The Teacher Essays and Addresses on Education   By: George Herbert Palmer (1842-1933)

ESSAYS AND ADDRESSES ON EDUCATION

BY GEORGE HERBERT PALMER AND ALICE FREEMAN PALMER

BOSTON AND NEW YORK HOUGHTON MIFFLIN COMPANY The Riverside Press Cambridge 1908

COPYRIGHT, 1908, BY GEORGE HERBERT PALMER ALL RIGHTS RESERVED Published November 1908

SECOND IMPRESSION

PREFACE

The papers of this volume fall into three groups, two of the three being written by myself. From my writings on education I have selected only those which may have some claim to permanent interest, and all but two have been tested by previous publication. Those of the first group deal with questions about which we teachers, eager about our immeasurable art beyond most professional persons, never cease to wonder and debate: What is teaching? How far may it influence character? Can it be practiced on persons too busy or too poor to come to our class rooms? To subjects of what scope should it be applied? And how shall we content ourselves with its necessary limitations? Under these diverse headings a kind of philosophy of education is outlined. The last two papers, having been given as lectures and stenographically reported, I have left in their original colloquial form. A group of papers on Harvard follows, preceded by an explanatory note, and the volume closes with a few papers by Mrs. Palmer. She and I often talked of preparing together a book on education. Now, alone, I gather up these fragments.

CONTENTS

PAGE I. PROBLEMS OF SCHOOL AND COLLEGE I. The Ideal Teacher 3 II. Ethical Instruction in the Schools 31 III. Moral Instruction in the Schools 49 IV. Self Cultivation in English 72 V. Doubts About University Extension 105 VI. Specialization 123 VII. The Glory of the Imperfect 143

II. HARVARD PAPERS VIII. The New Education 173 IX. Erroneous Limitations of the Elective System 200 X. Necessary Limitations of the Elective System 239 XI. College Expenses 272 XII. A Teacher of the Olden Time 283

III. PAPERS BY ALICE FREEMAN PALMER XIII. Three Types of Women's Colleges 313 XIV. Women's Education in the Nineteenth Century 337 XV. Women's Education at the World's Fair 351 XVI. Why Go to College? 364

I

PROBLEMS OF SCHOOL AND COLLEGE

I

THE IDEAL TEACHER

In America, a land of idealism, the profession of teaching has become one of the greatest of human employments. In 1903 04 half a million teachers were in charge of sixteen million pupils. Stating the same facts differently, we may say that a fifth of our entire population is constantly at school; and that wherever one hundred and sixty men, women, and children are gathered, a teacher is sure to be among them.