The union Democrat., 1871-01-21

County superintendent Address.

The following address was delivered by
Superintendent Metzger at the opening of the
late Teachers Institute, commencing Deem
Der 9th, 1870:
FELLOW LApoRERs The system of Poru-
lar Education in this country has become an
established fact. and the extensive provisions
for itin all the States show how generally sud
thoroughly it Is appreciated. But the move
ments which led to it, proceeded from the
feeling of q cant to be supplied, rather than
from any clear perception of the character of
the thing wanted. While the struggle was
to get, anything was accepted, passing under
the name Of Notwithstanding learned from
books, at stated times and in set places-was
sufficient. But the first step being taken,
and the system secured, the question inevita-
bly, arises as to its character, defects, and the
means of its improvement; and this is now
the supreme consideration. Deeper than all
questions of Reconstruction, Suffrage and FL
nance is the question, How shall the grow
ing minds of our children be educated
The recent and extensive organization Of
Normal School for the more thorough and
systematic preparation of Teachers, is proof
of general desire to improve the methods,
and raise the standard of popular instruc-
of o growing disposition to carry educational
inquiries, down to first principles, and to
bring the system into better harmony with
the needs of the times. Among other imper-
fections Of the prerdiling education. in oil its
grades. is lack of the Study of Nature.
The Importance of giving large space 20
scientific subjects. in our educational courses,
is being every year more and more felt, and
acknowledge. In the place of mere verbal
acquisitions, and mechanical recitations. we
need more thinking about things; in the place
OF the passive acceptance Of mere book and
tutorial authority, more cultivation of indie
pendent Judgment; in place of the arbitrary
presentation Of unrelated subjects, the branch
es of knowledge require to be dealt with iii a
more rational and connected order, and in
place of much that is irrevelant, Anticipated
and impractical in cur system of study. there is
needed larger infusion of the living and
available truth which belongs to the present
time. A conviction of the extent Of its de-
fects and needs. has led many of most emf
nent thinkers to criticise the existing Educa-
tional System; and 10 urge the claims of the
various sciences to increasing consideration.
All educatioualin inquiries assume that man is
individually improbable, and therefore colec-
lively progressive. Through varied expert
ences he is slowly civilized, and there is
growth of knowledge with the course of ages.
But while thought is ever advancing, it is the
nature of institutions to fix the mental states
Of particular times, and hence there arises
tendency to conflict between growing ideas
and the external arrangements which are de-
signed to express and emhody them. Thought
refuses to be stationary, institutions refuse to
change, and war is the consequence.
This idea is Familiarity illustrated in the
case of government. Ideas, and character,
having ont-grown the arbitrary institutions
of the remote past, there has arisen between
them an antagonisu, the fresult of which.
Modern History is full. So, too, religious
conceptions. having developed beyond the
ecclesiastical organizations to which they at
first gave rise. a struggle arose IN the six
teepth century, which resulting in the Refor-
nation, has persisted under various aspects
to the present time. And so it is with the
traditional systems of Mental Culture.
Educational institutions which have been
hequeathed to us by the past, and which may
have been suited to their times, have fallen
out of harmony with the intellectual necessi-
ties of modern life, and a conflict has arisen,
which, Geerened in intensity, with the rapid
growth of knowledge and the general pro-
gress of society. Speaking of progress re-
minds me of the fact that we have assembled
for the purpose of mental improvement. and
as we have Ire. progressive, and energetic
Educator present. whose ability, experience
and success in the cause entities him to a
place in the front rank of the live, wide awake
men of the day. will conclude my remarks
hv Introducing Professor E. Knowlton of San
Francisco.