Chapter II: Part 2

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.

Much time is given to “Methods” in all the Normal Schools. Besides the so-called “Methods” taught by means of academic studies, the subject is usually taken up again in connection with applied psychology. The school subjects, treated one by one in detail, are used to illustrate principles of education, while much reference is made at every stage to the personal experience of teacher and students. Many different plans are adopted in teaching “Methods.” At the Normal School, Westchester, I heard a lesson which was in the form of a modified “recitation.” A certain point had been chosen for discussion. The students had prepared the subject beforehand, and some had written short essays, which they read in turn. Afterwards the whole class was questioned by the teacher. As new ideas were brought forward, they were noted on the blackboard by the students who supplied them, until a complete sketch was made. A discussion on “Noise in Class” was carried on somewhat in the same way. At Westfield, Massachusetts, the lessons on “Didactics” are carried out on a similar plan, the students being called upon in turn to furnish certain parts of the subject, and to build up a sketch on the blackboard.

At the Normal School, Albany, methods are taught thus:--With each of three terms of psychology, certain subjects are chosen for consideration. A syllabus of work in a certain subject is given in by each student. It is carefully discussed in class. Then parts of the detailed syllabus are taken in order, methods of dealing with any particular part discussed, and one method decided upon as best. For the next day, all the students prepare a lesson on the part selected, and any one of them may be called upon to give it to his or her fellow-students. Then follows criticism by teacher and students. The plan of requiring all students to consider detailed methods in all subjects seems not to be altogether a good one. It assumes a knowledge of all the subjects of study on the part of all students, a condition only attainable at the price of superficiality. Even where a general knowledge of subjects can be relied upon, details in method cannot do other than encourage empiricism, in cases where the knowledge of the subject matter is not thorough and complete. It would seem better, especially in the case of training institutions like that at Albany, designed to give purely professional training to teachers of higher grades, to encourage more specialization, and to allow all students some choice of method subjects, so that dead forms of method might be made as few as possible. The system of giving detailed methods to all stimulates, too, a tendency to rigid forms of lesson-giving, and somewhat encourages the idea that there is only one good arrangement of subject matter for a particular lesson, and one good way of giving it. This is, I think, a danger of all method-teaching; but it is much intensified where methods are discussed in great detail.

The actual methods taught in the Normal Schools, and followed out in the connected Model Schools, vary so much as regards both principles and details, that it is almost impossible to report on them as a whole. It is a feature of many of the Normal Schools to cling to old methods, and lines of work of twenty, thirty or forty years ago; while, on the other hand, a few of the Normal Schools I saw--those of Connecticut, the Oswego Normal School, and Colonel Parker’s School, at Englewood, Chicago--seem to be leaders in a campaign which is beginning to revolutionize “Methods” in America.

The educational principle which is effecting this reform is the connection or correlation of studies, a theory the most fully expressed and applied at the Cook County Normal School, Illinois. As a result of this theory, the hard and fast lines between the so-called subjects of study are being broken down. Reading is taught in all the grades through nature study, history and literature; _e.g._, natural objects studied by the children in different grades, or poems in the selected literature for the year, serve as subjects for reading lessons. The children are encouraged to express their ideas orally on these subjects, and the teacher writes their statements on the blackboard, and takes care that the statement is really the expression of an idea in the child’s mind. When various sentences, given by the children, have been connected and arranged, the class reads from the board, and afterwards from printed or type-written copies of what has been written. Thus the children make their own reading books, and need no ordinary reading primers. This method, as adapted to the earliest stages of reading, necessarily implies the learning of script before printed characters, also the learning of words and sentences as wholes, and their necessary association with the thought which they express. So, too, writing and drawing, as modes of expressing thought, are taught in close connection with all other subjects. At New Britain, the teacher of drawing in the Model School is present at all literature lessons, and children are encouraged to illustrate their literature by drawings or paintings. In papers on the “Spontaneous Drawings of Children,” read at the Chicago Educational Conference by Professor Earl Barnes, of Leland Stanford University, California, he showed how much of this illustrative work of children was being used by himself and others in the cause of experimental psychology.

At the Model School connected with the Oswego Normal School, natural history is made the central subject, and reading, writing, and drawing are made to bear upon it. The natural history course, including both plants and animals, is most carefully planned to suit the seasons of the year. As each plant or animal is studied, it is drawn by the children, stories are told about it, the children write about it, read about it, and make it a general object of study for some time. The work is carefully graded for different ages, but the subject or topic of study is the same throughout the school at the same time.

At the Cook County Normal School, Illinois, all the teaching is made to group itself round three subjects--science, geography, history; and these subjects are made to include everything forming the environment of the child. The study of form and number, instead of being followed as separate subjects in themselves, are considered merely as means of studying these three comprehensive subjects--as modes of thinking in fact. Hearing, observing, and reading are regarded as different ways of gaining ideas, and as such, silent reading is encouraged, and many devices are used for helping the child to get quickly and clearly the ideas from the printed or written page. Writing, music, modelling, painting, drawing, speaking, are considered as means of expressing ideas about objects studied--the act of expression making the ideas clearer. Thus, number or arithmetic is taught, not, as is usual, by means of problems specially made and arranged in books of arithmetical examples; but in close connection with any class subject. I heard part of a course of excellent laboratory lessons in Science, given to Summer School Students at this school, and as the methods employed were those of the ordinary Normal School Course, I may mention them here. At the end of each lesson the teacher used the numerical results obtained by individual students, and worked them into arithmetical problems. For example, the subjects used for successive number lessons were as follows:

Conductivity of heat in metals.

Expansion of metals by heat.

Determination of boiling-point of fresh and salt water.

Such a treatment of subjects is a strong protest against routine work and rigid method. It allows great scope to the teacher by concentrating attention on the child and its needs, rather than on the artificial divisions into so-called subjects, and their methods. On the other hand, it puts great responsibility upon the teacher, and taxes his skill to the utmost. There are many difficulties in adopting the plan, one of the chief being the construction of the school time-table. In any case, the practical application of such a system can only be partial, until all teachers are enthusiasts and experts; but the lines of work seem to be true lines, and may be suggestive of much that shall reform some of our own old methods.

PRACTICE IN TEACHING.

It is usual for each Normal School to have attached to it a Model School, which serves the double purpose of model and practising school for students. The head of the Model School and her assistants are experienced teachers, known as the critic teachers, and to the care and supervision of these the students are submitted during their training in practical teaching. All the Normal Schools I saw had such a Model School except the one at Providence, Rhode Island.

The amount of time actually devoted to teaching by each student is different in different States, and the plans by which the required amount is secured for all vary in the different schools.

The State of Pennsylvania requires of its Normal School students actual practice in teaching for one hour a day during three-fourths of the last year of the Course; but students generally do more than this. At Westchester, Pennsylvania, the students go into the Model School in sections of six each morning after 10.30. A new section is chiefly engaged in observing the children, and hearing lessons given by the critic teachers or other students. Later, the students teach, but always under supervision. The subject matter of their lessons is definitely mapped out for them by the critic teacher, and they discuss with her the best ways of treating it. There are no written notes of lessons, and no public criticism of lessons, either by teachers or students. Each week, meetings of teachers and students are held, for the purpose of taking up any points noted during the students’ work of the week. These are really talks supplementary to the ordinary method lectures. At Millersville, Pennsylvania, each student gives two or three lessons every day for a year. She teaches in different grades, and takes lessons in different subjects, and has also practice in managing simultaneously several divisions of one class.

At the Oswego Normal School, under the regulations of the New York State, the student is in the schools only twenty weeks, but during this time she has much responsibility. She spends ten weeks in a primary or elementary grade, and ten weeks in a more advanced grade, and during the whole time is practically responsible for her class. Each afternoon, after the school is dismissed, the teaching class remains for an hour to discuss any points of difficulty with the Head of the Model School.

At Willimantic, Connecticut, the teaching class spends its first four weeks in general observation of children, and hearing lessons. Then each student is placed under the supervision of one special critic teacher, and she continues some of the courses of work already begun by the critic teacher. At least four weeks are spent by each student in every grade in the school, first in observing, then in teaching under the criticism of the class teacher.

The Model School at New Britain, Connecticut, is preserved strictly as a Model School. After observing teacher and class for some time, the student usually gives one trial lesson in the school, but there is no systematic teaching by the student. For the actual independent practice, the student must go to a practising school outside New Britain, and be entirely responsible for a class for four months. At the large practising school in connection with the New Britain Normal School, at South Manchester, I saw students dealing with the actual difficulties of discipline and class-management. Each student was in charge of a large class with different divisions or grades. There were four responsible, experienced teachers for reference in cases of emergency, and for criticism; but each student had her own class, and the school of 700 children was practically managed by students. Such is the general plan of practice-work in the Normal Schools.

Much care is given to the Model Schools. The class-rooms are supplied with all necessary apparatus, and they are bright and airy, and well supplied with flowers and children’s books. It is quite customary in some of the schools to give short periods in school hours for private reading, or to allow one child to read to the other children while they are doing some kind of mechanical work. Much importance is laid upon the observation of the teaching in Model Schools. It is possible, however, that this is insisted on too early in the course; indeed, the hearing of lessons is usually the students’ first work in the school. It would be much more profitable, and there would be less danger of blind imitation, if the student had herself previously gained experience in teaching. As it is, the danger of imitation, and one-sided and narrow lines of teaching is increased by the fact that one student is chiefly under the supervision of one teacher.

At the Worcester Normal School there is no Model or practising School, but the students teach in the public schools of the city. For the first six months of her last year at the Normal School, the student acts as an apprentice or pupil-teacher, serving in at least three grades during this time. Each teacher has the direction of only one student, who may be left in sole charge of the class for hours or days. One day in the week the apprentice-student attends the Normal School, where she shows her class diary for the week, and discusses any difficulties that may have arisen. On that day, too, she takes part in the “Platform Exercises” of the Normal School--viz., exercises in which students speak, read or draw, on the platform, in presence of the whole school. The apprentice-students usually give an account to their fellow-students of anything interesting or helpful in their practical work of the past week.

EXAMINATIONS.

At the end of the Normal School Course, State examinations are held in most of the States. In Pennsylvania each school examines its own students, who, when they have satisfactorily completed the required course of study, and passed the final examination, receive a certificate, and are said “to graduate.” After graduation, they are recommended to the State Examiner, who awards a State-Teaching Certificate valid for two years. At the end of this period, the teacher is required to present to the State Board a certificate of good work from the county Superintendent under whom he or she has taught, and also a certificate from his own school board. He is then entitled to teach in his own State for life. The Normal School students of Connecticut are submitted to State Examination, but in Massachusetts no outside examination is required. Students who work satisfactorily through the course, and pass the final examination, “graduate” at the discretion of the President, or according to results of an examination set by the School Board of the city. The State examination of teachers and most of the final examinations of the Normal Schools are usually in academic subjects only. It is not attempted to test by actual examination the degree of skill in teaching or governing.

SUPPLY OF TEACHERS.

As regards the number of teachers who have been trained in Normal Schools relatively to the number who teach in the Common Schools of the State without previous training, statistics are apt to be misleading, because, in many cases, Normal Students do not take the entire course or “graduate.” Out of 372 students enrolled at New Britain in 1889-1890, only 77 completed the entire course; in 1890-1891, only 61 out of 401 graduated; and in 1891-1892, out of 444 students, only 91 were graduates. For 1888-1889 Framingham shows 30 graduates out of 205 present in the school; Salem shows 129 out of 292; and Bridgewater, 69 out of 232. In all these schools the courses are two, three or four years, and if all the students completed the course, the number of graduates each year would be ½, ⅓, or ¼ respectively of the number of students enrolled. The Report of School Commissioners for 1888-1889 shows that among 75,529 teachers in the Common Schools of Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, New York, New Jersey and Pennsylvania, there were only 1,461 students who completed the Normal School Course in these States. In all the States, arrangements are made for teachers who do not go through the Normal Schools. Certificates of license to teach in the State for a shorter or longer time are granted according to results of the State Certificate Examination. A third-grade certificate, entitling its owner to teach for a short time, may be exchanged for a second-grade certificate, when further proficiency is shown by re-examination. So a second-grade certificate may be exchanged for a life-certificate in many of the States. It should be borne in mind that these examinations are only in school subjects.

The fact that in a State such as Massachusetts the qualifications of teachers in the High and Latin Schools of Boston is stated merely as “Education at some respectable college of good standing,” shows that the necessity for the professional training of teachers for higher or secondary schools is not at present fully recognised. Until the last few years, no Institution especially devoted to the training of secondary teachers existed in the eastern States, and those who wished to prepare themselves for the teaching of the higher branches of subjects had no other means of training than that offered in the Normal Schools. At Worcester and Bridgewater, College and University graduates may take the pedagogical course as special students, and so prepare for teaching in the higher schools. At the Indiana and Illinois Normal Schools, and in other places, there are courses of study chiefly or entirely professional, for college or university graduates, if such present themselves. At Albany, too, where the standard of admission is high, many of the students prepare for work in the secondary schools. On the whole, however, the number of special students preparing for higher work in the Normal Schools is very small. In 1891-1892, the Southern Illinois Normal University had only six special students, the Terre-Haute Normal School, Indiana, only four; and we find in the eastern States generally that the Normal Schools take very little part in the training of secondary teachers. For the most part Normal School students are found only in the lower grades of public schools; and college graduates, even though untrained, are preferred as teachers in High Schools, good private schools and academies.

The reason for this is probably to be found in the nature of the Normal School itself. It, perhaps more than any other educational institution in America, has adhered to its old traditions. It was designed to train teachers for the lower grades of Elementary Schools, and in the early days was prepared to accept the only material at hand--would-be teachers, many of whom possessed few intellectual qualifications, and almost all were inadequately prepared for training. But with rising standards of work, and increased facilities for good preliminary preparation, the Normal School has not yet closed its doors to students whose general attainments do not qualify them to profit by courses in the Science and Art of Teaching. In one or two cases only is the standard of college graduation insisted upon, and in many cases the admission standard is lower than that required to complete the course in a city High School. Hence it results that most of the teaching in High Schools and academies is given into the hands of professionally untrained teachers--college graduates, whose scholarship can be relied upon, but who have no previous technical training, rather than to trained teachers, whose knowledge of the actual subject matter of studies may or may not be thorough. The choice, open to heads of Secondary Schools when appointing assistants, is, moreover, not between good scholarship and good training. Without adequate preparation the training must be inadequate, and in many cases cramping and injurious. On the other hand, it is only after the preliminary preparation has been sound and complete that the work of training can be carried out in the best possible way.

_CITY NORMAL AND TRAINING SCHOOLS._

The existence of State Normal Schools and City Training Schools side by side suggests at once a fact which has an important bearing on educational questions in the United States--viz., the absolute distinction, as regards jurisdiction, between schools outside the limits of a town or city, under the supervision of a State Board and State Superintendent, and schools within the city radius, and under the supervision of a Town or City Superintendent. In educational matters, the city areas are completely exempt from State control. Their schools and training schools are managed by local authorities, and supplied for the most part by local funds. Hence it follows that City Normal and Training Schools show even greater diversity of methods and arrangement than is found in State Normal Schools, for their lines of work and efficiency are entirely dependent upon the respective City Boards of Education. One effect of local school administration is distinctly undesirable. The appointment of the principal of the school by the Educational Board, and the election of that Board by local vote, produces, in many cities, a tendency to display, in order to cull popular favour. The “graduation exercises,” yearly public ceremonies, held in connection with almost all American schools and colleges, consist, in the case of training schools, of various kinds of students’ and children’s exercises, to which the public are invited. Much valuable time is taken by the students in preparing essays to be read and lessons to be given in public; and in some cases the student or teacher conducts an examination of her class in the presence of parents and friends. Several such public exercises I heard, but in all cases it was evident that true results of training, or honest results of teaching, were not demonstrated. The endeavour to impress the audience, besides involving great waste of time, seems likely to create an unconscious dishonesty on the part of teachers, students, and children.

CITY NORMAL SCHOOLS.

The City Normal Schools are the local training schools, maintained by the larger cities for the preparation of their own teachers.

They require as conditions of admission:--

i. Residence in the city.

ii. Satisfactory completion of the high schools course of the city.

iii. Statement of intention to teach in the schools of the city.

To all those who satisfy these conditions, and are eighteen years of age or more, instruction is free, and completion of the professional course entitles the student to become a teacher in any of the Common Schools of the city.

The City Normal Schools of New York and Philadelphia combine the functions of Normal and High Schools, admitting students who do not intend to become teachers to their academic studies, without requiring of them any professional study or practice in teaching. The necessity of extending the function of a Normal School in this way has arisen from the fact that there are no public High Schools for girls in these cities.

At the Normal College of the city of New York there are two separate courses of work:--

i. An academic or classical course of five years.

ii. A normal or training course of four years, with an optional extra
year for specializing in any branch of manual training.

In the normal course, two full years are given to the study of school subjects only. In the third year two hours a week, in the first half of the fourth year six hours a week, and in the last half of the fourth year three hours a week, are given to the study of pedagogy. At the beginning of the fourth year, the Normal students enter the training or practice department connected with the school, and every third week hear and give lessons, and take part in criticisms and discussions on teaching. At the same time, they attend lectures and recitations in English, Latin, modern languages, natural science, drawing and music, chiefly with a view to gaining an insight into the methods of those subjects. The college had in December, 1892, 1,868 students, of whom 460 had belonged to the training department during the year--_i.e._, had observed and actually taught in the training or practising school. As large numbers are engaged in observing and teaching in one practising school, much individual practice in the actual work of teaching is impossible; for although the students are divided into groups for the school work, the groups are necessarily large. It has been found necessary for ninety-two students to be in the practising school at one time, a number too large to allow of much actual teaching being done by any individual student. Only a small part of the twelve hours spent weekly by each student in the practising school is given to teaching. The remaining time is given to hearing lessons and observing children.

I noticed a similar need for more practical work in the Philadelphia Normal School. Here, as in the New York Normal College, much purely academic work is done, and very little importance is given to actual school-room practice. Students are divided into six sections, each group containing about fifty. A whole division goes into the practising school at one time, and stays there for two weeks only. The remaining thirty-eight weeks of the last school year are entirely devoted to the study of pedagogical subjects, psychological methods and drawing. Kindergarten work is compulsory to all during the last year. The two weeks which each student spends in the schools are chiefly employed in hearing lessons, and observing children and teachers. Only two days in the whole course are spent in actual teaching. This arrangement of work and distribution of time in the Philadelphia Normal School is seen by the city school authorities to be far from satisfactory, and a scheme has been made out for a thorough revision of the course. The present school, which is inadequate for purposes of training, is to be made into a public High School for girls, and a new Normal School is to be built, in which three years are to be devoted to academic, and two years to professional work; but the two parts are to be kept entirely distinct. The training course is to consist of elementary and advanced sections, and much more time is to be given to actual teaching.

The examinations of the City Normal Schools are usually conducted by the faculties of the schools, under the supervision of sub-committees of the Board of Public Education of the city. In the Philadelphia School, a certificate is awarded by a “Committee on the Qualification of Teachers” for a general average of 85 per cent. on two examinations.

i. In academical subjects, at end of three years.

ii. In professional subjects, at the end of four years.

An average of 85 per cent. on the teaching in the school of practice is also required. Two certificates are awarded for lower averages of marks on work of the course, viz.:

An “Assistant’s Certificate” for average of 70 per cent., and a
“Trial Certificate” for less than an average of 70 per cent. on work
in the school of practice. Such a “Trial Certificate” is for one year
only. If, at the end of that time, the teaching shall be reported
as satisfactory by the Superintendent of the Schools, the “Trial
Certificate” may be exchanged for an “Assistant’s Certificate.”

CITY TRAINING SCHOOLS.

The City Training Schools are purely professional institutions. They admit only graduates of High Schools of the city, and give them a course of one or two years in theory and practice of teaching. The amount of time given to theory varies a good deal in the different cities. Practice in teaching is usually gained in a practising school well equipped with good teachers, who help and guide the students in their work. In some instances, however, students gain their experience by teaching under supervision, in the schools of the city.

Emphasis of the practical side of the teacher’s work seems to be a good feature of the training schools generally. In all the City Training Schools which I visited much opportunity was given for actual teaching, and for practically dealing with the problems of discipline and organization in the school-room. Such opportunities are multiplied by the system of substitute service, which seems to be organized in most of the cities of the United States. Students of the training schools, during the latter part of their course, are registered on a substitute list, and may be called to supply the place of teachers temporarily absent from the Common Schools. Responsibility taken for a week, or even a day, is excellent training for future teachers, and in cases where permanent vacancies occur the student who has shown herself capable in such an emergency is often appointed to the post.

Among the largest and most successful of the City Training Schools is the Boston Normal and Rice Training School. This, although a City Normal School by name, differs in many respects from the City Normal Schools of New York and Philadelphia. Its work is strictly professional, and seems to correspond rather with the Training Schools of other cities than with those known as Normal Schools. The Rice Training School offers an ordinary course of two years, and an advanced course for further professional work. The practising school in the same building gives the opportunity to the students of teaching and observing children, and beyond this the “Supervisors of Public Instruction” in the city have made arrangements for allowing the students to watch and teach in some of the best Primary and Grammar Schools of Boston. Completion of the Boston High School course, or college graduation, exempts from the entrance examination of the school.

Theoretical instruction in pedagogical subjects is given in the morning, teaching in the practising school occupies the afternoon hours. Psychology is taken almost every day throughout the course. Theory of the kindergarten is studied in the second term, and logic in the third. The history of education is also taken in outline.

“Methods” of subjects are taught in great detail, and on the same lines as in the State Normal Schools--viz., by means of lessons in the various subjects given to the students themselves. I heard a very interesting lesson in methods of arithmetic. A class of twenty girls were, by very skilful questioning, made to thoroughly discuss the process of simple addition, and also the methods of teaching children to realize numbers greater than ten. I heard, too, very skilful teaching in methods of English--viz., a literature lesson, and a first lesson in English composition. In the literature lesson, the teacher first reminded her pupils of the various poems and prose selections studied during the term. After having given short explanations, she read selections from other authors. Then the students were asked if these new selections reminded them of any parts in the poems already studied, and when the suggested parts had been quoted, the class was set to discover whether the similarity was in the subject matter, the underlying thought or the mode of expression. Many suggestions were given by the class, and much interest was aroused. The lesson was a most helpful illustration of how a teacher should stimulate her class, and how she should use her materials for the purpose of training. The study of methods of training occupies a prominent place in the curriculum of the school, and includes special work in illustrative drawing on the blackboard in connection with the teaching of geography, and the drawing of plants and animals. As part of the course on gymnastics, each student, besides studying the theory and doing daily drill, must act for one term as leader and teacher of drill, and must criticise drill lessons.

Practical work in the schools is arranged for each term. In the first half-year, the students’ work in the training school consists chiefly in observing methods of teaching, and hearing lessons, under the guidance of the critic teacher. She does not begin to teach in the school until the second term, two weeks of which she spends in a primary grade, and two weeks in a higher or grammar grade. In the third term she spends eight weeks in the schools, and in the fourth term four weeks. It is usual for each student, while in the schools, to give two or three lessons every day, under the supervision of the class teacher with whom she is placed. The teacher criticises and suggests in all cases. In the advanced course, students take up a further study of the principles of education. They also study the history of education, give more time to actual teaching in the schools, and act as substitutes in the city schools.

In addition to the Boston Training School, there are fourteen city training schools in the State of Massachusetts. In all these the time of training is fixed from one to two years; admission is by the High School graduation certificate, or an equivalent entrance examination, and is only at fixed annual times; a school is attached for practice, and the teacher at its head conducts the training class.

At the Springfield Training School the course may be extended to two years. A little academic work is done in science during the first term. Methods are treated of by means of lectures and discussions, and these, with organized observation of children and a few criticism lessons, constitute the practical work from September until Christmas. At Christmas, systematic psychology begins, and also teaching in the schools for one hour a day. The subjects of the lessons are chosen by the critic teacher, and the teaching is in all cases under supervision. At Easter the student begins to teach three hours a day, and occasionally has to give lessons in public. These, however, are not considered as test-lessons. Certificates to teach in the schools of the city are granted on the results of an examination, held by the City Board of Education each year.

At Newhaven, Connecticut, the City Training School has more than thirty students. The course is a year in length, the first half of which is devoted entirely to theoretical subjects, and the last half to teaching. Here, as at the Worcester Normal School, I found students being introduced to methods of psychological experimentation, more especially in the senses of sight and hearing. It is interesting to notice that these are special lines of research in the psychological laboratory of Yale University. I saw the records of several students who had been finding the average voice pitch of thirty children. The tendency in all the psychological teaching here was to make the subject really experimental, and the results those of actual observation. The history of education is not taught by means of set lectures, but topics are announced from time to time, with references for the students’ reading. After the class has collected facts on a certain subject, the teacher supplements the facts already given by selections from other books, and references to other parts of the subject. In treating the history of education in each country, general chronological order is followed, and the facts of each period are studied under four heads:

Religion, social and political movements; extent of education;
character of education; methods of education.