Deseret evening news. [volume] (Great Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1867-1920, 1910-12-30
MODERN METHODS
IN GRADE SCHOOLS
DR.. E. E. Brown, United States
Commissioner, Addresses
Teachers on Subject.
OLD AND NEW coNTRAsTED
Takes for His Theme the Necessary
Progress of Educational Methods
All Along the Line.

me large auditorium Of the as
seiiioiE nail was again filled to ca
,utlss Wheh the evening session of tn
teachers convention was called 4
order Thursday night Or. Elmer |;
crown. United States commissioner q
amucation. made the principal address
me musical program consisted of
piaEo solo by Miss Marscry Cassid,
anu a vocal solo by Horace S. Ensign
Dr. Brown took for his theme tn
necessary progress of school meth
ods, contrasting the poverty-stricket
schoois OF the olden days with til,
modern methods in vogue today. DR.
Br2wn said in part:
nave no doubt that should strike
y responsive chord If were TO .so,int
me recall and say. let us go back tc
those simple schools and colleges whicl
! gave us our Washington. our Adamses
our Webster, our Hawthorne. and oui
samuel Morse, and all the rest, but
we shuil not enter upon anything 81
wrong headed and futile. There is
!, certain kind of looking backward
however. that plays Il great role in tho
progress Of civilization. Every epoch
making departure in the history of
thought. every new birth or renais-
sance. seems to involve some return
to simple and fundamental principles.
There Is Il serious interest which
you viii find among boys learning to
lay bricks or girls learning to nuke
bread or young men in the school of
law or medicine. 1t Is much the same
attitude in them all. Real life grips
the spirit of the man and it is a good
deal better than the interest which
may be aroused by entertaining meth
OBS in captivating subjects.
The characteristic method of in
dustrial education is apprenticeship,
and apprenticeship consists in learn
ing by doing the real thing, under real
fundamental forms of the most genuine
conditions, in imitation OF master.
Apprenticeship is accordingly one of
the fundamental forms Of education,
but 1T has been one Of the most gem
uine and vital elements in education
from the beginning and doubtless Will
be till the end. Many d professional
man has acquired his skill and made
his career by getting away from the
lessons of the professional schoo, as
soon as possible and going ahead
thereafter by main strength and
awkwardness till experience las made.
him proficient
no class of public servants has. T.
am sure. been moro systematically
praised and more systematicaIly,li g-
nored than have the teachers in our
schools, II might, perhaps, be shown,
that We Americans are ns genuinely
apprecative OF our best teachers as
arc any modern people. vet the fitf,l-
ness and uncertainty of that appreca-
ton leaves much to be desired. SS
Reasonable salaries. ten,lreiSOf ofat
flee and old age pensions. help to-
secure and retain good teachers, SAL
airy schedules are advisable, which
provide relatively low initial. payments
with relatively rapid increases dur
ing the earlier years of service and
moderate increases in succeeding
years. b..
when great Caesar went Into bat
tie he placed watchers to make note |
Of those who should show unusual |
ability as fighters in order that they
might have promotion. Our age OF |
education which has succeeded the
age will have need to organ
re similar service Let us have
who will make keen observa-
lion of the young teachers who show
Iative capacity for this good work
Some of the newer as well as the
older subjects have In them the fun
,amental elements OF good educa-
ion. Our educational life depends
ipon holding fast to things that are
Let us go on expert
ncntag and not fear to make we'll
considered experiments. They are
Ike the small twigs and branches of
growing tree, which are necessary
0 It's growth, and destined to bear
much fruit But let us hold fast to
he main trunk. on which the health
f the branches depends, for anyone
lifted with even little vi-t"'' can see
here is heavy work before this young
cnernton which 10 now coming on.
nd that it will need training that
as in 1t all the elements Of endurance.
Igor and viril!ty."
IN MEMORY OF j. S. WEIGH.
The following report OF the special
on memorial to Joseph $.
Ielch was read this afternoon:
Whereas the angel Of death has visit
ID our congregation, and has taken
ON our membership one OF its bright
It and most congenal spirits, super
sor Jonn =. Neich OF the Salt Lake
hOols, and, whereas we have missed | ,
m in committee and on the iloOr OF ,
e assembly, where 50 often his keen
tollect had directed our thoughts and ,
$ ready wit had entertained and. re-
wed the strain of our proceedings; ,
~, whereas, his latest piece OF work, 1
one sense the work OF his life, has /
me TO our hands since his departure, t
Id from it's pages we live again in {
G genial presence and lofty iuealism I
our friend who has gone before: be it |
crefore I
Resolved by his fellow teachers in +,
o state of Utah that this record be /
AIDE of his virtues as u man and of his Il
nix as n scholar. And while with Il
hing hearts and bowed heads we seek y
lay this brief and simple tribute r
affection upon the altar of his men, s
Y, VIC recall that his joyous spirit, c
lich feared not death and regretted t
ly that its work here was cut short, t
S merely gone to join the Choir IN IL
slble of those immortal souls whose o
eds have left unlynS music in tho 5
,rld' ana made brighter the path t
ut all must tread when the Lords t
eat voice shall call" and whose ,Lc- c
'ities, we doubt not. have been trans II
red to other spheres. AS we read q
! book we are once more with him II
d experience again the sunshine of L
; compan!onship, the nobility ana u
auty of his ideals and hopes in his y
n words p
The spiritual environment to ~
itch adequate adjustment must he IL
lde has been rendered tangible and 1e
cessible through the accumulated re
assures Of the ages in the mighty 81
of story tellers and OF
lgstcrs. Of bards ana romancers, NJ
poets, prophets, secrs The songs a.
; Aryan mothers sang still soothe W
, slumber,s The stories Of heroic OF
eds of vnlor still cause the heart m
leap, the eye to flash. the will to re