45 



rather to defective methods, which might have come either from care- 

 lessness or from lack of knowledge of teaching methods. If due to 

 carelessness all that is neceosary is to arouse the instructor out of his 

 nit, remind him of the exacting demands of teaching, start him to think- 

 ing on methods of making his teaching a means of giving the pupils in- 

 terest, knowledge, and a desire to work. Self-analysis by each in- 

 structor will show personal reasons for defects; study of work by the 

 teacher himself will show where the faults in the teaching lie. 



For the new teacher, or the teacher who is not familiar with teach- 

 ing methods, assistance on the part of supervisors is necessary. Help- 

 ful suggestions, based on study of the teacher's peculiarities and on vis- 

 its to the classroom, will help do away with many shortcomings. The 

 man whose faults are glaring, who will make no effort to correct them, 

 or who is not suited to the kind of work he is doing, has no place in a 

 school of this or any other kind. It should be noted that one instruc- 

 tor, whose work appeared on the day visited to be very bad, will not 

 return next year. 



Supervision of Instruction 



The superintendent of the school says that he aims to visit a class of 

 each instructor once a week. This would require thirteen periods of 

 supervision a week. No record of the number of visits is kept, so it is 

 not possible to tell how nearly this standard is approached. The 

 amount of visiting by superior officers to their assistants is not known. 

 The amount of real assistance which those in charge can give their assist- 

 ants depends on how purposeful the visits and conferences are. As- 

 sistants can also to some extent help their superiors. Of the ten 

 teachers whose classes were visited, only four were not in charge of 

 departments. Some of the assistants showed work which was better 

 than that of some department heads. On the other hand, the work of 

 one assistant showed much lack of experience, while that of the man 

 in charge was among the best seen. 



The solution seems to be that there should be a system of intervisit- 

 ing. Not only should the superintendent visit the classes of all teachers, 

 but department heads should visit their assistants, and assistants should 

 see the work of those in charge. The assistants could see results due 

 to better methods and learn to avoid faults which they observe. It is 

 less difficult to learn by seeing teaching faults and virtues in others than 

 in the individual himself. The superintendent and department heads 

 could point out to instructors where their weak points are. They could 

 demonstrate for a period if they felt that this would help. Each in- 

 structor would have the opportunity to get away from his own limited 

 field, and see in others the things that in his own work he had perhaps 



