The Teacher: Essays and Addresses on Education

								


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THE TEACHER
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