Springfield College - Massasoit Yearbook (Springfield, MA)

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THE M ASSASOIT — 1912 5 Cijoma0 £0. Balliet, 01). 2D. R. THOMAS M. BALLIET graduated from Franklin and Marshall College in 1876 and received his Ph. D. from the same institution in 1887. He studied also at Yale and at Leipzig. From 1887 to 1904 he was Superintendent of Schools in Springfield. Since 1904 he has been Professor of the Science of Education and Dean of the .School of Pedagogy of New York University. Dr. Balliet’s work in Springfield made him widely known as a profound and independent thinker upon educational problems and a man of remarkable foresight in school affairs. While leaving to his subordinates freedom in details he had a peculiar gift for inspiring them with his own high ideals. In his fidelity to the schools he often resisted political influences with a courage that endangered his own personal interests. Dr. Balliet became a trustee of the Training School in 1898 and has from the first served upon the impor- tant committee of Instruction. For the last six years he has been its chairman. In view of certain criticisms made upon the Training School at the conference of employed officers held at Columbus, Ohio, last June, Dr. Balliet and his able and distinguished associates on the Instruction committee entered upon such a comprehensive investigation of the history and workings of the school and the efficiency of its graduates as has never, within our knowledge, been made of any other institution. That these busy men should have devoted so many months of hard labor to this task shows their profound sense of the gravity of the interests at stake. The result of the investigation, embodied in a paper which filled a page of the Springfield Repub- lican, was presented to the trustees on April 2nd. This has been pronounced by competent judges one of the most statesmanlike papers upon religious education ever written. It not only marks an epoch in the history of the Y. M. C. A., but it will have a wide and lasting influence upon the Churches and the educational world. None can henceforth dispute the right of Christian young men in the Associations to the fullest liberty of rev- erent investigation of the Bible and all theological topics. Dr. Balliet’s report is our Magna Charta. This splendid service has placed Dr. Balliet’s name forever among those of the founders and eminent benefactors of the School.