The Emporia news. [volume] (Emporia, Kan.) 1859-1881, 1880-06-25
THE New NORMAL BUILDING.


public school.
Nevertheless. the surest way To answer
al objection and silence and cavil, is
not by words Of praise and eulogy, but
by making it the most efficient. Give it
the Utmost of its power and it will de-
fend itself against every attack. Many
things will increase this efficiency.
shall stop to notice but one, and that the
most important, the teacher. He is the
central figure in the school. Around
him revOlves its work. With power in
him the school is a success; without il,
n failure. With power in in him the
cheapest log house is aglOw with light
which fills the centuries with splendOr;
without it, the cOstliest and most extraV-
agantly furnished room is as void of
light as the innermOst crypt of the
pyramid of Cheops. For, after all, the
school -eom is but the work shop in
which the workman, the teacher, tolls.
And the quality of work depends on the
skill and faithfulnesS of the workman
rather than the beauty of the building
in which the work is done.
1t is the skilled IabOrer that does the
best work, as well as receives the best
pay and occupies the most hOnOred So
cial position. And skill comes only
from training. The days of inspiration
in the ancient days the Latin poet.
This may still be true of poets, for they
are the most erratic and law-defying of
all mental creations; they are the comets
or shooting stars of the intellectual uni
verse. But outside of poetry there is no
law SO deep, and fixed and sure as that
skill, power and success are reached
only by patient walking up the long line
of careful training.
You may, it is true, in few weeks of
incubation hatch professional egg into
full-fedged attorney, Growing on every
fence aud scratching for all kinds of
grain, but enquire the best and easiest
road to the poor house, before you in
vite him on TO your place to pick up
corn. Many beaten sutton can ask for
a new trial upon the ground of appeal
presented by u convicted criminal, that
he had no lawyer, or next to none. You
may in a very brief time boost q man
into doctors sulkY, get permission
from either state society - that of small
bottles and little pills, or that of large
doses and speedy deaths-to write N
ID. after his name, and teach him to
| ring few changes on large words and
Latin terms, SO that instead of saying
that the child has the collie and needs q
teaspOOnful of paregoric, he Owlishly IN
forms you that the infant is afflicted
with disturbance of the chylOpoetic
viscera and requires Immediately one
drachm of tinctura camphOrae ct ops
but never send for him when the shadow
of disease rests upon your pillow, I'm.
Hess you are well insured for the benefit
of your widow and children.
so you may put a man into a school
room, give him a ruler, piece of chalk
and y cheap license from the county
| triumvirate and call him teacher. Bnt
wonder not If your children make nc
more rapid progress than that of unaid
ed growth, or if a skeptical public lifts
up its voice against the school and
queries whether taxation to pay thu
salary of such an educational asininC
is taxation for public purpose.
And here comes in the Normal. You
success means trained teachers. YOT
educate the educators; you teach how tt
teach. you give skill and efficiency t.
the workmen you send out to do bette
work in the thousands of school house,
thrOugOut the land, and by this bette
work defend, uplift and perpetuate TIL
public school. At the same time vol
lennoble the teacher. spoke when frs
here of the new profession, and endeav
Ored to show that the growing purpos
of the day was to lift teaching from tn
lower level of AN occupation to the high
CIR dignity of Il profession, and that as
profession, like all others, it demands
: both prior training and the devotion @
a life work. Time has not changed tn
views then expressed, and with f1fteel
years of added observation, affirm tina
he who would have recognized sOcia
position may find it in the school room
Teaching is no longer mental service
it is high and holy calling, and tn
world more and more pays homage t
him who is in fact as well as name
teacher. But he who would receiv
homage must deserve it. Homage is tn
golden fruit which ripens only on tn
. tOpmOst bOugh, and is not plucked b
the careless hand of him who only take
, II casual walk beneath the spreadin
branches. He who would receive. hon
age in the schools must make that schoC
his life as we'll as his living. He mus
link cultured power to years of toll, an
5 the two will weave the laurel he long
( To wear. If proof of this is wanted,
; need only turn to the array of distiI
guished educators known and hOnore
: throughout the state and say, ecce 81.
: mum.
e He must, did say! She must,
e mean, for woman is and is to be th
i
J. | fingers and rough, awkward ways, al
/ not suited to the delicate task of wea
ing into form and beauty the fragI
v threads of thought and feeling which Il
|. in a tangled skein in the child's sou
o We help, and help to save the commo
e school when we turn it over to woman
S care. And think We shall do we
? when we not only give her place
) the routine work of the school rooI
s but also lift her to larger share in Il
!, general administration of school affair
d count it no small honor that it W;
mine to pen the words which, on the d
s cision of the highest Judicial tribunal
i the state, affirmed the right of woman
II hold the Office of county superintendent
n a decision which, by opening the doc
Il to a wider control and a higher plac
v gives to her interest in school matters
e keener stimulus and more enduriI
IS ambition.
Il We boast, and rightly, of our schOO
u and school system. We came in Il
a morning of Kansas from historic Ne
d England, singing, with Whittier,
It I'VE go to plant her common schools.
,e On distant brairie swelIs %
4 And we have planted them, are st
planting. and, God helping us, mean
is continue planting. 1t is no small thil
e. in a quarter of a century to have char
n. ed territory larger than New Englal
ID from a vast expanse of unoccupied al
n unbrOken prairie To II shining reach
re gathered 1874 600 horses, 1000 600 cstt
Is S25, 600 sheep and 5000 swine;
d. have turned the sod of 5000, 900 acre
BIS to reap an annual crop of 100000
III bushels of wheat, lI0. 100000 bushels
ne corn, and to have accumulated go
~ 900, 900 worth of property; no SIM
n thing to have built 5000 miles of "a
nd road over lines WheFB not even q sta
OF coach ran. But il is grander thing
re have built 5000 school houses at a c.
nd of over 5000, 900; to have filed tht
d with 100000 pupils; to expend 81 go
be 600 annually in maintaining schOC
ar and at the same time have accumulai
ola permanent school fund OF about
&c equal amount
d Go where you viii through the sta
al the school house first attracts your e,
bt- no district is without one; no buildiI
nd more slightly. From the latest pion,
re- district on our western frontier, VIII
IL first public work is the school house,
i'll 10 the great university on the summit
~ Mt. Dread, which lifts its lofty dome
nd catch the first kiss of the morning 81
p light upon Kansas, and which stands
uf- the surest defender, as well as
up chiefest glory Of the historic city at
1t feet, filed with an ever increasi
tn throng Of eager youth, and attesting
he sublime faith Of Kansas in the pOl
ere and blessings Of universal educate
he With such faith so general, so pat
yes so significant, Kansas well deserves
lb- name, with which in the presence
ate this audience, of the educators /
Ike thinkers Of the state, now baptize
e" by the name Of The School State
up the Bay state, not tie Empire, not
keystone, not the Old Dominion,
the the Palmetto, nor the Pine I