566 



SCIENCE. 



[Vol. IX., No. 227 



cause they realize that to know a thing: is alto- 

 gether different from being able to do it. "Why 

 should the teacher be an exception to a course so 

 commendatory to the good sense of the people ? 

 Certainly it is not because the mind of the child 

 is esteemed of less worth than his body or his 

 estate. He, also, must have this training. 



II. But of what shall it consist? Not simply of 

 a knowledge of the facts to be taught, nor even, 

 in addition to this, a knowledge of how to teach. 

 Many a one who cannot teach, knows how. 

 School officers ought to know how teaching should 

 be done, but it is not at all necessary that they 

 should be able to do it. Of far greater value than 

 professional knowledge is professional ability. 

 Mere theoretical teaching does not give the power 

 to act. This power comes only from acting. It 

 is true that the young teacher may acquire it in 

 the school-room, and the practice, though often 

 very painful to him, is exceedingly valuable ; but 

 the multiplicity of failures to every successful 

 experiment makes it very hard upon the school. 

 Instruction in the matter to be taught, and in the 

 methods of teaching it, shouldbe accompanied by 

 practice in teaching. Nor should this practice at 

 first be in a model or practice school, but in classes 

 whose pupils have already developed their modes 

 of thinking, and formed their habits of study and 

 recitation under the instruction of superior teach- 

 ers. Little harm beyond the waste of time can 

 come to them from the misdirected efforts of the 

 young teacher ; but such would not be the result 

 of his efforts in the ordinary model school cojn- 

 posed of little children. During his senior year 

 in the training-school, the young teacher should 

 spend one hour a day in the practice-school, teach- 

 ing under the direction of his professor, applying 

 the theories he has learned. Not only this : as 

 soon as he enters the training-school, he should 

 be required to examine every question from the 

 stand-point of the teacher as well as from that of 

 the pupil. In every recitation he should play, in 

 some important respects, the roleoi teaciier. The 

 object of professional training is to enable the 

 teacher to use his knowledge. This it can hope 

 to do successfully only as it gives him exercise in 

 using knowledge, under the direction of an ex- 

 perienced teacher. Nelson B. Henry. 



The professional training of teachers has be- 

 come a necessity in all of our large cities ; and the 

 time is not far distant when the same will be true 

 in every city, town, village, and district. There 

 is no longer any doubt but that teaching is a 

 service, hence there is no longer any reason why 

 the teacher should any longer be subjected to 

 little petty ' quiz' examinations every few weeks 



in order to retain his position. Fix the standard 

 of scholarship high ; and when one has credentials 

 from any well-known authority, accept it. On the 

 other hand, however, see to it that those who are 

 to train the immortal souls of our children know 

 the difference between the instinct of a dog and 

 the human mind. Too many teachers teach a 

 human being the rules of arithmetic by exactly 

 the same method they would teach a dog to 

 ' speak ' for a piece of bread and butter, or a 

 parrot to ask for a cracker. As well might a 

 lawyer endeavor to practise law with no knowl- 

 edge of the statute laws of his state, or a doctor 

 to practise medicine with no knowledge of phy- 

 siology, as a teacher to practise the profession of 

 teaching with no knowledge of the mind he is 

 trying to shape. 



The teacher who has no knowledge of child- 

 nature should make this his first study ; for the 

 man or woman who has forgotten how he or she 

 felt as a child, is hardly calculated to teach. Cer- 

 tainly no such person is fit to be the disciplinarian 

 of children. 



A person trying to be a teacher, with no knowl- 

 edge of the principles of psychology, is like a little 

 tug-boat pulling and tugging and puffing with 

 might and main to get the ' pupil ' in the right 

 place ; while those who go at their work under- 

 standingly take the place of the rudder, and 

 guide the pupils in the right direction to help 

 themselves through. 



Let not those who are engaged in the profes- 

 sional training of teachers think their work all 

 done when they have filled their pupils with 

 theories. As well might they lecture on the art 

 and science of swimming, and at the end of six 

 months cast their pupils off the Brooklyn bridge 

 to swim ashore, and expect them to do it, as to 

 expect such pupils to do good work in the school- 

 room. 



The practice must go hand in hand with the 

 theory. No student in a medical college can re- 

 ceive his diploma until he has passed a certain 

 number of weeks in the dissecting-room. 

 Neither should a student of psychology receive 

 his diploma until he has had a number of 

 weeks' experience in the class-room. We some- 

 times think it a pity that the mistakes of the 

 pupil -teachers in the class room do not, like those 

 of the student of medicine in the dissecting-room, 

 fall back upon themselves, and not upon their 

 innocent little subjects. Were this the case, 

 thousands of mistakes that have been made would 

 have been avoided. 



We often hear it said that teaching school be- 

 littles a man and sours a woman. To this we 

 take exception, and say that it is the 'narrow 



