The Scranton tribune. [volume] (Scranton, Pa.) 1891-1910, 1902-04-01
OPENING OF
The INSTITUTE
CITY TEACHERS BEGAN WEEKS
WORK YESTERDAY.
Session Was Opened with
an Address by President John Glib
bons, Of School Board, Who Inti-
mated That Teachers Will Be
Granted an Increase in salary-A.
j. Demarest Spoke on the New
Education, and Miss Anna Will
liams Spoke Of Kindergartens.

Bright-eyed and wide-awake teach
| ers, to the number OF over 400. gathered
in the auditorium of the High school
yesterday afternoon at 1.30 o'clock and
took their seats as Superintendent OF
Schools Howell tapped bell and de-
clared the ninth annual teachers insti-
tute to be opened.
After singing by the assembled teach
ers. under the leadership of Prof. Der
man, President John Gibbons, of the
board of control. made a brief but
| characteristic address. in which he re-
| ferred to the question of increased sal
aries, which is just now agtating every
teacher in the city. He said that he
had found 1t impossible to redeem his
promise of assistance made year ago,
because a majority OF the board couldn't
agree on the matter. The teachers, he
said. deserved to receive higher SAL
aries, and he intimated very strongly
that the latest petition for u twenty
fiVe per cent. increase will not be al
| lowed to go by the board.
This prompted Superintendent Howell
| to make few remarks bearing upon
the same question. He said that the
High school teachers Of this city are
being paid salaries which rank with
the highest paid for similar work in
any part OF the country, but stated
that the other teachers are not receive
ing anything like what they are en-
titled to. He urged the teachers pres
ent to make Il vigorous fight for a
recognition of their petition and i'm
pressed them with the necessity OF
getting right down to work before the
committee frames its budget for the
coming year.
CHORUS SINGING.
After some excellent chorus singing
by fifty of the lady teachers, under the
leadership, of Mrs. A. p. Barnes, the
first speaker. A. J. Demarest, Of
Hoboken. N. j., was introduced. He
delivered an address on 1.-THE Aim of
the New Education" and interested
his listeners for upwards of an hour
with u bright, keen and incisive talk
on the general trend of the newer edu-
cation.
In beginning. he told of some of the
greatest men in the educational field
who won name and fame for them
selves because they were different from
the others about them, or because they
made themselves different by seeking
to Improve themselves. He pictured
with scorn the merely mechanical
teacher, who follows out stereotyped
and time-honored programme every
day, without any definite purpose and
with no conception of the great fact
that he or she has entrusted to his or
her care 1.-The lives of boys and girls
with higher destiny than mere
earthly things" A great purpose he
said, is always the antecedent of Il
great action, and he urged the teach
ers to have the one great purpose of
ever seeking after the best and truest
uppermost in their minds.
The new education, he said, seeks not
only to teach the three RS, but also to
teach the three C's, culture (physicaD,
cheerfulness and citizenship. The great
and ever growing necessity of training
the body, as we'll as the mind, was en-
phasiZed and in this connection Mr..
Demarest said n good word also for the
manual training school
BRING BOTH.
THE commonly accepted idea" said
he. lis that children should only bring
their heads to school, but think it IL
very wise idea if they are allowed to
bring both their heads and their hands"
The new education, he said, seeks not
so much to impart mere knowledge us
1t does to teach the child to observe, TO
think and to reason, and thus to de-
Velop the powers within him. 1t seeks
also, he said, to bring up Il generation
or intelligent and virtuous citizens.
The national life of this country ,,..
declared, depends upon it's public
schools. which are the nurseries of its
liberties
Miss Anna w. Williams, introduced
by Superintendent Howell as "suc-
cessful normal teacher, Il lover of chill
dren and a noble woman" gave a de-
lightful talk on Popular Misconcep-
tons OF the kindergarten" The larger
part or her talk was couched in vein |
or gentle and at times almost biting
sarcasm. She showed that she has |
Deeh very observant during her visits |
10 certain kindergartenS, and her i'm |
mutations of the methods and manner !
lsms adopted by the teachers whom she |,
saw In them was especially amusing
She told OF the kindergarten teacher |
VINO carries the matter of idealizing
her work to extremes, and who wants !
her pupils to see everything from a |
poetical point of view. Then she went
after the superior kindergarten teacher
who LEADS her pupils mad intellec-
tual dance like a sort of educational
Pied Piper of Hamelin." Then the
teacher who Is so precisely grim, and
VINO lives up to the rules so that she
Is almost ideal from a text book stand
point, was given a few gentle little
MISTAKES THEY MAKE.
She told of how ridiculous some kim
lergarten teachers make their work
BY over-idealization. One teacher she
told OF who had been telling her class
of the universal unity Of everything in
he world and of how every beast of
he field was OF assistance in some way
D. other. On the day she visited the
school the teacher had picture show
ng all the known animals, and she
vas asking the children what each ami
nal was, "A dear little helper was
ne answer she had taught the chill
lren to give. Miss Williams humor-
'usly told of the ludicrous effect by
he child who declared the lion to be a
dear little helper"
The ever-popular DR.. l.. II. Green
rave a sort OF impromptu talk on the
ringing of music and melody into
life and into the school-room
I was wonderfully inspiring presen-
alton OF the gospe ! of good cheer and
a ltnt. A,,Y, tt.