The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1905-12-27

selves or the notion OF the physical
in government. Love shall answer.
Seventy per cent. of the people in
Russia are ignorant. They are domi-
mated over by the physical in govern
ment- Are they ruled by love2 No,
By character MOI Put intelligence
back of the Russian people and Japan
would not today be victorious on land
and sea.
Teachers with these exalted ideas
of your Importance to our state, our
homes and our government I think it
especially fitting that state officer
should bid you welcome. I do it from
the fullness of my heart. The city is
yours. I wish also to invite you to
the executive mansion, our home, to-
night, tomorrow or any old time at
which you would like to come
W. s. Heusner superintendent of
schools al Junction City, made the re-
Spouse to Governor Hoch's address Of
welcome He spoke particularly
along the line of the value to the boy
and girl from good. conscientious
teaching. Let US dedicate ourselves
anew to the cause" he said, that the
new generation may grow in stature
and in capacity Sir Cunning to Gov
ernor HOch), in your strenuous task
to better civic conditions, to make
righteous our government, we bid you
Godspeed.''
President Butchers Address.
THOMAS w Butcher, of Wellington,
president OF the association, then de-
livered the presidents address. THE
trouble with most speeches is that they
are too long," he said in starting out.
They haven't good terminal facilities.
BUT I'm only going to talk to you
fifteen minutes And Mr.. Butcher
stuck to his word
He said in part: Two vears. ago I
visited the foreign quarter of one of
our great Atlantic cities. AS I walked
down the streets where italian flags
were floating from every door my eyes
suddenly fell upon glorious sight-an
American flag floating from the top of
building wedged in among the bust
ness houses of the district. A police
station thought l, or an armOry, but
on entering who should greet me but
an American schoolma am. There she
was among thirty or forty little Rus
sian Jews and Italians, many of whom
could not speak word of English.
What do you do with them? I asked.
We'll" said she, Eve give them
bath, teach them to speak the Ian
guage, sing our songs and the rest is
easy" A week later I was at Fortress
Monroe. It was evening and the sun
was setting behind the hills of old
Virginia. The hour had come to lower
the flag. Presently a cannon doomed
out across Hampton roads and officers
and men stood with uncovered heads
while the flag was lowered. It was an
impressive sight and I thought how
llAAROI ldlAl that we SDEIQ IllillOnS OH
our army and navy, for an enemy
might come sailing over the sea and
cause that flag to be lowered forever.
But if the nation is ever destroyed it
Will be from forces within, not from
without; and for real defense of the
flag I would rather have that little
schoolma am in the italian quarter of
Boston than the best ship in Uncle
Sans navy or a regiment of picked
soldiers. The ship may rot and the sol
enemy, but the grade teacher is on the
firing line every day.
But we must give the grade teacher
fewer pupils; twenty-five should be
made the maximum. She must be re-
lieVed of One-half or three-fOurths of
the work she does out of school on
senseless, red tape records which had
their origin in the late unlanlented
craze-child study. Show me a super
intendent whose teachers take their
record books home night after night
to work upon them and I will show
you a man who is robbing the children
of his town of vitality which the teach
er ought to give them. We must give
the grade teacher more salary and re-
Quire more preparation. The time will
come when the girl who graduates
from the high school this year can not
secure a position in the grades next
year, nor indeed until she has COM
pleted a college course designed to
U Y
! spot in our educational system is the
common school. Our educational
structure is top heavy. The American
| people are putting their millions into a
! their paltry tax gatherings into the
! common school. We must maintain
the college, but we must strengthen it
/ by laying its foundation broader and
| deeper.
Movement Toward Practical.
l T211f have said here is a m en- on
toward the practical in education. We
| need to have this practical idea in
mind one step farther down-in the
grades. We need also to recognize,
\ even in the grades. but more espe-
cialIy in high school and college, that
much of the course for girls should be
/ different from that given the boys.
] Not inferior. but different, because the
average girl is to occupy a different
/ sphere from her brother. The future
/ housekeepers of this country need to
/ be taught how to keep house; how to
/ keep the doctor away; what to cook
4 and how to cook it-how to help solve
the general question of bread and but
/ ter Many get this at home; many
even in American homes do not.
What a boy studies is not so inn
I portant as that he studies. is a safe
maxim within given group of
subjects, but if the knowledge or skill
| is to be sold on the market to buy
bread and butter (and that is what a
/ large percentage of the products OF
the public school must do with it,
then the school ought to furnish a
kind of knowledge that will sell. The
kind of schools and courses have
! just mentioned are doing this very
thing. Courses in banking, insurance,
railroading, riculture-business in
! its higher relations indicate the trend
of educational thought. These are
not displacing the strictly literary
course, but are properly placed along
side of it; we are not drifting, educa-
tionally, into materialism-com
cialism=but we are recognizing that a
student may have a place in the school
even though he does not intend to en-
ter teaching. medicine, law. or the
ministry fact which the last cen
tury came near ignoring. Now, I shall
not weary you with a discussion of
/ the henafits and POSSIBILITIES of the