Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1891-01-05
MAINE PBDAGOGUES.
Successful Annual Session
Completed at WituIille.
1uch Useful Information Dispensed By
PfoEiasnt Educators.
Mrs. palmsE's Disccuase-Lsst Dsy's
PIcceeeipss 10 Full.

wArERviLLE. Jan. 3.-The speech 0
Mrs. Palmer At the Baptist church Frids
evening was one OF the best things. perhap
the very best, Of the whole meeting. Sh
spoke substantially as follows:
Mr.. President, Ladies and Gentlemen
Sisce arriving today. unhappiiy go late,
have heard many excellent echoes Of th,
dne work of yesterday, that my quot
| seem. tame and feel a. If were bring
ing Goals TO Newcastle.
Our aim is to improve our common
schools and Ii is for this reason that we Ar
here, and that similar bands of teachers ar,
meeting sll over our land during this shor
vacation / know that all can say will bs
very commonplace TO you who hav,
heard ii so we'll given before and hav,
given so much thought to it your
| selves. | come with experience not IL
yodr State but much smaller one. II vha
I say to you seems very historic aud wei
known. remember that it Is from experience
with Massachusatts that speak.
We have all, within the last decade give,
| much attention to the Improvement Of cul
schools. Itisn't to fud that they are better
| than they were fifty years ago; is isn't t.
decide that they need improvement, but it il
to ascertain hos we can improve our com
mon schools for the future.
There is no anxious father or mother who
does not, for the sake of the children, wish
the church were better. the state were bet
ter, and the system of common school:
better. II is not for ourselves, at least moi
chiefly. that we wish for improvement, but
for the little children who before long shall
take our places.
It's well to say we ought or we must. but
just how to lift the children up, make them
purer and better, and teach them to think
for themaelve'. that's what every good
cor scientious teacher would give ten years
Of her life to know. What can we do to
make the children better in the next decade ?
I must speak indirectly. for so much
must be done, fundamentally. before we
teachers can have the liberty that we need
What is it that we teachers want? Let u
be brave when we see before US the broad
picture of Whist we want and ought to do.
Men ard women are talking a great deal
about the subject OF teaching as pro
fession. Are we professionals? We like to
believe we are, and yet we know there are
thousands in our ranks who are not well
educE.ed and probably never can be.
We have no tenure of office except as
we depend on the will of the school board.
We want more enthusiasm for ourselves
AMI for others; and by this l do not
mean that the enthusiasm stirred up by
such An event as the annual convention !;
but at all times and under all circum-
stances.
The day has gone By when we American
men and women ought to speak Of a col
lege education as only needed by or useful
to professional men and women. 1t mat
ters not whether they are to be doctors or
farmers, lawyers or merchants. we want
the boys and girls of Maine to have it.
No matter what they will DO with it--they
want and ought to have college educa-
ton.
In the year have spent away from this
land,-a year that is much too long TO be
away from it,--what impressed me greatly
vas the surprise expressed among Old
World teachers, at our idea that farmers
boy ought to go to college-boys, and now,
you know, it is girls, too.
But. they say will not the girl get mar
r;ed. and will not the farmers boy be 4
farmer; We are coming to feel the need
of education. as such. and it brings great
opportunity into the hands of the teacher
to use or waste pitifuIly. 1t is expected
thst we should make these children bett er
than those of the past; but we must make
ourselves compact band-a profession.
think often, as | 60 to the College
Commencements, that these young men
are to preach to old people once or twice q
week (of.ener if they can get them) while
we are to preach FIVE days ont of
seven to little children who are 60
ing TO be made or msrred by what we are,
but what we do. or say, or try to teach, but
by what we really are. When our teachers
believe in the diyinepess Of their work, and
the immense amount of resp ,nsibiity they
assume, then the children will be safe.
We are, it seems to me, the most import
ant of public servants. | see in the news
papers the accounts of the work of cluts.
otieties, and irdiviiuals, to promote car-
tain moral reforms. l think of the many
eloquent me and women who are .ellibg
all the questions of reform to the little
children. Nov we are running up cur flags
over the schoolhouses, and though the faces
beneath them may be from Italy, Germany
or Africa. we teach them sill, honor and
reve1ercs for it. We are telling them that
here is the strength Of America, and we
don't need armies while our children are
true to the stars and stripes.
Ia our school, whether our pupils come
from happy homes or homeless places, we
must have the Christian spirit and sweet
ness to make the school home to them.
Sunshine will melt its own way--even
through ice. And the penalty, the blessed
pensiiv. OF doing one thing we'll is the ten
cities now as ages before. Make and
keep the grand ideals. keep young-don't
grow old-and you will be over
worked, and have more places than you
can fill. soon enough. You will be called
the founders of the State, as brave as the
women go years ago.
We think How shall we win over the
hard-hear,ed committee who Won't see the
need Of more books; who think a library
folly. ard say the taxes are too high al
ready. Perhaps you haven't a sunny school
room, with plants in the windows and besu
tiful trees outside. ll,uever mind. perhaps
beauty hasnt get blossomed, except in
nature, in the place where yen work day
after fSy, but with persistent devotion the
desert may be- made to blossom IS a rose.
A lady told me of An experience she had
with her boy one evening as he "a. wrig-
Cling over his slate. trying in vain 10 solve
a problem in arithmetic, At last, and she
isn's a nervous woman, che could not
stand the torture Of her twelve yesr old
any longer, ard 50 said. 'tFll help you,
Charlie 'S0h no, you can't; it is very.
very bard Oh, she said having once
been a school teacher herself Il used 10
know some arithmetic once. read the prob
lem 10 ne" So be read fl this dreadful
example If William eats two red apples,
snd John eats tro red apples, how many
red app'es do they both est?' She was
nonplussed. She Was q we'll educ I,ed
woman ard had right to An intelhgen nj
boy. "Charlv.' she saii sterDly, do
YOU mean that you don't koow thst
two and two are four" "Why, mamma, he
said indignantly, "0f eourse have known
that ever .iuce Was bora" And when
she tried to find out what it Was that puz
sied him. be ssij, ''Oh, his the process that
wears me OUT" And oh il is the too E1anY
processes that ruin orr work.
We teachers must have fresh sir in the
school-rooms. The State demands instruc-
ton in manners. morals. ethics and patfio-
i, without healthy little bodies. We r.ls'
nave EeAlt8 MO III Asl3i tIAfuluk tDE uuf
| selves, and By persistent labor. secure il
| for the little ones.
IDever 90 to meeting Of teachers bu'
that hear them say: How can we make
GU, pupils think?' / an not a pessimist
| but il We demand perfect attention ard
couce ntration Of thought from them. We
demand more than We could obtain from
the people Of the world. don't think that
real thinking 10 popular in New Engiand