Ellsworth American. [volume] (Ellsworth, Me.) 1855-current, 1906-12-05

mark. The teacher who boarded around
not only had an opportunity TO test vary
ing qualities OF cooking, he had if be
was of the right sort of stuff, an oppor-
tunity to cement the bond between school
and home which the modern teacher does
not know. The schcolhouse with its
lyceum, and its prayer meeting, its sing
ing school and its social festivity was
local meeting place, clubhouse, if you
will, for the entire community. And
thus the schoolhouse filled place in the
neighborhood where it stood which
blessed 1T and increased the power of its
influence.
OF our modern school / need draw no
picture; it is before US and we may inspect
it daily. OF it we may say only this,
that it is housed in building as superior
to the old-ti school as the modern home
is superior to the settlers cabin. Well
supplied with equipment and presided over
by teachers who are conscientiously striv-
ing to give out of their lives help and in
spiration to the boys and girls entrusted
to them.
But l suppose we all have our ideal
school, and this is mine. The school of
no visionary far off time but of near and
immediate future. And this ideal school
of mine, Of course, will be Maine school.
1t will be housed in comfortable, COM
modious, comedy building, this building
will be surrounded with well-kept
grounds and it will be furnished with
every equipment for the training of hand
and brain. The boys and girls who will
attend it will be from the homes of the
common people, and they will not be per-
feet boys and girls, they will be just Maine
boys and girls.
The people of the community where this
school will stand will be devoted TO it.
They will have part in it's work, and
they will visit it often.
The teacher of this school will know
four things, he will know how to deal
with people, how to live, how to teach
and he will know how to lead. This
school will not be altogether the building,
nor altogether the people, nor altogether
the children, nor altogether the teacher. it
will be a combination of them all and it
shall have its place and unless each shall
play its part.
The school will embody the principle
that youth is of all times the age of OF
portunity and it shall swing wide its
doors to give every boy and every girl a
chance. 1t is to be not only the day nur-
sery to which the mother may consign her
60. L.
and the fathers faithful ally in promoting
for their boys and their girls lives of
strength and usefulness.
Upon three great institutions our hopes
are staked. Two of these are the school
and the home. The interests OF these are
one. They are the great factors which
must unite to make childhood happy,
youth self-reliant and progressive and
manhood and womanhood secure.
There may be those who hear in the
martial tread of great armies an echo of
our national power and glory; there may
be those who will tell you that when the
fleets of great American navy shall
whiten every sea there shall be the fulfil
ment of the most glowing prophecies of
our future; there may be those who see
our fairest evidence of national aggrand-
izement in the extensions of our domin-
ions in far-off lands.
There may be those who find highest
evidence of American well-bciDg in our
matchless natural resources, our vast for
ests, our boundless rolling plains, our
majestic rivers, our exhaustless mines of
precious and useful ore, and there may be
those who behold it in the rapid extension
of great industries and in the wealth of
cities, but may say to you that while
have all the pride an American may feel
in all these things, to none of them would
point as an evidence and promise of the
real future that is to be. Rather would
say shall we find the future promise of
our real national power and greatness in
the 5000, 900 American youth, who, under
the roof of the American school, beneath
the folds of the American flag, at the feet
of the American teachers are learning the
lessons which are to go with them through
all the days of their lives. And too, do |
find it in the American home whether
rich or poor, humble or exalted, that
home which must be the fountain head of
the finest and best virtues known to man.
And, my friends, the hands of these two
great institutions 1 would join, the ener-
gies of each to the other would / pledge,
their sympathy and their cooperation