New Iberia enterprise. (New Iberia, La.) 1885-1902, 1899-09-16

ter teaching, more Intelligent ctfOr
toward the moulding of character
| have been trying to impress this
r. The summer schools are working
toward this end. This Association
has for years labored to improve
the teachers of the state and has
done much.
2. We need y better course of
study in our schools. This is
closely related to better teaching
and together they would transform
our schools. This improvement is
needed in all the schools-and in
the colleges, too. There is too
much purposeless teaching. Sub
jects are taught as if they were an
end in themselves. They are not
made to appeal to a childs interest.
There is no attempt to show their
bearing upon life. A boy is har
assed with details about political
geography when the names of the
nations are meaningless to him.
Years are wasted in drill in the
rules of grammar, and the boy goes
out on the playground and violates
every rule. He has never suspected
that those dry rules have anything
to do with the speech that is so in
dispensable a part of his life.
We should teach man to know
not passively but actively; to be
not mere receptacle of informa-
ton, but potent factor. We
should teach more of science, and
especially should there be in all our
teaching more of the scientific spir-
it. We should develop in the chill
dren love of truth and self-re-
lance. Teach them to realize the
universally and the immutability
of cause and effect. Then they
will know that a wrong done can
never be righted that it cannot be
undone. Teach man to recognize
in all spheres of activity the order
ly processes of nature, and so feel
his responsibility to be in harmony
with the Divine Will, to promote
the good and not the evil.
Education does not consist mere
ly in developing in us mental power.
1t should also supply us with use
full knowledge of our environment.
This cannot be acquired in day,
and it is folly to lose the years of
our schooling in exercise merely
for the strengthening of our minds,
as dumbbells strengthen the mus
cles, instead of strengthening our
minds by acquainting us with the
great truths that are involved in
the life about us and in the prob
lens that will soon press upon us.
Life is too short. Duties are too
pressing. We should learn what
we need. In the last half century
there have come to the front social
and industrial problems overshad-
owing all else. Some sage has
said, "The only good is knowl-
edge; the only evil is ignorance.
In the last analysis, every good
goes back to knowledge as it's basis.
Every evil may be resolved into
ignorance as its cause. We must
know the right in order to do the
right
But education should do more
than fit one to grapple with the
problems of life. The whole man
should be developed to the fullest.
Our course of study and our teach
ing should cultivate the artistic
side of our nature, that we may be
in full harmony with creation.
Otherwise, those potential pleasures
remain forever unknown to us
there is an irreparable loss to the
sum total of human happiness. We
should teach art and music in our
schools. The experiment at the
State Summer School has satisfied
me that anybody can learn to draw,
and that almost anybody can learn
to sing.
The school should not aim to pre-
pare for college; it should prepare
for life. The college should take
the boy that comes to it and pre-
pare him still better for life. 1t
should not make an idol out of what
it calls a "college course" All ed
ucation should prepare for life
should help to give us truer atti-
tude toward life.
3. Better moral support from To-
cal authorities is the next most i'm
portant need of our country schools.
The trustees and the parents, as
well as the teacher, need to be edu-
Gated as to their duty. Their atti-
tude may destroy all discipline.
Above all, they should not change
the teacher unless there is a certain
ty of getting better teaching. The
good teacher should be kept per-
Thus may the teacher
learn the childrens dispositions,
win their hearts and train their
characters. Moreover, new teach
er doesn't know where the children
are prepared to take up their stud
les. A large part Of the session is
practically lost while the teacher is [
with the children.
4. Better supervision is another
need. The county superintendent
are usually paid too little to sup
port them and permit them to de-
vote themselves to the work and
study of fsupervision as profession. I
They must pursue other occupa- t
lions for living. Some perform
no more than certain clerical duties
that might as we'll be performed
by the county auditor. All this /:
should be changed.
5. Better organization and divi- I