A Sound Education

International Tract and Missionary Society · Oakland, California · Apr 22, 1886

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 12, No. 16.

A Sound Education.

PRESIDENT GILMAN, of Johns Hopkins University, has this to say in regard to the character of an educational institution:—

“Ask, first, is it a place of sound education? Are the youth who are trained within its walls, honest lovers of the truth? Are they learned? Are they ready? Are they trustworthy? When they leave the academic classes, do they soon find a demand for their services? Do they rise in professional life? Are they sought for as teachers? Do they show aptitude for mercantile, administrative, or editorial life? Do they acquit themselves with credit in the public service? Do the books they write find publishers? Do they win repute among those who have added to the sum of human knowledge? Have they the power of enjoying literature, music, art? Can they apply the lessons of history to the problems of our day? Are they always eager to enlarge their knowledge? Do they become conservative members of society, seeking for progress by steady improvements rather than by the powers of destruction and death? Are they useful, courteous, co-operative citizens, in all the relations of life? Do the charities, the churches, the schools, the public affairs of the community, receive their constant consideration? Are there frequent manifestations among them of unusual ability in science, in literature, in oratory, in administration? As the roll of the alumni increases and the graduates are counted by hundreds and not by scores, does it appear that a large proportion are men of honorable, faithful, learned and public-spirited character? These are the questions by which, as the years go on, a university should be tested, or, to sum all questions in one, Is it proved to be a place for the development of manliness?

“Here let me protest against the common method of estimating intellectual work by numerical standards alone. I have heard it said that some men are possessed by a statistical devil. They can only think in figures; they will ask, in respect to a new acquaintance, how much is he worth; of a library, how many volumes; of an orchestra, how many pieces; of a college, how many students. I have known the expenses of an institution made a dividend, and the number of scholars the divisor, the quotient representing the cost of each pupil. All this is wrong, absolutely and wholly wrong. If such a standard were allowable, the largest number of scholars taught by the cheapest teacher would be the greatest success. It is not the number but the quality of students which determines the character of a high school. It is important to count; it is better to weigh.”

—Sel.