Evening Republican, Volume 16, Number 241, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 8 October 1912 — TEACHERS PLEASED WITH THE INSTITUTE [ARTICLE]

TEACHERS PLEASED WITH THE INSTITUTE

Able Instructors Discuss Topics Vital to Success in Present Day Methods The Jasper County Teachers’ Institute held its opening session Monday afternoon at the M. E. church. Following the opening song, “America,” led by Miss Lyxavine Votaw, of Chicago, and devotional exercises conducted by the Rev. Parett, Prof. L. A. Pettenger, of the University Training Sohool, Bloomington, Ind., gave the opening lecture. Prof. Pittenger chose for his subject the “Teaching of English,” and taking up the phase of interpretation of the purpose of teaching English, he proceeded to show the purpose of teaching the Howe Fourth and Fifth Readers. Among many good things mentioned by Prof. Pittenger was the thought that English rightly taught gives the pupil a greater appreciation of the beautiful, and that to have appreciated something big means to have greater pleasures, to have larger sunsets, “to have life and have it more abundantly.” Also he brought out the thought that the appreciation should not be personal as was Byron’s; not simply of the home, as Burns’ or Whittier; not wholly of the nation, typified in Vergil and Lincoln, but that the greatest appreciation is universal, as shown in the Bible and in Shakespeare’s works. He next brought forth the idea that passing through the desire for the impossible, and improbable in literature, the purpose of the teacher should be to awaken the desire on the part of the pupil for the inevitable in literature aa seen in Ibsen, Shaw, and Shakespeare, in Hilton, Dante and the Bible. Following a short intermission, Prof. George Herbert Betts, of Cornell College, Mount Vernon, lowa,gave a very inspiring lecture to the teachers assembled. Pirof. Betts took up tb,e subject of “Attitude,” and in a pleasing introduction demonstrated how the measure of the teacher’s value is the way we “front out”, or the attitude the teacher takes toward growth, work, the school and the child in the school. •He ended with the thought which formed a logical conclusion to his discussion, that “what we as teachers would impress on the pupils, we must first make concrete in our own experience.” Jasper county is to be congratulated upon the able faculty which Superintendent Lamson has obtained and the prospects are good for a profitable week to all conhected with the work. The general public is invited to attend. All sessions are free.