The Columbian. [volume] (Bloomsburg, Pa.) 1866-1910, 1885-01-02
County Institute,


The Institute was called to order by
Supt. Grimes at 1870 z. NJ. About 1G0
teachers have enrolled showing an absence
of about one-fourth of the entire number
The majority of the teachers are deeply
interested in the work ard will go away
good time at all events.
The address of Wei come was made by
DR.. Waller. He made use of some statis-
tics that should arouse the teachers and
parents of the county to proper sense of
their duty. We are below the average in
all things appertaining to the schools.
He lamented the fact that educated labor
in this county was on Il rar with the I'M
educated, while he claimed that the former
was worth so per cent. more than the latter.
He urged upon parents to attend tie ses-
sions OF the Institute.
No one should be more interested in in
stitutes than those who have children to
send to school, The Dr. made one mis-
take in saying that not single district of
the county had library but instead of
one every district in the county should
have library, if not every school.
Dr. Croft of Lewisburgh who is the
author OF many admirable little works on
hygiene and the natural sciences, followed
with talk on the care of the eyes. The
DR., has written a small book called "Plain
Rules for the Care of the Eyes" If those
plain rules which he gave the teachers are
followed they will do much good,
Prof. Noetling completed the exercises
for the afternoon with talk on penman.
ship. He spoke of the value of position
and penholdiug only in so far aslthey were
in the line of forming right habits. The
Profs. talk on habit cannot be repeated
too often. Teachers are entirely too care
less on this point, The Prof includes in
penmanship, writing, composition, capi-
talization, punctuation and photography
In the evening DR.. Croft gave an illus
trated lecture on the Wonders OF the hu-
man body.
These evening lectures will form no part
of this report.
TUESDAYS SESSIONS.
The first lecture of the morning was
given by Prof Sanford of Mddletown, New
York. The Prof, is authority on methods
of teaching primary classes. He teaches
the word method using the. script letters
first. He advises that the words be writ
ten upon all parts of the blackboard to
overcome ''local knowledge" He claims
that there will be no trouble in passing
from the written to the printed word.
DIR, Croft then gave very interesting il
lustrated lecture on Physical Geography.
The several geological ages of the earth
were represented by colored charts show
ing the animals and vegetable life in each
age. He spoke of the origin and extent OF
the coal deposits in the u. s. of the time
and manner of mountain making, OF water
as an agent in the formation OF the phy-
sicial features of the earth.
Prof. Noetling spoke upon graduation,
He said that many people made mistake
in supposing that their education was
completed when they graduated from a
college, Wo never are done learning, and
when We do not learn we 10 back. The
object OF the Institute is to get thoughts on
teaching and not to make imitators On
the use of text books he said that those
who could teach better with text books
should nse them, and that those who could
teach bei.> without them should teach in
that way. q found fault with those
teachers who crammed a text book into the
minds OF his pupils He found fault with
the system of weekly or monthly reports.
He thought that the report represented the