The herald., 1894-10-10

his girls should have the benefit of the
school iund.
What! Use public school moneys to
educate shes ?" exclaimed the president
of the school board. "Neveri"
But by 1900 most New Epgland towns
had made some provision for the educa-
tion OF shea" To the Penn charter Of
Philadelphia belongs the honor OF being
the fret to give boys and girls equal OPP
portunities snd to Boston that OF at
tempting the first free high echool for
girls, in 1926. Today we boast schools
that give equal opportunities to male
and female, as well as to rich and poor,
and we are in position TO set ourselves
diligently to the solution OF the educs-
tional problems which humanity pre-
sents.
These problems are none OF them new.
They have been discussed by philoso-
pliers and sages from Plato to our own
time.
In education. as in politics or religion,
no one class of thinkers has succeeded
or can ever succeed in monopolizng or
comprehending all truth. Nor can any
one stand half way between the con-
ssrvative and radical and discard all.ttat
that should be discarded and preserve
all that should be preserved. These
calm, unprejudced observers, these
men ION the fence" are seldom the
prnpelling iorce in any advance.
Rousseau started out on his work Of
reformation with this cynical foundation
maxim: Take the road directly oppo-
site 20 that which ia in use and you will
almost always do right"
Yet, despite the chimeras and NIB.
surdities of Rosseau's educational
scheme, the new education is surely
taking ehape, because the under
thought of the widest of his faucies
and suggestio as is tho study of the
child. The epochal year which Postal.
ozzi spent among the children OF Stanz
has for its basis of work the same idea
OF child study.
Most OF us feel the need today which
Rousseau emphasized 100 years ago.
From complete, beautifully rounded
childhood alone can complete manhood
be developed. We are. not content to
let children's minds develop as their
bodies do. Whenever the child's
physical growth is excessive you realize
that its health is endangered. Out OF
the insistent desire to witness the in
tellectual growth OF the child come most
OF the intellectual tip.toeing and sitting
and straining and cramming going on in
the modern school life.
during the past
SO years women have rapidly entered
teaching, and, as Froebel prophesied,
the mother element in the school has
done it good. Women brought to the
work the two greatest elements needed
in child care-patience, the outgrowth
OF years OF limitations, and sympathy
with childhood, the outgrowth OF the
maternal instinct. By sheer force of
their adaptability to the needs of child
hood, women have taken possession OF
the work of the schools.
If you need proof that woman has
done good in the schools and not i'll all
the days OF her life therein. you have
only to compare the percentage of illit-
eracy in different states with the per-
centage of women teachers in the came.
In Arkansas but % per cent OF the
teachers are women, while in Massa-
chusetts 80 per cent are women, and in
California 76 per cent; and the estima-
tion in which the woman teacher is hold
whore the greatest intelligence prevails
is very evident. This benighted few
who make war on the woman teacher
today, are at war with the strongest in
stinct of our race, the instinct of mater
nifty. To few men can child care ever be
an enthsiasm and delight.
We turn to the future, and with the
thought of the glorious educational tri-
umphe OF the past century fresh in
mind, we can not fail to face with cour-
age the responsibilities and probems of
f-k,
to US: The new education-the educa.
tion which develops, not crams-must
dominate, for the new education con.
tains all that is worthy toobe universal +;
the school must Ds free. Not free in tn
sense Of costing nothing, but free from
domination OF sect or party or any other
organization than the state itself. The
greatest danger menacing our schools
today is political party domination.
Why? Because magnificent buildings
and appliances and mastery supervision
may be entirely defeated by the failure
in the choice of the teachers. Political
patronage is filling our echools with in
competent teachers and worse. You
have read OF the arrest of drunken
teacher on the streets OF San Francisco.
Do you doubt how she obtained her
position in those schools? Do you know
that whenever any motive other than
the desire to secure the best tai
ent possible influences the selec-
ton of teachers, our schools are
in danger? Shall we erect the
glorious structure of our public school
system of crumbing bricks and rotten
timbers? Give children a Teachers
real teacher-and you give them q
school without hooks nr annlianca. or
shelter, even. The soul of the school is
the teacher. Given the teacher, and all
things else shall be addad. All inspira-
tion for noble living springs at the soul
touch of noble life. We have made
god of system in our schools and have
fallen down and worshiped it. This
false god can never give us what we ask.
The system itself can only be great
through the individual greatness that
inspires and sustains it, and the system
must be demolished il it cannot meet
the needs of every little child in its care.
And last and first OF all this is it clenr
that through the study of this little
child, and only through this. must
come all we shall ever learn of true edu-
cation.
The paper was received with much
enthusiasm, frequent applause inter
rupted the speaker, and il was WE'LL
merited by the strong, forceful. tren-
chant paper, comprehensive and con-
vincing.
Informal discussion followed. led by
Prof. Search, after which the meeting
adjourned to 10 O'Clock this morning.
Awarded