The Plymouth tribune. (Plymouth, Ind.) 1901-1911, 1909-08-26
STATE SUPT.
Alley TALKS
TELLS TEACHERS THAT AT
TENTION SHOULD BE CIV
EN- TO MASTER TOPICS.
Laws of Health, General knowledge,
Better English and More Definite
Teaching Required.

Robert J. Alley, state superinten-
dent OF public Instruction. delivered
an address of one hour at the Tues
day morning session OF the Teachers
Institute, which was replete with sug-
gestions OF great value to the teach
ers and the cause OF education.
He started out by emphasizing the
necessity OF good health and the i'm
portan& of teaching the major points
of ply Ysiology and their application
without devoting too much time TO
techmcalities ard Things OF little inn
pOrtance. He said the children must
be so educated that they would want
to obey the laws that would give
them better health and make them
better men and women. So long as
boys wanted to smoke cigarettes and
do other things to destroy the bod
;es, minds and morals, and the com
munity is Indifferent, cigarette laws
and other laws to make, them better
Will be almost a dead 1etter on the
statute, but if children are educated
as they should be, 1T will be but "a
few years until every community will
enfore good laws and make indec-
ency and immortality so unpopular
that everybody will be better
What is true in tea ching physiol-
ogy is true IN teaching everything.
Ii the great events OF history, the
bright and shining achievements OF
great men are thoroughly taught, the
details will be easy. What we need
in our schools is definite teaching.
teaching that will impress pupils and
fix the major points of the subject
in their minds so that they cannot
be forgotten
Especially rs this true in teaching
mathematics. A thorough knowledge
of the fundamental principles OF
arithmetic. the rules NECESSARY in the
transaction OF business, will make
higher mathematics easy, and make
mat1le NAUTICAL education OF practical
value.
He believed that English is the
worlds greatest language and that it
ought to he taught in such a way that
people will speak, read and write so
that they can be understood.
When legislature adjourns 1t
takes the attorney general and sever
al expert assistant nrany months to
even guess at what the laws mean
and then the courts have to make an
ether guess before many OF them
have any value This should not be
true. If English is properly taught,
every man and woman who has a
common school education can write
law that will mean just what it
says, will not admit of two or three
constructions.
There has been too much writing
and not enough oral work required OF
pupils during the past twenty years
Pupils should be able to tell what
they know instead OF spending hours
in writing what they ought to tell in
five minutes.
Conversation is almost lost art. A
dozen men and women cannot spend
an evening together and be enter
tanned in conversation They want
cards or some other games to make
The tlme pass pleasantly The time is
here when people should have some
thing entertaining to talk about.
In closing he emphasized the ne
cessity OF teaching major instead oi
minor subjects. The people who have
heard and become interested in great
actors cannot be entertained by a
hve-cent show, but -''e people who
tor yeai., have attended five cent
shows, cannot appreciate a great ac,
sro. Small things are demonstrating.
People who have spent years in read
ing trash cannot be interested in
great minds, but those who have
commenced early the study of great
subjects are not interested in trashy
literature.