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A BROAD VIEW OF

I

VANTAGES OF A UN

EDUCATION

T is a very limited horiz people have of this great few can realize that there is important in it beyond the of their own activities. instance, who is accustomed advantages of the metropoli to understand how one wh lived on a remote plantation may be as courtly a gentle the circle with which he is man from the far West, on t finds it impossible to belie who have been brought of luxury in the East can hav qualities and that manly c he regards as the best par character.

118

Protean Papers

In a limited way, I know something of these misunderstandings, for about half of my life has been spent in the East, and the remainder in the Mississippi valley. There is many a man on the Atlantic seaboard who considers all that lies beyond the Alleghanies wild and woolly, and there are not a few who dwell in the valley of the Mississippi who consider the people of the East snobbish, effete, degenerate. In point of fact, while the Western man has generally less of what is technically labelled culture than his Eastern brother, he has, on the other hand, I think, broader and juster views of life, and perhaps quite as ample a knowledge of the things most necessary for the practical conduct of life.

The same kind of misunderstanding exists between the college man and the man who has not had the benefits of a university education. The graduate of the universities can not always appreciate the many splendid intellectual qualities required for the development of a great business enterprise by a man who, perhaps, can not speak the English language correctly; while, on the other hand, the successful

on all sides is among the well as the most valuable dowments, I desire to offer tions in regard to the disad university training, and to opinions quite different from to hold when I was a studen I can remember that at th quickly became impressed y considered the aristocracy of the feeling that the college m tably a superior being to th This feeling was mos think, during our Freshman time we became Seniors the of this superiority had softe that while it was to be tak of course, it did not need t With the years which have fo ation, it has, I think, become now meet the rest of the w terms. Indeed, many of us recognize as our actual superi

man.

an educated man of equal merit and gy has a better chance in life than he has not had access to the training that institutions of learning afford; just as a man, who remains uncorrupted by the ry which wealth encourages, has a betchance in the long run than a poor

But there is not seldom a gain in bsence of these advantages. The very of them will sometimes nerve the man luck to more earnest efforts, and while find a large proportion of university among the successful and distinguished of the world, let us not forget that e of the most illustrious of all have 1 men without such opportunities. espeare, the greatest of dramatists, ed Bohemia by the shores of the sea; hington, the first of Americans, could always spell correctly; Lincoln, preent among the statesmen of this cen

orators of his generation, rec but a business education. tell us that, after all, it is th than his technical training, most important ingredient in cess, and that the college is place in which to procure Those who have been broug its walls are apt to form too ception of what education n imagine that it is co-exten curriculum. If they have stud mathematics, logic, and phi think that languages, mathe and philosophy constitute an

Now this misunderstandin perspective in education is all Each community has its of The education demanded of who seeks political place, in greatly exceeds our own requ must give explanations by cha tences of the commentaries

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