The War and Education |
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American ancient history applied science basis better biology boys and girls cation chance changing cient cipline civilization classical coördinate course culture danger democracy Demosthenes discipline and duty educa EDUCATIONAL BIRTHRIGHT effort English especially in applied exclusive national fact fail Faust forget France freedom French Republic German guage happen hard harmony heart honor and decency humanely and morally IMMORTAL CONFLICT important intellectual intelligence land Latin Latin and Greek least lesson listen literature living lose means memory ment mind modern Molière nature Nine-tenths obedience to duty old humanities past practical preparation PRINCETON UNIVERSITY Public Instruction question rests right road schools and colleges scientific serfdom slacker spirit stand STANFORD UNIVERSITY student taught teachers teaching theory things thought tion to-day true unity University University of Montpellier Verdun vocational education vocational studies vocational training worth writers youth
Popular passages
Page 24 - Fellow citizens, we cannot escape history. We of this Congress and this Administration will be remembered in spite of ourselves. No personal significance, or insignificance, can spare one or another of us. The fiery trial through which we pass will light us down, in honor or dishonor, to the latest generation.
Page 31 - Above all, the national basis is lacking. We must take the German as the foundation for the gymnasium; we ought to educate national young Germans and not young Greeks and Romans. We must depart entirely from the basis that has existed for centuries, — from the old monastic education of • the Middle Ages, where the standard was Latin with a little Greek added.
Page 52 - ... science, but in the motive which prompted the misuse by making such devices easily available in the hands of unscrupulous men or nations. The execration of mankind has fallen justly on those who thus misapplied applied science, and a clamorous demand is also justly made that it shall henceforth be applied only to humane ends, for the reason that when applied to inhuman ends it becomes the hired accomplice of immorality. It is a dreadful fact that while the guilt of introducing this misuse in...
Page 52 - Physics, with chemistry helping, gave us the submarine assassin, chemistry the murderous gases, and biology furnished germs to poison man and beast in Roumania. Yet these things, devilish as the uses to which they were put, were not in themselves necessarily evil. Conceivably they might have been used for commendable ends; the anthrax germ as an antitoxin, the murderous gases to destroy vermin and the submarines even to transport missionaries.
Page 33 - ... lesson is that no freedom is won or held without struggle and without self-denial. That lesson is that mental and moral freedom is not won or held by any human being in any land without wholeminded training in the fundamentals of knowledge, be they pleasant or unpleasant at first, whole-souled obedience to duty, "interesting" or uninteresting, and whole-hearted devotion to the truth won and held by hard effort, not for money, place, or power, but for the sake of living decently in a decent world,...
Page 32 - ... plenty, and then also the elements of universal knowledge — as much as we can get. We must not forget that an exclusively American culture must tend either to absorb other systems by incorporation or domination, or, failing in that, to impair the vital unity of our international civilized freedom. IV It is great to be a true American; it is greater to be a true man or woman here or anywhere. "That all men everywhere may be free" was Lincoln's prayer. Can we not lay aside all prejudice and then...
Page 24 - He is speaking of the agelong conflict of truth with error. It is a clarion call of ancient freedom across the centuries to us, not only to the battle line in France, but to the armies of education in America. Let us listen again in the quiet of our schools and we shall hear the echoing thunders of the long-fought war, not ended yet, between the freedom of knowledge and the debasing slavery of ignorance. And that warfare is the one business of education, the one reason why we need schools at all....
Page 67 - ... an officers' corps of the nobility The temperate and careful character of Philip's dealings with the Athenian Demos shows that he pursued no ruthless policy of aggrandizement This serves admirably the purpose of training one in political thinking, helps to guard one against the influence of trivial talk about morality and politics, and makes one realize that such a conflict cannot be settled by international arbitration. It should be emphasized that Demosthenes was actuated in his condemnation...
Page 26 - immortal conflict," ceaseless and strenuous, "now going on and calling for marvelous vigilance " more loudly than ever. Ill What is the way to win ? This is the question that must be answered rightly if we are to keep faith with our country. There is just one way. It is to make the proved truths of experience the one basis for our efforts and the one test of all theories offered for our acceptance. It is the test of common sense. It is also the one scientific test, for science, as Huxley put it,...
Page 63 - ... will regain its former importance. It is too early to say whether the large gain in Spanish will increase much more. Of the classical languages Greek is gaining a little here and there and Latin is gaining considerably. The main trend is toward the closely related Latin, French, and Spanish, to name them in the order of their total enrolments. It should not be forgotten that Latin actually has more students than are found in all the foreign modern languages and that this leading position is being...