TEACHERS' ASS'N MEETING

The Harvard Teachers' Association held its seventeenth annual meeting in the New Lecture Hall on Saturday. At the morning session, the officers of the Association were elected for the ensuing year as follows: president, J. B. Diman; vice-presidents, E. D. Russell '80 and A. H. Ward '85; secretary, P. H. Hanus; treasurer, O. B. Oakman '87.

At the morning session, the speakers were Rev. Endicott Peabody, head-master of Groton School, and Mr. E. J. Goodwin, second Commissioner of Education in the state of New York. Speaking on "The Training and Responsibilities of Parents," Dr. Peabody said that everything in modern education depends on the influence of the home in regard to the intellectual and moral ideals of boys and girls. Parents should begin the training of their children early, and be more strict in refusing their children pleasures that will interfere with their school-work. There should be some real home interest in the life of the community and a real endeavor to interest the child in the best literature by reading aloud. The table conversation should not be on the malfeasances of the cook, the fluctuations of the stock market, or the doings of the neighbors, but on matters of larger interest, such as literature, morals, and politics. In conclusion, Dr. Peabody bewailed the moral decadence resulting from the influence of the modern theatre and novel.

Mr. Goodwin spoke on "The School and the Home." He said in contradiction to Dr. Peabody, that it is the public school and not the home that has the greatest influence upon education. The non-success in teaching is due to the failure of the teacher to get into communication with the parents. If the ideas of the parents and the teachers do not converge to a common end, good results cannot be secured from public schools. Moreover, since the greater proportion of the boys who leave school on completing the elementary grades, find themselves inadequately fitted for earning wages, the training in the public schools should be supplemented by night schools and trade schools, where the education will be adapted to the real needs of pupils.

The annual dinner of the Association was held in the Union at noon. After the dinner, speeches were made by Mr. J. J. Storrow '85, chairman of the Boston School Committee, Professor Suzzallo, of the department of Education in the Teachers' College of Columbia University, and President Eliot.

Speaking on "The Responsibilities of School Committees," Mr. Storrow said that the School Committee should fight for the interests of the school-children rather than for those of the individual. For the benefit of the children, and for the purpose of saving the city's money, the School Committee has established promotional tests, which new teachers must pass before an advancement.

Mr. Suzzallo, in his address on "Education as a Social Study," said that what we need in education is the establishment of a social point of view. The school is a secondary institution which brings out the best of society, and social conditions influence the subject matter of the schools. In education, two things are in opposition--the idea of culture, and specialized training. Culture must be relative to social conditions. We need to remember in education that teachers must be broad-minded and that thus democratic efficiency can be effected.

The last speaker was President Eliot. Apropos of Mr. Storrow's remarks, he declared that what we need to realize and act upon is that a democratic society is going to be divided into four layers. Contrary to this doctrine, the present school system has been organized on the idea that every boy may be President of the United States. This idea no longer accords with existing circumstances, since it ignores these four indispensable layers of democratic society; first, a thin, upper layer, consisting of a managing, leading, organizing class; second, a layer comprised of handworkers, who make their living by manual labor of the artistic sort, into which the nervous system enters; third, a commercial layer composed of men employed in buying and distributing; and last, a class in agricultural and forestry employ. Transition from one of these layers to the others should be kept easy. Opposed to this transition are two forces: one, the operative level in industry; and the other, the trade union--the most undemocratic thing we have ever developed in the United States