Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1893-1920, 1910-08-29
TEACHERS TO Be
PUPILS FOR WEEK
Annual County Institute Opens
at Rock Island High
School.
$50 PRESENT FIRST DAY
Expected Attendance Will Reach 400
Child Development to Be Fea-
ture of the Program.

The annual Rock Island county
teachers institute convened this. morn
ing at the local high school and be-
fore noon $50 had registered and the
prospects were that before the week
of instruction ends, the total enroll
ment of teachers will come over the
400-mark
The meetings give>promise of being
very beneficial to the teachers, as the
lectures which are to be given by Pro-
lessor Fred L. Charles of the univr-
sity of Illinois and by President Rob-
ert A Armstrong of the university of
West Virginia are of the variety
which will interest the listeners. Prof
E. L. Philbrook has charge of the
music. President Armstrong will lee
ture throughout the week on literature,
taking up it's various phases and aim
ing to enlighten the county school
teachers on points which will aid them
in their work of instructing children.
He will give two lectures a day, one
in the forenoon and another in the
afternoon
Has Exhaustive Subject.
Professor Charles has chosen a sub
ject of considerable latitude, it be-
ing nature study or geography. To
the lecturer nature study is a study
of the material world, of environment,
Of living being, of common appliances
of the home and shop, of hygiene, of
household science, of geography and
in short of all real things. He be-
lieves that it almost borders upon be-
ing a crime to rob children of their
instructive study of the great out-of-
doors and to force them instead to de-
vote their entire time to study of
books The neglect of nature study
means the neglect of the health and
a resultant decline in the health of
the people of the nation and world. 1t
has been the belief in the past that an
education consisted of training that
fitted one mentally so that he could
cope with the world in earning his dali
ly bread but a new idea is rapidly
gaining favor, and it is that educa-
ton consists not only of the training
for a vocation but of a knowledge of
what will bring and promote health.
Child a Mirror.
In his study of nature, Professor
Charles finds that the child is mirror
which truthfully reflects the growth
of man. An an Infant, man is a; wee
animal with all the instincts and
traits of an animal, just about as man
was in the earliest ages. AS the child
grows older, it's human traits FREEDOM
mate and by and by it shows a desire
to play with and train animals. What
little child but what loves to play with
a kitten or a dog and make it sit up,
lie down. or do other things at its COM
mand This stage in the life of the
child represents the age when man
was demonstrating the once wild ami
mails, such as the horse, dog, cow and
cat. All through the life of the child
and after it becomes grown UP it still
shows a similar change in the stages
of it's development. The speaker be-
lieves that the child, in its growth,
should be allowed and encouraged to
feel these different stages, as in doing
so it would really, though unconscious
ly, be studying nature.
To Promote Health.
The time is soon coming in the
opinion of the speaker when the hui
man race shall be taught through the
school children to care for its health
in a far better manner than is now
done. Professor Charles says that one
seventh of the human race has died OF
tuberculosis and that one-third of 1t
has felt the effects of that dread dis
ease. A knowledge of health and the
rules of hygiene such as can be in
stilled only into children. would make
tuberculosis almost unknown within
two generations. The health problem
is an economic one as well, as at the
present time it is estimated that there
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