Gloucester County Democrat., 1902-01-30
Public School Teachers, Association.

One hundred and thirty of the one hun
dren and fifty of our county teachers atten
ded the meeting Of the Association in th'
Court House last Saturday, and received
instruction and inspiration OF high order
Before the arrival of Mr. Boyer, th'
principal speaker Of the day, the business
of the Association was transacted and loca
questions discussed.
Mr. Fox, of Clayton, said it was his ex
perience that children who complain of tot
much work at home take music lessons, arr
engaged in music practice, which is wear
ing on the nerves, and home study of schoo
work is not alone responsible for exhaus
ton.
Miss Lewis thought young children
should not study at home, but come tt
school fresh and be compelled to work il
school,
A gentlemen said his experience was thai
more could be done in a nalf hour at home
than in two hours in the school room.
Mr.. Frey, Of Woodbury., thought thai
below the 9TH grade there should be nC
study out of school hours; in that grade g
half hour day would be good training. Il
children can do all their work in the school
room let it be done there, but when the
higher grades are reached there is no harm
in out Of school study. The Germans and
French are from one to two years ahead Of
us in instruction and they require from two
to eight hours of home study per day. He
believed child could do more work in 8
half hour in the school room than in an
hour at home, as much of the home study
was mental dissipation.
Superintendent Eldridge opposed home
study by children below Is years of age.
Speaking of the results of the recent visi-
tation to the schools Of the county, Mr..
Eldridge lectured the teachers for talking
too much and not to the point. Mr.. Tharp
wanted to know what the Superintendent
meant, and he explained that one teacher
had made the remark that "a Niger was
an Irishman turned inside out.n He
deemed such remarks worse than waste of
time and not related to school instruction.
Mr. f. said he was pleased with the gen.
eral work of the schools.
Rev. DR.. Charles C. Boyer, of the Kutz-
town, Pa, Normal School, spoke for a half
hour on wisdom and love in teaching; tax
ing the serpent as type of wisdom and the
dove as a type of love. The successful
teacher will be wiser than the serpent and
more loving than the dove. The teacher
must see and know the child mind in her
effort to develop the finer nature and estab-
lish heart discipline. If he could make the
teacher think of the grandeur of their pro-
fession, they would not go away sorry for
having spent the day here. He counseled
the teachers to win their way into the inner
circle of the child being. While it is diff
cult to win others to ourselves, it is possi-
BILE to win the children and have them say
they have the best teach in the world, but
how to keep them in that mind is harder
question.
If you would keep the hearts of your
boys and girls avoid collisions; be careful
about the time you reprove them. A gold
en- rule to retain their respect is to hold
inviolate their self-respect; careless word
may lose control and respect of your pupils.
Try your pupils before you condemn them;
don't Judge too soon; allow them to present
their case if possible, crown every act of obe-
dience with joy. There are two ways of
securing obedience, the czar way and the
mother; by the latter the heart of the child
is kept, by the former it is lost.
AFTERNOON SESSION.
Mr. Boyer's topic at the afternoon session
WAS AS GU NUuIu Llhc IL. 11O UCSdA W
saying that the method of instruction is the
spirit of the teacher meeting the spirit OF
the child. The mission of the public school
(there is nothing like it in the world out
side the church) is fitting children for the
work of life.
Teaching would be as the teacher would
like it, if he could make the child do
something for himself, if the child would
come to school hungry and thirsty for geog-
raphy, grammar and arithmetic. This can
be done, he said, if you put pleasure into
the work, the secret is putting yourself into
it; if you do not put yourself into it the
method is nothing.
Method, he said, is the adaptation of the
teacher to the pupil. Help them as much
as they need to help themselves. There are
times when boys are SO ambitious to do
something for themselves that you can do
any thing with them. Show them the
world beyond their own horizon-the world
beyond the mountains surrounding their
own homes: arouse a spirit of inquiry and
the child will soon begin to help himself
The speaker drew a beautiful word pic
ture of the perfect teacher, possessed of all
talent, all wisdom, beauty, the graces
and love, and said teachers often exclaimed
if they had all these they could be success
full teachers. But, he said, there is enough
in all of to be good teachers if you will
cultivate what you have.
Teachers often exclaim that they could be
more successful if they had the cooperation
of parents, if mothers and fathers trusted
and had more confidence in them. He
said it was often the case that teachers were
too far from the fathers and mothers; that
the teacher was often responsible for lack
of cooperation and confidence of parents.
He closed by advising teachers to accom-
modate themselves to circumstances. Strive
to attain the highest standards, then the
time is sure to come when we will have
things as we would like them to be.
A feature of both sessions was musical
selections on mouth organ and harp by Prof
Rogers, blind musician of Philadelphia.
DIR. L. NJ. Halsey, of Williamstown, read
an interesting and instructive paper on
"The Backward Child,' which we will
publish in full in another ISSUE