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POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY 



high schools with a little pedagogy thrown in. The majority of them 

 remain the same to this day. There is a strong movement, however, 

 toward purely professional schools to which no student who has not 

 had a reasonably liberal education is admitted, and in which he shall 

 devote his entire time to learning how to teach— how to observe, under- 

 stand and exercise children both mentally and physically. Welcome 

 and necessary as this movement is, if all teachers are to train for 

 efficiency, we are still far from precise scientific notions as to the best 

 methods of training teachers. I commend this subject to the National 

 Council as one of the next investigations it should undertake. 



To secure training for efficiency, the conditions of teaching must 

 be such that each teacher shall be able to do his best work. By com- 

 mon consent one of these conditions is that teachers shall not be sub- 

 jected to the ignominy of seeking political or other influence, or 

 cringing for the favor of any man, in order to secure appointment or 

 promotion. During the past year, two events have occurred which 

 seem to be full of promise for the establishment of this condition. 

 The public school teachers of Philadelphia have been freed from the 

 bondage to ward politicians in which they were held for well nigh a 

 century; and the one-man power, beneficent as such a system proved 

 under a Draper and a Jones in Cleveland, has been supplanted by 

 a seemingly more rational system. Independence of thought and 

 freedom of initiative are necessary to the teachers of a nation whose 

 stability and welfare as a republic depend upon the independence, the 

 intelligence and the free initiative of its citizens. Independence of 

 thought and freedom of initiative may be throttled by bad laws, but 

 under the best of laws they will be maintained only by the teachers 

 themselves. By making it unprofessional to seek appointment or pro- 

 motion through social, religious or political influence, the teachers of 

 this country have it in their power to establish one of the most essen- 

 tial conditions of education for efficiency. 



Under the conditions that confront us, particularly in the large 

 cities, with the rapid increase and constant migration of our home 

 population, with the influx of vast hordes of people from abroad, 

 alien in language, alien in modes of thought, and alien in tradition, 

 the character of our elementary work is undergoing a profound trans- 

 formation. We are beginning to see that every school should be a 

 model of good housekeeping and a model of good government through 

 cooperative management. What more may the schools do ? They can 

 provide knowledge and intellectual entertainment for adults as well 

 as for children. They can keep their doors open summer as well as 

 winter, evening as well as morning. They can make all welcome for 

 reading, for instruction, for social intercourse, and for recreation. 

 But I for one believe they may do still more. When I look upon the 

 anemic faces and undeveloped bodies that mark so many of the children 



