The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1902-08-14
ATKINSON
At NORMAL
Talks to Teachers
on Character
Building.
PRAISES THE
SUMNER SCHOOL
Urges Pedagogues to Make
Pupils Character the Special
Object of Training.
r. UPERINTENDENT ALATAU t.

N - L.
ATKINSON of the Department
e~ of Education made an address
yesterday afternoon at the Nor
NAL School at the regular weekly meet
ing of teachers. The address was en-
titled Character Building," and was a
long, carefully written treatise on the
forms of education which lead to the
development of character in the stu
dents of the Hawaiian schools. The ex-
ercises were opened with the singing
of America and closed with Hawaii Po-
moi. The school room in which the ex-
ercises were held was filled to its
capacity. Mr.. Atkinson said in part:
L have turned over in r.y mind with
some care what 1 should write about
for this afternoons little lecture. There
are many subjects which could be en-
larged upon, and which properly treat /
ed would yield practical results in your
school work But after all that is the
duty of your teachers In the summer
school. They have taken pains to in
oculate methods of teaching and ideas
of practical utility in the school room.
They have and will continue to be most
: earnest and painstaking in their en-
deavors. The summer school is an in
stitution which has grown. There is
more interest taken in the teachers
through the summer school. 1t not
only acts upon the teachers but it re-
acts upon all who take an interest in
education, and by enlisting the good Of
fees of others besides teachers to ad-
dress you from time to time during the
session, the breadth of veiw has been
enlarged. and thoughts which would
not otherwise occur have come before
you.
thus Governor Dole aroused a train
of thought when he spoke of the many
heterogeneous races which come under
your influence in the schools, and urg-
ed the study and careful observation of
their abilities and their proclivities.
This was a new idea to many of you,
probably to most of you, and it sug-
gested line outside of the regular
routine. Principal Scott of the high
school took up the scientific study of
life, tracing from the protopiasm to the
highest organization, and then showed
why the young of that organization re-
quired such care, and such time to
prepare 1t for its life work Inspector
Baldwin generalizec upon the question
of teaching English, his object being to
show that thought and expression must
go hand in hand. pointing out from his
experience, the failures which had been
and were being made, and urging that
every effort should be striven after to
gain success, not because English was
English but because it was the only
linguistic medium which we can readily
use. and what we use should be of the
best.
Lastly DIR. Rodgers gave a compre-
hensive sketch of physiology, and
showed that the body is the temple of
the soul, and that we should use 1t and
not abuse it. He showed, with Justice,
the laws of health were not arbitrary
out natural. That dirt and not the
divine will was responsible for most of A
the epidemic diseases, and that If an
epidemic of typhoid fever was on, 1t
was much more efficacious for us to
clean out our water supply, see what :,
decaying matter was in our streams, T.
examine our wells and see that they 7.
are not contaminated, than to rush to n
church and expect to be relieved by di- IL
vine interposition from what our own n
folly OF our own dirty methods had 81
brought upon US. 81
To each of these gentlemen you owe 81
a debt of gratitude. The seed sown by n
them will have fallen as the seed in the Sc
parable did, some stony ground, ia
some among thorns, and some upon
good ground, bringing forth in various n,
measures, some ten, some twenty, some "
IN hundred fold. Talks like these touch "
1ere chord there chord, and the dc
lote thrills through the chaos of dis w
,ordant sounds, true and clear as oI
silver hell, among a chime of meaner ri,
METAL Not all that has been said VIII m
,e remembered, but some here, some gi
here. and no good luea IS ever coii m
,letely lost tn
MY remarks to you this afternoon ac
will. I fear, be more desultory than tn
hose of my predecessors on this moor. ";
hat Is / may touch upon several SUD co
ects. confining myself to no one in es- a
eciaf And first would talk of char mi
cter and the impression we make upon Al
character. To what does our educa- uu
ion tend? Merely to the power OF I'll
eading. of writing, of talking, or per
orrning a few feats with figures which m;
re ahead of the savage and the dog tn
nd the monkey. Is there nothing deep Tt
r than this? Is this all we work and lat
trive for? If so, we have reaity very on
title to be proud OF. DO NOT thlnk TIL
his is ALL We have mankind given to lif
. in the poets second age. inC
he whining school boy, with his
satchel