184 THE UNIVERSITY 



to enumerate in America. If the schools at St. Cloud and Fontenay 

 are to be abolished, we must fully replace all their excellent qualities 

 by creating in the universities something of the same spirit that has 

 animated these two institutions. This solution of the question is 

 quite possible, even desirable, provided pedagogical institutions 

 are organized into which would be brought together, without loss of 

 individuality, however, all of our students of pedagogy as well as all 

 of our future teachers of primary or secondary schools. On this 

 condition the new organization would be quite superior to the present 

 system. 



In any event it is indispensable that in the future our teachers 

 should receive, in schools or elsewhere, better instruction in the art of 

 teaching, in accordance with the programme which I have indicated, 

 and that they should have more practice in the actual work of teach- 

 ing. This is the underlying idea of a new plan, still under discussion, 

 to separate, as in the normal schools, general culture and professional 

 training. The former would be intrusted to the various universities; 

 the latter, covering a period of a year, would be given to St. Cloud 

 and Fontenay, which would become exclusively pedagogical. Under 

 the new scheme normal school professors will play an important part 

 in the management of teaching. Under the present system they 

 have no preparation for this duty. In the case of the students of 

 St. Cloud at least, they may never have taught in a primary school. 

 Their professional preparation should evidently be adapted to their 

 future work. 



In regard to primary school principals, the question has already 

 been agitated of requiring of them a new certificate of fitness and 

 professional skill. 1 This would constitute a sort of teacher's degree 

 similar to that granted by the University of Chicago; it might con- 

 sist of the diploma established by the Lyons Faculty of Letters for 

 advanced pedagogical study, or perhaps better still of a similar 

 diploma cut down in its requirements and adapted to the purposes of 

 the primary school. The general principle of an increase in the 

 number of examinations is undesirable and burdensome, but this 

 examination has come to be a necessity. The requirements for such 

 a diploma as I have described allot a generous share to individual 

 and original work. In fact, in addition to practical exercises and 

 an examination on various pedagogical subjects, it calls for the writ- 

 ing of a dissertation on some topic left, subject to his professor's 

 approval, to the candidate's own choice. In this way there would 

 be some certainty that a principal would be able to show his assistants 

 how the most elementary question of practice is the concrete expres- 

 sion of some general theory, and, conversely, how theoretical ideas 

 find their expression in familiar processes. 



1 In Paris, already, by reason of the large number of candidates for such posi- 

 tions, an examination has just been instituted. 



