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ADVANCED EDUCATIONAL METHODS
HILE the Nineteenth Century has pass
ed into history as a period marked by
the most decided advancement in the
realms of science, art, discovery and
invention, its record is, also, distin
guished by the adoption of the ad
vanced educational methods which char
acterize, not only the latter half of
the 19th, but the beginning of the Twe*-
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tieth Century as well.
The time is clearly within the memory of maay
persons today when the requisites for a teacher
were merely a certain almost rudimentary knowl
edge of text-book lore, covering, in many instances,
scarcely more than the “Three R’s,” and, in
few cases demanding even a passing familiarity
with art, science, literature or philosophy. Remem
bering this it will be easier to measure the vast
difference which separates that time from the pres
ent, for we know that now instructors, for even the
primary grades of the public schools, are required
to possess as complete an educational equipment as
was, in the past, demanded of a college professor.
In fact, it is these very primary instructors who
lay the foundation for the entire educational struc
ture which is to be builded in the mind of the
child in all his future intellectual training.
These conditions have been primarily the result
of a better and broader understanding of the needs
of children, first, as outlined by the great child
student, Prof. Froebel, and then as applied by the
universal child-lover—the mothers of the world.
Hence it is safe to claim for women the distinc
tion of recognizing and then demanding a more
perfect system of education than that which w’as
granted to the children of the past.
Southern Women Work for Better Methods.
Owing to financial disability, caused by political
conditions, the educational development in the
South was not as rapid as that noted in more pros
perous sections and realizing the need of concert
ed action looking toward better methods in public
schools, the members of the Atlanta Woman’s Club
decided to make the establishment and fulfilment
of these methods one of its most earnest fields of
work. Hence, a certain section of this influential
body of women is devoted exclusively to education,
and a recent meeting of this section of which Mrs.
J. K. Ottley, of Atlanta, is Chairman, was a notable
one in many ways, and the plans outlined at the
meeting, as well as the review of work done by
this section, and its various branches, seem to be
of so broad and helpful a character that it is believ
ed an account of it cannot fail tn be o*f generail
interest.
Mrs. A. McD. Wilson, the Club President.
But before considering the work of the Atlanta
Woman’s Club and its persistent efforts for the
advancement of the people of the state of Geor
gia, it may be well to make some specific mention
of the distinguished Southern woman who now
holds the presidential chair of this organization.
Mrs. A. McD. Wilson does not owe her prominence
in the South solely to her present position, as she
has only just been elected to the presidential office,
but, for some years, she has figured largely in the
social development of the state as well as of the
entire South. Perhaps if Mrs. Wilson were asked
in what phase of her varied work she felt henself
to be most useful she would say in her posi
tion on the National Committee of fche Young
Woman’s Christian Association, for she,is Chair
man of the entire Gulf States section, as well as
being prominently associated -with the state work,
and, necessarily, with the work of the local Atlanta
branch. She is the only Southern woman who
holds a position on the National Committee, and
her work in Y. W. C. A. matters has beefn responsi
ble and important.
In addition to this, however, she is, also, State
Historian for the Society of the Daughters of the
American Revolution, and as Chairman of the Social
The Work Done in this Tield by Atlanta, Club Women
Service Section of the Atlanta Woman’s Club, she
was largely instrumental in creating the first sen
timent looking toward the restriction of Child Labor
which, as is well known, has only just resulted in the
passage of such a measure by the legislature of
Georgia. At the time when this bill was first
presented to the legislature, it failed of passage,,
but the seed was sown, and, as Mrs. Wilson admits,
she had, at that time, hoped for no more than this,
we believe she may feel assured that the final happy
result was due, in large measure, to her early ef
forts.
Artistic Training in Atlanta Schools.
The past record of the work done by the At
lanta Woman’s Club includes the introduction of
manual training into the public schools of the
city, which was one of the first in the South to
adopt this innovation of training the hands as well
as the heads of the children. The benefits accru
ing from the manual training may be said to have
prepared the way for yet further improvements,
hence, we note today the establishment of a depart
ment of art under the direction of Miss Elizabeth
Getz. This department is designed to develop
in children a love of the beautiful, and an appre
ciation of the need of appropriate surroundings.
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Naturally, the Woman’s Club wishes to indorse
this movement in fullest measure, and as a means
to that end, its members desired a fuller under
standing of the method in which this work was be
ing done. Hence, Miss Getz appeared before the
members at the meeting under consideration,
and gave a most dejlightfnl talk on het
work and its usefulness. She said, in effect, that
developing a child’s sense of the beautiful, was
first, a recognition of its right to happiness as well
as a means of cultivating an expression of this
happiness. She, then, elaborated this theory in
most entertaining details, giving specific instances
where the child was taught the value of beautiful
surroundings and was made to feel his own respon
sibility in making his individual surroundings at
tractive.
Practical Plans Suggested.
While this was not always permissible or practi
cal in the home, Miss Getz claimed that it could
always be possible in the school which properly
belonged to the children, and that the beautifying
of the school-room should be one of the chief joys
of a child’s life. The schools of Atlanta, and, in
deed, of the entire South, have heretofore been char
acterized by a stern sense of usefulness, and, finan-
The Golden Age for February 7, 1907.
Sy S.iT. DALSHEIMER
MRS. A. McD. WILSON.
daily, there has been no opportunity for much
decoration save of individual rooms. The speaker,
however, demonstrated that the surroundings of
school children might be made attractive at com
paratively little cost, and fflie described in detail
methods for accomplishing this. Because of the grow
ing recognition of these facts the Atlanta Woman’s
Club has called an open meeting of all the women
in the city with the avowed purpose* of forming
themselves into a body for promoting the decora
tion of the city public schools, and of doing this
in the most harmonious and appropriate manner.
The board of women visitors to the Atlanta
schools, which was appointed by council some tiipe
ago, has long recognized the need for just this kind
of work which now seems possible by the presence
of Miss Getz in the schools, and the desired co
operation of the public on the outside. Practical
methods of raising funds for purposes of decora
tion were outlined by Miss Getz, and as all who
were interested in advanced educational methods,
agree that the refining influence of beautiful sur
roundings cannot be overestimated, this feature of
the educational work in Atlanta could well be emu
lated by other communities, both urban and rural.
Art as a Means of Expression.
Yet another phase of the need of art training in
the public schools was the use of art as a means
of expression. It is well known that, to use an
old adage, “children see with their fingers,” and
it is the most impressive form of “seeing.” Hence,
it is a growing custom to require even very small
children to draw a picture, illustrating sojme lesson
or story which they have been studying or describ
ing some event which they have witnessed. That,
in many instances this is done with remarkable
facility, was amply demonstrated by a wonderful
exhibit of artistic drawing, and cut figures which
were done by the children, in the public schools
of Springfield, Mass. This exhibit was shown at
the summer school of the South at Knoxville, Tenn.,
and, at the request of the Southern Teachers’ Asso
ciation, it is being sent from city to city of the
South as an object lesson in "what can be done by
children when taught to express themselves in this
way. The exhibit covers the extensive walls of
the M Oman’s Club rooms in Atlanta, and has at
tracted much favorable and interested ■comment.
The Library School.
In connection with the recognition of the need
of educational adjuncts there is none more potent
than that of the library, which, to fulfill its high
est usefulness, must be conducted in away which
enables the public to profit by the resources offered.
In order that this may be satisfactorily accomplish
ed there has gradually grown the need of a school
fox librarians, and this work was described at the
meeting referred to by Mrs. Percival Sneed, of At
lanta, who has given both time and thought to this
subject.
The members of the Carnegie Library Class, un
der the direction of Miss Wallace, the librarian,
number just twelve, and this number taxes the ca
pacity of the school. There is a most beautiful class
room provided for the use of these students, which
a as furnished by a donation from Mr. Carnegie, and
the work of this library class is of special imoor
tance.
It is the only institution of the kind in this
part of the country, and its graduates are in con
stand demand, as all of Georgia and Alabama relies
on this school for trained librarians to meet the
growth of small libraries in the South which is of
a steadily increasing character.
r s. Sneed explained that many persons claim
ed to be surprised at the need for training a young
man or woman “just to hand down a book fro’fo
& S 1S is an altogether wrong idea of
the duties of a librarian. First, it is required that
a rigid examination covering literature, history bi
ography, etc be passed by all applicants and those
y o succeed in passing are given a year’s rigid
(Concluded on Page 11.)