The Hawaiian gazette., 1898-07-19
Col Parker Talks on the MeClan'
les Of Writing.
GREAT ADVANTAGES Of ISLANDS
Mrs. Parker on Vowels and Conso
nants The kindergarten.
Lecture this Evening.


the Summer school yesterday that Col
Parker will deliver a lecture at s
O'Clock this evening in Progress hall
on Child and Man. The general pub
lie is invited. Mr.. Crawley's lectures
and class room work on agriculture be-
gan at o'clock last evening in the
High School building.
The regular session work was opened
at o'clock yesterday morning with
Miss Allen on kindergartening. She
spoke entertalningly Of general kind
ergarten work and then entered into
a discussion of particular cases and
the treatment which she has given
them in her own schools. The attend
ance at the lecture and the kindergar-
ten was large.
Col. Parker's lecture was opened with
a song and the Lords Prayer. The
speaker paid graceful compliment to
the teachers attending the Summer
school. He said that he had been in
many States and had met thousands
of people during his life in educational
work and he had never enjoyed an
Institute or Summer school more than
the one now in session. lie finds the
teachers interested and engrossed in
the higher education of children. He
finds them at his lectures responsive
and ready to help him. 1t was partly
20 learn and partly to help the Island
teachers that he came TO Hawaii.
The peculiar advantages in Hawaii
are wonderful to him lie feels that it
is great benefit TO children to be
born and grow up amid such surround
ings, so near nature and its wonder
full variations. He finds the teachers
alive to the problem of education and
using all suggestions advanced for the
hep OF teachers. He said that the
great danger to teachers everywhere
is to consider that every effort has
been applied, that the resources have
been exhausted. The movement OF
civilization is one of everlasting pro-
gress, ii Is never at rest. II is the
same in Hawaii as il Is in Chicago.
II Is a mistake to believe that the
question OF language, of the influence
Of environment differs from the ques-
ton elsewhere materially. There are
different phases here as the phases OF
every locality are peculiar to each, but
the general problem is the same.
Every large city has its educated
children who must be taught first prin-
ciples. Often then the environment Is
vicious and the difficulties are hard to
overcome.
Peope are now coming TO discover
that every child needs every advant-
age Of education possible. When the
great, broad feeling comes that every
child shall have the best training, then
the broad education begins. II Is the
breadth of the ideal that determines
the progress. People are just break
ing ground for the future of educa-
ton. II Is the greatest problem ever
presented to man. Nothing Is set
tied. During the last ten years more
books have been produced on educa-
tonal matters than in a whole CEN
fury before.
What we get from the past is not
method, not system, but the great spir-
ii of the men who worked on the same
question that we are working on. That
Is our Inheritance. One OF the best
definitions OF education is the atu-
tude of the development OF the soul
towards truth. The spirit of true ed
ucation Is finding what the children
need and trying to supply that need.
Col. Parker said he Is pleased with
the idea of industrial education in Ha-
wall and he hopes TO see it develop
and progress.
The exhibit OF the work OF school
children which Col. Parker was to have
shown the Summer school has not ar
rived The exhibit Is to remain in
Honolulu as representing the work in
Chicago. 4 collection is being made
of Hawaiian flora and minerals to en-
change with the Normal School in Chi
Cago.
In speaking on the subject OF the
morning Col. Parker said the true art
list never copies. The past has left @
great mass of work and experienc.
which, If applied TO the children, woult
swamp them. 1t Is the duty OF thu
teacher to evolve principle from al
this information, from the new condi
tions which confront the teacher a'
education progresses. The teache,
should be maker OF his own system
Col. Parker spoke at length on thu
mechanics of writing. He condemned
the old copy book writing which
Cramped the fingers, cramped the arm
and more than all. he said damaged ir
retrievably the mental conditions o
the child. He would name no specific
time when the child should begin. HI
would have the child write when h
could do It spontaneously and easily
The teachers example and skill II
three-quarters OF the work for the
child. He suggested that ease and IA
pidity are the first things to be de-
sired. When his attention was called
10 the fact that Hawaiian pupils
children OF parents who could neither
read nor write, produced very quickly
exact copies OF the best penmanship
Col. Parker said that It is not strange
that this Is so. For generations, for
centuries the Hawaiians, untaught by
civilization, have produced some OF the
most wonderful specimens OF art The
Hawaiian tapa cannot be excelled oil