The Wheeling daily intelligencer. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1865-1903, 1871-08-23
National Educational Convention at
rlrdg01 81. LOliS.s gr.t E

! As- a.l ST. LOUTH, August lB. Il
The eleventh annual meeting of the
National Educational Convention took
place at Polytechnic Institute today. A
number Of delegates were present from
different sections Of the country. Tho
large hall being entirely filed, The
President Spimkard called the Conven.
ton TO order and after q few general re-
marks he introduced Gov Brown, who
delivered an address most cordially vel
coming delegates to St Louis. The great
focal point Of the educational labor in
the West, Tho Governor gave q rapid
sketch OF what has been done for educa'
ton in this State aud then touched upon
some Of tho phases Of the system as gcn-
orally taught in this country. BE was
something Of q sceptio TO the general
dogma, that schooling In It's present Rc-
Cepted phraseology ol popular educa-
tion Is the foundation Of all virtue and
morality Of the community; he thought
the value Of education TO society much
unsettled when thus presented he said
education as an aid to social life Is chiefly
serviceable in tho first instance, as
furnishing better facilities for pro:
lection and the provision Of ones.
sell and family In the present social
condition; and second. For the larger
comprehension In the inculcatiOn OF the
interests and conventional dependencies
that Justify selfsaCritlce In sustaining the
social order. tits very customary In dec.
lamation 10 pronounce that education Is
the great safeguard Of republics against
the decay Of virtue and the reign 6t i'm
mortality, yet tho facts scarcely bear out
tho propositions The highest civilization,
botli ancient and modern, has sometimes
been tho most tlagitious Nowadays,
certainly your prime rascals are educated
rascals, and Il Is at best doubtful whether
education in ITSELF as now engendered
and confined merely TO tho acquisition Of
knowledge, has any tendency to mitigate
tho vicious clements of human nature,
further than to change the disposition
and dispose Of crime, This Is not al
legged, be Il understood, Of moral culture
or Of religious instruction, but simply of
the education OF the intellect, He
would not enter into any analytical
discussion of the problem, but said
he believed the best remedy for the
disease would be found apart from
moral and religious training. Elsewhere
tho changes which have been made Of
late years In the high schools and uni.
versttieB, by the Introduction OF tho
physical and social Sciences, slpplantlpg,
10 large extent at least, in the primary
instruction. What he called the dead.
beats Of language, Is tho ordinary history
and the philosophy ot words and phrases.
Hethenlaid down the following aswhat
Is specially needed at the present time
The cultivation Ofthe powers Of observa.
tion and consequent thought In Our youth
the assimilation Of the knowledge that is
in books by constant correlation with,
the world around, and tho practical illus.
trations thereby afforded the Tecognl.
tiviI vr . mara natural growing faculty that
shalladapt education TO tho lmpulSe, en-.
ioyment and capacity Of the child, and
oil this In place Of the parrotlike recita-
tion Of tho Chinese memorizing Textbook,
,cramming and discipline bred Of tho ease
Of tho master, but gTopressive altogether
of tho human nature Of tho pupil, 10 swhat
this ago demands with potential voice.
Education to be successful, must be co.
ordinate with 10y and lightness and
relishing thrust that shall make every &C.
Quisltion only the incentive 10 renew
tho effort upon the question OF the
relative advantage Of the classical or
mathematical studies as agencies in
teaching the actual compensations of
nature In taking the criminal codo to the
schools and calling the action with the
retributions In demonstration oil virtue as
i,s own best reward, not the axiom, but
BY illustration and In showing forth by
suitable methods that wrong is ever o
miscalculation and therefore foreign TO
tho first law Of education. Have YOU, he
said, any text book oi crime and tnisde.
meanor in your schoolsp Doyour young
men grow up knowing what obtaining
money under false pretonSes means Are
your classes Of the penitentlary and tho
reformatory ever applied In tic school
room? And yet whilst forcing tho fac.
ulues of youth TO the highest acGteness 7
You would leave them unguarded amid
sordid greed for gain and unschooledln
the. principles ol honor and integrity.
II the object Of all education Ia to be hrm
and developo perfect life, then II Is evl.
dent that II must touch life, the lilo OF
the present, not Of the past, on oil sides,
and TO that end there will not be vast
changes In what 10 taught at Our schools
no less thnns,in the manner II Is
taught. He then 70 referred 10
4 mental discipline. He would not ex.
press an.opinlon, but he entered strong
protest against o national compulsory cd.
ticaton. The address was repeatedly ap.
plauded. Mr.. SplnkRrd after returning
thanks 10 the Governor, introduced Hon
/ Eli TappAti, who briefly referred ito the
Importance Of moral training In tho 0du-
cation Of youth. 9iH. White also made
a b1ef address, during which he stated
that Gen. Garfield Of Ohio, who was TO
speak tonight on the relations Of the gen.
eral government 10 education, had been
Unexpectedly called to Washington on irn'
portsnt business, and would not therefore
Il be present. 'Atihvitation TO visit Shaw's
Garden was received, and the public
Library was placed Of the Use Of the Con-
ventlon. The Convention is divided in
four sections, in all Of which papers will
be read, and discussions follow. The re.
porting will therefore be attended with
difficulty .i.E ....
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