The Portland daily press., 1895-07-11
4 DAY OF ADDRESSES.
Large Audience at the Institute Of
instruction.
ELEMENTARY TRAINING THE GEN
ERAL TOPIC.

Prof. Scriptures Illustrated Lecture on
Child study-other Addresses-This Is
Said to be the Most Successful Gather
ing of the Institute Held for Years
President Stetson Declares 1t Highly
Complimentary to Portland.
The session of the American Institute
of Instruction began yesterday morning
at 9. 80, Rev. DIR. Blanchard, of this city,
offering prayer, and the Temple Quartette
rendering tTis Morn The quartette
responded to two encores.
Hon. W. W. Merrill was next intro
duced as one who had taken a leading
part in the preparations for the entertain
ment of the visitors. Mr.. Merrill was
cordially greeted, as he proceeded to an
nounce that today at 2 80 D. m. the
steamer Bay State would take the MEM
bers of the Institute out for sail in the
harbor Members of the Institute would
be admitted to the boat on their member
ship tickets. The Temple quartette would
accompany the excursion
Prof G. E. Carroll Supt of Schools
at Worcester, was next introduced. to,
PROF. CARROLL'S ADDRESS. II
Desirable Notifications of Elementary
School Programmes was the subject of
a valuable paper by Mr.. g. F. Carroll,
superintendent of schools in Worcester,
Mass. Mr. Carroll insists that we are
bound to prepare children for society,
that they may strive successfully in the
great competition of the race; that we
stultify cur schools by anything aAproach-
. ing literal application of the graded
course of study; that teaching means
more than it did and that we recognize
different moral obligation to the child,
to his home and to society.
Mr.. Carroll began by giving due credit
to the great company of scientific men
and al tist teachers who have been quietly
studying the foundations of human de-
velopment. Pedagogical writers long ago
emphasized the Importance OF the emo
tions, and elementary teachers have seized
upon this physiological basis and entirely
transformed the school room Reading,
for example, is not now taught as an end,
or chiefly as an accomplishment; but is
made to afford delight and furnish gen
eral information. Kindergartners have
entirely broken loose from tradition, and
have sought suggestion in the child's
physical nature, in all that they do The
Kindergarten makes use of the child's
love of play. his curiosity, love of knowl-
edge, sympathy, sense of reverence, his
destructive and inventive passion, his
fancy, his sense of proportion and har-
mony. The best part of early education
is not in books but through the concrete
The course of study must be an out
growth of these conditions of the child
life No logical course of study, framed
by men learned in abstraction, can much
longer be imposed upon the delicate and
sensitive organism of child instinct
with multitude of strong and noble i'm
pulses, which are SO often crushed under
this heavy mill stone
Mr. Carroll then went on to speak of
the need that schools be managed with
reference to the culture demanded by
modern life. High minded and cultured
teachers will lead their pupils into the
possession of the rarest Christian graces
Mr.. Carroll also advocated manual
training from the earliest school days up
to entry into the high school. From a
close observation of $50 children he could
bear testimony that such a system has
contributed in a large measure to Danish
corporal punishment, and make the child
largely capable of governing himself
With regard to the order of subjects in
courses of study, Mr. Carroll advocates
work to the individual capacities of the
pupils. 1.-THE so-called fixed graded sys-
tem,' he says, has been the heaviest
weight ever hung upon the Struggling
teacher. 1t has not only killed her EN-
thusiasm but has destroyed all chance of
x4fT n ,.nl
and the slow pupil to mark time togeth-
er. 1t has held back the advancement .of
the one and prodded into fruitless and
spiritless effort the other. No tendency
today is more marked than that to- break
lose from this monstrous deformity. In,
New England, even the advanced grades
are divided into SO many parts as will en-
able group of pupils to work harmoni-
ously and naturally, and they all move
faster or slower as the case may demand
This, of course, kills, as it ought to- the
yearly grade-limit scheme, and any pre-
tence at maintaining it is only farce -
Mr.. Carroll advocates unity in the
courses of study, particularly in the Eng
lish literature, which should be carried in
regular and harmonious progress through
ali the, school grades. The high school
should also be made to connect more har
moniously with the grammar grades.
The different studies and methods of the
to the scholar brought up in the gram
mar grades.
Speaking of teachers he says: "The
trained teacher who is fully up to date,
would never think of using text book
in arithmetic, in actually teaching any
subject that it contains. The CRUDE
method has already banished the primary
arithmetic, and skilled teacher irresis
tably presents the elements of common
fractions, deciDlals, and percentage all
at one time : AS teacher she takes
the place of the book. She is ready with
the questions asked in the book < =
AS result the time acquired for teaching
a given subject is reduced by one third or
one half.
The programme for the forenoon also
included addresses by Prof. A. H Camp
bell, of johnson, VT, Principal Lemuel