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Educational Digest and Review

By MATTHEW PAGE ANDREWS

TRAINED TEACHERS

NTERESTING thoughts and ideas

IN

crop out in our correspondence with school men. MR. MARK H. C. SPIERS, Headmaster of the SPIER'S Junior School writes: "A learned doctor is not always a good doctor. Also a learned or 'trained' school teacher is not always a good school teacher."

Right you are, MR. SPIERS! "Common sense" is the first requisite of the school teacher. Degrees and diplomas are important but secondary. Sometimes it is awfully hard to tell the difference between a Ph. D. and "D. Ph." Indeed, these titles are conferred very frequently on one and the same person, the former by man and the latter largely by nature and partly by training!

A Reference to the Page Educational Endowment Plans for Teachers

Referring to the proposed plans of the Page Educational Foundation, MR. SPIERS adds, that, "An endowment fund would certainly tend to excuse a man for deliberately choosing the teaching profession as a permanency and would justify the natural teacher in training his abilities for that purpose."

Let us repeat and emphasize that phrase, “the natural teacher."

Is there any person in a position to do more good in the world than the natural teacher?

Cannot we do something for him or for her! The PAGE EDUCATIONAL FOUNDATION hopes to solve that problem.

DONALD

This, of course, does not mean that THE SPIRIT OF FLORA MACwe should advocate the abolition of training, or of Ph. D.'s and other diplomas. A teacher already good may be made vastly better by training; some owe all they have to the study of method, provided they happened to have studied under common sense instructors.

Nevertheless, teacher gifted with common sense and interest in human nature is of greater value to true education than many a diplomaed post-graduate from the Teachers' College.

one "untrained"

PRESIDENT WILSON has said, in substance, that the bad man is not so much to be feared as the good man who thinks wrong. With respect to American history, we have been taught to consider the Tories of Revolutionary days as essentially bad people.

FLORA MACDONALD of North Carolina, was an ardent supporter of the STUARTS, and many Scotch Americans of the "Old North State" were Tories. Nevertheless, those who re

EDUCATIONAL DIGEST AND REVIEW

mained in the United States became excellent and loyal citizens of the new Republic after its establishment.

the current year.

There were all

shades and varieties of pacifist belief represented there,-from those who privately respected the memories of WASHINGTON, MADISON, JACKSON, LINCOLN, LEE, DEWEY, and others, to those who publicly advocated giving

to anyone who came and demanded that we give up either!

Americans of Scotch descent are now called upon to contribute to a fund being raised by PRESIDENT VARDELL of FLORA MACDONALD College, at Red Springs, N. C. to endow schol-up American rights or America itself arships for fatherless or orphan Scottish girls. The idea is, of course, an outcome of the Great War. The idea is a worthy one; while the story of the struggle, growth, and work of FLORA MACDONALD College affords an interesting chapter in American education.

"We" learned there a good deal about pacifism in its more dangerous manifestations, and "we" remained at the conference until one pacifist, more sheeplike and bigoted than the others, compared this world-war to a

PACIFIST TEACHINGS OF THE dog-fight, in which Americans, as un

PAST

Has it ever struck you that there has been a definite pacifist cult working country-wide with the teaching profession? It was perhaps natural that pacifist doctrine should appeal to school teachers; but didn't "we,"the writer, for instance,-"fall" for too much of it, innocent as were most of us in America of the terrible things that were brewing in Europe?

interested "passers-by," could seek safety from possible harm by crossing to the other side of the street! At this stage of the proceedings, "we" addressed some comment to those of the audience nearest "us." These remarks were not profane, but they were of such a nature as to cause friends of the speaker to threaten "us" with a show of physical force. "We" found "ourselves" earnestly hoping that these extremists would start just that thing. Real action of this nature and at this point, especially if begun by an advocate of peace-at-any-price, would have converted this pacifist assemblage or any other into a preparedness meeting of the first rank in less time than it takes to tell of it!

How much of this pacifist thought has survived the shocks of July and August, 1914? or the test brought home to us in February and April of 1917? In theory, all of that former thought was good. In practice, some of it may yet be held,-but only in the hope of the progress of democracy and of governments, the world over, of THE WAR AFFECTS AN EDIthe people, by the people, and for the people. Provided, again, these peo

ple in question are educated up to an appreciation of their responsibilities.

As a representative of Educational Foundations, "we" attended a pacifist conference as late as January of

TORIAL POLICY

The editor of the Digest Department had in process of preparation further articles promised on the FRANCIS SCOTT KEY school, one of the most interesting public schools of America;

41

and an article on the first woman's college in the United States, and possibly in the world. When, however, the United States entered the war of the nations, the editor volunteered to do his "bit," and there was no time for further research and verifications of material.

We may best get at the spirit of the book by quoting two or three passages. The style is simplified for young people; but how many thousands of adults, including some Senators and Congressmen, need just such statements as these!

"As the months went by, one truth

"YOU ARE THE HOPE OF THE began to emerge with increasing clear

WORLD"

Nearly one hundred years ago, the south German singer and prophet, HEINRICH HEINE, saw a free Germany endangered in Prussian aggrandizement. He vainly warned his fellowcountrymen of a great peril in a political cloud in the north then "no larger than a man's hand." Perhaps, it is because of this warning that HEINE has no statue in the KAISER'S Hall of Fame in Berlin! Also, the German philosopher KANT must have seen similar visions, or he would not have written, in substance, that the world would not be freed from the horrors of war until arbitrary autocracies gave way to the rule of the people in enlightened democracy. These sayings were not widely published under the rule of "ME und GOTT" in Germany, so that we have yet find the German, (including those who long for the advent of KANT'S and HEINE'S dream), who is familiar with these passages.

A fitting successor to HEINE and KANT is our American-born poet and idealist HERMANN HAGEDORN, of German parentage, who has just published thru the MACMILLAN COMPANY a little volume of exactly 100 pages, dedicated to the boys and girls of America and entitled, "You Are The Hope of The World."

ness from the smoke and welter and confusion. We saw, dimly at first, then more and more clearly, that the War was not merely a war between competing traders, a war for a place in the sun on the one side, and economic supremacy on the other; but a war of conflicting fundamental ideas. We were slow to see this. It took a revolution in Russia to open our eyes; it took the joyous shout of the countless Siberian exiles, welcoming freedom, to open our ears. But we understand now. We know at last what the war is about. We see at last what the Allies have seen from the beginning, that this is a war between kings and free men.

The nations that believe

in kings and distrust the people have challenged, with intent to destroy, or incapacitate, the nations that believe in the people and won't let the kings out in public without a license, a muzzle and a line. It is a war between autocracy and democracy and beyond that, it is a struggle for the extirpation of war; a struggle between the powers who believe that there is profit in war and the powers who know that there is no profit in it; between the powers who are looking back to a sort of earnest-cave-men as an ideal, and the powers who are looking forward to a reasoning, reasonable, lawabiding man with a ballot. Blacker and sharper every day, against the

EDUCATIONAL DIGEST AND REVIEW

lurid glow of flaming villages and smouldering cities, looms the Peril of Kings, and louder and grimmer from millions of graves rumbles the Doom of Kings. If there is any validity in human evidence, and if the logical conclusions of clear minds from clearcut evidence mean anything at all, this Great War was begun by kings and sons of Kings. It will not be ended by kings. It will be ended by folks named Smith and Jones and Robinson; and the kings and sons of kings thereafter will eat their meals

fourteen, fifteen, sixteen, seventeen, will be governing the United States, and, therefore, if you wish, leading the world! Be clear about this. The world looks to you in hope because you are the logical heirs of the present generation of leaders. If you have the gumption and the go, the knowledge, the vision, and the largeness of heart to accept that inheritance, you will have it in your power to determine the course of the world's history for centuries to come!"

SHIELD

thru wire baskets, and there will be THE OTHER SIDE OF THE number-plates on their collars. Foolish dudes and silly women will keep them as pets. Out of this agony of death is coming 'a new birth of freedom'."....

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Kings gain by war, and cliques of nobles or plutocrats gain by war: the Lords of Special Privilege thrive and grow fat on aggression. But the people do not thrive on it. Smith and Jones and Robinson do not gain by aggression.'. . . . .

"The governments that are controlled by Smith and Jones and Robinson, which means the Common People, are called democracies: and in so far as they are true democracies they are a force for the abolition of war."

"Girls and boys of America, you are the hope of the world "Why?

"Because the world is sick to death of war, and the world knows that kings favor war, and democracies abhor war; and because the United States is the most powerful democracy in the world, and because, when Europe's present leaders are dead, you, girls and boys of ten, twelve,

MR. WILLIAM ARCHER, thru DOUBLEDAY, PAGE and COMPANY, has done a timely service in collecting an amazing array of the sayings of the divinely appointed Autocrat of Prussia and of his satellites in field and forum. The book is entitled "Gems of German Thought." Here are a few examples from MR. ARCHER'S collection:

"Why must teachers and schoolboys, year out, year in, worry about the old Greeks and Romans? To foster idealism in the young, we are told! But for that there is no need to go to Rome and Athens. Our German history offers us ideals enough, and is richer in deeds of heroism than Rome and Athens put together.-GENERAL KEIM, at meeting of the German Defence League, Cassel, Feb., 1913."

"One single highly cultured German warrior, of those who are, alas! falling in thousands, represents a higher intellectual and moral lifevalue than hundreds of the raw children of nature (Naturmenschen) whom England and France, Russia and

Italy, oppose to them.-PROF. E. the peoples, we will not shrink from
HAECKEL, E. W."
this great and lofty mission.-G. E.
PAZAUREK."

"Where German soldiers had to seize the incendiary torch, or even to proceed to the slaughter of citizens, it was only in pursuance of the rights of war, and for protection in real need. Had they obeyed the dictates of their hearts, they would rather have shared their soup and bread with the defenceless foe......This spirit of humanity we will preserve and cherish to the end.-PROF. W. KAHL."

"Germany is precisely-who would venture to deny it-the representative of the highest morality, of the purest humanity, of the most chastened Christianity. He, therefore, who fights for its maintenance, its victory, fights for the highest blessings of humanity itself, and for human progress. Its Its defeat, its decline, would mean a falling back to the worst barbarism.'War Sermons,' by PASTOR H. FRANCKE."

"Excessive modesty and humility, rather than excessive arrogance and ambition, is a feature of the German character. Therefore we shall know how to set a limit to our desire for expansion, and shall escape the dangers which have been fatal to all conquerors whose ambition was unbridled.-PROF. E. HASSE."

"Kultur is best promoted when the strongest individual Kultur, that of a given nation, enlarges its field of activity at the expense of the other national Kulturs. If we one day come into conflict with the MARTIANS, then humanity-all the peoples of the earth-will have common interests; but not until then.-K. WAGNER."

"If Fate has selected us to assume the leadership in the Kultur-life of

"A SCHOOLMASTER OF THE GREAT CITY"

Knowing of our interest in such rare schools as the one in Baltimore named in honor of FRANCIS SCOTT KEY, the publishers enthusiastically handed us a book with the title above given. (Macmillan Company, $1.25)

The early chapters made us feel that the publishers were more than justified in their enthusiasm; for ANGELO PATRI tells of the struggle of a teacher in New York, a teacher with a love for his work and a practical vision. It is different from any other book on teaching and most interesting. In addition, the style is pictureesque and the story attractive. Early in life, said PATRI, "I learned the beat of plain folks' hearts." Here are two pictures of the "elder" school life as drawn by the author. This life still exists in some places. A principal who was different said to PATRI, the beginner:

"Sometimes, even now, I get tired when I forget the bigness of the things I want to do. Those faces that you see in the classroom are not set against you, my brother. They are set against the things that bind you and prevent your mind from mingling freely with others.

“You must not think too much of arithmetic, and rules and dates and examinations, for these are not teaching; the children don't grow because of them. They grow because of their contact with you, the best that you know and feel.

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