Newark evening star and Newark advertiser., 1914-12-05
STATE TEACHERS
IN ANNUAL
GATHERING HERE
Principal of William Penn High
School Addresses Meeting
in Library.

High school teachers from all parts
OF New Jersey are in attendance to-
day at the thirty ninth semi-annual
meeting OF the New Jersey High
School Association, in the Free Public
Library.
The following officers were elected;
President. George l.. Bennett, OF
Hackensack; vice-president, William
f. Little. Elizabeth: secretary. Alice
L. Brewster, Trenton; treasurer
A. #. Frost, Hackensack, and member
of the executive committee, Ralph
e. Files, Hackensack.
Professor Lewis, In his address on
"The School and the Citizen" said:
1--WE have been all along running
our schools as if our children were
10 i've under a despotism, where the
bixhest virtue is unthinking obedi-
ence and this habit Is the one most
favorable to the government of the
people by a Barnes or a Murphy IN
obedience to the corrupt interests
that they serve" declared professor
Lewis in discussing school discipline
and administration with relation to
it's effect upon shaping the students
mind SO as to fit him for his future
work as a citizen of the community.
"The administration and discipline
of the school must be shaped, SAID
the speaker, ito further the end or
training habits of thought and 3c-
tion SO that they shall conserve
community interests The schools
should. through their discipline and
administration, become laboratories
of community thought, which shall
always place the welfare OF the
school community as the criterion OF
Individual and community action With
In the school," Mr.. Lewis drew
illustrations Of his thought along
this line from the viewpoint of
school discipline and Of civic train
ing.
what is the purpose Of the Amer
ican public school?' he said, in part,
for which the people are paying
about six million dollars annually?
There are two answers;
"One-The answer of tradition,
based upon the theory that knowl-
edge of itself is sufficiently desirable
10 Justify this expense, and that the
fundamental purpose of the school Is
the increase in the sum total knowl-
edge.
"Two-The answer based upon the
modern social conscience, which en-
phasizes the necessity of education
aimed to secure the most intelligent,
conscientious, patriotic and efficient
citizenship possible.
Must Become Wage Farmers.
"If we agree with the second an
swer we shall recognize, first, that
every citizen must become a wage
Garner, and that with the mere tools
of learning acquired perhaps In the
first six grades OF the elementary
school it is The function of the school
to prepare him to contribute some-
thing valuable to society in return
for his support. This, of course,
does not mean that the secondary
school shall be trade school, but
it does mean that it shall have dis
tInctly practical aims. 1t means
that the school must study on the
first hand the needs Of the coumu-
nifty that is giving it support. and
on the other hand the possibilities
and tendencies of the individual stu
dents in way to connect personal
fitness with public demands.
.sSecond-This view of education
viii insist that the girls who are being
educated in the public school shall be
trained to take their natural and in
evitable place in the community as
home makers. According to the last
census S6.7 per cent. of American
women twenty-five years old and over
are married. If the public high school
Is to fulfil it's community obligation
TO the future wives and mothers of
the nation 1t must give them some
basis for efficiency In this-woman'
most important work in the world.
"Third-If the school is TO render
it's young citizens more efficient be-
cause of the expensive training the
public is furnishing its whole curricu-
lum must be so planned and so ad-l
ministered as to function in the Inn
provement of civic thought. This will
mean a revolution In the course OF
study; first. in the inslstence upon
a much larger content along social,
political, historical and economic
lines. and, second, in the method of
teaching these subjects which shall
enable the young citizen 10 interpret
the problems of community life in
terms of community welfare. No
longer will mere dry recital of facts
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