was found to be impossible, for the reason that it might interfere with
the attendance upon the University Extension lectures. That, Mr.
Pedagog, is a matter of history and can be proven, and last night's
audience confirmed the impression which I had formed from what my father
had told me. Professor Peterkin's lectures are interesting to you, a
school-master, but they are pure Greek to me, who would like to know
more about letters. I would gather more instruction from your table-talk
in an hour than I could from Professor Peterkin's whole course."
"You flatter me," said Mr. Pedagog.
"No," returned the Idiot. "If you knew how little the ignorant gain from
Peterkin you would not necessarily call it flattery if one should say he
learned more from your conversation over a griddle-cake."
"You misconceive the whole situation, I think, nevertheless," said Mr.
Whitechoker. "As I understand it, supplementary lectures, and
examinations based on them, are held after the lectures, when the
practical instruction is given with great thoroughness."
"I'm glad you spoke of that," said the Idiot. "I had forgotten that part
of it. Professor Peterkin received pay for his lectures, which dealt in
theories only; plain Mr. Barton, who delivered the supplementary
lectures, got nothing. Professor Peterkin taught nothing, but he
represented University Extension. Plain Mr. Barton did the work and
represented nothing. Both reached society. Neither reached the masses.
In my native town plain Mr. Barton's supplementary lectures, which were
simply an effort to unravel the Peterkin complications, were attended by
the same people in smaller crowds--people of social standing who were
curious enough to devote an hour a week to an endeavor to find out the
meaning of what Professor Peterkin had told them at the function the
week before. The students examined were mostly ladies, and I happen to
know that in a large proportion they were ladies whose husbands could
have afforded to pay Professor Peterkin his salary ten times over as a
private tutor."
"As I look at it," said Mr. Pedagog, gravely, "it does not make much
difference to whom your instruction is given, so long as it instructs.
What if these lectures do interest those who are comparatively well
off? Your society woman may be as much in need of an extended education
as your factory girl. The University Extension idea is to convey
knowledge to people who would not otherwise get it. It simply sets out
to improve minds. If the social mind needs improvement, why not improve
it? Why condemn a system because it does not discriminate in the minds
selected for improvement?"
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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