Eastern Michigan University - Aurora Yearbook (Ypsilanti, MI)

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they have in a measure succeeded, they have been con- stantly hampered by the tactics of the ward politician. The mixing of politics and education, and the lack of central- ized authority and responsibility have seriously weakened the educational work of our great cities. This was the situation that Mr. .Tones found at Indian- apolis and he met it with courage and skill. He developed comprehensive plans for building up and systematizing the schools of the city. He determined that his teachers should stand or fall upon their merits as teachers-not upon the number of votes that they could control. In doing this he found it necessary to use about one-half of his time in securing authority to carry out his plans, but in spite of this dificulty he placed the schools of Indianapolis among the very Hrst in the country. In the meantime, the people of Cleveland had deter- mined to overthrow the old system which had reached the liniit of endurance. The old board of twenty-one members was abolished and a new council of seven was created, with a director as president, who had authority to appoint and remove the superintendent, while to the superintendent was given authority to employ, promote, or dismiss his teachers without appeal to the board. The superintendency was offered to Mr. Jones and he saw its possibilities. Here was an opportunity for an educator to devote his entire time and energy to the internal interests of the schools. His theory was that if a superintendent should once show the people what could be done under such conditions they would never be satisfied with a lower standard. He undertook the task and achieved a remarkable success, so that Cleveland has served as a model to other cities in the reorganization of their school systems. V Of Mr. Jones' work as president of the Normal College, but little need be said as many of his policies are only now beginning to bear fruit. Before coming here he had received exceptional training for his work. As a student in the common school, academy, normal school, and university, as a teacher in the high school, as principal in the normal training school, and as superintendent of two great city systems, he had had an opportunity to view the problem of education from every angle. Soon after coming to Ypsilanti, he realized the 'unity of the educational system of the state and, as a consequence, a large part of his effort has been directed toward bringing the Normal College into vital relation to the schools of the state, and many of his policies which seem to be following different lines ind their unifying principle in this idea. Of his personality since he is with us we shall not speak. It is enough to say that we love and respect him. J. STUART LATHERS.

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lililnrua A. Barbour if II 4 AM asked by the management of the A AURORA to write a Word corfcerning 355 . ' Professor Barbour, to whom this volume is dedicated. The task is at once an j easy and a pleasant one. I have only to use, with some elaboration and cir- cumstance, the familiar platform formula: A Professor Barbour needs no introduc- Q Q51 tion to this audience. i For who in the large audience which the AURORA addresses does not know lx ii our well beloved Professor of English, i and who does not associate him at once 55 and intimately, not only with this insti- i tution, but also, and especially, with his distinctive work here? Indeed, Pro- fessor Barbour is most easily imagined in the midst of his books, and with the glow of literary exposition upon him. For his temperament and gifts are distinctly literary. In this world of mislits he is one of those blessed souls who seems born to his work. And when one comes to think of it, what personal satis- faction, and what economy of effort this fact implies. For to have by nature a gift of effective utterance, to make immediately and surely the literary judgment that the world will finally ratify, is no mean economy. What a saving it is to be rid of the distraction of the temporary and the local, to have no need to waste energy in correcting a perverse judgment or a native admiration for the meretricious. A man of romantic grain may become a very great teacher of English. but what discipline he has to undergo before he comes to possess the sure taste, the serene spirit, and the large culture which will fit him to become a safe guide to those who would, through literature, look into the very soul of the race. All of which is only a long way of saying that Professor Barbour was born to his trade, brought up to it, and has since practiced it with eminent success. But it often, perhaps usually, happens that the life Work of a man has little in common with the prevailing dis- ciplinary studies of his early life. And here again Pro- fessor Barbour was fortunate. For, whatever may he thought of the old literary or classical course of our col- leges as a preparation for affairs, most men will acknowledge that this course, as imitated by our fathers from English models, is an excellent preparation for the analysis and appreciation of style, and, if supplemented in later years by wide reading and large sympathies, for a sound study of belles-lettre literature. When Professor Barbour passed through college, the modern side of education, which has since had such wonderful expansion, was practically