St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1894-05-27
THE NEED OF TODAY.

The Public schools the Great
Moral Agent of Civilization. 49,
The 1853 teachers of the st. Paul pub
lie schools listened to an address from
Supt. Gilbert, at the assembly hall of
the high school Duilding. Yesterday
morning. The opening of the address
was review. in brief. of the school
work OF the year, which the general
tone OF the schools shows to have bee n
satisfactory. 70 gratifying extent
this is due to the endeaVOrS of thu
teachers for self-improyement. through
the teachers association. the principal
section, lectures. reading circles and
other volunteer efforts for Improvement
Mr. Gilbert devoted some space to
considering the public school system in
its relation to the future. He assumed
that the conditions OF civilization had
changed, and that the old public school
system is not meeting the needs of the
state. That system was founded upon
the New England model. found in
community of exceptional intelligence
and morality. Then the nome and the
church were the chief civilizing nflu-
NhSSo' ANOW IL lis lilO 10 III
longer the center OF life in the majority
of cases. In the lowest families, to all
extent in the highest. the home is the
worst place for the child. The
hurch, at its best. only reaches
majority. The evils existing to.
day in the state, in the country
are appalling. The indisposition to in
duStry, to application. suggests almost
that the country has gone daft. This is
not due to any extent to lack Of intel
ligence, so it is apparent that 'reading,
writing and arithmetic" will not save
the state. In former days. when read
ing was the basis of education. it was
limited and Of good quality. Now the
parent trembles for the child who re-
sorts to the news stands, to say nothing
of newspaper literature so largely given
up 10 narratives of scandal and crime
The sordidness and sefishness of today
are due TO the arithmetic.a the kind of
arithmetic we study. The art of making
money is exalted into the highest virtue
by school education. The great lack of
| today-the one thing needed for civil
izatlOn, is the cultivation of the moral
sense.
That is the aim of new education. in
Guiding the socalled fads. the method
to make the center of the chlid'5 educa-
ton some elevating theme. Morality is
the product of thought fructitied into
habits of life. 1t is not produced by
| precepI. Hence the necessity OF present
ing high ideals gained from the study
| of nature, history, literature constantly
before the child mind until pure habits
| are formed. The schools are the great
moral agents, teaching the various me-
chanic arts, reading, writing, drawing,
| grammar, by practice upon and the
study of these high themes.
Wildwood.
The beautiful and popular resort on
| White Bear Lake known as Wildwood
will be opened to the public on Satur.
day, May 26, for the season of 1894.
This we'll known picnic ground is under
new management. and has been thor
oughly renovated and put in first-class
order. No liquor will be sold OH the
grounds. The bathing facilities have
been largely increased, and the public
will find here an ideal place to spend a
day or evening away from the noise and
heat of the city. Boating, bathing,
fishing, roller coaster. water toDoggan
| slide, bowling, SWITCHBOARD, roller skat-
ing, dancing every Afternoon and even
ing. SeiberI's Military Band will give
grand concerts every Tuesday and Fri
day evening and Sunday afternoon.
| Special concert opening day at p. IN.
A fine steamboat will ply regularly
between Wildwood and White Bear
Village, giving everybody an opportu-
nifty to sail on White Bear Lake, st.
Pau's onl y pleasure resort. Fare for
round trip reduced to 25 cents. See
time table in column of railroad time
| tables.