Arizona weekly journal-miner., 1901-12-25
TEACHERS INSTITUTE.
Good Attendance and Interesting Ex- ercises Mark the Opening Day of
 the Session.

 ized on Monday afternoon with about sixty teachers present. At meetings of these kinds it usually takes day or two to get thawed out and for the teachers to warm up to 4their work. This was not the case at yesterdays session, as those in attendance warmed up to the work from the start and the opening day was marked with interesting ex- ercises. J. B. Jolly, county school superintendent of this county, called the institute to order and Miss Helen Strange of Prescott was elected sec retary, and F. M. Walker of Tucson assistant secretary. Superintendent Jolly then delivered a very eloquent and appropriate address of welcome on behalf of the people of Prescott, to which Mir. Clifford of Williams re- sponded.
 The first exercise was by Prof. Adams of the territorial university on History, and was very interesting.
 This was followed by Primary Reading by Miss Lulu Hunter of the Flagstaff normal.
 Prof. Blome gave an exercise on English Literature, using Whittier's "Snow Bound" as basis, and Miss Dora Mather of the Tempe normal gave an exercise on Arithmetic. Each of these exercises was discussed in which a general exchange of views was given.
 The evening session of the institute was held in the Marina street NJ. E. church beginning at 7:30 o'clock and besides the teachers in attendance the house was well filled by our citi- Zens.
 The first number on the programme was a selection by the Prescott or chestra under the direction of H. D. Aitken. Following this was vocal solo by Mrs. H. D. Ross, and in spite of the fact that she had been fighting off an attack'of bronchitis for several days, her voice was remarkably clear, sweet and strong and she was heartily applauded and her song greatly en- joyed.
 Professor A. J. Matthews, always a favorite with Prescott people because of his long residence here and his sue cessful connection with our schools, was then presented to the audience and given warm welcome. He an nounced that he was on the pro- gramme for a lecture but that he pre- ferred to call what he had to say talk with teachers and parents on the subject of Nature and Schools as Educational Factors"
 He began by taking up the subject of the evolution of man from his very l low and ignorant condition in the ages past, and called attention to what nature had dore in the way of | development for the human race and how God had slowly but steadily | been advancing man up to his present lofty position. But man had not | been idle or neglectful of himself | during all these ages and had added | to the forces of nature by constant training and education each succeed ing age, adding its mite to the whole and producing a better result. Ma ture," he said, lis the primary source from which all knowledge must come and furnishes the raw material out of which the beautiful structure may be made but nature in itself does not teach thoroughly, and needs the ele- ment of training and education to bring it to perfection" He laid | great stress on the proper direction by the teacher, to the natural forces in the child to learn from nature the wonderful lessons she holds in store. Better let a child learn from nature alone, than from a purely book | school" he said. Schools are neces- sary for the training of the judicial l mind, cultivation of the powers of perception so that the open book of nature may be read by the child and then the proper expression and appli- | cation of the lessons thus learned. Schools are also useful in bringing to the child's knowledge the experiences of the past in literature and history. It also furnishes a social life that is or should be, ideal, and the moral training there obtained should be a safeguard through life.
 'The failure of the modern schools" he said, is in not observing the les sons that nature teaches" He then showed how the early instincts of the child should be observed and turned to account in the development of its physi ,al, mental and moral powers. The play of the child is an index to its possibilities and if rigidly directed it will be hard to tell where the play ends and real work begins. The games of youth may be made the basis of industrial persuit.
 The lecture throughout was listen ed to with intense interest and was full of helpful hints and wise counsel not only to the teachers but to all present.
 At the close of the lecture Miss Helen Munyan sang a solo Tn her usual masterly manner and the audi ence could not be satisfied until she responded with a second song. Miss Munyan has grown to be prime favorite with Prescott audiences in the short time she has resided here.
 Tuesday forenoon-After the regu- lar opening exercises Miss Helen Munyan sang a solo, followed by an invocation by Rev. H. B. Long.
 Miss Dora Mather, of the Tempe normal school, then opened discus sion on arithmetic, dwelling at length on the Speer method in number work. The Speer method was highly recom- mended as a sense training subject, but as number work or preparatory work for the arithmetic it was decided that it did not give satisfactory re- suits.
 F. Nj, Walker presented the subject of geography.
 Dr. Blome spoke on the subject of language work.
 Prof. Billinghurst presented the subject of science. He said that for !, fifty years science had been given a place in the course, but at the pres ent time it had become fixed part of the course of study. Science work is the best basis for mental training in observation and moral triumph.
 The subject of school management