The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1902-08-14
ATKINSON
1T NORMAL
CONTINUED from Page j.

impressions can last is not possible. If
you take a handful of old coins, you
will find some of them as fresh and
clear cut as they were the day when
they left the mint. You will find others
in which the impression is much blur
red and worn, and there will be yet
lothers where the Impressions seem to
be entirely lost, but heat these latter
coins and there will appear upon the
glowing metal the impression made
long ago.
| So it will be with the human charac-
(, ter that we strive to impress. Some of
it will retain all the delicacy and the
refinement of the first Impressions,
even when life is drawing to a close
and it is approaching that last scene
which all must come to. Never oblit-
Ierated, never forgotten, it has been the
guide through life in sunshine and
storm alike. The teacher who made the
impression of character may have pass
ed away, his or her work may have
been forgotten, the very name may
have been lost in oblivion but the i'm
press on character remains.
! In others again the fine traits OF the
character may be worn away, the orig
| inal impress may have lost its clear
ness, the image may be blurred, but it
| is there. The main attributes or
strength, of probity, of refined feeling
of honor, of kindness and of humanity
tare there, and influence the conduct and
still mark the character OF the man
who has been impressed as a child. And
tyet again, all the characteristics may
seem to have been swept away and the
person may seem to have no character
at all, and yet unexpectedly under the
| fire of adversely, under some strong inn
pulse of passion, the impression made
so many years ago, the impression
which has been apparently completely
obliterated will shine out like that
upon the glowing metal of the heated
coin, and will cause the individual to
| act as no one would have credited that
! he would act. How often do we say
| of a person whose character we have
thought little of, and yet who has risen
to some act of self-abnegation, or Of
strong character power, II never ex-
pected that; L did not think he had so
much character in him. 1t was the
early impress showing itself when it
seemed to be obliterated.
Now you might justly come to me and
say. how are we to teach character?
How are we to impress upon those COM
mitted to our charge this indelible and
precious attribute? What could / re-
ply? Could I reply, we will put down
the teaching of character in the course
of study? We will get book which
will tell of character. And we will di-
vide it off into sections, and some shall
be in large type, which must be learned
by the pupil first, and some shall be
IN small type, winch the teacher can I
read and explain, and we will have ev-
Ierything beautifully cut and dried, and /
when we are through, cur children, /
with good memories, will remember /
every word, and proceed to forget 1t
when they leave school, and those who /
have poor memories won't have any {
idea about it except that they got head !
aches from trying to learn it, and the I
result will be no impression upon the /
virgin metal which makes up the mind /
and the soul that is committed to our
charge.
Character training will not come from
any particular book, but it may be de-
veloped from everything that we teach.
1t may come from all books. 1t can be
developed from the reading lesson, it .
can be the essence of the language +
training 1t is present in the music of
the child voices in the playground. The
first hating steps in art hold it. 1t is 1
part of our work when we are teaching
the deft fingers to manipulate the fbry
threads that form the airy patterns of
our goSsamer lace. 1t is a part of the
rougher work of the boys hands as
they learn to use their knives or to
manipulate tools, and it is a part of
our singing, our sewing, our reading,
our writing. our drawing, our all.
Unless we make all these things tend
toward character building we are but
giving our attention to the husks of
education. We are creating a being
like that which Frankenstein made,
adept in everything but a very over
shadowing horror. That is what edu-
cation without character will produce
and has produced. Fortunately for us
we nave always kept character before
Us, but my remarks are aimed at max p
ing the child's character the most i'm
portant attribute to develop in the 4
child. s
L will grant that the development of
in 81 iG
and especially is it hard task when
we have not the home training to help
us that we find in some parts of the
mainland, in some parts but. not in all.
When l look upon the Heterogeneous
mass which comes into our schools, a
mass drawn from so many nationalities i
and having such entirely different +
standards from those to which we have
been trained. 1 confess myself that 1T
seems an almost insuperable task. But
# we can meet the task OF assimilating !
this mass of pupils as far as language
goes, if we can give the husk, we can
assuredly give the kernel. After all,
our teaching amounts to very little il
we only aim at giving a knowledge or
English and so forth, and do not put
that English to it's legitimate purpose.
Our purpose is not to make talking
machines, mere monographs, which
VIII give forth a hollow, nlockery OF
what has been spoken into them; but
our purpose IS To make thinking, OrOer-
~, high Idealed men and women. peo-
pie who will help to raise the standard
OF their surroundings and will form a
portion of that great army Of progress
which is forever marching onward till
it passes the curtain of the unknown,
but leaving behind it the stamp OF its {
ideals imprinted upon it's endless fol-
lowing. Our outlying section of this
great army is a small one, and may
not be as well drilled as it might be,
but it Is q section of this mighty army,
and it can do good work, ennobIing
work. and can win glory for itself and
glory for its people.
We have only to look upon the great I
outer world to see what are the results 4
of education only on one SIDE of CIV
ing the husk without the kernel. We