and the history of art much remains to be accomplished in bringing the work up to the cultural and disciplinary efficiency they inherently possess when pedagogically developed. No adequate treatment exists on the study of pictures for children. Selection and sequence in picture study and in the history of art through the study of masterpieces are as important as are selection and sequence in the study of literature. Material offered to children in the grades in art study is often in violation of every law of child development. For music and the history of music the same may be said. Results are not commensurate with the time spent, neither quantitatively nor qualitatively.

A new era in the study of music has begun, or is about to begin, in the elementary school. That experiment counts for much, that the same great principles in the historical study of all other subjects apply equally pedagogic in the history of music, was most profoundly impressed upon me the other Friday afternoon. For one hour the children of the fourth, fifth and sixth grades sat with the tenseness of childish interest as their teacher skillfully told them the story of Parsifal, and an accompanist of feeling as well as technical excellence played occasional motives from the score in their proper settings. It was an experiment entered into with fear and trembling, but with a profound hope. The children had been studying the stories of Sir Galahad and Sir Launfal, and this, with Christmas the following Sunday, fixed the occasion. The children appreciated the story, and they appreciated and felt the music. The hope was realized. Music shall be taught through its masterpieces in the grades as well as in the conservatories. Parsifal is possibly a dangerous and extreme illustration for grade experimentation. But when it succeeds so splendidly, we are filled with hope for those productions more appropriate to child nature and child interest. From Wagner, the Ring of the Nibelungs and the Master-Singers of Nuremburg, the Pastoral Symphony of Beethoven, the Magic Flute and others of the mystic, fantastic journeys to fairyland of Mozart-these and all the other great possibilities will, when tested and evaluated, furnish material in music study as valuable as the

masterpieces of literature in the study of English. The order of development of interest of children in music study is an open field and an inviting one. For the study of music of most worth to teachers, the music supervisor must work hand in hand with the supervisors of training in the grades, and both must attack the problem from the child's view point and progress in its solution by the experimental method.

But need I enumerate the subjects of the curriculum with some of the problems of each? Is it necessary to emphasize the presence of the most difficult problems in nature study in securing harmony between the actual work and the needs and interests of the child-in English, in taking the interest and capacity of the child rather than that of the adult as the basis of selection and teaching of subject-matter, in developing the ability to teach the correct use and the appreciation of spoken and written English, rather than to attempt a study of the philosophy of English in the grades—in history, the need of vitalizing the work with the spirit of its usefulness, its power, its moral significance for the present, its development as an evolution rather than a chronological sequence of isolated events belonging to an unrelated past? All these but emphasize the fundamental differences between the point of view in the academic study of a subject, and its professional study. Following the academic study of each subject, the logical organization of its content, preparation for teaching that subject necessitates a study of its psychology, its bearings upon human life, its place in the enrichment of the child's experience, its influence in the development of the child's larger self. But a mere beginning has been made in the discovery and development of these vital relationships between the subject-matter of the curriculum and the life interests and ideals of the child. Further discovery, organization and development of these relationships will constitute productive contributions whose significance for human welfare is not inferior to the discovery of a new micro-organism, or the invention of a new mechanical device.

It seems, then, that the most vital problems of the normal school to-day are the problems of each of its several depart

ments with the child's development as the focal point of all. A career awaits the teacher of every branch of the curriculum who will consistently enter into the professional development of his special subject. Thorough academic training, and a broad, general knowledge of psychology and child development, of educational history, of current pedagogic theory and practice, and of contemporary social and sociological ideals are essential prerequisites of this type of investigation, prerequisites which may be reasonably demanded for eligibility to any normal school position. The highest purpose of the normal school is reached only through those teachers who have a living, professional interest in their special subjects, teachers who attempt to psychologize their subject-matter, whose professional work centers upon the mental reaction of the pupil, and not so much upon the architecture of the subject-matter itself. Investigation work cannot wisely be separated from immediate teaching interests. As such work becomes remote from the regularly pursued work of the teacher, in just so far will the values of results be remote from his teaching interests.

Legitimate research work by the teacher promotes his teaching efficiency. It has also been observed by Commissioner Draper, of New York, that "The best teachers are likely to be the best searchers." In investigation in problems of pedagogics, this is emphatically true. But the investigator must be a broad gauge teacher, as has been emphasized above. One of the most regrettable features of our normal school life in the past has been the narrowness and self-satisfied indifference of many normal school teachers. There are a few notable exceptions, traceable to some great broadening influence which finds fertile soil in the responsive ambition of one or more teachers in a given school. A striking example of this is the normal school at Normal, Illinois, which Charles De Garmo believes to have been profoundly influenced by the Philosophy Club, established by George P. Brown, in Bloomington, a short way from Normal, two decades ago. Many of the faculty became members of the club," he says. "It brought into the school an element that had always been lacking. It roused the whole faculty out of the dogmatic slumber of which I have

66

spoken. Its effects was immediate and permanent on the whole body of teachers and students." While the spirit born of this attitude may not have been very largely responsible for it, it is at least a suggestive coincidence, that since its birth the names of John W. Cook, Frank and Charles McMurry, Charles De Garmo and C. C. Van Liew, all sometime teachers in this school, have become known throughout our country because of their large contributions to pedagogic progress. Almost a decade ago, Dr. Richard G. Boone voiced this sentiment of progressiveness before the normal school department of the National Association. "An institution's board of control can do no more effective service for its students than to make it easy for every teacher to carry on related studies for himself parallel with his teaching. It is, perhaps, true as has been said, that 'only investigators can be or are great teachers.' . . . Before applying for admission to any normal school, a young teacher has a right to ask: What are the instructors doing for themselves and their profession? What are they contributing to pedagogical insights? Are they informed as to what is doing in the profession elsewhere? Are they moving along and upward, and do they carry their classes with them? If their own lives are becoming daily and yearly richer, their teaching will probably show a corresponding improvement, and the students will profit by the freshness and vigor of the leadership."

It is not infrequently charged that normal school graduates seem to lack ambition and cease to grow on entering the actual field of their work. Growth subsequent to graduation cannot be assured unless the preparation for that growth is established in the normal school itself. In any of the problems taken up by the departmental teacher the student teacher or observer may not only aid materially in their solution, but will, thereby, develop a knowledge of the method, an enthusiasm in the line of study, a spirit of initiative, an added efficiency as a teacher, and a love for his work that cannot fail to bear fruit in future progressiveness. My own experience with students and teachers leads me to affirm without hesitation that that teacher who has had training in the systematic and methodic attack of problems

consistent with his ability and environment is markedly superior in fostering the growth and development of children to that one who has not.

The great need is the study of the child and the study of the subjects of the curriculum from the child's view point. Before the classics, in literature, in art or in music come to be of maximum value in the grades, they must be organized and presented from the basis of the child's plane of interest, capacity and appreciation; history must be seen in true, pedagogic perspective; number work must be stripped of its traditional pretense to superior pan-psychic disciplinary power, and its content, both in kind and quantity, must be arranged in harmony with the child's interest and capacity and with contemporary needs; geography must become a study of topographic, physiographic, industrial, commercial and political features of the earth as related to the life interests of humanity as they now are and as they have developed. All the subjects of the elementary curriculum must be thus quickened with the spirit of interest, adapted to the ever-changing needs of the developing child, and evaluated in harmony with contemporary life and culture. And all these problems belong legitimately to the normal school as the exponent of the best and most progressive thought in elementary education. Next year a Middle Western university hopes to secure control of a ward school of eight grades and a high school of the system of the city of its location as schools of observation and practice. If such a plan comprehends the full development of a school of education, or of a combined normal school and normal college, with supervisors of grade work and a director of practice who are experts in elementary education, a successful attack and solution of some of the problems of elementary education may be accomplished. But, if I judge rightly, much will have to be done in developing a proper attitude and interest in the university student. His interests in subject-matter are intensive and consuming. The problems of the elementary school are too remote to be of the necessary vital interest to their adequate solution. He cannot realize fully the situation. He cannot appreciate the need of the intimate, prolonged and intensive observation