The Portland daily press., 1886-07-09
INSTITUTE OF INSTRUCTION.
Able Address by President William
Dewitt Hyde of Bowdoin.
interesting Lectures by Mrs. Liver
ermore and Hon. M. A. Newell.

ernore and Hon. M. A. Newell.
BAR HARBoR, July S-This mornings
exercises of the American Institute of In
struction at Bar Harbor opened with prayer
by Professor Geo. Haines of Andover, Mass.
The first paper of the day was read by Pro-
fessor L. Sears. Following Professor Sears,
Professor Perkins of Brooklyn, N. Y, pre-
sented paper on Methods" This was
discussed by Rev. A. E. Winship of Boston
and Professor Greenough of Amherst, Mass
The closing paper was read by President
Hyde of Bowdoin College. His subject was
"Overwork in Public Schools" Discussion
by Merrick Lyon of Providence and DR..
Baker of Baldwinville, Mass, followed.
The address of Rev. William Dewitt
Hyde of Bowdoin College was upon "Over-
work in Public Schools" The paper was
based on the answers of 100 teachers and
physicians to a series of questions. Of these
$50, 100 said there is no overwork in the
schools of their city; 20 replied ''not general
ly, but in individual cases." 10 replied ''some
nervous high school girls,'' 10 did not an
swer directly, while only five, four physi-
clans and one teacher, found overwork in
school prevalent evil Nearly all attribu-
ted whatever evil there is not to the amount
Of work required, but to the worry and anx-
iety occasioned by an iron-clad system of
grading by too frequent and too severe tests.
The experience of $50 persons did not fur
nish more than $50 cases of serious injury
due to overwork alone; and half of that num-
Der came from one teacher who reported 20,
and one physician who reported so In one
year. Nearly all agreed that worry and sus-
pense were productive Of more evil than the
amount of work actually accomplished. The
teachers are nearly all unanimous in their
complaint of theIdeleterious influence of .ex-
cessive social dissipation on school girls:
One physician expressed the sentiments OF
many in the remark, devotion to society
and school work at the same time will kill
any girl Overheating and lack of ventila-
tion was found to be serious evil in about
half the schools of large towns and cities,
and universal throughout the country dis
tricts.
The remedies suggested for the evils at
tributed to oYerwOrk were a substantial diet,
more sleep, regular exercise, flexible course
adaptable to the capacity of the individual
pupil, the abolition of prizes, fewer and less
severe examinations, better understanding
between parents and teachers, a more quiet
home life. the prevention of secret vice,
study for knowledge rather than for rank
and abstinence from excessive social dlssl-
patton during the years devoted to schooi:
The conclusion reached was that, with few
exceptions, the amount of work required OF
the average scholar, not exceeding IN the
high schools II hours, as against 70 IN tne
Prussian Gymnasium and H. IN the classl-
cal schools of Denmark, is not excessive.
Still. the average pupil is not the only one to
be considered. 1t is a serious mistake to IN
sist on the standard of quantity, quality and
rapidity for all. Superintendent, teachers
and parents must recognize that the Sch0ol
system exists for the pupil. that, mental
slowness in child of 13 or IA is no disgrace,
and precocious smartness no mark of future
greatness; and that steady progress in
knowledge, without rivalry, competition,
artificial stimulus or anxious suspense, is
the single end at which all must aim. The
true interest of society and the home no less
than the interests of the school demand that
coming out in society with its exacting
strain upon time and strength be postponed
in America, as in every other civilized land,
until school days are over. Parent ana pu-
pill, superintendent and teacher, avoid dis
trust and misunderstanding, must work to-
gether by frequent conference, keeping IN
view the training of a race of men and Wom-
en- strong in body and pure in heart, as well
as keen and clear in intellect as the goal OF
their combined endeayors
Inc evening I0cbure WdS utufoIeu oy
Mrs. Mary A. Liyermore.
Hon. NJ. A. Newell, Secretary of the State
Board of Education of Maryland, made some
Confessions of a Schoolmaster." The
schoolmaster now making confessions, he
said, is one of the olden time, now becoming
very scarce. There may be a survival of the
unfttest here and there, but the race is fast
fastening to extinction. The present gem
Grafton may also have sins to confess, but a
different kind Of sins-fewer sins of omis-
sion more of commission fewer sins of ignor-
ance more of presumption.-T speaker
makes confession not for himself alone, but
for his brethren and sisters as well; ano
though he speaks of the schoolteacher al
ways as ''he" and 'him," the sisterhood
must not think they are excluded for II
grammar at least the masculine gender EN-
braces the feminine without any violation Of
the proprieties. Speaking, then, for the
schoolmasters and schoolmarms of the olden
time, and especially disclaiming any allu
sions to the highly improved race of teach
ers, normal and abnormal, represented by
the members of the American Institut tie
whose sins, if they have any, must be OF thu
most venial character, he continued:
First.-We confess to a fondness OF hob
| bies. and an inclination to ride them tt
death, if hobbies could be killed in tha
| Way-hobbies in great variety-the menta
and arithmetic hobby, the parsing, hobby
the diagram hobby, the elocution hobby, thu
| map-drawing hobby, the busy-work hobby
| Every teacher used to have at least one
and many had a full assortment OF cou rse
| none of the brilliant young teachers nova
day ever indulge in hobby, but perhap
they may know that some of their acquain
| tances have had some experience OF thl
| kind
Second.-We confess to sins of ignorance
not ignorance of arithmetic and grammar
nor even of the 'ometries and 'ologies, but 0
| something more important still-ignoranc
| of the nature of the boys and girls to whom
this knowledge is to be impaired; ignoranc
| of their intellectual nature, OF their physlca
nature, of their moral nature, OF their emo
| tional nature. Verbal memory was deyel
| oped at sacrifice of the powers OF obSerVa
ton and reckoning. Repression took th
| place of expansion, and fear was the mot1v
| power in the place of love. The will wa
looked upon as a power to be broken, not a
| a force to be directed and developed. Bad
ness was considered as positive evil to b
driven out by the rod or otherwise, not as
negative to be replaced by positive quanti
| ty as darkness can be driven out only b.
light being let in.
Third-We confess to want of stayin
power. We run we'll for time, but get ou
out of breath too soon. Lawyers and doc
tors and statesmen. and even soldiers, tn
older they grow the more they are III de
mand, but the schoolmaster is ''the oil
man. before he is 30. and most probabl
'tthe old fool" before he is 60. Then we re
quire to be wound up so often, some of u
every year, most of us every three years, ex
cept superIntendents, who run an average 0
four years.
Finally, we undertake to, do impossibili
ties. to teach the unteachable, to govern tn
ungovernable, to reclaim the incorrigible
and we make no protest when the teachers
under whose superintendent pupil up t
the age of II has not spent one-sixteenth par
of his time, are held responsible for the CON
1,;nod du+ies of the narant the nhvsician an