XII
AT THE DEDICATORY EXERCISES OF THE NEW
HIGH-SCHOOL BUILDING, PHILADELPHIA,
PA., NOVEMBER 22, 1902
Mr. Chairman, ladies and gentlemen:
I am glad to have the chance of being present at the
formal dedication of this new building, which in its management
stands in line of succession to a series of buildings,
themselves typifying in no small degree the extraordinary
development of the public-school system of the United
States. It was some sixty-four years ago that this institution
was first established under a man of great eminence
alike in the work of pedagogy and in other fields—Professor
Biggs. At the time when it was started the public-school
system of the United States had begun and was in
the process of its first development. Now, in the city of
Philadelphia in attendance upon the public schools, including
the night schools, there are some hundred and
seventy thousand pupils and over four thousand teachers.
The development of the high school, especially during
the last half century, has been literally phenomenal.
Nothing like our present system of education was known
in earlier times. No such system of popular education
for the people by the representatives of the people
existed.
It is, of course, a mere truism to say that the stability
and future welfare of our institutions of government depend
upon the grade of citizenship turned out from our
public schools. And no body of public servants, no body
of individuals associated in private life, are better worth
the admiration and respect of all who value citizenship at
its true worth, than the body composed of the teachers
in the public schools throughout the length and breadth
of this Union. They have to deal with citizenship in the
raw and turn it out something like a finished product. I
think that all of us who also endeavor to deal with that
citizenship in the raw in our own homes appreciate the
burden and the responsibility. The training given in the
public schools must, of course, be not merely a training
in intellect, but a training in what counts for infinitely
more than intellect,—a training in character. And the
chief factor in that training must be the personal equation
of the teachers; the influence exerted, sometimes consciously
and sometimes unconsciously, by the man or
woman who stands in so peculiar a relation to the boys
and girls under his or her care—a relation closer, more
intricate, and more vital in its after-effects than any other
relation save that of parent and child. Wherever a burden
of that kind is laid, those who carry it necessarily
carry a great responsibility. There can be no greater.
Scant should be our patience with any man or woman
doing a bit of work vitally worth doing, who does not
approach it in the spirit of sincere love for the work, and
of desire to do it well for the work's sake.
Doubtless most of you remember the old distinction
drawn between the two kinds of work, the work done for
the sake of the fee and the work done for the sake of the
work itself. The man or woman in public or private life
who ever works only for the sake of the reward that comes
outside of the work, will in the long run do poor work.
The man or woman who does work worth doing is the
man or woman who lives, who breathes that work; with
whom it is ever present in his or her soul; whose ambition
is to do it well and to feel rewarded by the thought of
having done it well. That man, that woman, puts the
whole country under an obligation. As a body all those
connected with the education of our people are entitled
to the heartiest praise from all lovers of their country,
because as a body they are devoting heart and soul
to the welfare of those under them.
It is a poor type of school nowadays that has not
a good playground attached. It is not so long since,
in my own city at least, this was held as revolutionary
doctrine, especially in the crowded quarters where playgrounds
were most needed. People said they did n't
need playgrounds. It was a new-fangled idea. They
expected to make good citizens of the boys and girls who,
when they were not in school, were put upon the streets
in the crowded quarters of New York to play at the kind
of games alone that they could play at in the streets. We
have passed that stage. I think we realize what a good
healthy playground means to children. I think we understand
not only the effects for good upon their bodies, but
for good upon their minds. We need healthy bodies.
We need to have schools physically developed.
Sometimes you can develop character by the direct inculcation
of moral precept; a good deal more often you
cannot. You develop it less by precept than by your
practice. Let it come as an incident of the association
with you; as an incident to the general tone of the whole
body, the tone which in the aggregate we all create. Is
not that the experience of all of you, in dealing with
these children in the schools, in dealing with them in the
family, in dealing with them in bodies anywhere? They
are quick to take the tone of those to whom they look
up, and if they do not look up to you, then you can
preach virtue all you wish, but the effect will be small.
I have not come here to try to make any extended
speech to you, but I should hold myself a poor citizen if I
did not welcome the chance to wish you Godspeed in
your work for yourselves and to wish you Godspeed in
your work as representatives of that great body of public-school
teachers, upon the success of whose efforts to train
aright the children of to-day depends the safety of our
institutions of to-morrow.
