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18 THE INDIAN SCHOOL .JOURNAL ABOUT INDIANS
re\'erence for the hidden possibilities
of youth, or the resolution to allow
the,e pos,;ibilities to develop according
to their own laws, and without
our inhibiti\'e interference.
II
The inno\'ators who wou ld almost
totally ignore the interests of childhood
ha\'e had for a few generations
almost entire control of the educational
machinery of America; but although
they could for a time control
the machinery, the instinct for education
in youth was too strong to be
killed. While they thought that they
were thi:' educators of the country,
they were, in fact, but filling in a few
of the g,lps in the educational system.
For instance, the ordinary life of
early Xew England furnished occasion
for the development of many
qualitie,; which go to make good me~.
Home industry supplied most material
necessities. To become able to
produce them required extensi\'e technical
trainmg. It was getting this
training in the home, with the discipline
it implied, which constituted the
major part of the young Xew Englander's
education: and the problem
of the school was so to supplement thi.
home-ennronment, that the home and
the schaul taken together would furnish
the conditions neces"ary to produce
the completely developed man.
We mi'S the point when we single out
from the whole circle that small arc
whiel] consi,;ted of formal schooling,
and style it .' ew England education.
The dean of the college of education
in one of our largest unh·er.:ities recently
remarked that during his b)yhood
on the fann he had but three
month .. in the year of schooling, which
left nine months for him to get an
education.
As education through home arts has
declined. people have begun to realize
that the school-house has received too
much credit, and the barn not enough.
So we are beginning to reproduce the
latter in our educational system, as
witness our farm-schools, tradeschools,
mechanics' institutes, and the
modern trend toward 'practical' ed u­
cation. Just now we have a feud between
the barn and the school-house.
Some of the men who have rediscovered
the barn, and are building
these 'practical' schools, and even
some of our advanced technical
schools, despise any training which
cannot be measured in terms of the
pocketbook. As for our classical men,
they usually have denied even the existence
of the barn as an educational
institution. In the few cases in which
they have seen the need of training in
the arts of life, they have looked upon
it as more or less menial, suited only
to those who are to become hewers of
wood and drawers of water.
. Recently I ob erved a most pathetic
mstance of this traditional attitude.
In a large eastern city is a group of
men and women who consider themseh'es,
and are accepted as, the acme
of American culture. Their own boys
are edUcated in classical secondary
scho I
a s, known throughout the country
for their fine traditions. In these
schools, aside from athletics and a
amount of manual training,
s~all
t ere is little training in the coordina­
~I~n of muscle, nerve, and brain or in
Inlt t· ,
Ia I\'e and self-reliance. The education
is largely that of a priest, a
la \\",.
,er, or a gentleman of ODe or two
hundred' ,
~ ear, ago. But these same
men, realiZing that some children
: hould have a different kind of train­
Ing, man\' "e
h - .' ars ago created a tradeb:
.~l to. w~ich they send 'deserving
). of hmlted means.' Here I found