The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1897-12-29
MORE MEN ARE NEEDED.
supt. Bliss Wants the High Schools
Improved.

as did Prof Ford, of Owatonna, in the
! city and village superintendent sec-
! ton Monday night. Environment in
Education" was his topic, but his pa
per, perhaps, en- brac more than what
might be looked for strictly under that
| head. The evolution of the intellect
and character, he said, depended main
| ly on heredity and environment, the
! tendency of the one being to transmit
! and perpetuate, the other to modify
I and adjust. The influence of both was
! being generally conceded. Nothing was
! permanent in nature, evolution being
written on all things. Wheat was moth
ing but grass with a high school edu-
! cation. Every child was bundle OF
good ard evil potencies, the composite
Of all preceding generations. One prob
| lem of education was to eliminate by
! good environment all tendencies to evil
and to develop the good.
1--WE Americans" said Mr.. Bliss, Gin
/ dealing with the question of popular
education, are not merely optimists; we
! are fast becoming fataliStS. We boast
! that the system can accomplish every
| thing, that free education is the safe
| guard of the republic Yet the century
closes with a proportionally larger part
! of our nation in a state of ignorance
! than that with which it began. In a
year the child spends 1,C00 hours in
school; 5000 in some other environ
ment The educati-n which mGulds the
| child for his duties as citizen is largely
! that which he gains from the influence
! of the community and his home. II
! these be proper the school instruction
| will strengthen them; but if they be
bad, the school instruction can do lit
! tie to counterfeit them. Parents too
| frequently evade responsibility and too
| little attention is paid to home train
| ing Children so brought up do not
| develop the civic virtues. AS citizens
| they are ignorant, rude, careless or
social obligations, lawless in DISPOSE
ton and of dull moral sense. If the
| American republic ever furnishes
not more from the ignorance Of the
! foreign imr iorart than that of the Ea-
! tive-born Tho american social and
| political organi@ation rests wholly
upon the belief that the majority prefer
! good to evil; the Great problem for edu-
| Gators is to so OF ~aniZe the forces that
make for right ction that they shall
/ always constitute the majority and
/ hence be dominant in the social organ
! ism
"There are some communities in the
! state where the school authorities are
! thoroughly aroused on the subject OF
! the Importance of proper school en-
/ vironment and its effect upon the plas-
| tic life of the child. The towns In
! Southwestern Minnesota as section
| have the best school buildings in the
| state The people of Sleepy Eye, Worth
| ington. Heron Lake, Window, Jackson,
Winnebago City, Tracy and others may
well be proud of their school buildings.
| But in many of the older towns where
! the school buildings have been in use
! for many years this pride does nor
| exist and the environment is far from
| good"
Mr. Bliss without naming 1T, Ielat-
ed the experience of one Minnesota
school, where the premises had fallen
| into disorder. and hardness, truancy
! and disobedeience were conspicuous
! features of the school life. The board
! of education fixed up the grounds and
| building and the pupils shared in the
| general Improvement in appearance, as
we'll as in behavior. The high school,
| Mr. Bliss continued, should be the
most beautiful building in town. 1t
was the peoples cole ge, and the enter
of civilization and culture in it's COM
| murity, the educational malnstay OF
the American state
Public rhetoYicals he favored, fer the
coed they did the pupils as well as the
public interest they enlisted in the
affairs of the schools. Too much at
| tention, he thought, had been given to
! the utilitarian and too little to the Gull
ture side Of the instruction in high
schools.
cat the risk of being called ungal-
liant" said Mr.. Bliss, 81 am going to
say what I think about the employ
ment of such a disproportionate num-
Der of women as teachers as we nave
now in our schools. 1t is an irreparable
wrong to the youth Of our land and it's
bad effects are already apparent IN our
national life. More young men should
be induced to consecrate themselves to
public school teaching, preparing for it
thoroughly. not content with a chrome
degree from some cheap college. Enter
uDon it as life work, not as stepping
stone to some other profession? Most
persons learn to teach by teaching.
| Normal schools are helpful, but they
do not give actual bona f1de experience.
There is now an overproductfon OF
'peda gogues. A person is not at his
1 best as a teacher until he has had five
or six years actual experience in gov
erning his school and thoroughly learn
ing the subjects he teaches. The ma
ioritv of women teachers never become
masters of the art. They do not re-
main in the work long enough. This IS
| a source of great weakness to our
schools. There comes time in the life
| Of every student when he should come
in contact with the mind Of a fullgroWn
man and learn the meaning OF obedl-
ence and work 1t is serious work In
| this world that counts. The teacher
should be clothed with the power and
then have courage enough to enforce
the must You must get this lesson.
| You must obey.
would it be heresy to say that our
! schools are becoming so unitarian, so
! falsely practical, and so many short
cuts are used to avoid work and make
education nothing but play that in
struction in them is in danger of be-
coming altogether superficial, and that
| this is the most conspicuous defect in
popular education today.
'fWould it be far from the truth to
say that the schools Of today are max
ing their fight against illiteracy, but
not against ignorance in the broad
meaning Of the term, and that in con-
sequence, multitudes Of our people who
are supposed to be intelligent, are, in
fact, ignorant people who can read and
write, but cannot think. For this rea-
son our common people, both Schooled
and unschooled furnish a most fruit
full soil in which the spores Of all man
ner of religious, political and educa-
| ticnal fungi grow and thrive from
| theosophy to Christian science, from
| leenbaclzism to the free silver craze;
| from Mormonism to CoXeyism; from
Georges single tax to Most's pure and
unadulterated anarchy.
eff the scholarship of the nation is
to be maintained, the public high
schools must compel broad, deep, mas
terful intellectual culture and seek to
make of each graduate at least, not a
suecialist, but we'll rounded thinker,