Mower County transcript. [volume] (Lansing, Minn.) 1868-1915, 1884-02-20
EDUCATIONAL.
c. y. BELDEN, EDITOR.
State Teachers Institute

AL institute Tor the county OF Mower,
will be held at Austin, during the week
commencing Monday, March "a, 1884.
This institute is appointed upon the ap-
plication of the County Superintendent.
The law which makes generous provision
for the expenses of this institute, also
provides for the closing of all schools
during the week and the prompt attend
ance of all the teachers.
The plan of the institute will be to give
the best instruction in the grading and
discipline of the school, and in methods
of teaching the branches of the common
school course. The instructors will be
supplied with such professional books,
papers and apparatus as are needed by
progressive teachers.
Lectures and discussions will bc ap-
pointed for several of the evenings, ans
no pains will be spared to fill the time
! with valuable exercises. 4 new and very
full syllabus Of work will be ready in time
for the institutes of the season.
The Superintendent will make all ncccs-
say provision for board at the most
reasonable rates. Give him timely notice
if you intend to be present.
Work will begin promptly Monday
afternoon and close Friday evening. Be
on hand at the beginning. Plan to stay
the entire week and let nothing prevent
giving your undivided attention to its
duties. D. l.. K1EHLE,
Supt Public Instruction.
G.. D. BELDEN, County Superintendent.
Prof. Tousley of Minneapolis, COM
mends himself to public gratitude and
justifes his reputation as an enlightened
and progressive educator by the changes
which he has recommended for the public
schools of Minneapolis. The reform is
only beginning, but it is beginning
that points in the right direction. Once
set such change in motion, and its bene-
fits will speedily become so apparent that
to arrest or impede it will be an impos-
sibility. Leaving out of the question for
the present the matter Of industrial edu-
cation, and taking our public school sys-
tenn just as it is, Prof. Tousley has hit
unerringly uLon its weakest point,-the
scattering of forces, resulting in a great
deal of so-called instruction without tho
roughness in anything. The prominence
of tex books over oral methods has also
long been recognized as one of its most
objectionable features, but there are few
directors of educational affairs who have
the courage to face this problem, compli-
Gated as it is by the necessity of securing
teachers of high grade of efficiency.
Prof. Tousley's expressed determination
to "knock the bottom out of the text
books" and his characterization of con-
siderable Of the work now imposed upon
pupils us "a mental debauch" are equally
happy. To impart life. viyor. and the in
huence of personality TO the education Of
the young to make the subjects taught
natural part of the experience even of a
child, instead of a mere fragment of text
book rote to teach grammar by actual
use of the language instead of by set rules
and formulas, such as have tortured un-
happy youth from time immemorial to
make reading matter of intelligence in
stead OF c"n,ical attack upon the selec
| tions which fantastic wits have incor-
porated in most of the reading books in
use; in word, to make teaching a work
| of intelligent communication between
mind informed and on struggling to in
form itself. and learning part of every
day experience instead of an excursion
into some twilight realm, to which only
| the teacher and the textbook maker have
actual right of entrance this is the sub
stance Of the change proposed. There
can be no question that it will prove most
happy in lis effects. and most wild ly
beneficial if it should induce others in
charge of education to follow its example.
1t is in such movements as this tina, we see
tue promise of a reform that is ultimately
to adapt the instruction OF our schools to
the practical affairs of life, instead of
conforming it to an antiQuated, outworn
and radically defective ideal. -Piw.ee,
Press. a
Report of Schools in Mower County, Mimi,
for the Fall and Winter Term, 1884.
G. D. BELDEN, Superintendent.