The Montgomery advertiser. [volume] (Montgomery, Ala.) 1885-1982, 1909-07-02

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meets in Denver today, and in many
ways It will be the most interesting
convention the association has held.
Never before in the history OF edu-
cation on the North American conti-
nent has there been such "a Develop
'ment of educational ideas as In the
past 1--WE years, and the twelve months
now ending represent the climax OF
that movement The head and the
heart and the hand are all being ed
| ucated in unison today. The storing
of knowledge in the mind Of the child
has become a by-product OF the high
err ideal of training all his faculties
to increase his usefulness to himself
and his fellowman.
The hauling Of children 70 school
in the country districts has passed the
experimental stage, and is now regard
| ed as Offering a solution to the coun-
try school problem. In years past a
graded school was possible only In
| thickly settled rural communities. be-
cause enough pupils could not be got
together within a reasonable radius
OF the school to fill It.. Under the
new method IL does not matter IL
J schools are as~much as four or hve
miles apart By consolidating schools
and employing farmers teams to haul
! the children to and from them, II has
advantages even in the more thinly
! populated rural districts. In many
States the little red school house on
the hill, that has long furnished
phrase for the stump speakers, is now
being torn down and hauled away to
form part of modern graded school.
Manual and vocational training are
still holding their place with the ed
ucators of the day. Statistics show
that fewer young men who have had
the benefit of manual and vocational
training go to prison than those who
have not. This is taken by educators
as being one of the best arguments
in favor of teaching children practical
Instead of theoretical things. Also
the statistics so far gathered indicate
that the earning powers of the voca-
| tionally trained young man are supe-
rior to the boy with a classical train
| ing. There are hundreds of college,
bred men to be found in the bread
| lines and other charitable places in
New York. but the vocationally train
ed are conspicuous by their absence.
| Germany Is now leading the world
\ in the matter of Industrial and voca-
tional training. The secret of her
success In meeting the competition of
Great Britain and the United States
| Is to be found in her system of train
ing the hands of her young people.
Great Britain, to whose existence a
large foreign trade is as essential as
| the air its people breathe has sent
commissions to Germany to study her
schools, and their methods are being
adopted in England even more rapidly
than in the United States. il
| There is just now sort of revolution
against the study OF classics in the
| schools of the country. An associa-
| ton for the promotion of classical stur
| dies has been formed for meeting this
revolution, but 1t is fighting against
strong odds. One of its members re-
Gently sent out hundred letters to
scientific men in various parts of the
United States asking their opinion as
to the Importance of studying Greek
and Latin. Thirty-ive answered, and
of the thirty FIVE, seventeen expressed
the opinion that Greek and Latin are
not essential, while only fourteen de-
clared themselves favorable to the in
clusion of those languages as neces-
sary parts of scientific course. Even
the Universities of oxford and Cam
bridge are Inclined to break away
from Greek and Latin
This same spirit finds echo in the
common schools James B. Forgan.
President of the First National Bank
of Chicago, said recently that he had
trouble to find young men who could
write a good business letter. He
opined that more attention paid to the
three RS and less to what he regards
as the frills, would result in young
men better fitted for the duties of life.
| His theory seems to be that at best
| the average boy can get only a smat-
tering of these frills. hence the extra
! time devoted to the three RS Is spent
to much better purpose. Another
prominent business man of Chicago
expresses the same view. He says
that In employing hundreds of young
men he has found that. the boy who
| halls from the country school where
the three RS constitute the cnrricu
lum is better fitted for business than
the city bred boy who has dipped into
more than O dozen different subjects.
Feeding school children is another
new departure in the United States
1t Is held by the teaching profession
that a half-starved stomach cannot
keep company with a well-nurtured
brain, and that there are thousands of
| children who are backward just be-
! cause they are deficiently nurtured
The time has not arrived when the
whole school will be fed. but in many
cities the poor children are provided
| with something to eat. The expert
ment was first tried in Boston. and
with, marked success. r.
A school for mothers is the latest
| departure in educational work A
| philanthropic gentleman, George II. r.
Schrader, has founded such a school in
New York, TO be known as the Caro-
line Rest Poverty stricken mothers
with wee infants are taken there and
cared for. With the .pi..siI Of poverty