The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1892-01-01
MAINE PEDAGOGUES.
They Are in This Town in Large
Numbers.
OPENING EXERCISES IN CITY
HALL LAST EVENING.

how salvador Won'-hr' "a W. Au-
SON on Improvements in Our Common
School Acknowledgements for To-
day.
There are teaching in Maine this year
1900 teachers. Not all of these were
in attendance at the opening meeting of
the Pedagogical Society last evening, but
there were enough of them to fill Recep-
ton Hall, with patient residue that
stood in the doorways. The 1900 teach
ers of Maine are divided among men
and women about in the proportion of
three-ffths women to two-fifths men.
But in last evenings assembly the pro-
portion was much stronger in favor of
the women.
The assembly was an excellent repre-
sentation of the body of school teachers
in Maine. The principals of a large por-
ton of the normal schools, academies
and high schools were present, besides
large number of other teachers of all
grades. Hon. N. A. Luce, the state SUI
perintendent Of schools, President Fer
nald and Prof. Jordan of the State Col
lege, Principal Parsons of the Augusta
High School, Principal Owen and Super
intendent Burke of Waterville, Superin-
tendent Stetson of Auburn, Superintend-
ent Stewart and Committeeman Callahan
of Lewiston, Principal Small of Norway,
and Principal Purinton of the Farming
ton Normal School, were few of those
noticed in the audience. President E. p.
Sampson of Saco, called the meeting to
order, and introduced Judge Joseph w.
Symonds, who welcomed the teachers
to Portland. The substance of Judge
Symonds's very appropriate speech fol
lows:
Judge symonds's Welcome.
By authority of the mayor of the city,
who could not be present tonight, have
of Portland to this society of the teach
ers of Maine, at the opening of its twelfth
annual meeting.
At the same time it may almost be
said, that whatever pertains to public
instruction and education, or any learned
body which represents it, is too much at
home in New England city to need any
formal words of welcome, or even to rem
der them appropriate. The New Eng
land school and the New England town
are too well acquainted with each other,
they have known each other too long, fol-
either of them to assume many airs in
the presence of the other. They landed
on these shores together The soil and
the air belong to one as much as to the
other. They<were playrnates together,
in the oldtiimes, when the margin between
t Ere wilderness and the sea shore was a
dangerously narrow one. They have al
ways cherished the common memories
of childhood, and have never parted
company. The table was never spread
in New England municipality without
a seat for it's inseparable companion, the
school, by the board and the fireside.
It's presence was never the strangers
presence, to be greeted with hospitality;
it was '1to the manner born" and needed
no authority but it's own, no welcome
but that which it brought with itself.
The freedom of the city belonged to it,
not as to the guest the distinguished
visitor, by formal courtesy; but by orig
inal right, as to one born within the city
gates, claiming it's rightful inheritance,
the special and exclusive privileges con-
ferred upon it by constitution and char
ter.
In our history there was never time,
/ believe, when the educational interests
of the State held any secondary place.
They were always among those of the
first importance. The love of learning
grew in New England as the common
flower by the cottage door, in the sun
and rain; and often most lovingly and
most luxuriantly by the humblest home.
The school, the academy, the library,
the college, all the institutions. of learn
ing, rest here might almost say upon
the same foundations, at least upon
foundations as of old, as those which
support the church. The early New
England theology may not always have
: been wholly consistent with itself, but in
its essential spirit-whether this is true
of its creed or in all instances of its prac-
tice, or not--in its spirit it loved lib
erty and had faith in the freedom of the
human mind. 1t had no fear of popular
intelligence or the learning of the
schools 1t did not shun the light.
1t is Swiss saying that "The church
and the school may well be placed side
by side; they are two fingers of Gods
hand" There is simple, perhaps al
most crude, liberalism in that, but at
the same time in its own way, simple or
crude, it expresses something of the
spirit of the history of New England, as
of that older confederacy, which has held
its home among the mountains against
Roman invasion, middle age turbulence
and baTbarism, and the vast armies and
more dangerous diplomacy of modern
Europet
Even the brief reference to the past
which have made, is enough to remind
us how much more difficult and complex
are the educational problems of our day
than those OF century, or even a geneI-
alton, ago; with what startling rapidity
all social conditions have changed or are
changing in this country; how different
are the phases society has assumed with
in comparatively brief period, and how
new are many OF the questions proposed
to those who are laboring to advance the
social welfare.
How to preserve in the minds of those
who are to succeed us the purity and
simplicity of republican ideas and modes
of life, with wealth rolling in upon the
country as mon ancient Rome with the