Morning journal and courier., 1883-10-20
Discussing school Work.

High School Yesterday-PresidentP POr-
 ter's Address.
 The sessions of the State Teachers associa- tion yesterday at High School hall were inter esting, fruitful, and well attended. The morning session began at o'clock with de- votional exercises by Rev. D. A. GoodselI
 The topic of the mornings discussion was theTelation of the public library to the pnb=l lie school. H. M. Harrington of Bridge port read the report of the committee on
 that subject; n. s. Crosby of Waterbury
 spoke of the library in relation to the high school; s. T. Dutton, superintendent of the New Haven schools, read a paper on the re-
 Iation of the library to the Grammar school;
 N. L. Bishop of Norwich told what the teach CTS shonld do to direct the pupils in the use of the library and Miss c. E. Bush of New
 Britain read very excellent paper on the use teachers should make of the public library. Further remarks on the subject were made by
 J. D. Bartley of Bridgeport.
 Hon. Charles D. Hine, secretary of the State Board of Education,
 gave chapter from the history of schools in
 Connecticut. His paper was comprehensive and instructive. He said the best schools were found where there was least dependence on funds, where taxation was general, and where the management was careful and wig
 orous.
 After taking a short recess, William E. Sheldon, of the Journal of Education, an nounced that the National Teachers assooia- ! ton would hold 9 national exposition July 15, 1884, probably at Madison, Wis, in con-
 nection with the next meeting of the associa- l tion. He had been requested by the presi- 1 dent of the association to invite the teachers of Connecticut. Messrs. A. Morse, of Hartford, and George H. Tracy, of Colchester, opened the general l discussion on the subject of Connecticut's
 schools. Professor William G.Sumner of Yale college was present and spoke upon the ques- ton. He thought the everlasting talking
 about methods of instruction amounted to
 nothing What was wanted was real practi- cal work in the school. The way to improve 1 the schools was not to go to the Legislatures
 nor to get the college professors to help them out. His private opinion was that the meth
 cd of instruction in the colleges were not so ] good as those in the common schools. The 1 teachers should depend on themselves. He 1 thought that the dry rot had got into the common schools in the rural districts. There { is indifference, there is bigotry, there is job \ bery in the rural schools. The common l school system of Connecticut cannot afford
 to rest idly upon it's prestige. The rural pop
 ulation is changing. School methods must
 be changed.
 MT. Ariel Parish, ex superintendent of the schools of New Haven. read paper on ''Ed-
 ucation and it's agents"
 1 At the afternoon session, which began at 2 o'clock, James H. Hoose principal of the Normal and Training school at Cortland, N. ! Y., delivered an address upon the subject,
 Primary Arithmetic as Means to Develop
 Mental Power" The address considered in 1 8 very thorough and exhaustive manner the
 fundamental principles of numbers and the 1 power of sense, perception and conception
 of the mind. When pupil arrives at con- ! ception of some of the lower numbers, he 1 gets the notion of the higher ones by reason l of the analogy between the higher and the l lower, and not in the same way he got the
 notion of the lower ones. He then applies 1 his notions to sensuous objects. The will 1 expends energy to appretend the phe- { create the products called inference, and to create them in the form of lan- l guage. Mental power is the result of
 this potential energy. The limit of eompre- l hending numbers is so fixed in the mind that it is quite unnecessary to comprehend any 1 but the fundamental numbers. When child learns to walk or to talk he does SO without 1 analyzing the laws which govern the acts. 1 The child learns acts first, then perhaps \ action from his knowledge of past opera. 1 tions. Pupils should be taught the opera tions of primary arithmetic, but not to an alyze until the third or fourth year. No 1 subject matter can occasion thought if it
 only demands the activity of memory. A l pupil should kill of the first beginnings of 1 guessing as habit. He should be reason.
 ably prompt in performing the operations of I arithmetic. He should be able to enunciate | in speech the several steps in the operations.
 The best system of mental arithmetic is
 one which shows the pupils how to work 1 systematically. It requires mental work l but little slate work except to record an
 swers. Primary arithmetic conduces to the 1 growth and development of the mind The
 speaker thought one of the crying evils of l the time in the subject of primary arithme. I tic was the too great use of objects.
 MT. A. P. Chapman, acting visitor, Put l nam, opened the general discussion, Pri- 1 mary arithmetic is failure and worse if it
 tries to go beyond the capacity of the chiId's | mind. The child has to learn by copying, re- 1 iterating. The growing nature of the chiId's mind should be developed. The children
 should not be troubled with those principles | which are only fit for minds of greater matur- l ity.
 After brief recess Hon. Edwin F. Seaver. l superintendent of schools of Boston, Mass spoke on the question ''What Shall VIC do with Our Boys?'' "This question of manual
 training is getting to be the educational ques-
 tion of the day. Legislative aid has been
 evoked. What are the grounds for this de-
 msnd and what steps should be taken to sat- isfy 1t? Our present system fails to meet 8 demand for training for the youth who want
 to find occupation in the industrial pursuits
 There is need of an education tending to
 the arts as naturally as some forms of our
 educational system lead into mercantile pur-
 suits and the professions. Our present edu- cation tends rather to unfit our youth for
 practical work. School training calls into
 exercise our reflection rather than action
 and practical skill. The question
 ''What shall we do with our boys ?" is as imminent in England as in this cOun-
 try. The young men crowd into what they
 call genteel occupatlOns, Sucn as clefkS,
 bookkeepers, etc. London is already full of idle young men who are rapidly going to the
 bad. The same might be said of New York
 or Boston. The young men of the middle classes are not learning the trades. There are no places in the shops where they can learn There should be some school The unftness for industrial pursuits comes more from lack of opportunity than inclination. The people crowd into the cities, We are becoming an urban population. That habit of having a
 will and finding way, the Yankee ingenui- ty, of which we are so proud. came from the training the boys got on the farm and in the
 workshop. Now this training is fast becom- ing thing of the past. Education through ap- premiership to trades has gone Consequently
 the native aptitude for mechanics and the arts is neglected. Is it not good thing to have boys fitted by special training for
 these pursuits, and for combating the diff
 culties of the everyday world? Our system
 of education should be broadened to provide for large range of activities, to develop the
 particular talent of every boy and girl in the
 best way possible. But is the proper func- tion of the school board enough to cover all these agencies? May we not look to the home, the church, society, the press Ger tainly, and we do so. But personal 1iber- ality should be allowed to build
 fine industrial schools. They are exceeding ly valuable. Their success proves beyond a