The San Francisco call., 1899-07-15

men weak and ineffective cannot justly be
called education. There is nothing more useful
than wisdom, nothing more effective than
training, nothing more practical than sunshine
Surely claim that the American
people too wise too skillful too enlight-
ened for their 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 man, but 1t fur
nlshes the best known means to help man to
make himself. The gain through self-building
often outweghs in value the original material
1t may be more important even than the fin
ished product, as effort is greater source Of
strength and happiness to a man than final
to attack is misft education the training or
stran-ng of the memory rather than the acqui-
sitOn 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 TO some extent in some places but the
whole tendency of the university movement is
toward reality and practicalty. These critics
have not watched this movement They do not
draw their idt a of university from the power
full, we'll 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
Will over racecourses of study. no part of
which appealed to their own souls or was 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-
sity of to-day.
Not all the critics in business life, taken to-
gether, have done one-tenth as much TO make
education practical as has one of the great
university presidents OF 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 practicaIity.
The American college of the past was a
feeble copy of the colleges of England; The
American university of to-day draws its In
spiration from the deeper, stronger currents
of German scholarship.
knn M fIlra fa ~
side the triDos of three sacred pedestals of
learning - Latin. Greek mathematics-recog
versity of Germany he may go. to the uni
versity of America, and in these Institutions OF
power will find his efforts strengthened his
success hastened. The ideal of the American
constructive individuality. 1t would build up
scholarship and character. but always the
dividual. 1t is abstract or ideal man with
which it deals, but real men, just they are
with his own divine gift of personality, which
separates the man that is from all the
The college of the past dealt chiefly with rec
ords and tradition. 1t sought no new truth
period of restful growth, to be cherished for
its fragrant memories. 1t was not q time of
fforceful struggle, for heightened power and
The university of to-day is alert to all the
problems, of social and political development.
The poorhouse, the jail, the caucus. the Legis-
lature. the army the discordant demands of
freedom and order-all these call for 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 more 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
that which Is good. Give him message TO
speak to others. and when he leaves the uni
versity you need fear for him not the world,
the flesh, the devil.
The universities of America have grown enor-
mously in wealth and power within the last
twenty-five years. The next twenty-five years
viii tell the story. They have the conf
deuce 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
Hon. Nathan c. Schaefer, State Superin-
tendent of Public instruction of Pennsyf-
vania. delivered an address on ''1ihc
School in Its Relation to the Higher Life"
Albert e Winship of Boston made short
Butler. as chairman of the committee on
resolutions, made the report.
After reaffirming the belief that educa-
tional ideals are firmly established.
school and college education more widely
ditfqsed rus; ed and the work of teaching more
on to say that the one dark page in the
history of the year is that which records
interference with the work of public eti,1-
cation and attacks, successful and unsuc
cessful, made upon it by political traitors
and spoil-seekers. We appeal to the nub
lie and to the press to resist to resent
pledge our best efforts to the absolutely
non-polittcal and non-sectarian conduct of
the, work intrusted to u.s.
The report having been received and tho
resolutions adopted, o. T. Corson of CO.
lumbus Ohio, was presented to the i'm
mense gathering, and after he had said a
Ia
in singing America" and the convention
was at an end.
The department of normal schools had
afternoon, when several papers were read
and discussed. Perhaps the one most
PTHyofatiye eoft Of thought that read BY
fications Of a Critic Teacher" Miss NJ.
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 rs subject Of Observation as
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 a caller whom the child
knows is unwelcome, or apologizing for a
state of things which is quite the usual
order Lying, stealing, gambling, vulgar
ity and impurity were dilated 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 DEAD.