Daily globe. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1878-1884, 1883-12-29

Pres. jerome Allen on Professional Pre-
paration-State Teachers Certificates by
State Supt. kiehle.
The second days meeting of the Mime
sote Educational association opened yes
terday morning at the High school rooms
at 9:45 O'Clock.
President Kaerr allied the meeting to
order, and, after prayer being offered
by Rev. D. L. Kiehle, state
superintendent of public instruction,
s. S. Parr reviewed Herbert Spencsr's
"Education." The speaker commenced
by saying that attempting any adequate
discussion of Spencer's Philosophy Of Ed
ucation in enc short essay was like the
pedant in Hieroclss who went about with q
brick in his pocket as a sample of the
house he had for sale. The book in ques-
5ion appeared in 1861. 1t is
not like the authors First
Principles and his Psychology, an
| attempt to formulate with exacsuess the
principles OF an education. 1t is series
| of thoughts grouped about from leading
inquiries what knowledge is of most
| worth? What shall be the method of in
tellsctual education? OF moral! OF ply
! sical? The beck does not rank either in
style or matter with any Of the philoso-
piers three greatest works. Speneer's
reputation has bsen made on his 'First
| Principles" the boldest, most conclusive
and far-reaching philosophical work of this
century, whether judged by its acceptance
or by the attempts at reputation Mr..
Spencer is called, in common with
Laplace, Huxley and Haechel, an elocu-
ZIONIST, but this is about as correct and
exact az to csll this High school the city
of Minneapolis. Evolution is only one
phase of philosophy. The philosophy is
as VIDE and far-reaching as the uni
verse itself. Ii has beat the
reUeille for review and reconstruction of
all our idess-God, man and his des tisy,
and the Interpretation of nature and his
tory. We are not all prepared TO accept
its conclusions. We do not like the idea
that the first principle of the universe is a
formless force ont of which all thipgs, man
included, rise and to which all things re-
turn. 1t is needless to
say that the merais and practical
philosophy OF Spencer and his school are
enlnently unitarian. Use, power to min
lister to real human wants and needs,
power to help US along the path of that
Development which is the method of our
being these are the criterie by which any
action or appliance, any habit of mind or
body, any means We employ, shall be call
ed good or bad. The Spencerisn physchel-
ogy Is asaociational rather than intuitive
and innate. Ideas are the result of i'm
pressions through the sense, shaped by
INFINITE repetitions into general ideas The
senses are the fountains of all knowledge,
but not as many distort Spencer's Views,
the shaping channels in the mind. Very
naturally then, it follows that the genesis
of knowledge and the individual is the
same as its genesis in the race.
crollary of this is that
we know only those things
which have foundation in our own ex
perience. OF course, some very ridicu-
lous interpretations may be put upon
this. But man of Spencer's good jadg-
ment and sense, we may be sure never in
tended them.
Every system of philosophy mas had an
exponent Of a system of education based
upon 1t. Pluto becomes his own ex-
ponent in the Republic" st. Au-
gustine voices the phiIosophic
| education of the scholastics and Fichte and
Richter of German idealism. Herbert
Spencer's Education" il a deduction from
his system of philosophy and is consistent
with it throughout. It seeks to be practical
always challenging cui bonop and passing
only on the answer, "real WORTH Il as
sumes the educational psychology and
utilitarian morals and training.
That 'sEducation, was aver
heard after the first reading, is due to its
controversial spirit. 1t is a free lance
pricking bubble here and looping of a
head there, in way often better suited to
stir up combativeness and denial than in
vestigation and acceptance. It rudsly
jostles some of the most sacred idols of
the clan Of schoolmasters. As we all dis
| like to have our idols thrown down, We arr
ready-as Sydney Smith jocularly remark
ed in reference to dissenters-to plunge a
| knife into the iconoclast.
Historically considered, the book arose
out of the agitation in England regarding
+! education, previous to our civil war.
Schools and schoolmasters of the common
| class had fallen to very low ebb. The
parochial schools were fsrces of which
| The purpose was to get the quarterly al
| lowanca, England was full Of brutes OF
| the 'Squsers" type and of cemeteries like
that kept by the Miss PinkerSon satirized
in Vanity Fair" The mutterings of
storm among the common people awaken
| ed thinking men to the necessity of doing
something to better the intelligence of
| the powerful lower classes
whose perseverance is the
menace of Great Britain as of our own
country. Better teaching, better methods
AID better systsm we're demanded. So
loud we're these demands that parliament
began legislating to better the education
of the seuatrY, passing the acts of 1860
and 1870, which are steps toward popular
| education.
The education of the school il only
| small part of the csnplex of
| oeases which determine what
\ manner Of man any individual will be.
The untutored child, the mere animal,
modified as it is By hereditary transais-
| sion is the chief factor. Homo aasitur,
non fit is "a applicable to ell classes as to
poets. Treisiag has everything to do
with getting the raw material for use. Toe
basis of all good training lies in the fam
lily. Bad homes and bad family nurture,
as ra!s, turn out worthless persons.
The contribution of the church,
Of sosisty, of the business of life