Maple Avenue Evening High School - Progress Yearbook (Los Angeles, CA)

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Education and Complete Living By W. S. KIENHOLZ Director Vocational Education Los Angeles School District DUCATION has been variously defined in the past. Many such de- finitions have been quite apropos for the age and the intellectual at- mosphere of the occasion. It is quite common for some educators to sum up a great educational conference by defin- A , ing education in terms of the prevailing thought. Many of these definitions are unquestionably good, but some of them were better when they were given than they are today or, perchance, will be tomorrow. A few definitions that have been given may interest. Education , says one writer, is the systematic development and cultivation, of the mind and other natural powers . An- other speaks of education in the following terms: Any full education must be the result in great ' ' part of instruction, training, and personal association . Another says, Education is the systematic development and cultivation of natural powers by inoculation, example, etc . One of our present day educators defines education as adjustment to spiritual possession of race with View to realizing one's potentialities and to perpetuate civilization . Another writer, discussing the function of edu- cation, has the following to say: It is a waste of public money to teach things that are not useful. Some test for relative value should be applied to all subject matter . Many other versions of education might be given, some accentuating the cultural, others the spiritual, still others the social and economic. When Spencer defined education as preparation for complete living , he touched Page Forty-three .4.

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New information and a wider knowledge make possible the maintenance of this attitude as long as life shall last . ' 'Schools represent a public investment. It is common sense and national economy to secure the greatest amount of service from them . ' The Organized Labor movement makes this demand upon educational ideals: Give to the masses of the people, those who perform mechanical work, which of its very nature is monotonous and may become alsofstultify- ing, an imaginative understanding and such a wide comprehension of the wholeness of life that no vocation need be to them a rut. Enable each to see up and beyond with a vivifying mental grasp that shall interpret labor in values of human service, and to do the day's work with the joy of crea- tive labor . h LABOR FEDERATION JOINS EDUCATION FORWARD MOVEMENT The executive council of the American Federation of Labor has ap- proved the plan submitted by the American Federation of Labor committee on education, under instructions from the Cincinnati convention, whereby the Federation will be adequately and permanently represented in directing the activities of the Workers' Education Bureau, New York, N. Y., with which the Federation has hitherto co-operated under a temporary agree- ment. s Under the terms of this agreement, an executive committee of nine members was created to direct the policies and activity of the Bureau. The chairman of the Federation committee on education, Mr. Matthew Woll, has been elected chairman of the executive committee of the Work- ers? Education Bureau, and two other members of that committee, Mr. George W. Perkins a11d Mr. John P. Frey, have been elected members of the same executive committee. ' Writing to the various labor organizations on this subject, President Gompers of the Federation of Labor says: In accord with the convention instructions I wish to commend the work of this Bureau to you and your membership for the purpose of furthering adult workers' education. I earnestly urge all affiliated organizations to co-operate in this work through affiliation with the Bureau . Page Forty-two

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upon the whole field of human activity. Education probably should not be confined alone to preparation for complete living. Education is complete living. Education must measure up and stand the test of completeliving today, and, at the same time, perpetuate civilization of the future. A brief analysis of 1ife's activities reveals certain demands which might be placed under three heads, viz., Individual, Social, Economic. Individual Demands First: Physical, which calls for the intelligent maintenance and growth of the human body, through proper food, exercise, rest, sanitation, protection from injury and disease, etc. If man would be physically fit and efficient, these demands must be understood and properly and scien- tifically observed. Second: Mental development. There can be no complete living with- out a high state of mental development and knowledge. It is fundamental that man learn to read, write, and speak correctly the English language and to have a working knowledge of the elementary processes of mathema- tics, that he develop ability to appreciate and use art, history, literature, and the sciences, that he have an appreciation of the aesthetic arts, such as music, etc., and develop the ability to use the arts effectively in situa- tions arising in every day life. Class in Millinery Page Forty-four