Jane A. Stewart - Walt Whitman, the Teacher, 1919-05-08

WALT WHITMAN, THE TEACHER Author(s): JANE A. STEWART Source: The Journal of Education, Vol. 89, No. 19 (2229) (MAY 8, 1919), pp. 513-514 Published by: Sage Publications, Inc. Stable URL: https://www.jstor.org/stable/42829578 Accessed: 09-03-2020 19:57 UTC JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact support@jstor.org.

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May

8,

1919

513

WALT

W

BY JANE A. STEWART

and publisher of a weekly paper in his A tall man, with a dome-shaped editor head and a town ; and at the age of twenty, we find long flowing beard of gray, stoodnative before a rapt him (addressing a body of Long Island stuaudience of parents, teachers and children, at the dents) urging: "There is a still higher school ►dedication of a fine new public school in Camfor him who would kindle his fire with coal from den, New Jetsey, almost half a century ago. altar ofwith the purest and loftiest art. It is His deep^set, kindly blue eyes the glowed school of all grand actions and grand virfeeling and his strong face shone the with power tues, ofexpresheroism, of the death of patriots and and sweetness as lie recited with great martyrs - oflines all the mighty deeds written in the sion and in a clear, ringing, musical voice pages of history - deeds of daring and enthuwhich he had written for the important occassiasm, devotion and fortitude."

Editorial chairs and newspapers were among

sion: -

""An old man's thought of School; Walt Whitman's educational leverages. He An old man, gathering youthful memories and blooms, served among others as editor on the Brooklyn that youth itself cannot. $

Sķ

$

*

Eagle and on the New Orleans Crescent, and

$

he expressed through many contributions to

""And these I see - these sparkling eyes, varioushteaning publications his own on all the sub"These stores of mystic - ideas these young jects which appealed to him.

In youth as in maBuilding, equipping, like a fleet of ships - immo ture years he drew his touching pen pictures, Soon to sail out over the measureless seas, thrilling verses and prose poems from incidents rOn the Soul's voyage.

and people he knew. One of the pieces of his

Only a lot of boys and girls?

•Only the tiresome spelling, writing, ciphering classes?

Only a public school?

Ah more - infinitely more; *

*

*

You,

*

early youth was the true story of "Death in the Schoolroom" (published in 1841), which was a striking lesson to teachers of bullying disposition, and which makes its point even today.

*

Perhaps the best evidence of Whitman's inten-

America,

sive child study is in the poem "There Was a you Cast you the real reckoning for Child Went Forth"; and the best expression of fu "The lights and shadows of your his appreciation of scholarship lies in the lines Tea To girlhood, boyhood look the from the "Carol of Occupations" : It was Walt Whitman, "the g who was speaking.

The event "Lid close, my scholars dear! rter the close of allhis public All doctrines, politics and civilization exurge from wo

D. C., where he had done such remarkable ser-

you ;

All sculpture and monuments, and anything inscribed vice in helping to ease the burdens and sufferanywhere, are tallied in you; ings of the wounded and dying soldiers in the The gist of histories and statistics as far back as the Army hospitals ; and had acted for several

years as a government clerk. Broken in health, •he had quietly made his home in Camden, where

records reach, is in you this hour, and myths and

tales the same ;

If you were not breathing and walking here, where

he expected soon to pass away, but where rest would you all be? and the ministrations of friends prolonged his The most renowned poems would be ashes, orations and life for nearly two decades and where he wrote plays would be vacuums." :Some additions to his poetical works ; and gave .the world those wonderful nature studies It has been well said that Whitman's work appeals more to the student than to the casual presented in ''Specimen Days." reader.

A writer in England (the English Livke all true poets, Walt Whitman was a naliterati were among the first to appreciate Whitture lover. Born on a Long Island farm (May •31, 1819), the son of a farmer, he early learned man's somewhat surprising, first-person-singular to appreciate the beauty and inspiration of the verse) declared: "No student of the philosophy of broad open country, and acquired the habit of history can do withcfut him. I am not surstudying in detail the life of everything about prised that the English are quicker to recognize "him. His intense love of out of doors and of

this than Americans themselves, for there is no

harder than to make people see themselves books was only second to his gripping task interest

in human nature.

Outlining his youthful days, he once said :

"When little more than eighteen, and for a while

as they really are."

Whitman not only made revelations, but in the spirit of the true educator held up ideals. He

.afterward, I went to teaching country schools wrote epics of our country's civilization which down in Queens and Suffolk counties, Long Is- constituted him a powerful teacher of pure patriotism. land, and 'boarded 'round/ This latter I conAmerica owes much to the strong, ragged, sider one of my best experiences and deepest lessons in human nature and behind the scenes, virile pen of this poet patriot. As his friend

and in the masses."

Walt Whitman left the schoolroom to become

John Burroughs, the naturalist, has well said: "His work has deepest reference to patriotism,

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514

May

8,

191»

to nationality, to provide it." - T. H. Briggs¿ Teachers College, ch Cowhich make life str lumbia University, New York.

Watson Gilder declar "School men should stand unitedly and supner celebrating port each other and the incomingWhit state superin"It is because he covers both the flesh and the tendent in getting conditions which will win spirit that Whitman reaches some of the loftiest freedom from interference on the part of any minds of our day. He has not yet penetrated to group." - Dr. Harlan Updegraff, Univerpolitical the masses, but he will in years to come through sity of Pennsylvania.

finer intellects of the time. . . . Place Walt

"The approach to a new field in any grade, ät

Whitman's poetry in the cornerstone of any thisage, na- should be objective." - Superintendent tion, let some convulsion of nature overthrow S. H. Layton, Altoona, Pennsylvania. these United States, and then let that poetry be "The only possible basis for genuinely demofound; and from the lines will rise up a picture cratic education is outright support by the state of our times such, I believe, as nowhere else can with equalizing grants by the federal government * be found." local needs measured by rate of taxable property HEARD AT SCHOOLMEN'S WEEK

to pupils in actual attendance ; every dollar laid out so that there is no encouragement to relaxa-

tion of local efforts. - H. C. Morrison, New

"We have today a type of education that came Hampshire State Board of Education. down to us from the days of autocracy and the

teacher of today is still an autocrat." - W. H.

PROGRESS Kilpatrick, professor of education, Teachers Col- IN THE SCHOOLS OF THE A. E. F. lege, Columbia University.

"The Student Army Training Corps was a disMarch 14, 1919, G-3, Headquarters,.

36th Division, A. E. F., A. P. O. No. 796^ mal scholastic failure, depressing and unsatisfying." - A. E. McKinley, professor of Dear history, Dr. Winship University of Pennsylvania.

It occurs to me that the readers of the Journal Education "The country school is out of step of with the would be interested in a brief statepresent state of social development."ment - George of progress in the schools of the A. E. F. H. Betts, Boston University.

My own experience is as follows: "If you want a social revolution of the best It originally fell to my lot to be assigned to kind send the boys and girls out into their comorganize schools for Headquarters of the First munities to study the conditions thatArmy lie about Corps and for the 36th Division. My first them. Clean streets, the elimination of informal vice, disreport to the Regional Educational Dicovery of disease-breeding places and other rector was in part as follows : -

plâgue spots of a city reported to the school "I have had numerous conferences with the and transmitted to the City Department of senior chaplain of the First Army Corps. I Health will change the worst features of our found him thoroughly awake to the organization community life within a single generation." - of army schools. I met the Colonel and his Smith Burnham, West Chester Normal, Pennsyl- Adjutant, training officer of G-3 for the First

vania.

Army Corps, together with the senior chaplain,,

"Reorganization for the good of the child and outlined and helped to formulate a school ought to be done even if some of the school ma- for * the troops in the corps at Tonnere. I chinery goes to smash." - Professor H. Barnes, lunched with Major-General Wright and the Girard College, Philadelphia. senior officers of the staff. The army school "Our public schools are being held down to a situation was thoroughly discussed. In general, low standard and the future of the teaching pro- I have to report that the present movement is

fession imperiled by inadequate support." - Dr. H.

viewed by the First Army Corps Staff áfe reviv-

S. Magill, National Education Association Secre- ing of old post schools, with the possibility of adtary. ditional programs as orders from G. H. Q. shall be promulgated. It is agreed that there shall be "Fifty per cent, of children who receive work certificates are not really capable and not adelocated, centrally, a hut for the post schools; quately trained." - Dr. Lightner Witmer, Unithat the building shall be thoroughly lighted and versity of Pennsylvania. equipped for school purposes, and that the "The lives of the ancients mean little to the school shall be a model in its equipment and development. average child. Tell them about Thomas Edison and other successful living men of today "Having and established the school at the Firstyou will find a readier response." - SuperintenArmy Corps Headquarters I called on Colonel' dent H. R. Yanderslice, Coatesville, Pennsyl-

Atkins, training officer of the 36th Division. Hearranged for me an interview with Major-General "The greatest single achievement in AmericaniWilliam H. Smith, commanding officer of the

vania.

zation is found in the complete amalgamation 36th Division. General Smith expressed great

in the contemplated school work and aswrought in the children of the immigrant by interest the

public schools of the United States." - Superinsured me of hearty support, emphasizing the great importance of starting with the illiterate of the division. I have had a conference with "'If a boy or girl shows that he or she can the senior chaplain of the division in the office. profit by a higher education the state should

tendent S. E. Weber, Scranton, Pennsylvania.

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