The Montgomery advertiser., 1905-06-08
PRESIDENTS ADDRESS.
Mir. wfIIingham DweIls Upon Educa-
 tional Topics.


 President willingham, in making his annual address, said that there were two things that made it very pleasant to be Presidents One was that 1t gave him opportunity to display his facial beauty and gave him opportunity to choose his own subject in his annual address.
 In lis annual address. to the Ala bama Educational Association yester- day President H. J.. Willingnam ot Wetumpka spoke as follows:
 conferred upon me one year lgo have tried to wear with becoming inonesty Besides the great honor carried py your slectiSn cEtiSS,n,cational Gi Associato there are some special privileges Of ID mean value. One of them IS the 2ppo:tuni,,, ty of putting on better exnlnition any the inc occupant @ may have been endowed. ing his own choice of subjects when bsr%ss t9 espss prspafhs the faess nual address. But when the present occupant of the chair applied himself to that pleasant task he founa at nela a more important question kept prsss- | ing itself upon him-that of deciding not what he should discuss. but what, | for Jack of time, he would 3o com- pelled to leave out. and at one time felt strongly tempt to sxsdsn rsyHw F eauses o the aS SS ne ent schools in the State. It would in deed be delightful to make m excur- | sion of this kind among the schools tractive flowers and weaving them in. | to a crown befitting this assembly of men and charming women: But ma tuTs del6eratiGin leads ay me o o fss fsk Sref | time allotted me, to some other. phases of our school work not fraught per haps with such fragrance, but which, VI worthy tfS of our serious consideration. The High Schools.
 In the first place. submit, there SSE SSEp 9s tSs coeEes and thc hand, and the schools which prepare boys and girls for college on the oth- there must i come a line of demarcation between the work of the zeal high schools and. that of the elem entary thoughtful attention of Alabama edu. cators and of those especially charged with the duty of constructing a more University to the little school house oi a single room. Under our present sys' tenn almost any prospective student 4 ment just wherever he takes a .notior to go. If he wants to study algebra geometry, physics or astrdnomy many third grade. teachers extend to him . If he cannot read well nor show that he Is on speaking terms with the mul tiplication table yet will some of the The colleges insist that the unfortu. nate boy could not find suitable pre- paratory schools at home and there fore he just had to come without prep afQfi0n And these cOmTnOrA schools which attempt to do high school work even college work, excuse themselves by saying tsga thas asat the s0gS eoS wsped rat an to go elsewhere to do it. No doub some conditions justify both thes' claims, but are we doing our full dut, parent by urging upon them the high est interest of the student under sucf conditions? How often really, do VI school or a higher grade school thar the one with which we happen to b' conneeted? Many of. the countrl 1ow and oaed nfoFY hgS m has ssnG sna many of the colleges have highl lschoo attachments that but little ground fl left for the real high school to stanc for high schools. or is 1t not rathe one of the reasons why we have st few of them?
 It is cause for much congratalatio: that recent years have shown sucl wonderful advances in evolving a sys tenn of schools out of a former chaotic condition, and doubtless all 'NaS been accomplished in this direction that conditions would warrant but the fact remains that much iA yet to be lone.
 Courses of Study.
 Let me call your attention to mat ter which impresses me as tendency growing in the wrong direction; that of overcrowding our course of study.
 I may discuss this feature of ou school work because as much of tn criticism. if criticism Is in order, prob ably applies to me as to any one else Do not understand me to urge as use less any one of our many so-called fad which find a, place on our. present da! curricula; but. endorsing the sentimen of Whitelaw Reid expressed last year l do insist that a boy or girl shoult be taught to read until reading be comes accurate before he be allowed tt tory and the Development of En glisl Literature. And he ought to be abl to write an ordinary letter of good ap pearance with all the words correctl spelled before he undertakes to seel out the .etymological reasons for differ ent spellings of the same sound, or sim liar spellings of different sounds. Tn fact Is. when the State of Alabama ap propriates annually a million dollars o its revenue for the purpose of securin
 ship 1t has a right to expect that tn
 boys and girs who go to school sha learn, at least, how to read. write an spell and be able to use quickly anC
 accurately the four fundamental oper; tions in arithmetic. It is hardly nece, | that our educational system, for son | reason, shows a distressing weaknei | along these lines. Another fact whic
 at times, is painfully evident. is that Il l