The citizen. (Honesdale, Pa.) 1908-1914, 1910-11-23

| tinued. No public school is so small,
! or its welfare so inconsequential,
! that the control should be left to the
! discretion of one director.
Who can measure the responsible
| ity or enormous consequences Incl
| dent to the appointment of suit
! able teacher for each particular
school in the district?
The law very properly requires the
| Affirmative votes of at least four di
rectoTs in order to appoint a teach
er. Regardless of the spirit of the
provision in this statute, many
| boards in a perfunctory fashion ap-
prove the appointment which is in
reality made by one director only.
This loose method is wrong and
! prejudicial to the best interests of
our schools. No other duty, nor all
other duties combined, that come be-
! fore the school board can equal in
Importance and far-reaching conse-
uuences, the appointment of efficient
| teachers. So many elements of
strength in the applicant, so many
phases of character, so many points
of coordination of applicants to posi-
tion, are to be considered by the
board before a wise appointment can
be made, that no board should ap-
proach this part of it's duty, except
it is moved by a spirit of fairness,
progressiveness and intellectual pa
triotism.
deem it more important that a
school board be fired with an exalted
conception of its public duty, than
that it's individual members possess
scholastic knowledge to a large de-
gree. Generally an exalted purpose
and honest united endeavor on the
part of the board gives better educa-
tional results than are secured from
scheming boards whose members are
scholastic. 1t is the old comparison,
heart against head, altruism against
self-service. But our directors
should possess both intelligence and
altruism. When we consider the
rapid strides education is making in
the world, it behooves electors to put
forth for directors men possessing
both scholastic attainment and pro-
gressive idealism along intellectual
lines.
Pennsylvania has long been honor
ed for its liberalty in large appro-
priations to education, but it takes
something more than money to build
up an efficient system of public in
struction. AS stated before, at the
very foundation of every successful
system of instruction, stand the
school directors their efficiency and
character measure the success or
failure of the system of public in
struction.
Directors, if faithful to their mis-
sion, must fall in with the onward
| educational movement, recognizing
the routine affairs of the Office as
necessary but only incidental to their
higher obligations.
Education by public schools, as
we have before suggested, is a grow
ing system of instruction and in the
light of this forward movement can
directors learn their part in the ed
ucational procession.
Do we fully appreciate the rap
idity of this educational movement?
Only about two hundred and fif-
ty years ago Comenius urged, with
ardent zeal, the establishment in
London of a college of learned men
who should collect the sum total
of all learning into one book that
should suffice for the present and
all future generations.
1t was a favored theory in the
Seventeenth Century that education
consisted in the possession of GER
tain definite facts on given sub
! jects, and that education could be
measured quantatively. This, how
ever, is an erroneous theory, and
ought never to be applied for the
ascertainment of a measure of in
! struction.
The old doctrine of cramming
facts into the memory of a pupil
and then estimating his education
! by the number of facts thus thrust
into his mental repository, has long
been exploded as fallacious Today
the intelligent director seeks to i'm
press on the school a broader con-
ception of educating the mind and
! sees to it that only such teachers
are employed as eXemplify in their
! instruction a more intelligent theory
! of teaching. To-day it is held that
! the fountain of knowledge is kept
! full by outlets rather than by its
inlets; and that the pupil who gives
| out the facts acquired most quick
! ly and readily, is making the surest
! progress. The selfish doctrine of
! Get what you can and keep what
you get' may be tolerated when ap-
! piled to material things, but this
sentiment has no place in a system
| of education. 1t is better to say
Get all you can, and keep what
you give" This sounds paradox
cal and yet it is true. In morals and
in intelligence we are made rich by
what we freely give.
Directors, don't measure your own
official works for the schools, guam
| tatively. If you have during this in
stitute week imbibed new ideas, or
/ l.
tion, go home, and give expression
to these new ideas and sentiments
by intelligent application of them
in your official duties.
Catch on to the spirit of progress,
drop all low incentives, If you have
any, that may be cumbering you as
director, and live in a purer and
more exalted atmosphere of intellec-
tual advancement.