The San Francisco call., 1899-07-15

men weak ana 1neueCt1Ve cannot justly De
called education. There Is nothing more useful
than wisdom, nothing more effective than
training, nothing more practical than sunshine.
people are too wise, too skillful. or too entght-
ened for their own good. Yet to give wisdom,
skill and enlightenment is the main function OF
higher education. 1t cannot give brains, cour-
age and virtue where these qualities were want
ing before. 1t cannot make a man. but it fur
nlShes the best known to help man TO
make himself. The gain through self-building
often outweighs in value the original material.
1t may be more important even than the fin
lshed product, as effort is a greater source of
strength and happiness to a man than final
achievement. What these critics usually mean
to attack is misf1t education, the training or
strain.ng of the memory rather than the acqui-
sitDn Of power to think and act. They mean
that the colleges give schooling rather than
training. They teach young people how TO
talk rather than how to live" This is still
true 10 some extent in some places, but the
whole tendency of the university movement is
toward reality and practically These critics
have not watched this movement. They do not
draw their idea of university from the power
full well organized institutions of the day,
which lay hold of every various power of
humanity and seek to draw 1t into effective.
harmonious action. Rather they picture to
themselves the starving colleges of their youth
VIII over racecourses of study, part of
which appealed to their own souls re-
colleges and such ideals of education exist in
our time in certain forgotten corners but they
are in no sense typical of the American univer-
sty of to-day
Not all the critics in business life, taken to-
getner, have done one-tenth as much to make
education practical as has one of the great
university presidents of our time. Under the
hands of Eliot and White and Angel and Tap
pan and others like these the whole face of
higher education in America has changed in
the last twenty years. and the change has been
in every way toward greater usefulness and
greater practicality.
The American college of the past a
feeble copy of the colleges of England. The
American university of to-day draws its in
spiratiCn from the deeper, stronger currents
of German scholarship.
10 know nature, life art Z
side the tr1pos Of three sacred pedestals of
nzed by the conventional college. To the uni
Versity of Germany he may 60 or to the uni
nePsity oL AInerlca' ana IN these institutions OF
power will find his efforts strengthened. his
success hastened. The ideal of the American
university OF to-day is expressed in the words,
constructive individuality 1t would build up
sc 5ehGiarshiP m RS R and character but always on the
dividual. 1t is no abstract ideal man with
which It deals, but real men, just they are.
the individual created-no two alike, each
with his own divine gift of personality, which
separates the man that is from all the men
that are or were or ever will be.
The college of the past dealt chiefly with rec
ords and tradition 1t sought truth
a period of restful growth, to be cherished for
its fragrant memories. 1t not q time of
deeper wisdom
The university of to-day is alert to all the
The poorhouse the jail the caucus, the Legis-
lature, the army. the discordant demands of
freedom ana OrQer-aIl these call Tor closest
attention of the university student
What the university can do is along manly
lines. 1t can cure the boy of petty vices and
childish trickery by making him man. by
giving him higher ideals, serious views
of life. 1t may win by inspiration. not by fear
1t must strengthen the student in his search
for truth. 1t must encourage manlIness in him
through putting away Of childish things Let
the thoughts of the student be free as Air Let
him prove all things and he will hold fast to
that which is good. Give him a message to
speak to others, and when he leaves the uni
var ffNF fanr hfrS1r
nor the 1esh nor the devil
The universities of America have grown enor-
twenty-five years. The next twenty-five years
viii tell the same story. They have the conf
dence of the people because they deserve their
confidence, and the good citizen of the republic
must give them trust and support. For it is in
the university at last the history of democracy
must be written.
tendent of Public Instruction of Pennsyi-
vania. delivered an address on s'1ihc
School in It's Relation to the Higher Life"
Albert &. Winship of Boston made short
Auence, and then DR.: Nicholas Murray
Butler, as chairman of the committee on
resolutions, made the report
After reaffirming the belief that cduca-
uQnai 1dealS are firmly established
school and college education more widely
diffused and the work of teaching more
intelligent and successful. the report vent
on to say that "the one dark page in the
history of the year is that which records
cation and attacks, successful and unsuc-
cessful. made upon 1t by political traitors
ana spoil-seekers We appeal to the pub
lie and to the press to resist To resent
and to punish these attacks. and we
pledge our best efforts to the absoluteiv
non-political and non-sectarian conduct Of
the work intrusted to u.s.
The report having been received and the
resolutions adopted, o. T. Corson Of Co
lumbus, Ohio, was presented to the i'm
few words the audience arose and ioined
in singing America" and the convention
was at an end. VA 'AoA'
a very interesting closing session this
afternoon, when several papers were read
and discussed, Perhaps the one most
Miss. H. Scott Of Detroit on "The Quail
fications of Critic Teacher" Miss M.
Brown of New Orleans spoke on Lesson
Lowell, Mass, and Professor c. e. Van
Liew OF Los Angeles. led in the discus
sion on the subject of Observation as
Factor in Training School Work
paper that appealed strongly to
parents as well as to teachers was read
in the elementary department by Super
Neb., on the subject of ''Vices of Child
hood and Youth" Only those that are
criminal or distinctly responsible for a
with, and deceit was pointed out as the
first to appear, 1T being practiced at less
than two years. Illustrations were given
of the mother unknowingly instilling into
the childish mind vicious habit by eff
fusively greeting caller whom the child
knows is unwelcome, or apologizng for a
state of things which is quite the usual
ity and impurity were dlated upon each
in turn, and how to prevent, remedy and
eradicate the abounding evil were spoken
of as the problems that should arouse
interest in every friend of humanity.
GEORGE CHAMBERS DEAF