The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1900-10-28

educated men and women the world
has ever known
Miss Dukes followed with a two-min-
ute discussion. She said: THE pres
ent system of educational work has
been said to be largely experimental.
For the past ten years eminent profess
Sors have given their time to q study
of the subject, and the plans they have
mapped out for school work must of
necessity be along the right lines It
is certainly true that never in the his
tory of the world mas there been
time when such high estimation has
been placed on the school curriculum
Mrs. j. NJ. Bishop of Ogden entered
into a discussion of some modern the
cries and experiments in education.
She said, in part:
Old Gives Way to New.
1T IS but natural that the old idea
OF education as a. possession of the
privileged aristocracy of learning and
its accompanying belief that education
meant the requirement of a certain
liked quantity of knowledge of certain
branches, should in this country have
given way to the new thought, that
education means the fitting of the
whole people to live as fully and COM
pletely as possible. and that the pro-
sesses of education should be made to
conform 10 such an end. We have be-
gun to realize that TO reach this end,
children throughout their school life
should not only prepare to live as citi
zenS, but that tEe school room should
be miniature world wherein children
should live as freely and fully as part
OF social whole of which each child
is an interested and responsible unit.
In taking up the new it is not neces-
sary to dwell upon the medieval idea
of education, which until recently held
sway, not only in our public schools,
but in universities as well. Indeed,
Dr. Dewey and Professor David Starr
Jordan have each within few months
past made the charge that the medi-
aeval ideal still predominates IN many
OF our schools. This old idea of edu-
cation, some one has said, was crystal
lzed in the expression knowledge is
power and went hand in hand with
the idea that education was for the
few and that to be educated meant to
have gained a certain amount of learn
ing.
Distinguished from the mechanical
idea we have the thought OF the new
education that moral character is the
end sought. and that the chief means
TO this end is educating instruction
mis- expression, so often heard today,
implies that not ali instruction or
learning is education, and that not all
knowledge cOnduceS toward education.
Hence, the revision of courses of study
to fit the thought of educating instruc-
ton, or, as it is more commonly spoken
of, 10 fit the thought of concentration.
Concentration should be considered as
a natural subdivision of apperceptiOn.
The other most -npOrtant subdivision
OF apperception is the culture epoch
theory.
Theory of Culture Epochs.
But little argument is needed to
convince US that there is a basis of
truth in the theory of culture epochs.
Since most of US can call and recog-
nlze some of the stages in our own
lives and are familiar with the saw
age period of boys, there might be
question of the propriety of feeding the
boy at that age on myths and Indian
stories and so making him still more
savage. But psychologists are author
ity for believing it is the safest way.
We all know there is a. period of hero
worship in youth just preceding the
fun development of the philOsophic or
complete stage and that d wise use of
this tendency may tide over the most
dangerous periods of our young peO-
pies lives by melting them to emula-
ton and admiration for the character
of great lives.
FINALLY, as regards any new theory
and experiment it is the part of wis
dom TO teachers and parents alike to
receive the new hospitality, although
tenaciOusly holding to the old, which
has been tried and found good and in
matters educational. as in all others,
to seek rsYerently to know the truth.
For the truth shall make us free"
The morning session closed with ed
vocational reports from Provo and Og-
den Mrs. Bichsel spoke for Ogden and
said that while no startling results
have been obtained along educational
lines by club women of Ogden, still
they have quietly and persistently
worked to further the good of the
cause They have given a series of
lectures on the subject and were now
planning d free kindergarten.
Miss Reynolds of Provo gave an in
teresting account of the progress of
the work in her city. She told of the
formation of an educational society,
and of the work being done by club
members in conjunction with the moth
ers. and boosted of the fact that Provo
now has four kindergartens, while Salt
Lake has only five.