The Idaho Republican. [volume] (Blackfoot, Idaho) 1904-1932, 1909-11-05

eQucaLlOn BuOulQ not DC lcIL 70 LHc
chance that the home or the street
will supply 1t.
In any curriculum we must have
teachers who will best fit pupils for
their work In the world.
One OF the first requisites is the
force OF personality; fifty per cent
OF any estimate should be personality.
1t matters little how much teachers
know. unless their personality is such
that the pupils have respect for their
judgment, and are glad to carry out
their suggestions
In the majority of cases skill in
teaching must be a matter Of careful
and somewhat extensive training.
Teachers must possess not merely
knowledge Of their special subjects,
but they must see the relation Of one
to another and to the practical life
Of the community, for the service of
which their pupils are being prepar-
ed.
"A 1t would be gratifying II we could
place our theory Of perfect currf-
culum as a system of positive know
ledge in the domain Of education. We
must extend our use of the word to
include established truths, and also
hypothesis which have been worked
out with good degree OF care. There
are in every outlook serious problems
which may we'll come under the sub
ject considered, such as. The rela-
ton of elective to prescribed stud
les; the relation Of studies for gener-
al culture to vocational studies; the
relation Of guidance to spontanity in
the methods Of instruction.
According to different points of
view these problems tend, in their
decision, to the dissolution of some
of the best of social bonds, or to the
fitting of citizens for service to
society. ri 81 Fl
No abstract formula is adequate
to conditions; old principles Of educa-
ton must ever be newly interpreted
and newly applied. Old formulas
must grow or become outgrown. They
must not master, but obey, the teach
er's spirit.
Our Education Of the past has been
largely an instruction in the arts,
Alch AS literature, the languages,
and history, in the sciences, rarely
applied, of botany, geology, mathe-
matics, chemistry, and physics; with
a touch of economics such as the his
tory of government, etc.
Education was determined by Soc
ial standing; it stamped the man as a
scholar, as one who had gone through
certain distinctive mental rites.
The education of the present in
cludes all of these, with their applica-
ton to life; adding the training OF
the individual for social institutions
co operative life with his fellow
men.
The unity of the individual re-
ceives from him the experience of his
little life and gives him the expert
ence of the race.
We are training generation,
which has been brought in contact
with many things, useful-and other
wise land the main purpose must be
to teach the pupil to do his duty as
a member of a free community.
Education is a human need and
a human right; the people so often re-
lferred to In our democracy, is the
whole mass of men and women, who
(if they are to rule) must have the
knowledge and wisdom which moth
I, ing but education can impart, an edu-
cation that impresses an ideal of life
upon the consciousness of the rising
generation. which makes the school
factor in social culture.
| ta hivno ,f
opposites. 1t seeks not to absorb the
minds Of the youth in material things,
nor yet to shut them out from bear
| ing vigorous part in the practical
activities of the modern world 1t
must teach us to be true to both
sides of the truth.
From liberal culture, so-called,
through genuine social culture. to
physical culture, we now realize that
the school should provide training
for the body as well as for the mind,
because the physical nature is the
foundation of all life. including the
mental, because, without due CO.
ordination between the mind and the
body, no person is thoroughly equip
ped for the battle of life, growing
daily more strenuous.
Only in very recent years has the
conception of physical education as
an essential part of child's train
ing found its way into educational
/ theory and practice. Hence the
schools are, as rule, very made
quately equipped for any of the forms
Of physical education.
There Is deplorable lack of space
in which children may play, especi-
ally in the contested portions of a
large city. Children have no way of
getting pure air, decent surroundings,
a chance to play, an elementary know
ledge of hygiene, some idea of how to
use their hands, and at least rudi-
mentary acquaintance with the re-
sponsibilities and rights of citizen
ship.
With no place to play but the
streets boys form organizations of
their own for street games. The Or
ganization is the gang" and the
games are gambling, stealing and
lighting. Where fine school build
ings. properly equipped, and some
what adequate grounds, are known
a partial solution of the problem is
to open the school buildings and
yards, in the afternoon and evening
throughout the school year, for man
ual training, gymnastics, athletics