The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1899-07-20
COME HOME
STATE SUPERINTENDENT LEWIS
AMONG THE FIRST TO ARRIVE
FROM CALIFORNIA
WERE CORDIALLY WELCOMED

Los Angeles Teachers Bought an
Orange Grove for the Visiting
Delegations From the East-Supt.
Lewis Says That From a Profess
stonnI Point of View the Meeting
Was Cutie a Successful One.
AS the first of the Minnesota contingent
attending the national educational con-
vention at Los Angeles to reach home,
SUpt. ]. D. Lewis arrived in st. Paul yes
terday Mr.. Lewis speaks warmly of the
unbounding Inequalities Of the people Of
that city. In fact, the deleg ates were not
only cordially welcomed on every hand,
but the school teachers of Los Angeles
purchased an orange grove Of five acres,
and all who attended the convention Wis
tied this place and carried away some Of
the fruit. The local committee furnish
ed daily supply Of fruit to the several
state headquarters and the ladies' COM
mittee served cooling refreshments to the
thousands who were in attendance upon
the sessions of the convention.
From a professional standpoint" said
Prof. Lewis, "the meeting was a very in
teresting one, and while no very new or
radical departures in pedagogical subjects
were talked of, some new phases were put
on old subjects, the general trend of the
discussion being to put as practicable
face as possible upon the school work.
II was very much gratihed to witness
the discussion of many subjects that have
in a general way been in vogue in Mime
sofa for number of years. The East is
coming West for It's ideas in school mat
tiers, and of all the progressive Western
educational states l think that none
stands higher in general system or de-
tails.
The question of the advisability of re-
viewing the common school branches
during the senior year of the high school
came up for a pretty liberal discussion.
The position was taken by many that as
the functions of the school was to fit
young people for life, that the more prac-
ticable subjects should be brushed up a
little before leaving school. One of the
speakers had paper on Do the Schools
Fit for College or Life?' In this the state
ment was made that few schools struck
the happy medium, and as a result the
schools fitted for neither college nor life.
The discussion which followed criticised
very severely the Sentilnnts expressed
and the general opinion was that the
speaker took decidedly extreme view of
his subject. However the question of
having review of the common school
branches in the high school and ninth
grade both received a great deal of at
teDtion and it is, in my mind, but ques-
tlCn OF time until some such departure is
embodied in our school system.
ut vas evident from the discussion
that the general idea which / prevalent
among educators is that it is mere i'm
portant to include those branches which
fit the pupil for life than the advanced
courses which fit for the university and
college, which the scholar in the great
ma tority of cases, never expects to enter
In the past there has been a leaning
toward one school fitting for another
school.
Il think another year, an English
course, in the graded schools, should be
added, as supplementary to the eighth
grade. 1t would make much more thor
ough work of the common branches, and
as but q small proportion of the children
enter the high school, it would give them
much more finished course, and be gen
orally acceptable to educators, believe
1.-The subject was discussed pretty thor
oughly and the general belief in its expe-
diency Is constantly growing For a re-
view of the common branches during the
senior year Of the high school there is
also a growing sentiment favorable to it's
adoption.
Tho commissioner in charge of the
American exhibit at the Paris exposition
addressed the gathering and told of the
exhibit which was being prepared in this
country. The exhibit will be the Ameri
can exhibit, and there will be no separate
state exhibits. However, the several
states can contribute, but from what l
was able to learn only four or FIVE cities
of the United States have come forward ,,