Januaky 21, 1887.1 



BCIEJSrCE. 



7] 



name ' the natural method,' and of the success 

 being due to that name. For those who lay so 

 much stress on the name, it will be interesting 

 to learn that neither the founder of the method, 

 nor some of the most prominent exponents, had 

 any thing to do with the giving of the name. One 

 of Harvard's learned professors has done the 

 method the honor to christen it ; and a research 

 after the true motives for selecting just that 

 name, with all its meanings, is certainly a worthy 

 subject for investigation. But to attribute the 

 popularity of the method solely or mostly to its 

 name, seems hardly to be reasonable. To my 

 judgment, it is the truth of the method, the 

 zeal and energy of its followers, and the much- 

 felt need of better methods in general, which 

 explain the conquering power of the natural 

 method. Sigmon M. Stern. 



THE TRAINING OF TEACHERS.^ 



The profound significance of the teacher's pro- 

 fession is not yet properly recognized. Many men, 

 of considerable intelligence even, think that school 

 education covers too narrow a field of life to have 

 facts and principles capable of constituting a 

 science, and that teachers of common schools are 

 but day -laborers, having no professional standing, 

 and hence needing no professional training. On this 

 account, our normal schools will have many trials 

 to meet, and many difficulties to overcome, before 

 reaching the position towards which they are 

 struggling. 



As yet, our advanced high schools and colleges 

 do not supply these schools with a sufficient num- 

 ber of students whose thorough literary attain- 

 ments warrant a more exclusively professional 

 course of studies. In fact, our normal schools are 

 necessitated to do this preparatory academic work 

 themselves. In this way they render themselves 

 liable to the charge of being only academies with 

 a quasi-professional annex. 



We have all along very much regretted the 

 necessity of directing so much attention to the 

 academic training of the students in these schools, 

 and have carefully studied how to keep the purely 

 professional element from being too much neg- 

 lected, without, at the same time, sacrificing the 

 thorough literary instruction required. 



The large supply of teachers required for the 

 educational work of the state, and the very low 

 average of salaries given for educational labor, 

 make it almost impossible to lengthen very much 

 the present term of study. Some, with great 

 earnestness, have advocated the addition of an- 



1 From the annual report of E. E. Higbee, superin end- 

 ent of public instruction of the state of Pennsylvania. 



other year. In due time this will come, and be 

 of immense account in enlarging the sphere of 

 professional studies, and giving opportunity for 

 more definite and continuous model practice, 

 which, when rightly conducted, is of so much 

 value. 



The literary instruction may have been given 

 in harmony with the best principles which the 

 present philosophy of school education is able to 

 give, and in such form as to bring into view the 

 very best methods which either the science or 

 art of teaching furnishes. We are not calling 

 this in question at all ; but we must keep in mind 

 that the students, at the very outset, are back- 

 ward in their literary studies, and have but little 

 knowledge of psychology. Hence they are forced 

 to make every exertion in preparing for their 

 daily class-work, and must be, of necessity, far 

 more anxious about the matter of what is taught 

 than about the manner or method of teaching it. 

 They fear to spend any more time in the model 

 school than is absolutely required by law. They 

 make the minimum here the maximum, if the}' 

 can. In addition to this, being subject at the 

 close of the course to a rigid state examination, 

 covering all the academic studies pursued, they, 

 with their prof essors, are tempted to sacrifice all 

 efforts towards enlarging the course of profes- 

 sional studies through fear of the issue of the 

 final examination-test. 



Although the course of studies as now arranged 

 is not very satisfactory to us, and will need, in 

 our judgment, some important changes, yet we 

 have felt constrained to approve it on account of 

 our great anxiety that the graduating year should 

 be given more fully to the work of professional 

 training, taking up the whole history and science 

 of school-teaching, and illustrating in detail the 

 psychological ground of every method by a greatly 

 enlarged course of practice in the model school. 

 Such practice, in our judgment, is very essential. 

 Indeed, it sustains the same relation to the noi'mal- 

 school studies as a moot-court does to a law-school. 

 Here theory finds verification ; here principles pass 

 into direct conscious application ; here science 

 makes its transition to art; here the furnished 

 scholar learns to handle with vigor his whole 

 armor, as a page when he became a belted knight 

 and entered the tourney. The teacher needs 

 scholarship, of course, but he needs something 

 more : he must have knowledge, and, at the same 

 time, thoroughly master the art of imparting it. 

 To this end our normal schools were established ; 

 in this direction they steadily tend. In the above 

 plan, however, no one thought for a moment of 

 not holding with firm grasp the essential truth 

 that professional knowledge cannot exclude schol- 



