Orleans County monitor. [volume] (Barton, Vt.) 1872-1953, 1921-02-02
County Teachers Convention.

|
Thursday and Friday.
! Among those educators present to
address the meetings were Payson
Smith, commissioner of education of
Massachusetts,. Mason Stone former
Vermont Commissioner of Education,
who was present as substitute for C..
h. Dempsey present Commissioner,
who was unable to be present, and
Hon. John w. Redmond of Newport
addressed the convention Thursday
| afternoon in the absence of Walter
Ranger, Commissioner of Rhode Is
land.
Other prominent speakers were c..
f. Dalton, secretary of the State
Board of Health, and Miss Mabel E.
Turner of Boston, also j. d. Whittier.
The following county superintendents
were also present: E. A. Hamilton
of Newport, G. j. Batchelder of Bar
ton, E. S. Boyd of West Charleston
and Supt. Dugan of Newport Center.
At half past one Thursday after
noon the opening session of the con-
] vention began with singing of famil-
| lar songs inv which all joined. The
singing was in charge of Rev. l.. A.
| Edwards. After the invocation it was
| announced that owing to slight ac-
StACHI VSuIcSudy, ~. H. DcIHpSey,
State Commissioner of Education, was
unable to be present.
Payson Smith of Massachusetts,,
Commissioner of Education, spoke on
''The Tests of the Teacher" and was
listened to with rapt attention by the
large audience.
Mr.. Smith said that the require
ments of persons to teach in Mass
achuSettS were the least stringent O.
any state in the U. S. The Superin-
tendeht of schools in that state said
that one whC cCG d answer eyes" t.
the questions, Can you eat?" "Can
you sleep?" anI "Can you laugh?'
was considered a worthy applicant
for school,
To be good teacher one must have
a natural love for children. One mus.
also be capable of learning and allow
ing ones mind to grow and not con-
slider that education ended with =
diploma from high school or college
1t is possible for a teacher to be-
come SO staid and prim in ideas and
conception of things in general that
mental somersault is necessary to
open ones mind for modern practices
and teachir gs. Again, a teacher
should try to be able to put import
ant things in the important places
and to get tie proper perspective of
the things at hand, and after we find
out what we are after, or what the !
important thing in the lesson is, to |
bear stress upon that and show the |
relation of other facts to that central
idea. There is too much random,
pointless teaching.
Teachers should avoid carrying a |
misplaced attitude to things. A lack |
of thoroughncss is caused by these |
things. A thorough knowledge of !
arithmetic may De gained by holding
to the fundamc ltal processes, addi-
tion, substraction, multiplication and
division. A person who has children
to lead should be able to see things
from child's point of view and teach
things through life. Leadership
should be ones test for ability as
teacher.
Following this, after community
singing, Honorable J. w. Redmond
spoke on different practices which
tended to education. Mr.. Redmond
said he felt like the man who, when
told how many thousand teachers the
New York census embraced said he
wished he was the census. Mr..
Redmond said that education was not
educated mind was not one which
knew lot, and an uneducated one
who did not but an educated man
had trained mind and an uneducated
man had an unframed mind. Educa-
ton does not lie in book learning.
Some times cook book is more es-
sential than Millions Paradise Lost.
One should train the mind by exer-
else. Education is not putting knowi- t
edge into boys and girls but drawing
it out. School is the place for that. +
Things must be recalled to the men, 6
Dry to be remembered. t
Mason S. Stone was the second /
speaker of Thursday afternoon and '
orefaced his remarks by saying that b
while he was here as a matter of }
in filling some one else's S
pace yet he was glad to come. He /
spoke of the different ways and places i
4 teacher functions in the world. He
said that while we have a govern S
nent of democratic republican form e
yet the extent to which we enjoy lib d
'rty is determined by our conception {
If the limits of freedom. Liberty is b
bounded by law. While we have no p
.ree to do it. Laws should not be
NooAANoSN W oPPICSo. VIC dIS | =
lights not only to be happy but to a
make the most of ourselves. e
In government like ours it is t
necessary that the peo- +
,le be educated. In our government |,
here are several things to be con- s
ldered: First the dollars and cents, t
hen who is to be the beneficiary, and h
i course it is the child. The school, t.
5 the transforming station where the f
hid is worked upon. Here is where y
he teacher functions and his work b
5 varied. One of the essentials which a
he teacher must understand in her g
work. is that the child must be taught s.
o think for itself. There is differ
nee between thinking and memoriz-
tion. In a thought there are two
arts, the subject or thing thought,
nd what is thought about it. We
ever think only in names OF. words.
here is a subject and expression to p
ach thought. A child should be
rained to think through observation,
Experience and instruction. The stud
Mt must be utilized he can master
ne compass of his mind. There are m
500 different ideas in the average ps
lan's mind which he is capable of