The Manitowoc pilot. [volume] (Manitowoc, Wis.) 1859-1932, 1889-11-07
ATTENDANCE AT TEACHERS CON
MENTIONS.

| conventions held ID their own locality
and what peculiar merit did the Sheboy-
gan institute possess that made attend
ance imperative? 1t is safe to say That
no body of enlightened people belonging
to any other profession would allow to
go unanswered a question having the
animus of the above, and yet it may be
| doubted that a large portion OF the
| teachers TO whom the question was
directed ever gave it second thought
however provoked they may have been at
its first appearance.
1t is with no intention or desire to JUS
| tify any dereliction of duty on the part
of the teacher that the writer undertakes
the task of replying to the pertinent ques-
ton in the last issue of The Pilot, and
any teacher imagining that we are up IN
defense of every teacher who may regard
| with Indifference local institute will
find himself mistaken. Yet we can not
help but feel that little discrimination
should be used before pronouncing Judge
ment on the teachers as a class. Criti
cisms of a similar nature have been made
before by the editor of The Pilot, and
murmurings of discomfort have been
heard from other parties who have been
| dissatisfied with the attitude of many
teachers towards educationl conventions
of all kinds but while this has been the
case no well-meaning effort has been
made to properly diagnose the case and
apply the proper remedy and now that
the subject is open to discussion we may
be pardoned if we attempt to make a
| judicial enquiry as &c the nature OF the
case. Teachers are too apt to shun If
possible the blaze of criticism which they
could easily survive and thus become pre-
pared for more trying ordeals. Their
timidity, their lack of enterprise, and
possibly their modesty have made them
a lot of obscure workers about which the
public concerns itself but little knowing
that if they are smitten ID the right
cheek they will graciously turn the left.
1t is needless to infarm the editor of The
Pilot that among the teachers from this
city who attended the Sheboygan irsti-
tute there were several who have never
failed to manifest an active interest in
every form of educational convention
held in the district in which they have
labored and that they have deliberately
Inconvenience themselves in order to at
tend similar associations whose meetings
were held outside their field of labor.
Such persons should enjoy immunity
from criticism, and we are slow to believe
that The Pilot at all refuses them their
just dues however, they may have felt
themselves, Again there is another class
of teachers who have attended numerous
Institutes and who have had years of ex-
perience as intelligent workers and for
whom the average regulation institute,
designed as it must be to meet the wants
of the hosts Of inexperienced boys and
girls, is positively of nc great value.
| Teachers of these two classes have a per-
feet right to ignore any local institute
and attend one wherever they mistakenly,
or otherwise, think they can learn valu-
able lessons. They can learn such if the in
stitute be shaped, as the Sheboygan was,
to appeal to the intelligence that had been
developed and tired by the experience of
the school room.
There is large class of teachers who
owing to lack of proper appreciation
of the principles of pedagogy imagine
that the country and city schools have
nothing in common and therefore attend
ance at the regular summer institute
would be productive of no good as they
suppose it is conducted with special
reference to the needs of the rural dis
tricts. This heresy is SO indefensible in
the eyes OF any person with any clear APP
prehension of what constitutes teaching
that pity for those who entertain it
should forbid any attempt to expose the
folly of it. The best cure for such erron-
eous opinions Is actual experience in DIFF
ferent Institutes, and such experience will
result IN relegaJing this false notion to
the limbo to which it belongs. The en-
tertainment of this misleading opinion
was in all probability another cause
which led to the large delegation at She
boygan, but certainly whatever merit the
institute there possessed it was no less
helpful to the teacher OF the ungraded
school than to the teacher of the graded
school.
But there was one more cause for the
recent exodus and wherever it can be
successfully worked there will be a large
! gathering insured, and that was public
opinion, though it is hardly to our pro-
fessional credit that it should furnish the
motive for action. 1t is quite certain
that had every school in the city been
dismissed for the Friday which was the
first day of the institute many who were
really DESTROYS of remaining at home
would have felt themselves powerless to
resist the supposed wish of the majority
and would have accordingly yielded out
of inability to assume positive stand.
| This may seem severe and unjust, but its
| truth finds veritication in the oft re-
peated charge that teachers as a class
have but little force to employ in estab-
fishing for themselves reputation that
can WIN them the admiration of people
| who believe in vigorous character.
The circumstances which led to the
depletion of the institute held in this city
last summer were unusual and even af-
fected the conductors themselves some of
whom were undoubtedly as anxious to
behold the rolling warclouds in Milwau-
kee bay as many Of the teachers who
were lured to the spectacular show of
parade and battle. Had all teachers mani
Tested interest in the educational 4hor