Goshen College - Maple Leaf Yearbook (Goshen, IN)

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GOSHEN COLLEGE RECORD UNE AN EDUCATIONAL IDEAL S ALPHEUS ZOOK flVlaJor Subject Hxstory Iachcs and Gentlemen The class of 1910, wlnch has the honor and d1s t111ClI1Ol'1 of bemff the hrst class to grad uate from the four year course of Go shen College, lJ1dS you a hearty wel come to 1ts gI3.Cll1Elt11'1g exerc1ses A certam professor sald recently that every man before YCCCIVIHO' tl1e degree of Bachelor of Arts should be 1CqLl11'E3Cl to answer the followmg QLICSUOHQ Do you see anythmg to loxe 111 1 l1ttle ch1ldP XV1ll a lonely clog follow you Have you sympathy w1th all good causes? Do you bel1eve lendlng helplllg hand t weaker men? Do you bel1eve takmg advantage of the law when v u can t so? Do vo11 see anythmg 111 l1fe bes1des dollars a11d cents? Can you see as much beauty IH washmg chshes and hoemg corn as 1n playmfg golf O1 the p1ano? Can you see sunshme 1n a mud puddle? There 1S 11lOI'C than mere pleasantry 111 these proposed quest1ons 'lhey CO1lt3.111 much of common sense and suggest a w1se educat1ona1ph1loSopl1y fhe tendency of modern CClLlC3.t1011 15 to place ITIOIC and more C111pl1El.S1S up on what may be called the purely practrcal, v1oc t1onal profess1onal and ut1l1tar1an 'l1h1s 1S ev1nced by th great demand for manual trammg 111 tl1e l'l1gl'1 schwools and the establ1shment of techmcal and trade schools I deed tl1e great 1ncrease 1n attendance 111 11lSt1tLlt1OHS of a techmcal and wo cat1onal character 15 one of the mar velous facts 1n Amer1can educatlonal h1story of the last two decades And th1s has been brought about by the demands of our complex mdustrxal l1fe and the employment of sk1lled men 111 the unparalleled development of our 1nater1al resources Shops manu f8.CtLl1'111g plants, c1v1l 1HCCl'1Et111C?tl a11d electr1cal C1'1g11'lC6I'11'1g projects are demandmg as never before men tram ed to the lnghest 1JO1I'1lZ of Cf:HC161lCX 'lhen too the course of 11lClL1Stl'13'l de velofpment dur1ng the last half cen tury has be n suoh as pract1cally to destroy apprent1ces111p as an effect1ve vocat1onal preparatlon These are some of the reasons Vvhy so much em phas1s IS bemg placed upon the prac t1cal and ut1l1tar1an zn our present day eclucat1on A11Otl1C1 tendency toward SC1C1'1f1l:lC spec1al1zat1on Th1s too comes largely from the demands of our great SC16l1t1l:lC and mater1al1st1c development Invest1gat1on and re search can be successfully carr1ed out 148 k . J 1 . Q !.NV 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 . I Ia . , X . E.. .V Q - . . . C . X VN Q. X ' 1 1 n- 1 ' ' 7 '11 1 1 f, - ' , 1' N 1 Q -il . ' X X lc' - . . X - 3 1 Q 1 , 1 - ' . ' 1 - J W -9 V! s .. 1 u I . . ' ' . .X . fl W lb Q . . d 1 ', A' ' . ' C K , W. ' - 1' - 'l ' L, 3, ' ' . I Y . C .V . 0 I. 1 , 1 1 X il I ' n -, .X - 1 1 1 - i11 ' a ' 1 -o 1 ' A ' . ' in ' s 1 1 c l -c 4 ' I HO c lo . J . 4' is f . ' . 5 ' 1, ki X N . up Q I N l M X x V 1 . V

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1910 GOSHEN COLLEGE RECORD. 147 Our First College Bachelors BY N. E. BYERS 'With the conferring of the A. B. de- gree upon the members of the Class of 1910, Goshen College becomes of age. Fifteen years ago upon the or- ganization of the Elkhart Institute the founders expressed their aim in the following statement- It is the aim to establish an institution which shall rank with the leading denominational schools of the country, maintaining courses of study in the ancient and modern languages, the sciences, litera- 'ture, history and plhilosophy, as well as in religion and morals. But at that time no one had planned a course of study, no one was expect- ing to take a regular course and no faculty was ready or even. preparing to teach. However, at the end of six years a class had completed a four year course and three years later another had completed six years work, including two years of regular college work. And now at the end of six years more We have reached the goal set for us by the founders in 1895. Contrary to the practice of most be- ginning institutions we have follow- ed the plan of offering only as much as could be well given so that our credits would be accepted in full by standard institutions. These students wiho now receive the A. B. degree do so because we sincerely believe that they have faithfully done the work equival- ent to that required by the leading col leges. Our opinion is verified by the fact that among others the graduate school of Columbia University, ac- cepts the degree without qualifications. These, then, are the. first bachelors, that Goshen College has the honor of sending forth into the world.

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1910 GOSHEN COLLEGE RECORD. 149 only by an intense specialization.. The field is S0 large, and the q11e51t'i'0ni5 in- volved so great that t-he individual must devote himself to one small problem,--to the length of light waves or the arrangement of atoms in mole- cules. The marvelous advance in sci- entific knowledge during recent years has been due to men who have labor- ed witli untiring energy in such small fields. These tendencies toward the prac- tical, utilitarian and specialized are commendable and good in themselves. They meet the demands of the day and have assisted in developing our resources and advancing our civiliza- tion. Wfe owe an immense debt of gratitude to the scientists and special- ists who have wrested from nature manzy of the secrets which have made possible our ,great material develop-- ment. But at the same time these tenden- cies have detracted from the cultural phases of our education. This is felt not only in the technical sc-hool, the university and the post graduate school, but also in the small college whose function should be primarily one of cultural and moral development. In this neglect of the cultural and moral which will tend to make for a less refined civilization lies the chief danger of the intensely practical and entirely vocational education. It places emphasis upon-the means rather than the ends of life. True edu- cation is more than a mere vocational preparationg it is an enrichment of the whole life. True education is a humanizing process. It is not mere minid buildingg it is character build- ing . The education which d-oes not gi-ve an appreciation of the good, the true and the beautiful, which does not result in a kind and helpful spirit, a wiser toleranzce of one's fellows, a broader and more intelligent view of God and a better knowledge of service is in a large sense a failure. A man, judged by the criterion o-f things that are really wortlh wlhile, rises or falls not so much by what he knows as by what 'he is.T'he education-which mere- ly increases vocational efficiency and earning capacity, thus emancipating from continual drudgery in securing a livelihood and giving more time for leisure, but which at the same time does not develop culture and character is a dangerous acquisition, and uniits rather than fits for tihe highest attain- ments. ' Bu-t this view can also be made too extreme. In the endeavor to save education from the baneful effects of a too intensely practical, professional and specialized character, it must not be cut off from contact with the act- ual. VVe must remember that after all cultural education is only one phase of an entire education. It is good to be an. idealist, but not an idealist who igneores the realities of life. We are living in an extremely practical world. Life makes of us many practical demands. We must have, as some one has said, bread and butter, meat and potatoes and occa- sionally a piece of pie. One of the first elements of success must always be the abil-ity to earn a competence for -oursellves and those dependent upon us. The education which is so devot- ed to the purely ideal and cultural that it will not acknowledge the facts of life is as much of a failure as the edu- ca-tionswihich neglects these phases for the practical, vocational and utilitar-