Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1899-11-03
THE VERMONT TEACHERS.
Their Annual Convention Opened Here
Last Night.


speak Tonight
Tie Vermont State Teachers associa-
ton, in response to an invitation from the
Brattleboro school board, is holding its
50th annual convention in this town with
very large number of teachers and leading
educators present. The opening session was
held in the Centre Congregational church
last evening when the church was filed to
the doors.
Following Handers Largo" by F. c.
Leitsinger and the "Two Grenadiers' by
L. II. Miller, United States District Attor-
ney j. l.. Martin of Brattleboro delivered
the address of welcome. Mr.. Martin said he
spoke in behalf of some of the very best peo-
pie on earth. He understood, however, that
the people whom the president of the asso.
citation had brought with him ranked with
the best, and so, being of equal rank, the
welcome which he extended was of the
most cordial character. In closing he
mentioned the grave and serious RESPONSE
bility which the teachers of Vermont bear,
and referred to the Vermont heroes and
statesmen as evidence of how well and how
grandly such responsibility had been full
filled in the past.
President Mason S. Stone of Montpelier
stated in his response to Mr. Martins fe-
licitous remarks that this was the first time
that the association had met in Brattleboro,
and the association esteemed itself fortu-
nate that it had been invited to celebrate
its 50th anniversary in place so attractive
and of such historic Importance place
of charming beauty, the cordiality of
whose people is proverbial. President
Stone paid high compliment to Rev. Ma
thaniel Butler, D. D., LII. D., president
of Colby University, whom he introduced
The subject considered by the speaker
was 1.-THE Higher Education and the
National Life" The idea has long been
outgrown that education is confined simply
to the period of school life. We under
stand, rather, that education means the
continual enrichment of the resources of
the individual. As such it is quite as much
for the adult as for youth, and is now
regarded as one of the great permanent
abiding interests of life along with politics
and religion.
We are, however, tonight, to consider
education in more restricted sense,
namely, in the sense in which we use the
term to describe that part of the work
done in the schools which we distinguish
from technical instruction and training
This difference is felt in a very concrete
way by the graduate student who passes
from the college to the university or the
professional schools. Indeed, the distinc-
tion between the college and the university
affords one of the very best means of max
ing clear to our own minds the meaning
and aim of education.
The purpose of the university is to
enable the individual to master some spe-
cial department of knowledge and to give
him technical skill in the use of that
knowledge, either as an investigator or as
an expert in some art or profession. But
when he comes to the university, with its
advanced, specialized instruction, he must
bring with him something previously ac-
quiIed, namely, an alert and disciplined
mind, and a body under complete control.
These things must have been accomplished
before he enters upon his specialized work.
To give him these in the largest practi-
cable measure is the work of education.
1t has been said that an educated man
carries a sharp axe in his hand, an unedu-
Gated man a dull axe. Well, then, the
purpose of education is to put the sharp,
keen edge upon the axe. The purpose of
university education or instruction is to
teach the man some special skilled use of
the axe.
make an expert but to make man, as the
best material out of which afterward to
make an expert. 1t must therefore seek
the completeness Of the whole man, and
must regard not only his intellectual side,
but his physical, social and spiritual life as
well. These four coordinate interests must
dominate educational work.
The speaker then dwelt somewhat at
length upon the development of organized
activity in the schools, having reference to
each of these four departments in the life
| of students, claiming that properly organi.
zed and directed athletics in the schools
have proved the best solution of the ques-
tion of good order in our higher schools
and colleges, and as thus organized the
gymnasium, the ball field and the running
! track have proved themselves the best al
lies of better morals, better manhood and
better scholarship. He touched also, up
on the great advantage of organized social
| life in the schools and spoke with assur-
ance of the signs that the new education,
whatever else it may bring with it, is not
! likely to detract from the old-time intel
| lectual eXactions of the American schools,
which demand that the student shall for
himself master his own work and do his
own thinking But perhaps the most
significant change which is coming over
our educational life is the new and con-
scious emphasis laid upon the recognition
of the spiritual life of the student. BY the
spiritual life, said the speaker, mean dis
tinctly the moral and religious. And the
purpose of educational activity in this
realm is, not to induce the student to sub
scribe to some particular creed, or to join
some church communion, but rather to
sharpen, to make distinct and operative in
the mind of the student a sense of the per-
sonal obligation to fellow-man and God.
A man who is sound in regard to these
things is a good and safe citizen. A man
who is unbound in regard to these things
is bad and dangerous citizen. We have
been reluctant to talk about these things
in connection with purely educational
work. We have feared to introduce pious
cant into our educational discussions, but
psychology, pedagogy and social science are
teaching us that morals and religion are
Just as scientifically part of human life
as our digestion and sleep, and that to ig-
more them in our conscious educational eff
fort is as fatal as to ignore the plain facts
of physiology.
The speaker declared that education no
only attempts to develop the individual IL
this ur-fold symmetrical way, but that /
sets itself against two mischievous error
in education, namely, the disposition to seel
short cut and to avoid long course o
study and discipline; and second, it set
itself against the alluring fallacy Of tn
| Ralf-mada man