The Jersey City news. (Jersey City [N.J.]) 1889-1906, 1899-03-01
MODERN
TEACHERS
Forty three Young Ladies
Graduate From the Train
ing School Last Even
ing at No. 9.
ABUNDANCE OF GOOD ADVICE
Comparisons Drawn Between
Old and New Methods
Director Mulvaney's
Don'ts.
ABUNDANCE OF GOOD ADVICE

School No. Q looked lively last evening.
1t was the advent of the graduating exer-
cises of the training classes of June, 1873,
and January, 1899. The advent of forty
three more classics teachers in the pro-
fession of this city. for which occasion
the brass, glass and wood of No. 3 had
been polished to a degree of fawless, daz-
zl.ng, unsurpassed brightness. Nor was
this all. Aside from the decorations of
flags and palms, the audience were bay
onetted in and bugled cut of the building.
Cadets were stationed at every entrance
in the long corridors, on the stairs, and
the audience bowed to- theirs respective
places by youths in uniform.
At last when everybody was seated Miss
Julia Harvey took her place at the piano
and the graduates marched in TWO by two
like a bridal procession, the Rev. George
s. Bennitt offered the invocation and Miss
Julia Harvey formally opened the pro-
gramme with a piano solo, "Polonaise in
E." by List.
Then came the speeches interspersed
with music. Superintendent Henry Sny-
der was first. and presented the graduates
in a neat speech complimentary TO both
teachers and pupils. THE Dance was
sung by the graduates, and Mss Christine
Crawford made the salutatory address,
welcoming everybody. c~omplimenting Di-
rector Mulvaney on ardof for now schools
and thanking Mr.. Snyder 'for the active
interest you have ever taken IN u.s. TO
YOU we shall ever look for guidance and
direction"
.ras Ethical Element in Education
was the subject of an essay by Miss An
ma Wittpenn, VINO rose to the height Of
~ Oaaar,An hnfurcAn
the pedestaIled busts of Daniel Webster
and Benjamin Franklin. saying
.'Of all questions that are and can be
~propounded in relation TO the schools
there is none of more supreme import
ance than. in what way are the public
schools lifting the children of America
to a higher as well as a broader plane of
life.
1t was once Thought hat intellectual
development would bring mar to his nigh
est estate, but experience has shown the
failacy of this. Back of the intellect,
transcending the Judgment, stand the
emotions, the motive power in all action,
ard that system of education is now
declared most complete, which is built
upon the fact that the intellect is reached
through interest, that the will is aroused
through the emotions and guided by the
Judgment, and which demands as a re-
suit, mind capable of approaching things
as they are, able to discern rights and to
adjust conditions.
.sThe product of education sought by
the ancients was far different from this.
Even Greece herself sought culture for
only the special few and demanded this
culture to Droduce mind narrowed or
brought only to the level of the Greek
mind is an energy that ultimately knows
no rule but self rule consequently
Greece fell.
IF modern education make such
demands, if it demand that all have the
opportunity of becoming capable of ap-
preciating things as they are, of being
led to discover right and trained to adj
justing conditions, then suitable pro-
vision must be made for a high, broad
and deep ethical education for each and
all. And what do we mean by an ethical
education ? The training of that faculty
peculiar to mantle moral faculty, the
sense of right. Such training that every
man shall not only be able to find the
right. among ever so much w~rong-know
it from every point of view. but shall be
quick to act in accord with it.
In the degree that a man has this
sense developed, is quick to know the
right and be guided in action by it, SO
Is his plane of living"
From here the speaker went on to ex-
plain the new methods now employed in
the American schools and draw COM
parsons. concluding with
Let the fate of other nations be our
warning. From their ruined capitols and
burned cities comes a mighty appeal for
virtue rather than for physical or ma
terial power-not one persisted for lack
character"
Miss Katharine Harvey sang, Come
Where the Lindens Bloom" with an TN
core, and Miss Mary Benson rave an es-
say. Then and Now" in which she COM
9ared of the yor met wIfb USED eSoi in ii TEACHING r e qsaa ain
According to the old text books" said
she, "a pupil learned that such and such
: sh omS mas tfae. T Todsy Re he i IS taught It P y
problem to the rule as BY the other meth
lad. Nature study heightens the moral
standard. Man may be false and deceit
full, but nature never les"
Director John Je Mulvaney made the
address to graduates, and after duly con-
graduating them said, What most i'm
mediately concerns you is your appoint
pointed. But do you know what is re-
quired of you upon appointment" He
then ran over a number Of things such as
several other miseries of a teachers life,
-'and all for about one dollar a day." then
turned his attention to a few don'ts of
Don't brag about influential friends.
The very fact that a teacher has friends
at court will stamp her with seal of
inferiority. No matter how well earned
her promotion, in the eyes of the public,
1t will always be on account of pull
Don't keep you window shades down.
Let the sunlight in. Don't criticise your
superiors. They would not be where they
are If they did not deserve it. Don't
c~riticise your comrades. Don't begrudge
your sisters promotion. Jealousy is a
confession of inferiority. Even a confess
sion of your own weakness. There is one
pull you ought to have and that is to
pull together for the good of each other
and for the good of your profession.
"One other thing, get married. If the
older teachers would get married 1t would
make room for you. You will find before
long there are hundreds of parents who
should have been educated and the pro-
fession will teach you to manage men
from five to fifty
Here the graduates sang Excelsior"
and Miss Ida Plenty made the valedictory
address. She. too. touched on the study
of nature, as now taught in the schools
saying, She who has been taught noth-
ing of nature and fails to appreciate its
teachings. produces q method of her own
and generally succeeds In changing the
pupil into a mere Northumberland ma
chine"
Diplomas were presented by Director
Thomas ]. higgins, and the final address
given by Director William A. Lewis. who
spent the first half hour in wittily ex-
planning how it wal he had prepared
nothing for the occasion and the next
forty-fve minutes in delivering the nom