| Show in address at the white house to the teachers convention the president emphatically declared that we are not to Bs excused if we fail to war against the forces of evil continuing save his views on educational methods washington feb 26 that there will be no let up in president roose belts policy ot warring against rottenness and corruption was emphatically declared by the president today in an address to the delegates to the department of superintendents of the national educational association during their reception at the white house continuing the president aavo his views on educational methods at considerable length and with characteristic te catholicity of thought and vig or of expression at business session oklahoma city was selected as the next meeting place and officers were elect ed as follows president V H bison cleveland secretary A C nelson salt lake city I 1 president roosevelt in his address to the convention said in part of all the bodies of citizens that I 1 have received here at the white house there is none that occupies a more am relation thau yours I 1 am tempted to say none has come that haa occupied as important a relation to the nation because you men aud who deal with education who represent the great american policy of education for all childrens chil drena relation to the family a relation to the future of our whole people such as no other like number of individuals can bear I 1 own six of the children that you educate and I 1 am prepared to ox tend cordial sympathy to some of you seriously friends it Is idle for any man to talk of despairing of the future of this country or feeling unduly alarmed about it if he will come in contact with you here and with the forces that vou represent fundamentally this country Is sound morally no less than physically fundamentally in its family life and in the outside activities of its individuals the country Is better and not worse than it formerly was this does not mean that we are to be excused if we fail to war against rottenness and corruption it we tall to contend effectively with the forces of evil and they waste their time who ask me to withhold my hand from dealing therewith but it is worth while to smite the wrong for the very reason that we are confident that the right will ultimately prevail you who are training the next generation are training this country as it is to jae a decade or two hence and while your work intrain in train ing the intellect Is great it Is not as great as your work in training character more than anything else I 1 want to see the public school turn out the boy and girl who when man and woman will add to the sum of good citizenship of the nation J trust that more and more of our people will see to it that tho schools train toward and not away from the farm and workshop we have spoken a great deal about the dignity of labor in this country but wo have not acted up to our spoken words for in our education we have tended to proceed upon the assumption that the educated man was to be educated away from not toward labor abo great nations of mediaeval media eval times who left such marvelous marv elpus works of architecture and art behind them were able to do so because they educated alike the brain and band of the craftsman we too in our turn must show that understand we the law which decrees that a people which loses physical address invariably deteriorates so that people shall understand that the great carpenter the good blacksmith tho good mechanic the good farmer really do fill the most important positions in our land and that it Is an evil thing for them and the nation to have their sons and daughters forsake he work which it well and efficiently performed means more than any other work for our people as a whole one thing 1 would have you teach your pupils is that whether you call the money gained by salary or wages does not make any real difference and that it by working hard with your hands you get more than if you work with your head only it does not atone for to call the smaller amount salary the term dignity of labor implies that manual labor is as dignified as mental labor as of course it Is indeed the highest kind of labor Is that which makes demands upon tho qualities of both head and hand of heart and of body physical prowess physical address aro necessities they stand on a level with intellect and only below character let us show that we regard the position of the man who works with his hands as being ordinarily and la good faith as important and dignified and as worthy of consideration as that of the business man or professional man we need to have a certain readjustment of values in this country which must primarily come through the efforts of just you men and women here and the men and women like you throughout this land 1 I would not have you preach an impossible ideal for V you preach an ideal that is impossible you tend to mako your pupils believe that no ideals are possible and therefore you tend to do them that worst of bronga to teach them to divorce preaching from practice to divorce the ideal that they in the abstract admire from the practical good after which they strive teach the boy and girl that busl ness ie to earn own living teach the boy that ho la to be tho homemaker the girl that she must ultimately bo the homo keeper that the work of the father la to bo thu breadwinner and that of tho mother the housekeeper that theirs Is tuo roost important work by far in nil the land that tho work of the statesmen tho writer the captain of industry and all the rest Is conditioned first upon work that finds its expression in the family that supports tab family |
