Ryerson Memorial Volume: Prepared on the occasion of the unveiling of the Ryerson statute in the grounds of the Education department on the Queen's birthday, 1889Hodgins, J. George (John George)
History
Ryerson Memorial Volume: Prepared on the occasion of the unveiling of the Ryerson statute in the grounds of the Education department on the Queen's birthday, 1889
Hodgins, J. George (John George)
Education -- Ontario; Ryerson, Egerton, 1803-1882
EARLY OPINIONS ON THE NECESSITY FOR MANUAL, OR INDUSTRIAL, EDUCATION.
The following passage from the report of 1832 is prophetical in its
anticipation of the future. By way of illustration I may mention the
fact that a somewhat similar utterance was made by Sir Lyon Playfair
in his address as president of the British Association, at Aberdeen,
in 1887. The passage in the report of 1832 is as follows:--
"That the situation of the Province in wealth and commerce,
and in its demand for superior attainments in the various
professions is very different from what it formerly was; and
that unless opportunities are immediately furnished by the
establishment of superior schools for the instruction of our
youth in the higher branches of science, we must fall behind the
age in which we live."
What was thus put forth as a local thought, but yet as an
educational axiom, by these educational pioneers of Upper Canada,
upwards of fifty years ago, is thus forcibly and beautifully
amplified by the president of the British Association in 1887.
Speaking generally, and contrasting the educational policy of the
colonies and that of the mother country, he said:--
"The colonies, being young countries, value their raw materials
as their chief source of wealth. When they become older they
will discover it is not in these, but in the culture of
scientific intellect, that their future prosperity depends....
Jules Simon tersely puts it:--'The nation which most educates
her people will become the greatest nation, if not to-day,
certainly to-morrow.' Higher education is the condition of
higher prosperity, and the nation which neglects to develop the
intellectual factor of production must degenerate, for it cannot
stand still.... The illustrious consort of our Queen was not the
first prince who saw how closely science is bound up with the
welfare of states.... How unwise it is for England to lag in the
onward march of science, when most other European powers are
using the resources of their states to promote higher education
and to advance the boundaries of knowledge. [She] alone fails
to grasp the fact that the competition of the world has become
a competition of intellect.... A nation in its industrial
progress, when the competition of the world is keen, cannot
stand still.... I contend that in public education there should
be a free play to the scientific faculty, so that the youths who
possess it should learn the richness of their possession during
the educative process.... Science has impressed itself upon the
age in which we live; and as science is not stationary, but
progressive, men are required to advance its boundaries, acting
as pioneers in the onward march of states. Human progress is so
identified with scientific thought, both in its conception and
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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