The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1884-12-31

the schools of Carrollton, Ill, teaching
there until the spring of 1861. Mr. Parker then
enlisted as private in the Fourth New Hamp-
shire, and fought throughout the war, becoming
brevetcolonel He was wounded in the throat
and chin at the battle of Deep Bottom, August,
1864, and was taken prisoner at Magnolia but
released just as peace was declared when, with
| the remnant of his regiment he was mustered
out of service in New Hampshire, August, 1865.
He at once became principal of the Manchester,
N. H. schools, and in 1869 was made principal
of one of the district schools of Dayton, o.,
then principal of its normal school, and later
assistant superintendent Colonel Parker was
always antagonizng the time-honored traditions
of his brother pedagogues, and finally sought
confirmation for his educational crotchets by
visiting Germany in 1872, entering King Williams
University, at Berlin, for q two years course in
philosophy, history and pedagogics. lie re-
turned eager to put his now fully incubated and
fedged views into practice and was at once Sc
lected by the Quincy, Mass, school committee
as superintendent, they having made the start
ling discovery that latter eight years attendance
in the public schools, the children could neither
write with facility read fiuentlv nor speak
spell their own language perfectly" Their
ported conclusion was, that the whole existing
system wrong-a system from which the
life had gone out The school year had become
one long period of diffusion and cram, and smat-
ter had become the order of the day"
After five years work, Colonel Parker's com
mittee reported that lin these years Colonel
Parker has transformed our public schools. He
| found them machines and left them living
ganisms; drill gave way to growth, and the
weary prison became a pleasure house"
Charles Francis Adams, jr., in his paper on the
New Departure in the Common Schools of
Quincy" said: 'The revolution was all pervad-
ing. Nothing escaped his influence; it began
with the alphabet and extended into the latest
effort of the grammar-school course"
Heralded and advocated by Mr.. Adams, as
well as by the good work he had no doubt done,
Colonel Parker was called in 1880 as one of the
supervisors of the Boston schools, where he was
employed for two years and until called to the
princpalship of the Cook County Normal School
at Englewood Chicago which he accepted,
Jan. l, 1883, for three years, at
salary of S., 900 year. This school was thor
oughly well organized, and under Principal
Wentworth had for twelve years done some of
the best academic and pedagogic work accom-
plished by any normal school in the Northwest
Here he has been visited by hundreds of
teachers, curious to see what was the nature of
the new pedagogic light. Many teachers from
Indianapolis have visited him, including Pro
fessor Bell, Miss Cropsey and others, all of
whom have proved rather conservative than en-
thusiastic in their opinions Indeed, it may be
said that Colonel Parker is looked upon with
considerable degree of suspicion by our city
supervisory force, he is reported to have
stolen his lightning from the altar erected by
Professor Shortridge when city superintend-
ent, and at the time Colonel Parker
was at Dayton. But whatever there was
worth stealing in our city system
under Professor Shortridge, the visitor to Colo
mel Parker's schools would see little in common
between the two systems" now; for the fact is
that Colonel Parker has no discoverable or rec
ognized System" and rather prides himself
upon the lack of it. To the casual visitor he sim
ply carries the impression of imam teaching
and terribly in earnest in all that he does,
Tall, portly, kind, genial and magnetic, he is
perfect magazine of physical and psychica
energy. He is good liver, good joker, good
sleeper and good teacher He is ''boss or moth
ing where he is, and is solid in Chicago with
the clubs and the newspaper men, particularly
with Mr.. Ham, of the Tribune, which paper,
queerly enough. never discovered the Normal
School of Cook County until Colonel Parker
came on deck, but now never lacks editorial
space to do honor to Colonel Parker and the
new system
Old Chicago schoolmen look askance and re-
serve their opinion They are disposed to give
Colonel Parker what he asks, and what he has
got-a fair chance Colonel Parker has no writ
ten word save small book of rambling, but
suggestive, talks" on teaching, published by
New York house, and widely read by the curious
and those who think if you read a mans book
you have caught his spirit.
Colonel Parker's strength is shown in the sub
ject Of his address before our teachers He
teaches to do by doing. His school is model of
disorder; he despises per cents. and examinations
and takes mental grasp" as the test of power;
he promotes a child the very day he thinks it
can do the work of the next grade He assigns
no set of lessons in pedagogcs, but makes his
senior class do and think; each of the senior
teachers teach the three Rs every day for year
before they graduate and under his
eye He is omnpresent, always cheer
full and witty, despises clar-trap, text
books and all cram work--does every day the
work that an ordinary thin wasted and dyspep-
tic pedagogue requires a week to do, and by
night is tired out, and are his pupils, and
everything is dismissed until the next day.
There is nothing in Col. Parkers system which
can be transported into other schools, except his
boundless energy and spirit. Whoever copies
after him servilely is bound to fail, but those
who catch his spirit energy kindness of heart,
and earnestness of conviction will do we'll. That
he has found any easy road to lead children into
good habits of study, and fair knowledge of
nature and of men, without hard work on the