La Junta tribune., 1899-03-15
rME efpAeoeues. HAsry.
otsro County Tssehsrs' msstisg u
maoxaoolS.

for the first time at Manzanola.
Heretofore La Junta and Rocky
Ford are the two towns that en-
joyed the honor of this erudite as
semblage. This bright and grow
ing young town that has not a
dilapidated or unoccupied build
ing within its precincts, is up-to-
date in everything, and has a
Woman's Club that for intelligent
ability would do credit to much
larger community. Their interest
in the cause OF education was man
ifested in the active interest they
took in the coming Of the school
teachers, the part they contributed
in a musical way to the days pro-
grammc, the interest they took IN
its discussions. and finally in the
liberal hospitality with which they
entertained at luncheon the whole
company of visiting teachers and
friends, to the number OF eighty
persons.
The main features of the days
programme were as follows: a
paper by Principal Campbell, OF
the Ordway school, on the subjec,
OF Educational Waste" 1t was
listened to with close attention
and privately commended, but its
public discussion was cut short by
the invitation to dinner. The
alacrity with which the invitation
was responded to shows that even
school teachers mind can be di-
verted from the search for knowl-
edge by the smell OF good cooking,
and this was the kind that the
Manzanola Century Club put up.
After luncheon, the programme
was resumed with a talk on "lllus-
trated Science in the Public
Schools" by Principal Fowler. OF
the Fowler schools, with solar
lantern, a screen and some Kodak
slides and tracings on glass. MIR.
Fowler showed how botany, geol-
ogy and astronomy might be made
very interesting in the school
room.
Next came Miss Alice WeavAr' :
paper on "Grading in the Rural
Schools. This was a plea or a
plan for more definite and specific
work in small schools, where the
close grading and classification OF
pupils is not SO practicable as ii IS
in large ones.
1.-The Relation OF the Teacher TO
the Community" By Principal
Day. OF Manzanola. was good pa
per, the point of which was that a
school teacher was not bound TO
lose his identity and his individ-
uality in the community because
he was the public school teacher.
Some interesting discussion fol-
lowed, in the course OF which II
was pretty emphatically set forth
that a teachers usefulness IN a
community had nothing nece.-
sarily to do with his religious or
his political affiliations and that
his freedom. to act or refrain from
acting along these lines was mat
ter that was within his own keep
ing and to be determined by his
own wisdom and judgment.
Miss Bireley, Of La Junta, talked
upon and practically illustrated
the "Speer Method" She was
seconded by Miss Gooch, and to-
gether they successfully solved
Samantha Aliens query as to wo-
mans "Speer'-at least as far as
the teacher woman sphere is con-
cerned.
The afternoon session was well
concluded with an able and schoi-
arly paper by Principal Shafer, of
La Junta. on "Education from the
Standpoint OF Sociology" which
called out an animated discussion
on the supremacy OF the social
over the individual interests.
In the evening President Sny-
der, OF the State Normal School.