The Portland daily press., 1893-06-23
PRACTICE SCHOOL GRADUATION.
DIR. Albion w. smaIPs Address to the
Young Teachers.

pecepGlon Kali was we'll Hliou last
evening, when DR.. A. W. Small of the
University of Chicago, addressed the
pupils of the Training school.
Among the well known gentlemen
present were Rev. DR.. Fem, Rev. DIR.
Blanchard, Rev. George D. Lindsay, DIR.
W. Fl. True, and others.
Mr. w. H. Brownson of the school
board, presided, and gracefully intro
duced Dr. Small. as a graduate of the
Portland High school in the class of 1872.
DR.. Small spoke of the reply of the In
dian chief, Rain-in-the-face, when
asked what he thought of Chicago, and
he replied, 'sToo much thunder He
said that it seemed to him that he was
almost disappearing when he registered
from Chicago, He pleasantly touched
on Chicago. There we see the present
and to some degree the future. There is
the Sabbath of the past and it may be
the Sabbath of the future, the school of
today, and it may be the school of the
future. The civilization of today and it
may be the civilization of our grand
children. DR.. Small said he should take
for his subject, ''Some Tendencies of
American Thought" Not that he could
hope to follow the subject down, but
here and there touch on it, and throw
out some suggestions for the considera-
ton of others. 1t is evident that the So
ciety of the future must be more thor
oughly democratic, that is, it must be
based on more correct principles of de-
mocracy. AS a matter of fact all the
republics of the Old World had slav-
cry as their corner stone. 1t
may be doubted if 10 per cent of the citi-
zens of Athens OF Rome were free.
DR.. Small spoke earnestly of the present
condition of American society. We are
part of an industrial system.that makes
it almost impossible for us to rise with
out crushing others. The fact is the
cheapest thing in the world is men, and
the next cheapest thing is the daughters
of men. AS was said at the meeting of
the Womens Congress in Chicago, there
is in every large city a slavery more
crushing than the slavery of chains.
Righted society will be built on a re-valu-
alton of humanity, and greater value
applied to manhood.
In Chicago, DR.. Small said, he found
himself constantly turning from the al
most marvellous architecture, from the
wonderful work of men, to the men and
women who view it ALL Not the fair
itself, not the works of men, but the
works of God are marvellous; not the
machinery, the appliances of modern civ
ilization, but men, the lawfulsusers of it
all.
He spoke eloquently of the poetry Of
poverty and the chivelry of the slums,
drawing strong and apt illustrations
from his own experience in Chicago.
We are coming to changed view of
education. We no longer think Of it as
matter of safety to the state, but rather
as development of character, There is
no man whose writings have more chaff
to the proportion Of wheat than Fl erbert
Spencer, and yet it is safe. having re-
moved the chaff to feed on the wheat of
his essay on education. Yet it
is not ''the three R's'' that
make or even begin education,
it is the formation of character, the
righteousness of which the psalmist
speaks. That school is the best school,
all other things being equal, which leads
the pupil to think, to comprehend the
value of morality. DR.. Small said that
what remains most clearly with him of
his school days is the things that were
incidentally taught The boy who went
above him the most frequently was one
who never had good clothes. In this
city there are boys selling papers or
backing boots, who, in the future will
go to the top, will invent machinery, will
be great in the sciences, will be leaders
in politics. The school that teaches that
man is worth just what he is worth is
the best school. Manhood is worth it's
value in manhood, just as gold is worth
its weight in gold.
DR.. Small told story to illustrate his
point that manhood is the great thing.
Mr.. Chase, in the high school, said one
day in school, "The boy who cheats
teacher before his face may be smart,
but the boy who cheats a teacher behind
LIS UdCk Is uOt WOTCH . plueiHS dt.
Don't try to repress the physical ma
ture in boy. There may be times when
fist right is natures right. Don't try to
put the nature of a boy into Saul's armor
of morality. Yesterday boy said to
him, 1--WE had bad luck twice. I fell
from my wheel, and a boy hit me and al
most made me cry, and didn't say
'scuse me-"
.'What did you do?"
II hit him back and made him cry.n
DR.. Small vigorously said that the
time may come when there will be some
thing useful taught in our schools, but at
present it is not so. 1t is still true that
one half of the world does not know how
the other half live, and it is not to the
credit of either half that it is so. We
are trying to make an impression on the
schools of Chicago in the interested fu-
ture good citizenship by teaching the
difference between sections of the city,
the difference between a mayor who
mayors and a mayor who does not may
or, the difference between an alderman
and a statesman.
DR.. Small said that the arch enemy of
education today is matr1mony. The
IN.,% @11.~