The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1893-12-29
PEDA(tOGUES MEET.
Convent IN Of the State Society Be-
gun at WaterVilIe.

AN ADDRESS BY MAYOR BAXTER
ON MANUAL TRAINING.
The Teachers Welcomed by the Mayor of
Watervilie-Mr Baxter Besides De-
scribing the Manual Training Given in
the Portland Schools, Spoke of the Value
of Such Teaching in Equippins the
Pupil for His Battle With the World.
Especial to the Press.]
Waterville, December 2S.-During the
entire day the incoming trains have
brought scores Of teachers from all parts
of the state TO this quiet little college
town to attend the fourteenth annual
meeting of the Maine Pedagogical
Society, and the preliminary exercises
were held this evening in the Coburn
Classical Institute. DR.. Hanson opened
the meeting with prayer and was fol-
lowed by Mayor johnson of Waterville.
who welcomed the society in behalf of
the city. Mayor johnson said: 1.-The
pleasant duty has devolved upon me to
welcome you to the City of Waterville.
Our city is an educational center, and
owes not little to it's schools and its
finely equipped college has annually sent
forth a body of young men and women
to swell your ranks. We take deep in
terest in your profession as year by year
it has shaped itself into science, edu-
eating children not as mere machines,
but as individuals possessing clear in
tellects ara receptive minds. Associa-
tions like yours have had great deal to
do in improving the old methods of
teaching Your profession is a noble
one, and to you is committed the task
by the state of making it's good and hon.
orable citizens of future years. Speak
ing for the citizens of Waterville, | bid
you and your work God speed"
The mayor was followed by Hon.
James P. Baxter. Mayor of Portland.
Mayor Baxter said that it was his inten-
tion to show as an object lesson some of
the work of the students of manual
training in Portland, but owing to the
illness of the instructor, Mr.. Schuertz,
this was not possible. Mr.. Baxter spoke
as follows:
Mr.. Baxter's Address
In speaking to you Tonight upon the
subject of Manual Training, I know of
no better introduction to my subject
than that well known aphorism ofLord
Bacon, Education is the cultivation of
Just and legitimate familiarity betwixt
The mind and things, "yet although these
remarkably true words have vibrated
upon the ears of generations for three
,f,1rio Sc W hot IN
have attracted any considerable atten-
tion. What is wanted is the education
of the whole man the proper
training of every faculty
which God has given him. This has
certainly not heen done in the past, al
though our public system of education is
the best which has ever been realized
time when Bacon lived we shall find a
condition of affairs not at all favorable
to the education of the masses. Every
where in England ignorance and crime
prevailed. Men who claimed the distinc-
tion of belonging to that envied class,
the gentry, were forced to take to the
highway for a livelihood. 1t required a
virgin soil in which to root the public
school, and Providence, in the fullness
of time provided such soil for it, and
the men to carefully plant and nurture
it. No unprejudiced mind can regard
the founders Of New England as other
than meu of remarkable wisdom and
virtue. Since the abandonment of Scrip
ture reading, the teaching in the public
school has been purely intellectual. That
such system tends to promote selfish
fosters exclusiveness, pride Of opinion,
self-esteem and other concomitants of
selfishness, and we need not wonder that
so many who have received such an edu-
cation, rush on in life's race, without
ever thinking to look back to see how it
fares with those behind.
Thoughtful men have long felt the de-
fciency in purely intellectual educa-
tion, and. it has been argued with con-
siderable force, that mere intellectual
training often renders the student unfit
to engage in practical affairs, and SUBJ
jects him to the humiliation of being
outstripped at the outset of his careersby
those whom he regards as his intellectual
interiors In this connection the follow
tefest. The article is headed, "The
Curse of Education MEN of Mental
A bility who Can Procure No Suitable
Employment. = Ever since the enor-
nous enlargement numerically of the
English universities there can be little
doubt that the value of degree has gone
down commercially. The learned pro-
LESSONS are OV0FcrOWQeu. Inc cause OF
this unhappy crowding of the mar ket
with brain laborers is not far to seek.
None of these people can dig as their
fathers did. They cannot make shop
boys OF busymen or crossing sweepers.
Too many of them can only teach or
starve. 1t is really impossible to deny
that certain degree Of intellectual edu-
cation units a man to work with his
hands and earn his bread as laborer !"
Perhaps norman of a past generation
better realized this than Froebel and
although he was regarded a dreamer,
and was ridiculed by those who had
come to regard the school as mental
tread mill, yet he persevered, and the
kindergarten, which is now SO favorably
regarded by the best educators, is the
one result; the other is the system of
Manual Training, of which the kinder
garten was the forerunner.
But let us consider what Manual
Training is. Nothing" says recent
writer, Sstimulates and quickens the in
tellect more than the use of mechanical
tools" At the very threshold of practi-
cal mechanics thirst for wisdom is en-
gendered, and the student is irresistibly
impelled to investigate the mysteries Of
philosophy. Thus the training for the eye
and the hand reacts upon the brain,
stimulating it into excursions into the