St. Johnsbury Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1867-1919, 1912-12-11
wOru. MEETING,
Interesting Paper on Character
Buiolng i'm Une PuDHc Schools


The monLnIy meeting OF the wom-
ans Chrlsuan Temperance Union
was heid al the home or Mrs. A. b..
Noyes, tuesday. NOV. 70.
OWING 10 the Illness of the pres
ldent aud vice presIuents, the secre-
.ary, MRS. Il. r. Farrell presIued,
mrst leaalng the deVouonaI service
with MIs. y. A. CramJon at the
piano. Mrs. Farrell gave a compre-
nensIYe report OF the OCTOBER meet
ing, and MRS. II. N. Turner WAS
sIecLed chairman Of the committee,
whose WORK VIII be 10 prepare the
~alenuars 1or the coming year, WIN
power 10 choose her own associates.
Character Building in the Public
schools, was the topic for the uay,
and the paper was by Mrs. A. Is.
.Voyes.
The consideration of the topic be-
gan, DR.. Eliot says: There mas
Jeen improvement In the hrst eight
grades since 1870. but it is relauVe-
y small. \ ct the great majority oI
american children 40 not get be-
onu the elgnLh." The dean of the
teachers College, New ork, says
our educauonaI system is wasteIuI
and inefficient. 1t is unfair. IL does
not do what the founders of the re-
JuDnc promised. 1t does not give
equality of opportunity. 1t gives IL
Oniy 10 those VINO can go on TO col
4ege and university" Judge Robert
grant of Boston says, 80 long as
he American IaJher and mother
continue to be suDInneIy Indifferent
% the condition of the public schools
he pubic schools Will never be so
good as they ought to be-" The dean
of St. Johns Cathedral of Denver
lays, 1.-The people have changed, but
not the system: it has grown anti
Iuated, and will not meet our pres
emit needs. 1t has indeed become
positive detriment, and is producing
type of character which is not nj
to meet Virtuously the temptations
and the exigencies of modern life. The
crime which stalks almost unblush-
.ngly through the land, the want OF
responsibility which defames our So
cial hour; the appalling frequency
of divorce; the utter lack OF self
control; the abundant use of illicit
means to gain political positions; are
all tTaceable to it's one great and
crying observation-disclosures
Quotations were read also from a
book on Changing Conceptions of Ed
dcation by Il. +. Cubberley, profes-
sor of education at Leland Stanford
Jr. University, one of which was,
Our national development advances
faster than our educational prac--
tice."
Beginning with the August num-
Der of the Ladies Home Journal
each month has articles on this
question: THE case of II million
Children" lis our Public School
system proving an utter failure?"
1.-THE whole system of the elemen-
tary public school is keyed abso-
lutely and conducted solely for enc
aim: to III the pupil for graduation
20 the high school. Now how many
pupils from the elementary schools
enter the high schools, you ask?
Here you have the joker in the whole
situation-just seven out of every
one hundred.
Only five pupils, now, in every 100
go from the public school to the col
Iege And all this time, to meet the
requirements of the other ninety
five who do not go to college, nothing
is offered. Nothing, in any way, is
offered TO fit ninety-five out OF every
one hundred girls and boys for prac-
teal lives. AS to manual training
it is principally introduced into
the high schools, so not particle Of
practical education reaches those
ninety-three boys and girls who
stop at the elementary school and
who leave all school at about the
! age o. sixteen.
Extracts from Senator G. S. Pages
bill on vocational education were
read: Vocational education helps
the boy to find himself especially
if we link this with the seventh and
eighth grades-before compulsory
education ceases eve want the
besL boy that we can make out of the
one that we get. We want the girl *
grow to be the best woman we car
assist her to become. This is the
main business of education-to hell
a person grow from what he is tC
what he ought to be-" Mrs. Noyei
read in closing from 4 lecture giveI
in the Teachers course at U. V. M
in 1909 by the tate President M. ID
Buckham, Moral Conditions in In
tellectual Attainment" The sum
ming up Of this valuable lecture Il
"a legitimate inference from GU
position is one which a teacher ma.
we'll hesitate to draw, but which n
can not evade-namely, that the sue