is not only a voice to the people proclaiming our faith and devotion to our profession, but also a source of neverfailing enthusiasm and of renewed joy which reaches and permeates the entire teaching body of our state. This common meeting ground, here within. the limits of our great city and under the spell of the genial hospitality of her people, has come to be a shrine where a mighty band of common servants of the common people make annual pilgrimages, not only to worship at its altars, but to give each in his own way something of his own life to the common good.

But this convention has its practical side and must stand for practical things. The field for its labors is boundless, and the need of the hour is for men and women who are doers. Victories won and things accomplished in days that are passed will not suffice for this day, nor this hour. At each viewpoint a problem presents itself. It takes but a limited view of the condition of humanity today to convince us that but few of its problems are yet solved. Much has been done throughout the centuries. But we are just beginning to get a glimpse of the magnitude of the task before us. The mighty struggle of the race upward to its present civilization, its labors, its loves, its prayers, its sins, all lead to the conclusion that many of its great and vital problems are yet unsolved. Indeed, we have but laid the plans and determined upon a few of the things leading toward their solution. I believe that any problem which Ideals with the welfare of the individual or the race, whether local or universal in its application, is a problem. for the public schools. The problems

of the community, the problems of the state, the problems of the nation, the problems of the world, all are but the problems of public education. With this unbounded task before us and an idea of our duty fixed clearly in our minds, it seems but fair that this convention stand for the honest effort of setting forth to the world in no unmistakable terms what we consider our duty to be, and in a large measure the fundamental things for which public education should stand.

For more than fifty years an annual convention of teachers has assembled in this city. As a result of these gatherings new problems have been met and solved, and new meanings put into old problems. Teachers have gained new perspectives and new ambitions. The stern duties of the school room have been attacked with greater assurance because of the great influence exerted by this association. Yet, in spite of all this, the key that unlocks the door of the hearts of half a million children and puts them in touch with the spirit of public education is not yet in our possession. This should awaken in us a new realization of the duty and responsibility of a state association of teachers and educators.

I believe that one privilege of this association is to try to determine why we have not yet reached the entire childhood of our state. Are the schools out of joint with the times? Do we see through a glass but darkly? Are the traditions and uses of other peoples and other centuries too much in evidence in today's curriculum? Are we too much bound and subjected to things that were, to see clearly the truth and beauty of things that are? In my opinion, we are doing many

ways by which we could work out and state in definite terms some of the big things that public education ought to accomplish. The main lines along which the movement must follow should be clearly worked out. With this work well done, the divisions, the specializations which naturally follow, would be easily determined. Even though this association is not strong

course of study will be written, and a new teacher will take charge of the work, and a new school environment will surround the child.

Under this plan we should stand for something definite in industrial education. We should stand for a school that appeals to and means as much for the boy who expresses himself in terms of his hands as for the boy who