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The craftsman
(September 1914)

Education and work,   pp. 670 ff.


Page 670


EDUCATION AND WORK
ment of the school, facilities for outdoor
life, manual training and any special branch
of study in which the boy or girl is particu-
larly eager for instruction. In short, the
aim will be to help parents place their
sons and daughters where they will be
most likely to receive the sort of instruc-
tion, care and help for which they are
looking.
  The value of the Bureau, however, will
not be limited to residents of New York
and vicinity. It is expected that a large
proportion of its work will be conducted
through correspondence with parents in
different parts of the country who wish to
obtain information and suggestions in re-
gard to distant schools.
  Nor will the activities of the Bureau be
of assistance to parents and students alone.
The schools will also profit by this co6per-
ative work. On the one hand, it will save
them unnecessary correspondence and the
answering of many useless inquiries.  On
the other hand, it will save time, trouble
and mistakes by calling to the attention of
parents schools which seem suitable for
their needs and which, without the assist-
ance of the Bureau, they might easily have
overlooked.
  While, as we have said, the Craftsman
School Bureau has already the support of
some of the foremost private schools of the
East, it is our intention to proceed slowly,
remembering that it is better to place a few
pupils in just the right schools than to rec-
ommend many to schools that are not thor-
oughly suited to them.
  The organization of this Bureau has been
entrusted to a committee of representative
school principals, who will in turn yield to
a final committee selected by the schools
themselves that register with us. Only one
representative of THE CRAFTSMAN will be
on the committee.
   The heads of the schools as well as par-
ents who are interested in this undertaking
are urged to express themselves frankly as
to the work of the Bureau, and to make
frequent suggestions for its improvement,
so that it may prove as efficient as possible
for all concerned.
   The services of the Bureau, it may be
added, are free to parents everywhere, for
the intention is not to make money but to
be helpful in assisting pupils to be placed
in the best and most suitable schools.
   Those of our readers who wish further
 information in regard to this new depart-
ment, or who wish suggestions or data as to
private schools, are invited to write to the
Bureau personally.
EDUCATION AND WORK
O NE of the foremost means for the de-
      velopment of a good character is
      work, steady application of the mind
and muscles and the wonderful eye, and
the hardly less wonderful hand, to the do-
ing of some useful thing. The boy who
uses his powers for some good end, who
while growing in physical strength and
stature, keeps before his mind the great
truth that we all of us are here in the world
for service-who weeds the garden, hoes
the corn, or mows the grass, milks the
cows or feeds the chickens, who does this
not once in a while, but with careful regu-
larity day after day for months or years,
is fitting himself for higher service, for true
usefulness. . . . Ability once gained  to
work steadily, and the habit once attained
of co6rdinating all the powers of mind and
body to some useful end, is the very high-
est achievement ever reached by any man,
influential or humble, and denotes all the
difference between a wise, useful man and a
vagabond and fool.
  It has come to be recognized by all our
leading authorities that the American pub-
lic school system has been in danger of
breaking down at this point-that the
thousands and millions who frequent our
schools and colleges are too often imbued
with the idea, when they leave the school-
room, that toil with the hands-physical
labor-is beneath them. They have not
been trained to work, to apply the eye, the
hand, the muscles and the judgment to some
useful purpose, they are therefore unfitted
for physical toil and despise it. Too often
they become indifferent teachers, or shift-
less clerks, or have to begin at the age of
sixteen or eighteen to learn the very A B C
of some occupation-and often failing with
their undisciplined powers and with their
feeble efforts, they recruit the ranks of idle-
ness and crime. The tendency of this edu-
cation of the mind to neglect of the hand
in securing results is to increase the rest-
lessness of the time and to unfit many for
true service. No work is degrading. To
do anything well which can contribute to
the comfort of any human being is no dis-
grace: rather, is most honorable.-From
an address by Dr. Franklin Carter at the
Berkshire Industrial Farm, Canaan, N. Y.


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