Show j r IV 4 THE T AHE April number numb r of of the Forum J i v contains a lengthy article entitled t I Teaching A A Trade or a Profession I f a by President J. J G. G Schurman of Cornell fy University t i In commenting on the public school schooly y system of the United States and the k laws requiring parents to send their 1 children to school President Schurman says To put children to poor schools is not a right inherent t in any commonwealth Responsibility determines the k limit of right and the right of A state to have the children children child- child t ren of its citizens educated is commensurate with the responsibility of the state to provide them with good teachers and protect them from professional nal incapacity and malpractice y The sole hope of the profession of teaching lies in the upon high standards of rf qualification for the office It At Att Atthe t t the present time I consider all other educational questions subordinate to the primary and fundamental problem of l f securing competent teachers Nor can I I doubt that this problem is to be solved by fixing a worthy standard both bothof bothof of liberal scholarship and of professional training for of teacher 0 every every- grade There is no educational question of such momentous significance to today today today to- to day as the culture aud and training of tho those e yo young ng men and women who are to become teachers in our high schools academies academie and normal schools or who hoare are to become superintendents of schools President Schurman's Accepting ideas it is evident to all that the teacher must have first a lib liberal ral education and secondly secondly secondly sec sec- a professional training This specialization is just as necessary here as it is in law v and medicine and the liberal education is more necessary A teacher must be at least four years ahead of his most advanced pupil in scholar scholar- sh ship i p. p Normal Norm al students ts should finish the academic course before entering upon upon upon up up- on the professional course that is students students students stu stu- dents preparing g to teach in the primary and nd grammar grades Superintendents and all teachers above the grammar H grade should he be c college graduates at least their general education should be bethe bethe bethe the equivalent of a four years' years university course r In n addition to this they should have a thorough professional training in inthe inthe inthe the Science and Art of Education But there is no no pedagogical institute in America for the professional training of college gr graduates The normal schools will not serve this purpose as they are designed for students of much less intellectual intellectual in in- telle maturity and culture On this important subject we quote the words of President Schurman A training college for secondary teachers should not however be an isolated institution Its true place is among the professional schools of the university Teaching Teaching Teaching Teach Teach- ing like law and medicine being a learned profession needs the support and recognition of the university apart from which no professional school of high grade has ever been able to maintain an existence This is a point on which writers and aud practitioners of all countries are agreed The British Royal Commission on Secondary Education are cited as favori favoring favoring favor favor- i ing g this id idea Th They y consider the foundation foundation foun foun- dation of of post post graduate pedagogical I schools at Oxford and Cambridge for forthe forthe forthe the the professional training of secondary teachers as the greatest desideratum and the most hopeful reform of the present day 0 The growth of the study of p pedagogy in m universities is analogous to that of the study study of law First a chair of law law- was established but gradually the importance of this chair grew until finally a fully organized school of law was established in in connection with the university President President Pres- Pres ident Schurman predicts the same growth f for r the chair in pedagogy now established established in some of our leading institutions institutions institutions of higher education He says I I predict that tha t the next development t in in our universities will be the establishment of ofa ofa a a 3 graduate school of pedagogy pedagogy not not a chair but a fully organized sch school school- ol- ol which shall be open only to college graduates or persons of similar scholastic scholas scholas- tic standing and which will uplift ennoble ennoble en en- J noble and li liberalize the teaching profession pro pro pro- L It is said that the pre-eminent pre function l tion of the university is to teach and to toi i F supply the world with teachers and that the hope of the teaching craft is with r the university Certainly the teachers must look to the university for light k the normal school apart from university university university sity is inadequate to supply the growing growing growing grow- grow ing needs of those that are to instruct the young Dr E. E Director of the Real- Real Gymnasium at Altona a visitor at the Worlds World's Fair Chicago offered the following following following fol fol- lowing very just criticism If If in every office the chief factor is the man and in school the teacher we have come to the we weakest kest point in inthe inthe the American school system system professional professional teachers are wanting That is to say most teachers are deficient in inthe inthe the requisite scientific and pedagogic preparation for fork k their vocation l In conclusion President Schurman says ays As inspiration must always come from above it is imperative imperative imperative im im- that reforms shall begin with the educational workers in the higher spheres This is the quickest and most effectual way of reaching the entire corps For the rest I hold with Plato th that t the business business business busi busi- ness of reforming education is the chief work of every man |