''CONFESSIONS'' OF A TEACHER. 623 



As we mingle freely and on equal terms with our friends 

 and kinsfolk and acquaintance who are among the Ph. D.'s and 

 LL.D.'s and D. D.'s of scholarly fame, and also with the younger 

 sisterhood of educated women who are wearing recent college 

 honors, we are sensible of no feeling of abashed inferiority, as 

 though in the presence of things too high for us ; nor do the 

 attainments of these scholars, which we appreciate and greatly 

 rejoice in, seem to dwarf in any degree the apparently equally 

 valuable powers of many another friend whose mental acquire- 

 ments have been gained in some widely different course of train- 

 ing in the great university of American life. 



But there is something in the experience of that high- school 

 teacher with the agencies which raises a query as to the relations 

 of the high schools to the educational status of the modern age. 

 If there is one point that seems fully proved by the educational 

 progress of the last half century it is that kindergarten and pri- 

 mary-school teachers need professional training for their work. 

 The time was, and not so very long ago, when it was thought 

 that any one with a common-school education could teach little 

 children. But it seems a far cry back to that position to-day. 



Is it, then, true that the high school is the only part of our 

 public-school system in which the teacher does not need to be a 

 student of pedagogical science, to be in sympathetic and intelli- 

 gent touch with modern school methods, and to have gained a 

 degree of tried skill through supervised schoolroom experience 

 before being placed in full charge of schoolroom work ? This 

 would indeed be passing strange. One would suppose that the 

 high-school teacher must need for his equipment an intelligent 

 understanding of the methods and plans of the lower schools 

 from the kindergarten up, with some added study of the special 

 needs of high schools a more comprehensive rather than a shorter 

 course of professional training. If not, then will some one tell 

 us why not ? 



The question is not whether the high- school teacher should 

 have a broad and thorough scholarship. That "goes without say- 

 ing." And if it be said that the best place to gain this scholar- 

 ship is within the walls of a good college, we of the normal school 

 have no desire to challenge the assertion. But, given all that 

 scholarship, all that native ability can do, the idea that high- 

 school teachers have less need than primary teachers to profes- 

 sionalize their work is a baseless assumption which is certain to 

 be undermined sooner or later by the tide of educational progress. 

 It is not hard to predict that the near future will require of the 

 would-be high-school teacher as much of scholarship as the col- 

 lege gives, and as much professional equipment as is given by the 

 normal schools in their best and longest courses. 



