Read Ebook: The training of teachers in the United States of America by Bramwell Amy Blanche Hughes H Millicent Roberts R D Author Of Introduction Etc

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Physical properties of soils .

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Mineral constituents of soils .

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Transpiration of plants.

Specific gravity of minerals.

Field excursions were made weekly, and methods of conducting children's field excursions were suggested and discussed.

The instruction in blackboard drawing, as illustrating geographical forms, was excellent. In all cases, the students worked on paper with charcoal, at the same time as the teacher drew on the wall slate. After making a sketch, the teacher erased her work at once, in order to secure rapidity in those who were copying. The members of the class then distributed themselves round the room at various parts of the wall slate, and were required to reproduce on the wall slate the drawing they had just made, the teacher meanwhile giving individual help and criticising. The subjects for blackboard drawing for the fifteen lessons of the course were:

Hills, valleys, mountains, plateaus.

River-basins, waterfalls, lakes, deltas.

Erosion, cliffs, ca?ons, terraces, gorges.

Mountains, ranges, parallel, etc.

Continent of N. America. Esquimaux huts; Indian wigwams; logging camps.

United States. Cotton fields, rice swamps, sand bars.

Mexico. Central America. Cacti; ruins.

S. America. Fiord coasts, volcanoes; tropical forests.

Africa. Deserts, sand-dunes, oases, canals.

Abyssinian Highlands: Nile Basin, pyramids, palms.

Australia Islands, coral, volcanoes.

Eurasia; plateaus of Thibet and Gobi.

India; Spain; Italy; banyan trees.

Norway and Sweden; glaciers, icebergs.

Through the kind permission of Colonel Parker, I was able to hear all lessons and to see the entire working of the school. Daily visits for nearly a fortnight served to show, that much educational life was centered there, and that teachers who occupied responsible positions in all parts of the States were receiving new light and stimulation for the working out of their own particular problems.

At the college of the well-known summer assembly at Chautauqua, New York, there was no professional instruction for teachers this year. I heard some excellent teaching in physics, German and French; but beyond the fact that many of the Chautauqua college students were teachers taking holiday courses of study to equip themselves better for future teaching, the work that I saw here had no direct bearing upon the training of teachers.

At Cornell University, courses in pedagogy are usually given in connection with the summer course in philosophy. These are for graduate students only. Psychology lectures, with experimental demonstrations, are given every day in the week; lectures on psychological and psychophysical method, with demonstrations and laboratory practice, are delivered three times a week; pedagogy and the history of education are studied by means of lectures and conferences; methods of teaching the special subject of study are discussed in connection with the other summer courses for graduates at Cornell University. I was present at a very interesting meeting of teachers who were attending a summer course in English. Individual members of the class gave their own experience as regards the teaching of English and literature in the schools. The students were mostly specialists in English, and teachers in private academies, or High Schools, and an informal discussion of special difficulties and methods which had been actually tried was very interesting and helpful to the class as a whole.

A general survey of Summer Schools of all kinds seems to show that their work cannot be regarded as that of "Training," but rather as accessory to it. Where the principal or conductor of the Summer School is a man of enthusiasm and enlightenment, teachers can be refreshed and stimulated in many ways, by a summer course of work; but to regard a course as training which supplies no practice-work, and exists under highly artificial conditions, for a few weeks only, is to overlook some of the most important features of training.

As a general summary of the work of Training, seen in Normal Schools, City Training Schools and University Departments, it may be stated:

That the State Normal Schools, adhering to old traditions, and failing to insist on adequate and thorough scholarship as an entrance qualification, have been obliged to devote themselves, either to securing that scholarship, or to the pursuance of so-called training under conditions the most conducive to mechanical lines of work, and dead forms of method.

That the City Training Schools, being entirely local institutions, supported by local funds, and only supplying teachers to the schools of the vicinity, are in danger of being cramped in their methods by seeking to win public favour.

That the University Departments of Pedagogy, especially those belonging to State Universities, are capable of affording the widest and best opportunities for the thorough training of primary and secondary teachers, and in supplying these opportunities, they will not only help forward the cause in which they are immediately engaged, but afford a valuable means of unifying and stimulating education generally.

The existence of the good and the bad side by side is as marked a feature in training institutions as in any other department of American education, and suggests great rapidity of progress in some directions. Where the training is bad, old methods have been retained under new conditions; and where good results have been obtained, they are due to the readiness to try new methods, and to keep in touch with the educational progress of the day. The stimulus to much that is good in the present training of teachers in America is the psychological study of children, which now is being systematically organized in a "National Association for the Study of Children." Not only scientific workers, but teachers and parents throughout the country, are beginning to realize the important bearing of child-study upon all educational questions, and nowhere is their enthusiasm for matters educational more shown than in their united devotion to the solution of this new problem.

AMY BLANCHE BRAMWELL.

BY MILLICENT HUGHES.

In America, as in Europe, it is becoming increasingly recognised, that the fact of having received a good education, even if that education have included a University course, is no guarantee of fitness for the teaching profession. That some special professional preparation is also necessary before a teacher can be safely entrusted with teaching responsibility can hardly be said to be any longer a matter of debate among those who have devoted time and thought to educational questions. There may be much difference of opinion as to the best way of giving that preparation, but that it should be given is becoming more and more a foregone conclusion. There seems at last some chance that a well-earned rest may be allowed to the well-worn comparison made between the doctor's and teacher's professions, with its obvious moral--that just as no right-thinking parent would allow an unqualified practitioner to prescribe for his child's body, so it should be impossible for that far less understood and delicate something, which we call the mind, to be entrusted to the care of one whose only qualification for the post is the possession of a certain amount of useful information. There are many battles yet to be fought, many experiments yet to be tried, many failures yet to be faced, ere all shall be agreed on the best kind of professional training that can be given to teachers; yet I have returned from America encouraged in the belief that the decisive battle in favour of training has been fought and won on both sides of the Atlantic, and that the old world and the new may with advantage to both join hands in the endeavour to discover the best ways and means of such training.

And it would seem especially fitting that England and America should thus join hands, for, after all, few things about the Americans impressed me more than the fact that they are really English, and that the inhabitants of Great Britain and the United States really form part of one great English-speaking nation, with the heritage of a noble language and literature, and a common life of thought and feeling. In matters educational, the truth of this oneness impressed me vividly. Allowing for such differences as must exist between an old and a new country, it is nevertheless true that most of the problems in education which they are trying to solve are those which perplex us also, and of these the problem of the Training of Teachers holds a place in the front rank. But it is a curious and interesting fact, that the solution should be attempted in both countries, and yet that so little attention should be paid in each to what is being done in the other. The ignorance that prevails among American teachers as to what is being attempted in England is, I fear, only equalled by our own ignorance of American educational life. This ignorance is largely the result of the difficulty that both American and English teachers experience, in obtaining definite information on educational matters in connection with either country. This fact made it very difficult for me even to map out my tour, so as to include as far as possible what was typical of American Training in the short time at my disposal, and had it not been for the unvarying kindness and courtesy shown me by American teachers, in directing my notice to what was best worth seeing, my task would have presented almost insuperable difficulties. As it is, I have, of course, been unable to cover the whole ground, and indeed have been able to personally examine into the opportunities for training in a very few States. These, however, I believe to be representative States, from a study of the means of training in which it is possible to arrive at a very fair conclusion of its condition in the States as a whole. They include the following: Pennsylvania, Connecticut, Rhode Island, Massachusetts, New York, Michigan and Illinois. I was, however, fortunate in being able to supplement the information thus obtained by a careful study of the many excellent State exhibits in the Educational Department of the Liberal Arts Building, at the World's Fair, and to further correct and intensify the impressions I had received by many conversations with educationists from all parts of the United States, whom it was my good fortune to meet at the Educational Congresses, held at Chicago in July.

In considering any American educational question, there are one or two points which must never be lost sight of, and perhaps it will be well to indicate them here. In the first place, it must be remembered that there is not one American educational system, but many. Each State has complete control of its own educational matters, has its own School Law, sets aside common lands, or levies taxes for the support of its own schools, and is responsible to no higher authority. The only part taken by the Central Government of the United States in connection with education has been in the establishment of a Bureau of Education, the chief functions of which have been the collecting of statistics and general information respecting education in all the various States, which are embodied in an annual report made by the Commissioner of Education, the publishing of monographs and circulars of information on topics of educational interest, such as Co-education, Teaching of History, etc., and the maintaining of a valuable Pedagogical Reference Library at Washington.

Secondly, a distinction must be made between the Western States, of which Michigan might be taken as representative, and the Eastern, of which Massachusetts might be considered typical. In the former we find a most complete system of State education, leading from the Primary School right up to the great co-educational University of Michigan. The State Schools there have few private rivals, and the University none. In the State of Massachusetts, on the contrary, although Primary, Grammar and High Schools are maintained at the public expense, yet the children of a large proportion of the inhabitants attend private schools and academies, which undertake to prepare them for Harvard or the Women's Colleges, such as Wellesley. In fact, few of those who enter upon a University career do so straight from the common school, as is the case in the Western States. It follows from this that there are two classes of teachers to be considered in the Eastern States-- those who teach in the common schools , and those who teach in private schools and in the academies. Those of the second class are largely recruited from the ranks of College graduates, who rely upon their University course as preparation for the profession of teaching, and amongst whom the idea of a special training for their work has only here and there been awakened. It is mainly in connection with State education that the idea of the training of teachers has been developed, although the fact that several of the older Universities, including Harvard, are providing courses of lectures on the Science and Art of Teaching may be taken as a hopeful sign of the gradual growth of the idea among all classes of teachers.

It will be perhaps well to enumerate the various means available for the Training of Teachers in the United States, and then to describe more particularly the special features of the training to be obtained in each kind of institution.

Training may be obtained at:

{ Public or State. i. Normal Schools { City. { Private.

{ Schools. ii. City Training { { Classes.

iii. Pedagogical Departments in Universities.

iv. Teachers' Institutes.

v. Summer Schools.

There are three kinds of Normal Schools to be considered--State, City and Private. It was my privilege to visit a good number belonging to the first two classes, but I was not fortunate enough to be able to inspect any of the Private Normal Schools. These latter are, of course, chiefly to be found in those States which have few or no State or City Normal Schools.

The difference between State and City Normal Schools is mainly one of control. The State Normal School forms part of the State Common School system, and is under the direct supervision of the State Superintendent and Board of Education, while the City Normal School belongs to the City School system, and is under the jurisdiction of the City Superintendent. The State Normal School is intended to provide teachers for the schools in any part of the State, while the City Normal School has for its object the preparation of teachers for the City schools alone.

At present one of the most hotly debated questions in connection with Normal Schools relates to the subjects to be included in the curriculum. Shall the Normal School give professional training alone, or shall it also provide instruction in Academic subjects? There is at present much divergence of opinion on the subject, and some schools are organized on the one principle, and some on the other.

At present some of the Normal Schools have a double function to perform, that of serving as High Schools, and at the same time as professional Training Colleges. There is, however, a growing feeling against this plan, and a tendency, wherever possible, to separate those who intend to become teachers from those who do not. But many Normal Schools, while claiming to be only professional, yet include Academic subjects in their curricula. Two reasons for this are commonly urged. In the first place, it is said that it is impossible to get a large enough supply of candidates for training who are sufficiently well equipped for their profession from the point of view of mere information; and secondly, that even those who have the necessary information have acquired it in such a way that it is almost useless for teaching purposes. For such, a complete revision of the various subjects, taken in conjunction with a consideration of the best methods of teaching the same, is regarded as necessary; it being maintained by those in favour of this plan that it is almost impossible to get instruction in the various subjects that will be of any value to them as teachers, outside a Normal School.

On the other hand, there are some who maintain that the Normal School should be strictly professional, admitting none to its courses but those who can give evidence of having had ample academic preparation. Many, however, who believe that the courses in academic studies are at present necessary yet look forward to the time when they will be no longer required.

There appears to be a growing feeling in the States in favour of the complete separation of the professional from the academic course, and it is interesting to note that the question is agitating the minds of those who have to do with the training of teachers in America, at the same time that it has become a burning question in England in connection with the training of our Elementary Teachers. The Normal Schools correspond more or less closely with our English Elementary Training Colleges, and an examination of their points of likeness and difference may not prove unprofitable.

In the first place, it should be noted, that the absence of any uniform standard of attainment, such as is more or less secured in England by the fact that there is one government examination for all Colleges, makes it possible for there to be a great difference in the rank held by different Normal Schools. As each school fixes its own standard of graduation, and the conditions for admission, length of course and final tests vary with each institution, it comes about that much depends upon the Normal School, of which a given teacher is a graduate.

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