St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1885-11-29

the lack of professional preparation on the
part of the teachers. The trustees may be
congratulated on having contributed some
what to the more healthy opinion which Leg
| islation shows to exist. Parents begin
| to clamor for the best teaching for
| their children, and we are recover
ing from the fatal heresy that
| teachers, for their delicate and invaluable
| work, require less preparation than they
would for the most ordinary handicraft.
Normal schools ideally and in theory, are
professional, and intended to teach men and
women how to teach. To train for effective
teaching is their design and business. I'm
fortunately it is not easy to make this their
sole or chief work. Many pupils are so def
cient in preliminary preparation, that time
and labor must be diverted from professional
or technical work to ordinary but indispensa-
Bile academic training. The proper founda-
ton of good teaching is good education.
Normal work is built on this.
In reference to the important subject OF
industrial education DR.. CURRY says:
To one who watches the signs of the times,
the increased discussion and adoption of in
dustrial education in the South is notable
fact. We must not ignore nor despise as
factor in the solution Of the gigantic problem
with which our civilization and republic are
confronted, the addition to mere intellectual
processes Of an opportunity for our youth to
qualify themselves by the acquisition of prac-
tical knowledge for carrying on successfully
the various handicrafts in which they may be
engaged. Careful training to manual and
mechanical labor will enable boys and
girls to make better living, and to be more
useful and contented citizens. The report Of
the royal commission in England on technical
education shows that, from material point
of view, England has gained immensely by
the attention which of late years she has paid
to special education in what are called the in
dustrial arts. How much the reduction of
idleness, pauperism and crime may be affected
by industrial education and to what extent
prevalent and training. The proper founda-
ton of good teaching is good education.
Normal work is built on this. A cultivated
mind and disciplined faculties, as well as a
thorough knowledge of the subject to be
taught, must be brought to bear on the work
of instruction. This education, this culture,
should, in large degree, precede the profess
sional or normal work, or else from perform
ing two-fold function, the normal school is
diminished In power, and incurs the hostility
of non-professional schools. Training is so
valuable that half normal school is better
than no training; but as the education of
child is of paramount Importance, no effort
should be relaxed to require and secure the
highest skill and the fullest practical ac-
quaintance with principles and methods. A
normal school should, therefore, persistently
withdraw, as steadily and as rapidly as pos
sible, from the performance of dual func-
lions and confine itself to its ideal work.
Having accepted from the government an
important diplomatic trust, DR.. CURRY
rendered his resignation as general agent of
the Peabody fund, and in his letter to the
| board gives the following summary of his
| stewardship:
Instead of combining myself to Office work.
to the humble but useful avocat1on of almoner
for the distribution of the income of the
fund.- have sought to do something towards
the creation of a healthier educational senti-
| ment, and to identify the trust with the most
| advanced educational progress. Every door of
access to the peOple-to schools. colleges, egis-
| islatures-has been thrown wide open to your
representative, and if good has not been done,
the fault is his. Everywhere I have advo-
Gated the uplifting of the lately emancipated
and enfranchised negro, and upon no part
OF my work DO look Dack with greater per-
sonal satisfaction. In the spirit of the trust,
and in known harmony with the opinions Of
Mr.. PEABODY, have labored assiduously to
renew and cultivate feeling of broad and
catholic patriotism, to cement in closest fra
ternity all sections and peoples of the Union,
to bury discords and strifes, and to lift up to
higher plane than that of sectional animos-
ity or of angry prejudices. To-day, thank
God, the South is as loyal to the Union, and
as ready to pour out blood and treasure for
the national honor and national safety, as
Ohio or Massachusetts. What has been
achieved in the states which are the
beneficiaries of the trust, since you organized
as a board in Washington city on the eth
of February. 1857, is incredible. There have
been revolutions in labor, economic industries,
customs, traditions, feelings, convictions,
laws and institutions, any one of which con-
sidered singly would mark social era, q civil
epoch. No people ever accomplished so
much for education, in so brief a PERIOD
under such crushing embarrassments, as the
South has done. If the general government,
able arguments of this board, will come to the
relief of states struggling with heroic energy
to meet the responsibilities of their new life
problems of gigantic import will be aided in
their solution, and the faith and the hope of
the patriot and the Christian will be strength
ened in reference to the success and the per-
petuity of the Republic.