The Salt Lake tribune. [volume] (Salt Lake City, Utah) 1890-current, 1909-07-04
PLACES BLAME ON
HOMES AND SOCIETY
Noted Educator Points Out In
huences Which Make Teach
ers' Lives a Burden.
INTERESTING DISCUSSION
OF DELINQUENCY PROBLEM
Twenty Thousand Teachers Are
Gathered in Denver for n. Z.
A. Annual Meeting.

DENVER, July 3.-Asserting that
American homes and society are re-
sponsibe for the influences that make
the teachers life a burden and in the
end result in the influences which cor
rupt the morals and pave the way for
a criminal career in children. !. c.
Mcneil, superintendent of schools of
Memphis, Tenn, created mild sensa
tion before the National Council Of
Education today. The meeting of the
council is the only gathering prelim-
mary to the sessions of the National
Educational association, which begin
Monday evening.
The principal subject before the
council during the day was the care
of delinquents, tactfully referred TO as
exceptional children" This subject,
together with the report of the com
mittee on moral training, culture, ele-
ment and economy of time i'll teaching,
industrial teaching, cooperation with
other countries, and educational prog
ress, took the time of the inner circle
of the \. f. a. for the day.
The Introductory statement In the
discussion of delinquents was made by
James n. Van Sickle, superintendent of
schools of Baltimore, Nd. and he was
followed by Mr. McNeill, who. with
out hesitation, gave what he believed
to be the ineipient cause of delin-
quency In children.
Cause Of Delinquency.
"Some teaching is so unscienti6c
and consequently so spiritless that it
would make most any child deIn-
quent,'' said Mr.. Mcneil. "Parents
and teachers often make delinquents
of children by failing to observe the
fundamental things and processes Incl
dent to growth and Development said
the speaker. permanent aversion to
school is the legitimate result of put
ting children at work on studies they
are not mature enough TO compre-
hend' -
The speaker condemned the attempt
to put high school branches into gram
mar grades or intermediate studies into
primary grades, and said that educa
| tion agencies must look continuously
to the care of the physical and emo
tional. as well as to the intellectual
side of education.
Elements That Corrupt,
"Soclcty suffers from elements which
are unstable, cratic, shiftless and in
efficient, These elements corrupt
morals lead to irrational modes of liv
ing. and swell the hosts of the helpless
and criminal. who become the real
burdens of society, Unless delinquent
classes have the benefits Of the kind
of education which is adapted to their
peculiar needs, they grow up among
us and recruit the army Of people who
never fit anywhere, They fill the poor
houses. the prisons, the asylums and the
slums. They produce and reproduce
their kind and bring about feeling of
social unrest, which is growing in this
! complex age.
ga failure on the part of the home
to exercise even and forceful discipline
is a moral sin which has put the curse
of Cam and the stamp of Satan upon
many promising boy or girl.
When we realize the baneful work
ing of uneven discipline growing out
of weak-willed, inefficient parental gov
erument we stand in the presence of
great problem, How can we impress
fathers and mothers and teachers with
the idea that weak and vacillating gov
ernmcnt of children blasts their lives
and makes them candidates for the
ranks Of the ignoblc?'
Regarded as Civic Problem.
Miss Olive Jones was of the opin-
ion that the care Of dclinquents is a
civic duty rather than school prob
lem. F.. c. Bruner Of the Chicago
schools urged physical training in good
ly proportions as an aid TO mental
training for the exceptional child. -
Miss Alma l.. Binzel Of the Church
normal school of Provo, Utah, thought
that to begin in the home with the
training Of the children will bring the
best results.
Carroll G. Pears, superintendent of
schools of Milwaukee. spoke on manual
training and care of the deaf in the
public schools of the Wisconsin city.
Joseph w. Hccrmans of Kansas City
was one OF the principal speakers on
the subject Of FThc Culture Element
and Economy of Time in Education.'
Wales G. Mnrtindalc, Detroit, Mich;
William NJ. Davidson of Omaha, and
George Il. Cook of Little R:ck. Ark.
also were speakers, John w, Co1k of
DeKalb, H., read the report of the
committee on educational progress.
"'Hiawatha" Dramatized.
Tonight there was IN unusual fea.
ture provided for the visiting teach
ers E'Hawatha . dramatizcd was pro-
duced at the Denver Auditorium. under
school Every part in the play was
enacted by full-blood Indians, forty
tive in number, The hinge building was
filed 20 ovcrlowing.
Tomorrow viii be n day Of rest for
the nearly 10000 teachers who are in
Denver to attend the sessions of the |
assocJation. and thousands viii visit |
the mountains and usual tourist haunts !
during the day, The first work of the |
association viii he taken up Monday
evening, when u general session will be |
held in the Auditorium. The depart
ments have been disposed in various |
public buildings over the city,
Tapnoocaa Uditor n,o,