PAPERS READ IN SECTION J. 



l.-TIIE TRAININa OF TEACHERS. 



By A. MACKIE, M.A.. Priacipal of T!tf Tralniim Co'li'ticfor Teadwrs, A'..S'. II'. 



During the past few years very considerable advance has been 

 niade in the courses of training for teachers, and the growing dis- 

 satisfaction with the pupil-teacher system in particular has led to 

 successive niodifications which have resulted in raising the standard of 

 general education as well as of technical skill. 



I propose in this paper to discuss the sort of training which it is 

 iiow very generally agreed should be provided for those intending to 

 take up class teaching in public or private schools of primary or 

 secondary chai'acter. No doubt the different types of class teaching 

 require differentiation in the training courses. But this comes best 

 to.wards the close of the training period, and in no case involves any 

 fundamental difference in the pnnciples which determine the arrange- 

 ment of the course. Although the course of training may be longer 

 or shorter, it should in eveiy case be complete; that is, it should 

 pj'ovide definitely for the development of the teacher's culture and of 

 his technical skill. Further, it is earnestly to be hoped that the time 

 is not far distant when no unqualified person will be allowed to 

 practise in the schoolroom, either because his general education is 

 too limited or too advanced. At present the arrangements for train- 

 ing the non-college teacher are in a very chaotic and unsatisfactory 

 state, and require serious attention if the rural areas are to receive 

 their educational due. 



Before I outline the main features of an organised course of 

 training for the practice of class teaching, it is necessary to refer 

 briefly to arrangements which are rapidly being superseded. It is 

 certainly the case that the pupil-teacher system fulfilled its purpose 

 of securing a supply of fairly competent teachers during a difficult 

 period, but it cannot be regarded as any longer a satisfactory means 

 of providing teachers to meet the educational demands of the present. 

 And, indeed, the latest modifications which it has undergone in 

 England have taken most of the earlier virtue out of it. It is certainly 

 true that the apprentice teacher acquired, in favourable cii'cum- 

 stances, a veiy fair, or rather, limited power of instiiicting and 

 handling large classes. But too often the circumstances were unsatis- 

 factory, and pupil-teachers were allotted to schools where the head 

 teacher had neither competence for nor interest in the work of train- 

 ing his apprentices. 



With the abolition of apprenticeship a new task confronts the 

 Teachers' College, and one which has somewhat slowly been realised 

 by the older colleges. It falls to the colleges to make much more 



