No. 7. DErARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 275 



EDUCATIO]S\\L UTILITY 



By DR. EDWIN EARLE SPARKS, President of Pennsylvania State College, State College, Pa. 



Mj Fellow Workers: I hope that I shall be pardoned this even- 

 ing if I occui^y the few minutes I take in speaking along educa- 

 tional lines. This meeting is educational in its aspects, and I must 

 congratulate Director Martin on the attendance and interest mani- 

 fested here in this closing of the year's work. Institutes are all 

 educational, and therefore I do not feel out of tune or harmony in 

 speaking along the line of eduaction. Sometimes we complain that 

 education changes and sometimes that no sooner do we get one 

 thing established in the public schools or colleges than we imme- 

 diately change it; we have the same complaint that as soon as our 

 roads become good we repair them. It is true we make frequent 

 changes; but these changes are simply adjustments to meet the 

 new demands. We have no candle light here this evening and no 

 one would think of going back to candle light. There is an elec- 

 trician in this building to look after all these lights, in the days 

 of candle light Ave had no electricians. T imagine in the olden days 

 we should have had this room heated with a stove which scorched 

 .you on one side and froze you on the other side, so that a man might 

 wish himself seated on a turntable. Now the building is steam- 

 heated under the care of an engineer. My point is that there 

 has come a demand for the electrician, and a demand for the en- 

 gineer; that this change In our environment is constantly going on 

 and as the environment changes so the education must change. It 

 is true it changes slowly sometimes and frequently the need is 

 greatly in advance of the suppl.y, because Ave cannot determine 

 what will be needed until after the need arises. I might, in this 

 view define education as a constant adjustment to meet new de- 

 mands made upon us. A few years ago we Avere satisfied Avith 

 the bread made by mother; now we demand the best bread that 

 science enables us to make. Then mother was dissatisfied Avhen 

 she had bad luck ; noAV it is a case of thermometer Avith mother's 

 bread and we have practically come to adjust all education along 

 these lines. 



Education has changed more rapidly in the upper portion of the 

 curriculum than in the lower part; that is, our education has 

 adapted itself much more rapidly to the higher demands of life 

 than to the lower demands. The electrical department at the Penn- 

 sylvania State College is turning out about fifty electrical engineers 

 this year, and every one has a place now in advance of getting his 

 diploma. There is also a demand along the line of agronomy. We 

 are training six or eight men in that course this year and eA'^ery 

 man has a position in advance of the time he Avill graduate. A few 

 years ago there Avas no course in electricity, agronomy, and a school 



