Albuquerque daily citizen. [volume] (Albuquerque, N.M.) 1895-1903, 1903-01-31

The Boston Journal of Education,
the leading education periodical OF the
United States. the editor of which, DIR.
A. e. Winship. was here in attendance
upon the educational conventions of
Christmas week. has the following ed
itorial utterance in his issue of Janu-
nary %. This cannot but be of i'm
mems benefit to New Mexico as the
Journal of Education circulates among
the better class of teachers throughout
the entire union. DR.. Winship says:
Those who are making a single trip
through our new west. or have never
seen it. merely read descriptions, can
never feel the growth of the United
States. There are hundreds of educa-
tional people who could have gone to
Las Vegas and addressed a large aud
fence, could have met the corps of ad.
mirable men and women teachers.
could have looked over the plant of the
Normal university, and pronounced 1t
one of the best normal school plants of
its size in the United States, who could
have felt the significance of 1t all as l
did. | know but one with whom it
would have been possible.
Twenty years ago | became fairly
well acquainted with all the leading
cities and towns of the territory, and
acquaintance until 1890. since which
time | have only been through the ter
ritory incidentally. When | knew the
territory there was not a free public
school, not a college or university. The
Catholic church had several schools
and during ten years that l knew 1t,
other churches did about as much, all
told. as the Catholics, until some 1000
children. largely of the English speak
ing Americans, were in some private
or church school. With this as a back
ground l could feel, as we'll as know,
what it meant to address the annual
meeting Of the teachers association,
representing more than 1000 public
school teachers, to whom more than
5000, 900 is annually paid from the ter
r%itoriai treasury in salaries, for teach.
ing more than $4,000 pupils.
Eleven years ago not a public school
Of any kind, and today public kinder.
g%artens in several cities, public manual
training schools, a normal school at
Silver City, a normal university at Las
Vegas. a school of mines at Socorro,
an agricultural college at Mesilla Park,
and a university at Albuquerque, with
a total enrolment of 1000 in the high
er institutions.
Ten years ago English was an un-
known tongue over most Of the area of
New Mexico. whereas today II is
taught the children of every county.
The annual meeting of the teachers
of New Mexico was held in the latest
established of the public institutions,
the Normal University of Las Vegas,
an institution that was merely a theory
or a hope five years ago, but today has
a beautiful and well appointed build.
ing and a faculty of experts. Despits
its youth it is n of the best normal
schools in the country, and in the nat
ural sciences, especially, l have never
seen 1t excelled. In ethnology and en-
tomology, it is not approached in the
whole country, and the art department
Is superior.
The one great departure which may
easily be described is that of the hal
museum. All the specimens, and they
are almost limitless, are in cases OF
either side Of all the hall ways. NJ
child can enter the building and pas!
to any room without walking between
two series of cases or shelves of speci
mems.
Naturally science plays an important
part in the educational work of New
Mexico, because the bird fauna is the
most varied of any state, its ethnologi
cal possibilities are equal to those o
all the rest of the United States com
bined, while its neurological and geo
logical opportunities are unusual.
The most interesting educator IL
New Mexico is Hiram Hadley. of tn,
Agricultural college at Mesilla Park
He is still in the full vigor of manhood
though he was a county superintend
ent in Indiana long before she had
normal school; he was one of the
group of five men who held the first
four weeks summer institutes, he was
in charge of the western educational
agency of Charles Scribner e. Co, be.
fore the Chicago fire, and he was the
author of Hadley's Latin Lessons, the
first book of the kind published. Six
teen years ago he retired, as he
thought, from educational activity,
and went to New Mexico to be with his
only son, and has been the most potent
single force in the establishment OF
the public schools and public institu.
ton of New Mexico.
DR.. c. NJ. Light, principal of the nor