What Classical Education Means The Problem in Canada (Classic Reprint)

Excerpt from What Classical Education Means: The Problem in Canada In St. Paul theylately established a Mechanic Arts High School on the express principle that there is just as much intellectual discipline derived from sawing a board straight, or making a dove-tailed joint as translating a passage of Cicero or solving a problem in geometry. I quote the words on the authority of the Superintendent himself, Mr. George Weitbrecht, though that gentleman, it is fair to say, ventures to criticize the statement as one-sided and unpedagogical. L have not the feelings of the founders of Mechanic Arts High School to consider, so i may go to the length of saying that the statement is absurd and shows a radical confusion of two distinct ends in education. You can teach a red Indian from the woods, in a week or less. To saw a board straight and make a dove-tailed joint, and it might not take very long to make him a fair carpenter. But even the founders of the Mechanic Arts High School could hardly suppose that that kind of training alone, or any extension of it, is all that is needed to make him a good citizen. But, if it not, the question at once arises, what is the meaning and end of the other kind of education, and what are the best methods of conveying it? That question will lead us to a sphere where the principle of utility is seen in a higher aspect and where methods founded mainly on sense preception and 'concrete information are less valuable than methods founded mainly on imaginative preception. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.