The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1909-11-30
DOUGHERTY TALKS
TO MISSOURI VALLEY
TEACHERS ASSOCIATION
1910 MEETING In Topeka

1
1910 MEETING In TOPEKA
| The Missouri Valley Commercial
i Teachers association closed it's two
days session at St. Joseph Saturday
| afternoon by choosing Topeka for Its
| meeting place next November. This
was the largest convention of CONNER
| cial teachers ever held in the west
! The Topeka delegates present were
Mr.. Geo. E. Dougherty, Miss May NC
| Nown, and Miss Emily Altman, OF
| Dougherty's Business College. Mr.
executive committee. which will have
charge of the arrangements for next
1 years meeting. His address on the
subject why Not Be Honest" was
vigorous and straight from the Shout
der, and his suggestions made hit
with the audience. He spoke in part as
| follows:
| When I opened my school it was with
some well defined notions and plans
| which I had developed from my Gwn
| office experience with the help of cr..l
| cisms Of business colleges made by
| business men, and therefore made my
| school a real business office, doing
/ actual work for business men, as in
their own offices, and training students
| by means of this actual work.
| Certainly the commercial teacher Is
not doing his whole duty by his stud
! ents unless he does what he can to help
| them develope character.
Our duty as commercial teachers,
| training young people for business is to
| turn out honest young men and women.
| To do this we must teach honesty, both
| by precept and example. It is our duty
also Cat any rate our privilege) to do
some teaching of honesty to business
| men-employers-as well as our stud :
| ents.
In an address to our school last
week, Justice Clark A. Smith of the
Kansas Supreme Court, characterized
Stenography a business business, and
his estimate of its Importance is shown
| by his declaration to our students that
/ while they could not in six or eight
months get what they would in four
years in college, yet the kind Of train
Ing that they are getting here in that
| time has done more for the business
| world than have all the colleges
We are in the business of training
young people for business, and we have
more to do with their success than has
any other teacher-doubtless more than
any other person.
We will hold up a high standard
for our students and help them in
every way we can to attain that stan
dard- We will be honest enough with
them to protect their interests at ev-
cry step, in every way, even after they
leave us-even to the selection of
their employers even to the ed
ucat1on of their employers, if need
be- Our chief aim should be to help
these young people make the most of
| themselves.
The very things which count for
most in the attainment of success
those things for which the employer
asks hrst-are not named in the list
OF studies. But they must be taught
II we are honest with our students,
and if we are honest, we will try to
make this plain to our students before
they enroll. We must teach them to
be honest, help them form right hab-
its-habits of loyalty, industry, neat
ness, concentration, thoroughness in
| tegrity of character, systematic bust
ness-like habits, help them develop
common sense and business acumen.
Hold them to the work till thew are
thoroughly qualified. Let us be hon
est enough not to be engaged in the
business merely for the money there
may be in it. Let US realize ourselves
what this training should mean to
those whom we have in our care, and
then let us be honest enough to do
our best to get them to realize it also.
have noted advertisements of
schools unqualifiedly guaranteeing
SO far as to guarantee $50 and even
800 positions in three months to
prospective students whom they had
never even SEEN
| 1 dropped into a business school
once and noted how the students.
writing on the typewriter, were pick
ing out the letters with one or two fin
gers on each handwriting by sight
if ever any one did. ST see you do not
teach touch typewriting," said l. "Of
course do" was the indignant reply
Il have been teaching it for twenty
eight years. And he was advertising
touch writing as feature of his
SCHOOL,,
A we'll known business college has
an arrangement with certain small
business men to take it's product at
two to four dollars a week, the un-
derstanding being that the employer
need keep such students only short
time, this merely to fulfill the Schools
guarantee of positions. Such students
stranded in our city, have come to me
for help in securing employment and
when I have asked what their own
school was doing for them they said
| they couldn't expect any further help
from that source when they were so
far away. 1t
It is as dishonest to the student as
| to the employer to recommend him for
more than he can do. and it seems to
me it is decidedly a shortsighted pol
icy, from the standpoint of the school,
| to do So
It is certainly dishonest to encourage
the learner to expect to become a good
stenographer in two or three months,
as some schools do. Why not be honest
with him. explain to him what it means
to be a good stenographer and show
him why he ought to count on plenty of
time?
Why not be honest with a prospec-
tive student urge upon him thorough
preparation regardless of time,-tel
him that he should come to us with the
intention of staying with the study not
simply a certain predetermined num-
Der of months. but until he is thorough
~ ready for work? Emphasize the fact
that it is a matter of knowing and
ability to do that will count and not