Cañon City record., 1909-05-06

things we all know must be repeated
and repeated, because in some strange
way, we remember the unusual and
forget the common. l must repeat
a statement that is patent to every
teacher in saying that the great un-
derlying purposes of education are
the developing of individual character
and the developing of citizens-or the
developing of social character.
The first of these aims has re-
ceived the lions share of emphasis
in the past. and is by all odds and
without question the more funda-
mental and more important. The
prime need of nations and of business
and of art, is men of soul and char
acter-character in the finest sense.
ground in the preparation for living.
The home is the impression shop
weber the plastic life receives Its
blocking out. This is true for more
reasons than this paper dares to take
time to state. 1t is true because of
the very physical nature of boys and
girls 1t is true because Of the divine
intention that has made home the
strongest and dearest old Teutonic
word that we know.
The very truth of the assertion
that the home is so all important in
man-making. is made all too painfully
apparent by the burden that you
teachers are bearing, if you are true
to your calling-burdens that you
would not bear If the home did it's
duty
But how can the home do its duty
when it does not exist? What but the
public school shall shoulder this re-
sponsibility of making individual
character grow properly in its early
stages, when the home has gone out
of business? l make the assertion
positively, THAT in our own country
the real homes are scarce. DR. Strong
cites one instance in his own city,
the city of New York. In the Bronx
district, out of $4,000 so-called homes
only Sc were owned by those who
occupied them, and of these only IA
were unincumbered by debt. In
shorter terms there was one positive
ly owned home out of 1000 so-called.
"Eomes are decreasing" continues
DR.. Strong, "at each of the two So
cial extremes. Among the rich, hotel
and club life is being substituted for
thA
of interest bearing securities there
is growing idle class of migratory
rich" / could cite other sections of
the nation in support of my claim
that real homes are disappearing.
There are some elements present
in our modern homes that have a bad
Influence on the growth of character
in the children. First, our homes
are not established. They are here
now, then there. We are a nation
of rovers, and above all a state of
rovers in Colorado. Home continues
to be an institution, but it is ceasing
to be placa-a permanent place to
go to when the day is dono-a place
of sacred memories and of meaning.
There are too many drains on our
family life. Organizations increase
daily. There is this to do and that
until we do well if we can eat and
sleep in the same house with our
families. Families are small, perforce
because men are driven to long hours
of work to properly educate one or
'wo children. The splendid atmos-
here, the dear relationships that
=. 'uud in the home where several
hn iren are fortunate enough to live,
ianting where one or two receive
- lrents' attention and constitute
he. yn ing society about the heart.
Yer ,v,a ther serious problem in the
,,,,ta,. q. home, is the condition pre-
.a,tod bu the home of foreigners who
nave chilff EN- born here in America,
and how bn st to meet this condition
IS the unanH vered part of that prob
lem. In suA homes as these the
children have. 4 earned American ways
and use the ANA srican language. They
come to look tia -pproyingly upon the
ideas and customs of their parents.
and the parents In turn come to rely
on the children for instruction In
the usages of the adopted country.
These conditions ir the home are re-
versed and the children are wiser,
SO to speak. than the parents
All these elements in the modern
home throw heavy burden on the
school-compel the school to take the
child and to be both a social and In
dividual training place for that child.
since this task Ia set before the