TRAINING COLLEGE TEACHERS 591 



tion. The doctorate has always stood for original work, discovery, 

 scientific attainment. It has generally been assumed that these 

 virtues are superior to those demanded of the man who at once imparts 

 knowledge of a special sort and shows to growing minds its wider bear- 

 ings for the building of character and the perfection of culture. This 

 is, nevertheless, pure superstition; the sooner we smash it, the sooner 

 will business and professional men cease to look down upon teaching, 

 and the sooner have no ground for saying that the academic career 

 attracts inferior men. Let us frankly rate teaching as a specialty on 

 a par with those now pursued in graduate schools; it will prove not 

 only just but, I think, excellent diplomacy. 



2. The candidate for such a degree shall specialize in some general 

 subject. His first year shall include the elements of teaching (if these 

 have not been mastered in undergraduate courses), and also as much 

 special drill in the pedagogy of his elected field as is feasible. If the 

 university can not offer the latter, an arrangement might be made 

 whereby the student could spend his first year at an institution where 

 the work is provided. There is no reason, though, why, after the 

 proposed system is inaugurated, one professor from each of the fresh- 

 man and sophomore departments could not find time to offer such work. 



3. "Wlien, in the second year, the student becomes a teacher in the 

 department of his choice, be shall be assigned to full teaching work. 

 Perhaps an ideal apportionment would be two freshman and two sopho- 

 more sections of fifteen students each in three-hour courses, making 

 a total of twelve hours' classwork a week. Half this amount might 

 be preferable in the first semester of teaching. At least one professor 

 in the department shall devote part of his time to supervising the 

 student-teachers. He shall visit the sections as often as he deems 

 necessary. He shall question the student-teachers about the individual 

 men in their classes and their difficulties. At the close of each semester, 

 he shall examine the sections himself ; and his marking shall be counted 

 in upon the term marking both of students and their student-teacher 

 on some equitable fractional basis. (For instance, the supervisor's 

 markings might weigh equally with the term markings of the student- 

 teacher against the student; and the supervisor's average marking of 

 the class might weigh equally with the student-teacher's individual 

 knowledge of his subject in the computation of the student-teacher's 

 total efficiency. These proportions are, of course, merely illustrative.) 



4. The student-teacher shall be required to attend no classes in 

 his last two years of work; but, he may have the privilege of so doing; 

 if, in the opinion of the department, he will profit thereby. In 

 general, however, the policy of the department should be to encourage 

 wide reading, not only in his specialty but in cognate branches, the 

 aim always being to give him his bearings in the world and make him 



