Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1891-10-15
THE EDUCATIONAL PROBLEM.
Duty Of the Church in Training the Children
and Young Men.

THE EDUCATIONAL PkOBLEA.
Duty Of the Church in Training the Children
| and Young Men.
ELEMESrAAy, SECONDARY AND THB HIGHER OR
| COLLEGE AND UNIVERSITY METHODS DISCUSSED
| BY MEMBERS OF TIE METHODIST EcUMENIcAI
coSFEREScx-pESoMISAT SCHOOLS.
Altogether there were three sessions Of the
ecumenical conference yesterday. For the first
time there was . regular evening session. On
Monday there was such q session. but it was
called for the purpose Of receiving the frater-
nal delegates from other churches but the ses-
sion last night was for the purpose Of continuing
the discussion that had monopolized the atten-
ton of the two preceding sessions. Education was
the subject for the day. Different phases Of the
subject were treated in the different essays and
addresses.
Rev. J. o. Ferguson Of the Primitive Metho-
dist church was the presiding officer and Rev.
Stewart Hoosen opened the session with brief
devotional exercises.
The attendance was by no means as large as
| usual, the absence of regular delegates being
| especially noticeable.
| The first speaker Of the afternoon was Rev.
John Smith of the Primitive Methodist church,
the subject Of his essay being Elementary
The speaker outlined subjects that hould, in
his opinion. receive more attention than they
do. Among these were such subjects as the
duty of the citizen, the effects OF alcohol and
tobacco upon the human system and many
other such things. A womans education can
! rot be called complete until she has teen Taught
| cookery, sewing, domestic economy and laun-
dry work. As to the objection that this would
| take too much time, Mr.. Smith said he would
| advocate an extension Of the time devoted to
1 aSuratiOu wall suDnlemp MT eveninp
| sessions, with compulsory attendance upon the
sessions that were given over to manual train
ing.
ETHICS OF ELEMENTARY EDUCATION.
| Rev. J. d. Hammond. D. D., of the NJ. E.
church south had for the subject of his ad-
dress, THE Ethics OF Elementary Education"
True education, according to DR.. Hammond.
covered the entire ground Of religious culture.
Elementary education begins when the child
first begins to notice and should be continued up
| to about the thirteenth year. 1t has been said
| that child learns more in the first three years
\ OF its life than one can learn in an entire COZ
| lege course. In this period the training of the
logical powers should be held in abeya nce.
For the first three years the child Is taught
| complete selfshness-a thing that all the rest
OF his period of training should be given over
| to unlearning Education in the real sense
can hardly be said to begin until after the ele
| mentary period is ended 1t is fact that
religious revivals are always followed by a re-
| newed desire for learning upon the part Of the
young.
DIR. Hammond referred at length TO the
damaging influence upon tho mind OF the
child exerted by the penny dreadfuls" and
other forms Of cheap literature. filed as they
are with accounts of crime.
The mission" said DR.. Hammond in con-
| clusion. lis a fundamental need. but expert
ence has shown that when it confines itself to
the production Of the spasmodic revival wave
this will pass over the fetid waste of slumdom,
leaving only momentary tinge Of light, which
soon fades back into the original gloom. Let
there be added the patient care and training of
the disordered powers until the depraved taste
shall prefer the pure and simple things OF
truth. Then shall the wilderness and the
| solitary place be glad for them and the desert
shall rejoice and blossom as the rose."
sEcrARIANIsM AND STATE EDUCATION.
Rev. A. Halliday of the United Methodist
Free church was to have followed DR.. Ham
mond in an address upon ''Sectarianism and
State Education He had been taken sud-
denly i'll and his place was taken by Mr.. J. A.
Crosfeid, an alderman Of Manchester and a
member of the Manchester school board. Mr..
Crosfield spoke Interestingly Of the present
status Of the schools in England, characterizing
the condition Of the schools in the rural sec
tions much the same as existed among the
eolored people. and especially among the colored
cnlIuren In tnle country DeIOre the Civil war.
He took the ground that the schools OF
country being supported by the people should
be managed entirely by the people, and he
pleaded for the emancipation of the school from
the power OF the priest and Of the clergy.
SECONDARY EDUCATION.
Mr.. J. C. Dancy of the A. NJ. E. Zion church,
the only colored lay delegate to the conven-
ton, followed in an eloquent address upon the
subject Of Secondary Education" He ad-
dressed himself to the subject Of secondary
education. Scholarship, he said, was not the
heritage of any race; it lay in the individual.
Scholarly education was the ruling force of the
world today. Secondary education, lying be-
tween the elementary and the classic was often
| acquired under severe difficulties. So ac-
quired the education Of the tallow chambers
| son, benjamin Franklin; that Of the news
boy, Thomas Edison; that Of Lincoln, the
| martyr President; Of Fred Douglass, and of
others. Methodism in America was indebted
| to education for its marvellous growth 1t was
that education which gave fifty representa-
tives in the council from the eolored race,
speaking for million souls. Secondary edu-
cation was TO continue to play a prominent
part in Methodism and would continue to ad-
vance the cause of Christianity throughout the
world. Secondary education included charac-
ter making. 1t completed the home education
taught good impulses and trained largely the
conscience. The heart and hand, as well az the
head, were the proper subjects Of secondary
education. As the result of that education in
the case of his own race the auction block had
been turned into the school house. That edu-
cation had helped the church through the pro-
vision Of an educated, intelligent active laity.
BRIEF SUPPLEMENTARY ADDREssKs.
The fve-minute supplementary addresses
were for the most part taken up by Methodists
from across the water in arguments for the re-
movsl Of sectarianism in the common schools.
The majority of the speakers were in favor of
reading the Bible in the school, but not of Sec
tartan teaching.
Rev. j. Swami Wilmington Of the United
Methodist Free church Of England held that
secondary education should be national and
not sectarian. When money was given from
the public purse for sectarian education it
gave a false color. National education should
be compulsory; should be free from sect.
Rev. A. NJ. Green Of the A. NJ. E. church OF
New Orleans spoke of the difficulties of giving
religious instruction TO youth when the exam
amples around them we're so at variance with
those teachings. A beginning in religious in.
struction should be made with the parent The
next step should be the Sunday school.
Rev. DR.. Hugh Price Hughes said that the
whole evangelical church of England admired
the free school system Of the United States. All
wanted free uou-sectarian schools, but he
feared Q blunder had been made in committing
themselves to the exclusion Of the Bible from
| the schools
Mr.. W. b. Luke Of the Bible Christian church