a. _Assistance with the exceptional child._ In these replies it will be
noted that thirty-seven per cent of the teachers advocated assistance
with the exceptional child. This gives further emphasis to the need of
greater attention being given to the classification of pupils in the
public schools. The use of tests and measurements has demonstrated the
wide range of abilities that can usually be found in different pupils of
the same grade. The teacher with from thirty-five to forty-five pupils
must handle the work of her room more or less in groups, which often
fails to reach the retarded or the accelerated pupil. Too often the
teacher through her efforts to give extra assistance needed by the
backward pupils gives them a disproportionate amount of time. The entire
class suffers from such a procedure. It is unfair to the ninety per cent
of pupils of average ability to have one fourth of the teacher's time
given to the other ten per cent of the pupils in the room.
How to care for the special pupil is a difficult problem. No plan thus
far advanced seems to meet it entirely. The ungraded room with an
auxiliary teacher has proved to be fairly satisfactory in schools
sufficiently large to justify such an arrangement. The principal in the
smaller school as well as in the larger must give greater attention to
the use of intelligence tests as an aid in classifying the pupils so
that they can be better graded according to their ability. No teacher
should be required to keep a pupil in her room indefinitely who is not
mentally able to do the work or who is a constant disturber. The "ninety
and nine" who "can do" are more important to save than the one lost
sheep who may never be able "to do" if saved.
b. _Interpretation of the course of study._ Twenty-nine per cent of the
teachers called attention to the need of greater assistance in
interpreting the course of study. I am not surprised to get this
expression from the teachers, as they are sometimes given at the opening
of the term a new course of study with little or no explanation of the
plan back of it or how it is to be administered. I question if any
course of study entirely new in content should be put into operation
until the teachers have had at least a semester's time to study it
thoroughly and get explanations from those who have been instrumental in
working it out.
A good illustration of the difficulty in getting satisfactory results
from plans new to the teachers has been demonstrated by some of the
results obtained with the problem and project methods. It is very easy
for a supervisor to pick out some good problems and illustrate them
before the teachers and thus leave the impression that all topics can be
handled in a similar manner. The teacher goes back to her classroom and
attempts to follow the directions given. Some of the teachers have gone
so far as to attempt to make every lesson in geography or history a
problem lesson regardless of the nature of the topics to be covered or
the reference material or textbook assistance that is available. The
results from such a procedure are certain to lead to a poorly connected,
piecemeal knowledge by the pupil of the subject as a whole. A semester
of practical study of the problem method for any given subject before
introducing it would give the teachers, and I dare say the supervisors,
a better knowledge of what can reasonably be expected to be
accomplished. It is this failure to be able to reach that visionary goal
that discourages teachers and causes them to lose confidence in many
methods that are excellent in themselves if they are used with
moderation and sense.
After a course of study has been in operation for a few months it is
well to ask some of the teachers who have been the most successful in
getting satisfactory results to explain what they have done and how they
have done it. Small groups can then discuss such a report with much
profit to all. I have never experienced any difficulty in getting large
attendance at a teachers' meeting if the program provided concrete help
for the group in the work they were doing. This is indeed a rich field
for the principal to cultivate.
Supplementary books are often purchased and sent to the teachers as a
means of interpretation of a subject. They, too, need explanation and
discussion.
c. _As a professional leader._ The desire for professional leadership is
coupled with the need of interpretation of the course of study. There is
probably no more damaging contribution to the teaching profession than
the presence now and then of school executives who give but little, if
any, of their time to the professional inspiration of the teacher. The
teachers in a building with such a principal in charge soon lose their
spirit of wanting to serve and become a part of a routine business
organization. The lack of holding power of such a school is soon
apparent.
Some principals and department heads feel that they make a sufficient
contribution professionally when they say to a new teacher, "I am glad
you are to be with us. If you have any trouble, come and see me." This
is one of the best invitations one could possibly give to get a teacher
to remain away. The best evidence that a principal can show that he
wishes to help the teacher is really to help her, and, best of all, to
find means to help her without being asked.
Not long ago a teacher who wished a transfer came to see me. He said, "I
have been in ---- building for five years, during which time I cannot
recall having received any professional suggestion from the head of the
department. He sees that I have ample supplies and textbooks, but that
is merely routine work. What I need is to be encouraged and shown how I
can grow." I wonder how many teachers have had a similar experience.
Two years ago I visited an algebra teacher who happened to be assigned
to a portable building. He had five classes daily in the same subject. I
had known this teacher for a number of years and had regarded him as an
average instructor. On this visit I said, "You are out here by yourself
and I would like to see what kind of record your pupils can make at the
end of the year in the competitive tests which will be given to the
algebra pupils in all the city high schools." His face brightened and he
said, "All right, I welcome the invitation." Six months later the test
was given and his five classes of pupils made more A and B grades than
all the algebra pupils combined in any other one building of the city.
To-day, this teacher is easily one of our best instructors in
mathematics, and he has recently prepared suggestions as to the teaching
of mathematics by the supervised study method which have proved to be of
great assistance to the other teachers. He simply caught the spirit; his
pupils also caught it, and the results were assured. It did not require
professional suggestion to arouse this teacher, but rather a real chance
of recognition to show what he could do.