Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 47.djvu/78

70 endowed educational institutions a man is found with extensive knowledge of educational methods. It is common for a man who has never been trained to teach to take up teaching for a few years, when he changes to some business or profession. These, and thousands of other instances, crowded in our memories, illustrate the dislike of real competency.

Imagination anticipates the revolution which must come, and foresees the time when public workers of all kinds shall be chosen—first, because they have been properly trained and educated for the work which is to be their lifelong profession; second, according to the relative ability of those so prepared. Democracy appears as a permanent factor of steadily increasing influence in social evolution. It has, of course, done much good, but its failure to secure honest government has raised one of the gravest problems of our time. Some persons advocate restriction of the right to vote, but to me restriction of the right to be a candidate offers the practicable solution of the problem. We are a few among millions, but the educational and other offices we hold give us an influence out of proportion to our mere numbers. If we demand within the limits which becomes us that men must be chosen for their competency, we shall uphold effectively a principle the defense of which is among the foremost duties of every patriotic citizen.

We have already done something to improve school education. We should do more, especially in the direction of adding scientific courses to the school curriculum. A man is liberally educated when he has learned to take an appreciative interest in the intellectual life of his time, and a man who has not learned enough of the natural sciences to understand something of their progress can to-day scarcely rank as an educated man. It is true that science is better adapted to serve as a basis of education than the classics, and it is true also that it is easier to give a liberal education without classics than without science; nevertheless we must urge the claims of science in schools conservatively. A reform is better than a revolution. A reform saves strength and spares prejudices. We must remember, too, that centuries have been spent in testing and perfecting the classical system of education, and that it has rendered services which can hardly be overestimated. The education based on science has scarcely two decades of imperfect and hesitating trial, and the people at large have still to learn that it is feasible and more valuable than the older system. The methods of utilizing science for school courses are still crude. We suffer from an embarras des richesses. There is here an opportunity for public usefulness for this society. Could we not through a committee prepare a plan for a system of school education in which science should have its place, and