The Paducah evening sun. [volume] (Paducah, Ky.) 1906-1929, 1909-06-22
THE VULCAN suPPLEMENT.

One of the most interesting fea-
lures of the recent meeting of the
international Kindergarten Union in
Buffalo was the vigorous discussion
of the demorafizing influence of the
so-called comic supplement, the evils
of which The Outlook pointed out
several months ago. The principal
address was made by Mr.. Percival
Chubb, a teacher and writer OF au-
thority on educational subjects, in
which he said he would exclude any
comic supplement from the house on
the ground that these supplements
are calculated to produce a kind OF
inanity in the young After exam
lining a number of these sheets on
recent Sunday. Mr. Chubb said: I'll
found the same old glorification of
the smart Kid the 'smarty," the up
to-snun' type of children; the worst
American type Of the forward child. |
Furthermore, found again the child
who is obsessed by the idea of prac-
tical joking, who begins to rough
house in the nursery and haze in
the kindergarten. "And / found no
of that distressing vul-
garity which seems to be growing
upon us in our great cities. Vul-
garity- a Haunting commences of
to be product of the
great city. II is quite a different
thing from coarseness, a rustic crude
nccc That 4. folarakfa .o,.ott~.ool
picturesque. l attribute the inroads
Of this vulgarity to the decline of
reverence, the lack OF any awed con-
verse with great things. an insensi-
tiveness to what is fine, distinguished, /.
holy. II is what | have to cope with
in the young city people, in high
school and college, in attempting to
quicken their deeper admiration for
great literature; commences oil,
mind. a cheap fiippancy, a lack of
refined humility; OF reverence, in
short. II is vulgarity at its worst
that thrusts its impertinent tongue
at US in, the comic supplements, in
crude violence of color, in grotesque
distortions of the human countenancel
and figure (grotesque very different
in spirit from those sportive gar
goyles OF medieval architecture) in
the earicatures of elders-aunts and
nncles, grandmothers and grandfath-
ers, aye mothers and fathers, who
are transformed TO clowns in order
hat pert youngsters may have their
little jokes. Yes, a joke will excuse
Utmost anything nowadays. -. The
Of the Boston Herald shows I
hat better counsels are beginning to
'reyail among us. They will prevail
urther. and quickly. too, If we lift I
'ur united voices against these viol- q
noes of a newspaper world which I
eeks to win favor by getting on the
ierves OF highly nervous, not to say (
eurotlc, public. We must lift them
- in the interests OF childhood.
lore and more the function of the
chool aud the teacher becomes that
I providing a protective environ
lent In which for a few hours every
ay the child shall be surrounded
nth influences of health and quiet, 4
( order and simple beauty. The
rhool has to save the child from the
and unioyely world outside.
hat is a deplorably negative func-
on. We cannot rest there. We 1
lust transform the environment. We
lust insist that there shall be moth
lg in 1t to affront the soul of the
hid, to corrupt its mind OF soil its
cart. We must begin with ourselves
working for a clean press, and
bove all. dignified Sunday press 9
he Outlook. n