The Scranton tribune. [volume] (Scranton, Pa.) 1891-1910, 1902-04-04
The institute
I CLOSES TO-DAY
LAST SESSION WILL BE HELD
THIS MORNING.

Record''-Dr. Green Gave Talk
on "Teaching English"-Henry
Houck, Alexander Forbes and Miss
Gould Will Speak Today.
The pinth annual teachers institute
will be brought to II close at this morn
ing's session, when addresses will be
made by Alexander Forbes, of Phila-
delphia; Miss Gould. of New York
city, and the irrepressible and irreslst-
able Henry Houck. The lectures and
talks given yesterday were OH the
whole. the most satisfying Of any given
during the week.
Miss Arnold, who is unquestiOnably
the most popular woman instructor
who has ever been heard at an insti-
tute in this city, gave a delightful talk
at the afternoon session on "The I'm
written Record She followed the
general line Of thought that there is
an unwritten record Of the pupils
work, on which is written much that
Is beyond the teachers ken and sug-
gested that teachers look not too much
upon the surface, but rather try to
search deeper when they are measure
ing scholars ability.
She told several instances Of pupils
who We're doing rather bad work In
school and whose teachers sharply and
almost heartlessly called them to ac-
count for 1t. She told of the struggles
which these pupils We're making out
side the school room and said that
these were Of perhaps more value to
them than the mere fact Of being letter
perfect in their algebra lesson.
DON'T DISCOURAGE THEM.
She cautioned the teachers against
discouraging Individual work on the
part of their pupils as some teachers
do. There are too many, she said, who
think that examination questions can
be answered in only the particular way
in which they have thought the an
swers out in their own minds. Miss
Arnold spoke also Of the unwritten
record of the teachers work; Of the
record written on the lives Of the chill
dren taught, and of the unseen influ-
ences which enanated from them and
assisted in the upbuilding of the char
acter of the pupils.
"And what is the written record Of
such a teachers work?" asked Miss
Arnold. "Oh, she was q fairly good
teacher, wasn't quite firm enough with
her pupils and was displaced to make
room for Squire Jones' daughter" At
the morning session Miss Arnold gave
another talk on discipline"
DR.. A. r. Winship was down on the
programme to talk on Teaching Eng
lish," but he spoke instead on the life
and works of James Russell Lowell.
This was DIR. Winship's last appear
ance and after telling the teachers that
this particular institute was the equal
Of any institute he ever attended, and
that he had never enjoyed himself SO
much before. and that he was pleased,
charmed, delighted and a few other
things, he got down to his subject.
DIDN'T DO HIS BEST.
Lowell, he said, never did what he
should have done for America, nor was
never the poet he should and could
have been had he wanted to. The man
who wrote before he was 30 years old
"The Vision of Sir Launfal." the finest
single poem in the English language,
should have kept on writing all his
life, DR.. Winship said, instead of fol-
lowing other and varied lines of ac-
tivity and writing poetry only incident
ally.
He then briefly traced the early life
of the poet and dwelt particularly upon
his indecision after he left school and
which became his dominant trait
throughout his life. He started out to
be q physician, q Clergyman, and a
lawyer in rapid succession and finally
did become the latter, only to continue
at 1t for q year. OF his later life, in
Guiding his brilliant political career,
DR.. Winship said nothing. apparently
having no sympathy with it.
He took up 1.-THE Vision OF Sir Laun-
fall" and told Of it's wonderful depth
of feeling and religious power, couched
in the most exquisite language inagin-
able. Lowell" said he, 'never wrote
IL word that he had ever need to apollo
gize for. He never wrote a weak line.
Everything he did write was marked
by clear conception and n far
reaching vision that has been equalled
by very few of the poets of any age
or any clime."
TALK ON ENGLISH.
DIR. +. II. Green spoke in the after
noon on English" and again capti-
waited his listeners by his breezy style
of delivery and never ending flow of
anecdote. He urged the teachers to
early teach their children to appreci-
ate fully the wonderful beauties of the
English language. which stands, he
said. supreme among all the languages
of the earth, because of it's wide range
and perfect harmony. He protested
against the methods employed by those
teachers who become slaves to the text
book which, he said, should be used
only as a guide.
Too much time, he said, is wasted by
many teachers in quibbling over petty
and irrelevant things. "They fuss and
fiddle" said he, 'over little inconse-
quent details that have only the re-
motest bearing on the general subject"
He urged teachers to leave some of
these petty questions OF grammar un-
settled and. IL criticized, to accept the
criticism with humility and thus be-
come martyrs to a good cause.
Henry Houck gave another Of his
heart-to-heart talks at yesterday