TEACHERS' CONFERENCE
The eighth annual May conference between the members of the College faculty and the teachers and superintendents of secondary schools, was held May 14, 15, and 16. The subject for consideration was, "Problems in the Organization and Administration of Secondary Schools."
The subject discussed on the afternoon of May 14 was "Vocational' Training in Secondary Schools." Mr. Charles H. Morse of the Massachusetts Industrial Education Commission emphasized the increasing demand for vocational training, and Prof. H. S. Person outlined a plan for the ideal system of providing it. The general discussion was opened by President William D. Gibbs, of the New Hampshire College of Agriculture and the Mechanic Arts. At the evening session Acting President John K. Lord welcomed the visitors, then about eighty in number. Dr. Luther H. Gulick, director of physical training in the schools of Greater New York, then spoke on "Interschool Athletics as a Factor in the Development of the Social Conscience," "dealing with the important effects of school athletics in a most interesting way.
The session on Friday morning, May 15. was devoted to "Physical Training and Athletics in the Secondary Schools." Dr. H. N. Kingsford spoke on "Pure Air—a Prerequisite for Health," and gave demonstrations of methods for testing the air in the schoolroom. "The Physical Conditions of Students Entering College,'' were discussed by Prof. John W. Bowler, who presented statistics and suggested remedies. The general discussion was opened by Principal Harlan M. Bisbee, of the Robinson Female Seminary, Exeter. The remainder of the morning program was as follows: "The Possibilities of & System of Athletics that is Confined to the School Itself," illustrated by Mr. Malcolm K. Gordon, St. Paul's School, Concord; "Do the prevailing forms of school athletics benefit a sufficient number of the scholars to provide for the physical needs of the schools?" Superintendent William D. Parkinson, Waltham; "The Advantages and the Difficulties of Interschool Athletics," Principal Charles F. Cook, Concord, N. H., high school; general discussion.
At one o'clock the members of the conference, with the members of the Schoolmasters' Club of New Hampshire, were the guests of the College at lunch in College Hall. A general discussion of "The School as a Social Center" followed, under the direction of the president of the club, Principal E. W. Butterfield, Dover, N. H., high school.
"The Relation of the . Secondary School to the College" was considered Friday evening. The speakers were : Superintendent Mason S. Stone of Vermont, who emphasized the position of the high school in its two-fold character as a college preparatory school and as itself the "people's college;" Principal G. W. Bingham, of Pinkerton Academy, Derry, N. H., who discussed entrance requirements; Principal S, W, Robertson, Rochester, N. H., high school, who considered the advisability of giving admission credits for any subjects that are not now so treated; and Miss Elsie D. Fairbanks, Manchester, N. H., high school, who treated the lack of uniformity in entrance requirements.
At the concluding session of the conference, Saturday morning, May 16, Principal Harlan P. Amen, of Phillips Exeter Academy spoke on "The Place of the Academy in our Educational System," and Superintendent Henry C. Morrison of New Hampshire discussed "The Correlation of the Educational Forces of a State."
Superintendent Morrison's address was warmly approved. A committee, composed of Principal G. W. Bingham, Prof. C. D. Adams and Dr. H. H. Home, framed the following resolutions:
"Resolved that efficient elementary public schools are a fundamental requisite in a free state, and that no proper co-ordination of our educational forces can be secured unless these schools are fostered by lively popular interest, and by such liberal financial support as will secure competent teachers in the common schools. And to this end.
"Resolved further, that we heartily endorse the following opinions of Superintendent Morrison : 'lt has often been said that our educational system has grown from the top down. That is true historically, and the fact constitiutes our present limitation. The upper stories excel in financial support, in prestige, and in efficiency; the nearer the fountain we go, the more evidence we find of poverty, of neglect, of futility. An educational system in a democracy must be democratic ; that is the price of its existence, and that is usually its proudest boast. Theoretically, every child in our state, and in many of our sister .states, is entitled to preparation for the higher education at public expense. Democracy says that he shall have his opportunity. Practically, the children of relatively few districts have any such opportunity, for the reason that the common school at home is so often cheerfully unable to prepare them for the high school at all, or because their opportunity does not and cannot lie in the only field toward which any accessible secondary institution can lead them. Close the doors of opportunity to a single American boy and you may be robbing democracy of a potential leader. Close the doors of opportunity to a large group of boys and you certainly are robbing democracy of potential leadership. Perhaps our greatest present peril as a nation is that we shall fail to get all of our leadership under the discipline and training of the higher education. We still have, as we always have had, the anomaly of an aristocratic education serving a social body that is profoundly democratic. We must reverse the direction of the growth of the past and henceforth build from the bottom up, rather than from the top down, build upon the basis of a common school system that is efficient and universal, and as nearly equal in all directions as it is possible to make it. Given the product of that kind of a system, the problem of the high school, of the college, of the educational association, will well-nigh solve itself.' "
