The Placer herald., 1874-05-09
SUPERlNTENDENT'S ADDRESS.

| Following is the address delivered by j.
T. Kinkade, Superintendent of the Public
Schools of Placer County, at the opening of
the annual Teachers Institute, April 2Sth,
1874.
TEACHERS OF PLACER: Another year has
rolled away, and is remembered with times
past. And with it have passed pleasures
and sorrows incident to your profession. 1t
is pleasant to call back the recollection of
successful efforts in a noble cause, and is
consolng TO know that you have endeavor-
ed to perform your duties faithfully and ear
nestly. 1t is painful to recall the recollcc-
ton of failures; and you would be more
.han human if you have not made failures.
Again you have assembled in convention, to
exchange ideas, compare notes, and to en-
deavor to prepare yourselves still better for
the work you have undertaken. And,
again, l congratulate you on the success
which has attended your efforts during the
year. You have erected living monuments,
upon which are written, in language not to
be mistaken, the evidence of your work.
manshp. By conventions, expression is
given to popular sentiment, and by the aid
of conventions all the different organizations
and co nbinations of the people are harmon
lied and receive vital force. We have
political, industrial, scientific, social and re-
ligious conventions, which meet for the pur-
pose of advancing their peculiar theories and
promote their interest and welfare. As
educators of the coming women and men, it
is necessary that you should meet and con-
suit together, and by the aid of multitude
of counselors, determine what is best to be
done in that which is of vastly more i'm
portance than all other interests combined
for upon the efforts of educators depend the
welfare of the coming generation. 1t is
necessary that you should meet and adop.
such measures as may be necessary to en-
able you in the best manner possible, to
discharge the duties devolving upon you in
forming the minds and characters of the
children entrusted to your care; and to pro-
tect yourselves against the aggressive CEN
traization of power against your interests
and rights. For years past you have re-
maned passive and Indifferent to encroach
ments upon your rights; and to-day, by vr-
tue of restrictive laws and arbitrary orders,
you have been divested of many privileges
which every teacher ought to be fully in
vested with. You are in measure shorn
of that independence of thought and action
which beget true nobility. 1t is time for
you to adopt such measures as may better
enable you to rise above such laws and Or
ders, placing yourselves superior, not sub
ordinate, to selfish theories and unwise leg
isation, by which it is thought to make
you slaves to a superior and arbitrary pow
er, which is without restrictions, entirely
arbitrary. and opposed to the will of the
people. You may ask which of the two
masters you ought to obey? My answer is,
legally you ought to obey the law; but
morally and socially you ought to obey the
popular will. Obedience to the law may
not discharge the duties you owe to the peo-
pie. in their moral and social aggregate ca
pacity. With few exceptions those re-
sponsbities have been recognized, and your
efforts have been crowned with as great a
degree of success as surrounding influences
would permit. The change in the course Of
studies has been effected with the least pos
sible confusion to schools, or Inconvenience
to parents The new course is an improve
ment on the old one, and works well in
many respects; but again urge as an OBJ
lection that it requires too many studies at
the same time. The introduction of draw
ing, botany and music is generally con-
demned by the people, and at present can
only be nominally complied with. The in
PRODUCTION of these studies has driven many
of our most successful teachers from the
profession, and confusion follows. Their
places lave to be filed by teachers untried
and with limited experience, scholastic at
tainments and aptness to teach are indis-
pensible qualifications, but experience makes
perfect. With one exception, have en-
deavored to comply with all orders in re-
lation to the course, which is that the studies
for each division shall be accomplished in
eight months (neiiher more nor less). This
order is, to say the least, arbitrary, unjust
and contrary to our popular theories of pro-
gression. have found many scholars in
the county that have passed through one
division in five or six months, and on strict
examination attained eighty and as high as
ninety per cent. We have in the county
many small districts which cannot and do
not have more than five months school.
believe it is wrong to keep a bright pupil
back, because dull ones in the same division
cannot advance rapidly. Our State Board
| SHouiu CoiIcCt lniS tudt'cr, VI scc W IL '""'
all children are endowed with like faculties,
for one OF the ether must be changed. Take
case in one of our small districts where
some winters will not permit more than five
months school each year, and with what is
forgotten between terms, two years will be
required to master each division. or sixteen
years for all. If child should enter school
at six years of age, in one of these districts,
be would finish at twenty-five. For these
and other reasons, have adopted the rule
to promote classes and pupils as soon as
they have thoroughly completed the course.
| In these matters our statutes are only di-
rectory, while the orders are mandatory.
As fountain cannot rise above its source,
our State Board cannot rise superior to the
statutes from which il derives existence.