DY EXCHANGE FROM NEW YORK STATE LIBRARY VOL. XV NOVEMBER, 1914 THE No. 3 EDUCATOR-JOURNAL INLAND EDUCATOR, TERRE HAUTE, INDIANA SCHOOL JOURNAL 8 INDIANAPOLIS, 1856. — CONSOLIDATED AND INCORPORATED AT INDIANAPOLIS IN 1900 GEORGE L. ROBERTS, Editor L. N. HINES, Associate Editor The five teacher keeps up with his profession. CONTENTS Page 105 112 123 PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS 61st S SSION INDIANA STATE TEACH- ABSTRACTS OF SOME OF THE PAPERS RLAD AT THE STATE ADVANCE RI PORT OF THE COMMITTEE ON RESOLUTIONS. W. S. Hiser -L. N. Hines Entered at the Indianapolis Postoffice as Mail Matter of the Second Class. Educational Measurements The proceedings of the recent conference on Educational Measurements, held at Indiana University, will be printed by the University and sold at fifty cents (.50) per copy. The book will contain the following: 1. Addresses of Professor Thorndike, President Bryan, Professor Lindley, Professor Jones, and Superintendent Greathouse. 2. Proceedings of all the round tables held. 3. Copies of the testing materials used by Professor Thorndike and others 4. Copies of a considerable number of the tables and charts exhibited 5. A bibliography on educational measurements The book, which will make about two hundred pages, will be valuable to superintendents, teachers, and others interested in the scientific study of education. Numerous orders from superintendents have already been received These range from ten to thirty copies per order. It is the intention to print as nearly as possible the exact number that will be taken. Those wishing copies of this report should send orders at once to the Indiana University Book Store, Bloomington, Indiana. INDIANA UNIVERSITY BLOOMINGTON, INDIANA W. A. RAWLES, Director, Extension Division. THE EDUCATOR-JOURNAL Vol. XV NOVEMBER 1914 No. 3 Presidential Address Sixty-first Session, Indiana State Teachers Association Winthrop E. Stone, President Purdue University Certain radical innovations in the procedure of this association are submitted for your consideration at this, the sixty-first annual meeting. The proposed changes in time of meeting and in the basis of organization are of sufficient importance in themselves to make this a notable session, whatever their final disposition may be. The various suggestions laid before you with regard to the professional and physical qualifications of teachers will have an important personal application to thousands of present and prospective members of the association. While would have been without meaning or application. Today there could be no more appropriate or timely subject for inspiring the thought and action of a body of teachers like this. Your program committee deserves praise for its wisdom of choice, in thus concentrating your attention upon a movement which had its origin two thousand years ago in the words of the Great Teacher and now begins to include all thoughtful men and women in its adherents. It is customary to speak of this as an age characterized by scientific discovery, by wonderful inventions and by material progress, little short of marvelous. Noteworthy as these things are, they can not be said to represent will never be disposed of until rightly the true progress of the race. They the subject of teachers' pensions, by its reappearance, impresses one with. the conviction that it is a vital question to the teachers of Indiana which settled on its merits. Of greater significance, however, than any of these business matters, is the theme selected as the central topic for discussion before the general session of the association. This subject, "Social Service," brings to our attention the most notable development in the trend of human thought in modern. times. Fifty years ago such a theme. indeed are invaluable aids and contributions to the forces at the disposal of man; they enable him to do things which were once thought to be impossible, but their ultimate significance. to the human race consists solely in whether they assist man to be something better than he has been before. If these discoveries serve only to enable men to destroy each other in bat tle with greater facility, then they contribute not to human progress but to human retrogression. But if they aid men to conquer disease and ignorance, to attain freedom, and dispel evil, then they become a part of real human development. Not the aeroplane or wireless telegraphy or high explosives or the gas engine or any other of the numerous discoveries of recent times, indicates a higher civilization. These things represent merely knowledge and power over material things. But we must remember that they are just as valuable reinforcements for the powers of evil as for the agencies for good. After all it is the use which man makes of these, which determines their real value to the race and their part in its upward development. One must therefore go deeper than these superficial and materialistic things in order to understand human development in its truest sense. Then we shall find the most significant characteristic of the times to consist not in what men are making but of what they are thinking; in that which occupies their minds and guides their actions. The underlying current which bears the race toward its destination, must ever be those movements and events which proceed from the spirit rather than the brain or the hand. From this point of view, the most characteristic development of this age has been not scientific discovery but the growth of the spiritual idea of man's brotherhood to man; the recognition of the responsibility of one for another; the idea of service to one's fellowmen and to the race. In recent times this idea of brotherhood and service has taken strong hold on the minds of men. It was of course the essence of the teachings of Christ but has lain dormant and obscure for centuries only to be revived and take on new meaning in an age of supposedly materialistic tendencies. Almost unconsciously it has tinctured the thought of mankind and with increasing power is leading them to a new attitude toward life. At first glance one might question the extent of this development for it seems to the ordinary observer as if the evils growing out of human selfishness were more dominant. and cruel than ever before. At a time when the thought of world peace seemed to be on the eve of realization, the most terrible war in history bursts forth and arouses the world to horror and protest. But you will observe that the universal sentiment outside of partisan circles is one of repugnance toward the conditions which have brought about war and of intense pity for its victims. In our own country, the spirit of militarism finds no place because the hearts of Americans are tender with human sympathies. The war does not refute the idea of human brotherhood; it calls out the strongest evidence of the grip upon men's minds which this growing idea has gained. It is the spirit of sympathy and responsibility for the other man which makes us so sensitive to and so impressed by the evils of disease, ignorance, poverty, crime and war. It is not that these evils are increasing but on the contrary our eyes are being opened and our minds softened to their terrible effects upon the human family. Quietly but with increasing force this spirit of sympathetic responsibility is growing and spreading in the minds of men. The terrible lesson of war will only serve to strengthen it. The more clearly we perceive the effects of evil upon the innocent and weak, the stronger will become the desire of men to render service to these unfortunates. This is the application of the spirit of brotherhood which has arisen in our times and marks, in my opinion, real progress of the race, far more than scientific or material achievement. It manifests itself not only in individual acts but in that public sentiment which abhors the injustice of selfishness, which condemns every evil condition antagonistic to the rights of human beings, which strives on the one hand to correct evils such as child labor, the liquor traffic, living conditions of the poor, partisan politics and vice and crime, not so much from antagonism to the forces responsible for these things as from love and sympathy for those who suffer from their operations; and on the other hand seeks by constructive effort through sane philanthropy and by education to bring about immunity of the race from these evils through the power of intelligence and conscience. Every one of the rising protests of society against evil has its inception in the idea of social service in the interests of human brotherhood. This idea begins now to permeate every class of society in some degree, from the Salvation Army worker to the millionaire philanthropist, but to no class work does it appeal so strongly and logically and bring so great opportunity for service as to the teacher whose contact is with human beings at their most impressionable age; whose function is character building; and whose attitude of mind ought to be one of sympathy and service. What is true of the world in general as regards the characteristics of the age applies equally well in the field of education where upon superficial observation the most conspicuous developments are those pertaining to the curriculum, methods, organization, and equipment. But these things constitute the form and not the spirit of education. They may contribute to progress or they may serve to keep the forces of education merely marking time. They are not ends but only means to the end. It is the use made of these, it is the spirit of education which indicates whether we go forward or backward and this animating spirit in education must harmonize with the true spirit of human progress if it is to accomplish its real purpose. Teaching is ranked as a profession and as such cherishes high ideals, but unfortunately it is too often merely a vocation or a means of livelihood. I venture to classify teaching as a high form of social service and the teacher as a public servant who assumes great responsibility; who occupies a strategic position in the crusade for human welfare; whose pay does not represent his entire compensation nor his contract define his full duty. It seems to me highly important that members of the teaching profession get such a conception as this of their relation to the state and to society; that they regard themselves as dedicated to the service of others in the spirit of unselfishness and devotion to human welfare; that their desire shall be not only to train children in the elements of useful knowledge but to do something more, to develop in youth an intelligent attitude of sympathy, honestly, and brotherly love. |