The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1900-12-29


and the following are the officers for
ensuing year: President, Superintendent
J. A Van Dyke, Fergus Falls; secretary,
D. E. Cloyd, Minneapolis; recording sec
rotary, Miss Sarah Brooks, st. Paul;
treasurer, superintendent L. P. Harring-
ton, st. Cloud.
The morning was taken up with the
work of the various sections, and in the
afternoon a general meeting was held
at which none of the papers read were
of a technical nature.
AFTERNOON MEETING.
State Superintendent of Public Instruc-
ton j. II. Lewis was the first to be
called upon by President Shoemaker, at
the general meeting. His talk was de
voted to review of existing educational
conditions and a consideration of the
chief defects coming under his notice.
He said in part:
Are our educational forces, those en-
gagged in our elenlantary and secondary
schools, in our normal and agricultural
schools and in our colleges and universi-
ties working tremendously and effective
ly along lines that promise the maximum
efficiency in the attainment of highest
results?
Are they working in conformity to
and in harmony with the local condi-
tons and environments, and endeavor-
ing with reasonable promise of success
to meet the demands made upon public
education by the home, the business
community, the church and the state?
Or, are they bound and fettered by ira
ditions and working to conform to condi-
tons that have passed away and to meet
demands that are no longer felt?
Ihese questions are peculiarly peril
mont at this dividing point between two
centuries; for their consideration forces
upon us the conclusion that educatfonallv
We are at the parting of the ways, indi-
Gated by the. interrOgations themselves"
Historically, said the speaker educa ton
in the United States had begun from the
top and had worked downward. The col
, leges were founded before the lower
schools, chiefly to meet the exigencies of
differing religious opinions This had ex-
erted peculiar effect, to- this day the
system was under the bondage Of the
earlier methods to the extent that over
three hundred of the universities in this
country were UNCONVENTIONAL. Scarcely
fifty were Independent of religious ties.
In the early days academies and schools
We're founded with a view to preparing
students for the higher institutions as
they were then, and even today the
nigh schools were under the yoke Of the
same system, to far too great extent
Continuing, he said:
WHAT of the prospects and promises
of the century that Is just ahead of
us?"
Were I posing as a prophet and
prophesying what the reforms of the new
century are to be, or as Sir Oracle and
telling what should be, 1 should by no
means fell pessimistic. The outlook and
conditions are hopeful in the educational
as We'll as in the social and Industrial
world, but we VIII in the future as we
IN In h.
at mes when We are retracing our steps
from tie pursuit of fads, false lights, edu-
cational ignes fatui projected by well
meaning, but mistaken leaders; but upon
the whole the needs and demands of So
cfety and the business world are better
understood by educators than they have
ever yet been, and we may confidently
expect in the future a more ready COM
pllance with conditions and greater eff
forts to supply and meet the demands OF
society and the state. But upon the whole
the limitatieHssef the ci1iId,s mind will be
better recognized tn in the century that
is closing. We are learning in the teach
ing of numbers, of language and history
and even Of geography, tbat involved alb
stractions belong to maturer years, and
we shall heed the lessons that we have
learned We have loarpe7 ,tfet it l. pos
itively harmful for the child to divide his
thoughts bstWeen ten or a dozen diffe eent
subjects in, a. day and the routine Of the
school room will be siTnpiified rather than
made more complex. Instead of adding
to the units or centers around which the
work of the school room shall be grC upe l.
we shall select fewer subjects and push
them strongly and vigorously to the front
Instead of six or seven years in ar.th-
mettC--begun before the faculties en-
! ployed in making distractions have begu1
to develop-we will employ the time OF
the child in the study of subjects within
his mental grasp, and wait for his mind
to ripen for distractions, then put him
through his arithmetic: in less time tn in
is now devoted to the subject The same
| law will follow in the studyaof history
geography and formal grammar Durins
the period in which his sense perez tons
are most active we. will give Chi dren de.
! lightful exercises in agriculture hovt;
| culture andz-manual- training for tn i
sense perceptions. During the pc iol ina
| his Imagination IDS unfolding his ScAoO
work will be suitable for the deveIo men
| of his Imagination. Fer the pe-iod whe
/ memory is developing we wi siVe hi
work that viii exercise and develop h
memory. Studies requiring abstruse rea
| soning and the active exeroi Ct tn
/ powers of eofnpaf ison and Judgment wi
| be reserved fer the period when the,
! powers become active, and thus by TIL
! avoidance of misfit methods and 1oppor
| tune studies, we will avoid producing TIL
mental abnormal ties that in the pas
| century have made mental am phys ca
wrecks of multitudes of children Atov
| all we have learned that il a child is t.
grow into What 1t IS possible for him t
become his personality must be re rpected
his judgment recognized and his a-titCd
| consldered-sz A@z Sis-s 47a5Se5
The last quarter Of q century has mad
even greater demands upon American cd
'ucators than upon American statesmen
expansion Of territory. of commerce and
in the scope of national. infiEe1ce; TIL
| combinations of capital to control tn
manufacturing, the. TRANSPORTATION an
the distribution of the products OF iHdus
try have given rise to social indllstria
and political problems requiring a MGR
intelligent and patriotic citizenship 70
their wise solution than has baea re fui- e
of any former generation in the verdi
history. These gigantic combination
require for their management and for tn
| directing of the various processes thereo
a highly specialized training of the you'll
of the republic, and 1t devolves upon GU
educational leaders to rise to the respon
sibilities thus unexpectedly thrust upol
them ~-a-
GEN. M. E. CLAPP.
Gen Moses E. Clapp was called upol
! to deliver a few remarks in the nature O
a survey of the present, century and it
relation to the next He was receive,
with cheers son coming forward.
In making a survey of the centur,
which is drawing to a close, said the gen
eral. it must be remembered that much o
the marvellous progress made in It can b
explained by the fact that selfshness i
the great keynote of human activity MAJ