The Caledonian-record. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1920-current, 1922-10-13

prooIot # You consult thi2 worn
you will find exactly what the con-
vcrsation was. Ptolmey was con.
vcrsing with Euclid about a series
OF geometrical propositions. Ptol-
tmcy, very much interested, asked a
perfectly natural question, as
there any ether way by which this
conclusion may be reached?" Eu-
cid answered, 81 know of no other
royal road" Note that. He said
that he knew of no other road
that was royal. What does this
mean? It means, doesn't it, that
there might be other roads to geo.
mctIY, but this fine series of intel
lirent, clear, reasoning was a roy
al one. Euclid said just the OPP
posite of what, for centuries, sore
head, discouraging teachers have
been attributed to him. OF course
the road to learning, if you are ac-
companied by a slillful, sympathe-
tic, encouraging teacher DESTROYS
of your success is d royal one.
It's my business and your bust
ness not to make school work
babyish, not to make it so easy
that / do all the work and the
pupils, none, but to make it so in
tclesting, SO attractive, so enjoy
able that it becomes a royal road
and so that everyone seeing g
teacher Is moved to say, there's q
royal good fellow"
In the afternoon Mr.. McAndrew
reviewed experiences and formula
ted conclusions as to the main
work of a Superintendent Of
schools. The small town supcrin-
tendent and the manager of the
school system Of the largest city
are given such variety and
amount Of problems and tasks that
unless the superintendent organ
ICES his duties and makes up his
mind as to those which he will per-
sonally perform and those which
he will delegate he cannot master
his Job but will be mastered by it.
The speaker argued that the sup
Elementary duties; correspondence,
requests from various sources,
participation in various public
services, hiring of teachers, are all
necessary and must be done but
they are not the things of greatest
importance. Unless the Superin-
tendent supelintends, that is, gets
into the classroom, sees what the
daily work Of all his schools is,
makes note of excellencies and de
ficencies. holds frequent confer
enccs with his workers, making
clear what the needs of the com
munitv are. his year will slip away
from him and, is spite of all his
hard work, he will find his schools
no farther along than they were
at the beginning of the year
Mr.. McAndrew emphasized the
decided difference in control of
workers between a school superin-
tendent and the head of an indus
trial or commercial concern. School
superintendent often go astray
by feeling that they can get rid of
a teacher or principal as easily as
a factory foreman can discharge
Incompetent help. All through the
country teachers are very common
ly related to prominent citizens
OF members of school boards or
have other ties so hard for a super
IN l.,
economical Of time and stIDhgth
to endeavor to make good teachers
out of every one who is appointed.
The Superintendent is more of
converting rather than
casting out. For this reason he
must rely more on the general
than industrial en-
ployers do. Going from school to
school, let him take note Of the
stupidities which cling
to even our best intentioned teach
ers. They have been taught so and
unconsciously they repeat the
error. The worst of these
is the cultivation of parrot-like
memory in children in place of
training them to question, to pom
der, to form judgments to under
stand, that is, to think. The speak
er gave illustrations of wasteful
teaching in which the childen Glib
~ repeated statements but with
most rudimentary idea of what
they were talking about.
The big purpose of public
schools, for which all the citizen
whether they have any children or
not, are taxed is the general well
fare Of the community. The schools
contribute to it by an output of
The trouble with many teachers is
that the yarc satisfied only with
intelligence well-meaning citizens
Covering the lesson" When
teacher prepares herself day by
day for her service she is likely to
prepare geography or arithmetic
or some other Subject" These
are not the things which the found
crs of public schools had in mind
when they established the Ameri-
can system. They declared that by
education as a function of gov
each succeeding genera