The

PUBLIC INSTRUCTION

ASSOCIATION.

HE forty-second annual session of the State Teachers' Association of Pennsylvania was called to order in the Central Presbyterian church of New Castle, Pa., at 10:30 a. m., Tuesday, July 11th, 1897, by the President, Dr. D. J. Waller, Jr., Principal of Indiana State Normal School. The exercises opened with Scripture reading and prayer by Rev. M. H. Calkins, D. D., and music led by Prof. W. H. Young.

ADDRESSES OF WELCOME.

The first speaker on the program being absent, his place was acceptably filled by J. A. Gardner, Esq., who greeted the members of the Association on behalf of the people of New Castle. This he said was neither one of the largest nor one of the smallest cities of the State; not one of the oldest, nor yet the youngest. The early settlers were here in 1800, it was a borough in 1825, a city in 1869, and rated as a city of the third class since 1875. At the last census the population was between eleven and twelve thousand; since then growth has been so rapid they did not know how many to claim to day, but were somewhere between twenty and twenty-five thousand. The growth has been quiet, not spasmodic-no "land boom" and consequent collapse; few cities have stood the test of these panicky times so well. With favorable location, railroad facilities, and natural resources in the abundant coal and limestone of the

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surrounding hills, it was to be expected that manufacturing industries would flourish here; and our guests will find here rolling mills, steel mill, furnaces with a daily capacity of 1,800 tons; a nail mill with a monthly pay-roll of $120, 000, and a product of 3,000 kegs per day a tube mill of large capacity; the great est tin-plate mill in the world, with an annual output of $2,000,000, and various other industries well worth a visit. reason of success is the fact that the citizens own their industrial plants and have sympathy for their working people, which keeps the mills running even on a narrow margin (10 cents a keg in the nail mill). We have good street-car service, and have spent $200,000 on our streets during the past year. We have no great men to boast of, but the average of our people is high, and you will find us a good, hospitable, church going, God-fearing people. We are glad to have you here, and to look into your faces. All who are intelligently interested in the perpetuity of our institutions know that it depends upon nothing so much as the meetinghouse and the school-house. There is no calling more honorable or responsible in these troublous times than that of teaching. Earnest, active, intelligent teachers, who know what our country has cost, and that eternal vigilance is the price and preservative of our liberties, will assure the future of our government and its institutions. Our people thank those who

brought you here, and you for coming, and hope all of us will find your stay among us both pleasant and profitable.

Rev. H. G. Dodds, of the M. E. Church, said he wished to greet the members of the Association as the representative of the meeting-house and also of the school committee of this great city of New Castle, whose greatness he had never fully realized until he heard Mr. Gardner's speech. As one of the school board, he felt it a privilege to be related to educational work in these last days of the 19th century, when standing on tiptoe we may see the rising sun of another century, into which will be crowded more of life and power than in all the centuries before. As you lay the foundations for such a future, it is hard to fully appreciate the value of every moment of time. He would therefore only add that in extending the welcome of the school board, it came from an organization peculiarly representative, as all classes of the community were represented therein. The Board and the people will do all they can to make this a successful meeting, and expect both enjoyment and instruction. In conclusion, he claimed to extend the welcome not only of this people, but of the good people of all Christendom, to this body of earnest teachers.

Supt. J. W. Canon said since all Christendom had been heard from, further remarks seemed superfluous. But he wanted it understood that though the Legislature had made New Castle a thirdclass city, her people consider her firstclass, and wanted to convince their guests of the fact. Teaching is the grandest work in the world, the Pennsylvania Association is the grandest body of teachers, they have come together in the grandest city of the grand old Keystone State; and we propose to treat them so that they will go home convinced of all these facts. One of the attractions is our park, one of the most beautiful in the country, to which an excursion on the cars will be tendered the Association. He would only add to what had already been said, that everything possible shall be done to make the sojourn in New Castle pleasant.

After a duet by Mrs. Judge Wallace and Miss Nicklin, the gentleman named made the following

RESPONSES.

Dr. Geo. W. Hull, of Millersville Normal School, after contrasting the hopeful

tone of the addresses here with those at Scranton, where we were told we were laboring in a lost cause; and referring to the eight fine school-houses which evidenced the school sentiment of the people and the directors, said that if as we read "first impressions are lasting," there was no doubt we should go away with the pleasantest recollections of our stay among the good people of New Castle. He had made some hasty preparation, and now read the following:

My task to reply to this address of welcome is made easy by the full, cordial and heartfelt greeting we have received at the hands of the local committee. In the great struggle of popular education, with its defeats and discouragements, as well as its victories, it gives an army of hard workers, such as we are, substantial satisfaction to sit and listen to your warm words of greeting. Therefore, on behalf of the Executive Committee, and this great body of educators, we accept with grateful hearts the hospitality of your city, your people, and your homes. And I trust that this meeting of the Association may be so full of inspiration and profit that it may repay you in part for the time, labor and sacrifices you have made for our comfort.

Let me assure you that we have not come to this western city as excursionists, or as carpet-baggers, but as members of a great organization, whose wide-spread influence is felt far beyond the limits of this commonwealth. We come among you as men whose hearts are burdened with and whose lives are dedicated to the living issues of popular education. Therefore, we are not here simply to shake hands and exchange friendly greetings, not to compliment each other, not to pass a few high-sounding resolutions to tickle the ear of the public, and then to adjourn, and go without either inspiration or profit to our respective fields of labor; but we are here to work, and if need be to fight, to defend and to promote the highest interests of the rich legacy left us by Burrowes, Wickersham, Higbee, and a host of others who have left their impress upon the cause of popular education in Pennsylvania.

New Castle has always done her share to promote the general intelligence of the people. She furnished the chairman of the first Executive Committee this Association ever had, and she has maintained a lively interest in education through all these years.

If you turn to the second volume of the Pennsylvania School Journal, in the August number, 1853, you will find the call for the first meeting of this Association. There you will read as follows:

"The first meeting of this Association will be held in the city of Pittsburg on Friday, the 5th day of August, next, in the

hall of the Third Ward School, commencing at 9 o'clock. **** The great question of 'The duty of the State to educate all its children' will be brought up for examination. It is well known that combined attacks have been made in several other States, as well as threatened in our own, against the principle-the very basis of our Common School System-and while we may feel that, Gibraltar-like, the system stands too firm to be shaken, it is the part of a wise discretion that its friends measure well their position and their strength, and be prepared, in case of emergency, to enter the conflict and defend it. * * * * * From every county in the Commonwealth let the friends of education assemble, bringing with them a knowledge of the workings of the system in their respective localities, that data may be had upon which to base measures adapted to remedy the defects of the law."

This call I think was formulated by Wm. Travis, of New Castle, Lawrence county, Pa. This is interesting at this time for two reasons: first, to show that this city was in the fight for free schools nearly a half century ago, and, second, it shows the spirit of the founders of this Association. They were pugnacious men; men who always came up to the meetings of this body prepared to contend earnestly for what they deemed to be the great need of a free people. And they accomplished a grand work. only just to credit, either directly or indirectly, the members of this honored body, some of whom are now living and among us to-day, the formation and perfection of, ist, the Public Schools; 2d, the State and County Superintendency; 3d, the Normal School System; 4th, the County Institute.

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They fought well, and may be justly proud of their victories. The memorials sent out all over this State in honor of Burrowes, Wickersham and Higbee were just and right, and a fit tribute to our honored dead. But the genius of our age and our people is not to spend our energies in praising the dead, much less to waste them in sighing over the mistakes of the past. The face of the young is toward the future, and our plain duty is to improve and perfect the work so well begun. It gives us great satisfaction to know that we have a magnificent army of men with which to do this work. They are well drilled and thoroughly equipped, with an inspiring commander-inchief fresh from the hands of the governor to lead us on.

Let us remember that no great power was ever vanquished by a foe from without, but always fell an easy prey to internal dissensions and misrule. Therefore let the friends of this great cause of education from the Ohio to the Delaware be a unit. If any false policy is marring the beauty and utility of our noble system, let us in wisdom, courage and discretion use the surgeon's knife, if need be, to preserve and promote the power of this great system.

Let us have a full, free and frank discussion and examination of the whole system conducted in perfect harmony, with but one end in view, namely, the perfection of the whole system. No institution thrives on jealousy, and great men and public benefactors are not the promoters of private or personal ends.

Educational thought in our State is tending in the right direction. It seems to me that the time is now here for us to bring the advantages of higher education to the hearthstone of every youth in our Commonwealth. If we do our full duty to the next generation, we must make college instruction as free as our free school system. Hundreds of worthy young men with bright intellects are yearning for higher education, but are unable to pay the price demanded. Higher education, both in and out of our State, is too high in price to be within reach of the masses of our young men and

women.

The annual expense of a boy or girl at college to-day is at the lowest figure $350, and at a liberal figure about $1,000. These are the amounts given by six of our colleges. This includes boarding, tuition, room and washing. It is readily seen that when we add to this the expense of traveling and clothing, it places higher education within reach of only a select few. There is not a broad-minded educator in the State who does not sympathize with the youth who desires college training, but who is not able to pay the price demanded.

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Nor is this all. The system of education as it exists in Pennsylvania to-day could not well have been framed to make higher education more expensive to the masses. There is too much time wasted in our system, and time to the young man is money. body of people know the value of two or three years of young life better than the members of this Association. Much time is lost because our system has no organic unity. Public schools do not articulate with Normal Schools; Normal Schools do not articulate with colleges, and High Schools seldom articulate with any course above them. Hence there is no continuity in the courses of study, and as a result of this there is a loss of much valuable time.

I am glad that the State of Pennsylvania by the Act of June 26, 1895, has created a College and University Council; and their biennial report on higher education of Nov. 10, 1896, should be studied by every teacher in the State. It is a splendid document. It discusses a number of the leading questions of higher education, but the great problem of expense is almost ignored, except under the heads of "Free Scholarships" and "High Schools in Rural Districts.

The State has done magnificently for the agricultural interests of the people, but it is manifest that we cannot woo our young men into these institutions and make farmers of them; and in other departments of

study these institutions have not won the confidence of the people. It is soon time to ask aid for the regular academic instruction of our young people. It seems also to be a rule to-day that the more heavily endowed an institution becomes, and the larger its State aid, the more expensive is its instruction. This ought not so to be.

If we could coördinate our courses of study, eliminate from all the courses, from the primary school to the university, much that neither gives culture nor knowledge, make the courses more intensive and less extensive, and either receive additional State aid, or direct the present State in different channels, our schools would be more valuable to the young.

We again thank our warm friends of New Castle for their cordial greeting, and offer them in return the very excellent programme prepared for this meeting.

Dr. A. R. Horne said it made him feel almost old to look around and see scarcely any faces he remembered in the early years of the Association-for his recollection went back over 40 years to the first meeting in 1857. Burrowes, Wickersham, Allen, Frank Taylor, who used to be active participants, all have passed over into the great beyond; and now there is a new body of younger men and women, impulsive and enthusiastic as young blood ought to be. He was glad to be here, and especially in this building, for ours is a work that may well be conducted in the house of the Lord. His recollections of a previous visit to New Castle were all pleasant, and not the least of them was of a New Year dinner in 1891, which was as good as he had ever enjoyed anywhere, and he had been at about all the big hotels. That was on the occasion of a county institute; he was glad to come now, with this State body, to a city which, like the man in the old proverb, had grown rich by minding its own business. He expected to enjoy himself, especially as dinner-time was approaching. The people here might be sure their cordial welcome was as warmly appreciated.

Prof. J. R. Burns, of Erie high school, said he had been pressed into service to fill the place of a distinguished gentleman who was absent, and appreciated the compliment. It may be thought that we are too ready to magnify our office, but the true teacher must ever feel like uncovering his head in the presence of a child. Recognizing the immortal soul made in the likeness of its Creator, one is appalled at the thought that its destinies are in part committed to our guidance. Seeing

before us the future citizen, upon whose discretion, prudence and wisdom depend the destinies of the republic, and assembled here as we are in the temple of Almighty God, the common work of church and school, of minister and teacher, is strongly emphasized. We are here to promote the education of the child in the interest of the Commonwealth, to exchange views and compare experiences, and to go home strengthened for our work. We know we are among an intelligent, hospitable and generous people, and expect a profitable session.

After music by the pupils of No. 6, Croton School, the President announced the following

AUDITING COMMITTEE.

Supt. J. M. Berkey, Dr. Geo. W. Hull and Miss Harriet Phipps.

After some announcements by the Chairman of Executive Committeee, Association adjourned until afternoon.

THE LIMITATION OF ORGANIZATION IN EDUCATION,

The possibilities of organized effort have but recently been widely appreciated. In war, politics, and religion organization has played a great part ever since civilization glorified the valleys of the Euphrates and the Nile, but never as in the present century have men applied the principle in transportation and production, in agriculture, in manufactures, in all departments of social life.

Through the organization of capital, railroads have made one vast gridiron of our land. Trains are rushing in all directions like so many shuttles in gigantic looms weaving the webs of prosperity. Through the organization of capital, the clatter of the factory has supplanted the hum of the spinning wheel until this sound has been forgotten and the wheel has become but a parlor ornament, and the occupation of the Fates, once a figure illustrating human life, now needs to be illustrated. Through the organization of capital, the shoemaker no longer exasperates us with his procrastination, and the old "Ne sutor ultra crepidam" is a figure as dead as Dagon's image. The

flour we eat, the light we burn, the clothes we wear, the fuel we use, are the products of organized capital.

Our charities have caught the idea, and the organizations for the amelioration of the condition of man and beast are innumerable. A committee at least is necessary to formulate the ideas of any deliberative body. We hardly think of giving to the poor, or to the Lord, except through some organization. In short, the necessities of life, the comforts of life, the employments of life, the achievements of science, the triumphs of art are the products of organization.

Naturally, education has rubbed the magic lamp, that she might enjoy the services of this great jinnee of the nineteenth century, and the old-time schoolmaster who rented a room, solicited scholars, and year in and year out taught the alphabet and the Anabasis-like the shoemaker, the cradler, the weaver, the cabinet maker-has lost his occupation. Even so in law, medicine and theology. The preceptor is no more. Now all is done by a vast organization; it may be a university with a magnificent equipment, with millions for its endowment, and thousands of patrons, having its board of trustees and varied faculties; it may be a system of public instruction with the funds of a state to draw upon, a department at the capital, ramifications extending from the largest city to the remotest cross-road, a system of directors, tax collectors, treasurers, truant officers, superintendents and teachers; having the steps so continuous that the child may ascend from the first primary to the last of his post-graduate work as a specialist in the university, without finding an obstacle, or a gap to be spanned. Organization has been summoned and has responded so grandly to the call of education that the time has come for the inquiry, Are there any limitations to its range of achievement? Do we need anything beyond perfection of organization to produce educated men? If any one thinks this is a superfluous question let him look about him. Pennsylvania has a system of education with the township as the unit, the specialist as County Superintendent, the graduated system of certificates adapted to local conditions, the annual teachers' institute with its enthusiasm, a system more nearly perfect as it came into being, more flexible, more simple, more effective than can be found elsewhere. Are men content? No. The unity of the system is not sufficiently obvious. It seems to be too loose in the joints. There is not the degree of centralization men admire; there is too much local control. Consequently every legislature is importuned to make the organization more obvious, and, therefore, more perfect (?) by giving us a system of uniform examinations and uniform text-books. Some would not object to uniform school-houses, and the logical climax is uniformed school teachers-conductors of children.

All this has its explanation in the native

craving of the mind for uniformity amidst diversity, and in a conviction that a perfected organization will necessarily produce educated men and women. The ideal is an educational machine so correlated in all its parts that when the official head turns the crank or opens the throttle every part shall mechanically respond to the pressure, and a generation of educated children shall be the product.

Can this ideal be realized? If not, why not? What are the limitations?

Let us look forward at our great universities. These institutions earned great names when great men came into daily personal relations with their students. The parental idea was the underlying one. A transformation has come within a generation, and we are witnessing a great experiment. Names have not changed. "Harvard," "Yale," "Princeton," stand as of old, but the institution has entered upon an entirely new stage of existence.

A bright graduate of one of our greatest universities was a member of a class so large that he reached the senior year before he had made the acquaintance of any of his teachers, and he only succeeded then in doing so because he had become the correspondent of the New York Tribune, and in that capacity met them at their homes. How much less could the few teachers of that class come to know their hundreds of pupils.

The pedagogical principle that the teacher must know the mind to be educated by him is accepted as a truism, but the practical interpretation put upon it is that the mind to be known is that of the race rather than that of the individual, that the teacher must simply be versed in physiological psycholIt would be interesting to inquire how far this condition of teaching is due to the materialistic theory of education, that it simply consists in the development of the proper brain and nerve centers.

ogy.

Paradoxical as it is, this condition has developed at the very time when child study is receiving such attention as was never given to it before.

So far has this attempt to confer education through mere organization extended, that the leading daily of Pennsylvania editorially informed its readers recently upon the expulsion of two students from Cornell University for immoral conduct, that after they had confessed the charge, a minority of the faculty contended, as did the expelled students, that the University had nothing to do with the undergraduates' morals, and that it must deal with them only as students. Is there any logical connection between this fact and the fatal use of chlorine gas that stirred that University and the whole country a year or two ago? Is this indeed to be included as one of the limitations of educational organization?

It is to be noted that we are dealing with the University and the undergraduates, those that constitute the great majority, the