The Birmingham age-herald., 1910-03-25
LADIES DISCUSS WORK
 OF SCHOOL IMPROVEMENT

to nurture and stimulate that which
 as the plants of the field. Nothing will grow from either without the proper soil, air and sunshine Pointing to the marred image of the oak where conditions for it's growth were unnatural. the duty of the teacher. he
 considered. was to make this growth nat ural, not forced; organic, not sporadic l The teacher must know the child, its en- vironment. All are not created alike. s.'The time will come when the ideal teacher will be like the ideal farmer who knows and nurtures all his plants
 according to their needs"
 Flo felt the fault in some schools has
 been to help too much, to prompt too
 much, to make things too easy with a
 tendency to make the child weakling. 'yrhe best teacher should stimulate the child to work. All things worth having have been hedged about with difficulty | that those who attain them may appreci- l ate and know how to use them with self | reliance"
 We modern teachers, with all our
 boasted pedagogy, may learn something from the old-tine schoolmaster, wha
 taught obedience, thrift and industry Work is still mans doom and blessing.
 The teacher. possessing the power to
 make ofSers see truth clearly, but using
 1t rarelS who has the tact to have the
 child remove his difficulties for him self that he may taste the joy Of vic- tory, and passing from strength to
 strength be fitted for the struggle out
 there in the world is the ideal teacher. In Life About Him The teacher should make himself a potent factor in. the life about him, the conduit pipe between the wide outside world and his little school world | Warning the teacher against becoming | mechanical. dogmatic cratic, as king of
 the schoolroom he~urged them not to re-
 main apart but become ideal citizens, by
 association with the minds and actions
 of the world.
 Coming to the professional prepara- | ton for teaching he hoped the time will
 come when the public will demand only l the best
 l "The teacher he said, is all too poorly
 paid When the man who works on the
 stun which makes the happiness and the
 future of your children is paid less than
 the trainer of your dogs and horses 1t
 is time to pause. The laborer is worthy | of his reward.
 | But the teachers best reward cannot be measured In money, but in the con-
 sciousness of duty done, lives strength
 ened. The true teacher pours his life into anotner's life-this Is his noblest philan- | thropy-his most imperishable legacy to
 man"
 M Introduces J. N. Powers l MT. Gunnels then introduced Superin-
 tendedent J. N. Powers of Mississippi, an Alabama boy who strayed across the llino
 | Superintendent Powers prefaced his re-
 marks with a number of jokes. He con
 graduated Alabama upon her place as the state which has made more progress
 in the last four years educationally than
 any other state in the union, pausing to
 relate some of the recent achievements
 of Mississippi.
 MT. Powers then described the transi-
 ton. in the life of the people and called
 attention to the need of readjustment. | T am glad to say that the teachers
 profession Is demanding men and women
 of intelligence and training. Today the sure basis of a nations
 greatness is laid upon mental and manual
 labor. Head and hand and heart. the
 industrial education, Is the thing that counts.
 "The wealth-earning power of the peo-
 pie today is dependent upon the kind of education they receive" | MT. Powers told of the wonders of in- dustrial education in Japan and Switzer-
 land, which countries carry the south's cotton away to return 1t a finished product.
 You will find every mind in the east and north teeming with industrial educa- ton. In the south we are manufactur- ing lawyers and doctors, preachers and politicians and universal geniuses, without | training men to use their hand. Time has come when we must turn the attention of our children to the soil upon
 which the future prosperity of this nation must rest, whom out in the rural school the teacher will give as much dignity to tfllage of the soil as to tho professions. l The one great problem of the south is to