The Minneapolis journal. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn.) 1888-1939, 1902-07-10
KEYNOTE IS HOPE.
NJ. E. Sadler's Summary of Pres
ent Educational Situation.
ADDRESS TON. E. A. LAST EVENING
Arch bishop Ire1and's Address on
devotion to Truth for
Truths Sake"

Two addresse of extraordinary intersest
were delivered at the N. E. A. general
session, held at the Exposition building,
last night, the speakers being Archbishop
John Ireland and M. F. Sadler. LII. D.,
director OF inquiries and reports, board
OF education Office, London, Eng. The
meeting was we'll attended, more than
5000 people listening to the speakers.
DR.. Sadler spoke, in part, as follows:
The keynote Of the best educational thought
OF our time Is hope. Never before has the
work of national education been so full of
promise for the future Of deeper interest
to the teacher, the administrator and the
student. But there be no standing still
in educational effort at the present time.
The world is passing through a period Of
rapid and disturbing change in the sphere OF
thought and OF economic conditions. We live
in time of spiritual unrest, which in many
subtle ways produces unrest in education.
Education has constantly to readjust itself,
in order to guard against new dangers which
arise through the disintegraton of older
habits of thought and ways Of life. The
triumphant advance Of applied science threat
ems TO bring about social conditions in which.
unless forethought Is exercised, individual in
itative may be unduly hampered by the pres
sure Of great masses OF capital controlled by
corporations.
Educators, therefore, are looking around
In all directions for suggestions to the
best lines of further advance. 1t is signif-
icant that each nation is realizing. more
fully than before, how much it may gain by
studying the educational history and develop
nlent- OF other nations, but education is so
intimately national q thing that no country
can with advantage directly initiate the edu-
cational system of another country. Each ma
ton must needs build up its own system in
accordance with its own traditions and ma
tonal needs.
English Traditions.
The strong points of the best tradition in
English education are it's conviction that ply
steal training and close contact with nature
are essential things in true culture; that it is
mistake to regard purely intellectual train
ing the sole work Of a we'll organlzed
school system; that education does not come
through books alone or words alone, but
also through making things, through the
training of hand and eye and through practice
in the arts of home life; that it is expedient
to cultivate many kinds of expression of the
human spirit, and not to confne our train
ing to the powers Of verbal expression but
rather to encourage expression through art,
through making things, through the exercise
OF judgment in practical affairs, and through
practice in the work Of organization and
government. The fundamental belief of the
best English educators has always been that
the true fruit OF a good education Is not
knowledge alone, or intellectual agility alone,
but combination of four things-discipline
of body, enlightenment of mind balance of
judgment, and obedience to duty.
1t is with the underlying principles of
American education rather than of German
that most English teachers find themselves
in closest sympathy It is to be desired that
there Shou1d be more intercourse between
American and English teachers. Distance
makes many forms of regular meeting impos-
sible. Might not more be done, however, to
encourage graduate study by young English
students American universities, and vice
versa? English conditions full of inter-
est to the student Of social science, and
should like to see courses Of graduate study
in social economics, in English educational
history and practice, and i'll the principles and
practice Of municipal, colonial and Indian
administration, organized at Oxford and Cam
bridge. in London, Birmingham and Man
chester, for the benefit of graduate students
from other countries beside my own l have
only mentioned, out of many subjects, two or
three in which England is in position to
offer especially interesting opportunities of
advanced, practical study. The benefit which
England would derive from the intellectual
stimulus and from the future results of such
systematic investigation would be great. And
] am convinced that the students would ind
much material for profitable study.
Another suggestion has been made which
desire to submit to your consideration. 1t has
be given to American teachers to come and
teach for a short time in English schools and
vice versa. If something be done in this
direction, / believe that much good would
follow.
The Archbishop's Address.
Archbishop Ireland's subject was de
votion to Truth for Truths Sake" He
said that next to the classroom it was
most important Ito humanity that truth
should prevail in the newspa pers, mentors
OF the people, and believed by them. The
influence of the American press, he said,
Is paramount; its responsibility tre-
mendous; and it's province to narrate
truth without distortion and, without con-
cealment. Facts given, he held that an
editor within his rights in constru-
ing them to suit his own tenets, when
such construction does not violate truth.
Intolerance in the editorial columns of
@ newspaper he considered even. a great
er evil than intolerance in the pulpit. To
the teachers present he said:
Teach l pray you, to your pupils, the love
Of truth. Extol before thom it's beauty. OBJ
tain that they make conservation Of them
selves before its shrine.
Teach them that their souls are noble and
grand, only when no clouds of error hover
over them, only when truth in its plenary
objectivity be so fully reproduced in their
minds that those minds be TRANSPORTED in
the beauty Of truth and be themselves truth.
And teach them that the truth which Is in
their minds must be the adornment Of their
lips. when those lips part in speech; the
adornment of their pen. when this pen moves
In writing; teach them that the lie spoken or
written is more baleful yet and more in
glorious than the lie ensconsed in the mind,