EDUCATIONAL PROBLEMS IN CHINA. 351 



education as some real, practical training. Her people are not ready 

 for the former, but are badly in need of the latter. The first utility 

 of education should be to enable those educated to earn a competency, 

 without which we can hardly expect a man to go about discussing the 

 nice points in law or in science, while a starving family awaits him 

 at home and an empty stomach gnaws within. With her countless mil- 

 lions of population, China has no workmen skilled in the production 

 of any part of the furnishings for the comforts and conveniences of 

 modern life. To-day China is using modern conveniences and appli- 

 ances that she can not produce. This being the condition, practical 

 manual training in the useful arts is her first necessity. If China 

 wishes to become a member of the great family of civilized nations, 

 she must be educated out of the idea that an educated gentleman should 

 not perform any manual labor, and that learning and labor are divorced 

 from each other. 



Though our path is thus strewn with difficulties and obstacles, yet 

 we as educators do not labor without a bright ray of hope. The Chinese 

 mind has all the elements of a good soil for the implantation of the 

 seeds of learning; it only needs proper cultivation. For example, 

 there are in the Li Shing Scientific and Industrial College at Hong 

 Kong, young men and boys who, five months ago, had no idea of what 

 science was, who can now perform chemical experiments understand- 

 ing^ and discuss many scientific topics intelligently. Once having 

 tasted the flavor of the new learning, some of the students try to devour 

 the subjects with the eagerness of a starving dog that sees a piece of 

 meat. When they are interested in their studies, they apply them- 

 selves to their books with all the force of mind and body. This better 

 class of students is very orderly, docile, impressionable and respectful. 



Although at first many of the students are slow to comprehend the 

 methods and aims of a system of education so new to them, my experi- 

 ence has been that after a few months some of those who were appa- 

 rently indifferent suddenly take hold as if by inspiration. Having 

 become interested, nothing can woo them from their books, and, instead 

 of having to hold them to strict account for their daily work, we have 

 to keep them back. I have in mind, in particular, one fourteen-year- 

 old boy who, when he entered our school, was a very idle and playful 

 scholar. He was so idle and unruly that he had to be kept standing 

 by the teacher's desk the greater part of the time. Indeed, we had our 

 doubts whether it was best to allow him to remain with us. After a 

 few weeks his reasoning powers became unearthed and he took an ab- 

 sorbing interest in chemistry. From that time forth there was no 

 further occasion for reprimand ; there was a marked changed in all his 

 work and his progress in English was very rapid. His ability to apply 

 what he learns, his power to grasp new ideas and his faculty for 



