TRAINING OF TEACHERS IN FRANCE 181 



ship, their knowledge of teaching often remains limited to the meager 

 qualifications required for a certificate of fitness. They have more 

 practice but no more professional knowledge than their assistants. 

 This is an argument which the opponents of directors and the principle 

 of supervision never fail to urge against it. 



In like manner the professors in the normal school rest contented, 

 or at least may do so, with the inadequate knowledge of pedagogy 

 required to pass their examinations. If many of their number are 

 solicitous about the progress of pedagogical studies there is nothing 

 obligatory about the matter, nothing even to inspire interest in it. 

 They teach literature and science to our future instructors without 

 being obliged to keep in touch with new methods of instruction. If 

 they are not ambitious of becoming primary inspectors they may 

 lose all interest in the science of teaching. The director, on whom 

 devolves the teaching of pedagogy, has shown his ability by passing 

 an examination for his position, but the practical part of this instruc- 

 tion belongs also to the director of the training-school, and he is 

 under no obligation to devote himself to any special study of the art 

 of teaching. 



Finally, is it not clear that our primary inspectors, and even our 

 normal school directors, are too deeply engrossed in their adminis- 

 trative duties, too fully occupied by the purely practical part of their 

 work, to devote to the study of pedagogy the attention which it 

 deserves, or which they might be willing to give it? How many of 

 them have the time or the means to keep informed on what is going 

 on in other countries? 



B. Plans for Reform 



It seems then necessary in certain cases, useful in all, to broaden 

 the professional training of our primary teachers. The influence of 

 some would be better assured thereby, the initiative of all quickened 

 and made productive. What is it expedient to do, and how shall it 

 be done, without overstepping the bounds of moderation, without 

 falling into the pedantry of pedagogy? Place must be found at the 

 same time for the philosophy of education and for some positive 

 knowledge of school hygiene, child psychology, the history of peda- 

 gogy, and its development in other countries. The interest and 

 critical spirit of teachers of every grade must be aroused on educa- 

 tional questions. A plan looking to the reorganization of our normal 

 schools, presented by the Minister of Education to the Parliamentary 

 Education Commission, has already been tried in a score of schools, 

 at Lyons in particular. Its general adoption seems to be in the 

 not distant future. Its essential features are as follows: General 

 training and professional training are clearly distinguished, almost 



