Grand Forks herald. [volume] (Grand Forks, N.D.) 1916-1955, 1919-11-07
NORTHWESTERN E

uSpeHu {. upon physician size !. NO,
size. is a disadvantage. Upon mental.
upon the physical size, hut personal
fty. depends most upon, the soul power
Of the teacher, upon her ability to
touch the souls Of boys and girls.
The one thing that gives dignity to
the teachin~ profession is that the
work of the teacher is absolutely im-
mortal. The biggest factor in the
public schools is the personality of
he teacher and the biggest element
in the personality is her. soul power"
DIR. Howard Speaks.
Declaring that the need of the
world today is spiritual leadership, II
the idealism for which the great war
was won is to be retained, DIR. r. Lee
Howard Of Fargo college addressed
the teachers on Thursday night.
- P'esident Howard denounced all
movements tending to commercialize
the teaching profession to the extent
that teachers thought first, of salaries
and then of service. He likened
teachers to ministers Of the gospel,
and made a plea OF conservation Of
service. The co%nsecrated service Of
ministers and teachers can : safely
guide America through the critical
pc 'iod at hand, he said. Outlining
the duties Of teachers in. the recon-
strlction period, President Thomas
Kane of the North Dakota University,
spoke in part as follows:
Are we teachers doing our job?
Let me start out in true teacher fash
ion, by asking a question. / want you
fellow teachei IS to. think some of these
questions through with me. What IS
the purpose of this convention? Did
we think that question through def
jnitely before we came? Is the con-
vention held because other states have
such conventions?
A traveller in China, very much in
! terested in the Chinese pagoda, asked
a Chinaman if he .eeuld explain to
him why the pagoda always had ar
odd number Of stones. "Of course ]
can" was the Chinaman's answer
Then the man asked, why do you
always build your pagodas that way?'
Because" said the. Chinaman
That's the way to build pagodas."
Let us get it clear in our mind that
there is only one justification for q
fication is the better. preparation fol
an important task. We have a grea'
job OF our hands. We have q. cor.
~respondingly great obligation. Ac
co dinghy let our work in starting b
dignified by the consciousness tha'
we have an important work to do as
any group Of citizen in the common
wealth.. ,..
My second question is. why do VIZ
have these general sessions? tn.
teachers of mathematics, of science
!of French, of English. meet to con
slider methods Of teaching those sew.
eral subjects. Yes, we understand
that, but what is the general session
for? The general sessions are t,
bring to us that we teachers are all or
the same job, from the kindergarten
to the university. Another thing Il
that we represent the state, all thu
people of the state. President Ellio
of Harvard, vas fond of saying tina
their student body was made up o
picked men. A state system, we ar
glad to think, is different. It take
account of the SON and daughter o
every citizen of the, state. Hence tn.
general session is to emphasize tear
work toward the common sobjectFo
education in the state. !
Again. there is? a National Educa
ton Association. What is that for
We are a democracy. A democrsc,
without, education is. impossible. TIL
success and efficiency OF the nation T:
dependent on education. If there /
50 much at stake, have we teacher
been doing our job? The war teste'
every human institution, as by fire