The Washington herald., 1911-11-19
Teachers Are Not Inefficient, Declares Com
missioner CIaxton, Nor Are Our Youths j
Given Wrong Ambitions 9 &

land can apply to him for the best and
latest facts. He is supposed to know
everything pedagogical. His eye is on
the world. His pen is started and his
mouth is opened on call Brokerf<down
schools can receive treatment by mail
DR.. ClaIton's office, in truth. Is a5labora-
tory and he is the chief researcher, both
OF practice and theory.
A dIdactic man. professionally and nat
uraly, he Is also a driving man. sJvalk-
ing energetically and talking easily and
Interestingly. Also looking masculinely
which is much in his favor as aiateacheF.
When he was graduated ffom the Uni
versity Of Tennessee at thesage of nine
teen, where he handled his Expenses with
borrowed money. paying his debts IN due
season, he meant to be a lawyer He
entered Johns Hopkins. however, with
the object Of studying electrical engineer
ing. Inside Of a few weeks" using
his words exactly. teaching took such a
hold on me that gave UP 1eve&ythinF
else"
/: is not too much to say that DR..
ClaXton became the greatest teacher in
the South. rising in his profession from
small schools, where he was superin-
tendent, to professorships in colleges. He
Travelled Europe to perfect himself IN ed
ucational methods. Coming home, he
used the good things he found abroad
| Training teachers finally became his
business. Meanwhile, during one OF his
campaigns he held forty meetings In
thirty-siX mountain counties OF Ten
ressee and North Carolina, great educa-
tional gatherings to which farmers drove
with their wives and children, coming in
some instances from twenty to twenty
five miles from their little farms among
the Crags or in the Valleys
Teaching Boys How to Live
Fairs o: learning. the meetings might
be called, tn which women brought tubs
and buckets and wash boilers Of corn
bread and bacon. But the men no
whisky. though they are moonshlners by
common rumor. Such has been the work
Of DR.. ClaXton. with the editing of eiu-
Cational journals as an incident in his
labors. Now, at the age of forty-nine,
modern, vigorous, technical, and practi-
cal, he is big enough to understand the
faults in the American system OF edu-
cation and enthusiastic enough to attempt
their correction. He believes in teaching
boys and girls how to live their own
lives and not the lives which are beyond
them and which they could neither enjoy
nor enrich were they 10 reach
The whole matter is summed up in the
two words, vocational training" Ar
artist ordinarily would make a ridiculous
merchant. He would break up. Worse
still, his neighbors would laugh at him
A boy with a bent toward bargains OF
agriculture would cut a sad figure work
ing over a canvas or a book. The .oCcU-
pational msfits of the world are its un-
known tragedies. Only a disappointed
man here and there has the courage tC
confess-not his sin, but the transgres-
sion of his parents, commonly of the
father, whose obstinaCy sometimes is
greater than his own success.
why is it," I asked DR.. ClaXton, TAX
ing up the favorite lamentation of the
men who, fortunately for themselves,
dictate all their letters to stenographers,
why IS it," I inquired, that so many