Unquestionably the
lives of most people run in too narrow a channel. They fail to
appreciate and enjoy many of the common things about them, to which
their eyes have not been properly opened. The particular trade or
business so engrosses most people's time that their sympathies are
narrowed and their appreciation of the duties and responsibilities of
life is stunted. The common school, more than all other institutions,
should lay broad foundations and awaken many-sided sympathies. The
trade school and the university can afford to specialize, to prepare
for a vocation. The common school, on the contrary, is preparing all
children for general citizenship. The narrowing idea of a trade or
calling should be kept away from the public school, and as far as
possible varied interests in knowledge should be awakened in every
child.
But this variety of interests may lead to scattering and _superficial
knowledge_. And in its results many-sided interest would seem to point
naturally to many-sided activity; that is, to multiplicity of
employments, to that character which in Yankee phrase is designated as
"Jack of all trades and master of none." If instead of being allowed
to spread out so much, the educational stream is confined between
narrow banks, it will show a deep and full current.
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