St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1891-12-31
THE MAIN BODY.
Symposium on English-Radical
Changes - Legislative Sugges-
tiOnS.

tiOns.
The work laid out in the programme
Tor the general association was COM
! pieted at the afternoon session yester-
day. There was deal of routine bust
ness transacted, and papers were read
under the picturesque caption of "a
| Symposium" The definition given to
! an appropriate symposium of a body of
American educators was The place
English should hold and how it should
be taught" This was SubdiVided into
four divisions, so as to take the course
from the district schools and the graded
schools and through the high school
and into the university aud colleges
| Teachers representing these different
institutions of learning were assigned
the task, respectively, of presenting
their thoughts upon their particular
| branches of the theme.
The standing committees submitted
their reports early in the session as in
Dictated below. Then Miss Gertrude G.
Ellis, superintendent of schools for
Mower county, opened the "sympO-
sum-" 1t was an excellent paper, full
of arguments, tempered with reason,
and 1t was an eloquent plea for a more
pronounced recognition of the trans
cendental Importance of the course i'm
American schools. Miss Ellis, after
pretty preface, maintained the impor-
tance OF English language in the district
schools because it teaches the funda-
| mental principles for complete educa-
ton. She treated the foreign problem
| naSterly,and she pointed to the fact that
large proportion of the pupils of the dis
trlct schools choose, like their fathers. the
avOcatiOn of tilling the soil. Therefore
the district school is of vast Importance
to them. for they seldom take a higher
course. Language is the dress of
thought. ana language well taught
fits the pupil for natural reasoning
and cultiVates taste for further
| study and research Of great benefit in
after life, and she said that the occasion
| to use historical knowledge stand III
ratio to language as one TO 1000. The
district school usually ranks higher in
| mathematics and less in spelling and
writing. Often the teachers are less
fitted for the language course, but they
are rapidly improving, for they are
| drawing a reflected light from the uni
VerSity and high schools, and some are
! learning to speak and write English.
| English grammar does not teach to
write. nor are language lessons all that
| is required. Miss Ellis emphasized the
Importance OF thorough and systematic
study of literature, although. she quail
| fed, it cannot do everything for the
| pupil, and the teacher that relies i'm
! picitly upon any one of these will fail.
! Correct articulation was pronounced a
| great aid i'll studying language. the
eSSayist had known teachers who teach
temperance hygiene In a spirit that
counteraetS all the beneficial effects of
the study, and the importance of
| the spirit in which the branch
was portrayed. She recommended re-
| production as crucial test, and claimed
| that it is the secret OF success in the dis
trict school. and suggested that liter
| ature be written and read, and COM
mltted-literature of the past and pres
| ent. The finer feelings must be touched
and the ioftier sentiments aroused, for
reason with the most must go out into
| the world with but one language TO in
! terpret it-One language as the KEY to
| the literature of the different races.
English in Graded Schools.
Miss Laura Hand, principal of The
| Sibley school of st. Paul, read a paper
| on English language in the graded
school. She ingeniously wOve her plea
| for the paramount Importance of the
! study into an entertaining narrative, Sc
! lecting teacher as the heroine, and
! children of the different grades as the
/
method of arouSing the attention and
! sentiment of the little ones. beginning
with simple subjects and leading them
! on up to erudte and rhetorical liter
AZURE. She would combine all studies
so that they became potent adjunctS TO
language studies. ENGRAVING a taste for
literature and finer discrimination be-
tween words. their fitness and utility
| uncOnsciouSly as 1t were.
In the High school.
English in the high school was mag
nifcentIy' treated by Prof. f. X
! Cheadle. of the Brainerd high school,
| He had little faith in the formal text
| books, or in any sort OF routine work.
but held the system of teaching English
| through the study of English literature
as paramount. He would relegate the
text books TO the past, and have re-
course to a library embracing the bright
est works of the tongue as a means to
the end. He held that the best lessons
are addressed to the feeling as well as
the understanding, and he would de-
vote the best of the high school course
to the study of English, in this way
! the study of literature and not about
| literature, and he disparaged forms and
fixed rules as too mechanical and dis
tasteful to the student. Text books
should be used only as aids, while book 5
| should be the standard, aud for this he
expressed his regret that all high
schools in the state are not well equipped
| with a library. Great care should
be taken, Prof Cheadle urged, in sc
lnoting the quality OF literature to it