Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 45.djvu/689

Rh trained young man whose energy and grasp of affairs soon led the management to promote him over a faithful and trusted employee. The old clerk felt deeply hurt that the young man should be promoted over him, and took occasion to complain of it to the manager. Feeling that this was a case that could not be argued, the manager asked the old clerk what was making all the noise in front of their building. He went forward and returned with the answer that it was a lot of wagons going by. He then asked the clerk what they were loaded with, and again he went out and returned, reporting that they were loaded with wheat. The manager again sent him to ascertain how many there were, and he returned with the answer that there were sixteen. Finally he was sent to see where they were from, and he returned, saying that they were from the city of Lucena. The manager then asked the old clerk to be seated, and sent for the young man, and said to him, "Will you see what is the meaning of that rumbling noise in front?" The young man replied: "It is unnecessary, for I have already ascertained that it is caused by sixteen wagons loaded with wheat. Twenty more will pass to-morrow. They belong to Romero & Co., of Lucena, and are on their way to Marchesa, where wheat is bringing one dollar and twenty-five cents per bushel, while it costs only one dollar at Lucena. The wagons carry one hundred bushels each and get fifteen cents per bushel for hauling." The young man was then dismissed, and the manager turning to the old clerk said, "My friend, you see now why the young man was promoted over you." This illustrates the tendency of our times, for we are rapidly advancing into an age when concentration of energy and grasp of a subject in detail in the shortest possible time are requisite for advancement.

This is largely an era of material progress, and the training which is needed most for the rising generation—especially here in the West—is that which will fit it for the application of its best efforts to the noblest purposes of life. The preparation for this work must come through our schools. Teaching here involves three distinct processes: instruction, or the imparting of knowledge; education, or the development of the faculties; and training, or the formation of habits of thought and work. The master teacher has a happy combination of these three processes, no matter whether it be in the primary grades, the college, the university, or the technical school. In the elementary schools instruction necessarily predominates; in the college and university, the educational; while in the school of technology, the element of training is the most important. And I believe that the principal work of a technical school like this should be the training of young men in accurate methods of thinking and working.