The Savannah morning news. (Savannah, Ga.) 1900-current, 1902-07-08
DR.. HARpER'S TALK
ABLE REVIEW OF THE EDUCA-
TIONAL YEAR
GOOD WORDS FOR THE SOUTH.
SHOULD RECEIVE LARGER AID FOR
HER SCHOOLS.


tion-The Organization of the
Southern Education Board and the
! General Education Board Means
Much for South-The Relation of
High Schools to Colleges and other
Topics of Interest Discussed-The
High schools Almost Colleges Now.
Minneapolis Mimi, July Three
meetings of the National Council of
the National Educational Association,
and two of the department of Indian
education were held to-day. The first
general session of the association Will
be held tomorrow afternoon.
DR.. w. r. Harper, president of the
University of Chicago. delivered an adj
dress before the National Council to-
night in review of the educational
progress of the year. He referred
10 Yankee supremacy in various
branches of pedagogy and in conclu-
sion, painted a picture of an Anglo
American alliance in the fields of en-
lightenment and humanity, describing
the scholarship requests of Cecil
Rhodes and the Carnegie endowment
of a national university at Washing
ton as the greatest educational events
of the last decade.
President Hnrper's Address.
DR.. William r. Harper, president of
the University of Chicago spoke of
THE Educational Progress of the
year 19O1-l9O2" saying in part:
THE most serious drawbacks to the
advancement of the work in the ele-
mentary schools along the lines of the
educational theories of recent times
has been the utterly inadequate schol-
astic training of the TEACHERS who un-
dertook professional investigation
This need of broader scholarship has
no where been more deeply appreci-
| ated than among the teachers them
| selves, and in testimony of this state
ment we need only recall the interest
and support of that great multitude
of elementary teachers who spend a
part of their vacations in the summer
schools and colleges. 1t is not method
study simply that these teachers hung
err for: it is rather information on
special subjects in which they have
discovered their weakness.
Brighter Outlook for south.
THE Southern Education Board.
which was the outcome of the, Capon
Springs Conference, held in Winston
Salem, N. c., in 1901. has already
shown it's strength and its power to
accomplish good results. For the first
time in the history of Southern educa-
ton a comprehensive undertaking has
been launched. founded upon true prin-
cIpals That educational work in the
South should have to do with the edu-
cation of the white man as we'll as the
negro. that 1t should be worked out.
for the most part, by Southern men:
and that it should begin with the pub
| lie school in the South, are principles
which appeal directly to the common
sense of every intelligent thinker 1t
Is confessedly true that the Southern
states have not received their proper
share of the great gifts for education.
| Twenty-Five per cent of the population
of our country should receive a larger
| proportion than per cent. of the gem
| eral contributions TO education The
Southern board will surely have the
sympathy and cooperation of every
| friend of education in the
| North, as well as in the South,
for true interest in sound education
The distinctive interest of this board
is in the public school and 1t is par
ticularly concerned in those forms of
education which look toward thrift,
industry and usefulness. This fact will
guarantee in part at least, the adop-
ton of the principles of the new educa-
| ton.
"A still more recent forward step
| in the interests of southern education
| Is the organization of a body called
the General Education Board. The
| function of this board is entirely dis
tinct from that of the Southern Educa-
| ton Board. The latter exists Tor the
purpose of developing an educational
sentiment. The former board has been
organized to receive. hold, and dispose
| of money for Southern Education.
! The board has already at its command
a fund of more than a million dollars.
Its methods of work are those born
of larges experience. and its breadth
Of sympathy and it's wisdom have all
ready been satisfactory administered.
No stronger agencies, no agencies
more greatly needed, have been estab-
lished in any sphere of work, educa-
tional or industrial, in this last year.
than the Southern Education Board
and the General Education Board.
The Secondary schools.
I'm connection with the curriculum
| of the secondary schools several ten
| denotes may clearly be noted. Some of
these are progressive; some of them
may perhaps, be regarded as charac-
| teristic of movement backward. In
the latter class belongs the disposition
to give up provision for instruction in
| Greek That there exists such a dis
| position cannot b. denied. Ii. seems
to grow out of the desire to mahe way
for more practical subjects; but the
| fact is that as many people desire
Greek to-day as at any time in the
past. The more practical subjects are
| called for by another class of stu
dents. The Introduction of business
and industrial courses is rapidly in
| eres sing the number Of high school
students, but these new students are
| in addition to those who otherwise
would take up high school work.
rs the INTRODUCTION of courses of
instruction relating to commercial and
industrial subjects moving perhaps at
| too rapid a rate? We must not for
| get that years are required to devel-
op a new subject for practical edu-
cational results. Are we throwing
aside those subjects. whose education
| al value has been tested beyond ques-
ton. for the sake of introducing new
subjects which, at all events, for a
| long period, must prove to be of lesser
value?
Position of the High Schools.
"a remarkable fact in connection
with secondary schools is their phe-
nomenal growth. The high school cur