The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1895-07-11

Miss wilhelmina Seegmiller, Allie
glheny City, Pa.
Muster N Coe. Stewart, Cleve-
land, Ohio; f. Trendley, Youngstown,
Ohio; C. H. Congdon, Minneapolis,
Mimi.
Manual and Industrial" E. R.
Booth, Cincinnati; Charles H. Keyes
Pasadena, Cal; Albert R. Robinson,
Business" ]. NJ. Mehan, Des
Moines; Mrs. Sarah A. Spencer, Wash
Herbert Club" Charles de Garno,
swarthmore, Pa; C. c. Van Liow,
Normal, III.
Natural science::'' Nicholas Muir
ray Butler Columbia college.
The evening session opened with
singing by the Chicago principals
male quartette and an address by eX-
Governor Northen, of Georgia, on the
cotton exposition, inviting the associa-
ton to hold an adjourned session at
Atlanta during the educational con-
gress.
Chancellor w. H. Payne, of the Uni
versity of Nashville, Tenn, was intro
duced.
Chancellor Payne.
Chancellor Payne said: There are
fadS in thinking as we'll as in acting;
and if we define an intellectual fad as
partial and somewhat superficial
mode of thought which becomes cpl
demic, runs its course, and is succeeded
by similar phases of thought, we may
say that fads are the rungs of a ladder
on which thought rises from lower con-
ceptions to higher and thus gains
wider. and wider horizons for truth.
Education has had and still has its
fads, among which may be named
Follow Nature" Manual Training"
'Lancasterianism," and ''Appercep-
ton On account of it's longevity and
antiquity, nature is the most respecta-
bic of educational fads, and, through
the influence of Rousseau and Spencer,
this fiction has become prevalent in
modern educational literature.
Meaning of Nature.
These writers do not define what they
mean by nature" but from their use
of the term, we may infer that their
meaning is this: The material world
of matter and force inhabited by I'M
civilized men RousseaW; or, in simpler
form, experience (Spencer). "Educa-
ton according to nature" is education
through contact with environment, or
through experience with matter and
force, as distinguished from education
through books, or through human art.
Follow nature cannot be an ulti-
mate criterion, for in actual practice
there are near limits beyond which ex-
perience should not go. A child of
tender years may perhaps experiment
with a candle flame, boiling water and
hot fire bars, but not with an open
razor; and to decree that our knowl-
edge of science must be gained wholly
by experiment is manifeStly absurd, an
indispensable factor in human progress
being capitalization and inheritance.
AS capitalized knowledge is increasing
in volume from year to year, the need
of leaning on authority becomes
greater and greater, and of reliance on
personal experience smaller and
smaller. Scholarship is becoming more
and more mastery of books.
The Human Mind.
The human mind, like other organ
isms, has it's PREDETERMINED mode of ac-
tivity. This is its nature; and to fol
low nature" in its psychological sense,
is to adapt our instruction to the
minds proceeds from whole to parts,
from the vague to the definite, and, in
infancy, from the concrete to the alb
stract; and we follow nature" when
we present the matter of instruction
in such a way that the mind may elab-
crate its material in this order.
Again, we follow nature when we
devise an education that is wholesome
tonic, rather than fragmentary or
partial
The trained" horse is an abnormal
horse; the expert" or the special
ist,'' is but the fraction or fragment
of a man; a trained" teacher has
come to mean young woman capa-
BILE ofSdoing but one small thing Well
The tendency of the age is towards
specialization, but the need of the age
( q n education that iG fhnlio q nd hlI-
name; and we need to return to ma
ture in the sense of seeking simplicity
and Wilderness in human education.
Public Opinion.
After a violin solo by Miss Geneva
D. Waters, of Denver. an address on
THE Education of Public Opinion"
was given by Charles r. Skinner,
state superintendent of schools of
New York. He said:
''Clamor is often taken for public
opinion. One man of strong character
may make his opinion take the place
of public opinion. What is considered
right in one state or community is
outlawed in another. Public opinion, if
properly educated, will become an ir-
resistible force for good and right.
Public opinion has raised the standard
of the teachers in the state of New
York Maybe it will some day demand
a higher standard for school boards
and city councils, legislatures and ma
tional congress. Public opinion is vari-
able and must be rightly educated and
every man is factor in imparting
that education. Public opinion is edu-
Gated by educating individual opinion.
AS our children are educated, so will
be public opinion
After music the convention adjourn
ed and the members of the associa-
ton attended a reception by the state
officers of the capitol.