PAPERS ON GEOLOGY .\ND GEOGR.\PHY 229 



THE RELATION OF THE SECONDARY SCHOOL 

 TEACHER TO THE RESEARCH WORKER 



Miss Marion Sykes 

 BowEN High School, Chicago 



Obviously the secondary school teacher is dependent on 

 the research worker for new developments in his subject. 

 This fact is so evident that it needs hardly to be mentioned. 

 A person who finds secondary school work worth while at 

 all discovers that his interest is first of all in the young 

 people with whom he deals, not so much in his subject. He 

 is teaching boys and girls, not Latin, or Mathematics, or 

 English, or Geography. If he would, he has little time for 

 investigation. In the large secondary schools, a teacher 

 meets from one hundred to two hundred fifty pupils in his 

 classes every day. Not many teachers meet so few as one 

 hundred pupils. So his dependence on the research \\^rker 

 for new light on his subject is very real. 



The research worker is the instructor in the Normal 

 School, College, or Universitj^ where the secondary school 

 teacher is prepared for his work. The point of view in 

 these classes is so often that of the specialist, that the re- 

 adjustment of the young person who goes into secondary 

 school teaching is often difficult and long. His college in- 

 structors were specialists whose interests were in the sub- 

 ject, and the young teacher carries into his new work some- 

 thing of the same attitude, only to find that a readjustment 

 is necessary if he is to succeed. We hear a great deal of 

 the poor preparation of high school teachers and their lack 

 of training in their particular subjects. There is undoubt- 

 edly cause for this criticism. But the secondary school 

 teacher may be too much of a specialist. Often much 

 serious difficulty occurs because the methods and subject 

 matter of the college are carried into the secondary school 

 where they ought not to be. Both the college instructor 

 and the student preparing for teaching must realize that 

 the interest of the secondary school teacher is in his pupils, 

 and the choice of subject matter and methods depends upon 

 the pupils' needs and interests. The object is not to give 

 them a logical, comprehensive view of the subject, but to 



