TRAINING OF TEACHERS IN FRANCE 191 



and finally, by the apprentice himself, whose views would not fail to 

 be of interest. 1 



Thus will be fostered in a perfectly natural way among our high 

 school and academy professors, by the scientific study of pedagogy, 

 and by practical initiation into the art of teaching, that pedagogic 

 spirit without which the best regulations and printed rules must re- 

 main useless and which would dispense with the necessity of many 

 such rules and regulations. 



Conclusion 



Important, indeed, then, in its bearing upon our primary education, 

 especially so for our secondary education, is the reform in question. 

 Its underlying principle is the necessity of giving to pedagogy its 

 proper place in the training of teachers and educators. In and of 

 itself it will not be sufficient; it will never take the place of genius 

 nor do away with the necessity of talent on the part of the teacher, 

 but it will render both fruitful in results, and eliminate many a mis- 

 take and error. For the type of pedagogy to which we refer must 

 be at once scientific and inspiring, suited to the instruction and 

 upbuilding of enlightened minds, not dogmatic, mechanical, slavish. 



In all this programme that I have attempted to outline nothing 

 seems to me a more essential feature than the study of the organiza- 

 tion and methods in vogue in foreign schools. Among the innovations 

 that I hope to see adopted, none seems to me more fruitful of good 

 results than the creation of scholarships for travel and residence 

 abroad for pedagogic purposes. It is well for our future educators 

 to broaden their mental horizon by seeing other countries than their 

 own, not with a view to forgetting it, but the better to understand 

 and to serve it by bringing to its aid the benefit of what they may 

 have learned elsewhere. Is not this the thought that has brought 

 here such a goodly number of educators, and is not this the firm con- 

 viction w r hich this Congress is destined to leave in the minds of all 

 who have had the pleasure of attending its sessions? 



1 This system was adopted this year at Lyons by the University and by the 

 High School. 



