The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1905-07-05
MCCLELLAN TO EDUCATORS.
HE IS ENTHUSIASTICALLY RE.
OEiVED AT ASBURY PARK.
He Advocates tho Three Rs-Many Honor
Men OF National Academies Come From
Crossroads hoOlhOuse-ThouGhts by
the Mayor on the Spirit Of Unrest.


the Mayor on the Spirit Of Unrest.
AsBuRr PARK, n. j.. July t.-Mayor
George B. Mcclellan OF New York ad-
dressed the National Educational Conven-
ton In the Ocean Grove Auditorium this
afternoon. The Mayor was introduced
by President Maxwell, superintendent OF
the New York schools. The Mayor was
greetedby loud handclapping froml0 900 per-
sons and q very pretty Chauta uqua salute
from the schoolteachers, who seemed to
be inspired by the power Of the Mayor g
metaphors. The Mayor spoke under a
bank Of flags, after the big chorus had
stirred the patriotism Of the multitude.
He said:
Speech Of Mayor Mcclellan.
1t may be that am old fashioned. 1t
may be that my theories are obsolete, but
that believe that schools exist for man.
and not man for schools, There Is no more
misused, misappned and misunderstood
word IN the Fngl ish language than educa :
ton. To teach Is one thing, to educate Is
whistle Hail Columbia" or a parrot. to
sing the Star Spangled Banner but In
neither case will your efforts have resulted
in producing useful American citizen
Teaching, so far as it goes, is most ad :.
mirable, but the teaching Of children that
does not educate can scarcely justify any
expenditure Of public moneys. What cur
scheme Of government requires Is that DIR
children be educated. They must be
taught, Of course, as condition precedent
to the education. but the teaching Is only
means to an end and Is by no means an
end In Itself
what the standards Of education shall
be depends very much on circumstances.
Everything in this world is progressive;
nothing stands still. AS we travel upon
and we'll paved road ahead may not cause
US altog ether to forget the beauty Of the
scenery left behind Our economic and
industrial development has been 30 ex-
traordipary during the last half century
that the inevitable tendency has been in
the beautiful. However desirable It may
be to increase the total OF the earth's pro-
ductivity, the most incorporating econo-
mist must sometimes sigh for the economi-
cally incorrect charm of his native country
side. Factory chimneys may increase the
wealth Of nations, but green valleys and
wild flowers, even pretty weeds, add more
to their peoples happiness. In the race
for wealth, In which for years we have
been engaged our educators. recognizing
have tried to bring to market only salable
goods. When fond parents have preferred
that colleges should turn out money making
machines rather than educated men, col
leges have met the demand, and we'll chosen
elective courses have graduated hard
, struggle for life. Time being literally
money, every day saved In preparation
for the contest has been considered OF
advantage. bachelor Of arts degree in
many cases means that its recipient Is
a specialist in some one narrow line Of
money making, and not that he Is the pos
SCISSOR Of a liberal education.
The craze to turn out complete money
! ma king machines is not confined to our
colleges; it has even entered the field OF public
child can afford to spend at school is nee
essarily all too short so short, in fact, that
very little grou nd can be covered thoroughly.
Public education cannot hope to make
specialists. 1t can only hope to prepare
children to in time become specialists.
tions change, 30 the requirements needed
to meet modern conditions change. The
three Rs Of Yesterday may not necessarily
be the three Rs Of to-day. But there are
one must know, and know well, II success
in after life is to be hoped for. The Sc
fundamentals are the same all over the
world However much opinions may
differ as to what should constitute liberal
or fundamental educa ton, there should
should form the groundwork. You Have
a great opportunity here in this conven-
ton, you who make education your life
work, to agree upon what these funda-
mentals should be, and then by educating
public sentiment, to cause their adoption
States.
Il. do not believe that any one can he
over-educated. But, pardon me. II again
confess to being old fashioned. do not
believe that any one can be educated who
has not at least a smattering OF the three
Rs 1t may possibly serve some mysteri-
ously useful purpose to teach welve year
old boys. who cannot read even the simplest
English to sew buttons on shirts, or to drill
girls OF the same age, to whom the rule or
the practise, of music and cooking. for
both are often bracketed together in our
school currcula. But the ignorant outsider
who is excluded from the Parnassus Of
educational circles may he permitted to
wonder at the wherefore of it all. 1t Is
anything but fattering to our standards
of local administrator that the products
Of our great urban public schools seldom
succeed at either West Point or Annapolis
Run through list of the honor men at both
academies. and while you will often find
among them the products of private insti.
tutions, you will find that the vast majority
come from the little cross road country
schoolhouse, whose simple minded teacher
God bless her!- has had no other working
capital at her command than a fair knowl-
edge 81 the three Rs. which she has con-
scientiously impaired to her pupils,
There is nothing either disgraceful or
undignified about the three Rs. Many
eminent and good men and women have
been able to read, write and reckon fairly
we'll There is nothing disgraceful or UNI
dignifed in teaching them. And yet how
little are they taught!
Il trust that you will not imagine that |
am playing devils advocate at the canoni-
zation of what in so-called educational
circles are known as educational utilities.
Many of them are really most useful, II
properly and thoroughly Taught. But the
tendency which exists to exploit the teacher
at the expense of the taught inevitably
results in giving the pupil the merest smat-
tering of inn,lmerable sub ects in puzzling
his poor little brain without developing
it. in confusing him with the higher
branches Of learning when he can scarcely
read and write, in making him a little jack
of all trades and master Of none. Educate
all you like and as much as you like-the
more the better-but in doing so remember
that there can be no education that is not
built up on a solid foundation. the thorough
mastery of first principles.
The chief purpose, for that matter
the only purpose OF public education
for it is with public education only that