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saint, a mighty ruler, a great poet? What effect is produced by this employment of specific for general terms?

16. Point out examples of rhetorical effect produced by the use of the interrogative form. Change all such interrogative sentences into statements.

17. Show the manner in which the "lot" of the "rude forefathers" confined their crimes.

18. Enumerate the advantages and disadvantages of the lot of the rude forefathers of the hamlet. According to our poet, what is the price of worldly greatness? Quote the stanza in which the poet summarizes the lowly condition of those buried in this country churchyard.

19. In stanza 24, is Gray thinking of himself or of the humble writer of the rustic epitaphs? Discuss the question at length.

20. How far do you think that the parallel which the poet draws between the life of an obscure village and the larger life of the world is practically justified? Discuss at length.

American Notes-Editorial

The discussion of vocational versus cultural education continues to occupy the attention of those who speak and write upon educational subjects; and the swing of the pendulum toward vocational training is still strong. The age is a practical one. Immediate effects and close-at-hand values appeal to the masses, who, after all, are the power to be reckoned with. They are the ones who furnish the children to be educated and the money with which to pay the bills. There is undoubtedly a clear call from the people to the educators to furnish schooling that will fit the boys and girls for their jobs. More than ninety percent of these will go directly from school to business, the trades, or to some practical vocation, and they must be trained in the schools so that they will stand a good chance of becoming selfsupporting and able to make a real though humble contribution to human welfare from the start. Certain studies, books, tools and appliances will secure this result. Other kinds of instruction furnish values that are remote and difficult to estimate. So the tendency is to eliminate the latter and substitute that which can be seen and handled. Educators must not underestimate the significance of this popular demand. But no more is it necessary or wise to overestimate it. Culture still remains the great prize, the ultimate end of the educational process if we only make the meaning of the word culture broad enough. Culture is the appropriation by the individual of the accumulated experience of the race. For ages man has been learning how to live. His training has been immensely costly. But he has learned many things that are worth the price he has paid for them. Much of this comes to each individual almost without effort. He inherits it or absorbs it. But for some of the best of it he must consciously strive. It is not to be had for the asking. It is imbedded in the literature of the ages, embalmed in many different languages, hidden away in the archives of many arts and sciences. He must discipline his faculties by severe studies, he must cultivate his taste, develop his scent for error, strengthen his grip on truth, win self control by wrestling with many a hard and elusive problem, before he can lay claim to any large degree of culture. We have all been fashioned for a larger life than we have attained and no man is cultivated who is not growing. This larger vision must be given to our young people in their school days. They must get a conception of life that is not limited by the sales counter or the tool chest. If they do not get it in school the probability is that they will never get it. The people, the masses, who are just now so insistent on a practical education are going to see by and by that if their children do not get this life-giving vision before they enter the machine shop or the counting room they will remain forever mere cogs in a wheel, mere automatons and never

come into their birthright. The pendulum is having its strong swing now to the vocational side.. It will presently steady down to a moderate rhythm that will mean a just balance between bread and butter and the humanities. Both are good, and needful. Our present duty is to remember the saying of the wise counsellor who said "These ought ye to have done and not to leave the other undone."

We would not add to the burdens of the already over-burdened teachers, but we nevertheless venture to call attention to an often forgotten or overlooked responsibility which in the nature of things does rest upon them. We refer to their responsibility for the general educational intelligence of the community in which they are doing their work. This is the same kind of responsibility that the college-bred man or woman has for the community in which he takes up his abode after having enjoyed the privileges of a higher education than the majority of his fellow citizens. Or it may be compared to the responsibility of the clergy of a given city or town for the moral sentiments and standards of the people among whom they live and labor. The teachers of a given locality should see to it that the parents and citizens generally are at least as well informed in regard to modern educational progress as they are about the mutations of the stock market, details of society events, and the successes or failures of base ball nines.

It must be confessed that there is on every hand a woeful lack of interest in the schools on the part of parents. This arises partly from a complete ignorance of what is going on in the educational life of today. The fact has not yet been realized by the majority of people that education is a great profession with its own scientific laws, its literature, its methods, which are all vitally related to the success or failure of their own lives and the lives of their children as well as that of the nation and of the race itself. These truths must be brought home to the consciousness of the majority by the efforts of the minority who have seen them. By thought and effort, by an acceptance of this real responsibility, by personal conversation and public speaking and writing, by and through parents' associations, teachers' meetings and various educational gatherings, the teachers of America must. break the bonds of ignorance and indifference and create an educational public sentiment that shall be adequate, progressive, uplifting. This is a part of their work, a real responsibility for which they must be held accountable.

The National Council of Teachers of English has appointed a Committee of five to investigate the status of the present study and teaching of the English branches in the country schools of the United States, and to suggest methods for improving the conditions as found.

The committee consists of Mr. Walter Barnes, Chairman of the Glenville Normal School, Glenville, W. Va.; Dr. Harold W. Foght, specialist in rural education, of the Bureau or Education, Washington, D. C.; Mr. J. W. Dinsmore of the Kent Normal School, Kent, Ohio; Miss Mabel Carney, of the Illinois State Normal University, Normal, Ill., and Miss Florence M. Lane, of the First District Normal School, Kirksville, Mo. The committee has sent out questionaires to the State Department of Schools of the various states, which will serve as the basis for the investigation and for the recommendations for improvement in the pedagogy of this important series of branches. This, the first comprehensive study in this field, is significant of the attention that the rural school is receiving from students of educational problems. The Committee's report will probably be made at the Thanksgiving meeting of the Council, after which it will be published.

The Auditor of the state of Ohio announces that a monthly article will be issued describing the activities of the various state departments and institutions. The one for July is devoted to Wilberforce University and deals with the progress that has been made in Ohio in the education of the colored race. It points out the fact that we hear so much about Negro illiteracy in America that few realize what remarkable progress the race has made, especially during the past score of years. When we contemplate the past condition of the Afro-American and consider the blighting effects mentally and morally of two hundred and fifty years of servitude, when we remember that slaves were treated as animals and deprived of all educational opportunities and that in most southern states it was a crime to teach a Negro his letters; and when, also, we recall that even in the north they were excluded from the public schools, it is truly remarkable the progress the race has made since liberated. Considering the fact that the civil war freed four million Negroes who were absolutely illiterate and perfectly destitute, the story of their educational progress since is in many respects the most marvelous chapter in the history of American civilization.

The first move to furnish a seminary of learning for the colored race in Ohio originated with Daniel A. Payne, a self-educated negro of Charleston, S. C. As a result of his efforts Union Seminary, near Columbus, was organized in 1844. That Payne was one of the great benefactors of his race and had rare foresight is shown by the fact that the school was started on the manual training plan. Union Seminary, by reason of location and other circumstances, made slow growth but it was the pioneer and contributed largely to the founding of Wilberforce University and was finally in 1863 consolidated with the latter institution. While there are numerous, small colleges, there are only about a half-dozen great universities in America for the

higher education of the Negro race-Atlanta University, Fisk at Nashville, Howard at Washington, Shaw at Releigh, Leland at New Orleans and Wilberforce at Xenia-and Wilberforce stands at the head of the list.

Notes from Various Sources Worth Reproducing in Brief.

Chapters on "Roman Catholic Schools," "Typical Health-Teaching Agencies of the United States," and "Parent-Teacher Associations" are special features of the annual report of the United States Commissioner of Education, just issued.

Every high school graduate in Nebraska receives a letter from the University of Nebraska congratulating him on his graduation and urging him to consider the advantages offered by the State University.

A vocational summer school, with practical men and women in charge of it, was in operation in Baltimore, Md., this year. Printing and woodwork were among the subjects taught the boys; the girls had cooking, sewing, and other household branches.

The National Kindergarten College, in Chicago, devoted a large part of its summer program to the methods of Dr. Montessori. Two of Dr. Montessori's graduate students, who have spent over a year with her in Rome, had charge of the practice work with the children.

Kindergartens in Worcester, Mass., cost on an average $31.56 per pupil for the year; elementary grades, cost $34.01; high school, $66.50.

One-tenth of all the public school teachers in New Jersey were engaged in professional study at summer schools this year. There were over 300 at Ruters College alone, attending the first summer session ever held by the State College. Three other summer schools for teachers have recently been established by State appropriations. Besides indicating a resolve to raise the standand of teaching, the movement marks the beginning of closer relations between Rutgers College and the general educational needs of the State.

Miss Sarah Louise Arnold, the dean of Simmons College and formerly supervisor of schools of Boston, has been re-elected president of the American Home Economics Association. Miss Arnold is actively interested in many other educational problems besides those

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