CHICAGO AND THE CONGRESS OF EDUCATION.

WHA

FRANK H. KASSON.

HAT a vast city Chicago is! And yet one life-time covers its whole history. Among the most interested observers at the educational congresses and the World's Fair was noticeable the strong, alert countenance of Dr. Henry Barnard. The Nestor of educational journalism, when at the Fair, passed from one to another of the educational exhibits with the quick step of a youth. It seems almost impossible to realize that he was a young man ere Chicago really began, and that he was a prattling boy when on that awful 15th of August, 1812, the retreating garrison of Fort Dearborn were shot down and massacred by savages, near where 18th street runs down to meet Lake Michigan. Now, covering miles and miles of those boggy swamps by the inland sea, rises a majestic city, claiming nearly 1,400,000 inhabitants. Nowhere else in America can one see such vast and lofty structures as the Masonic Temple, the Monadnock and many others. Fit buildings these to match the colossal spirit of western enterprise and achievement. The vistas across land and lake are broad and high, and broader, higher still the spirit and ambition of the city. Chicago is very great. Nor can any man measure her coming greatness. Above the clouds of smoke and dust she lifts her eyes serenely and proudly claims the future as her own. Dr. Barnard's eyes have seen all the past and present. But what will Chicago appear to the privileged view of those who live ten generations hence?

The educational congresses were on the whole very successful. The feast was spread with such a profusion of good things that all could find instruction and inspiration, while no one could secure more than a small part of that which the menu offered. Only Dr. Harris, in the city of Chicago during a Columbian year, could have set such a table. It was very pleasant to see the notable array of master minds here met together. They thronged the lower halls of the Memorial Art Palace; they graced every platform. A goodly number were women, their faces shining with intellectual light and radiant with the hope of the future. These leaders of educational progress are familiar figures to the readers of Education.

Many of them are themselves readers of and writers for this maga

zine.

Among College Presidents the noble, benignant countenance of Ex-President McCosh, of Princeton, attracted special attention, as did his words of wisdom. He spoke with a fervor and incisiveness which seemed oblivious of the fact that the weight of eighty-four years is resting upon him, and that the July thermometer was in the nineties. Pres. James B. Angell, of Michigan, performed the duties of the presiding officer of the International Congress of Education with ease and grace and brief but eloquent speech. Pres. G. Stanley Hall, of Clark University, was one of the most attractive personalities. Other college presidents, whose names are nearly all household words to those interested in higher education, were Francis A. Walker of Massachusetts, Raymond and Smith of Connecticut, Seth Low of New York, McAlister and DeGarmo of Pennsylvania, D. C. Gilman of Maryland, Charles F. Thwing of Ohio, Joseph Swain of Indiana, Wm. R. Harper of Illinois, Gates of Iowa, Canfield of Nebraska, and Jordan and Kellogg of California. Dr. Wm. T. Harris won fresh laurels for ability and statesmanship in preparing such a remarkable and varied program and in carrying though its many departments so successfully, as well as for his finished and instructive addresses. He is preeminently the right man in the right place, whether carrying through a great series of educational meetings at Chicago, or as United States Commissioner of Education at Washington, putting new life and inspiration into all our educational activities. May he be undisturbed in carrying forward the great work,—so complex and far reaching in its usefulness-which he is doing so grandly, for many years to come. Two of his predecessors, Dr. Henry Barnard and Gen. John Eaton, were present and rejoiced in the noble superstructure of the educational building rising above foundations on which they had spent long years of unremitting toil.

Among those who have grown gray in manifold educational Labors it was good to see the faces of Drs. N. A. Calkins, Edward Brooks, Z. Richards and E. A. Sheldon. Among the vigorous leaders of educational opinion were C. C. Rounds, T. N. Balliet, Ray Greene Huling, H. M. Tarbell, W. A. Mowry, W. B. Powell, J. C. Mackenzie, E. O. Lyte, L. H. Jones, J. W. Cook, Col. F. W. Parker, W. N. Hailman, E. E. White, A. G. Lane, Henry Sabin, J. L. Pickard, E. B. Gilbert, Earl Barnes, Will S. Monroe and scores of others.

What enthusiasm was manifested by the kindergartners! It made one long to be a child again and begin all over under the guidance of one of these delightful ladies.

Such women as Mrs. Sarah B. Cooper, Mrs. A. M. Hughes, Mrs. E. L. Hailman, Mrs. Alice H. Putnam, Miss Hattie Neil, Miss Amalie Hofer, Miss Lucy Wheelock and others, whose names it would be a pleasure to recount, are full of zeal and faith and earnest purpose. They burn with a love almost divine to touch the lives of pure innocent little children and ennoble them. With such lofty ideas of the mission God has given them they can but succeed. If their enthusiasm carries them too far in one direction or another, their earnest purpose, pure aims, self-sacrificing spirit and close contact with child life will prove a sure corrective. We can safely trust the fresh souls, "trailing clouds of glory," to such loving and inspiring leadership. They are not only to shape the young life of the land, but they will also powerfully quicken and uplift the mother life also. They are sowing golden grain and will yet reap an abundant harvest. God bless this noble band of white souls at whose electric touch the hearts of little children thrill.

We have not time in the limits of this brief paper to speak in detailor critically of the great mass of papers read and addresses given. A good proportion were of a high order,-compact, practical, fruitful in suggestion, full of "light and leading.' Some were heavy

and occasionally one was dull. When the opportunity came for discussion much valuable time was lost; many spoke without preparation and too often the crank held the floor. Among those who made a profound impression upon eager listeners the writer specially recalls Dr. Harris, Dr. Barnard, Dr. McCosh, Pres. G. Stanley Hall, Pres. James McAlister, Dr. E. E. White, Bishop Keane, Earl Barnes, Mrs. Sarah B. Cooper and Miss Lucy Wheelock of this country, and of the distinguished representatives of other nations, Dr. G. W. Ross of Canada, Miss E. P. Hughes of Cambridge, England, M. Gabriel Compayré of France, Prof. Stephan Waetzoldt of Germany and Prince Serge Wolkonsky of Russia. Doubtless every other person in attendance could add many other names to whom they listened with equal delight and profit. For the enjoyment of hearing some profound paper or impressive address was often lessened by the haunting reflection that while listening to this we were missing half a dozen equally good which were being delivered in other sections of the Art Palace. One realized

as never before a burning desire to be in half a score of places at

once.

Of the great number of notable foreign visitors no one was more warmly welcomed than the distinguished French author, M. Compayré, president of the French Commission on Education. We have for years known and honored him as an author, now henceforth we shall know him as a modest, genial, lovable man. Another European visitor, who was heard with delight, was the handsome, eloquent young Prince Wolkonsky, representing the ministry of Public Instruction of Russia. His advanced views on education, and hearty interest in the illy paid female teachers of his country, surprised and charmed his auditors. Canada was well represented, and Dr. Ross, Inspector James L. Hughes and his wife, and other of her leading educators showed us that our neighbors across the border are equally interested with ourselves in educational advancement.

At the same time, on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday, papers were being read and discussions going on in nearly every one of fifteen different rooms, or halls, on the following general subjects: Higher Education, Secondary Education, Elementary Education, Kindergarten Instruction, School Supervision, Professional Training of Teachers, Art Instruction, Instruction in Vocal Music, Technological Instruction, Industrial and Manual Instruction, Business Education, Physical Education, Rational Psychology in Education, Experimental Psychology in Education, Department of Educational Publications. Probably the best attended of all these departments were the Kindergarten and Experimental Psychology. The latter, under the very able direction of Pres. G. Stanley Hall, was confined wholly to the subject of child study. It was haustively treated by various experts, and the room was packed by a delighted throng of teachers, eager for help, guidance and wise suggestions touching a subject so close to all their hearts.

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It shows how great is the interest in the educational problems of the day that to consider them such a company of men and women eagerly gathered forenoon, afternoon and evening in almost continuous sessions. Gathered day after day in the Memorial Art Palace, in the heart of a great grimy city, in July heats, vexed by the roar of passing trains, while the "White City," with its marvellous Fair, the wonder of the world, was but six miles away. Of course the numbers attending were not to be compared with the

throngs at some of the National Educational Association meetings. But the leaders of thought were mostly there. The intellectual uplift was very great. It was very helpful to compare thought and method with representatives of distant nations. The intellectual drum-beat is now heard round the world.

Thanks are due, not only to Dr. Harris, but to Supt. A. G. Lane and his faithful assistants, to Dr. Selim H. Peabody, director of the educational department at the World's Fair, to Pres. C. C. Bonney of the World's Congress Auxiliary, and to Mrs. Potter Palmer, Mrs. Chas. Henrotin and their associates of the Woman's Branch of the Auxiliary for the success of this International Congress of Education.

PSYCHOLOGY AND ETHICS IN THE HIGH SCHOOL.

I

COLIN S. BUELL, NEW LONDON, CONN.

WELL remember with what a feeling of relief I passed out of

the lecture-room at Yale after the last recitation in Psychology, only to find that I had "leaped from the frying-pan into the fire -Ethics was to follow. Little did I think then that within a very few years I should be teaching those very subjects to high school students with a degree of pleasure derived from no other pedagogical labor, and should have become an ardent advocate for their introduction into the curricula of all our high schools.

The story of my conversion may be of interest to you, and may be summed up in a single sentence. It was the natural result of experimental as opposed to dogmatical study. No sooner did I begin to teach than I found that something was wrong with our system of education-it was not doing what it pretended to do. I first pondered the subject long and deeply,-beginning at the wrong end, as might have been expected-and then began an analytical study of the human mind, which brought me to my present position. In common with many others, I had become so accustomed to hearing such truisms as-" Every effect has a cause, and to produce the effect we must first know, and then use the cause," "Different temperaments are differently effected by the same mode of action," etc.--that I was not at all touched by their repetition. It is not until we have learned by experience the everlasting truths which lie behind the words that we truly believe them. An example of what is meant occurred recently in my