Arizona republican., 1900-12-21
The Meeting Of The Instructors
 Of Arizona
The Joint County Institute Resolves Itself Into the Territorial Assccia- tion-The Work of the Teachers Unchanged.

i SOCiatiOn opened its session, the pre-
 vious days having been under the
 auspices of the joint county teachers
 institute. Though the auspices have
 been changed there was no material
 difference in the discussions which are so interestingly and enthusiastically pursued.
 Promptly at a. m. F. Yale Adams, president of the Arizona Teachers as sociation, called the house to order. Rev. Bird of the Congregational church of Tempe, opened the morning session
 with a prayer.
 Instead of giving the annual address the president read q paper. It was on
 an interesting question and the atten- ton of the teachers was close. It was on "The Undivided Method in instruc- tion. The following were few of the things he brought out strongly in favor of the method.
 In the Kindergarten and in the uni versity the individual is made the unit
 Of instruction, while in the primary, ! grammar grades and high schools, with the possible exception of the work in sciences, the class is the unit of in
 struction. If the individual method | is the ideal method at the beginning and at the end of our educational sys- tenn, why do we depart so widely from | this method in the intermediate grades?
 Mr. Adams said that the individual 1 ity of the child was just as important at one time as at another, and that the present system tends to crush out the l individuality and to make all children alike. no matter how much it may in ] terfere with mother nature. | MT Adams then gave his experiences in the method and found that they were completely successful, and sue cessful in languages and mathematics as well as in the sciences. He had tried various classes in the individual methods, both in grammar grades and in high schools. The work was wholly individual; no class reef tattons. each pupil progressing inda- pendently of every other pupil except in spelling. Tn that there was q reSG- lar class exercise, out t-ae iadividuIli method was applied to each of the poorer spoilers. The result was in every way satisfactory as to the qUan- tity and quality of the work accom- Dlished and the interest manifested Now, if this plan will work as well in the university, the high school, the grammar school and the Kindergarten, why will t not be an advantage to in troduce it al! through our school sys- tem? The method teaches salf-depen- dence.
 Mr. Adams continued in his discus sion describing how the method could be introduced and gave the following a. some of the resultants:
 First-Better health to the pupil, for he would at no time be crowded be- yond his strength and there would be no waste time in school giving the pupil more time for outdoor exercises and recreation.
 Second-The development of a self reliant worker, all the work being done under direction which would result in the formation of better habits of study: hence:
 Third-More work would be accom- plished and it would be more thor oughly done.
 Fourth-It would create more en- thusiasm and less Encouragement
 Fifth-It would bring teacher and pupil into closer contact, enabling the teacher to study the pupil better and giving the teacher opportunity for di- recting the pupil physically, morally and Intellectually.
 SlXth-It makes school discipline easier. by keeping ali busy and inter ested
 AS TO EXAMINATIONS.
 The paper of Miss Jennie Boatman of Mesa on the "EiucationaI Value of Examination" was next. Miss Boat man was strongly in favor of examina- ! tions. In part, she said:
 An examination is an educational instrument or expedient. We must un- derstand to what end it is supposed to minister if We would ascertain the measure of its success or failure in the accomplishment of that end. It is periodical scrutiny of results.
 An examination in the more tech nical sense. is simply a focusing and systematizing of that process which has been going on more diffusely and spontaneously every day of the school year or college term.
 "The educational value of examina- ton Is. in my opinion, tWo-sided. cor responding to the sides of education itself. They have an intellectual and moral value; a value for the mind and a value for the character. Every | teacher and every student knows the value of a careful and intelligent re- view. and while in an ideal state of i things such process of review might be guaranteed without examina ton. yet, | first, the very process of review would be itself an examination in essence. if not in name; and, second. we must l take human nature as We find it. and for the average pUpil and the average l teacher, the added stimulus of the coming examination. is only a means. not an end in itself But it is,
 I submit, an indispensable and inval- uable means to the end which we all acknowledge to be of paramount inn portance; and it's value is to be meas ured by the value of that end" l Miss Boatman discussed at length i it's value to the student and it's