Imágenes de páginas
PDF
EPUB

⚫valley, and combines an endless variety of river, lake and mountain scenery, with a temperature that is favorable for recreation or for work. It is in the latitude and has the identical attractions of the noted New Hampshire summer resorts. The average maximum temperature for August for ten years past was 78 degrees, the minimum 52 degrees. The average number of days of sunshine 20.7. There are many attractive opportunities for mountain climbing, boating, fishing, golfing, etc., with abundant provision for scholastic pursuits under the guidance of able professors. Courses count toward the master's degree.

The summer school of New York University which opens for its seventeenth year on July 5th, offers more than one hundred and thirtyfive courses of exceptional value and interest. These are divided into two main groups, i. e., courses primarily pedagogical and courses primarily collegiate. The former consist of general courses in education, psychology, experimental pedagogy and school hygiene, and special methods and training courses in the departments of kindergarten training, music, manual arts, domestic art, domestic science and school gardens. The general courses are given by professors in the school of pedagogy of the university, and the special courses are in charge of well-known specialists in the various departments. The work in manual arts is directed by Dr. Haney of the New York City schools, and that in music by principal Thomas Tapper of the Institute of Musical Art.

There are some eighty courses which are described as "Primarily Collegiate." These are in languages, political science, commercial subjects and sciences, are given by members of the university faculty, and are credited in the collegiate schools of the university. A considerable number of these courses are also offered for graduate credit toward the degrees of M. A. and Ph. D. Such are research courses in Semitics, English, French, political science and chemistry.

The problem of the summer vacation is a perplexing one to many people, both old and young. It is hard to know what to do with boys and girls of grammar and high school age. A host of them are turned loose late in June and regular duties are not resumed until about the middle of September. It is an age of restlessness and surplus energy, and the old proverb is still all too true that "Satan finds mischief for idle hands to do." The rich find some relief in change of scene and in the amusements which can be bought. The poor sometimes find employment which helps out the scanty home

income. The greatest difficulty comes, we fancy, in the middle. classes, where the ordinary routine of the rest of the year is for the most part continued, with short breaks perhaps, to visit "the old folks at home," or by days of outing at the shore. Time, however, hangs heavy in many instances, with the active boys and girls, after the newness of the first days of vacation has worn off. We believe that ultimately the present school year will be considerably modified. By shortening the summer vacation it would be possible to give the whole of Saturday each week in the year for a holiday. It would also allow time for many things which are now crowded out of the curriculum. The distribution of at least one month, or better, of six weeks, of the present long vacation, in the form of extra hours of recreation and varied work through the year, is a much-needed reform. It has much in its favor and little against it. We hope to see this reform brought about.

The burning of the extensive and admirably administered state library of New York, with the destruction of the capitol last month, was an appalling calamity. It had become one of the greatest in the world in its equipment and in its usefulness to the people. It was especially rich in educational material and under the able administration of the educational interests of the state by Commissioner Andrew S. Draper, the library and educational department closely cooperated. Dr. Draper has issued an appeal "to all concerned in the intellectual progress of New York," to exert their influence toward recovery from the shock of the loss and provision for the construction and equipment of a new library that shall equal or surpass the one burned. We quote a few noble sentences of courage and hope from Dr. Draper's appeal:

"The state library which has been all but destroyed by fire, was the great instrument of the intellectual and moral culture of the state. Its collections related to every subject and reached out to every moral, professional, commercial and industrial interest of the commonwealth. Its law library was beyond the ordinary: it provided what ordinary law libraries could not furnish. So with its medical, technological, genealogical, theological, educational and other collections. Its books were sent not only to all manner of organizations engaged in culturing study, but freely to individuals in every town in the state. All this is paralyzed and completely stopped. Yet we are not dismayed. We will gather up the ruins and cherish and make the most of them; and we will lay broader and stronger foundations and erect a superstructure on nobler and richer lines than the old library had."

National Education Association Notes.

SAN FRANCISCO, JULY 8-14, 1911.

Here is the invitation! It is expressed with breezy western heartiness and hospitality. Gentle reader, it is for you. And the host does nothing by halves. Every promise, you may rest assured, will be made more than good.

TO THE TEACHERS OF AMERICA: All California invites you to the New San Francisco in July, 1911, to attend the National Education Association convention. The hotel facilities in the rebuilt city will accommodate 60,000 people, and every hotel is pledged not to advance rates. After seeing the marvelous work of a great city rebuilt in four short years, you can make San Francisco the center for seeing California. Why not plan to attend the convention-then visit the Yosemite, the various groves of the Big Trees, the Redwood country, the Tahoe or Shasta resorts, southern California, the great canyons of the Sierras or some of the many beach or mountain resorts scattered throughout our wonderland? If you are interested in industrial California we shall be glad to show you our orange groves, our orchards, our vineyards, our great wheat ranches, our gold mines and our forests. Why not make definite plans now for a real vacation in California? It will never be more enjoyable; it will never cost so little. The latch string will be out when you cross the California line. We shall hope to see you in the New San Francisco next July. Remember, the latch string will be out.

VACATION AT SMALL COST. At such resorts as Coronado Tent City (San Diego), Catalina, Santa Cruz Tent City, Pacific Grove, Shasta Retreat, etc., furnished tents may be rented for light housekeeping. In delicacy stores found at such resorts, hot soups, meats, salads, etc., may be secured during certain hours, while arrangements may always be made for occasional or regular meals at the hotels. If camping facilities are utilized in this way (as is done by hundreds each year), a party of four or more can easily spend six weeks in California at low cost while attending the N. E. A. convention.

SEEING SAN FRANCISCO. A study of reconstructed San Francisco, with its Golden Gate, its splendid harbor, ocean frontage, wharves and shipping, parks, markets, military reservations, old mission, public buildings, unique Chinatown, historic points and near-by reports, will well repay the teachers and their friends for a visit to California in July, 1911. The best way to make a comprehensive study of the city is by the "Seeing San Francisco" personally conducted trips by street car, tally-ho or car, tally-ho or automobile, at cost ranging from 50 cents to $1.00 per person.

CALIFORNIA SUMMER SCHOOLS. The summer schools of both the University of California and of the California School of Arts and Crafts will be held in Berkeley, from June 26th to August 4th. Electric car lines make the trip from Berkeley to Oakland in twenty minutes, and the greatly improved ferry service has reduced the ride to San Francisco to thirty-five minutes. The fare to San Francisco is but ten cents.

WRAPS BUT NO UMBRELLAS. The summer climate of California along the coast and in the mountains is remarkable for its cool days and cool nights, which, together with its uniformity and absence of humidity, makes it ideal for summer outings. There is no rain the summer through to interfere with camping out. The variation along the coast between the maximum temperature of summer and winter very rarely exceeds fifteen degrees, and the difference between mean temperatures very rarely exceeds ten degrees. The Pacific coast is very much cooler in summer than the Atlantic, and any visitor to the convention may be sure of suffering absolutely not one day of discomfort from hot weather or from storm either at California beaches or in California mountains. Visitors to the N. E. A. convention may safely leave umbrellas at home, but should bring their

wraps.

LOCAL ORGANIZATION. A complete organization of local committees for San Francisco and California has been effected, including active workers from all parts of the state. This organization consists of a general committee of fourteen members, an executive committee of ten members, and sixteen sub-committees for the various divisions of the work of preparation for the convention. All committees are now actively at work in completing arrangements for the convention.

BOOKLET WITH FULL INFORMATION. The California committee has issued a booklet as a help to teachers planning to attend the convention. The booklet gives a very definite idea of the cost of the trip to San Francisco, the cost of convention week in San Francisco, places of interest in and near San Francisco, and the cost of a week or more at points of interest throughout California, with the cost in each case. With the booklet any teacher will be able to plan the trip with a very definite idea of its cost. Copies may be obtained by writing to Felton Taylor, Secretary N. E. A. committee, Merchants' Exchange Building, San Francisco, or to James A. Barr, City Superintendent of Schools, Stockton, California.

See page XIII for details of New England's and other eastern states' excursion to the N. E. A. meeting.

EDUCATIONAL EXPERIMENTS. This is emphatically an era of educational experiments, even governments are encouraging them, to say nothing of publishers who are finding out that it pays to exploit them. Fortunately the public, that is the part of the public interested in education, and this class includes besides all educators, the great majority of mothers, are demanding some discrimination as to the matter exploited. A distracted teacher, vainly striving to sift out the essential from the multitude of experiments claiming attention, welcomes the critical analysis which discloses what is valuable, or the opposite, in each. It is just in this respect that French critics are especially helpful. With characteristic logic they get at the main elements of a theory or an institution while the native passion for novelty induces a sympathetic appreciation even of efforts in which there is little to approve. These reflections are excited by a review of Tolstoi and the school of Yasnaïa-Poliana in the March number of L' Education (Paris). In a few brief pages the young author, a professor of the Russian language at the Ecole des Roches-itself an educational experiment-passes in review the spirit and method of that short-lived enterprise in which the great Russian author embodied his fundamental principle of education, "absolute respect for the will of the child." The confusion and the paradoxies to which the experiment led are sketched in a few graphic passages and fully refute the principle.

It is perhaps not generally known that in spite of his abhorrence of fixed programs, Tolstoi himself, in his later years, admitted that there were certain subjects that should be taught all children. These he classified in seven groups as follows: religious and philosophical; natural sciences; mathematics; living languages; drawing and modeling; music and singing; manual work. This is very like the usual programs with omission of history and geography. Some notions of these subjects, however, could not fail to enter a child's mind from the study of the Bible, to which Tolstoi gave a large place in his system.

In his early teachings, Tolstoi made great distinction between instruction and education. Later referring to the early notion, he said: "I recognize that the division which I then made between instruction and education is purely artificial. Instruction and education are inseparable. It is impossible to form character without transmitting knowledge; all knowledge exercises a formative influence."

It is a significant fact that the most revolutionary genius of our time should have come to recognize the necessity of system and that, starting with the will of the child as the guiding star in education, he should, in fine, be found advocating purposes formed in entire independence of that capricious impulse.

« AnteriorContinuar »