TUESDAY EVENING, JULY 7, 8:30 O'CLOCK Tuesday evening was given over to a reception at the state capitol, to which the visiting teachers were invited. THIRD DAY'S PROCEEDINGS FOURTH SESSION-WEDNESDAY EVENING, JULY 8, 8:00 O'CLOCK Preceding the addresses of the evening, there was a program of moving pictures illustrating various phases of St. Paul public-school activities. President Swain called the meeting to order, and the program of the evening was presented as follows, on the general topic, "Principles and Aims of Education": "Common Sense and Beyond"-William L. Bryan, president, Indiana University, Bloomington, Ind. "The Purpose of Elementary and High-School Education"-Nathan C. Schaeffer, state superintendent of public instruction, Harrisburg, Pa. "The Purpose of the Liberal College"-Alexander Meiklejohn, president, Amherst College, Amherst, Mass. At the close of the program, President Swain announced the following Committee on Nominations: FIFTH SESSION-THURSDAY EVENING, JULY 9, 8:00 O'CLOCK President Swain called the meeting to order and the following program was given on the general topic, “Education in a Democracy": "For Social Service"-Edward A. Ross, professor of sociology, University of Wisconsin, Madison, Wis. "For Political and Moral Service"-William O. Thompson, president, Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio. 'Organization of Education for Democracy"-Philander P. Claxton, United States commissioner of education, Washington, D.C. FIFTH DAY'S PROCEEDINGS SIXTH SESSION-FRIDAY EVENING, JULY 10, 7:30 O'CLOCK Preceding the opening of the meeting, a program of folk dances was given under the direction of Josephine Brower, physical director, State Normal School, St. Cloud, Minn. President Swain called the meeting to order at 8:00 P.M. The following addresses were presented on the general topic, "The Needs of the Public Schools": "Professionally Prepared Teachers"-John W. Cook, president, State Normal School, De Kalb, Ill. "The Kingdom of Little Things"-James M. Greenwood, advisory superintendent of schools, Kansas City, Mo. "Systematic Education for Those Pupils Leaving School Too Soon"-Lorenzo D. Harvey, president, Stout Institute, Menomonie, Wis. "Progress of the Rural Schools"-Edward T. Fairchild, president, New Hampshire College, Durham, N.H. "Let Both Grow Together until the Harvest"-Carroll G. Pearse, president, State Normal School, Milwaukee, Wis. "The Adaptation of the Work of the School to the Needs of the People"-James Y. Joyner, state superintendent of public instruction, Raleigh, N.C. At this time, President Swain read a letter received from the President of the United States, and his reply thereto, as follows: MY DEAR DOCTOR SWAIN: THE WHITE HOUSE, WASHINGTON I was very much complimented by the courtesy and urgency of the kind invitation which you conveyed to me to be present at the meeting of the National Education Association at St. Paul and genuinely regretted that public duties made it impossible for me to give myself that pleasure. Thoughtful people all over the country follow the deliberations of the National Education Association with genuine interest. The problems of education are really problems affecting national development and national ideas. I think that no one long associated with the profession of teaching can have failed to catch the inspiration of it or to see how great a power may be exercised thru the classroom in directing the thinking and the ambition of the generations coming on, or can have failed to realize that nothing less than a comprehension of the national life is necessary to fit a teacher for the great task of preparation and adaptation to the future that education attempts. Cordially and sincerely yours, The President, Washington, D.C. (Signed) WOODROW WILSON ST. PAUL, MINN., July 6, 1914 DEAR MR. PRESIDENT: The members of the National Education Association wish to express their great appreciation of your welcome and encouraging message. They beg you to receive their cordial and sincere greeting. (Signed) JOSEPH SWAIN President, National Education Association President Swain then read the cablegram sent to David Starr Jordan notifying him of his election to the presidency of the National Education Association and the reply received thereto, as follows: LONDON, ENGLAND, July 10, 1914 Joseph Swain, President National Education Association St. Paul, Minn. Honor highly appreciated. If I can serve the teachers, I will gladly do so. (Signed) DAVID STARR JORDAN In closing, President Swain spoke as follows: We have come to the closing hour of the Fifty-second Annual Convention. I certainly deeply appreciate the good will of this Association as expressed in the resolution of the active members yesterday. I appreciate still more the cordial co-operation of all the forces in the National Education Association and in this state and city, which have made this convention an inspiration and an influence for good in the development of the schools. Your cordial reception reminds me of a statement of President Angell, of the University of Michigan. The alumni of Michigan on one occasion were trying to tell President Angell how much the University of Michigan was indebted to him for his service. When it came his turn to speak, he said: "I did not make the University of Michigan. The University of Michigan made me." My part has been the very humble one of helping you to give expression to the high ideal and tradition of this Association. In a very real sense I have not made this convention, this convention has made me. I ask that you give David Starr Jordan, the scholar, the philosopher, the poet, the democrat of democrats, the promoter of the world's peace, the help and co-operation which you have given me. I cannot ask more. President Swain then announced the adjournment of the Fifty-second Convention of the National Education Association. DURAND W. SPRINGER, Secretary GENERAL SESSIONS OF THE ASSOCIATION ADDRESSES OF WELCOME I. J. A. A. BURNQUIST, LIEUTENANT-GOVERNOR OF THE STATE OF While you are here as our guests, I wish it were possible for us, as citizens of this commonwealth, to show you the state of Minnesota as we should like to show it to you. We should like to have you see the ten thousand beautiful lakes within its borders, its winding rivers, and its wooded hills. We should like to show you Minnesota's twenty million acres of agricultural lands now under cultivation, on which are being produced immense crops that within a few days will be harvested and sent to the world's different markets, especially to those of our own state, in which are located the largest flour mills in the world. I wish too it were possible for us to take you to the northeastern portion of the state, where are to be found the richest known deposits of iron, where men are digging down into the depths of the earth and taking out of it this much-used mineral which is being manufactured into products that are shipped thruout the length and breadth of this country and the civilized world. We should also be pleased to take you to those sections of the state where you could see our virgin forests. Already large tracts of these forests have been cut down and sawed into lumber, some of which may have been used in the building of homes where many of you are living and in the construction of the schoolhouses and college buildings in which some of you have taught. But especially do I wish that it were possible for us to have you visit our schools and colleges and universities, for we in Minnesota have ever been interested in education. Our first territorial governor, Alexander Ramsey, who subsequently became the second governor of the state, more than half a century ago recommended certain legislation which has resulted in a school fund that today is equal to more than thirty millions of dollars, and is larger, it is said, than the school funds of all the states east of the Mississippi River put together, and which in the years to come will be equivalent to many times its present amount. We, as residents of Minnesota, like to call the attention of our guests to the picturesque scenery, the healthful climate, the great industries, the natural resources, and the educational system, of which I have spoken, just as you from other parts of the country like to speak of the interesting facts relative to the sections from which you have come; and yet I feel that, however great may be the pride that we have in our respective states and territories, we all have a still greater pride in our common country, the United States of America, and that today all of us, regardless of whether we come from the South or the North, from the Atlantic coast or the Pacific slope, regardless of where we live, rejoice in the fact that back of the Constitution which gives us our federal government, back of the congress which enacts for us our laws, back of the federal courts which construe that Constitution and those laws, and back of the federal executive who enforces them, stand the people, not of different, separate, independent, and fighting states, but the people of the whole of the United States as the real power and the true sovereignty in our representative form of government. So, we of Minnesota, constituting a small portion of the great American Republic, extend to you a most cordial welcome, trusting that you will receive much profit from this convention and much enjoyment from your visit to our state, and knowing that we shall be greatly benefited by your presence with us, for we realize that in the teachers of our country, in the ideas which they impart, and in the ideals which they teach, are wrapped up the true prosperity, the real progress, and the highest development of our state and nation. II. C. G. SCHULZ, STATE SUPERINTENDENT OF EDUCATION, ST. PAUL, MINN. In extending welcome to the National Education Association, I speak for the educational agencies in Minnesota as represented by our ten thousand rural schools and teachers, by the public-school forces of our towns and cities, by the higher institutions of learning, and by every agency that seeks to train and develop character thru organized educational forces. Minnesota is full of joy, of promise, of opportunity. Our resources are great, our confidence in our own ability to do and achieve the useful and the beautiful is of that subdued and silent character which must be experienced in order that it may be known and felt. We have a pride in our progress, considering that scarcely more than half a century marks the state's history in its industrial, social, educational, and religious activities. You will find reflected in the school work of Minnesota types of what each state is seeking to achieve thru its educational efforts. While we hope that you may enjoy our climate, our scenery, and our hospitality, we, on our part, are conscious that the presence of the National Education Association in Minnesota will be an inspiration and a guide to more useful and practical efforts on our part. We are young in years and still more youthful in spirit. Teaching in the Northwest not only retains but restores the vigor and energy of youth. We are confident that the deliberations of the National Education Association in the North Star State will mark such an epoch in the history of this gathering of missionary workers in the educational field that the entire movement for better schools thru more purposeful and better directed training will raise and advance the whole level of publicschool service thruout the nation. |