The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1902-07-11

education and the duty of the public TO
provide means whereby that education
may be acquired. College women are now
far too numerous to be regarded as an in
novatiOn, and their achievements have
been too important 10 consider them longer
as an experiment yet there Is evidence in
plenty that the college woman, her present
sphere and her future destiny furnish a
problem which VeXes the spirit OF many
skeptic. The subtle ridicIle which attended
the advent of the college woman has given
way TO cordial approval. The conversion OF
intolerance into tolerance, of ridicule into
applause. is due to the fact that these
doubts have been forever quieted by the
indisputable demonstration of the fallacy
of the four chief claims of the opposition:
Women are mentally capable of grasp
ing college education, and great many
women are more capable of doing so than
great many men.
Women are physically able to bear the
continued strain of a college course, and
many are far better able to bear it than
many men.
eternal womanly' than the college man has
lost the eternal manly in the struggle for
education.
college women. like college men, have
not lost their ability and desire to become
hOme-makers, nor their willingness to obey
the second law of nature, the preservation
OF the species
For fifty years the extension OF educa-
tional privileges to the women has been
concession to the plea for individual rights
OF women; the new question has been
raised in defense of the rights of men. An
impetus undoubtedly given to the new
line of thought. when. in 1898, Charles w.
l. Harris, commissioner of educa-
tlon, made the prediction that II
women students at colleges should con-
tnue 10 increase as rapidly in proportion
to men students as they have done in the
past II would not be many years before
there would be more women than men in
our colleges. This fact evidently has
frightened the conservative and aroused
a gentle but firm opposition TO CO.
education The fact that girl graduates
from our grammar and high schools are
considerably greater IN number than boys.
and the even more significant fact that
men in our Nation now carry larger per
cent. OF llliteracy than women may
have added to the general warmth of
conservatives. To my mind coeducation
will suffer little from the present furry of
opposition The system is founded on claims
too broad, sound and progressive
Invite the college woman to share in
the work or the world according to her
lnclinatiOns and her abilities. recognizing
her as a positive factor of society as in
the case of her endowments we may feel
safe TO conclude nature intended her to be.
may have authority to force her opinions
and to do the work of her choice in the
most effective way"
GROWTH OF EDUCATION.
The only paper read in the department OF
secondary education this afternoon was
that of DIR. John w Perrin, Western Re
serve University. of Cleveland. He traced
the growth of education in New England
during the seventeenth and eighteenth CEN
turtles and showed how the Puritan school
system was the foundation of the public
school system. In the elementary school
department Miss Cordelia Marcellus, of
Chicago, read a paper on the practical
value of teaching agriculture in the public
schools and illustrated her ideas by de-
scribing some garden experiments made by
Chicago teachers and their pupils. Jesse ID.
Burks, assistant in the department of ele
mentary education. Teachers College New
York city, in discussing the paper approved
its ideas on the broad ground that such
study was not only practically valuable but
necessary to bring pupils to a vivid COM
prehension OF their social background Miss
May III. Prentice, of the Cleveland City
Normal school; discussed the use of myth
and OF history in elementary education.
The art and manual training departments
had Joint meeting and listened to a paper
by Harold Peyser. instructor in manual
training in the New York city schools, on
practical cooperation between art and
manual training institutions.
The normal school department devoted
itself TO a consideration of the defects of
normal schools. According to Levi Seeley,
professor of pedagogy in the State Normal
School at Trenton. y. j. the defects are:
Lack of scholarship in normal graduates
which is a fundamental necessity in a
teachers equipment; lack of close relation
ship between the normal school and it's
clientage, because the graduate has not
been trained to meet the wants of the
community, is out of sympathy with IL and
! shoots over its head; lack of circum-
Scribed aim, all graduates being given the
same course of study instead of being
| trained for specialization in some one
branch of their profession. Mr.. Seeley de-
| cared that there should be in every State
/ two kinds OF normal schools, one for the
| common schools and one for the higher
| schools.
All the departments of the association
held meetings this afternoon i'm various
parts of the city. and tonight the faculty
of the State University, the teachers of
Minneapolis and the Minneapolis CONNER
cial Club rendered the members of the as
ISOLATION general reception at the State
University. The reception proper was held
in the armory of the University and de-
spite the fact that Ii is capable of holding
10000 people, II was taxed 10 the utmost TO
accommodate the throngs who were present
tonight The reception proved one of the
most delightful occurrences of the conyen-
ton. and following IL were several denart-
ment receptions at the university, in the Ii
brary building. Various State receptions
were held in the respective State headouar-
tiers at the West Hotel. after the general
and department receptions at the univer-
sity were over.
Tomorrow morning a general session will
be held at the exposition building at which
William +. Harris. United States commits
sioner of education; Charles p. q. Scott
chronological editor of the Century DIction-
AIRY. and Prof T. G. Trueblood. of the Uni
versity of Michigan, will deliver addresses.
The afternoon will be taken up with de-
partment meetings and the final session of
the convention will he held in the evening
at which DIR. c. NJ l.. Sites president of
the Educational Association of China, and
DR.. ]. H. Finley. professor of politics.
Princeton University, will speak.