Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1886-07-08
Fiftv-seveuth Apnual Session of the
American Institute Of lnstruction-An
Able Address OF welcome by President
Patterson-Other Lectures.
BAR HARBoR, july 7.

It's power TO marshal and regulate elements
OF progress is natural rrerogstive of an es-
tsblished and permanent union. But it has
other duties spriDging from the constitution
OF society. The schools have had their full
measure of abuse, but many OF the structures
have arisen from an imperfect definition of the
real objects and functions of the system.
permanent association Of men of recog-
nized ability and standing in the profession,
annually meeting for deliberation and debate.
may do much to establish the fact tnat our
system OF public instruction WAS founded by
law for definite purposes and constitutes an
| essential department Of government; that
| teachers are public officials amenable to law +.
and where the schools are properly conduct
ed and supported, may be held accountable
for the character of their legitimate work and
for nothing more. 1t can be shown that the
duties of the school should not be confound-
ed with those of the church, the family, the
| reformatory or the workshop.
| The State established the schools TO create
and maintain such amount of popular in
teliigence, such degree of mental and moral
discipline as would promote the social and
industrial interests of society and perpetuate
the power of self-government. The schools
should not be too industrial. for that would
substitute mere dexterty for mental and
/
The teachers of the country as body are the
natural guardians of the schools, and should
insist that industrial training as part of our
system of education be made purely discipin-
ary, for the republic cannot afford to have
the mental force and moral character of its
people emasculated by practical falacy.
The superior education of teachers as a
class and their opportunities for permanent
influence upon the future, devolve upon them
duties and responsibilities to the country OF
the highest order. Their culture enhances
their power, and they stand at the sources of
the intellectual and moral life of those who
will inherit our places, our institutions and
our civilization. To them it is given to
sweeten or embitter at will the streams OF
thought that run from the springs of youth
into the great sea of sentiment, which will ebl
and flow among the generations to come
More than they who make the songs of peo
pie do the teachers mold the characters. the
literatures. the arts and institutions OF men.
But the labors of the profession are not all
expended in the hope of future development.
The truitage of their planting is not all de-
layed till the ingathering of harvest. Teach
ers are paramount force on the living pres
ent. Let them but organize and Concentrate
their influence, and it is felt as supreme
power in the realm of current ideas and &C
tivities.
In obedience to a law of nature, free gov
ernments provide for the acquisition Of
know ledge and discipline by the young as the
indispensable condition of the reign of order
and liberty. The teacher stands in an official
attitude to society The family and the State
have delegated to him duty which springs
from natural and spiritual relationships of
the race, To establish the reign of reason
and Justice in the conduct of social and polit-
ical interests by giving supremacy to the un-
derstanding and the conscience, is the work
which has fallen to the schools in the order
| ings of Providence. Hence those of US who
realize the nature and compass of our calling
and are moved by the spirit OF the great
| Teacher, will not only master the learning of
the schools, but will become familiar with
the business, the conditions, the motives and
the temper of the community, and will seek
| to appre hend the character and drift of the
time, and so apply their energies to the real
and practical wants of society.
| There are eddies in history in which the
currents of civilization seem to turn back on
themselves. Periods Of phenomenal activity
are followed by periods of rest, in which new
truths settle into their proper relations and
become systematized. spirit of slavish
submission to power reacts in a violent asser-
ton of personal independence. An epoch of
unquestioning credulitv is compensated by
one of sweeping scepticism. In an age like
this, when so many of the leaders of thought
have swung into the regions of doubt and
would bring Church and State to the dissect-
ing table, would test laws, customs and be
lIefs by logic AS relentless as the ANALYSIS
of the laboratory, the teachers of the nation.
as they lead in the evolution of truth and
help to lifs society to higher social and
| spiritual level, should ever 4culcate the les
son, that 'there are more things in Heaven
and earth than are dreampt of in purel,
msterialistic philosophy, and that people
who have nothing absolute and eternal, be-
yond the range of logic. in which they be-
lieve, have abandoned the foundations OF So
cial order, have cut loose from the prime mo
tives of life and drift like a rudderless wreck
| upon a sea of storms
| There seems to be an uncoufessed impres
sion, more or less prevalent, that in spite of
theory and historic experience, popular edu
cation is not necessary to the maintenance of
| good government or to business. To cure
this moral sickness, to remove this deadly
germ from the public conscience, is one of
| the labors of our profession. Another duty
| is to correct the estimates and so shape the
inspirations and ambitions of mankind; this
car only be reached by forestalling the judg-
men,s of men, and by preoccupying the
minds of youth with true conceptions OF the
divine purposes of life. Our special work
to- day as body of Christian thinkers and
| scholars is to hold the age from swinging
into indifference to and possible disbelief in
immaterial and spiritual entities. Laboring
in this spirit, asking for no exxltation and
submitting to no humiliation, let US lay the
foundations of the future upon a broader in
| falliCanrp and q mora ar1iuhtana1 faith re-