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Educational Netos and Progress
For the second time in a year a foreigner has
won the oratorical prize in Columbia University.
V. K. W. Koo, a Chinaman, won a money prize
given by the university for the best speech made
in debate before the Philolexian Society, one of
the prominent undergraduate debating societies
at Columbia. Mr. Koo is a son of Z. C. Koo, sec
retary of foreign affairs at Peking. He is a mem
ber of the class of 1909, this being his second year
at the university.
The April number of the Mercerian, published by
the students of Mercer University, is a highy cred
itable one. The leading article, the third in a se
ries on “Great Universities,” is devoted to Har
vard. It is illustrated with a number of views of
buildings and grounds of the university, the fron
tispiece of the magazine being a copy of the old
est known print of Harvard, engraved in 1726,
representing the college when ninety years old.
The original print was entitled: “A Prospect of
the Colledges in Cambridge in New England.” Mr.
C. H. Westbrook, Jr., the author of this series of
articles, is making them most instructive and de
lightful. “Dream-Realm,” by James Judson Cope
land, is good poetry, and “The Return,” by C. R.
Allen, is good fiction. Mr. Frank Taylor Long con
tributes “Autobiographical Value of David Cop
perfield, ’ ’ an attractive article dealing with the
original intention of Charles Dickens to make the
book in a sense autobiographical, and the details
which finally remained true to the original pur
pose.
« *
Oratory and Debate at the Unibersity,
The need in the University of Georgia of a chair
of oratory and debate, is being discussed by those
interested. It is probable that the matter will
have developed to such an extent that it will be
taken under consideration by the trustees of the
institution at their annual meeting in June. Much
pride is felt by the student body in the splendid
showing made by the university in the recent Geor
gia-North Carolina debate, and large credit therefor
is given to the enthusiastic work of Professors
Park and Sanford, of the English Department;
but it is felt that these gentlemen will not have
sufficient time in future to devote to training
students specifically for debating, and that
this special feature should be given a department
of its own.
•5
Agriculture in the 'Rural Schools.
In a recent article in the Progressive Farmer, in
which is discussed the attention given in the South
ern Educational Conference to agriculture as re
lated to the schools, the editor takes the position
that agriculture should be taught in the rural
schools. He says, in part:
“We speak with some knowledge of country
schools and country school conditions when we de
clare that this is beset with no such difficulties as
many of the writers on this problem would have
the public believe. The country school teachers
were reared on farms; and in these days they
cannot escape the influence of the farm newspaper.
Farmers’ Institutes and the Agricultural College:
the quickening influence of the new agriculture
must reach them in one form or another. They
certainly know as much about teaching agriculture
as they do about teaching physiology. And true
as it is that the teaching of agriculture is value
less unless it is written and read in the living let
ters of plant and animal life, it is patent that all
these opportunities are before the country chil
dren in their own homes, and that with their
quickened interest in these subjects they will not
fail to make the necessary practical observations
on their own farms. Dr. Bailey was right, there
fore, in arguing not only for a new view-point in
the grammar and geography and the arithmetics,
but also for the teaching of agriculture itself as
p public school study. A book which will tell the
The ftolden Age for April 25, IW7.
farm boy how cotton and corn and tobacco may
be improved by seed selection; how a plant feeds,
and how soils are exhausted; what elements are
found in common feed stuffs, and which make fat
and which make muscle; which type of cattle will
make money in the dairy, and which should be
selected for beef—these things we insist without
fear of contradiction are just as easily taught,
are of equal value as intellectual exercises, and
will be of far greater value in arousing the pupil’s
enthusiasm than anything that has ever been
printed in a geography about the capitals of states,
the length of rivers, or the boundaries of Kam
chatka and New Zealand. The work must not be
forced, of course, but the teaching of agriculture
in the country schools is logical and inevitable,
and is bound to have a steady and constant de
velopment. ’ ’
»! «
Prof. W. B. Merritt's Pamphlet.
State School Commissioner W. B. Merritt has
issued a pamphlet containing a report upon school
conditions as observed in the counties of Coffee,
Morgan, Rockdale, Union and Wade, calling at
tention to certain defects as observed in the school
systems of those counties and urging the neces
sity for general improvement. The report is not
intended to convey the impression that the counties
mentioned have worse school conditions than others,
or that others are up to the standard. They are
simply chosen as illustrations. The report upon
Morgan county schools is made by County Super
intendent G. C. Adams, who visited three types
of schools. The chief defieiencv noted in the first
school visited was in the spelling of the pupils.
Out of ten common words only two pupils in the
seventh grade spelled correctly as many as seven,
and there was not a pupil in the grade who could
spell correctly “judgment” and “deferred.” In
the next one visited the pupils were found deficient
in spelling and arithmetic. In the third the pupils
were deficient in arithmetic and averaged only
sixty per cent in spelling. Prof. Merritt has placed
the pamphlet before the people in order to call their
attention to conditions as they actually exist, and
in the hope that when once known an effort will
at once be made to better them.
* *
Equal Pay in Nelv York to Teachers.
The movement in New York State to secure
through legislation the same pay for women teach
ers as is given to the males, is meeting with suc
cess. The World, editorially, endorses this policy,
and further advocates a higher standard of salary
for teachers. In view of the agitation which the
subject is receiving generally throughout the coun
try, we quote the editorial referred to, which fairly
expresses what seems to be public opinion on the
question:
“Not only the women teachers of New York,‘but
the schools, are entitled to congratulations on the
first victory for the principle of equal pay for
equal work. The fact that there was but one vote
in the State Senate against the bill giving women
the same salaries as men teachers, and that this
one vote was not dictated by opposition to the main
feature of the measure, but to a minor proposition,
not only reflects credit on the Senate, but makes
it certain that the bill will become a law. This is
good as far as it goes, but the principle should
be extended to all other women in the employ of
the city. Salary should be determined by the char
acter of the position and not by the sex of the oc
cupant. Discrimination does not cease to be dis
crimination because practiced against a woman or
against all women. Plain and simple justice is
not a matter of sex distinction.
“Tn another respect the measure, while a step in
the right direction, falls short. The salaries of
all teachers, male and female, are miserably inad
equate. Compared with other professions, with the
possible exception of that of the ministry, public
school instructors are about the poorest paid people
on earth. With all our boasted reverence for edu
cation, we do not yet sufficiently reverence it to
give those who conduct it a decent wage.
“Why should a teacher who turns out hundreds
of good citizens receive a remuneration so out of
proportion with that kind of well-paid lawyer, for
example, whose chief service to society is in keep
ing people out of jail who ought to be there, or
in telling corporations how to make money out
of the people without running afoul of the law?
Why should the teacher, whose mission it is to im
prove the mind, be given so much less than the
doctor, who treats only the body? Is it that we
revere the body more than the mind? Is it that
we think more /)f keeping rogues at large and of
showing trusts how legally to prey on us than we
do of training and enlightening our children? Or
is it only because we have not thought of the
wretched pay w r e do give our teachers as compared
to that received for a like quality and amount of
service in other callings?
“Be the reason what it may, the fact remains
that our teachers should be more adequately paid.
Hieir present remuneration makes our praise of
education seem hypocritical. While it is true that
we cannot measure their great service in money
alone, it is equally true that money is one standard
of measurement, and is THE one most generally
recognized by the world. Moreover, it is the form
of recognition we can most readily give and the
one most needed by the recipients. We should
not place a premium on brainy men and women
leaving the profession. That all of them do not
leave is due to their own devotion to duty and not
to any merit of ours. We have not made it an
object for them to stay. Tn other words, we seem
to expect of them a maximum of service for a mini
mum of salary. ’ This is not fair to them, is not
fair to the children, is not fair to the future of
the country.”
*
The Need of Industrial Schools.
Professor Paul 11. Hanns, Chairman of Massa
chusetts Commission on Industrial and Technical
Education, in speaking of the needs of industrial
schools in America, makes a suggestion as to the
proper curriculum for such schools. He says:
“Fifty years ago, Ralph Waldo Emerson said,
‘We are students of words! We are shut up in
schools and colleges and recitation rooms from ten
to fifteen years, and come out at last with a bag
of wind, a memory of words, and do not know a
thing, we cannot use our hands, or our legs, or our
eyes or our arms. ’
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“The industrial schools needed today to supple
ment the existing public schools should receive pu
pils fourteen to fifteen years of age who declare
their intention to learn a trade, and would, there
fore, be parallel to the existing high schools, but
independent of them.
“Such schools would offer a course of study cov
ering four years. The first two years would com
prise general shop instruction with related drawing,
mathematics, natural science, the history of industry
and commerce, shop and business English and the
reading of appropriate articles and books.
“The last two years would give shop instruc
tion for particular trades, and for each trade rep
resented, the drawing, mathematics, physics, chem
istry of that trade, the history of that trade, treat
ed both as special history and as a branch of gen
eral history, civics treated as concretely as pos
sible. and English as before.”
*
A college professor, noted for his concentration
of thought, returned home from a scientific meeting
one night, still pondering deeply upon the subject
that had been discussed. As he entered his room,
he heard a noise that seemed to come from under
the bed. “Is there some one there?” he asked, ab
sently. “No, professor,” answered the intruder,
who knew of his peculiarities. “That’s strange.”
muttered the professor; “I was almost sure I heard
some one under the bed.”—Everybody’s Magazine.
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