trafton] MATTER VERSUS METHOD 399 



is the foundation of all teaching. When the amount of subject 

 has been acquired, to what shall attention then be given, to the 

 method of teaching this, to more subject matter, or to both? The 

 writer believes that the teaching of method is the next most 

 important step and that special attention should be given to this, 

 and that no course dealing with the common school subjects should 

 devote the entire time to subject matter to the utter neglect of 

 method. Teaching of method is the professional phase that 

 differentiates the Normal School from other schools. Without 

 this, the Normal School fails to be distinguished from High 

 Schools and Colleges. 



These three fields are quite distinct: a person may be pro- 

 ficient in any two and yet lacking in the third, so that the Normal 

 School must give its attention consciously and distinctly to each of 

 these three fields and cannot assume that it can teach two of them, 

 and that somehow the other will also be acquired. For example, it 

 cannot be assumed, as it is often done, that if the Normal student 

 is thoroly grounded in subject matter, she will in some way absorb 

 the method of teaching it. Frequently the person with the 

 greatest mastery of subject matter fails as a teacher. 



It is sometimes assumed that the method used by the teacher in 

 his class room will be copied by his students when they come to 

 teach. Unfortunately this is exactly what is too often done, unless 

 the students are taught better, and as a result, failure follows 

 because the methods used for teaching young men and women in 

 the Normal School cannot be used with young children in the 

 elementary schools. 



The method of teaching a subject is the most difficult and 

 technical phase for the student teacher to acquire. Teaching the 

 method is the special reason for the existence of the Normal 

 School. It is the professional phase of the school that differen- 

 tiates it from other schools. A Normal School that fails to teach 

 this phase ceases to be a Normal School. It is generally recog- 

 nized that the Normal School as a whole must teach its students 

 how to teach, and it is equally true of each course given in the 

 Normal School, that deals with common school branches, that it 

 should teach the special method of its particular subject. The 

 teaching of method is really the application of subject matter 

 from the professional standpoint. 



