Los Angeles herald., 1891-03-21
AT SAN DIEGO.
THE LAST DAY OF THE STATE
TEACHERS INSTITUTE.
Infant Wonders Of Scholastic Proficiency.
An Excursion and View Of the Wrecked
Town of Tia Juana.
-Corrcspondence OF the HERALD.

correspondence VI VIC AAEhALD.
SAN DIEGO, March 10, 1891.
The meeting of the state teachers in
stitute today was uneventful but inter-
esting. This morning forty minutes
were given to the county institute,
which was to have been held in the af-
ternoon, but which was held in this
short space of time in order to give the
San Diego teachers chance to accom-
pany the others on their excursion to
Sweetwatsr and Tia Juana. The state
teachers were present, and were much
interested in lesson in geography by
Miss Belle Frazee, illustrated by seven
little ones from San Diego school and
a sand table. A map OF South America
was modelled in wet sand upon the ta-
BILE. This method OF teaching geography
is the one advocated by Prof. Frye of
Massachusetts,.
After the geography lesson class OF
little tads from the first grade were put
through a musical exercise by Mrs. J.
Powell Rice. They had not been trained
for exhibition, but were just taken from
the class in school as it stood. They
sang scales and exercises. guided merely
by the hand notions" the position OF
Mrs. Rice's hapds indicating the note
to be sung. Then, still with only the
hand motions to guide them, they sung
the air of Home, Sweet Home, sweetly
and correctly, without knowing what it
was they were singing.
The state president now took the,
chair, and after the reading of the min
utes Hon. j. w. Anderson was intro
duced and read a long paper on the his
tory OF the California school system
from the provisions for such system
proposed in the constitutional convention
Of 1849 to the present day. In conclu-
sion he gave the following figures:
isss isss. fssS fsso,
Children of school age in Cali
N1mber tHraa of public schools 2s9ssa assS
Number Of % Scholars registered 1s4S 22i7SS
Number of teachers ......... l61 5,255
Edward Hyatt, of San Jacinto, read
a paper suggesting various restful aud
beneficial ways of passing the long va
cation.
Prof. Bacon, of the state university,
gave ten minutes address on the in
stitution he represented, and the con-
vention then adjourned until the even
I.
ing.
The afternoon was devoted to an ex-
cursion to Sweetwater dam, Tia Juana
and Coronado. A special train OF seven
cars took up the teachers at the foot of
Fifth street and they packed the cars.
The trip to Sweetwater. was accom-
plished in about two hours. The teach
ers all scrambled out over the hill to the
big pile of masonry, went out upon it,
took sketches and kodak pictures in the
vicinity and then hurried back to the
train. Then away through Otay and
the fiat country which still shows indi-
cations of having been under water, to
the nearest point attainable to Tia
Juana. Here few wagons took the
passengers to the banks of the river,
where ridiculous little ferry boat.
warranted to convey four in safety
and seven in discomfort, was
loaded with eight persons to the trip,
and had all 1T could do for an hour. Tia
Juana looked like toy village that a
child has played with, tired of and
thrown aside. The houses stand crook
edly or lie in heaps Of ruins. The hotel
is twisted around and one corner is
sunken in the ground (mud).
On the return trip the closed cars
were the favorites, where the open cars
were preferred going down. A strong
breeze was blowing in from the sea, the
darkness was falling rapidly and no
stop was made until the ferry at Coro-
nado, where the teachers ran to the
ferry slip to find the boat just gone. A
short time sufficed to bring it back,
and the tired teachers were
soon on board the street cars scattering
to their various hotels.
The night session was somewhat
slimly attended as far as the teachers
were concerned, and was devoted to a
lecture more for the general public than
for teachers. Tomorrow morning will
witness the closing session.