Charlevoix county herald. (East Jordan, Mich.) 189?-1953, 1908-04-25
The Teachers Institute.

decidedly the hest meeting OF the
kind that has been held in Ckarlevoix
County.
The meeting was called to order by
Supt. Fuller, Pres. Of the association,
with nearly 100 teachers present.
Miss Jessie M. Hines, Prin. of the
Normal Training School, read very
we'll prepared paper on What the
Grades Should do for the Student in
E1sish."
get away from the old staid ideas Of
technical grammar and stick more
closely to the development of pure
English by having the pupils write
ABOUT things with which they are &C
quainted is certainly good one and
one that every teacher should aim to
use. IL certainly Is fact that manv
teachers fail in teaching English be-
cause they do or try to do too much
technical work,
The concensus Of opinion among the
more successful teachers seemed to be
that very little technical grammar
should be attempted until the sixth
or seventh grade is reached.
Many valuable suggestions, both as
to methods and material for the de-
velopment of English in the grades
were given In the paper and ia the
discussion which followed.
Following this the subject, "High
SchfSl English" was taken up by
Miss Vida Collins, Prin. of the East
Jordan High School.
Miss Collins paper was full OF good
suggestions and the discussion which
followed showed very plainly that we
have teachers ia our schools who are
alive TO the importance of this branch
and that they are after the best
method Of presentation.
Supt, WOodley then appeared on the
platform with a handful of questions
which had been asked by the teachers.
The questions were pointed and pro-
vOkei considerable discussion.
DR.. Vincent entered the room at
AIS and Immediately made his way to
the platform. He took for his subject
''The New Duty Of the School,"
He spoke OF the changes in the
home liTe OF the pupils, of shop made
homes rather than home ma lie homes,
ETC., showing conclusively that the
new home conditions does place very
important New Duty in the hands of
the school. Or. Vincent spoke for an
hour and it is seldom that one will
have the privilege OF hearing so many
good things in so short time.
For the evening entertainment, DR..
Vincent gave his lecture 1.-The Mind
of the Mob" The house was crowded
and the almost constant applause of
the audience showed very plainly that
the lecture was appreciated.
On Saturday morning, DR.. Vincent
took for his subject, "Social Geog-
raphY." He spoke Of the chan ges
which condensing of population will
inevitably bring and offered many val
liable suggestions as to how these
changed conditions may be met.
Com. Babcock OF Emmett county
took for his subject. "Some Rural
School Problems. We all know that
the rural school presents many pro-
blems to the teacher and those who
listened to Com. Babcock we're coD-
vRnced that he had solutions for some
of them.
Supt. L. A. BItler of Central Lake
took for his subject, "Is the Course
Overcrowded." Prin. j. e. Marshal
OF Petoskey and Supt. II. e. Bell of
Boyne led the discussion. In the
mind of The writer. this is one Of the
most important subjects that the ru-
raj teacher meets with. With so
many grades to handle and SO many
subjects to teach, truly the rnral
teacher has bHsy time.
1t seemed to be the opinion of the
gentlemen who discussed the subject,
however, that the course does not
really contain much that ought not to
be there and in fact that there are
other things that might profitably be
added They bring out the fact how
eer, that many parts of some OF the
subjects now taught may be safely
aud proHtably eliminated. No hint
was given that any branch should be
dropped from the course but teachers
we're shown very plainly that they
could drop from their daily work
many impractical parts which now
take up valuable time and are In
reality of no use and that this time
could be used In developing the por-
tions Of the subjects that were practi-