The Richmond palladium and sun-telegram., 1911-08-29
NOTED EDUCATORS
ARE HEARD TO-DAY
At THE ASSEMBLY
Fassett A. Cotton and DR..
Leon Vincent Addressed a
Large, Interested Crowd
on Timely Topics.
Continued from Page One.)

namely, all schools below the college.
Mr. Cotton, in brief, stated that
while there was really very little the
matter with the common schools, that
the greatest obstacle to remedying
what was the matter as the satisfac-
tion and egotism of the public, which
upon every petition for more funds,
Or for equipment to enlarge the scope
of their activities
Why we have a magnificent school
system What more do you want?"
while we have an annual national
expenditure of about S300,000,0 900 for
education in this country, it is nothing
compared with the annual amounts
paid out for such luxuries as automo-
biles, tobacco, beer and other unneces-
sary appendages. We have 24,0O0, 900
school children, and but $3.50 per capi-
ia is paid out for education.
There are a number of things that
could not be advanced as reasons for
the defects in our school system, one
,
school politics or pull which result
ed in the employment of the inefficient
was not vital. Mr.. Cotton, to summar-
iZe, stated that the real fault lay in the
imperfect preparation the children at
tending our schools receive for prac-
teal citizenship. More care should be
given to that critical period in educa-
and to eliminating the lines of de-
markation which separate the educa-
ton of the child at different ages,
which should be toned down to nuanc-
es, so that one necessarily melted in
to another.
Sees a Distinction.
Mr.. Cotton does not believe that
vocational" and cultural" training
should be made distinct, that what
might be vocational to one person
might be cultural to another and vice
versa, and he also expressed himself
as believing in the Continuation
school," which permitted these chill
dren who had to leave school at an
early age to work, to attend night
schools until they arrived at point
where their natural tendencies toward
an occupation would be manifested.
In closing, MIR. Cotton read letter
from the Dean of Columbia university
ward the system Mr.. Cotton had out.
lined.
Mr.. Vincent spoke this afternoon at
one o'clock on Hawthorne" saying in
effect:
"Hawthorne's character illustrates a
certain quality of nature often to be
noted in men of genius, combination
of the practical and the poetical, the
matter of fact and the mysterious, the
homely and the nomadic.
This two-fold nature is apparent in
childhood just as in maturity. II
comes out in his writings where we
ton, the one shading into the other i'm
perceptibly.
"In tracing the course of his boy
hood, his beginnings in literature, and
his home life we have repeated proofs
of the existence of this two-sided Haw
thorne.
| While the lecture was mainly bio
graphical, it's details all tended to il
lustrate the foregoing thesis.
| The Apollo Company.
! The Apollo Concert Company gave
two delightful concerts yesterday af
ternoon and evening, the company be
! ing made up of four musicians who
show their versatility in playing or
various instruments and in ringing
bells. While the latter is, in a way, re
garded as a somewhat passe form O.
entertainment. it is nonetheless charm
ing in effect, and why it should be re
garded in the former light, is a mys
terry, as it must require a very con
siderable degree of skill and musica
proficiency to give classic excerpts, a:
did the Apollo Company yesterday af
ternoon, selections from Wagner ane
Verdi being played.
Mr.. Wells, with the banjo, accom-
plishes unusual musical effects ant