The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1898-07-12

great pleasure TO see the importance
given 10 agricultural interests IN the
curriculum of the summer school Ia
mehameha school had but recently be-
gun 20 give attention TO this important
work. Normal training had been
taught there for some time. II would
give him great pleasure to see expert
mental departments IN each pubic
! school where the boys could be given
! the practical instruction that would
! be of the most benefit to them in the
! future. II they could be taught how To
| handle their crops, how to handle tools
| so that they could build their homes,
then the public school would be more
truly fulfilling its functions
The policy of the Government had
been to encourage small farming, to
give the poor man an opportunity. AS
a result the man OF small means had
been taking up small fifty-acre or
twenty-acre coffee farms. These farm
ers were Portuguese, Hawattans, Am
orleans and Russians, but not to his
knowledge was there a pupil of the
| Hawaiian schools. Their interests
were not there. their education often
! made them think that they were above
|
untitled them. He hoped that much
increased interest along these lines
and practical results would come from
the Summer school.
Col. Parker won his way into the
hearts of his hearers at once by his
happy manner OF speaking, by his un-
conventional phraseology. He said
that his purpose was to learn as well
pC n iCt
mer school to learn. He was delight
ed to visit the Islands and observe for
himself the civilization Of Hawaii. lie
had come, not to lay down any prin-
ciple or method, but to see exactly
what the teachers here wanted, what
they needed, and then to adapt the
knowledge which he had to their
needs. He said he believed that the
common school was the one common
means of solving all the problems of
all nations. This was true in Hawaii
1t was true in the United States. 1t
was not Congress, not Legislatures,
not the Supreme Court, which made
good citizens, but the silent work or
the growing soul in the pupil He said
he was a teacher because it was the
one profession which embraced all
others. 1t was the art of all arts, it
took in all knowledge.
He said the height Of art was sim
plicity. Among certain classes of peo-
pie there was a delusiOn that things
learned were, and must be. complex
and intricate. There were people who
rejected the simple methods because
they were simple. There had been
method after method, a mixing or
ideas, but (1he progressive educators
OF today had adopted the simple meth
DDS because they brought out the best
development. Col. Parker spoke OF the
mechanical teachers, the imitators, the
cOpyists He spoke Of the traditional
teachers who pointed to the past and
drew all their conclusions from the
methods and forms of history They
had contempt for advanced methods
which were in keeping with the
changed conditions and needs of the
pupils of today. Teaching, he said,
was the worst art and the best pro-
fessiOn. He believed in starting the
plan of making each school in Hawaii
an experimental station. as President
Dole had suggested. Were this done
it would set an example for the united
States to follow.
Col. Parker paid a tribute to the
Of Gen. Armstrong. He said
that in working in Honolulu this sum
mer he hoped to- In some small way,
pay the great debt which the United
States owed to the Islands. HAWAII
had sent a man Of true Christian splr-
it, devoted in principle to educational
work in the nOblest sense. Gen Arm
strong had established at Hampton a
school whose broadening influence
could not be guaged. Its influence
would be world wide.
Miss Allen spoke briefly Of the man
ner of her work for the session. Her
lectures would be given at O'Clock
each morning. For three-quarters OF an
hour she Will discuss kindergarten
methods, to which teachers and the
general public are invited. She SAID
the kindergarten work should be car