Ottumwa tri-weekly courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1903-1916, 1910-04-09
SPEND A BUSY
DAY IN MEETINGS
CONFERENCES AND ROUND
TABLES TAKE UP ATTENTION
OF PEDAaoauEs.
ALL BRANCHES HANDLED
Various Departments Of the City and
Schools Arc Given Attention by
the Southern Iowa
y. Educators.

SPEND A BUSY
Conferences and round tables were
the magnets that attracted the atten-
ton Of the half thousand of school
teachers in annual convention here
yesterday. The high school rooms
were alive with pedagogues bent upon
cleaning some valuable information
from an exchange of ideas which come
In the conferences and round tables.
The English Conference.
The English conference held sway
In the immense assembly room of the
high school, following the program Of
addresses. It was under the leadership
of Principal Martha e. Emry Of Fair
neld.
rs English practical?"
In handling his portion Of the sub
ject, Superintendent T. M. Prall Of
What Cheer, stated that he sent out
fifty letters to presidents of business
colleges and commercial clubs regard
ing practical English. The answers
were: Business English in the most
restricted sense, but all agreed that
the average high school student is de-
ficient in practical English. How shall
we meet the demand for practical Eng
fish? The demand for practical Eng
lish may be summed up under three
heads:
I. What may be called business
English. Spelling, grammar and pune
tuation.
2. Ability to speak properly.
3. Ability to understand what is
read and the desire for a better class
of literature.
In answering the questions Mr..
Prall said that the business men look
to the public schools for the practical
English education. A business man has
suggested study Of essays as a means
for good English. More composition
work was also said to be needed
There is too much work expected and
too little interest taken in the work;
topics are not live enough, composition
should be cut and dried and from as
signed subjects, but written on sub
jects that the student learns and Sc
lects himself. The same applies to oral
work. A taste for better literature
should be cultivated
J Miss Emma Nye in discussing the
subject said: Criticism of English as
taught in our public schools is univer-
| sal and comes from all classes of peo-
pie. find from study Of English pa
pers that the average pupil tries to
express himself in language which is
beyond him. Many do not know what
they are trying to talk or write about.
This fault comes from two diff culties:
Want of observation and the inability
to think connectedly on subject and
t visualize it.
AS regards the first, give the pupil
something to look at, in which he is
interested-then let him write about
It, INSTALLATION should be the founda-
ton Of all English work. Cultivate the
taste for intensive reading. High
school reading at present is too ex-
tensive, and does not inspire the pu-
pills. Let them feel the value of the
words in the reading.
Miss Eva Fisher of Abba said:
I'm every branch of educ ational
work the practical side is being devel-
oped and not soNmuch theoretical Too
much effort is put upon commercial
studies, and not enough upcu English
and classical studies, to make them
practical.
rs English practical?' First, what
do we mean ny English?
Cali those studies which aid in ex-
pression-oral or written,-between
ones self and his fellow men. In the
first place words do not mean enough
to the student. Sentences are not
clear and there are no shades of
meaning between words. The student
simply writes and recites because the
teacher demands it, but he does not
grasp the meaning of the words and
the sense Of them goes glimmering.
The student does not visualize suffi-
GENTLY to enable him to tell what he
sees"
Miss Ethel Nichols, of Washington,
on the subject of the influence of the
teacher in the development of real
interest and pleasure in old classics,
said:
Interest on the part of the pupil is