The Hawaiian gazette. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu, Hawaii]) 1865-1918, 1896-05-12

| daily programs with non-essentials
The most we can do is TO keep inform.
ed as TO the best methods of teachins
those things that must be taught. Aids
OF all kinds should be brought into
requisition as much as possible. If one
intends to continue teaching, they are
the best possible investments.
The second method of gaining heir
from outsiders is attendance at teach
ers' meetings and conventions. 1t has
long been acknowledged that teacher
can do much more effective work if as
ISOLATED with other teachers in fire.
qsent conference. Especially here,
where our difficulties are so similar and
our limitations so narrow, do we need
to get all possible inspiration and en-
lightenment from mutual interchange
or thought, plan and method of work.
What was my surprise last year to hear
the secretary announce the absence of
nearly half the members of this associ-
ationl
Every one of us needs to be present,
not only, but actively, present, at every
one of our meetings. Our ideas need a
thorough oyerhauling, shaking up and
airing at least once year, to keep them
from ''rigor mortis." Then the majority
of us need the sociability incident to
these meetings. We cannot afford to be
hermit crabs, shutting out all contact
with others. No mortal can live heal
thful, fully developed life who denies
himself the companionship of his fell
low mortals.
Loyalty to ones calling is virtue,
and like all other virtues, may be car
ried to an excess so great as to become
positive wrong. AS, for instance,
those structures laid upon members of
trades unions which are harmful to the
men themselves and work serious in
jury to the public. While the original
intent of the trades unions is a noble
one, these limitations are extreme. So,
while l believe that to a limited extent
we should think of and study for the
coming school term during our vaca-
lions, to spend six weeks out of the
time we need for rest and change in
study in a summer school would be an
injury to our schools in many ways, es-
pecially if Honolulu were chosen as a
permanent meeting place. If we did not
become monomaniacs, wreaking the
of exhausted nature on long
suffering schools in spasmodic attempts
to put in practice all we crammed in the
six weeks, we should soon become phys
ical wrecks.
1t is an indisputable fact that we
see too little of the heads of the Educa-
tional Department, and too infreQuently
have the opportunity of learning from
educational authorities by word of
mouth. Still, a rational enthusiasm
would hardly lead anyone to spend the
most of his time for rest, in an I'M
healthful location, during the hottest
part of the year, even could PestaloZzi,
Comenius and all the other worthless
be resuscitated for his particular bene-
fit. For my own part, | would rather
vote for a two weeks convention, to
be held now on one Island, now on an
other, with preference given to those
places offering the best inducements
Of course we could not take full nor
nal course in that time, but we should
be better able to assimilate and adjust
10 our work any new thoughts we may
receive, in the time of rest to follow,
han we should if we came physically
Inrefreshed back to our work after six
weeks of examining.