Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1890-10-16
WHAT EDUCATORS SAY.
Excerpts on Educational Topics From the
Pens of Our Leading Teachers.


Physical exercise should be as vital
in any schoolgirls life as eating and
sleeping.
We cannot give recipes for the de-
delopment of the mind as we can for
making cake.
The weakest point in the American
schools is the absence of systematic,
ethical training.
The kindergarten methods and the
scientific university methods are the
same in principle.
The relation of the teacher to the
pupils absolutely requires vigor of body
and buoyaucy of spirits.
Any system of education based solely
on the idea of utility, is in its out
growth utterly degrading.
Teachers should be on the play
grounds to keep down any disorder or
bad language that might be INDUCED
in.
The intelligence, morality, and en-
terprise of society will improve or de.
generate with the character of its
schools.
A course of instruction is not to be
tested in day, and Il caution should
be exercised in deciding upon its de-
tciencieS.
Multitudes of fairly intelligent people
are afloat without any base-line OF
thought to which to refer new sug-
gestions.
During the recess is no time for a
! l. q n II OF
down at the desk, read a newspaper. or
write letters.
What our public school system needs
is devoted teachers of high character,
thoroughly equipped for the work of
the schoolroom.
After many years of perversion and
neglect. to take up the study of litera-
ture as if it were to be learned like
arithmetic, is a ludcrous proceeding.
Parents are responsible for most of
the irregular school attendance. and
they seem to have no appreciation of
what it means. Argument and appeal
seem to have no power with them.
! There is a remarkable absence in
! America of discussions on what may
be called the politics of education, or
! on the means of obtaining professional
influence outside the profession itself.
The ideal teachers of manners and
morals should have the subtler refine
ments, character and bearing which
Emerson describes in his essay on Be
| havior," and which he exhibited in his
own person.
There is IA class of offenders and of
offences for which corporal punish
ment is the most appropriate and
effective treatment. and when such
eases arise it should be promptly aud
j vigorously administered.
A thorough general collegiate edu-
cation goes far toward making good
minister of the gospel, a good lawyer
and good physician; but there must
be added the special training of the
professional school.
1t is by training the will and the
affections, by purifying and eievating
motives, by stress on the duty that is
nobly done, and so making character
the one chief object that the sources of
! good manners are reached.
Medtations in the office, and theories
worked out at the desk furnish little
material to nourish the minds and souls
of teachers or pupils. There are few
things more useless for the furnishing
of school than the office principal.
The chief purpose of written work is
to teach, not TO test, to be suggestive
to the teacher, both in method and in
matter; and helpful to the pupil in
| systematic WAYS of study. and in clear
and comprehensive grasp of subjects.
We sometimes hear it said that our
! public schools are in danger; but that
/ is impossible, as long as we can scatter
annually through the length and
| breadth of our city near three thousand
! advocates of our public school system.
! However attractive the schools, how
ever interested the pupils may be in
! study, however hearty the general
/ sympathy, some effort on the part of
! school officials is needed to place the
! benefits of the school within the reach
/ of all.
| Opportunities for instructing the
/ children in the methods by which our
! government is conducted. as they pre-
/ sent themselves at the time of cleo
J tons, inaugurationS, etc, should be
/ used with such skill as the teacher can
| command.
| Nothing is more encouraging, or
! indicative of improvement all along
! the line, than the growing respect
which is accorded to the work of
! the primary teacher, as the result of
the understanding that it is the most
important line of labor, needing rare
qualifications.
The duties of the teacher will be light
ened and his power increased by intro
! ducing what is known as manual train
; ing. This means the teaching of things
instead of the names of things, it
means investigation instead of report
ing others investigation, it means
creation instead of mere imitation.
SO much is necessary for true
teacher besides intellectual fitness, that
selection of teachers cannot be made
too carefully. There always remain
| considerations Of depth of character,
! culture and refneme Mt, making an in
/ huence under which you would be
! pleased to have your own children
nodded.
The tendency of the custom of filing
vacancies occurring in the high and
grammer schools by the advancement
, of teachers from the lower trades is to
sap the life of the primary schools, as
the places made vacant in them are
filled with young teachers Of little
practical experience, and no special