Santa Fe new Mexican. [volume] (Santa Fe, N.M.) 1898-1951, 1900-12-27
IAN ADDRESS
OF WELCOME
Delivered to the New Mexico Edu-
cational Association by Solicitor
General E. L. Bartlett.
LEARNING AND EDUCATION.
The Work of the Association "A Sugges'
ton for the Framing of Law on Pub
lie Education Hearty Greeting
ito Those in Attendance.

Solicitor General e. l.. Barti4lt made
the following address of welcome to the
New Mexico Educational Association
last evening:
Mr.. President, Ladies and Gentlemen
To me has been assigned the pleasant
duty of welcoming you to this historic
capital city OF the occasion of your fif-
teenth annual meeting. 1t is always a
pleasure to welcome people here, and it
is doubly such when they represent, as
you do, the most important factor in
the growth and future of our territory.
1t is eminently fit and proper that San
ia Fee should welcome the educational
association with all its hospitality, for
this city is the cradle of education in
New Mexico. Within your sight from
this room are the two oldest education
al institutions west of the state of Mis-
souri,. The Christian Brothers College
and the Sisters of Loretto Convent have
each celebrated their ,semi-centennial,
and are actively engaged in the good
work begun by them so long ago. I'm
til within a few years past they fur
nished almost the only means by which
the native people could acquire the
English language, or even the element
airy education necessary for the trans
since that a general school law on
modern lines was enacted, and less than
that time since the university, agricul-
tural college, normal schools and school
of mines We're established; and l think
we may all feel proud and gratitied at
the result. But 1 honestly believe that
your association is capable of more
substantial good in the direction of in
telligent use of the means at hand for
the ultimate object of these various in
stitutions than are all of them COM
bined. Teaching and learning do not al
ways educate. A little education is new
err a dangerous thing. It's a little learn
ing that intoxicates the brain. Learning
is one thing; education is another. Aft
er one is educated he may acquire
learning, not by shallow draughts, but
by deep drinking at that Pierian spring
to which education has taught him the
way and the value of it's waters. The
strictly learned man is of value only
to those who follow; he is never of the
present. While we may revere his mem.
ory, his present is seldom admired OF
| -, {nl wv tl,o. a Hon Nyhnypin hf
lives.
We live in our own generation so fal
are Gods, as is the present-only, We
think we know the present, but W
know absolutely that we cannot cor
rect what has passed, and a only
hope for the future.
Strange, is it not, that of the myriads
who
Before us passed the door of darkness
through,
Not one returns to tell us of tn. road
Which to discover we musttravel, too!'
But education brings each day, no
new ideas, for the ideas were exhausted
long ago, but new applications an6
adaptations suitable and best for our
selves and our environment; it educes
brings out from within the best of our.
selves, and of those with whom, a.
teachers, parents, friends or associates
we come in contact-that is the true OBJ
ject of education. The mere imparting
q H.. c--, Ioo1 y,0t ol,,ootn " thf
real sense of that word; and such as
sociations as this are to that end nc
less effective than the aggregations OF
wealth which are called trusts, or com
unions; but with this great advantage
and difference, that the intangible idea
if honestly and conscientiously execut-
ed by earnest men and women, will pre-
vail and become a mighty factor in the
worlds progress, while the trust and
the union will each go to it's wv place,
This association has already done
much to impress the people at home,
and in the east, that you are really ed
ucators, and earnest in your good work,
If the man behind the gun is the one
| upon whom success in battle depends,
it is the boy behind the school desk to-
day to whom the nation must look for
its preservation and advancement in
the future, and as he is educated so will
his power and ability for good be in
creased. The boards of education and
school directors need to be educated by
such meetings as this, and by personal
contact and observation, to the idea
that to teach the children is one of the
highest and noblest vocations, and no
unfit person should even be employed.
1t is for you, ladies and gentlemen, by
your words. acts and example, not only
here, but through the year, wherever
you may be, to exert your influence in
creating a sentiment in favor of the
proper primary education Of our youth.
The normal schools and the university
will come later and will take care Of
themselves. In the language of the old