Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1909-10-28
SIX CONFEREN CES.
Various Branches OF SCHOOL Work
Discussed simultaneously.

The afternoon session OF the convcn-
ton was held at the high school build
Ing and consisted of six conferences,
held simultaneously. Tho conferences
continued from go to $50 D. m. and
were upon the following subjects; Eng
fish, modern languages, dr0 wing and
manual training, geography reading
ard language III ii rural schools
THE ENGLISH CONFERENCE.
Principal F, +. Smith of Rrattchoro
was the chairman of the EaElish con-
ference. Mr.. Smith spoke upon secondary
school English. what il IS and what It
ought to be from the viewpoint both
Of the school and the college. He adj
vocated debate as one Of the means of
training in English and said that the
mere drudgery Of such training should
be avoided. Tie aim of the study is not
only to fit the pupil for college but for
life and IT should, therefore. include as
wide course in reading as possible.
It was impossible for Principal Geo.
b. Lawson of Vermont Academy to no
present and Professor Taylor of ~
same school took his place. His r>marhf
! were along the same lines rs thoso OF
Mr.. Smith.
Prof. c. 3. Wright of Middleburv who
was scheduled to speak on TIE Pre-
paration in English that Mddlcbury EX-
poets and the Preparation THAT She
Gets" was also absent and Assistant
Professor Cady Of the same department
took his place.
Professor Cady said that the powc. Of
clear and accurate expression was one
of the prime essentials Of E,nEls h train
Ing but that It was more often than
not lacking in the entering student. Ho
said that the theories of Paragraph
structure were beautiful to listen 10 but
that in actual practice they took too
much time He said that clear thinking
usually meant that clear writing would
follow.
DR.. J. w. Rankin Of tie University
| of Vermont was the last speaker and
his subject was "The Ideal Preparation
| in English" He said that he had been
here but short time and came To the
subject with the viewpoint Of stranger.
He said that sad experience had clipped
| the wings of the soaring theories which
he held in the past. Many Of tho stu
dents who enter college are too iuiteratc
| to enjoy good books.
| MODERN LANGUAGES
Principal Merritt u. Chittendcn Of tn,
| burlington high school led the conference,
| Of modern languages. He SAID that ther,
is bitter struggle between the classl
idea and the modern Idea I'm sccondar,
teaching. The classic idea holds to tn,
old curriculum of Greek and Latin Will
the modern idea would break away from
this and substitute French and German
as more directly useful.
Miss Lucy T. Cyr Of the Burlingto,
high school next spoke on practica
methods Of teaching modern languages
She advocated the most practical metho
in teaching and said that there were to
many methods afioat and rot enoug
results.
Miss Harriet ". Rallion Of the Brattle
boro high school next spoke on 9TH
Choice of Texts" The main theme of he
discourse was that. SO far as possibl,
the language taught should be tn
language Of the classroom from tn
beginning.
Miss Marian p. Whitney head Of tn
J department OF German at Vassar Colleg
} delivered the principal address Of ii
, conference. Her subject was, "Problcu
and Opportunities Of the Moder
Language Teacher" She first called n
!, tention to the fact that the model
languages. and especially English hay
!, been suonlantine Greek and Latin
} the curricula Of both schools and ca
leges. Whether this is for the bett