Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1881-08-19
A Summer University.
TnE CHAUrAUoUE AssEMRlY-A NovEI
WATERING ING-PLACE-LECruREs on Arr,
LIrERArrRE AND PHILosofHN.

iNG-PLACE-LECruREs on Arr,
LIrERAruRE AND PHILosofHf.
The American people, quick witted and
knowing well what il wants, is solving some
of its problems of education in methods un-
known to the fathers. 1t has found out at
last that education is not ''finished" when at
fourteen boy leaves school, or at seventeen
girl 'sgoes into society" To tell the whole
truth. even the schoolmasters, the school
committees and the institutes of education
and the normal schools have sometimes en-
couraged error in this matter. They have
given even when they have not held the impress
sion that education is a business for children,
and not for men and women. The fact that
the best study for the best purpose is done
after come to manhood and womanhood
| has been so far left out of sight that sciences
and PHILOSOPHERS, which belong to mature
| life have been crowded in upon the work
of children.
This cottage city of Chautaugue. n.
| Y, is fourteen hundred feet above the
sea. Is not this higher than North
Conway? The lake, twenty miles long, is
said to be the largest considerable sheet of
water, regularly navigated by steam, at that
height in the country. In consequence of
this elevation the air is singularly bracing
and sweet
many to whom the classes and various schools
are but of secondary interest,-perhaps of no
interest. Still, at popular lecture, like
Pornng's on Phidas, Tuesday night the at
tendance was very large. numbering 5000 or
6000 persons, most of whom are adults.
What can one study hereg On the calcn-
lar of the school of languages you find class
es. elementary and advanced. in French,
Italian, German. Latin. Greek and Hebrew.
| Then there are kindergarten classes. gym
nastic classes. classes in music, vocal and
instrumental classes in drawing and in elo-
cution and photography. Mr. Edward Spring
of Boston has classes for children and
adults in modelling. 1t is curious to see how,
with the facilities of his studio, some one or
| two people who never touched modelling clay
before, reveal the pent-up genius within them,
which has been waiting till now to find its
| outlet. Some of these classes require special
| fees Some of them are open to all atten-
dants at the assembly. Like an English uni
versity, the assembly provides general lee
lures for all, gives its approval and appoint
mcnt to teachers, and supervises the special
| instruction given in the separate schools.
| The beginning has been made of museum,
and Mr.. Ward, in lecturing on Assyrian an
tiquities yesterday, was able to refer to the
| specimens of sculptures already there. The
pretty building erected for the purpose has a
good beginning of a collection Of photographs
| illustrating the history of art.
| Ii is hard to make any estimate of the
number of persons here attending more or
| less closely on the exercises of the place. II
is very much larger than last year. A re-
port presented to the managers this week
stated that Sl7 900 was received last year
| from gate money" alone; for YOU must OBJ
| serve that no person is within these precincts
| consecrated to study but he has paid an en- :
| trance fee of thirty cents at the door. This
| shows that an average of q thousand persons
a day entered for one purpose or another.
| The number of cottages is about six hundred.
| The smallest of these must harbor eight or
| ten persons. OF this number by far the
| larger part take some advantage from the ar
| rangemcnts for instruction. -Four thousan
persons have paid the fee of two dollars
each, which admits to all the classes. except
ing those special instructions for which
teachers arrange personally with individual
pupils. One hundred and fortv-one persons
study languages But most of the lectures
| are open to all.
six weeks of midsummer. That is to say, the
teachers retreat begins early in July. 1t
lasts two or three weeks. and is then followed
by the larger assembly" which includes
the courses of lectures and general instrnc-
ton. and closes on the twenty second of
August. These dates are adjusted to meet
| the convenince of teachers. For the public
schools in New York, Pennsylvania and Ohio,
generally open on the first of September
| Correspondence Of The Boston Adrertiser.