SELECTED. SKETCHES OF THE UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN. - VI. PROF. JOHN B. PARKINSON, In the year 1867, John Barber Parkinson, A. M., was elected to the chair of mathematics in the University. He was born near Edwardsville, Madison county, Illinois, April 11, 1834. In 1836, his parents removed to Wisconsin, and settled upon a farm near Mineral Point, where the son received only such advantages for an education as the newly settled country afforded. After becoming well grounded in the primary branches, he entered, at the age of sixteen, the preparatory department of Beloit College, Wisconsin, where he continued nearly two years. In the spring of 1852, his father having fitted ont an expedition for an over-land trip to California, he was placed in charge of it. After five months spent on the plains and and three years in the mines of California, he returned home. In 1856, he entered the University of Wisconsin, where, four years afterward, he graduated with the highest honors of his class. Subsequently, at the beginning of the winter term of the eleventh university year (1860-61), he was appointed tutor by the regents, continuing in that office until the middle of the first term of the next university year, when he resigned, to accept the office of superintendent of schools of La Fayette county, Wisconsin, to which he had been almost unanimously elected. In 1863, the regular nominee of the Democratic party in Wisconsin for State Superintendent of Public Instruction having declined to run, Prof. Parkinson's name was placed upon the ticket by the Democratic State Central Committee; but, at at the ensuing election, he was defeated; as the Republican party, at at that date, was largely in the ascendancy in the State. He was the regular nominee of the Democrats in 1865, for the Same office, but was again unsuccessful for the same cause. In 1866, under the law reorganizing the University, he was appointed by the governor one its regents. This position he held one year, when he was elected, as before mentioned, to the professorship of mathematics in the institution, - holding that office and having, for most of the time, charge of the department of civil polity and political economy, until the spring of 1873, when his chair was changed to that of civil polity and international law. He continued his connection with the University - the first of its graduates elected to a full professorship — down to the year 1874, when he resigned. In 1871, Prof. Parkinson purchased a fourth interest in the Madison Democrat, and was for a short time upon its editorial staff. During the same year, he was chosen chairman of the Democratic State Central Committee. Both these positions he resigned at the close of that year. Upon his resignation as professor in the University, he resumed his place as one of the editors of the Madison Democrat. He continued in that relation until 1876, when he was again elected to the chair of civil polity and international law in the University, which office he still occupies. During the same year (1876), he was chosen president of the Wisconsin state board of centennial managers. Prof. Parkinson's style of writing is clear and forcible, simple and concise. It exhibits pruning and trimming, - characteristics of culture. His views are apt to be correct; and they are enforced with a vigor quite refreshing to the reader. Although he has not written much, yet he has certainly written well. He is free from pedantry and from a pompous building up of words, overwhelming the sense. His periods are usually short; his thoughts, lucid; his reasoning, conclusive. Take this paragraph from his “ Political Economy and some of its Perplexities": “Political Eeconomy has nothing to do with the questions of moral right, but rests back upon the expedient and the useful. It favors morality, but does so because morality favors production; it favors honesty, because honesty is favorable to exchange, and is, in every sense, the best policy. Moral science appeals to an enlightened conscience, and certain conduct in approved because it is right, or disapproved because it is wrong, and for these reasons only. Political economy appeals to an intelligent self-interest; and exchanges go on because they are mutually profitable, and for no other reason." In a paper read before the Wisconsin State Agricultural Convention, in February, 1873, on " Production and Consumption, Demand and Supply," he said: "While human society shall last, and human nature remain unchanged, there will always be grievances to meet and wrongs to be righted. No age or nation has ever yet escaped this demand upon it, and none need hope to do so. The same impulses and imperfections in human nature which made the necessity for law and government in the beginning, still exist; and every step in the march of civiliza tion, like a new turn of the kaleidoscope, presents a new phase of relationships and dependencies. To adjust these properly, they must be understood; to study them aright, prejudice and passion must give way to sober reason and sound judgment." This is as faultless in style as it is profound in thought. Prof. Parkinson has prepared courses of lectures upon international law, and English constitutional law; also partial courses upon American constitutional law and political economy. None of these have been published. His first lecture on international law, has this logical and well written beginning: "Man is by nature a social being. God willed society and the state. Man's inclinations and desires, physical and moral, irresistibly impel him to associate with his kind. Not only is society necessary for his highest and most perfect development, but necessary for the very existence of the race. But society, whether savage or civilized, necessitates some sort of government. Man is so constituted as to feel more intensely that which affects him directly than that which affects him indirectly. If this principle of man's nature were not checked by some controlling power, it would lead to conflict between individuals and to general discord and confusion. This controlling power, wherever vested, and by whomsoever exercised, is government. "Government, then, is necessary for the existence of society; society, for the existence of man and for the perfection of his faculties. Government had its origin in the two-fold constitution of man's nature, - his sympathetic or social instincts, constituting the remote, and his individual or selfish impulses, the direct or proximate occasion. But human governments must be administered by men. The same principles of our nature that make it necessary for government to exist, also make it necessary to place restraints upon the agents who administer it. Hence the necessity of a constitution. As government stands to society, so constitution stands to government. As the end for which society is organized would be defeated without government, so that for which government is established would be defeated without some sort of constitution. Government seems rather of God's ordination, and constitution of man's contrivance. Now, as God has willed the mutual intercourse of individuals, so has he willed the mutual intercourse of independent states. As the individual attains his highest development through the aid of society and the state, so the state itself, which is but an organized aggregate of individuals, may attain its highest development, and accomplish most nearly the 66 end of its existence, through the instrumentality of the society of the nations. But the same tendencies which make government necessary to control the individuals in their social and business relations, also necesitate some restraint upon independent states in their intercourse with each other. The instrumentality through which this restraint is exercised is international law.” Prof. Parkinson is a forcible speaker and a successful instructor. His clearness in illustration and earnestness of manner, give to his efforts as a teacher not only a happy effect, but a distinctive character. -C. W. BUTTERFIELD, in the University Press. DUTIES OF TEACHERS TO PUPILS. 1. To know that a pupil's true education is a grouth consequent upon the proper exercise of all his faculties. 2. To know that growth and discipline come through the acquisition of useful knowledge. 3. To know that neglect, mistakes, blunders, or carelessness on your part are disastrous to pupils and most difficult to remedy. 4. To remember that children are children, and need assistance in many ways, but that the most valuable work for a pupil under wise guidance is the work which he does for himself. 5. To be ever thoughtful of the future of your pupils, and to make all school work and discipline such as will be of lasting service to them. 6. To remember that what a pupil grows to be, is of more importance than what he lives to knou. 7. To make yourself acquainted with the home influences affecting your pupils. 8. To know as fully as possible the past history of each one of your pupils. 9. To make yourself acquainted with the moral, physical, and intellectual natures of your pupils, in order that you may be able to teach and manage every one according to his nature. 10. To talk to your pupils in a natural tore of voice. 11. To commend your pupils for all earnest work and effort. 12. To teach your pupils how to study. 13. To teach and inculcate the virtues of good order, system, method, promptness, industry, punctuality, and strict attention to business. 14. To teach the value of time and its improvement. 18. To introduce as much variety as possible in work, and to keep pupils busy. 19. To attend to the physical training of your pupils, and to see that they take proper positions when sitting, standing, or moving about the school room. 20. To teach pupils how to take care of their property. 21. To inspire your pupils with enthusiasm in the pursuit of knowledge. 22. To implant in pupils aspirations for all attainable excellence. 23. To encourage a cheerful spirit in all school work. 21. To require nothing of a pupil that there is a doubt of his ability to do. 25. To notice all faults in manner, conduct, and language, and kindly correct them. 26. To understand thoroughly any complaint against a pupil before acting upon it. 27. To guard against threats and promises which lead to so much embarrassment. 28. To aid and encourage dull and unfortunate pupils. 29. To permit no pupil to make the discovery that he can annoy you. 30. To make no mention of former faults or irregularities that have been settled. 31. To be just and impartial in all your dealings with pupils. 32. To keep your school room at the proper temperature and well ventilated. 33. To avoid sarcasm or epithets that would wound the feelings of a pu pil. 34. To avoid all allusions to the social relations of pupils and parents. 35. To expend your energies in teaching what your pupils do not alröady know. - Supt. Doty, of Chicago. ONE bad example spoils many good precepts. |
