DAIRY AND SEED IMPROVEMENT MEETINGS. IQ/ 



VOCATIONAL EDUCATION. 



Dr. Robert J. Aley^ President, University of Maine. 



(Stenographic Report.) 



There is perhaps no subject that is of so great interest to 

 all of us as the subject of education. We are interested in it 

 for what it is doing, for the achievements of the past, but 

 more particularly for what we believe it may do for the gen- 

 erations that are to follow us. It is, the desire of every man 

 and every woman that the next generation shall be stronger 

 and better than this and shall be prepared to live more com- 

 pletely than any preceding generation. It is this rather fun- 

 damental feeling that always makes the subject of education 

 one of interest. 



The term, education, is difficult to define because it repre- 

 sents a fundamental notion that is continually changing. A 

 definition big enough to include every idea in education held 

 at present, would not be adequate 24 hours from now, because 

 in 24 hours of time there would be growth and new ideas and 

 consequently changes in the conception of education. The old 

 idea of education was that it was something that could be 

 gotten from books, that it was definitely limited and that might 

 be finished. The old education had to do with mind and with 

 mind alone. There was very little notion of the application of 

 thought to the affairs of men. Indeed, many held that for an 

 educational subject to have real value it must be free from the 

 taint of bread and butter ; it must have in it nothing that might 

 contribute to the gain of the individual who possessed it. Ideas, 

 when once they have taken hold of the human race, are slow to 

 change. One continual warfare among men is the warfare 

 against conservatism, the warfare against the fixity of ideas. 

 Although civilization has gone on and upward, making many 



