Chile’s system of training teachers is distinctively eclectic,
borrowing, as it has done, from France, Sweden, Germany, and the United
States. Before 1870 French influence predominated, the great Argentine
educator, Sarmiento, himself a pupil of the school of Saint-Simon,
having founded the first normal school in 1842 while in exile from the
tyranny of the dictator Rosas. German influence became pronounced about
1880, when that nation began to supply men and women teachers in the
normals and as instructors in all grades of education. Since 25 years
ago the tide began to turn toward North American influence, especially
of the type of education developed in the Northwestern States. The
Chilean ideal is a judicious combination of (1) an institution for
the training of teachers for public schools who shall have adequate
culture, specialized training, manual skill, and theoretical and
practical knowledge of modern subjects, and (2) an institution for
training in social relations and habits, exercising steady influence on
the social environment of the school by means of popular courses and
conferences, and participation in popular movements.
The full course in the 16 training colleges for teachers covers five
years, of which the first three are devoted to general education and
the last two to professional training. The course for the fifth year is
essentially professional, consisting of pedagogy (history, methodology,
and practice teaching), 17 hours weekly; Spanish, 1 hour; English or
French or German, 4 hours; civics and economics, 2 hours; hygiene, 2
hours; horticulture or metallography, 2 hours; drawing, 1 hour; manual
arts, 2 hours; music, 1 hour; physical education, 3 hours. All expenses
are defrayed, in return for which the pupil is pledged to teach for
seven years in the national schools.
The actual method of instruction is along German lines. Object lessons,
those in natural history and history and geography have all impressed
recent foreign visitors as essentially Herbartian. Perhaps in no other
country of the world, since the well-drilled German schools fell into
chaos, is the influence of the normal schools upon the system and
method of public instruction more powerful than in Chile. Indeed,
this potent influence has overleaped the boundaries of Chile proper
and affected every country of Latin America. A supreme example is
the influence of the Instituto Pedagogico, the best known of Chilean
normal schools, founded in 1909, with predominatingly German faculty,
which has developed into a type of higher normal school with a colegio
annexed, emphasizing practice teaching with subsequent criticism
and courses of general pedagogy and methodology in every subject.
Its certificates rank highest in the secondary and normal education
of the capital city; students are attracted to it from the other
Latin-American States, and return home to reorganize education there
along its lines. Its boast is that it inspired the establishment of the
Instituto Nacional at Buenos Aires.
Scandinavian and Belgian influences are at work in the Instituto
de Profesores Especiales. Established in 1906, it was definitely
reorganized in 1910 and installed in the building especially
constructed for it. Of its 300 pupils 200 are women, and the majority
of both men and women are active teachers in the schools of the
capital. It offers courses common to all the specialized sections,
such as psychology, French, pedagogy, civics, and school legislation,
and includes five sections, fundamental to its organization: Physical
education, manual arts, drawing and penmanship, domestic economy, and
vocal music. For the convenience of teachers, instruction is given from
7 to 9 a.m. and from 4 to 8 p.m.
The last few years have seen wide extension of the demand for rural
normal schools, and many critics of the existent schools have urged
that they follow those of the State of Wisconsin as a model. The
essential solidarity of educational aims of the South American
republics is shown by the fact that Chile, Argentina, and Bolivia
during the same period drew their inspiration from the same North
American source.
The decree already mentioned under the head of primary education
emphasizes the duty of the normal schools to prepare free of all
expense primary teachers for any of the three grades of instruction.
Each normal school is also required to have annexed such specially
organized practice schools as shall be necessary. At the discretion of
the President of the Republic, the normal schools shall offer special
courses for those students who have passed the examinations of the
fifth year of the colegios, with the aim of attracting such students
into the field of teaching. That the need of wider training of the
teachers is a pressing one in Chile is shown by the fact that, in 1915,
of 3,000 rural teachers, only 350, and of 6,240 primary teachers of the
nation at large, only 2,435, had normal school training. The service
had to be recruited by 2,000 graduates of primary schools who passed
examinations, and by 1,850 applicants who held no certificate and were
allowed to serve as temporary substitutes.
Of special interest is the annual reciprocity of teachers between the
Government of Chile and the Universities of the States of California
and Washington, arranged in 1918. Each party is to send four. For the
present the Chilean commission has expressed predominant interest in
secondary education, and has called for one university professor, one
normal-school teacher, one teacher of technical subjects, and one
teacher (preferably a woman) in secondary education. The universities
mentioned will act as the agents in the selection of the instructors.
Interchange of university professors has also been arranged with
Uruguay, which is for the present confined to medical instruction.
The National Educational Association has at many meetings pressed for
the scientific and practical training of the teachers of Chile in
vocational studies; and for the appropriation by the Congress of a
definite sum for sending normal teachers abroad for study in the modern
practical and sociological subjects.