The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1897-12-29
SEVERAL BUSY MEETINGS
WERE HELD YESTERDAY BY THE
PEOPLE WHO TEACH THE RIS-
ING GENERATION.
OF FOOTBALLIsTS.
Dean RntcheIder Says 1t Is Not q
GentIenunIy Gamc-SaouId Not
More Men Teach:

rave Deen GlSSeCIllS the SCHOOL HID ellis
Ct the cites. for the clinical edification
Ct self-satisfied women's clubs could
have dropped into the ( ntral Presby-
| terrain church yesterday forenoon, they
must have been struck with some re-
morse, for it was an assemblage as
| decOrOuS as a session of the supreme
court; composed of respectful and re-
| spectacle men and women, comprising
! some who have grown gray in educa-
! tional work as we'll as the beaming
! faces of the young women and men
who have all the enthusiasm of youth
! to be in sympathy with the young
| infant minds to offset what they may
| lack in experience.
There was none of the tawdry dis
play of jewelry which has been alleged
against the fair instructors in some of
the caustic papers, but instead the
| teachers, irrespective of sex, were at
| tiTed as might be expected of scholarly,
! self-reSpecting, but not snObbish, men
and women, neatly but genteelly at
tired, as befitted an assemblage so rep
resentative of a class which repre-
sents a public interest important
| enough to command universal respect.
| 1t had been conveniently arranged
| that the general sessions of the conven-
ton should be held in the forenoons,
| with the section meetings for special
! istic study in the afternoons and even
ings.
The sessions of the opening day were
prolific of interesting discussion, the
programme committee proving to have
! done we'll in it's selection of essayists.
! int RI
the. public at large, discussed were
the alleged brutality of football, taken
up in the college section by Dean
Ratchelder, of Hamline, IN his opening
| address, and the relative value of men
and women in teaching in the higher
! grades, which discussion Principal
Bliss, of Waseca, preclpltated in the
| high scnooi section.
The general session opened at 10 a.
m. with prayer by DR.. A. B. Medium.
DR.. D. l.. Kiehle, the president in
| his opening address to the general
meeting was brief but direct. He said:
II congratulate the state of Mime
sofa in having SO large body Of teach
ers who in thought and sympathy live
| beyond the narrow confines of the
| schColroom, and who are making them
selves a par VI lIlt 81 CdI SQuCrllOIIdl
! public in the common effort to solve
some of the serious problems of modern
education.
1.-THE most ordinary observer and
student of history has not failed to
observe that we are fast passing out
of the military age of centralized pow
err for the conservation of society into
| the educational era. The lecture plat
| form, the newspaper and the period1-
cal have already superseded the bat
tlefield. The dogs of war have been
| chained, and the educator-who is
greater than the schoolmaster-is
abroad in the land.
Society, instead of burning, behead-
ing, hanging and imprisoning its moral
and intellectual foes, is now studying
how to disarm them of wicked purposes
and wrong views of life, bred in ig-
norance and vice, by the refining in
| f1uence Of education. This attitude of
| society has brought it face to face with
the question of prevention. 1t has re-
suited that the child is the theme of
| the day. In church, family and state,
! interest centers in the children. AS
teachers of Minnesota we by no means
represent all the educating forces or
organizations of society, but the single
organized body by means of which and
through which society expects to do
it's best in elevating it's youth towards
its ideal of character and useful citi-
zenship.
'"The demands upon the educational
system are overwhelming, but the
special province Of the educator is to
systematic education. The good school
is coming to be something more than
a place where for certain number of
hours in the day the three RS are
taught. 1t is coming to be a center of
enlightenment to the whole neighbor-
hood"
DR.. Kiehle next considered the serious
problem Of what should be expected of
the schools in character forming. The
problem of moral training in America
was anomalous since state and church
are divorced. 1t was a question if the
time had not come when the people
were called upon to consider whether
the fundamental principles of morality
are not in the very foundation of social
order and have not SO far entered into
the common Judgment and conviction
| of society that as an essential part of
civilization they are the common pos
session of the state as Of the Christian
church. Ought not the fundamental
truth of Christianity of an immutable
moral law that makes for righteousness
and as inviolable as the laws of nature,
| be more explicitly llhpieS0eu oI Jul
youth?'
President L. C. Lord read paper
upon the general theme, '"The School
| Library" which also furnished the sub
iect for a subsequent general discus
| sion. President Lord said that school
library should be made up of two
| classes of books, first the literature of
power, and, second, the literature of
| knowledge. The first, he said, might
be subdivided into imaginative litera-
| ture and essays. Imaginative litera-
ture in turn, includes fiction, embrace
ing the novel and the fairy tale, as
we'll as poetry. The novel is one of
the most effective agencies of pleasure,
and is intellectual, moral and spiritual
growth The fairy tales should be
read and fondly read by every child.
Poetry should have an important place
| in every school library, since it cult
Yates the imagination, the life of the
mind.
With all these the literature of
knowledge should have it's place in
the school library, dictionaries, CYCLIC
pedia as histories, books Of science and
philosophy An examination Of the
records of sales shows some interest
| ing facts. Among historians Fiske
| easily leads. Among professional books
for teachers, Pages Theory and Prac-
tice" leads, Just doubling the number
| Of bitches Lectures"
In the general discussion which fol-
! lowed, Principal G. l.. Sawyer urged
| that one Of the principal aims of stu
dents at schools was to learn how to
| It'll