The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1910-03-26
BOTH URGE NEED FOR
CLOSEST SUPERVISION
Teachers Must Have Heart in Work
and Must know Home Life of
Pupils As Well As the
School Life

i
Simmons college, Boston, and President
Harry Pratt Judson of the University
of Chicago.
AS Miss Arnold, in a wonderful flow of
beautiful language, taught the teacher
to love her task, with illustrations one
after another, the sympathy and natural
touch of her nature seemed TO be Joined
to the experience of each teachers life.
1t was the kind of inspiration that the
audience hungered for and must have
| been heard to catch the message.
| That the teacher must know his pupil
in his whole life with all its influences
seemed to be the keynote of both last
nights addresses.
| Many Were Turned Away
Many were turned away, as the audi
torium would not accommodate the crowd
which pressed to hear the famous edu-
Gators 1t was announced that the en-
rollment had reached 22O2, as compared to
1895 last year.
| Mrs. j. H. Phillips, in a few we'll
chosen words, introduced Miss Arnold
| after the musical selection.
| ''You don't have to travel far said
Miss Arnold. ito realize that we are all
the same people. with the same trials,
the same problems and the same Difficult
ties. Especially is this true of those who
| care for children.
II am to speak to you on The Teach
| er's Task which are almost the dearest
words l know
| For a few moments she devoted her
| time to a definition of objective teaching,
| that 1t means not teaching grammar, not
| art, not discipline, but teaching boys and
| girls.
Without any need Of apology she gave
| the personal Interpretation of her life's
experience as the only way to serve.
| Miss Arnold told of the experimental
teaching at Harvard to Cuban teachers,
and drew the conclusion. that teaching is
Interpretation after all. The teacher must
| then know the whole truth, and with the
utmost sympathy and tact, opening 1t for
the child.
| She pointed out that one child brings a
| certain heritage to the book and another
quite different conception.
Give Interesting Experiences
| By beautiful recitatons of interesting
| Incidents in her own life she proved that
| the teacher must know the boy and his
| life and his influences before he can in
terpret real life except as we ourselves
see farther than they, not to know all, but
| to loye.''
I'VE must meet them where they live
and minister to them there: enter into
the experiences of others until We have
| that larger understanding.
Let US teach every one contentedly to
do his work. take his place and under
stand what it means for the boy to give
up his rights, that his life belongs to the
other, that he may be led to give up
the thing which was his highest privilege.
1T is our bounded duty to see that
our own lives have within the things
that count, are pue and sweet and worth
while"
President JudsOn Introduced
A musical selection by Mile
Rene, one verse of america sung by
the audience standing, and few brief re-
marks by President John w. Abercrom-
bic of the University of alabama, served
to introduce President Harry Pratt Jud-
son. DIR. Abercrombie said that his SER
vices to America and to the world are
known and appreciated by all students of
education, as he has for many years been
a great leader.
DR.. Judson declared that having asso-
ciated with southern teachers at his in
stitution, he felt perfectly at home before
that audience, and then launched into a
study OF 1.-THE Teacher and the Com
mpnity."
THE school is too often regarded as
an isolated phenomenon" he said, "as
1t were a sort of educational comet
coming into human ken from one knows
not where. and wandering from sight
one knows not whittier. Too often
II is little better than a kind of fetich
it's efficiency depending on no known
conditions, but rather on a species Of
ma gic. Soak the child in the school
and there will be absorbed somehow,
no one can explain how, a superiority
which cannot be had in any other way.
The school, again. is q hiatus which
follows the beginnings of childhood
and precedes active life; the school
child Is preparing for life
| "All this is, or sh ould be, an obsolete
view of educational agencies. The
school Us merely part, an import
ant part, of the community, just as
the church, the store, the mill, the fire
engine company, are parts of the COM
munity. The school Is not merely n
preparation for life! it Is that; but
| it is also lsS itself. BY living we
learn how to i've All life is one long
school, and the wise man or wom-
an is the one who realizes that ed
ucation is not ended with school days,
but only with the breath of life. There
are dull scholars and sluggards in this
school OF life, to be sure. But there
are also many who understand that
today Ia given us SO that we may live
more wisely tomorrow. The young are
| perhaps fortunate in being able to
give large part of their time to work.
| ing under expert guidance. We old
| er scholars have to groups our own
way; perhaps we blunder quite as often
as the. school boys. They stumble in
their arithmetic and geography and
spelling. How many mistakes do we
make in enacting our laws, in govern
| in gour states and cities, in dealing
with criminal and paupers, in manags
ing our farms and our shops? As we
grow older we fancy that we grow
wiser. We do. it is to be hoped. But
we must remember that after all we
do not grow old uniformly, but only in
streaks and spots In some parts of
our nature we are apt to stay unde-
Iveloped altogether. Men to great
extent are but boys of larger siza,
not merely In til cir feelings, but In
their reasoning and their actions AS
well.
children Under Guidance
school children. I say, spend large
part of their time working under
guidance--but 1t must not be forgot
ten that they spend more hours every
day in the home environment than In
the school. Holidays and vacations be-
ling included, 1t is clear that the teacher
has the minor parts OF tho child's
| time.
What follows? 1t seems clear that
| the total OF the child's training is made
! up. then. OF two factors. the school