there are certain stupidities and tendencies which we inherit. Culture tends, within certain limits, to perpetuate itself. Other things being equal, the children of educated parents are more likely to become intelligent, to acquire an education and to make good use of it, than are the children of the ignorant and the untrained. A child's education begins with its grandparents. There is a great advantage in having a good start in this world. 2. Home Life. Training begins in the cradle, or, more properly speaking, in the mother's arms; the tones of voice and the manners of the mother, almost from the very beginning of the child's existence, have their influence in shaping its character. The songs the mother sings to the child, the stories she tells it, the counsels she gives it, the simple truths she inculcates and approves of, what she discourages and forbids, the habits she fosters, the discipline that she administers, combine to develop the child's character. The mother is the first educator. What the child becomes under her tuition, during the first five years of its life, determines, largely, its future career. If father and mother are both intelligent and united in their efforts to train their children properly, setting before them good examples, encouraging them in all that is true and noble, shielding them from temptation, surrounding them with helpful and healthful influences, supplying them with good books and newspapers, encouraging them in associating with choice companions, the children go from home already fairly well equipped for life's temptations and trials, and they have laid for them the foundation of a liberal education. A Christian home where love reigns is the most like heaven, is the best training place for both the present and the future world. It is the nursery of all the manly virtues, industry, order, fidelity, truth, patience, charity. 3. Religious Privileges. Next to the influence of the home circle in the shaping of destiny is to be placed that of the Church and the Sunday-school. It is difficult to over-estimate the influence exerted upon youthful minds by faithful and intelligent instruction in the Sunday-school, and by the stimulating and ennobling influence of intelligent preaching. The pastor and the Sunday-school teacher are powerful co-workers with the parents in calling into activity the child's natural powers, in quick. ening its conscience, refining its taste, strengthening its will, and setting before it the highest ideals of life and duty. Imparting religious instruction adapted to the child's growing capacity and needs, awakening and directing its thoughts and investigations, teaching it how to read the Bible, and especially the cultivation of a truly religious spirit, reverent and inquiring, is a delicate, difficult, important element in a child's culture. 4. Public Sentiment. Children are profoundly influenced by what they hear and see among those with whom they associate in daily life. If their neighbors are people of refinement and culture, of industry and thrift, of integrity and intelligence; if their lives and conversation conform to a high standard, the youth who come in contact with them from time to time, who know their reputation and are acquainted with their character, become like them. If however, on the other hand, children grow up in a community dominated by the saloon, the race track and the gambling den, and have set before them, day by day, examples of drunkenness, idleness, vagabondage and vice, they are very sure to be greatly influenced by these unhappy surroundings. The influence exerted upon a growing mind by literature is very great and lasting. Many a life has been wrecked by reading a single dime novel. Many a noble character has been developed by reading "Pilgrim's Progress," the Bible, and other good books. 5. School Life. If Ordinarily we think of education as being the work of the school, and, undoubtedly, we must assign to this agency a very large share in the development of character. the teacher is intelligent as an instructor, skillful as a trainer, and wise in the administration of discipline, the pupil will acquire knowledge and intellectual and moral power. Very much depends upon the thoroughness and accuracy with which the work of the school is performed. Unfortunately, competent teachers are scarce, and good schools are rare. A very erroneous opinion prevails, commonly, as to the time needed for the development of the mind to its highest degree. Many people seem to think that five years is a very long period to be occupied in school duties; parents are often impatient to have their children "finish their education" and get to work. It is worth remembering and emphasizing that multitudes of young people to-day, after having enjoyed all of the advantages that come from being well born, well trained at home, well instructed in church and Sunday-school, and who have enjoyed association with educated people from childhood, are permitted to spend a year in the kindergarten, four years in the primary school, four years in the grammar school, four years in the high school, and four years in college, making seventeen years of continuous and connected school life. If all the circumstances have been favorable, if the child has had good health, has been well fed and clothed, has been kept regularly in school, has enjoyed the inestimable advantage of strong teachers, and has worked with a good degree of fidelity, the young man or young woman goes out from college with a well-earned degree, and is entitled to be regarded as liberally educated. Often this, however, is but the beginning, and not the completion of education. Too much cannot be said of the value of a good school in the formation of a character. Association with kindred spirits in the pursuit of knowledge; daily instruction by faithful, competent teachers; access to books and periodicals, and the formation of studious habits by years of systematic application, have a profound influence in arousing the soul to its noblest state. 6. Professional Studies. Modern life, with its sharp competition, its complexity and its great exactions, requires that anyone who aspires to eminence and leadership shall be a specialist: success in the law requires a special legal education, extending, ordinarily, through a period of three to four years; success as a physician demands a medical education, severe, comprehensive and extended; teachers, if they would excel in their profession, need a normal training in addition to ordinary education; the pastor who would fulfill the functions of his high office in the most satisfactory manner, needs to supplement his college course by at least three years of earnest work as a student of theology in some well-equipped institution of learning; those who would excel in other departments of activity, such as journalism, engineering, manufacturing, need special training for these various pursuits. 7. Travel. Nothing can take the place of travel. "Things seen are mightier than things heard." Text-books bear the same relation to the universe that photographs do to the living person. Men need personal contact, personal experience, knowledge at first hand, which can only be acquired by travel. Contact with our fellow-men tends to smooth away our provincialism, our angularities, and to fit us for the proper understanding of the great public, political, social and religious questions that thrust themselves upon us for solution. Travel gives breadth of view; removes prejudices; corrects our perspective; enlarges our sympathies; improves our judgment. Travel, to be profitable, must be wisely directed; it has its temptations, not a few; exposes the unwary to numerous evil influences; presents false ideals and wrong standards of life and conduct; invests vice with the charm of novelty. Nothing is more harmful than familiarity with evil. Travel is simply opportunity; it may be helpful or hurtful. 8. Independent Effort. All that others can do for us in the matter of education is very little, compared with what we must do for ourselves. Soil and sunshine are essential to growth, but the tree must do its own growing. The chief advantage of schools is, that they afford the earnest student opportunities for growth. The great and growing excellence of continued years of systematic training and study is, that it furnishes the foundation upon which the earnest student can build an independent structure. The schools suggest methods and ideals, and furnish tools with which the wise master builder must do his own work after his graduation. Active life is the great educator. What a man becomes by dint of observation, reflection, thought, effort, is the great thing. Now, measured by this standard, which is all too low and none too high, who are educated men? Who are scholars? Who are fitted for leadership? Measured by this standard, what are we doing for our chil dren? What kind of education are we giving them? What ideals are we placing be. fore them? What kind of schools are we establishing and maintaining for their benefit? Bishop College. Dear Bro.:-I have long wanted to write something for the MONTHLY with regard to the usefulness of our great Negro school at Marshall, Texas. In presenting this article to your readers, it may be necessary for me to say that I have been in Texas more than thirty years, twentyone of which have been spent in the ministry and twelve years on the field as General State Missionary of Texas. I have watched with no small degree of interest the movement of every enterprise in this State conducted for the betterment of my race. It is a patent fact that Bishop College is now and has been, from the day of its organization, a source of denominational pride and untold usefulness for the entire country. Hundreds of the best families of the State have taken advantage of it for the educational development of their children. Its reputation for good work is not surpassed by any school for our people North or South. It is molding moral and intellectual giants for the race and denomination. In laying the foundation for such a large and useful institution of learning, Drs. S. W. Marston and S. W. Culver said and did many things which were not understood by their Texas brethren. But they went sturdily on, knowing that they would be understood as knowledge increased among our people. Day is breaking, the light of their work is now shining forth to the full satisfaction of the intelligent and respectable people of Texas. The We will never know how to appreciate properly the sacrifices, anxiety, care, toil and tears given for our race by these God-sent agents of the Home Mission Society. The friends of the school are getting closer to it, and are thereby making for it more friends of both races. influence of the school is felt everywhere and in nearly everything done in the State for the good of the church, the State, and society. Hundreds of young men who have been schooled at Bishop College are to-day intelligent voters, useful citizens, and industrious laborers. Students from this school are representing nearly all of the professions, such as law, medicine, the ministry, and teaching. Young women who entered this college ten and fifteen years ago are now godly and pious mothers. The school has been the very life of our denomination in this State. The leading and most useful churches in Texas are pastored by Bishop College students. We have three denominational papers in the State, and they are all edited and published by students from Bishop College. Many of her students are presidents of conventions, moderators, and clerks of associations. In a private conversation with the State Superintendent of Education a few months ago, he expressed a very high regard for the thorough work done at that school. The enrollment is growing larger and larger every year, and its friends are multiplying daily. Our people gave to that school last year over six hundred dollars at one collection. One colored man has given $100 recently. The work of Dr. Culver will long live in the memory of he colored race for the faithful and untiring service rendered our people in founding and running that school ten years. It is the greatest piece of work ever accomplished by him. He laid the foundation so deep and broad, it is no wonder that his successor is enabled to carry it on to further development. The Home Mission Society could not have found a more broad-minded, Christian-hearted and industrious gentleman than Rev. N. Wolverton. He is, indeed, a far-sighted, energetic, hardworking man. Bishop College, with its Normal, Industrial, Theological and Missionary Training Departments, is destined to be a great school. More than a million Negroes live within three hundred miles of it. One-half million are in Texas, to say nothing of the many thousands in Southern Arkansas and Northern Louisiana. As the days go by, and the usefulness of the school is seen, its borders must be enlarged and its facilities increased, not only to retain its well-gotten reputation, but to keep pace with the times. I favor the plan of co-operation, and hope two million dollars will be raised as an endowment for our schools. A. R. GRIGGS, Education, Total expenditures since 1862, $3,000,000. Value of school property acquired by the Society, $750,000. Total value of school property, including schools incorporated, $900,000. Endowment fund for education held by the Society, $1,800,000. Endowment funds needed, $2,000,000. Colored Baptists in the United States in 1865, estimated, 400.000; in 1895, reported, 1,600,000. Churches, 13,000. Zeferino Guajardo, Ebanos, Mex. Jacob. Trevino, Assist. to T. M. Westrup, Linares, Mex. 44 C. F. Lindberg, Swedes, Burchard, Minn. N. Wakeham, New Duluth, Minn. The following teacher was appointed: Chinese Mission, Albany, Ore., Mrs. H. C. Chamberlin. |