[Report of the Fifteen. Read at the Cleveland meeting of the Department
of Superintendence, February 19, 1895.]
This report treats of the training of elementary and secondary
teachers, considering first that training which should precede teaching
in elementary schools. By elementary schools are meant the primary and
grammar departments of graded schools, and ungraded or rural schools.
That teachers are “born, not made,” has been so fully the world’s
thought until the present century that a study of subjects, without
any study of principles or methods of teaching, has been deemed quite
sufficient. Modern educational thought and modern practice, in all
sections where excellent schools are found, confirm the belief that
there is a profound philosophy on which educational methods are based,
and that careful study of this philosophy and its application under
expert guidance are essential to making fit the man born to teach.
_Conditions for professional training--age and attainments._
It is a widely prevalent doctrine, to which the customs of our best
schools conform, that teachers of elementary schools should have a
secondary or high school education, and that teachers of high schools
should have a collegiate education. Your committee believe that these
are the minimum acquirements that can generally be accepted, that
the scholarship, culture, and power gained by four years of study in
advance of the pupils are not too much to be rightfully demanded, and
that as a rule no one ought to become a teacher who has not the age
and attainments presupposed in the possessor of a high-school diploma.
There are differences in high schools, it is true, and a high-school
diploma is not a fixed standard of attainment; but in these United
States it is one of the most definite and uniform standards that we
possess, and varies less than college degrees vary or than elementary
schools and local standards of culture vary.
It is, of course, implied in the foregoing remarks that the high school
from which the candidate comes is known to be a reputable school, and
that its diploma is proof of the completion of a good four-years’
course in a creditable manner. If these conditions do not exist,
careful examination is the only recourse.
If this condition, high-school graduation or proof by examination of
equivalent scholarship, be accepted, the questions of the age and
attainment to be reached before entering upon professional study and
training are already settled. But if a more definite statement be
desired, then it may be said that the candidate for admission to a
normal or training school should be eighteen years of age and should
have studied English, mathematics, and science to the extent usually
pursued in high schools, should be able to write readily, correctly,
and methodically upon topics within the teacher’s necessary range
of thought and conversation, and should have studied, for two or
more years, at least one language besides English. Skill in music
and drawing is desirable, particularly ability to sketch readily and
effectively.
_Training schools._
The training of teachers may be done in normal schools, normal classes
in academies and high schools, and in city training schools. To all
these the general term “training schools” will be applied. Those
instructed in these schools will be called pupils while engaged in
professional study, and pupil-teachers or teachers-in-training while
in practice-teaching preparatory to graduation. Teachers whose work
is to be observed by pupil-teachers will be called model-teachers;
teachers in charge of pupil-teachers during their practice work will
be called critic-teachers. In some institutions model-teachers and
critic-teachers are the same persons. The studies usually pursued
in academies and high schools will be termed academic, and those
post-academic studies to be pursued before or during practice-teaching
as a preparation therefor will be termed professional.
_Academic studies._
Whether academic studies have any legitimate place in a normal or
training school is a question much debated. It cannot be supposed that
your committee can settle in a paragraph a question upon which many
essays have been written, many speeches delivered, and over which much
controversy has been waged.
If training schools are to be distinguished from other secondary
schools, they must do a work not done in other schools. So far as they
teach common branches of study, they are doing what other schools are
doing, and have small excuse for existence; but it may be granted that
methods can practically be taught only as to subjects, that the study
done in professional schools may so treat of the subjects of study,
not as objects to be required, but as objects to be presented, that
their treatment shall be wholly professional.
One who is to teach a subject needs to know it as a whole, made up of
related and subordinate parts, and hence must study it by a method
that will give this knowledge. It is not necessary to press the
argument that many pupils enter normal and training schools with such
slight preparation as to require instruction in academic subjects. The
college with a preparatory department is, as a rule, an institution of
distinctly lower grade than one without such a department. Academic
work in normal schools that is of the nature of preparation for
professional work lowers the standard and perhaps the usefulness of
such a school; but academic work done as a means of illustrating or
enforcing professional truth has its place in a professional school as
in effect a part of the professional work. Professional study differs
widely from academic study. In the one, a science is studied in its
relation to the studying mind; in the other, in reference to its
principles and applications. The aim of one kind of study is power to
apply; of the other, power to present. The tendency of the one is to
bring the learner into sympathy with the natural world, of the other
with the child world. How much broader becomes the teacher who takes
both the academic and the professional view! He who learns that he
may know and he who learns that he may teach are standing in quite
different mental attitudes. One works for knowledge of subject-matter,
the other that his knowledge may have due organization, that he may
bring to consciousness the apperceiving ideas by means of which matter
and method may be suitably conjoined.
How to study is knowledge indispensable to knowing how to teach. The
method of teaching can best be illustrated by teaching. The attitude
of a pupil in a training school must be that of a learner whose mental
stores are expanding, who faces the great world of knowledge with the
purpose to survey a portion of it. If we insist upon a sufficient
preparation for admission, the question of what studies to pursue, and
especially the controversy between professional and academic work, will
be mainly settled.
_Professional work._
Professional training comprises two parts: (_a_) The science of
teaching, and (_b_) the art of teaching.
In the _science of teaching_ are included: (1) Psychology as a basis
for principles and methods; (2) Methodology as a guide to instruction;
(3) School economy, which adjusts the conditions of work; and (4)
History of education, which gives breadth of view.
The _art of teaching_ is best gained: (1) by observation of good
teaching; (2) by practice-teaching under criticism.
_Relative time._
The existence and importance of each of these elements in the training
of teachers are generally acknowledged. Their order and proportionate
treatment give rise to differences of opinion. Some would omit the
practice work entirely, launching the young teacher upon independent
work directly from her pupilage in theory. Others, and much the greater
number, advise some preparation in the form of guided experience before
the training be considered complete. These vary greatly in their
estimate of the proportionate time to be given to practice during
training. The answers to the question “What proportion?” which your
committee has received range from one-sixteenth to two-thirds as
the proportion of time to be given to practice. The greater number,
however, advocate a division of time about equal between theory and
practice.
The normal schools incline to the smallest proportion for
practice-teaching, the city training-schools to the largest. It should
be borne in mind, however, that city training-schools are a close
continuation, usually, of high schools, and that the high-school
courses give a more uniform and probably a more adequate preparation
than the students entering normal schools have usually had. Their
facilities for practice-teaching are much greater than normal schools
can secure, and for this reason also practice is made relatively more
important. As to the relative merits of city training-schools and
normal schools, your committee does not desire to express an opinion;
the conditions of education demand the existence of both, and both
are necessities of educational advancement. It is important to add,
however, that in the judgment of your committee not less than half of
the time spent under training by the apprentice-teacher should be given
to observation and practice, and that this practice in its conditions
should be as similar as possible to the work she will later be required
to do independently.
_Science of teaching--psychology._
The laws of apperception teach that one is ready to apprehend new
truth most readily when he has already established a considerable and
well-arranged body of ideas thereon.
Suggestion, observation, and reflection are each most fruitful when
a foundation of antecedent knowledge has been provided. Hence your
committee recommends that early in their course of study teachers
in training assume as true the well-known facts of psychology and
the essential principles of education, and make their later study
and practice in the light of these principles. These principles thus
become the norm of educational thought, and their truth is continually
demonstrated by subsequent experience. From this time theory and
practice should proceed together in mutual aid and support.
Most fundamental and important of the professional studies which
ought to be pursued by one intending to teach is psychology. This
study should be pursued at two periods of the training-school course,
the beginning and the end, and its principles should be appealed to
daily when not formally studied. The method of study should be both
deductive and inductive. The terminology should be early learned
from a suitable text-book, and significance given to the terms by
introspection, observation, and analysis. Power of introspection should
be gained, guidance in observation should be given, and confirmation
of psychological principles should be sought on every hand. The habit
of thinking analytically and psychologically should be formed by every
teacher. At the close of the course a more profound and more completely
inductive study of physiological psychology should be made. In this
way, a tendency to investigate should be encouraged or created.
_Study of children._
Modern educational thought emphasizes the opinion that the child, not
the subject of study, is the guide to the teacher’s efforts. To know
the child is of paramount importance. How to know the child must be
an important item of instruction to the teacher in training. The child
must be studied as to his physical, mental, and moral condition. Is he
in good health? Are his senses of sight and hearing normal, or in what
degree abnormal? What is his temperament? Which of his faculties seem
weak or dormant? Is he eye-minded or ear-minded? What are his powers of
attention? What are his likes and dislikes? How far is his moral nature
developed, and what are its tendencies? By what tests can the degree of
difference between bright and dull children be estimated?
To study effectively and observingly these and similar questions
respecting children is a high art. No common-sense power of discerning
human nature is sufficient; though common sense and sympathy go a
long way in such study. Weighing, measuring, elaborate investigation
requiring apparatus and laboratory methods, are for experts, not
teachers in training. Above all, it must ever be remembered that the
child is to be studied as a personality and not as an object to be
weighed or analyzed.
_Methodology._
A part of the work under this head must be a study of the mental and
moral effects of different methods of teaching and examination, the
relative value of individual and class instruction at different periods
of school life and in the study of different branches. The art of
questioning is to be studied in its foundation principles and by the
illustration of the best examples. Some review of the branches which
are to be taught may be made, making the teacher’s knowledge of them
ready and distinct as to the relations of the several parts of the
subject to one another and of the whole to kindred subjects. These
and many such subjects should be discussed in the class in pedagogy,
investigation should be begun, and the lines on which it can be
followed should be distinctly laid down.
The laws of psychology, or the capabilities and methods of
mind-activity, are themselves the fundamental laws of teaching, which
is the act of exciting normal and profitable mind-action. Beyond
these fundamental laws, the principles of education are to be derived
inductively. These inductions when brought to test will be found to be
rational inferences from psychological laws and thus founded upon and
explained by them.
_School economy._
School economy, though a factor of great importance in the teacher’s
training, can be best studied by the teacher of some maturity and
experience, and is of more value in the equipment of secondary than
of elementary teachers. Only its outlines and fundamental principles
should be studied in the ordinary training-school.
_History of education._
Breadth of mind consists in the power to view facts and opinions from
the standpoints of others. It is this truth which makes the study of
history in a full, appreciative way so influential in giving mental
breadth. This general advantage the history of education has in still
larger degree, because our interest in the views and experiences of
those engaged like us in training the young enables us to enter more
fully into their thoughts and purposes than we could into those of
the warrior or ruler. From the efforts of the man we imagine his
surroundings, which, we contrast with our own. To the abstract element
of theoretical truth is added the warm human interest we feel in the
hero, the generous partisan of truth. The history of education is
particularly full of examples of noble purpose, advanced thought, and
moral heroism. It is inspiring to fill our minds with these human
ideals. We read in the success of the unpractical Pestalozzi the award
made to self-sacrifice, sympathy, and enthusiasm expended in giving
application to a vital truth.
But with enthusiasm for ideals history gives us caution, warns us
against the moving of the pendulum, and gives us points of departure
from which to measure progress. It gives us courage to attack difficult
problems. It shows which the abiding problems are--those that can be
solved only by waiting, and not tossed aside by a supreme effort. It
shows us the progress of the race, the changing ideals of the perfect
man, and the means by which men have sought to realize these ideals.
We can from its study better answer the question, What is education,
what may it accomplish, and how may its ideals be realized? It gives
the evolution of the present and explains anomalies in our work. And
yet the history of education is not a subject to be treated extensively
in a training school. All but the outlines may better be reserved for
later professional reading.
_Training in teaching._
Training to teach requires (1) schools for observation, and (2) schools
for practice.
Of necessity, these schools must be separate in purpose and in
organization. A practice-school cannot be a model school. The
pupil-teachers should have the opportunity to observe the best
models of the teaching art; and the manner, methods, and devices of
the model-teacher should be noted, discussed, and referred to the
foundation principles on which they rest. Allowable modifications of
this observed work may be suggested by the pupil-teacher and approved
by the teacher in charge.
There should be selected certain of the best teachers in regular
school work, whom the pupil-teachers may be sent to observe. The
pupil-teachers should take no part in the school work nor cause any
change therein. They should, however, be told in advance by the
teacher what purpose she seeks to accomplish. This excites expectation
and brings into consciousness the apperceiving ideas by which the
suggestions of the exercise, as they develop, may be seized and
assimilated.
At first these visits should be made in company with their teacher
of methods, and the work of a single class in one subject should be
first observed. After such visits the teacher of methods in the given
subject should discuss with the pupil-teachers the work observed.
The pupil-teachers should first describe the work they have seen and
specify the excellences noted, and tell why these thing are commendable
and upon what laws of teaching they are based. Next, the pupil-teachers
should question the teacher of methods as to the cause, purpose, or
influence of things noted, and matters of doubtful propriety--if
there be such--should be considered. Then the teacher in turn should
question her pupil-teachers as to matters that seem to have escaped
their notice, as to the motive of the model-teacher, as to the reason
for the order of treatment, or form of question, wherein lay the merit
of her method, the secret of her power. When pupil-teachers have made
such observations several times, with several teachers, and in several
subjects, the broader investigation may be made as to the organization
of one of the model rooms, its daily programme of recitations and of
study, the methods of discipline, the relations between pupils and
teacher, the “school spirit,” the school movements, and class progress.
This work should be done before teaching groups or classes of pupils is
attempted, and should form an occasional exercise during the period of
practice-teaching as a matter of relief and inspiration. If an artist
requires the suggestive help of a good example that stirs his own
originality, why should not a teacher?
_The practice-school._
During the course in methodology certain steps preparatory to
practice-teaching may be taken. 1. The pupil-teacher may analyze the
topic to be taught, noting essentials and incidentals, seeking the
connections of the subject with the mental possessions of the pupils
to be considered and the sequences from these points of contact to the
knowledge to be gained under instruction. 2. Next, plans of lessons may
be prepared and series of questions for teaching the given subjects.
3. Giving lessons to fellow pupil-teachers leads to familiarity with
the mechanism of class work, such as calling, directing, and dismissing
classes, gives the beginner ease and self-confidence, leads to careful
preparation of lessons, gives skill in asking questions, and in the use
of apparatus.
The practice-teaching should be in another school, preferably in a
different building, and should commence with group-teaching in a
recitation-room apart from the schoolroom. Actual teaching of small
groups of children gives opportunity for the study of the child-mind
in its efforts at reception and assimilation of new ideas, and
shows the modifications in lesson plans that must be made to adapt
the subject-matter to the child’s tastes and activities. But the
independent charge for a considerable time of a schoolroom with a full
quota of pupils, the pupil-teacher and the children being much of
the time the sole occupants of the room,--in short, the realization
of ordinary school conditions, with the opportunity to go for advice
to a friendly critic, is the most valuable practice; and no practice
short of this can be considered of great value except as preparation
for this chief form of preparatory practice. All this work should have
its due proportion only, or evil may result. For example, lesson plans
tend to formalism, to self-conceit, to work in few and narrow lines,
to study of subjects rather than of pupils; lessons to fellow-pupils
make one self-conscious, hinder the growth of enthusiasm in work, and
are entirely barren if carried beyond a very few exercises; teaching
groups of children for considerable time unfits the teacher for the
double burden of discipline and instruction, to bear both of which
simultaneously and easily is the teacher’s greatest difficulty and most
essential power.
A critic-teacher should be appointed to the oversight of two such
pupil-teachers, each in charge of a schoolroom. The critic may also
supervise one or more teachers practicing for brief periods daily with
groups of children.
The pupil-teachers are now to emphasize practice rather than theory,
to work under the direction of one who regards the interests of the
children quite as much as those of the teacher-in-training. The critic
must admit the principles of education and general methods taught by
the teacher of methodology, but she may have her own devices and even
special methods that need not be those of the teacher of methodology.
No harm will come to the teachers-in-training if they learn that
principles must be assented to by all, but that methods may bear the
stamp of the personality of the teacher; that all things must be
considered from the point of view of their effect upon the pupils; the
critic maintaining the claims of the children, the teacher of methods
conforming to the laws of mind and the science of the subjects taught.
The critics must teach for their pupil-teachers and show in action the
justness of their suggestions. In this sense they are model-teachers as
well as critics.
The critic should, at the close of school, meet her pupil-teachers
for a report of their experiences through the day: What they have
attempted, how they have tried to do it, why they did so, and
what success they gained. Advice as to overcoming difficulties,
encouragement under trial, caution if need be, help for the work of
to-morrow, occupy the hour. Above all, the critic should be a true
friend, a womanly and cultivated woman, and an inspiring companion,
whose presence is helpful to work and improving to personality.
_Length of training-school course._
There are three elements which determine the time to be spent in a
training school--the time given to academic studies, the time given
to professional studies, and the time given to practice. The sum of
these periods will be the time required for the training course. Taking
these in the inverse order, let us consider how much time is required
for practice work with pupils. The time given to lesson outlines and
practice with fellow pupil-teachers may be considered a part of the
professional study rather than of practice-teaching. The period of
practice with pupils must not be too short, whether we consider the
interests of the pupils or of the teachers-in-training. An effort is
usually made to counteract the effect upon the children of a succession
of crude efforts of teachers beginning practice by strengthening the
teaching and supervision through the employment of a considerable
number of model and supervisory teachers, and by dividing the pupils
into small groups, so that much individual work can be done. These
arrangements, while useful for their purpose, destroy to a considerable
degree the usual conditions under which school work is to be done, and
tend to render the teachers-in-training formal and imitative.
The practice room should be, as far as may be, the ordinary school,
with the difficulties and responsibilities that will be met later.
The responsibility for order, discipline, progress, records, reports,
communication with parents and school authorities, must fall fully upon
the young teacher, who has a friendly assistant to whom she can go for
advice in the person of a wise and experienced critic, not constantly
at hand, but constantly within reach.
Between the critic and the teacher-in-training there should exist
the most cordial and familiar relations. These relations are based
on the one hand upon an appreciation of wisdom and kindness, on the
other, upon an appreciation of sincerity and effort. The growth of
such relations, and the fruitage which follows their growth, require
time. A half-year is not too long to be allotted for them. During this
half-year experience, self-confidence and growth in power have been
gained; but the pupil-teacher is still not ready to be set aside to
work out her own destiny. At this point she is just ready for marked
advance, which should be helped and guided. To remain longer with her
critic friend may cause imitation rather than independence, may lead to
contentment and cessation of growth. She should now be transferred to
the care of a second critic of a different personality, but of equal
merit. The new critic is bound by her duty and her ambition to see
that the first half year’s advancement is maintained in the second.
The pupil-teacher finds that excellence is not all upon one model.
The value of individuality impresses her. She gains a view of solid
principles wrapped in diverse characteristics. Her own individuality
rises to new importance, and the elements of a growth not at once to be
checked start up within her. For the care of the second critic a second
half year must be allowed, which extends the practice work with pupils
through an entire school year. For the theoretical work a year is by
general experience proven sufficient. The ideal training course is,
then, one of two years’ length.
Provision for the extended practice which is here recommended can
be made only by city training-schools and by normal schools having
connection with the schools of a city. To set apart a building of
several rooms as a school of practice will answer the purpose only
when there are very few teachers in training. In order to give each
pupil-teacher a year of practice the number of practice rooms must
equal the number of teachers to be graduated annually from the
training-school, be the number ten, fifty, or five hundred. In any
considerable city a school for practice will not suffice; many schools
for practice must be secured. This can be done by selecting one
excellent teacher in each of a sufficient number of school buildings,
and making her a critic-teacher, giving her charge of two schoolrooms,
in each of which is placed a pupil-teacher for training.
This insures that the training shall be done as nearly as may be under
ordinary conditions, brings the pupil-teachers at once into the general
body of teachers, makes the corps of critics a leaven of zeal, and
good teaching scattered among the schools. This body of critics will
uplift the schools. More capable in the beginning than the average
teacher, led to professional study, ambitious for the best things, they
make greater progress than they otherwise would do, and are sufficient
in themselves to inspire the general body of teachers. For the sake
of the pupil-teachers, and the children, too, this plan is best. Its
economy also will readily be apparent. This plan has been tried for
several years in the schools of Providence, with results fully equal to
those herein claimed.
_Tests of success._
The tests of success in practice-teaching are in the main those to be
applied to all teaching. Do her pupils grow more honest, industrious,
polite? Do they admire their teacher? Does she secure obedience and
industry only while demanding it, or has she influence that reaches
beyond her presence? Do her pupils think well and talk well? As to
the teacher herself: Has she sympathy and tact, self-reliance and
originality, breadth and intensity? Is she systematic, direct, and
business-like? Is she courteous, neat in person and in work? Has
she discernment of character and a just standard of requirement and
attainment?
These are some of the questions one must answer before he pronounces
any teacher a success or a failure.
Admission to a training school assumes that the pupil has good health,
good scholarship, good sense, good ability, and devotion to the work
of teaching. If all these continue to be exhibited in satisfactory
degree and the pupil goes through the prescribed course of study
and practice, the diploma of the school should naturally mark the
completion of this work. If it appears on acquaintance that a serious
mistake has been made in estimating any of these elements, then, so
soon as the mistake is fairly apparent and is probably a permanent
condition, the pupil should be requested to withdraw from the work.
This is not a case where the wheat and the tares should grow together
until the harvest at graduation day or the examination preceding it.
With such a foundation continually maintained, it is the duty of the
school to conquer success for each pupil.
Teaching does not require genius. Indeed, genius, in the sense of
erratic ability, is out of place in the teacher’s chair. Most good
teachers at this close of the nineteenth century are made, not
born; made from good material well fashioned. There is, however, a
possibility that some idiosyncrasy of character, not readily discovered
until the test is made, may rise between the prospective teacher and
her pupils, making her influence over them small or harmful. Such a
defect, if it exist, will appear during the practice-teaching, and the
critic will discover it. This defect, on its first discovery, should be
plainly pointed out to the teacher-in-training and her efforts should
be joined with those of the critic in its removal.
If this effort be a failure and the defect be one likely to harm the
pupils hereafter to be taught, then the teacher-in-training should be
informed and requested to withdraw from the school. There should be
no test at the close of the school course to determine fitness for
graduation. Graduation should find the teacher serious in view of her
responsibilities, hopeful because she has learned how success is to be
attained, inspired with the belief that growth in herself and in her
pupils is the great demand and the great reward.
_Training of teachers for secondary schools._
Perhaps one-sixth of the great body of public school teachers in the
United States are engaged in secondary work and in supervision. These
are the leading teachers. They give educational tone to communities, as
well as inspiration to the body of teachers.
It is of great importance that they be imbued with the professional
spirit springing from sound professional culture. The very difficult
and responsible positions that they fill demand ripe scholarship, more
than ordinary ability, and an intimate knowledge of the period of
adolescence, which Rousseau so aptly styles the second birth.
The elementary schools provide for the education of the masses. Our
secondary schools educate our social and business leaders. The careers
of our college graduates, who mainly fill the important places in
professional and political life, are determined largely by the years
of secondary training. The college or university gives expansion and
finish, the secondary school gives character and direction.
It should not be forgotten that the superintendents of public schools
are largely taken from the ranks of secondary teachers, and that the
scholarship, qualities, and training required for the one class are
nearly equivalent to that demanded for the other.
Our high schools, too, are the source of supply for teachers in
elementary schools. Hence the pedagogic influences exerted in the high
school should lead to excellence in elementary teaching.
The superintendent who with long foresight looks to the improvement
of his schools will labor earnestly to improve and especially to
professionalize the teaching in his high school. The management which
makes the high school an independent portion of the school system,
merely attached and loftily superior, which limits the supervision and
influence of the superintendent to the primary and grammar grades, is
short-sighted and destructive.
There ought also to be a place and a plan for the training of teachers
for normal schools. The great body of normal and training schools
in the United States are secondary schools. Those who are to teach
in these schools need broad scholarship, thorough understanding of
educational problems, and trained experience. To put into these schools
teachers whose scholarship is that of the secondary school and whose
training is that of the elementary is to narrow and depress, rather
than broaden and elevate.
If college graduates are put directly into teaching without special
study and training, they will teach as they have been taught. The
methods of college professors are not in all cases the best, and, if
they were, high school pupils are not to be taught nor disciplined as
college students are. High school teaching and discipline can be that
neither of the grammar school nor of the college, but is _sui generis_.
To recognize this truth and the special differences is vital to
success. This recognition comes only from much experience at great loss
and partial failure, or by happy intuition not usually to be expected,
or by definite instruction and directed practice. Success in teaching
depends upon conformity to principles, and these principles are not a
part of the mental equipment of every educated person.
These considerations and others are the occasion of a growing
conviction, widespread in this land, that secondary teachers should be
trained for their work even more carefully than elementary teachers are
trained. This conviction is manifested in the efforts to secure normal
schools adapted to training teachers for secondary schools, notably
in Massachusetts and New York, and in the numerous professorships of
pedagogy established in rapidly increasing numbers in our colleges and
universities.
The training of teachers for secondary schools is in several essential
respects the same as that for teachers of elementary schools. Both
demand scholarship, theory, and practice. The degree of scholarship
required for secondary teachers is by common consent fixed at a
collegiate education. No one--with rare exceptions--should be employed
to teach in a high school who has not this fundamental preparation.
It is not necessary to enter in detail into the work of theoretical
instruction for secondary teachers. The able men at the head of
institutions and departments designed for such work neither need nor
desire advice upon this matter. And yet for the purposes of this
report it may be allowable to point out a plan for the organization of
a~secondary training school.
Let it be supposed that two essentials have been found in one locality,
(1) a college or university having a department of pedagogy and a
department of post-graduate work; (2) a high school, academy, or
preparatory school whose managers are willing to employ and pay a
number of graduate students to teach under direction for a portion of
each day. These two conditions being met, we will suppose that pedagogy
is offered as an elective to the college seniors.
Two years of instruction in the science and art of teaching are to be
provided; one, mostly theory with some practice, elective during the
senior year; the other, mostly practice with some theory, elective for
one year as post-graduate work.