The Valley Virginian. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1865-1895, 1876-02-03
TEACHERS INSTITUTE.
SECOND AND THIRD DAYS PROCEEDINGS

TEACHERS INSTITUTE.
SECOND AND THIRD DAYS PROCEEDINGS
After the Teachers had nearly all visited
| one or more of the Public Schools OF Staull-
ton, OH Thursday morning, at IL O'Clock
they again repaired to the Town Hail.
where large crowd of spectators had al
ready assembled. Those who had attended
the day previous were unwilling to miss
any part of an entertainment so Interest
ing, and consequently came early, whilst
many others crowded in, and when the
session was opened every seat in the house
was occupied as we'll as all Of the standing
room.
Tie Grammar Glass of the Public School,
opened the session with some excellent sing
ing. Among the pieces sung was the Mar
sellaise Hymn, Which was splendidly exc
cuted and loudly applaudcd. In the judg-
ment OF many, the singing of this class was
superior to that Of the High School the day
before. but this may have been attributable
to the fact that the greater part OF the
Grammar Glass is composed of girls.
Having been prevented from attending
the sessions of the second and third days,
by press of business,we copy the following
excellent report OF the proceedings from
the Spectator.
After this Prof Iadd delivered short lecture
on the subject Of "how to teach children to
mkt apy11f
branch of study. After few remarks in refer
| ence to the three methods of teaching child to
read, he confined his remarks to the word or
object method as it is used in Richmond and
Staunton. That is the child is first taught the
name of the word by sight before he is taught to
spell it. He used McGuffey's chart for object
teaching in explanation of his remarks.
Mr.. Jacob Fuller, Principal of the Lexington
High School, then read a paragraph in illustra-
ton Of the difference between rhetorical and
grammatical punctuation, and was followed by
Prof. s. IT. Queens, of Richmond, in the further
discussion of the subject of reading. He gave
an admirable explanation of the method taught
by DR.. Lee, which is called the synthetic meth
cd in contradistinction to the analytic or word
method, as advocated by Prof. Ladd. This
method had met with great success in st. Louis
and New York, and is the only one used in the
public schools of ST. Louis. By this method, he
claimed that the child is taught to think for
itself and find out the sound of the sylables by
learning the sound of the letters. This method
also tends to give beauty and uniformity of pro-
nunciation. He criticised the Virginia pronun-
citation of certain words, as 'yore" for your
and "sliore" for 'sure' and several Others In
the course of his remarks he took occasion to
say that wherever he had been in Virginia lie
i wi cI,o cofs
of in the highest terms, and paid high cornpli-
ment to Prof. Ladd.
AFTERNOON SESSION
The afternoon session was opened with a lee
ture by Mr.. J. Fuller, of Lexington, on teaching
the elements of grammar" He said that gram
mars were generally very defective and that
children were better gramniarians than many
of those who had written grarnmars. He claim
ed that the best way to teach children grammar
was first to teach them the names of things, and
they would learn of themselves to put them to-
gether grammatically. By way of illustration
he took several little children and by asking
them questions showed that their ideas were
grammatical though they knew nothing OF
grammar. The principles of grammar, he said,
should be taught orally to little children before
they even know what grammar is. Defni tiens
of grammatical terms useless; children do
not understand them. Teach them first the
name-word and the sort-word, without calling
them nouns and adjectives and they will soon
learn how to use them properly. These words
are the very warp and wool of language and
when once learned the child will soon learn to
weave them into sentences.
Mr.. T. P. Epes, Principal of the Churchville
High School. after declaring the uselessncss of
discussing the different systems of teaching
grammar on which there could never be any
agreement, confined himself to few remarks
the way to teach grammar by any system.
The child should be first taught that language
is means Of expressing thought and this should
be illustrated to him by teaching him the names
of such familiar objects he can hear, feel, see
or smell. Thus he will learn to speak grammat-
ically without even knowing that he is doing
so by the technical rules of grammar which he
has never yet learned. When this is accom-
plished- there will be no further trouble. You
can then teach him to use the terms as given in
the grammer, for they are of great convenience
and cannot well be dispensed with.
Mr.. Epes, though a young man. exhibited
practical knowledge of the subject which speaks
well for his attachments and habits Of practical
thought.
NIGHT SESSION.
An extra session of the Institute was held at
night beginning at o'clock, which was largely
attended by citizens, as, in fact, all the
sessions of the Institute.
The session was opened with an address by
Prof Owens 1.-THE Object, Nature, &C., Of
Teachers Institutes" All meetings of men the
world over, he said, have something in COM
mon. They all recognize the necessity of an
overruing deity, SO it is proper that these meet
ings of teachers should in their assembling to-
gether ask for the guidance of God over their
deliberations. Man'sduty upon earth is to Gull
tivate every one of his capabilities and talents
that he may the better perform the work for
which he has been created. He should leave
none unimproved, none unemployed. Educa-
ton has in all times been recognized as one of
mans great duties, therefore selfcultivation
becomes duty SO that he may bring himself
nearer and nearer to the perfect man, which he
was designed to be. Again it is mans duty to
cultivate his fellow-man. The earth is the great
school of the human race, and man cannot es-
cape the fact that he is his brothers keeper,
therefore must he do his best to develop all his
capabilities.
We teachers must study men and children,
and above all the Great Teacher as He is set
forth in the New Testament
Teachers Institutes should serve to make the
teacher recognize the Importance of his Office.
He should magnify his Office in the sense that
st. Paul meant when he said ~ magnify my
self" The teacher should have deep sense of
the effect his instruction has upon the child
and the man, and how lasting and enduring
this effect is. The children are the most i'm
portant part of the people; they will be the
men of the next generation. Then think seri-
ously of the Importance of your office and the
obligation it imposes upon you.
Again, you must seek out the philosophy of
r ic aI a nil Of
pedagogics, and many books have been written.
upon it in Germany. Granting that it is a sci
ence then we ought to learn some of it's prin-
ciples. There are philosophical principles I'm