Repository: UIHistories Project: Commencement - 1922 [PAGE 3]

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AN ADVENTURE IN EDUCATION

N A very real sense the modern state university has arisen out of the greatest educational adventure of all time—the diffusing of knowledge among the masses of men. Nothing is like it in its history, its objectives, or its possibilities; for whether its roots are considered as running to the Land Grant Act of 1862, or to the new spirit actuating the provisions for governing the Northwest Territory, or still farther back to the public elementary schools of New England days, in any case the institution we call the state university is unique, sui generis, of the people, by the people and for the people. Under the forces long at work its evolution has been as inevitable as it has been natural, and its future may be predicated upon the spirit that has led to its development. It is a privilege to invite attention for a few moments to the philosophy of education that underlies the genius of our beloved University. For this University of ours is more than an institution of higher learning; it is more than a shrine where devotees of knowledge may worship; it is more than a place where a favored few may secure for themselves advantages over others. It is a reservoir of knowledge, feeding fountains of progress wherever men live and love and multiply and serve. When our forefathers established the public elementary schools in order that every man might read the Scriptures and the statutes for himself and know at first hand the laws of God and man, they put out to s< 1 upon uncharted waters, seeking the modern golden fleece, and the event has extended the kingdom of learning beyond the wildest dreams of the adventurers. I'or it was a g n a t adventure, this putting of knowledge and the means of securing it, into the hands of all th' people; and the result has been, by a series of inevit able Btej th modern state university. These stops