University of Idaho - Gem of the Mountains Yearbook (Moscow, ID)

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THE NINETEEN ELEVEN If this is done the proposition becomes possible and practicable. » Under the new plan the pupil would be retained in the old courses founded to promote general intelligence as long as possible. As the end of his term approaches vocational studies would occupy a greater portion of his time. Finally, when fully equipped for his voeation he would go back to life through the vocational door. Second, the school is a consumer of social energy and should be a producer of social efficiency. The public has no real in- terest in the education of an individual for a purely individual purpose. Unless the individual who has received an education at the public expense is able through work of his hands and tongue and pen to increase the social value of his output by an amount which will equal the cost of his education, society is a loser, so far as that individual is concerned. Society is not con- cerned with the pleasure the individual may receive from the perusal of the masterpieces of literature, or from a review of the triumphs of science, or the contemplation of fine paintings. The State has absolutely no interest in these pleasures and sat- isfactions that begin and end with the individual. Unless the graduate is a producer, the State loses. The end and aim of edu- tion in an institution supported by public taxation is social ef- ficiency and social service, and the value of the education is known by the result. In this view of education, the University of Idaho is a voca- tional school. Practically all of its graduates have received special training for a definite vocation or profession, and their records will show that social service has always been a dominant element in their lives. Also many of the High Schools of Idaho, either by themselves or in conjunction with ot her agencies, are planning to offer all the elements of an integral education; and to repay. through social service the social cost they represent. The old Puritans knew what they wanted and knew how to secure it. They knew that the chief service a man can render his generation usually consists in the practice of his vocation, and in founding Harvard College they provided for vocational train- ing. What Idaho chiefly needs is the man or woman, who by work of his pen or tongue or hands, is able to do something for Idaho, and Idaho will require that its schools and students plan their educational courses more definitely to this end. James A. MacLean. SIXTEEN

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GEM OF THE MOUNTAINS vice in the word culture or in any of its definitions or associations. It does not affect the argument that social service is frequently a by-product of a cultural course, and that graduates from cul- tural courses frequently possess considerable social efficiency. We need a new word to place over the door by which a student enters school and the door by which the student leaves the school and enters life. We need a word which will be free from the indefiniteness of the word culture, and which emphasizes the social content and aim of education. The object of public educa- tion ought to be restated. It is safe to say that in the new statement the conception of the culture of the individual as such will not occupy a central position. In my own attempt to attain clearness of view in regard to numerous projects for eductional reform, I have found two prop- ositions distinctly helpful. First, that every educational institution which is supported by the public should offer what is currently termed “integral edu- cation,’—education that is at once physical, moral, intellectual and vocational. There is little debating among schoolmen in regard to the first three terms of this proposition. It is conceded that physical education is desirable and necessary, and the propos- als to substitute the physical well being and training of the average student as a centre of educational interest—to the re- tirement of inter-collegiate athletics—is now receiving consid- erable favor in educational circles. The discussion here will turn not on the end to be desired but on the means that will produce the result. On the other hand, a generation of controversy will be aroused by the introduction of the fourth term, vocational education. The term vocational is used in its broadest sense and includes every occupation, trade, business and profession in which skill is an element and may be attained through training. It is inevitable that the controversy will result in the extension of vocational training in the schools. It may be that it will be recognized that the school should not be permitted to return the pupil to the social current until he is prepared for some voca- tion requiring skill. In order to secure this result the present gap between the educational world and the industrial world must be bridged by the establishment of apprenticeship schools of a hundred forms. The public must resume the control of the edu- cation of apprentices which fell into disuse after the breaking up of the Guild System and the introduction of the Factory System. FIFTEEN

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GEM OF THE MOUNTAINS ALUMNI ASSOCIATION President, Wu. E. Lee, ’03 Moscow, Idaho 1st Vice President, Tom Myers, '07 Murray, Idaho 2nd Vice President, Mrs. Wm. Suvrrz, '06....Spokane 3rd Vice President, Toney T, Crooks, '09..Mace, Idaho Secretary, Sapie A. Stockton, ‘08 Moscow, Idaho Treasurer, NorMAN B. Apkrnson, '07, Grangeville, Ida. Executive Committee, Myra Moony, '03, Kingston, Ida. CuHariLes Montanpon, '06...... Larsen, Idaho Peart Wickstrom, ‘07, Spokane SEVENTEEN