Los Angeles daily herald., 1888-07-19
THE PEDAGOGUES.
Their National Convention
Finally Opened.
THE FIRST DAYS PROCEEDINGS.
Literature in the Reading Courses
of the Common Schools
Discussed.
Associated Press Dispatches to the HERALD.

Associated Press Dispatches to the HERALD
SAN Francisco, July 1S.-The Grand
Opera House presented an animated ap-
pearance this morning as che teachers
began to assemble for the first regular
session of the National Teachers Associ-
alton. When President Cove called the
Convention to order at 8 o'clock there
were fully 1900 teachers from every part
of the United States, as well as number
of representatives from foreign countries
present. The Convention was formally
opened with prayer by Rev. Mr.. Dillig,
of Oakland.
7. p. Mcbride, of Iowa, was appointed
temporary speaker, after which it was
agreed that the incoming Board of Direc-
tors should appoint a committee who
would select permanent Secretary and
take charge of the official doings of the
Convention and decide upon perma-
nent place of meeting. Committees were
appointed upon Exposition, Resolutions
and Neurology.
The next business before the Conven-
ton was the consideration of the theme,
Literature in the reading courses of the
common Schools" and the first paper
was read by Horace f. Scudder, A. M,
of Cambridge, Mass, his subject being,
'The Place of Literature in a Common
School Education" the text of which is
subjoined.
FIRST PAPER.
THE PLACE OF LITERATURE IN COMMON SCHOOL
EDUCATION.
The historical aspects of the question under
discussion furnish an advantag eous mode of
approach, since attention is thus called to the
fundamental comparison OF principles rather
than to a mt rely superficial contrast of meth
the establishment of schools was professedly
drawn from religion; that which impes us to-
day is professedly drawn from politics. In both
toward larger liberty. The common schools
thus contain the prophecy OF the nation. Con-
rsalong what lines educational thought is
circles the nation is sailing. The two dominant
fields of national endeavor to-day are in the ad-
justment of labor to well being, and in the su-
premacy of the spiritual over the material.
The cry Of labor in poverty is for share in
the good things of life. The answer is not the
gallows but the schoolhouse, and the interest
in industrial education is a witness to the en-
deavor oil the people to find some direct, practi-
cal remedy for the inequalities of the social Or
der. But the right OF material prosperity which
erty, has likewise struck upon the conscience
of the nation, and has caused a note OF alarm to
be sounded. The protest of the spiritual man
against the tyranny Of an arrogant a sensual
materialism takes different FORMS Now it is a
glorifcation of plain living and high thinking;
now an appeal to college and universityto exact
philosophy and an intellectual survey of life;
now demand for the establishment of schools
OF art and for funds in the aid of students of
ant; now vigorous movement on the part of
the churches to extend their domain and now
a distinct call for closer union between the
elementary schools and the church. Material
ism has many. forms of expression; spiritual
life is also varied in its manifestation
1t is significant of the greatest good that the
pressure upon our schools to-day is of a double
kind; on one side the axe, the hammer, the
saw, the needle, the pencil, are thrust into the
hand on the other, literature in its purest
noblest form seeks an entrance to the soul In
the early days, when our national life was less
ization of education of the hand An enormous
pressure of circumstance made boys farmers
artizans hunters and seamen while they were
at their books in the school-room. No nice ad-
justment of intellectual and manual pursuits
was required. In the social condition of the
day each made way for the other. In like man
termined by the. condition of society. The
Puritan, in his hand to hand fight with
the powers 81, Of darkness, recognized no
saw in art, in literature, and in nature,
only foes in disguise. The one weapon which
he used, his whole armory for defence and
in literature in the schools was the Bible.
Within it's lids were shut all those forces which
made for the spiritual enlightenment Of the
boy or girl. The literature of the spirit, which
finds response in the imagination and fancy.
was frowned upon in the Puritan Judgment,
but by a great and fortunate provision it was
not excluded from the Puritan educational
system The Bible was the great textbook of
the people. Since it was regarded as contain.
ing what was necessary to salvation, it was
pressed upon everyone. Most truly was it nee
Ia sta
of their higher natures While its teachers
were using it for its ,doctrinal efficiency, they
were opening vistas into the realms of poetic
beauty, all other entrances to which they care
fully closed.
Passing to the time about fifty years ago.
when the common school system may be ssid
to have its rise we find diminution- in the
relative Importance assigned to the Bible as
textbook, and an incre ase in the number and
reading. At the same time we observe an in
crease of attention to that function of education
which regards the thirst for knowledge and the
discipline OF the mental powers The witness
to this is in the high degree OF development to
which textbooks in every department have
been carried. 1t may be said to be the one field
right, American authors have had full play. and
have been scarcely at all affected by English
book k-makers. These authors were not debarred
G-y We're subject to- that hishegs masefs but
which makes great institution like the com.
mon schools of an independent nation compel.
tnOSe VINO serve III, 10 CONSIDER It's peculiar
needs, and to be strongly affected by the spirit
which resides in it, The schools of our country
have had such innate force that they have
shaped themselves, and the apparatus thew re-
quire, after the law of their own being and not
after some foreign model.
This baing the case with the textbook litera.
ture of knowledge, how is 1t with the textbook
literature Of the spirit? Externally, a like ad
vance in all that attracts the eye. Again. like
regard for intellectual gradation, a minute at.
tention to all the mechanics of reading. They
stand on the same footing with geographies
histories, arithmetics and spoilers. But the
agreement is even closer There has been a
constant attempt at making the textbook of the
spirit do the. work of the textbook OF
has escaped the tolls of the biologist, the
geographer and the historian, he will find In
his read ng-book more natural history, more
geography, more civil and political history
The reading-books first in vogue fifty years
years ago carried forward the traditions of
English literature, but by degrees a change
took place, and they have come to reflect con
of the immense addition to the reading popula
ton, caused by the extension of the common
school system, there has been accumulated a
vast quantity of reading matter, produced to
satisfy the demand of uniformed tastes. The
text books in reading have come under the
same influence. In obedience to the law of
their social and literary life, the makers Of
standards, and to fill these books with the com
monplace of their own writing and that of those
about them. They lost their sense of literature
as a vehicle of the spirit. Two facts signally
characterize the condition of the popular mind
under this regime Il Literature is relegated to
the higher grades as something to be studied;
and (2) the newspaper Is advocated as read.
In hon in,