Wausau pilot. [volume] (Wausau, Wis.) 1896-1940, 1905-01-03
TRAINING SCHOOL NOTES.

School opened this morning after
but one weeks vacation. MIR. Wills
attended the teachers convention at
Milwaukee and Miss Bohrer the
Minnesota convention held in st. Paul.
The keynote of the general trend If
thought at the Minnesota State
Teachers association was sounded nv
DIR. Henderson of Chicago university
In a splendid address given on Thurs
day morning. The main features of
that address related to elective courses
IN the high schools, to the game of foot
ball, to the fads in the grades and
finally to the subject of practical edu-
cation. He claimed that the high
school pur.i of today had spread over
everything and was innocently ignorant
OF almost everything that is really i'm
portant. He endorsed general athletics
such as tended toward the better
physical and moral development of all
students but denounced the gridiron
game strongly in that it developed only
a few and was tending toward corrup-
ton in very great degree. 1t is win
at all hazards no matter what the
sacrifice. In this thought he was
strongly upheld by prominent business
men, who had been selected from vari-
GUS parts of the state to present their
impressions of the present educational
situation.
DR.. Henderson upheld strongly good
practical work in manual training
because OF its power to develop the
inner life to expand the soul. Through,
out his entire address he emphasized
the thought of soul expansion as the
prominent thing after all to be sought
in all teaching. His last thought con-
corning practical education enabled
him to dwell more largely upon the
development of the spiritual man than
any other. While he believed that
education to certain extent should be
practical, he held that clerking, rail
reading, and pork packing were not
ends in themselves-far from it-but
only means whereby the soul could
have its opportunity. This thought he
emphasized and illustrated again and
again.
Principal Webster, of the east side
nigh school of Minneapolis, echoed the
thcaght of DR.. Henderson on Friday by
making a plea for the incubation of
truth, honor, obedience and right con-
duct in the minds of scholars. He
supported his arguments by using
instances of the football players in
Michigan, Wisconsin and Minnesota
w1o were not qualified players on
account of superior training Trickery
and deceit, he claimed, had taken the
place of honesty and frankness.
Prof. Smith, of Daiuth, and Hon. j. L.
Washburn, besides many other promi-
nent rlen and women from all parts OF
the state of Minnesota, voiced the
thought presented SO ably by DIR.
Henderson, in papers which had been
prepared long before he spoke
The Minnesota association went upon
record as in favor of working strenu-
ously against those things which de-
bauch the virtues of the young whether
it be football or the present mathemat-
ical publications. They passed resolu-
tons strongly favoring the retention OF
those branches, classical and scientific,
which had proven themselves of benefit
in the development of the best and
highest moral citizen whether practical
or not.
The business men agreed heartily
with the association in regard to the
grdiron game though they differed
somewhat in regard to practical infor-
nation