isa-normaladvance-1909-00237

Description:	THE NORMAL ADVANCE237certain elements of value but it surely suppliesa set of artificial conditions which will never bemet when the student goes into a school of hisown. As in other matters there is in practicework such a thing as wise neglect. Of thehighest value is a form of practice work thatleaves the student to himself in the management, discipline and instruction of a school ora class. I believe strongly in giving the practice teacher a large degree of freedom, subjecting him only to general direction and oversight,and holding him responsible for the results.My second question is, What should be thecharacter of the normal school course providedfor the high school graduate who wishes to prepare for grade or rural school work?So far as I am able to judge this will differfrom the course organized for the mature menand women of the non-graduate class mainly intwo particulars—the time given to the commonor elementary branches, and the amount andvariety of practice teaching required. It is tobe remembered that normal school students direct from the high school are usually abouteighteen years old they have had little contactwith the world of affairs have acquired littleinitiative do not know very much about human nature in the ordinary sense of that term and have only such knowledge of the elementary subjects of study as they acquired in thegrade schools as children from six to fourteenyears. I do not wish to understimate the qualifications and training of these young people,but at best they are only children. A largeexperience with thousands of them during thepast twenty-five or thirty years has shown metwo things, namely, that they do not know anything well enough to teach it, and that theyhave everything of a pedagogical nature yet tolearn. For the present they are not to be compared with the young men and women of themature class described who spend a reasonabletime in the normal school and then take up orcontinue the work of teaching. But give theseyoung graduates a substantial normal schoolcourse, in addition to their elementary and highschool training, and at the end of five years, ifthey remain in the school room that long, theywill be distinctly superior to the other class ofteachers.The normal school should turn these peopleback upon the elementary branches, which theywill for the most part teach in the schools belowthe high school, and require them to spend oneor two years in a thorough, scientific, reflectivestudy of them. They should be led to acquire aprofessional knowledge of these subjects—to reconstruct them as instruments for the educationof others. They must be led to see the methodwhich lies in each of these subjects itself, and todiscover the possible and necessary modifications of this to adapt the work to the inherentneeds of the children in the various grades.What is suitable subject-matter for the childrenin any grade from one to eight, what the propersequence of topics, what is essential and whatrelatively unimportant, what principles ofmethod have application in these various subjects and divisions of subjects, and scores of likequestions are to be considered before this highschool graduate is fitted to teach these subjects.I should say that a normal course of not lessthan three years should be provided for thisclass of students, and that it should be devotedvery largely to this scientific study of the common school subjects, and to an extended andthorough mastery of the usual strictly professional or pedagogical subjects of educationalpsychology,. principles of methods of instruction, science of education, history of education,principles of school management, etc. Withthese young people a long, well-planned coursein practice teaching is of the highest importance. It should embrace work in all the subjects of grade instruction and if possible include work in all the grades from one to eight.This is desirable as a means of properly coordinating the work of any grade or grades,with that of the other grades below the highschools.A few words now on the question of educating teachers in the normal school for highschool work. I am very glad the subject assigned to me requires some discussion of this
Source:	http://indstate.contentdm.oclc.org/cdm/ref/collection/isuarchive/id/34267
Collection:	Indiana State University Archives

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