Some thoughts on commercial education : Autograph manuscript, [1899?].

Being a draft of an autograph manuscript with revisions and corrections throughout; discussing the need for "special training" for a business life in light of the increased ease of communication, travel and an increase in competition; discussing the differences in secondary education between America and England; discussing the relative usefulness of students who spend two years in an academic course on commerce and those that begin to work in an office at the age of 15; discussing the difficulties of crafting a curriculum given the "extreme variety of the kinds of work which are summed up and covered by the general term of Business or Commerce;" discussing the difference between Aptitude and Knowledge as they relate to a business curriculum; discussing the specific courses of a proposed curriculum; setting forth five conclusions, the first of which is "The provision of special instruction in commercial matters is desirable, not because special knowledge or training is of great consequence as compared with natural intelligence or with the gifts of character which lead to success, but because the stress of competition is now so keen that no nation can afford to neglect any expedient which may help to give its citizens a better chance than they would otherwise have;" cautioning that he does not in any way mean "...to argue on behalf of what is called a modern or non-classical education. I am not one of those who think that either the ancient languages or what are called 'literary' or 'humanistic' subjects play too large a part in our schools either in England or in the United States...but on the hypothesis that when general education has closed, be it at fourteen years of age, or at sixteen, or at eighteen, some special preparation for commercial life ought to be given."