academic and professional studies, is determined by the president
of the school. In the Bridgewater School, pedagogical subjects are
not studied systematically until the fourth term or semester, for
those who take the Two Years’ Course, and the seventh semester, for
those who take the Four Years’ Course. Thus with the exception of a
single semester, and a few hours of the first semester given to an
introduction of psychology, the whole of the two years or four years is
devoted to school subjects. In the Westfield School, the last half-year
of the Two Years’ Course is devoted to pedagogical subjects, and the
additional work of the Four Years’ Course is entirely academic.
The studies prescribed for the Normal Schools of New York State are in
three courses:
i. The English Course, comprising the usual English subjects,
Mathematics and Science. This occupies three years.
ii. The Classical Course, comprising more advanced English subjects,
Mathematics and Science, with Latin and Greek, or German and French.
This occupies four years.
iii. The Scientific Course, including all subjects of the English
Course, with two years’ study of two of the languages, Latin and
Greek, French, German.
The order of subjects, and relative times devoted to academic and
professional studies, is approximately the same for all the Normal
Schools of New York State. Taking the schools of Oswego and Oneonta as
examples, we find:--
_Three Years’ Course_: Psychology, philosophy, history of education and
methods of teaching various subjects, taken up for the first half of
the third year, and sometimes made to extend into the second half of
the same year.
_Four Years’ Course_: The same work, chiefly done in the first half of
the fourth year.
It is maintained by some, that all the Normal School work is
professional, in that throughout the curriculum the aim is to present
the subject matter of instruction in the way that the teacher should
present it to his or her class of children, and so to make the lessons
model lessons. I was present at some excellent lessons of this kind:
a geography lesson and a history lesson in the Bridgewater Normal
School. But for the most part the needs of the Normal School pupils
themselves, and not the needs of imaginary future school children,
have to be considered, and the Normal School lessons or “recitations”
resolve themselves into ordinary school lessons. Even if we assume,
however, that this is not the case, and that great skill is shown on
the part of the Normal School teacher, may not such a plan of teaching
“Methods” be dangerous, in that it encourages imitation and rigidity.
Such appears to me to be the tendency of the generally adopted plan,
of giving professional training in “Methods,” by actual lessons in the
various subjects given by the Normal School teacher; and the danger
of encouraging cut and dried methods is intensified where it is the
custom for a Normal School student to give a lesson to children, or
her fellow-students in that subject and section of a subject which
has just been presented to her by the Normal School teacher. It is
maintained by others that apart from any advantage which may accrue to
the students from hearing good lessons in the various subjects they
will have to teach, it is absolutely necessary that each student should
change her standpoint, and review the various branches of knowledge
as a teacher, rather than as a pupil. This, it is argued, is secured
by such a plan of teaching “Methods.” As a third motive, it is held
that direct teaching of ordinary school subjects is necessary before
beginning pedagogical instruction, on account of the inadequate and
unequal preparation which the future teachers bring to their work.
It seems to me that both these necessities might be obviated by more
rigid requirements for admission to Normal Schools. The well-equipped
High Schools can do the academic work of the Normal Schools with less
effort than can the Normal Schools themselves; and were the standards
of admission such as to necessitate a thoroughly sound preliminary
knowledge in common school subjects, might not the Normal School
students be found more capable of themselves reviewing old facts from a
new standpoint, and the schools have more time and opportunity to carry
out other means of training?
ACADEMIC STUDIES.
It is a marked feature in the academic work of Normal Schools that
great importance is given to the teaching of science. Here, as in
American Schools in general, a large place in the curriculum is given
to what is known as “nature study.” Extensive laboratories, for the
different branches of science, are fitted up in most of the schools;
books, microscopes, physical, chemical and biological apparatus,
specimens for observation and dissection, are supplied free to
students; outdoor work is organized, weather-charts are kept daily, and
students are encouraged to use the school workshops for making simple
physical apparatus for their own use. In all the schools great stress
is laid upon practical work by each individual student. The following
list shows the number of lesson-hours given to science at the Normal
School, Bridgewater, Massachusetts.
_Two Years’ Course_:
1st year. { 1st term 12 hours per week.
{ 2nd ” 7 ” ”
2nd year. { 1st term 6 ” ”
{ 2nd ” 5 ” ”
_Four Years’ Course_:
1st year. { 1st term 2 ” ”
{ 2nd ” 10 ” ”
2nd year. { 1st term 7 ” ”
{ 2nd ” 2 ” ”
3rd year. { 1st term 4 ” ”
{ 2nd ” 8 ” ”
4th year. { 1st term 8 ” ”
{ 2nd ” 4 ” ”
The school, which numbers 274 pupils, has five laboratories--viz.,
chemical, physical, physiological and zoological, geological and
industrial, and the equipment of these, and the care with which
students kept daily records of laboratory work, were its special
features. The chemical laboratory is in two sections: one for
elementary, and one for advanced students, and between these is a
teachers’ laboratory. The students’ daily records of work are carefully
examined by the teacher, and much use is made, by both teachers and
students, of the continuous wall slate round the class-rooms and
laboratories. Physiology is taught by aid of the skeleton and life-size
models, also by the dissection of lower animals, and microscopical
examination of tissues. The methods and means adopted for geology and
geography teaching at Bridgewater seemed to be particularly good. In
the school museum were duplicate collections of rocks and minerals,
classified on various bases; and in addition to these, the school
possessed two sets of trays of working specimens, one set containing
labelled typical class specimens, and the other containing unlabelled
specimens for identification by students. Books, giving printed
directions for work, interleaved with blank sheets for observations,
notes and drawings, were provided for all students. I heard two
excellent lessons in geography at this school. One on the Slopes of
the United States was well worked out with the students in sand,
great care being taken by the teacher to state and compare actual
distances, so that the relief-map should not convey an impression of
false proportion. The other was a lesson in map-drawing from memory.
All students had places at the slate round the room, and two minutes
were given to draw the outline of a map previously prepared. Then one
minute was given for the drawing of a particularly difficult isolated
part of the outline. When this was done, a correct map was uncovered,
and students were required to correct their own drawings. After the
drawings had been individually criticised by the teacher, faults were
generalized, and help was given.
The special features of the science work at the Normal School,
Willimantic, Connecticut, is the emphasis placed on manual training,
and its practical connection with all science teaching. All students,
men and women, are required to invent, or make with their own hands,
simple apparatus for teaching the elementary facts of physics. I saw
students in the workshops, making relief-maps and models for their
lessons. One was constructing a very simple model of a water-wheel, to
illustrate lessons on the conservation of energy; another was making a
relief-map of paper pulp, on a ground of blue-painted wood.
In this school the students do not, as a rule, follow stated text-books
in science. Wide reading is encouraged, and there is an excellent
library of standard text-books and works of reference. There is also a
model library of children’s literature for the students’ use, and an
exhibition of the latest devices for “busy-work.” “Busy-work” is the
work done alone by one section of a class, while the other is being
directly taught by the teacher. All sorts of occupations are devised
by the clever teacher for impressing facts already learnt, and the
“busy-work” hour is frequently employed in cutting out outline maps,
sorting beads, counting beans, etc. The object of the exhibition of
“busy-work” at Willimantic is to encourage examination and criticism
of such devices with regard to their educational value. The figures
representing the amount granted to this Normal School last year, for
“busy-work” exhibits, library books, text-books, periodicals, etc.,
were kindly given to me by the Principal, and I note them here, as an
illustration of the readiness of New England States to furnish school
supplies and apparatus. A few details of expenditure for the past year,
which was by no means an exceptional year, are:
Text-books and School Supplies for Normal } 1,500 dollars.
and Model School }
Library 500 ”
Periodicals 60 ”
------
Total amount, 2,060 ”
======
Thus more than £450 was spent in one year for library materials, in
a school numbering less than 150. The abundant supply of apparatus
and books for the teaching of science, and the importance given to
practical work, are a marked feature in all the schools. At the Albany
Normal School for teachers in higher grades and colleges, the students
spend most of their free afternoons in making physical apparatus for
their own future use. The laboratory here is well equipped, and the
work is done with great care, accuracy and finish. I saw a home-made
tangent galvanometer, and a Wheatstone’s bridge in constant use for
somewhat fine measurements.
At the Normal School, Worcester, Massachusetts, plant study receives
special attention. This is not technical botany as usually understood,
but is rather a daily observation and record of plant surroundings, the
practical study of all stages of plant-life. A feature of the study
is the daily exhibit, made by the pupils in turn, of some plant in
bud, leaf, flower or fruit, with its common and scientific name, and
the place where it was gathered. Directories furnishing information
respecting the localities of trees and plants in the neighbourhood are
made in the school, and dates of their times of blossoming are noted
from year to year on special blank sheets provided for the purpose.
Moreover, collections of the woods of different trees, and of leaves
of trees growing within the county are made. Work of this kind is
usually done in the free hours for independent study, which each
student has several times during the day. Practical gardening is also
systematically done in free time.
The lessons in science, unless actual laboratory lessons, are usually
given in the form of “recitations.” A “recitation” is a lesson in
which certain parts of a subject, specially prepared beforehand, are
contributed by the pupils. The teacher asks questions and explains
difficulties, and generally connects the facts brought forward; but
the material of the lesson is wholly supplied by the pupils. This way
of working out a subject has at least two distinct advantages over our
own method of lesson-giving, in which the chief work devolves upon the
teacher. By the recitation method the pupils are taught how to use
books, how to gather from many sources material for their recitation.
They also learn to rely on their own efforts in class-time, and to be
alert in thought and speech. The disadvantages of the plan, however,
seem even more apparent. Where one text-book is chiefly used in a
subject, or even where several books are referred to, there is a
distinct tendency to “recite” in the words of the book. Several times I
heard lessons in which such “recitations” were accepted by the teacher.
This method, moreover, seems likely to lead to too great a dependence
on text-books, and too constant a reference to books, on points where
thought and reflection might be better guides. It also encourages
digression in class, and a resulting slowness in getting through the
subject matter, unless the teacher be very skilful in conducting the
“recitation.” The constant raising of points by the students, at all
parts of the discussion, leads sometimes to waste of time by debating
on questions of merely individual opinion. Such results point to the
difficulty of conducting an ordinary recitation. Great skill and much
experience are needed, before such a lesson can be made completely
satisfactory, and many are the teachers’ temptations to omit careful
preparation. As a method to be used constantly, and in all subjects,
it seems open to many objections, and to show but few advantages. As
resorted to occasionally, and by skilful teachers, and as particularly
adapted to subjects such as geography or history, the “recitation” may
be made a valuable means of training.
The tendency to bookishness and slavery to word-forms, which may seem
to be encouraged by the recitation method of teaching science in the
Normal Schools, is opposed by a greater tendency to emphasize the
concrete, to refer in all science teaching directly to the objects
themselves, to use laboratory methods wherever possible. Observation
and experiment are essentially the methods of many of the American
science teachers, and no pains are spared to illustrate all facts and
principles by an appeal to the senses. As a result, much of the science
teaching is excellent. On the other hand, there seems a possible danger
of pursuing these excellent methods too far, of appealing to the senses
alone, at stages of development in the child when reason and reflection
might be appealed to and trusted, and of generally emphasizing the
value of observation at the expense of neglecting the reflective
faculties. In the excellent _Outlines of Laboratory Work_, used by
some of the Normal Schools, the danger is to some degree recognised by
_Questions for Thought and Reference_ being placed at the end of each
lesson-scheme. Assuming, however, that the questions are followed out
carefully by the students, it may still be doubted whether this is the
best method of arousing thought.
Another feature of the science teaching in the Normal Schools is the
taking up of many branches of science. Chemistry, physics, astronomy,
geology, mineralogy, zoology, botany, physiology, are studied by all.
In order that students may be able to take up all these, the plan
usually adopted is to concentrate attention on one science for a short
time, and then to pass on to other sciences, until five or six have
been taken. It is seldom that even one branch of science is allowed
to run through a whole course of two years. The division of science
studies for the Normal School at New Britain, Connecticut, where the
science work is most carefully done, will illustrate this point.
_First Year_:
Chemistry 5 recitations a week for 13 weeks.
Physiology 5 ” ” ” 13 ”
Physics 4 ” ” ” 40 ”
Physical } 4 ” ” ” 4 ”
Geography }
_Second Year_:
Physics 4 recitations a week for 13 weeks.
Botany 5 ” ” ” 10 ”
Geology 4 ” ” ” 5 ”
Biology & } 4 ” ” ” 10 ”
Zoology }
When it is remembered that no preliminary science is required for
admission to the Normal Schools, and that many of the entering students
have not done any work in the subject at all, it seems impossible that
any very thorough knowledge can be secured in a course of five, ten,
or even thirteen weeks. It may be possible for the student to obtain
and verify a few scientific facts during a short course such as this;
but there is no time or opportunity to realize the extent or bearing of
the subject in hand, or to study it adequately in a scientific way. To
allow a beginner to feel he has completed a course in geology, botany,
or any other science in thirteen weeks is to encourage superficiality,
to arouse in him a feeling of satisfaction and attainment, and surely
nothing can be more opposed to the true spirit of science. In the New
Britain School, physics is carried through fifty-three of the eighty
weeks in the Two Years’ Course; and this seems a good plan, even if,
during some part of the time, only two or three hours a week can be
given to it. When one science, or possibly two, are chiefly taken up,
and others considered merely accessory to the main subject of study, a
more adequate knowledge of science and scientific method can be gained,
especially if the sciences taken up are such as botany, and physics,
which illustrate respectively different methods of scientific research.
It may be maintained that the Normal School students must be prepared
for their future work in the Primary and Grammar Schools, in most of
which the elements of several sciences are taught. This, of course,
must be remembered. Nevertheless, the attitude of mind developed by the
thorough study of one science is the best possible preparation for the
safe study of the elements of others, while a superficial study of the
elements of many sciences is fatal to the proper estimation of facts in
any one of them.
PROFESSIONAL WORK.
The purely professional work of the Normal State Schools consists of:
(_a_) Instruction in the theory of education and its application.
(_b_) Actual practice in teaching, under the guidance of experienced
teachers.
(_c_) Theory of education.
It is usual for the Normal Schools of the Eastern States to postpone
the study of strictly pedagogical subjects until half or more of the
course has been completed. School methods are sometimes taught in
connection with academic subjects in the early part of the course;
but such instruction, coming, as it does, before any principles of
the science of education have been considered, or any practical
experience has been gained, must be purely empirical. At the Normal
School, Millersville, Pennsylvania, school management is taken
during the first year, and applied psychology (as distinguished from
empirical methods), history of education, and school teaching, are
required during the second year. If the student takes up a further
scientific or post-graduate course, additional professional studies are
required--viz., psychology and the philosophy of education, ethics,
logic, and professional reading. In the Westchester Normal School,
Pennsylvania, no professional work is taken up until the second year.
Then psychology is studied, and history of education; and methods
and school practice are taken. The additional pedagogical studies
for the advanced courses are the same as at Millersville. At the
Normal School, Bridgewater, Massachusetts, the students, after having
studied the elements of psychology, during their first semester, leave
all technical studies until the fourth semester, when they take up
simultaneously, study of the body, study of the mind, principles of
education and methods, school organization, school government, history
of school laws of Massachusetts. A fifth semester, when it can be
given, is devoted entirely to professional work and actual teaching.
At the Normal School, New Britain, Connecticut, psychology is given
four times a week during most of the two years’ course. Text-books
are not used except for reference. No pure psychology is studied, but
school subjects are taken up one by one, and their facts and methods of
treatment are used to illustrate psychological principles. The history
of education is studied side by side with this applied psychology;
but not much time is given to this subject in class. The lives and
works of the chief educators only are taken, and private reading
is much encouraged as accessory to the class work. At the Normal
School, Willimantic, Connecticut, psychology is studied one hour a
day throughout the last year, and is treated almost entirely from the
physiological standpoint. No special text-book is used, but Spencer
and Darwin are recommended for reference. The history of education
is not taken up systematically in class, but the work and influence
of modern educators, such as Arnold, Thring, and Horace Mann, are
thoroughly discussed. At the Normal School, Worcester, Massachusetts,
class work in psychology is taken almost daily throughout the whole
course. The value attributed to the subject, and the unique way in
which it is studied, together with other points distinctive of the
professional work, give to the Worcester School a foremost place among
New England Normal Schools. The method adopted for its study is one
which entirely leaves the beaten track of ordinary text-books. It does
not, in the earlier stages, trouble the student with the divisions and
generalities of pure psychology, but rather fixes his attention solely
on the child, and seeks to gain from actual observation and individual
and combined experience laws which shall be valuable aids in teaching.
“The principal requests the students to observe the conduct of children
in all circumstances--at home, at school, in the street, at work, at
play, in conversation with one another and with adults, and record
what they see and hear as soon as circumstances will permit.” The work
thus suggested has been organized as a definite part of the school
course, and although optional, is usually taken up by all students.
It is intended, not to supplant, but to supplement later systematic
instruction in psychology, and is taken up, not for the sake of the
facts gained, which may or may not be of intrinsic worth, but for the
value of the process of such observation to the teacher. In order to
help forward the systematic study of children, a scheme of work is
drawn up. Records are to be made whenever convenient, and for these
records blank sheets of six different colours are provided. The colours
are a means of roughly classifying the records into six groups, thus:
(i.) Facts of personal observation.
(ii.) Facts related by others, together with names of recorder and
observer.
(iii.) Personal reminiscences of childhood.
(iv.) Facts gained from books.
(v.) Observations on exceptional or defective children.
(vi.) Continuous observations.
Each record must contain the date of the observation, the observer’s
name, age, and post-office address, as well as the name or initials
of the child observed, its age, sex, nationality. There must be also
a statement of the length of time which has elapsed between the
observation and the record. These records are preserved and catalogued
under such heads as knowledge, imagination, feeling. Special attention
is being directed to the subject of child language, and pupils and old
students are supplied with small indexed books for records in this
particular department. Further opportunities for daily observation and
experiment in certain lines of child-study and in teaching are offered
in a newly organized children’s class or kindergarten. The students
merely watch the class, the teaching being entirely in the hands of two
experienced kindergartners. As the class exists for the acknowledged
purpose of experiment, tuition is free, and the teachers in charge have
full liberty to follow any course they wish. When I saw the school,
a long series of daily experiments were being made, with a view to
finding out whether, when left perfectly free, the boys secured places
next to girls by preference.