True Education by George Henry Bell

International Tract and Missionary Society · Oakland, California · May 1, 1884

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 10, No. 17.

True Education.

By George Henry Bell

TRUE education aims to develop a perfect manhood,—to give to the world the best specimens of humanity that can be produced. It contemplates growth and culture, rather than the mere acquirement of knowledge. The mind may become a storehouse of facts, and yet be powerless to arrange them properly, or to use them to advantage. The ability to think, to reason, to gain knowledge from daily observation and experience; to arrange and classify our thoughts; to trace effects to their cause, and causes to their effect; to put our knowledge to good use; to understand the lessons which God teaches in nature; to see in all his works the manifest tokens of his love; to realize that he is the source of all wisdom, the author of all good, the one in whom we live, and move, and have our being—this, surely, is better than memorizing needless rules, or tedious demonstrations.

The most and best that our schools can do, is to rouse the mind to action, direct it to proper fields of thought, and teach it how to work.

The mind, like the body, requires food and exercise. Food for the mind is anything that awakens thought; the continued action of the mind constitutes its exercise. We may say in general that the whole mind acts at once, yet it is well known that, while certain faculties are especially active, others are comparatively at rest. This fact is well illustrated by bodily exercise. In walking, fencing, writing, speaking, chopping, or rowing, the whole body takes some part, yet it is only certain organs that are brought into vigorous exercise. It is also well known that the organs most exercised are the ones that are most rapidly and perfectly developed; and that those which are disused, become weak. Just so it is with the mind. Now this being the case, it becomes important to bring all the faculties into harmonious action, in order that the mind may be symmetrical and well-balanced.

In too many instances this principle is lost sight of. It is a very common thing to cultivate the memory to the great neglect of nearly every other faculty. Judgment and reason must be cultivated. The mind should be taught to classify, to arrange and combine, to analyze and explain. But the work should not stop here. The imagination should be cultivated, correct tastes should be formed, and judicious habits of thought acquired. In this way we are gradually led to the cultivation of the affections and the moral perceptions. These, in turn, lead to the development of the spiritual sense and the Christian graces. Faith in God, trust, thankfulness, devotion, are all of them results of education.

Neither can bodily conditions and training be neglected. The brain, which is the organ of thought, is a part of the body, and on its healthiness depends the proper action of the mind. A disordered or weakened condition of the body affects the temper also, and causes moral obtuseness. In such an education as this the public school-teacher can have but a small part; for the work must begin in infancy and continue to middle-life. Yet, where the parents' work has been well done, the teacher should supplement it skillfully; and where the parents' work has been neglected, the teacher should do his best to make up the lack.

The theory advanced in this article is not new; yet it must be admitted that very little has been done toward carrying out the theory. If the principles are true—and there can be no doubt of it—why not follow them in our practice? Although broad, they are simple and natural. In carrying them out, however, it will be necessary to depart widely from common custom. It will not be easy to get out of the old rut in which we have run so long, and none but those who are thoroughly convinced that a change is imperative, will be likely to make it.—G. H. Bell, in The True Educator.