“But schools are to provide education.”
“They provide opportunities,” said Mr. Borden quietly. “If a boy goes to school and doesn’t use his opportunities, the fact that he has attended or even been graduated from a certain institution doesn’t make him an educated man, does it? Education is like the water in a trough—if a horse doesn’t drink it, it doesn’t make any difference how many times he has been led to it or what a fine trough the water is in. No horse quenches his thirst except by drinking.”
“What is an education then?”
“Perhaps I can best answer that question by telling what a certain great college president explained it to be. He said there are four great processes or operations of a boy’s mind which education ought to develop if it is to fulfil its best purpose—the first is observing accurately, the second is recording correctly, the next is the ability to compare and group and draw a correct inference, and the last is the ability to express clearly and forcefully what he has learned.”
“Don’t you think Dan can do all that? I’m sure Walter can,” affirmed Mrs. Borden.
“Can he?” said Mr. Borden quizzically. “Well, if he can then he is educated already and I shall not need to send him to school any more. As for Dan, I must see more of him. The most I know now is that he struck out fifteen men to-day.”
CHAPTER X
MR. BORDEN DECIDES
Bright and early the following morning, Mr. Borden, accompanied by Walter, went to Dan’s home. Eager as Walter was to talk about the prospect of his friend being enrolled as a pupil in the Tait School he did not refer to the matter which was uppermost in his thoughts. The clear warm air of the summer morning, the green of the fields of waving corn, the sight of the well-fed and contented cattle in the pastures, the songs of the birds in the treetops—all were so attractive to the man who had found a brief respite from the cares of his office in the city that somehow Walter was aware that his father had no desire to talk. Accordingly, the two walked in silence and in a brief time stood before the open door of the kitchen in Dan’s home, where his mother was busily engaged in her morning tasks.
“Good morning, Mrs. Richards,” called Mr. Borden, who already had a slight acquaintance with Dan’s mother. “Walter and I were taking a morning stroll and stopped for a moment to look about us here.”