The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1911-10-28
Schools Cannot ! Teach FinesSe
Teachers Unable, Says Dr. Snzzall0, to Transmit Finer
 Ideals to Pupils
RELIGIOUS PROBLEM FALSE
Professor Moore, of Yale, at Teachers
 Convention, Advises Dropping of Latin.

F Declaring that the finer and more exquisite fruitage of life could never be taught in the schools of the coun- try because the average school teach 1. CT is recruited from remote centers of refinement, and because of her ob- HgatIon to sustain a family of seven on $650 year she was incompetent to transmit the finer ideals of social life to the children under her care, Dr. Henry Suzzallo, of Teachers Col lege, Columbia university, at the af- ternoon meeting of the sixty-f1fth an- nual meeting of the State Teachers Association of the state, in New Ha- ven. yesterday hit. hard at one or two of the prevailing traditions regarding the functions of the school, and show ed wherein the school transgressed it's peculiar functions.
 All religious agitatio is false agitation" said Dr. Suzzallo. '"The school is incompetent to deal with the emotional life of the child. The school of the present day has been compelled to take over many of the functions of the state temporarily, because the state is unable to dis charge those functions but the school has its limitations in this field. When this transitional period is passed, the proper institutions must accept their proper burdens, and the school may not be compelled to clothe, feed and
 
 child in the. public schools.
 4The school has three positive func- tions: the protective, illustrated in the early life of the child, but almost eliminated in it's later life;- the edu- cative, and the selective. The schools era were purely educational, but the demands of present day life have ne- cessitated that the protective function be accentuated, too, in the lower grades, but do let us keep these func- tions in their proper place. Do not let us assert that the playground work, dancing. gymnastics, etc, are educatiye. Play can never be edu- cative; it is primarily protective. and increases in its demands as the out ward environment of the child be- comes more detrimental to his ex- istence. These forms of activity mere 'ly satisfy demand that the home and state no longer satisfy. The pro- tective function decreases as we go farther through the grades and is en- -tirely negative in college life.
 Tn line with the third function of the school, the selective, 1t is incum- bent upon the schools to provide vo- cations for every child to gauge his possibilities as best adapted to the. strife with the world with which he will come in contact"
 The second speaker of the after T. sioner of education in Washington. D. C., pleaded not for Democracy in education the democracy that pro- vides every child according to his varying capability with the where withal to enter an honest and honor 1 able occupation, eliminating from it the slavery that makes it druggery. l Incidentally Dr.. Claxton aired with | humorous grace his versions on the 1 subject of culture, CT see no reason why housework I done with unselfish motives and with ! out thought of personal aggrandize- : ment, is any less cultured than learn : ing. Latin roots with the view of se- | curing decent berth in the public i schools to look down on the hand [ workers, as they pass by your lofty [ pedestal" said Dr. Claxton.
 4'The pie crust girl may be as cul- tured as the Shakespeare girl, pro- vided her work is done for others No | work is servile that has this mo- it is their business not to take the i, pupil away from any honorable work, but from the slavery that makes the occupation their master
 At the morning session, in the course of the round table discussion. many valuable suggestions, more or less radical were heard from the edu- cators present, notably, from Pro- lessor Moore. of the, Yale School of Pedagogy, who advocated the aboli- tion of Latin in the high schools: from Arthur B. Merrill, principal. of the normal school who suggested more coaching in preparing teachers at the dent Beede, of New Haven who em- F phasized the need of teaching polite ness in the primary grades of the schools.