Devoted to the Science, Art, Philosophy and Literature

THOS. A. HILLYER, PRESIDENT STATE NORMAL SCHOOL, MAYVILLE, N. D.

T

HE purpose of this article is to consider a few things in connection with the training department in those state normal schools which have so-called model schools as a part of their organization.

SCOPE

Nearly everywhere the training department includes only the model school and its management,

and the immediate supervision of practice teachers, unless, also, a little teaching of general pedagogy. It ought to include every piece of work done within the normal school as a whole which is distinctly professional; that is, which is not concerned with the teaching of mere subject-matter, but which deals only with the ends, the means and the method of education. All the different pieces of professional work, whether theoretical or practical, ought to be brought within a single, closely organized, general department, where of course, each might have the recognition of constituting a department, but only a subordinate and not an independent one. This general department is what the training department ought to be. With the training department so constituted, the practical work would be much more wisely supplemented by the theoretical, than it can possibly be with the different parts of the professional work broken up and scattered about as they usually are.

The disadvantage of having professional work done outside of the training department may be well illustrated in the case of special method. It is certainly a safe principle that special method in any subject can best be taught and learned when both teacher and student are immediately associated with the teaching of children. But it is often handled when teacher and student are isolated from the model school, and frequently when the teacher not only does not have, but has never had, teaching contact with children. Special method when taught in such isolation from the actual handling of children, and especially when taught by a teacher who for lack of experience with children in the schoolroom has little knowledge of them and is out of sympathy with them, is very likely to be at best logical, but unpsychological, unpedagogical, and consequently impractical and useless in actual teaching. Those best situated to teach special method are the immediate supervisors of the teaching in the model school, who of necessity deal with the various subjects, not in etherial and ascetic fashion, but as they are actually taught to children. Perhaps no single thing has contributed more to bring normal schools into disrepute and to lend a bloated and bigoted meaning to the word professional, than the unnecessary and pedantic haggling over nonessentials in special method classes. If no other professional work not already there could be put into the training department, surely all work in special method because of its immediate importance should be put there. It would follow that in the light of every-day practical teaching conditions, most of the horde of non-essentials and fallacies characteristic of the isolated special method would drop out, while what is really valuable could be seen much more clearly and taught much more effectively.

In distinguishing the professional from the academic work of the normal school, the line ought to be drawn between and not through different pieces of work. That is, any subject ought to be treated in either an academic or a professional way. This is true because the academic attitude toward a subject is essentially different from the professional. In the academic attitude the purpose of the student is to acquire the

subject, to make himself familiar with its inner facts and relations, and its relations to other fields of knowledge. In the professional attitude he reflects upon the what, the why, and the how of the subject as it figures in the process of education. This attitude assumes what it is the aim of the academic to acquire. Many a subject which might otherwise be skillfully handled as either an academic or a professional subject becomes neither, because the teacher does not distinguish these attitudes and hold her students continuously, not to both, but to the one or the other.

As far as the place of the training department in the typical state normal school is concerned two things may be said: First, the department ought to include all phases of the professional work, whether theoretical or practical, so that they might be brought into system and unity; and second, the line limiting the department's scope ought to pass between and not through distinct pieces of work, so that it might not happen that a given piece should lose character by being diffused into both the academic and the professional channels.

THE MODEL SCHOOL PROGRAM

A readjustment between the department and the rest of the school is often needed, in order that the best model school program may be maintained. The readjustment is required at two points: first, at that of the so-called special subjectsmusic, drawing, manual training, writing, etc.; and second, at that of the assignment of practice teachers to their work. With reference to the special subjects, the rule in most normal schools is that such subjects are taught in the model school, not by members of the training department faculty, nor by practice teachers, but by the teachers of those subjects in the normal department, and at such times as they are at liberty after work in their own departments is assigned. This makes it uncertain from term to term as to what time of the day these subjects may be taught in the model school. This necessitates, of course, a continual shifting from one part of the day to another of other model school work to make places for these wandering subjects. Then in the assignment of practice teachers the model school meets the second condition, which decidedly mars its program.

From term to term continual shifts of subjects from one part of the day to another must be made in order that practice teachers not free to teach at any part of the day may be given the opportunities best suited to them individually, and that they may come into contact with the greatest possible variety of the model school life.

The net result of this situation, which makes it necessary for the training department to wait upon the program of the normal department before it can proceed with its own for both children and practice teachers, is a kaleidoscopic change of the model school program, which is in little harmony with sound education. Where the model school program is obliged to shape and reshape itself to meet inhibiting conditions of adjustment to the rest of the school, it is only an accident, if the program at any time turns out to be as good as it might be away from such conditions; and it is nearly always necessary to preach to practice teachers what cannot be practiced in the making out of a school program.

In such a situation there are no important principles of program making which can be followed. To determine what the program shall be as far as mere time arrangement is concerned, one might almost as well toss the elements up into the air, and take the arrangement that comes down, as to pursue any other method. Nobody believes nowadays that a school program, especially one for children, can be wisely made out in any way; that it doesn't matter whether a given subject comes in the forenoon or the afternoon, before or after a play period, three or five times a week, interruptedly or continuously, when less often than five times; whether the sessions, forenoon or afternoon, or for the whole day, are of one length or another, etc., etc. Everybody knows that such things are of great importance in a school program, and would judge a supervisor who didn't consider them as ignorant or neglectful.

Two things ought to be done in every normal school having a training department, as here considered. The special subjects, as far as they are taught in the model school, should be handed over, as are all other subjects, to those who are in immediate charge of the training department, and who do not

have conflicting work elsewhere. And the normal department program ought to be so made out that every practice teacher having other work might have an alternative of period at which to do that work, and thus be free for assignment in the model school at any time of the day. With these things done, the training department would be freed from the greatest restriction upon its own organization and administration.

With this alternative of period in the normal department would go another distinctly good result besides that of relieving the model school of unfortunate shifts of program. Since each practice teacher could then be assigned to any part of the model school day, all the teaching opportunities of the training department could easily be used, if needed. Where there isn't sufficient alternative of period in the normal department, it frequently happens that practice teachers are barred by the program in that department from teaching during certain parts of the model school day. They are then obliged to teach at other times. This condition, since the practice teachers are generally doing the same work in the normal department, often prevents anything like an equal distribution of them among the different model school periods. Occasionally it happens that none can be assigned to a given period, and the teaching facilities of that period lie unused. It is then necessary to make extra assignments at other periods, and the result is often an undesirable congestion of teachers, accompanied by an unfortunate whittling of classes up into divisions far too small to put a teacher to a fair test, or to illustrate public school conditions. Where the model school is small, and the number of practice teachers large, it is especially necessary that the training department and the rest of the school be so adjusted as to enable the department to make use of all its facilities. A complete alternation of period in the normal department would secure this result.

DUTIES OF PRACTICE TEACHERS

What shall the training department require of its practice teachers? The traditional requirement is teaching a class of children for a single recitation period each day during a specified time. To this are added plan-writing and attending