The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1899-12-28
SOUTHERN EDUCATORS MEET.
SEVEN HUNDRED DELEG ATEs ARE
GATHERED IN MEMPHIS.

Welcoming AddI ess Delivered by
President JOrdan-Dr. Jordan said
the Future OF the Negro in This
Country Is in the Agricultural
session an Address by DIR. william
II. Harris on Child study.
Memphis, Tenn, Dec 27-The first ses-
sion of the convention of the Southern
Educational Association was held here to-
day
When Chairman Gordon OF the Recap-
ton Committee called the meeting to or
der more than 100 delegates were in their
seats. representing the entire South. Quite
a number of visitors have arrived from
the North, and even from the New Eng
land states
The programme this afternoon was be-
gun with welcoming addresses and their
responses. President Junius Jordan de-
livered his annual address. DR. Jordan
said in part;
"Our section has its own peculiar prob
lens which other associations. national
though they be. cannot appreciate, can
not reach, and which II is not the part of
wisdom to transfer to fields OF Intellectual
sentmeutalism.
"And well may II be said in reference
to the complexity of our educational sys-
TEN that upon the intelligent white teach
ers of the Southern states. more than upon
all others, depends the determining of the
character and extent of the education that
should he offered to the negro race. No
negro Moses can settle this matter or go
/ taf Ali gls,l. t,lt ..ffl
of cloud by day or of fire by night
Il am sure that those who know the
negro best can most readily bring about
a safe and equitable solution. More than
all, the false ideas of prominence and SUI
premacy and of unrestricted license TO do
and demand anything, SO viciously i'm
| planted by the odious emissaries of recon-
struction, must be eradi1ated or worn
| away"
| DR.. Jordan said that the fnutnre of the
negro, IL he remains In this country, is
in the agricultural world.
Teaching the Child.
The feature of the evening session was
an address by DIR. William T. Harris,
| United States commissioner of education.
Among other things, DR.. Harris said.
| 1--WE must, in the science of pedagogy,
| first fix in our minds the ideals and then
next we must see how to elevate the child
towards those ideals. We must ascertain
| what studies are necessary and at the
same time discover how much study OF
| them is good and wholesome and where
they begin to be hurtfui and arrest de-
velopment. We all know how the good
teacher loves to have her pupils linger on
the round of the ladder where she is la
boring. Under the plea of thoroughness
| she detains them some times a year or
more on a lower round, not to their ad-
vantage but TO their detriment. Before
they ascend to the next round they have
become listless and mechanical in their
| habits of study, and yet IL is certain that
the school discovered an essential part of
It's method when 1t first saw the import
ance of thoroughness. Thoroughness is ne
| cessary in all good instruction, but IL is
not good when carried to "A point where
instruction fails to develope the child, and
where induration, or hardening into habit
begins For at first a child increases his
development in will power and arouses
many faculties by the thorough exercise
of one faculty. Then by degrees the re-
| peated acts of will power begin to pro-
duce a habit and the mind begins TO act
uneonsciously in the lines where ii at first
acted with so much effort of the will. Then
at last the habit becomes nearly all and
the mental development ceases. The other
! faculties are not any more aroused by the
| effort, but only one slender line of activity
| is brought into use and unconscious habit
does most Of the work"
Tri-Partite Education.
Hon. B. F, johnson of Richmond Va.
closed to-nght's session with an address
on "A Tri-Partite Education"
II am connected with denomination
| which has stamped in a most emphatic
manner it's disapproval of any connection
| between church and state. / heartily ac-
| cord in that sentiment, but l do believe
that in public schools, in private schools,
in schools of every class and condition,
| that from the first to the graduating day
of the pupil there should be a portion of
| each day devoted to moral spiritual and
! physical as well as intellectual culture.
| ITO train the intellect without cultivat-
| ing the highest qualities OF Christian char
acter is TO turn loose on the world men
and women whose capacity for evil is in
| creased hundred fold. To cultivate the
| intellect and neglect the body Is to send
! forth decrepit ill-developed specimens OF
| humanity who are constantly asking the
| question, rs life worth living? and de-
Gliding 1t negatively by sinking into inglo-
rious or suicidal graves Ask the healthy,
developed full-blooded all round man or
woman is life worth living? and you can
tell by the sparkle in the eye, the glow
of the countenance, by the soul flash that
leaps out to greet you, that he feels that
life here is a grand and glorious thing,
and that we are now living in the vestibule
of the even more glorious and better life
that awaits u.s."