THE JOURNAL OF PROCEEDINGS AND ADDRESSES OF THE NATIONAL EDUCATIONAL ASSOCIATION, SESSION OF THE YEAR 1884, AT MADISON, WIS. PUBLISHED BY THE ASSOCIATION. BOSTON: J. E. FARWELL & CO., PRINTERS, 45 PEARL STREET. 1885. Page INDUSTRIAL DEPARTMENT. A LAYMAN'S VIEW OF MANUAL TRAINING, by Col. Augustus JACOBSON TECHNICAL AND ART EDUCATION IN PUBLIC SCHOOLS, AS ELEMENTs of CULTURE, REPORT OF COMMITTEE ON HYGIENE IN EDUCATION REPORT OF COMMITTEE ON ELEMENTARY EDUCATION ON ORAL TEACHING. 7 THE NATIONAL EDUCATIONAL ASSOCIATION. FIRST DAY'S PROCEEDINGS. TUESDAY, JULY 15. The twenty-third annual meeting of the National Educational Association began its sessions in Madison, Wis., on the evening of Tuesday, July 15, 1884. On account of the large numbers present the general sessions were divided into sections A, B, and C, held respectively in the Assembly Chamber, Senate Chamber, and Congregational Church. SECTION A. President T. W. Bicknell, of Boston, Mass., presided, and after music, vocal and instrumental, introduced the speaker of the evening, Hon. J. L. M. Curry, of Virginia, who delivered an address upon "Citizenship and Education." SECTION B. In this section Hon. Birdsey G. Northrop, of Connecticut, presided, and the main address was delivered by Rev. A. D. Mayo, of Massachusetts. SECTION C. President J. L. Pickard, of Iowa, presided and introduced Prof. J. M. Coyner, Ph. D., of Utah, who spoke on "The Utah Problem as Related to National Education." SECOND DAY. WEDNESDAY A. M.-OPEN AIR MEETING. The Association met at 9 A. M. in Capitol Park, President Bicknell presiding. Prayer was offered by Rev. C. H. Richards, D. D., of Madison, Wis. Music by Leuder's Band. Governor Jeremiah M. Rusk, of Wisconsin, was introduced by President Bicknell and spoke as follows: It is a great pleasure to me to bid you a cordial welcome to the State of Wisconsin, coming as you do from every State in the Union, for that laudable purpose of consulting as to the best methods of teaching and training the rising generation of this glorious country. Any one who has looked over your program and your school exhibits will be justly satisfied, and gratified, that great good will come from the meeting of the educational interests of the Nation. I had no idea of the extent of the school exhibit until after it had arrived. From it we see at a glance that the industrial interests go hand in hand with the education of the mind; that physical training is necessary to develop mental culture, and the one without the other is deprived of more than half its force and usefulness. We are glad to have so many that are engaged in this great national work in our midst. From you we expect to receive an incentive for renewed vigor and hard work, and harder work, and an inspiration of pure thought. We receive you as the teachers of morality and justice,-the cardinal principles upon which our government is founded, and its permanency depends; and for being such we grant you a most cordial welcome, and assure you of the kindness and liberality of all our citizens. The Mayor's Address. Mayor B. J. Stevens, of Madison, after referring to the remarkable growth of Wisconsin, and especially of Madison, and welcoming the members to its hospitalities, said: We recognize the magnitude of the work before you and somewhat its difficulties. It is the old unsolved problem with which are associated the great names of the past. Strike from the history of civilization that which pertains to education, and every chapter and page is mutilated. The history of one tells the life-story of both. In the philosophy of education,-the discovery of methods,-your labors may add to the gathered knowledge and wisdom of the past a little, but only a little-such accretion as one generation, aided by those preceding it, may reasonably hope to make. The so-called new methods are found to be, largely, old methods. The method of teaching by objects,-words and things to go hand in hand,-is as old as the time of Plato. The importance of the study of individual dispositions and of tenderness in discipline was urged in Quintilian's time. The contemporaneous training of body and mind, was practised as far back as the twelfth century. That children should be taught while playing, was orthodox school doctrine at the time of the Reformation. "Teach a thing first, then reason about it," says John Sturm, of Strasburg. The relation of the study of classics to education, a question now before the public, was discussed pro and con. in the sixteenth century. The ideal education of to-day is not greatly different from that of the Greeks and Romans. Nor is unmeasured zeal in this work, new in the world. Will many here undertake to stand in comparison with the good Pestalozzi? But in the matter of testing and developing methods there is before you an unexplored opportunity,-one new to the world. For the first time in history, it is possible to apply to educational methods, on a scale sufficiently large to justify a hope for practical results, the tests of experimentation and comparison. May it not be hoped that from comparisons so widely made, and the interchange of views so widely held, some standard or test, some nomenclature or formula will arise, by which methods may be tested and results measured and tabulated; to the end, that those methods found to be valueless, may be abandoned for all time? Looking in this direction, is the fact, that professorships for the development of the science of pedagogics have lately been established in the universities of Germany, England, and the United States,-and not in all England until 1873, only eleven years ago; while the fifth in order, and probably latest in time in the United States, was established at the last meeting of the Regents of the University of the State of Wisconsin. You are welcome at our city and our homes. If your numbers be such as to make our gift of comforts limited, you must take more of the welcome, which is unlimited. Gen. Lucius Fairchild, of the committee on Arrangements, was then presented, and added a most hearty welcome. Hon. W. H. Chandler, Assistant Superintendent of Public Instruction in Wisconsin, also spoke in an eloquent vein of the great educational institutions of the State, and the enormous interest developed in the Association by the teachers of Wisconsin. The great number of life-memberships in the National Association, bought by representative Wisconsin educators, was alluded to as an evidence of the interest. Address of President Bascom. Dr. John Bascom, president of the University of Wisconsin closed the list of welcoming speakers. The doctor said in substance: It has been assigned me, as my pleasant duty in behalf of the highest institutions of learning in Wisconsin, to welcome those here present representing similar institutions in other States. From an educational point of view there are three particulars to which I may fitly invite the attention of those who come to us from older States. These points of difference in our educational methods are to be ascribed as much to the circumstances of our history as to any preconceived purpose on our part. Our higher educational institutions are united more closely and directly to intermediate and primary education than in most States. The students of the University come to it almost wholly from the high schools of the State; and the high schools of the States are organized and aided in direct connection with the University. The State University in Wisconsin gathers in and concentrates the educational influences and work of the State in a manner that is not usual in the East. This arises from the fact that the State and the University, aided both by the general government and by the local government, have grown up rapidly together, and so the lead in education has naturally and inevitably fallen to the University. A second difference alike in origin is found in the close union of classical and scientific instruction in the same institutions. When the claims for more extended instruction in science arose, the colleges of the East were found guided and controlled by those chiefly interested in classical work. In many cases, therefore, the new demand was met by new institutions, by schools of science and technology. No such priority of possession existed in the new West, and hence its State Universities embrace evenhanded both branches of education. If there is in this method some loss, there is also, as we think, decisive gains in it. Education in both directions is more catholic than it is likely to be when pursued in distinct institutions. A third divergence is offered by co-education. The higher institutions of the West are co-educational. This fact is also due to historical causes. This claim also found the East established in its method, while it entered into the West as new ground. |