Page:The Wisconsin idea (IA cu31924032449252).pdf/169

 develop insight into the connection and relation of the interests of all citizens alike, and especially of our country, to take care that that interest manifests itself in the exercise of patriotic self-sacrifice, justice, self-control, coöperative spirit and rational hygiene, sensible frugal habits of living. If we keep the first aim only uppermost in our educational endeavors, then there is danger of training up an excessive professional and individual egotism.

"'And just here we touch the critical point in our consideration of the value of industrial schools and education. If we instruct the prospective industrial mechanical worker not only in the mechanical-technical part of his trade but likewise introduce him into the mysteries of social and economic conditions, not only of industrial life but with equal interest into the social and economic life of the community and nation of which he is a citizen; if we train him from early youth to make him feel that he is a part, however small a part, of the larger whole of the nation to which he is inseparably tied by all his interests, then he will be more or less able to counteract and modify, if not to annul, the evil tendencies of modern industrial conditions.

"'We should not forget that economic and social conditions are not only the product of natural laws but to no small degree they are the product of the moral and educational standards of the people…'

"There is no doubt that courses in hygiene, sanitation, protective devices in machinery as well as the courses in citizenship, are indispensable in these schools. They are seldom or never omitted in the best continuation schools abroad. In practically every continuation class in Munich a boy has to take one hour a week of this training for four years. The cumulative effect of this upon citizenship is very great, as well as upon the health and stamina of the race, and cannot be underestimated.