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the faculty have no adequate professional standards. In public schools attention is being given to such matters in rapidly increasing degree. Normal schools should assume leadership.

The course of study more in need of standardization than any other aspect of normal-school organization. The third general problem which should be taken up in the report is the problem of the course of study. For purposes of this discussion a sharp distinction may be made between the courses in education and the other courses which deal with the subject matter to be taught in schools. The education courses in American normal schools have traditionally consisted of the history of education and a course or series of courses in psychology, with some courses possibly in general methods. It is the general consensus of opinion in most school systems that the normal-school work given in the history of education is very barren of results. Hardly less common are the criticisms which are made of the kinds of psychology usually taught. It would seem in the presence of these criticisms that it is altogether desirable that the various normal schools describe to each other clearly what they are undertaking in their courses in education. The name of the textbook used is very frequently helpful in determining what has been accomplished. The American Psychological Association, through one of its committees, made an elaborate report some years ago showing what is undertaken in psychology in normal schools. There can be no doubt at all that the normal schools are very vitally interested in a definition of the subject matter of these courses, and yet it is quite impossible to gather from any of the reports that are at hand any clear statement of what is undertaken.

New courses in education needed. It is probably true that the courses in education should be of a somewhat different type, and there is a large demand at the present moment for the drafting by experienced normal-school teachers of outlines which may be used in training immature students. Most of these students fresh from the high school do not realize at all the problems that are to confront the teacher. They should probably be given an introductory course in which educational problems and methods are defined. There should be a very great emphasis upon the empirical material which is now at hand in superintendents' reports and in the special studies which have been made of such matters as retardation and elimination. Problems of industrial education, the problems of the modification of the course of study, are all vital problems which the teacher ought to understand. And yet, the ordinary normal school gives very little attention to these great reform movements which are going forward in the schools, and the professional courses deal with the remoter periods of the history of education and with the reformers that are so far back in time and in spirit that the normal

school student has no contact through these remote studies with the community and the classroom problems with which he or she will come in contact immediately on graduation. Whether psychology shall be taught as a separate subject or in the modified form as an examination of the mental processes which appear in school children during school processes can, of course, be discussed as an academic issue, or it can be discussed as a very vital problem of the course of study. A comparative statement of what is undertaken now in various normal schools would be very helpful in bringing about a rapid modification and an enlargement of this type of work.

Subject-matter courses should be organized so as to stimulate progressive thinking in mature students.-Even more chaotic conditions are found in the subject-matter courses in arithmetic and grammar and geography. There are some normal schools in which the subject is frankly reviewed, on the theory that the student has forgotten since his elementary course everything which he knew about the subject matter itself. In other normal schools there is relatively very little review, or such reviewing as is undertaken is recommended to the student as the subject of private study. In these normal schools it is the method which is for the most part discussed. Sometimes this method consists in the exploitation of some particular scheme of presentation which is the hobby of the normal-school teachers. In other cases the discussion of method is on a somewhat broader basis, and a comparative study is made of the different methods of presenting the different distributions of time in different school systems, etc. Here again there ought to be a full discussion of principles. Each year a report from the normal school ought to be made of the fundamental principles which are recognized in organizing these courses in subject matter. It is perfectly evident that a course in arithmetic is not a suitable subject on which to exercise the growing intelligence of a student who has graduated from high school. He ought presumably to have a very large part of the equipment that is necessary for the course in arithmetic. On the other hand, there can be no doubt at all that a study of arithmetic can be formulated in such a way as to give the student some knowledge of the principles of number as well as an experience that will be of very great value to him in his teaching and the organization of this material. We have no adequate series of textbooks dealing with this problem. The ingenuity of normal-school teachers should be turned in the direction of formulating this material, and one of the most stimulating methods of turning attention in this direction would be a discussion by able leaders in normal-school education of the problems and methods of this type of course.

The problem of "culture" courses or "general" courses not solved.-Finally, in dealing with the normal-school course of study

the question always arises, How much academic matter should be introduced? It has been indicated in an earlier report that some normal schools give a good deal of academic matter. Courses in Latin are not uncommon in these normal schools, even when it is not expected that the students who take the courses will ever teach the subject. The relation of this academic material to the problem of the training of secondary-school teachers is also an important question which certainly in many normal schools needs very much more complete discussion than it has at the present time. There should be a report of the distinctions between academic courses and professional courses. When the North Central Association of Colleges and Secondary Schools asked the normal schools reporting to it to define clearly their courses, distinguishing between those that were academic in character and those that were professional, a very unsatisfactory set of replies was received. Evidently the distinction had never been drawn in the minds of some of the normal-school presidents who made the reports to the association. This distinction should be made the subject of discussion and definition, so that ultimately it will be perfectly clear what is needed for the professional and what is needed for the academic training of students.

Practice teaching as a central factor in the course of study.-Great emphasis was laid in an earlier chapter on the problem of practice teaching and its organization in the practice school. What the laboratory is to the course in science, what the shop is to the course in engineering, the practice school is to the normal school. And yet it is very difficult indeed from the reports of many normal schools to extract satisfactory information with regard to the actual conduct of practice work. In an article entitled Practice Teaching in Model Schools, published by Mr. E. E. Lewis, of the State Normal School of Charleston, Ill., in the Elementary School Teacher of May, 1913 (pp. 434-444), it is brought out clearly that there is the widest divergence among the model schools connected with normal schools throughout the country. For example, Mr. Lewis makes one summary, as follows, on page 438 of the Elementary School Teacher:

To summarize, 53 per cent of the State normal schools replying require the equivalent of three terms, or one full year, of practice teaching; 34 per cent, the equivalent of two terms; 8 per cent, the equivalent of one term; and 5 per cent, less than one term. There are possibly two institutions which require more than one year of practice teaching. The median institution requires three terms or one year.

Mr. Lewis also goes further in his article to show that the distribution of this practice teaching with reference to the methods courses is very different in different institutions: "The two prevailing tendencies are, first, to have practice teaching taken simultaneously with methods, and, second, to have practice teaching follow immediately

." Further

the course in methods. The second plan is more common." details of the article need not be repeated here. Enough to say the practices of different normal schools differ widely, as indicated also in the earlier chapters of this report. Why should there not be in accessible form for every normal school a definition of its laboratory and of the way in which it requires students to attend the exercises of this laboratory? Furthermore, a definition of the policy of the institution and its relation to schools would be of very great value. It is noted in an earlier chapter that some schools do give a definition of this sort, but it is very desirable that all the normal schools should make a clear statement of their relations to public institutions with regard to their practice work.

Especially has it been shown in this report that there should be clear and explicit tables setting forth the number of children accessible for practice work and the number of practice teachers who are supervised by a single critic teacher or normal instructor. There should also be a clear and explicit statement of the way in which this supervisory work is related to the other engagements of the normalschool teacher. If critic work is conjoined with instruction in the subject matter given in the normal school, this should be set forth in such a way that the policy of the school will be perfectly clear. In short, a definite statistical statement, together with a descriptive justification of the practices of the school, should be made a part of the regular report of each normal school, and it is recommended that this material be worked out in such fashion that a general comparison shall easily be possible.

Student's program is closely related to the type of work which he can do. There is another body of information with regard to the administration of the course of study which should be brought out in these normal-school reports. A statement should be made of the amount of work which a student is expected to do in a year of work. There can be no doubt at all that in many normal schools the faculty, relying on the maturity of the students, administers a very heavy course of study. In all probability, it would be found that more hours are taken each week by normal-school students than are commonly taken by college students. It may be entirely legitimate to call upon normal-school students who are taking a professional course to exert themselves more strenuously than college students do. On the other hand, there can be no doubt at all that the student who would take advantage of leisure for reading and for general preparation of himself along the lines of his own selection is deprived of this opportunity by the heavy course which he is required to take in regular routine. Some definition of the policy of institutions in this matter would help greatly in adjusting the relation of normal courses to college courses. Very frequently a student who presents himself

for advanced standing in the university brings from the normal school a prodigious number of courses. This immediately arouses the skepticism of the university faculty, because they recognize the impossibility of taking so large a number of courses without curtailing the work in each. A definition, therefore, with regard to the amount of work of the student should parallel the definition that is called for above on the amount of work that is required of members of the faculty. An explicit tabular statement of the number of students who are taking four hours, five hours, six hours, etc., each day, would give a definite body of information which is not now at hand. That such information is not supplied by the colleges should not furnish justification for its omission from this report. The appearance of this type of material in normal-school reports would undoubtedly stimulate a discussion of the same problem in high schools and in universities, and anyone who makes a study of these institutions realizes that it will very shortly be necessary to canvass the whole problem of the amount of work that a student can properly be called upon to do each day. The relation of this discussion to outside activities is also clear. A definition of the social life of the students can hardly be given with clearness unless some attention is given to the amount of work which is required in the courses of the institution itself. By initiating this study, the normal schools can become leaders in an important general educational study.

Another general educational problem is that of the elective course.-A further item of information with regard to the students and their places in various courses is especially profitable when one considers the contrast between a normal school and the ordinary college course. In recent years the college course has come to be more and more an elective course. On the other hand, the professional schools have all required a much more rigid adherence to a prescribed series of studies. In the normal schools the conflict between academic and professional courses has frequently expressed itself in the fact that certain courses are required, while others are made elective, and the difference in equipment between different normal schools may frequently consist in the larger number of elective courses which are offered. These elective courses open the way for a wide differentiation of the course of study pursued by individual students and undoubtedly constitute the phase of normal-school organization which has brought these institutions most into competition with neighboring colleges. Furthermore, elective courses always bring with them the problem of the distribution of students of different degrees of maturity. When an elective course is open to students who have for some time been pursuing work in a given institution and at the same time to students who have just entered, there is likely to be so great a difference in the maturity of the student body that the administration of

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