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1 



BUREAU OF EDUCATION 

N. H, B. Dawsos, VammUuhnrv 

OiaOVli\R OF IXTORMATXON SO. 2, 1861) 



PKOGEEDINGS 



DEPARTMENT OF SUPERINTENDENCE 



MEETING IN WASHINGTON 



JIARCB «-8. laSO 



OOVEnUMBNT I'KINTINO OPFICB 



r 



V 



BUREAU OF EDUCATION 
Ni H. E. Dawson, Commissioner 

CIRCULAR OF INFORMATION NO. 2, 1889 



•».--. 



l/^oq / 



PROCEEDINGS 



OF THB 



DEPAKTMENT OF SUPERINTENDENCE 



OF THE 



NATIONAL EDDCATMAl ASSOCIATION 



AT ITS 



MEETING IN WASHINGTON 



MAEOH C-8, 1889 



WASHINGTON 

GOVERNMENT PKINTING OFFIOB 

1889 



CONTENTS. 



Pagb. 

Letter of the Commissioner of Education to tlio Secretary of the Interior 5 

Abstract of Proceedings 9 

Papers, Addresses, and Discussions. 

Wednesday, March 6. 

Introductory Addresses: 

Inauguial address by the president. Superintendent Fred. M. Campbell, of 
Oakland, Cal 23 

Address of welcome, by Hon J. W. Holcombe, of the Bureau of Education. 24 

Training of Teachers ; 

Psychology in its Relation to Pedagogy, By Nicholas Murray Butler, presi- 
dent of the College for Training Teachers, New York City 26 

Discussion by Superintendent D. L. Kiehle, of Minnesota 42 

aty Training and Practice ScliooU, By W. S. Jackmau, principal of the Cen- 
tral High School, Pittsburg, Pa 45 

Discussion by Superintendent W. B. Powell, of Washington, D. C 52 

Prof. S. S. Parr 60 

County Institutes, By Superintendent A. G. Lane, of Cook County, 111 69 

Discussion by Superintendent John Hancock, of Ohio 76 

Superintendent Henry Sabiu, of Iowa 79 

Superintendent E. E. Higbee, of Pennsylvania 82 

State Teachers* Institutes. By Superintendent John W. Dickinson, of Massa- 
chusetts 84 

Manual Training: 

Eelation of Manual Training to Body and Mind, By C. M. Woodward, di- 
rector of the Manual Training School, St. Louis, Mo 91 

Discussion by Professor Leipziger 107 

Superintendent E. E. White 108 

Thursday, March 7. 

The Psychology of Manual Training, By W. T. Harris, LL. D., of Concord, 

Mass • 117 

/ To What Extent and Hoxo can Manual Training he Introduced into Ungraded 
Schools? Jiy Jerome Allen, professor of pedagogy in the University of 

the City of New York 1113 

Discussion by George P. Brown 153 

Mechanic Arts High Schools. By Superintendent Edwin P. Seaver, of Boston . 100 

Discussion by John D. Ford, U.S.N .: 168 

Superintendent H. W. Compton, of Toledo 173 

Debate on the advisability of defining the term " manual training "... 179 

3 



4 CONTENTS. 

Page. 

City Superintendents : 

The Worh of ike City Superintendent, By Superintendent T. M. Balliet, of 

Springfield, Mass 182 

Discussion by yarious members 191 

PmxciPALS : 

Tlie School Principal. By Superintendent George Rowland, of Chicago .... 195 
The Qualificationa of Principals, By Superintendent J. M. Greenwood, of 
Kansas City 209 

Friday, March 8. 
exai^iinations : 

Teachers* Examinations. By Superintendent M. A. Newell, of Maryland... 217 

Discussion by Superintendent L. W. Day, of Cleveland 219 

Superintendent E. E. Higbee, of Pennsylvania 222 

Superintendent J. W. Dickinson, of Massachusetts 223 

Dariington J. Snyder 225 

Superintendent E. E. White, of Cincinnati 225 

Superintendent William H. Maxwell, of Brooklyn 228 

Etaminanon for Promotion in the Piiblio Schools, By William De Witt Hyde, 

president of Bowdoin College 229 

Examinations for Promotion, By Principal William M. Giffin, of Newark.. 236 

Discussion by Superintendent George A. Littlefield, Professor Parr, Dr. 

White, and others ■. 243 

BiGHER Education : 

The State and the Higher Education, By Superintendent Fred. M. Campbell, 

of Oakland 254 

The State and Higher Education, By Prof. H. B. Adams, of Johns Hopkins 

University »>. 2C2 

Remarks upon the work of the Bureau of Education, by Superintend- 
ent William B. Powell, Hon. John Eaton, and others 277 

Education in the South. By Hon. W. R. Garrett 280 

. National Aid TO Education. By Hon. H. W. Blair 297 



LETTER. 



Departivient of the Intetiiob, 

Bureau of Education, 
Washington, D. 0., March 30, 1889. 

The Honorahle the Secretary of th:b Interior, 

Washington, D, G, : 

Sir : I Lave the honor to transmit the proceedings of the Department 
of Superintendence of the National Educational Association at its meet- 
ing held in AVashiugton on March 6S, 1889. 

This Department is one of the most important educational associa- 
tions in the country. It is composed of men who have had experience 
in the conduct of popular education, and their discussions relate to the 
practical problems Vfhich everywhere attend this work. The value of 
their discussions is evidenced by the constant reference to them on the 
part not only of American school officers, but of those charged with 
like responsibilities in foreign countries. 

The interest attaching to their deliberations is increased in the case 
of their recent session, on account of the prominence there given to the 
subject of manual training. At the present time this subject engages 
thoughtful consideration in all countries in which the education of the 
hand receives due attention. Its importance is indicated by the fact 
that it is one of three topics selected, on account of their universal in- 
terest, for discussion in the international conference at Paris in August, 
in connection with the Centennial Exposition. 

On this, as upon other matters relating to systems of education, an 
earnest desire is manifested to know the opinions of American superin- 
tendents. On account, then, both of the intrinsic value of the proceed- 
ings of the Department and the timely character of their recent discus- 
sions, the publication of their proceedings will be found useful to the 
cause of education. 

The annual meetings of this body have also become of national in- 
terest by reason of the large number of men prominent in educational 
work and supervision, who are brought together from all parts of the 
country, and the high grade of the addresses delivered and of the dis- 
cussions drawn forth on a great variety of important questions. From 
such considerations this Bureau, for a number of years, has publishft.d. 



6 Letter. 

the proceedings and addresses of tlie Department of Superintendence as 
a circular of information. Few of the publications of the Government 
are anticipated with greater interest or by a wider constituency of 
specialists than this annual monograph. As heretofore stated, the re- 
cent meeting was one of unusual interest, and the papers and speeches 
were of a very high order of merit. 

I therefore respectfully submit them, with the recommendation that 
they be published for distribution by this OfTice. 
1 have the honor to be, very respectfully, 

K H. E. Dawson, 

Commissiotier, 



NATIONAL EDUCATIONAL ASSOCIATION. 



MEETING 



OP THE 



DEPARTMENT OF SUPERINTENDENCE, 



AT 



WASHINGTON, r>. C, 



MARCH 7, 8 and 9, 1889, 



IN THE 



HALL OF THE NATIONAL MUSEUM. 



PRESIDENT. 

Superintendent Fred. M. Campbell Oakland, Cal. 

VICE-PRESIDENTS. 

Superintendent C. C. Davidson Alliance, Ohio. • 

Superintendent George J. Luckey Pittsburg, Pa. 

SECRETARY. 
Hon. W. R. Thigpbn - Savannah, Ga. 

7 



ABSTRACT OF PROCEEDINGS. 



WEDNESDAY, MAEOH Cth. 
Forenoon Session. 

The Department of Superintendence of the ]!i5"ational Educational 
Association met in the hall of the National Museum, Washington, D. O., 
Wednesday, March 6, 1889, at 10 o'clock A. M. 

The Department was called to order by the president, Fred. M. Camp- 
bell, superintendent of schools, Oakland, Cal. President Campbell de- 
livered his Inaugural Address. (Page 23.) 

Hon. J. W. Holcombe, chief clerk of the Bureau of Education, was 
next introduced, and delivered an address of welcome. (Page 24.) 

The following committee on resolutions was announced : M. A. l^ewell, 
Maryland; George A. Littlefield, Ehode Island; George Howland, 
Illinois ; William E. Anderson, Wisconsin ; and John Hancock, Ohio. 
All resolutions were to be referred to this committee. 

Superintendent A. P. Marble, of Worcester, Mass., president of the 
]S"ational Educational Association, oft'ered the following resolution; 
which was adopted: 

Besolvedf That a special committee of five be appointed by the Chair, to inquire 
into the needs of the Bureau of 'Education, in order to increase its efficiency, and re- 
port at a future session of this body a series of resolutions looking to the attainment 
of this object, to be presented to Congress and urged for adoption j and that Hon. E. 
E. White, of Ohio, bo chairman of this committee. 

TEAINIKG OF TEACHERS. 

Nicholas Murray Butler, president of the College forTraining Teachers, 
Kew York City, read a paper on the subject : Psychology in its relation 
to Pedagogy. (Page 26.) 

This paper was discussed by D.»L. Kiehle, superintendent of public 
instruction, Minnesota. (Page 42.) 

The next regular paper was presented by W. S. Jackman, principal 
of the high school, Pittsburg, Pa. Topic : City Ti'aiuing and Practice 
Schools. (Page 45.) 



10 PROCEEDINGS — DEPARTMENT OF SUPERINTENDENCE. 

The president announced the following committee, in accordance with 
the resolution offered by Mr. Marble : E. E. White, of Ohio, chairman ; 
A. P. Marble, of Massachusetts; A. S. Draper, of New York; M. A. 
Newell, of Maryland ; and Henry Sabin, of Iowa. 

The Department adjourned to meet at 1.30 p. m. 

Afternoon Session. 

The Department reassembled at 1.30 p. m. 

The discussion on the topic, City Training: and Practice Schools, was 
opened by W. B. Powell, superintendent of schools, Washington, D. O. 
(Page 52.) 

S. S. Parr, principal of the State Normal School, Greencastle, Ind., 
followed. (Page 60.) 

The next paper was read by A. G. Lane, superintendent of schools, 
Cook County, 111. Topic: County Institutes. (Page 69.) 

This subject was first discussed by Dr. John Hancock, commissioner 
of common schools, Ohio. He was followed by Henry Sabin, superin- 
tendent of public instruction, Iowa, and by E. E. Higbee, superintend- 
ent of public instruction, Pennsylvania. (Pages 76-84.) 

A paper on the subject, State Teachers' Institutes, was read by John 

W. Dickinson, secretary of the State board of education, Massachusetts. 

(Page 84.) 

Evening Session. 

manual trainino. 

The Departmemt met at 8 p. m. 

The subject for the evening was. Eolation of Manual Training to Body 
and Mind. 

The discussion of this paper was opened by C. M. Woodward, director 
of the Manual Training School, Washington University, St. Louis, Mo. 
(Page 91.) 

The following joined in the discussion : E. E. White, superintendent 
of schools, Cincinnati, Ohio; W. H. Maxwell, Brooklyn, K Y.; H. M. 
Leipziger, New York City; W. E. Sheldon, Boston; W. E. Anderson, 
Milwaukee, and K. C. Dougherty, Peoria, Illinois. (Pages 102-110.) 



THUESDAY, MARCH 7th. 

Forenoon Session. 

The Department was called to order at 9.30 A. M. by President Fred. 
M. Campbell. 
The following resolution was oifered by W. E. Sheldon : 

jResolvedf That a coramittoe be appointed to wait upou Senator Blair, chairman of 
the Committee on Education and Labor of the United States Senate, and invite him 
to visit the meeting and address this Department. 



ABSTIIACT OF PfiOCEEDlNaS. 11 

This motion passed, and the chair appointed W. E. Sheldon a com- 
mittee of one. 

W. T. Harris, LL. B., Concord, Mass., presented the first paper. 
Topic : The Psychology of Manual Training. (Page 117.) 

Mr. W. E. Sheldon reported that he had called upon Senator Blair,, 
and had secured the promise of the Senator to be present on Friday 
evening. 

To What Extent and How can Manual Training be Introduced into 
Ungraded Schools ? was the subject of a paper read by Jerome Allen, 
professor of pedagogy. University of Kew York. (Page 133.) 

The discussion of this subject was opened by George P. Brown, edi- 
tor of the School Journal, Bloomington, 111. (Page 153.) 

Further discussion was postponed till the afternoon session. 

W. E. Sheldon moved that the Commissioner of Education, Hon. N, ' 
H. E. Dawson, be a committee of one to wait upon the Secretary of the 
Interior, Hon. Mr. Koble, and invite him to meet the Department and 
make an addiess. Adopted. 

Afternoon Session. 

The Department reassembled at 1.30 p. m, 

Superintendant M. A. Newell, of Maryland, introdaced the following 
resolution, which was, on motion, adopted : 

Reeolvedy That thQ Department of Snperintendence thank Mr. CabeU most cordiaUy 
for his courteons invitation, and regret that a regular "business meeting of the Depart- 
ment on the same evening will prevent many members from paying their respects to 
him. 

The president announced that President Harrison would receive the 
members of the Department at the White House ofi March 8, at 1 
o'clock p. M. It was further announced that Senator Leland Stanford 
would address the Department on March 8, at 11 o'clock A. m. 

The next paper was presented by Edwin P. Seaver, superintendent 
of public schools, Boston, Mass.; subject: Mechanic Arts High Schools, 
Page 160.) 

W. E. Anderson, of Milwaukee, Wis., chairman of the committee on 
Manual Training, made the following statement : 

"^/r. President^ Qentlemetu and Ladies : I regret to say that I have to 
take the platform to announce to you that this committee, appointed a 
year ago I believe, to solve the as yet unsolved problem upon this 
question, have been unable to agree upon a report: though some effort 
was made during the year, by correspondence and otherwise, to arrange 
for a report upon this question, the limited time afforded for conference 
during our meeting here has not enabled the committee to come to a 
conclusion which they feel ready to present to this body. I regret very 
much to make this apology for the committee, and ask that you allow 
this committee farther jfcime." 



/ 



12 PEOCEEDINCJS — DEPARTMENT OF SUPERINTENDENCE. 

The resolution appointing the committee was here read by the secre- 
tary of the association. 

On motion of Mr. Ellis, the request was granted. 

The president read the following ; which, on motion, was referred to 
the Committee on Eesolutions : 

Resolved, That tlio attitade of President Harrison upon the subject of edacation^ 
as shown by the noble utterances of his recent inaugural, aifords us the p^eatost sat- 
isfaction and encouragement. 

J. W. Holcombe announced that the Secretary of the Interior had 
accepted the invitation to visit the Department, and would be present 
at 4 o'clock p. M., March 8th. 

Second Yice-Presldent Luckey was called to the chair. 

The Committee on the Bureau of Education, through its chairman, 
E. E. White, of Ohio, made the following report : 

To the Department of Superintendence of the National Educational Association: 

The special committee to whom was referred the need of legislation to increase the 
efficiency and usefulness of the Bureau of Education, beg leave to submit the follow- 
ing report : 

The act of Congress creating the Bureau, passed March 2, 1867, established it as an 
independent Department of Education, and entrusted its management to a Commis- 
sioner of Education, with a salary of $4,000 per annum. 

In 1869 a strong opposition to the new Department of Education manifested itself 
in Congress, and the act creating it was so amended as to reduce the Department to 
the subordinate position of an " Office of Education" in the Department of the In- 
terior, and to make the management of the office by the Commissioner *' subject to 
the direction of the Secretary of the Interior," and the annual salary of the Commis- 
sioner was reduced to $3,000. 

Under these unwise limitations the Bureau of Education has been conducted for 
nearly twenty years, and the fact that it has been able to render such valuable serv- 
ice to the cause of education is due largely to the fidelity and self-sacriticing spirit 
of the men who have fiUed the position of Commissioner. Few realize the embar- 
rassments which have beset the duties of the Office, and fewer know how greatly its 
possible efficiency has been lessened by the lack of official appreciation and adequate 
pecuniary support. 

But in spite of all limitations and embarrassments the Bureau of Education has 
fully justified the wisdom of its creation. Its great value as an educational agency 
of the General Government is no longer questioned by any one who knows its history 
and work. It has not only f ojnished needed assistance to those entrusted with the 
organization and conduct of schools and school systems, but it has from time to time 
responded to the call of Congress itself for valuable information on school affairs. 

It is believed that the time has now come when the Bureau of Education should be 
restored to its original position as an independent Department, and its management 
be again entrusted to the Commissioner in charge. The salary of the Commissioner 
should be Increased to not less than $5,000 — the present salary of the Commissioner 
of Labor and the recent salary of the Commissioner of Agriculture. The position of 
the Commissioner of Education never can assume its proper dignity at the seat of 
Government so long as the Commissioner is obliged to live on the present salary, and 
it is certainly too much to ask the Commissioner to supplement this salary by his pri- 
vate means. 

The Department of Education should receive an annual appropriation sufficient for 
the efficient discharge of the important duties entrusted to it, and all its reports, cir- 



^ABSTRACT OF PROCEEDINGS. 13 

cnlars, and other information respecting cdncational progress should bo promptly 
published and distributed. The iiractical value of the successive Annual Reports of 
the Bureau has been greatly lessened by their tardy issue and circulation. 

It is recommended tliat a committee be appointed by this body to memorialize Con- 
gress to these ends, and, if possible, secure necessary legislation. It is also suggested 
that this committee make an effort to secure such supervision of the education 
schedules in the next decennial census by the Commissioner of Education as will re- 
salt in more accurate and valuable statistics in this department. 
Respectfully submitted. 

E. E. White, Ohio, 

M. A. Newell, Maryland, 

A, S. Draper, New York, 

Henry Sabin, loica, 

A. P. Marble, Massachusetts, 

Committee, 

Mr. Campbell moved the adoption of this report, and moved farther 
that the committee presenting it be continued as a permanent committee 
to bring the matter before Congress and its committees, to the end that 
the action desired might be had. 

The report was unanimously adopted and the committee continued. 

The discussion of the subject of theintroduction of manual training 
into graded city schools was opened with a paper b/ John D. Ford, XJ. 
S. K, principal of the Manual Training School, Baltimore, Md. (Page 
168.) The second paper in the discussion was read by H. W. Compton, 
superintendent of schools, Toledo, Ohio. (Pago 173.) 

W. E. Anderson asked that ho be relieved from the Committee on 
manual training, and suggested that Nicholas Murray Butler, of iN'ew 
Tork, be substituted. On motion of E. H. Cook, this request was granted, 
and Dr. Butler was placed on the committee. 

Mr. Anderson moved that this committee be requested to define 
"manual training" in their report one year hence. After a running 
debate Mr. Anderson withdrew his motion. (Page 179.) 

He then offered the following resolution : 

Resolved, That a committee of seven members of this body bo appointed, to report 
at its next meeting, what changes are needed in the course of elementary schools, as 
to subjects taught, as to the elimination of unprofitable and surplus work, and as to 
the addition of what is practicable and desirable as regards manual training. 

Mr. Anderson continued : " I present this resolution in the firm con- 
viction that this is the contestable ground of the whole question, and 
that it is on this very territory that we are about to declare an armis- 
tice, and to appear in one year and fight these old skirmishes over again. 
It is in the elementary schools, if anywhere, that this fight of the work of 
manual training lies. I think this association ought either acknowledge 
the fact that this is the ground, or else take it up and discuss it where 
it belongs." 

The resolution was, on motion, referred to the Committee on E^sola- 
tions. 



14 , PBOCEEDINGS — DEPARTMEJST OF SUPERINTENDENCE. 

CITY SUPERINTENDENTS. 

A paper on the subject, The Work of the City Superintendent, was 
next read by T. M. Balliet, superintendent of schools, Springfield, Mass. 
(Page 182.) 

The following joined in the discussion : W. A. Blair, Dr. W. T. Harris, 
Dr. x\. E. Winship, Superintendent J. M. Greenwood, S. S.iParr, G. J, 
Luckey, and Superintendent John Hancock. (Page 191.) 

The Department adjourned at 4.45 p. m. to meet at 8 p. M. 

Evening Session. 

The Department met at 8 p. m. 5 President Fred. M. Campbell in the 
chair. 

principals. 

The School Principal was the subject of a paper read by George How- 
land, superintendent of schools, Chicago. (Page 195.) 

The second paper, The Qualifications of School Principals, was pre- 
sented by J. M. Greenwood, superintendent of schools, Kansas City, 
Mo. (Page 209.) 



FEroAY, MAECH 8th. 
Forenoon Session. 

The Department reassembled at 9.30 A. M., President Campbell in the 
chair. 

M. A. Kewell, chairman of the Committee on Eesolutions, reported 
favorably the resolution offered the preceding day by Mr. Anderson 
(p. 13), and it was accordingly passed. 

The Committee on International Copyright, W. E. Sheldon, E. O. 
Lyte, Henry A. Wise, H. M. La Follette, and W. E. Thigpen, reported 
progress, and asked to be allowed further time. This request was, on 
motion, granted. 

The Committee on National University (Chas. S. Young, W. E. Shel- 
don, A. S. Draper, Eobert AUyn, and M. A. Kewell) reported progress, 
and was continued. 

examinations. 

The first paper was read by M. A. Newell, State superintendent of 
public instruction, Maryland. Topic : Teachers' Examinations. (Page 
217.) 

Mr. Sheldon read an invitation from Mr. and Mrs. Cabell to the mem- 
bers of the Department for lunch, directly after the visit to the Pres- 
ident. 

The next paper was by L. W. Day, superintendent of schools, Cleve- 
land, Ohio — a discussion of the paper on Teachers' Examinations. (P^ge 



ABSTRACT OP PROCEEDINGS. 15 

219.) This discussion was continued by E. B. Higbee, Henry A. Wise, 
J. W. Dickinson, Darlington J. Snyder, E. E. Wliite, and Wm. H. Max* 
well. (Page 222.) 

In the course of his remarks the following resolution was offered by 
Superintendent Maxwell : 

Resolved^ That a committee of five be appointed to formulate the scholastic and 
professional attainments that should be required for admission to the positions of 
class teacher and of principal, and how far diplomas of graduation from high schools, 
normal schools, colleges, and universities should be taken in lien of examination, 
and to report at the next meeting of this Department. 

Eeferred to Committee on Eesolutions. 

Examination for Promotion was the subject of a paper presented by 
William De Witt Hyde, president of Bowdoin College, Brunswick, Me, 
(Page 229.) 

Another paper on the same subject was read by William M. Giflfin, 
principal of Lawrence Street Grammar School, Kewark, K. J. (Page 
236.) 

Department adjourned to call on President Harrison. 

Afternoon Session. 

The Department, after having visited President Harrison, re-assem- 
bled at 2 o'clock. 

Mr. George A. Littlefield, superintendent of schools, ]!i5"ewport, R. I., 
was introduced, and read a paper discussing the subject, Examination 
for Promotion. (Page 243.) 

This subject was further discussed by S. S. Parr, E. E. White, and Dr. 
Mo wry. (Page 250.) 

Dr. M. A. Kewell, chairman of the Committee on Resolutions, reported 
for the consideration of the Department the resolution offered in the 
forenoon session by W. H. Maxwell, and also the resolution relating 
to the attitude of President Harrison upon the subject of education 
(p. 12). These resolutions were adopted j also the following, relating 
to national aid to education : 

Resolvedy That we re-affirm onr profound conviction of the need of national aid to 
education, and that we recommend to Congress the passage of the Blair Educational 
Bill, or some like measure, at the earliest possible day. 

The Committee on Eesolutions submitted the following report : 

Resolved, Thafc the thanks of this body are tendered to the several railroads and 
hotels which have given us their usual reduction of rates. 

2. To the officers of the District of Columbia and of the Smithsonian Institution 
who have aided us in the arrangements for this meeting. 

3. To the gentlemen who have read papers and participated in the discussious, and 
to the press for their reports of our proceedings. 

4. To the officers of the Department, and especially to the president, Fred. M. 
Campbell, of Oakland, Cal., for the programme of this meeting, which has proved to 
be one of the most interesting and profitable in the history of the Department, and 
has brought together the extreme East and the remote West — a fitting finale to thA 



16 PROCEEDINGS — DEPARTMENT OF SUPERINTENDENCE. 

boundless hospitality which tho general Association experienced at the hands of the 

people of California last summer. 

M. A. Newell {Chairman), 
Geo. a. Littlefield, 
Geo. Rowland, 
"Wm. E. Anderson, 
Jno. Hancock, 

Committee, 

President Fred. M. Campbell read a paper. Topic : The State and tho 
Higher Education. (Page 251.) 

Dr. H. B. Adams, Johns Hopkins University, was introduced, and 
read a paper on Tho State and Higher Education. (Page 262.) 

The following resolution was offered by Superintendent W. B. Powell, 
Washington, D. C. : 

WhereaSj The Bureau of Education has begun a systematic inquiry into the higher 
education in the United States, and has alreadj'^ publishe.l a series of valuable mon- 
ographs upon the history of colleges and universities in various States of the Amer- 
ican Union, and 

WhereaSf The Bureau has extended its inquiries into the higher educational history 
of the Northwest, and into the historic relation of the Federal and State govern- 
ments to higher education, 

Resolved, That tho Department of Superintendence cordially approves of this work, 
so successfully begun, and recommends its continuance, throughout the American 
Union, and its extension to the history of secondary education, as well as the speedy 
publication of the monographs now in hand. 

After some remarks upon the work and needs of the Bureau by Hon. 
John Eaton and others (page 277) the resolution was passed. 

The president announced the following coramictees : 

Committee on Manual Training (Anderson's motion) : E. E. White, 
Columbus, Ohio; J. W. Dickinson, Boston, Mass.; Wm. K. Barringer, 
Newark, IN". J.; M. A. Newell, Baltimore, Md.; Henry Sabin,De8 Moines, 
Iowa; Geo. Howland, Chicago, 111.; John Hancock, ColumtJus, Ohio. 

Committee on MaxwelVs Resolution : Wm. H. Maxwell, Brooklyn, N.Y.; 
D, L. Kiehle, St. Paul, Minn.; W. E. Sheldon, Boston, Mass.; E. E. Hig- 
bee, Harrisburg, Penn. ; John L. Buchanan, Eichmond, Ya. 

General John W. Noble, Secretary of the Interior, was introduced to 
the association and spoke as follows : 

'^ Mr, President and Members of the Association, Ladies and Oentlemen: 
You will pardon me from endeavoring at this time of the day, so late, 
and this period of my administration, so early, from expressing to you 
any convictions I may have upon tho great cause upon which you are 
assembled. I come merely to give you the assurance that so far as my 
advice may go in tlic Department that I have been honored, with an ap- 
pointment to, it shall be in support of the greart principles for which 
your organization is established. It has been my education from the 
earliest period to believe in the great principles you adopt. It would 
be superfluous ni^w for me to speak in advocacy of education in general; 



ABSTRACT OF PROCEEDINGS. 17 

but I may say that I believe as sincerely as you do, that in the organiz- 
ation of teachers and in the development of those principles upon whicl 
education may be advanced, depends the prosperity of our country. It 
is not only that education is needed in order th^jit the republic may be 
preserved, but that education may be attained and advanced properly 
it is necessary that there should bo organization amongst the teachers, 
that the best and most effective methods be adopted. I have no pre 
pared speech to make. I have thought it not only my privilege, but my 
duty, to present myself as the representative of an administration that 
has already announced its strong adherence to the principles of your 
association. I may say that so far as the bureau over which I am called 
to preside is concerned, that I will most heartily carry into effect the 
dictates of its chief." 

A. P. Marble, president of the National Educational Association, ad- 
dressed the members regarding the next meeting of the Association, to 
be held at Nashville, Tenn., as follows: 

" Mr. President J Ladies and Oentlemen^ and Members of the Associa- 
tion : I have not prepared an elaborate speech upon this occasion, and 
my remarks will be in the nature of an announcement, and I shall refer 
you to the printed documents, which will appear in the course of two 
weeks, for the details 5 but I will at present give you a very slight out- 
line of what we intend to do. 

'< Eailroad rates to and from Nashville have been secured from, first, 
all the lines in the Southern Association south of the Ohio ; second, 
lines belonging to the Central Traf&c Association, which includes all 
lines between Buffalo and Chicago ; third, of the Western Passenger 
Association, which includes lines between Chicago and the Missouri 
Kiver ; but we do not expect that reduced rates will be secured from 
the Pennsylvania, Coast Line, and from the Trunk Line Association. 
The people of Nashville sent a delegation to the meeting held in San 
Francisco to secure the holding of a meeting at Nashville, and the board 
of directors voted that a meeting should be held there. A committee 
visited Nashville and decided that a meeting should be held in accord- 
ance with the vote. We have had delegates from Nashville attend our 
meetings and they have told us of the wonderful products in their sec- 
tion and desired us to come there, both to see what they have accom- 
plished and to furnish still further inspiration for the teachers and 
friends of education in that part of the country, 

" It was objected to, when the subject was first broached, that the 
city was far south, that it would be too warm to go there in summer. I 
investigated that subject and found it would approach much more nearly 
to the heat that we experienced in Chicago two years ago, and anybody 
who has been through the Chicago fire in connection with the National 
Association need not be afraid of Nash ville. The fact is, that in Worces- 
ter, in Massachusetts, we have as hot days as they have in New Orleans ; 
but the difference is, our hot days are few, but in Nashville the warm 

882— No. 2 2 



18 PROCEEDINGS — DEPARTMENT OP SUPERINTENDENCE. 

weather is continued for more than half the year. I think there is no 
need of any apprehension of the heat in Nashville. I found also that 
some people fear that in going to Nashville we should run into yellow 
fever. Now, there never was a case of yellow fever in Nashville, and 
when it does come it always comes later in the season than the meeting 
of the National Association, and I doubt whether it would come at all 
after the association had met. 

"As I stated in an educational journal, there is an epidemic in Nash- 
ville of which you ought to caution your lady friends. In one week 
there were about twenty weddings. Besides our own pleasure, which 
will be announced by the provisions that will be made in visiting the 
people, they will look at Mount Lookout, Mammoth Cave, and a collec- 
tion of people the most delightful on earth ; besides that, there is a duty 
which we owe to that portion of our members who live in that part of 
the country. They have visited us. They have gone to San Francisco, 
Chicago, then came to Saratoga, and now invite us down there with 
open arms to see what they have done and tell them what we have been 
doing. They will provide entertainment at the hotels, excursions to 
all parts of the country, and among other things, a distinctive feature ' 
will be a Southern barbecue, which will take place on Tuesday, July 
16th, and which will be a novelty to those who have never seen anything 
of that kind. 

"In the neighborhood of Nashville is one of the most delightful 
scenes in this country, called Belle Mead. There is a deer park with 
three or four hundred deer, which can be seen roaming about among 
the trees, and the most magnificent stock in the country is raised there, 
and this is the property of General Jackson, whom I visited. AU peo- 
ple who to go Nashville go out to that place. General Jackson told 
me he was a reconstructed rebel, and I can tell you he is a much better 
man than I considered him twenty-five years or more ago. I visited 
several schools in that city, and it was a surprise and a wonder to hear 
the sentiments expressed. I had read in various newspapers of the 
feeling which survived the late unpleasantness ; yet the children in the 
schools sang the same Star Spangled Banner that ours do. I visited 
the colored schools in that city, and was surprised to find one colored 
school with appliances for building and apparatuses superior to one or 
two of the white schools which I visited. They have a custom down 
there of not mixing colors. 

" But I have not time, neither do you wish to stop to listen to the 
detail of all this; but from time to time in educational journals, and 
through tlje bulletin, which will be issued to the extent of a hundred 
thousand copies, you will learn of the details.'^ 

Hon. John Eaton spoke regarding the meeting to be held at Nash- 
ville as follows : 

" I wish to add further. Kesiding at Nashville two years in organiz- 
ing the free schools of Tennessee after the War, I had very good oppor 



ABSTRACT OP PROCEEDINGS. 19 

tunity of knowing what may be expected in the way of welcome, and I 
wish to bespeak for the meeting at Nashville the largest possible attend- 
ance on the part of educators at the North. It has been my good for- 
tune not only to be there at the National Convention of Educators, but 
also at that of the scientific men of the country, and to know how cor- 
dially both associations have been received and how readily the rail- 
roads and other means of facilitating an interesting convention will 
use their opportunities to add interest to the meeting, and I hope it 
will be early manifest to the people of the South that there is to be a 
large attendance. Let it be a great love-feast of the most intelligent 
classes of the country.'^ 

Dr. E. E. White moved that a vote of thanks be tendered General 
Noble for his presence, and for his words assuring his support in educa- 
tional work. Passed by a rising vote. 

The Department adjourned till 8 p. m. 

Evening Session. 

The Department met at 8 p. m. in the hall of the National Museum, 
pursuant to adjournment. 

The Chairman : " I beg to announce to the Department that all the 
committees have reported but one, that being a committee of one, con- 
sisting of myself. I desire to say a word in acknowledgment of the 
great help I have had from the associate officers of the Association, the 
vice-president, itfr. Davidson, of Ohio, and the secretary, Hon. W. R. 
Thigpen, of Savannah, Ga., and I want to acknowledge in particular 
the obligations of myself and of this Department to Mr. W. E. Sheldon. 
The success that has attended this meeting is due to the assistance I 
have had on all hands. I make this acknowledgment with heart-felt 
thanks. [Applause.] 

" I beg to announce to the meeting that I received a dispatch this 
afternoon from the Canadian gentleman who was exi)ected to address 
us this evening stating that he regretted exceedingly his inability to be 
with us on this occasion. 

" I now take pleasure in presenting to the audience, Hon. W. R. Gar- 
rett of Nashville, Tenn. The next meeting of the Association is to be 
held in Nashville. Mr. Garrett is president of the local executive com- 
mittee which has been organized there for the reception of that great 
body of people." 

Mr. Garrett then proceeded to read a paper on Education in the South. 
(Page 280.) 

Senator Blair was introduced and spoke on National Aid to Edu- 
cation. (Page 297.) 

On motion, the meeting adjourned to meet in Nashville, Tenn., in July 
nextt 



ADDRESSES, PAPERS, AND DISCUSSIONS. 



21 



INTRODUCTORY ADDRESSES. 



ADDEESS BY THE PEESEDENT, 
Fred. M. Campbell, 

Superintendent of OalcJand (Cah) Schools, 

As president for the year, I have the honor to call to order for the 
spring session the Department of Superintendence of the National Asso- 
ciation of the United States, the officers and representatives, in con- 
vention assembled, of the grand army of 312,000 public school teachers 
of our country ; those whose office it is to conserve and to direct that 
most important factor of our national prosperity, the American system 
of free, non-sectarian, non-political public schools. 

The scene witnessed two days ago in this city may well have drawn 
hither the great concourse of people who thronged the halls and thor- 
oughfares of the nation's capital. IS'ay, more than this j it is a scene 
which may well have centred the gaze of the world. Petty monarchs 
of petty kingdoms attained by strategy or by bloody wars, ascend their 
thrones with pomp and retinue and the gilded glitter of display. But 
grand in its simplicity is the ceremonial that quietly transfers the govern- 
ment of sixty millions of people from the hands of one of their chosen 
rulers to another. Like the ever-recurring miracles of the spring-time and 
the dawn — mighty in its results, quiet in its processes — comes to our 
nation at stated times the crisis which, in other less favored lands, is 
looked forward to with anxiety and foreboding. 

It might seem that in the importance justly attached to the scene 
which has brought hither so many thousands of eager observers, a meet- 
ing like the present would sink into comparative insignificance. 

But, gentlemen, it is the interests which we represent that have 
largely made this scene possible. Long before the spring-time shows 
any visible sign to the outward eye, far down in the depths of the val- 
leys, away over stretches of prairie, high up on the slopes of mountains, 
hidden in the heart of tiny seed, quietly moving in the veins of north- 
ern oak and southern vine, are those mighty forces noiselessly at work 
that shall by and by bring forth in perfected beauty the full-born glory 
of the year. 

And so, all over our happy country, are the influences silently work- 
ing that make a free government possible. Li the hearts of little chil- 

23 



24 PROCEEDINGS — DEPARTMENT OF SUPERINTENDENCE. 

dren are sown the germs of virtue and patriotism ; in the veins of buoy- 
ant youth are flowing the enthusiasm of loyalty and the ambition of 
lofty ideals, which have their source only in a wise, and true, and uni- 
versally diffused education. 

In thousands of school-houses all over our land, wise and conscien- 
tious manhood, tender and loving womanhood, have been devoted to the 
task of nursing these seeds of virtue, of directing these currents of en- 
thusiasm. 

The cause must ever be greater than the effect. Under the dome 
of the Capitol and in the chamber of the cabinet the machinery of leg- 
islation does its work. But the real force lies far back, in the develop- 
ment of brain force, and the training of will power, that gave us men 
capable of regulating affiiirs so complex and so vast. 

Viewed in this light, our assembly is one of no small import ; and its 
deliberations assume a dignity that can not easily be overrated. 

The convention is to be congratulated that it meets under such happy 
auspices. Its presiding officers are to be congratulated that the willing 
response of the able men (and women, too) whose services they have so- 
licited, makes it possible to present a programme containing such rare 
promise of interest and of profit. 



ADDEESS OF WELC JME. 
By John W. Holcombb, 

Washingtorij D, C, 

Oentlemen of the Department of Superintendence, and Ladies (for there 
are women superintendents of cities and counties, and we hope some of 
these are present): I think you will agree with me that Washington is 
the most hospitable city in the Union. Have you not seen the evi- 
dences all around you this wonderful week ? You have seen her re- 
ceive and entertain and make comfortable — more or less — people num- 
bered by the hundred thousand. You have seen an enthusiastic wel- 
come extended to all sorts and conditions and Colors and races and 
trades of men, women, and children — to apprentices and Presidents, to 
smiths and millers, to carpenters and cabinet-makers, to bureau-builders, 
wire-pullers, and organ-grinders, to pleasure-seekers, office-seekers, self- 
seekers, truth-seekers — with hopeful auguries, also, to an old political 
party returning to power, chastened, it is believed, by defeat, and its 
virtues renewed by contact with the purity of life and character of the 
eminent citizen whom the Eepublic by happy good fortune has secured 
for its President. But hospitality does not end with the entertainment. 
The parting guests must receive God-speeds and farewells, and these 
have been given with hearty good will to many thousands, but to none 
more heartily or with more good will than to the brave, strong man who, 



INTRODUCTORY ADDRESSES. 25 

while guiding tbo destinies of this great nation, has for four years borne 
himself in his exalted ofl&ce with the unaliected simi)licity of a citizen 
among fellow-citizens. 

This character of hospitality fitly distinguishes the Federal city, the 
national city, the city belonging not to herself, but to the entire Union, 
and here every child of the Eepublic may properly feel himself some- 
thing more than a guest, may feel himself at h^me and among his own. 
But whether ye, superintendents, principals, presidents, teachers, be 
held as best-loved guests or as favorite children, the heart of the nation 
bids you welcome in this her especial seat, and rejoices in the cause of 
your coming and your stay. She recognizes you not as pleasure-seek- 
ers, though wishing you all possible enjoyment within her gates, not as 
office-seekers, though ready to sympathize with you even in that pursuit, 
but as truth-seekers winning and diffusing knowledge for the common 
weal. In that character she feels honored by your presence, and re- 
peats to you her warmest welcome from year* to year. She bids you 
enter into her temples, her courts, and chambers, as your own ; to con- 
template her priceless treasures and make them yours, in the enduring 
possession of the mind; to examine and learn to know the many and va- 
ried agencies assembled here for promoting as well the intellectual as the 
material advancement of mankind. 

Of these agencies it is permissible in this presence to speak particu- 
larly of one, for to the enlightened foresight and the active influence of 
this Association the United States Bureau of Education owes its ex- 
istence. At your meeting in Washington, February, 28G6, resolutions 
were framed and adopted, and a committee was appointed to memorialize 
Congress for the creation of such an office. The work was speedily 
accomplished, and the office, at first called the Department, and after- 
ward the Bureau of Education, was established. For a time its for- 
tunes seemed uncertain, but gradually the public confidence was won. 
Throughout its existencefthe alliance of the Bureau with your associa- 
tion has been the closest, you it has striven to serve, to you it has looked 
for aid and encouragement. 

To-day it acknowledges the great indebtedness of the past and asks 
your continued interest for the future; it invites your candid and careful 
consideration of the work it has already done, and your frank sugges- 
tions toward improvement and increased efficiency hereafter. In addi- 
tion to the general welcome I have tried to speak, I would express in 
behalf of the Commissioner of Education the hope that no member of 
the Department of Superintendence will leave Washington without vis- 
iting the Bureau which has so intimate a connection with his work. 



TRAINING OF TEACHERS. 



PSYCHOLOGY IN ITS EELATION TO PEDAGOGY. 

By Nicholas Murray Butler, Ph. D., 

President of the New York College for the Training of Teachers, 

If any one were formally to undertake to demonstrate that a root is 
necessary to a tree, a peflestal to a statue, or a knowledge of machinery 
to an engineer, his arguments would attract but little attention — not 
because of their possible lack of soundness, but because of the self-evi- 
dent nature of the proposition to be proved. The proposition that a 
knowledge of the science of mind is in like manner necessary to an un- 
derstanding of the science of education possesses for the vast majority 
of persons no such self-evidence 5 it is by no means accepted as an 
axiom. It can not be said that its truth is rigorously denied nor even 
seriously impugned, but it is either neglected entirely or else accepted 
in so halting and half-hearted a way that it fails to carry its full sig- 
nificance as well as to suggest those numerous and important conse- 
quences which follow in its train. Now, if there is such a thing as a 
fact of science and if it is worth knowing, it is worth knowing thor- 
oughly. We can not afford to shrink from the consequences of any 
truth, even though they entail the abandonment of some favorite prac- 
tice or the giving up of some pet theory. Mf object this morning is in 
a brief and hurried way to prove, largely by illustration, the truth oi 
the proposition that a knowledge of the science of mind is necessary to 
a knowledge of the science of education ; that psychology bears to 
pedagogy the same relation as does the root to the tree, the pedestal to 
the statue. 

Psychology is the basis on which pedagogy is built and the source of 
its life and strength. Even if proved, this proposition may not on that 
account become self-evident, though it is to be hoped that it will. Self- 
evidence, however, is not the same at all times and seasons, nor for all 
persons. It is a very familiar i'act that certain things whose connection 
or relation was once a matter of demonstration, afterward come to seem 
of necessity related or connected. Kant's famous division of all judg- 
ments into analytic and synthetic, those which add something to our 
knowledge and those which simply throw what we already know into a 
new form, is from one point of view only relative. A judgment which 
26 



♦TKAIl^mG OF TEACHERS. 27 

in infancy and youth is synthetic becomes in adult age analytic. The 
physicist and the chemist make statements self-evident to themselves, 
but to the rest of the world novel and wonderful. To De Morgan's 
clear mental vision a logical process which to the student seems involved 
and doubtful, presented itself as self-evident. Leibnitz admitted as a 
simple and self-evident law of thought a principle for which Hamilton 
and Mansel could find no warrant. Perhaps it is not too much to hope 
that the time will soon come when all teachers and persons interested 
in education will admit, on a par with the axiom that a straight line is 
the shortest distance between two points, the fundamental pedagogic 
truth that an accurate kuowledge of the nature, powers, and processes 
of the human mind is essential to those whose profession and duty it is 
to train and develop t' at mind. It must be assumed, for the present 
discussion that a science of education exists and has presented itself in 
ever increasing definiteness and conformity to its environment. My 
purpose is to indicate how this science of education, pedagogics, may 
be traced back to its natural and logical foundation in psychology, and 
then to point out the general pharacter of the consequences which 
result from the accepted connection of the two sciences in question. 

Education we know to be a process that is much more easily de- 
scribed than defined. It is the unfolding of all the powers and facul- 
ties — physical, mental, and moral — ^latent in man. It begins with birth 
and ceases only wtien the faculties fail. But the most important part 
of education is that which takes place in the early years of life, when a 
foriiiative inflaence with a definite Qnd in view is exercised by the 
teacher on the pupil. It is this portion of education, including the im- 
portant factors of instruction and school-life, that falls within the scope 
of pedagogics. We must emphasize the fact that this education, no 
matter what its particular form, deals directly with the mind, and with 
the mind only. Even physical education is imparted through intel- 
ligence. It is the mind that is appealed to directly and at once. The 
training of the muscles even is through the mind, and the action on the 
muscles themselves is thus secondary and indirect. Moral education, 
the training of character and the formation of habits, no matter how 
objective it may be, is still education through the pupiPs intelligence, 
and is so far mental. Sometimes, indeed, we hear an education of the 
senses spoken of, as if it were something that required no purely mental 
effort or co-operation. Any such doctrine, it must be pointed out, in- 
volves gross psychological error. The training of the eye, the ear, the 
touch, the taste is mental training. The eye can not see 5 it is only an 
optical instrument. The lens may be perfect, the retina healthy, the 
optic nerve intact, yet no sight results unless the optic centers of the 
brain are present and in organic connection with the optic apparatus. 
The same is true, mutatis mtitandis, of the ear, the touch, and the re- 
maining senses. The senses are indeed " the windows of the soul," 
but they are only windows, and not, as some would seem to regard them, 



28 PROCEEDINGS DEPARTMENT OF SUPERINTENDENCE. 

souls. It is the mind, then, whicli is immediately affected and appealed 
to in education. The ways of approach to it may be many and various*, 
and the ends for which it is approached widely different in character 
and importance, but the mind remains the only essential element in the 
process. The effect of an intelligent appreciation of this fact is very 
great. Those who are accustomed to look down upon certain forms and 
phases of education because they employ means of approach to the mind 
conventionally held to be less dignified than others, must be driven to in- 
consistency and incoherence or else to a revision of opinion by the recog- 
nition of the fact in question. Let him who considers carving and mold- 
ing, for example, non-mental operations, endeavor to produce a sphere or 
a cube from the untrimmed block with his knife, and it may safely be as- 
serted that whatever the success of his attempt may be, he will arise from 
it with an increased respect for the mental ability of one who can rapidly 
and dexterously carve spheres and cubes. And this is but one of an hun- 
dred instances which might be cited. Furthermore, the acceptance of 
this truth and a knowledge of the psychology of habits bring into 
prominence the importance of every step in mental life and develop- 
ment. It forbids us to set aside as insignificant details all those ac- 
tions and operations usually known as minor and unimportant, but 
which we now recognize as influencing the mind directly and as bear- 
ing their share in the formation of character. . What right have wo 
dogmatically to assert that some mental processes are more dignified 
and worthy than others ? Where is our warrant for the imperium in im- 
perio that we have set up? It will be granted at once that some forms 
of the mind's activity are superior to others by reason of tlieir difficulty, 
the character of their results, and their importance for the highest life 
of the soul. But that is quite another thing from permitting them to 
arrogate to themselves a superior ethical quality which is denied to 
their fellows. The one can not become the other, but it can be perfect 
in its own sphere, humble thougli we may choose to regard that 
sphere to be. This and numerous other ethical truths are clearly seen 
when once the fundamental proposition on which they are based is 
grasped. But the two aspects of it with which we are just now con- 
cerned are the psychological and the educational. 

Stated as bluntly as it stands above — a knowledge of the nature, 
powers, and processes of the human mind is essential to those whose 
profession and duty it is to train and develop the human mind — our 
thesis sounds like a truism. Every friend of education could wish 
that it were acted upon as such. We can imagine, however, that it 
might be said, "Stated theoretically that is all very well; but how 
can a knowledge of psychology be used practically by the teacher ? " 
That word " practically'' keeps sounding in our ears, and the demand 
it voices must be satisfied. 

Perhaps it is easier to turn to the negative side of the question first 
and show what is the practical effect of an ignorance of psychology on 



TRAINING OF TEACHERS. 29 

the teacher's work. For this purpose no expression of opinion can be 
clearer, stronger, or more emphatic than that of Herbert Spencer. He 
says (Education, American ed., p. 60.) : 

Grant that the phenomena of intelligence conform to laws ; grant that the evolu- 
tion of intelligence in a child also conforms to laws ; and it follows inevitably that 
education can be rightly guided only by a knowledge of these laws. To suppose that 
you can properly regulate this process of forming and accumulating ideas without 
understanding the nature of the process is absurd. How widely, then, must teach- 
ing as it is differ from teaching as it should bo, when hardly any parents and but few 
teachers know anything about psychology. As might be expected, the system is 
grievously at fault, alike in manner and matter. While the right class of facts is 
withheld, the wrong class is^forcibly administered in the wrong way andin the wrong 
order. With that common limited idea of education which confines it to knowledge 
gained from books, parents thrust primers into the hands of their little ones years too 
soon, to their great injury. Not recognizing the truth that the function of the books 
is supplementary — that they form our indirect means to knowledge when direct means 
fail — a means of seeing through other men what you can not see for yourself — ^they 
are eager to give second-hand facts in place of first-hand facts. Not perceiving the 
enormous value of that spontaneous education which goes on in the early years — not 
perceiving that a child's restless observation, instead of being ignored or checked, 
should be delicately administered to and made as accurate and complete as possible— 
they insist on occui>ying its eyes and thoughts with things that are for the* time being 
incomprehensible and repugnant. Possessed by a superstition which worships the 
symbols of knowledge instead of the knowledge itself, they do not see that only 
when his acquaintance with the objects and processes of the household, the streets, 
and the fields is becoming tolerably exhaustive — only' then should a child be intro- 
duced to the now sources of information which books supply ; and this not only be- 
cause immediate cognition is of far greater value than mediate cognition, but also 
because the words contained in books can be rightly interpreted into ideas only in 
proportion to the antecedent experience of things. Observe next, that this formal 
instruction, far too soon commenced, is carried on with but little reference to the 
laws of mental development. Intellectual development is of necessity from the con- 
crete to the abstract. But, regardless of this, highly abstract subjects, such as gram- 
mar, which should come quite late, are begun quite early. Political geography, dead 
and uninteresting to a child, and which should bo an appendage of sociological stud- 
ies, is commenced betimes ; while i^hysical geography, comprehensible and compara- 
tively attractive to a child, is in great part passed over. Nearly every subject dealt 
with is arranged in abnormal order, definitions and rules and principles being put 
first, instead of being disclosed, as they are in the order of nature, through the study 
of cases. And then, pervading the whole, is the vicious system of rote learning, a 
system of sacrificing the spirit to the letter. See the results. What with perceptions 
unnaturally dulled by early thwarting and a coerced attention to books ; what with 
the mental confusion produced by teaching subjects before they can be understood, 
and in each of tliem giving generalizations before the facts of which thoy are the 
generalizations ; what with making ihe pui^il a mere passive recipient of others' 
ideas, and not in the least leadiqg him to be an active inquirer or self -instructor ; and 
what with taxing the faculties to excess, there are very few minds that become as 
eflicient as they might be. Examinations being once passed, books are laid aside; 
the greater pjirt of what has been acquired, being unorganized, soon drops out of 
recollection ; what remains is mostly inert, the art of applying knowledge not hav- 
ing been cultivated, and there is but little power either of accurate observation or in- 
dependent thinking. To all which add that while much of the information gained is 
of relatively small value, an immense mass of information of transcendent value is 
entirely passed over. 



30 PROCEEDINGS ^DEPARTMENT OF SUPERINTENDENCE. 

This indictment is clear, concise, and comprehensive, and for that 
reason it is quoted with tolerable fullness. What considerations are 
more familiar to us than those advanced by Mr. Spencer? We have 
all seen time and time again that curious perversion of judgment 
which prefers book-knowledge to fact-knowledge — what some one sa^^s 
about a thing to an acquaintance with the thing itself. Happily this 
false tendency in our education is now being checked, and will in time 
be replaced by a sounder theory of education values ; but a few years 
ago this was not the case, and superficial book-knowledge was almost 
everywhere given the first place. 

Again, a very rudimentary acquaintance with psychology would 
make clear the fact that imagination and memory can create nothing ; 
they merely combine in forms commonplace or more or less grotesque, 
the products of our previous sense-given knowledge. Consider what 
this means in connection with knowledge gained from a ' book, or at 
second-hand, instead of from contact with the object itself. The image 
of the object which is before the mind is not that of the object as it 
really is, but as it is thought to be according to the description. The 
description has been given in language, and the words have called up 
parts of images of objects previously known — it was impossible for 
them to call up anything else — and the mind has framed for itself a 
concept which may be wholly untrue and unreliable. And this it is 
which has to do service for accurate knowledge. I recall an excellent 
story which illustrates the way in which ignorance of psychology on the 
part of the teacher brings about confusion in the mind of the pupil in this 
respect. A primary teacher had been endeavoring to make clear to her 
arithmetic class what was meant by the word " dozen," and concluded 
the exercise by calling up each pupil to frame a sentence or a problem 
in which the word should be correctly used. She was surprised — 
though unnecessarily so — when the first child called upon gave as his 
example, " 1 dozen know my lesson." The explanation had been given 
wholly in words, similar sounds had become confused in the child's 
mind, and this ludicrous example was the result. Had the explanation 
been illustrated by blocks or marbles or anything visible and tangible in 
which the child was int/erested, the instruction would have been valua- 
ble instead of valueless. Perhaps these examples will suflice to show 
the ill results attending education attempted in ignorance of psyco- 
logical principles. We may now consider a few representative topics in 
education, the proper treatment of which is at once and only pointed 
out to us by psychology. 

The first and most important of these I take to be the conception of 
mind as an organism which grows and develops. The implications of 
this conception are numerous and important. Growth and development 
while allied, are not identical processes. Growth, as increase in size or 
bulk, may be distinguished from development, as increase in complexity 
or function. In the order of time, growth must precede development 



TRAINING OF TEACHERS. 31 

and furnisli the latter with new material to be worked over and cast 
into new forms and combinations. Development comes later, and is of 
higher intellectual quality. In childhood and early youth growth pre- 
dominates. There is a continual and conHuuous accession of new facts 
which enter the mind as facts simply and not as factors in a thoroughly 
digested scheme of knowledge. This comes afterward, and constitutes 
mental development. Of course both processes, growth and develop- 
ment, go on together, but development only gradually forces its way 
into the foremost place. This it attains in early manhood, and the adult 
life is rather a time for digesting and adjusting and coordinating into 
an organized whole the knowledge previously gained, than for the ac- 
quirement of new data. Though, just as in early life development in 
some degree accompanies growth, so in adult life growth accompanies 
development. Development is only possible to an organism, and the 
growth of an organic is very different from that of an inorganic body. 
The latter takes place by accretion, as the snowball grows by being 
rolled through soft snow^ the former by assimilation, as the plant or 
animal extracting nourishment from its environment, assimilates it and 
grows. The two growths are entirely different, the one external, me- 
chanical, and artificial, the other from within, organic and natural. 
The educational significance of this is very great. For we now learn 
that the mind is not a sort of box or case wholly distinct from its con- 
tents, and which may be filled and emptied at will, -and into which any 
sort of knowledge may be placed temporarily and then taken out again 
if found to be injurious or unpleasant. This is an old conception which 
is now passing into oblivion. We know mind as an organism, as feed- 
ing and living upon the nourishment absorbed by it, and, moreover, 
determined both as to form and character by that nourishment. As- 
similation of nourishment is necessary to mental development. The 
mind must make what it receives its own. In other words, word-inowl- 
edge, whatever form it may take, is not nutritious. The mind is but 
little better off for being put through a sort of stufiing process, during 
which mere symbols are forced into it. A slight residuum of real knowl- 
edge may remain, but it will be utterly disproportionate to the time and 
expense of the process. Psychology demands, then, that ftiind be 
treated in education as the organism which it is, and not as an inani- 
mate thing which it is not. 

The development of this organism, mind, is continual and increas- 
ingly complex. There is no break, no sudden leap, no astonishing transi- 
tion. The unfolding is gradual, and the same fundamental powers are 
evidenced throughout. Some teachers seem to think that the child- 
mind is an entirely diff'erent phenomenon from the adult mind. This is 
a mistake. In each is mind present by virtue of the exercise of the 
mental powers of discrimination and assimilation. The distinction is 
that the materials with which these processes are busied grow increas- 
ingly complex as the child becomes a youth and the youth a man. 



32 PROCEEDINGS — ^DEPARTMENT OF SUPERINTENDENCE, 

Sense-perception, the mental activity predominant in the child^s life, 
is discrimination and assimilation of particular stimuli. Conception is 
discrimination and assimilation of percepts. Judgment is discrimina- 
tion and assimilation of concepts. Reasoning is discrimination and 
assimilation of judgments. It is this increase in the generality of 
knowledge, in abstraction and complexity, that is indicative of mental 
development. 

This psychological truth at once finds application in pedagogics. It 
warns us that the child must first be brought in contact with singular 
and easily apprehended objects, that laws and formulas should follow, 
not precede, examples. So much has been said and written on this sub- 
ject of late that extended treatment of it is unnecessary. It is to be 
observed, too, that few violations of this law of mind are any longer to 
be observed, so far as the general arrangement of studies is concerned. 
School-masters have learned to place the easy before the difllcult^ the 
simple before the complex, the concrete before the abstract. One of 
the few violations, however, which still exists is so important that it may 
well be pointed out. That exception is the teaching of geography. It 
is not too much to say that in the vast majority of schools in Great Brit- 
ain and the United States geography is not taught at all. To the aver- 
age English-speaking teacher — and I am obliged to use this designa- 
tion, for happily on the continent of Europe they know better — geogra- 
phy means the stuffing into the pupiPs mind a number of isolated facts^ 
such as the height in feet of so many mountains, the length in miles of 
so many rivers, the names of so many cities and towns, the depth and 
area of so many lakes. Geographical text-books constructed on this 
plan have been called "miniature gazetteers," a phrase which describes 
them excellently, for they are certainly not books on geography. *As 
Dr. Edward Channing has pointed out (Science, Yol. IX, p. 49) — 

Geography, jjioporly studied, gives one a clear and accurate knowledge of the physi- 
cal conformation of the earth's surface. * * » [The child] should be taught to 
observe phenomena. * * * The flora and fauna of each region of the earth's sur- 
face should be properly associated in the child's mind. * * * Geography aims 
also to teach the influence of geographic factors upon the development of the human 
race. This infliieuce is frequently exaggerated. But the working out of such prob- 
lems, evAi on ibsufficient data, 'must have a stimulating efl^ect upon the mind. * * » 
[The aim of geographical education] is to make men understand what is going on 
around them, * * * [to be able] to converse intelligently upon the present crisis 
in Bulgaria, or on the economic changes which will be wrought by the Panama Canal, 
if it is ever opened ; to travel abroad with some degree of comfort to one's self, and 
to one's readers if one writes a book ; to read with interest and appreciation articles 
on campaigns, like those now appearing in the Century Magazine. 

As we all know very well, geography in this sense — and it is the true 
one — has but small place in our educational system. Political geogra- 
phy, a subject really meaningless save in connection with the historical 
and sociological studies, is usually given a prominent place as well as 
brought very early into the curriculum. This is a direct violation of 
the psychological law which we are illustrating, and a violation which 



TRAINING OP TEACHERS. 33 

should be speedily corrected. The spread of sounder educational ideas 
will correct this in time, in fact is correcting it slowly now, but even 
to-day it is safe to say that papers like those included in the educational 
reports of the Eoyal (English) Geographical Society for 1886 would 
sound strange enough to the great majority of American teachers. 

But, as was said above, it is not so much in the general arrangement 
of studies that psychological laws are overlooked and violated as in the 
method of teaching the various branches of the school and academic 
course. Here tradition is lingering longer than anywhere else, and 
the modern expounders of methods of teaching find a difficult task 
before them in the removal of what is antiquated and false as a pre- 
liminary to the inculcation of what they deem to be timely and true. 
I^ow, in so far as these modern methods of teaching mean the basing of 
pedagogics upon psycholog}^, the insisting upon a study of mindfor those 
who train it, they are to be unreservedly commended. And it is butftiir 
to say that this is what they generally do mean. In some quarters, 
however, there is a disposition to go too far, and not only to use but to 
abuse methods of teaching. You will find that over-organization — for 
there is such a thing — and the pushiiig of methods too far are usually 
found together. Some of the French and German books on pedagogy 
exemplify this. They prescribe how the teacher should look, what he 
should wear, how every minute detail of the subject with which he is 
entrusted should be presented. Nothing is left to his judgment; no allow- 
ance is made for difficult or exceptional situations; everything must be 
the same. A dead level of mediocrity is aimed at. The teacher's in- 
dependence is destroyed and he becomes a pedagogic machine. It was 
in France, you will remember, that the amusing incident occurred which 
is related on the authority of Mr. Matthew Arnold, and which illus- 
trates admirably how far organization may be carried. The French 
minister of public instruction, while engaged in conversation, once drew 
his watch from his pocket and said, "At this moment in every school in 
France the children of the same grade are being taught the same sub- 
ject in the same way.'' An^ the last book of instructions to Real-School 
teachers issued by the Government of Austria indicates an amount of 
organization and method even surpassing those of the French. These 
instructions not only provide that all over the Empire pupils of the 
same grade shall be taught the same lesson at the same time, but they 
even go so far as to say that the teacher must enter school with a 
pleasant expression of countenance so as to show that he has his work 
at heart and to impart a spirit of cheerfulness to his pupils. Such non- 
sense as this — for it certainly seems to me nonsenso-^is too artificial and 
too superficial to acconiplish its purpose. The child readily detects the 
sham, and as a result loses confidence in his teacher's sincerity. In the 
United States, where our educational organization is not and never can 
be a bureaucracy, any such excesses as these are out of the question as 
882— 5fo. 2 3 



34 PROCEEDINGS — ^DEPARTMENT OP SUPERINTENDENCE. 

a part of a system, and they are too little in keeping with the national 
character to appeal to many individaals. 

It is thas made apparent that there is snch a thing as method ran 
mad, as well as a lack of it. And here again an appeal to psychology 
woald aid our notions on the subject. For from psychology we learn 
that no two minds are alike. It may be a difference in original capac- 
ity, in hereditary tendency, in natural or in social environment, but it 
is always something. Even twins show remarkable points of dissimi- 
larity, as Mr. Gal ton and others ha.ve shown, despite the fact that there 
is as much sameness as is possible in the circumstances attending their 
hereditary disposition and early training. To no one more than the 
practical teacher, accustomed to face daily a class of growing boys and 
girls, is the marked dissimilarity of intellect, character, and tempera- 
ment patent. What folly, then, to say arbitrarily that the same methods 
of instruction and training must apply discriminately to all. There is 
one Procrustes in literature, and the fate of his victims, who were either 
cut off or stretched until they fitted the single bed he had prepared for 
them, should be a sufficient warning to any who are disposed to trans- 
plant his uniform method of treatment into the field of nineteenth cent- 
ury education. Methods we want and must have, but they must be 
such as are based upon the general laws of mind and its development 
and upon the teachings of experience. They will be norms rather than 
rules, approximations rather than closely calculated formulas. They 
will admit of variation to suit particular cases, and of being set aside 
entirely when any higher end is to be subserved. 

Pestalozzi and Jiis followers have told us that the most general and 
fundamental law of method Is, "Proceed from the known to theun* 
known," and this law has now obtained wide acceptance. A recent 
educational writer (Prof. H. W. Payne, Contributions to the Science 
of Education, p. 168), however, has vigorously attacked this maxim as 
a "bit of educational cant that passes current to save the labor of think- 
ing.'' He objects to it as being unpsychological, as vague, and as 
framed for special cases and then unduly extended until it became a 
general law. Unquestionably the principle has been pushed too far 
and even brought into ridicule by its overzealous advocates. But it 
seems to me that this criticism of it must rest upon some misconcep- 
tion; for certainly bringing the mind in contact with a new and wholly 
unknown fact seems very like dashing the fact against a stone wall. 
If there is no item of information, no curiosity or interest with which 
the new fact can connect itself, it must fall to the ground unsupported 
and remain unknown. It is a cardinal principle in teaching that any 
new topic or subject must, when introduced, be brought into relation 
with what has gone before. The preliminary chapters of rhetoric, for 
example, connect it with grammar, those of algebra with arithmetic, 
and so on. In so far the new subject must be known. It must be un 
derstood sufficiently to permit an appreciation of its relation with its 



TRAINING OF TEACHERS. 35 

predecessor, and since this is made the starting point of instruction the 
process is certainly from the known to the unknown. This seems per- 
fectly clear, and it is difficult to understand how any practical teacher 
can attempt to invalidate the principle when taken in this sense. 

Now, our psychological knowledge will not only teach us to look upon 
mind as an organism that develops according to fixed laws, to take 
account of those laws in the arrangement of a curriculum and in tlie 
imparting of any and every subject of study, and to frame our methods 
upon those laws, but it will teach us to introduce each subject at its 
own proper time, not to appeal to faculties yet undeveloped, and not 
to carry instruction in a subject too far — for there is a time to stop 
with the average mind just as there is a time to begin. The .continu- 
ance of instruction after what we may call the *' saturation point " has 
been reached is not nearly so harmful as is commencing it too early 5 it 
is rather wasteful of time and effort than positively injurious to the 
pupil. But it is none the less to be avoided. 

The very first mental faculty to be reached and controlled in educa-; 
tion is the attention. It is the first because it is the condition of all the 
others. A child whose attention has not been developed and trained 
can not be efficiently reached through any of his faculties. This is ex- 
plained as soon as we have recourse to our psychology and learn that 
attention is focussed consciousness. It is consciousness directed to 
some special object of knowledge. It is not a new and strange faculty ; 
it is merely a phase of consciousness. As such it has its laws, and our 
study of mind quickly shows that non-voluntary attention, or attention 
in response to some attractive stimulus, precedes voluntary attention. 
An example of involuntary attention is our quickly turning to catch 
a strange sound ; of voluntary attention, our application to a particular 
task, because we will to do so in response to a consciousness that such 
application is either necessary or is our duty. Then, too, we learn the 
laws governing the transition of attention as well as the curious and 
numerous effects of expectant attention. We come to look upon at- 
tention as stored in a reservoir, and its activity and intensity at any one 
time as depending on two things : first, the capacity of the reservoir, 
represented here by the amount of nervous and mental energy at our 
disposal, and, secondly, the size of the outlet, represented here by the 
stimulus which attracts the attention. In fact, the psychology of atten- 
tion is one of the most interesting parts of mental science, and it cer- 
tainly contributes as much to pedagogy that is practical as does any 
portion of the science of mind. 

It reminds us, first, that the pupil's attention is continually solicited 
in various directions by physical stimuli, by new sights and sounds and 
odors; to gain control of his attention we must offer some stimulus of 
sufficient interest to counterbalance these. An arithmetic lesson be- 
comes inconsequent while a procession is passing ; an exercise in parsing 
fares ill if there is a fire in the vicinity. And to punish a young child 



36 PROCEEDINGS — DEPARTMENT OF SUPERINTENDENCE. 

for his inability to refuse attention to the procession or the fire, is absurd. 
The control of the attention is only acquired gradually, and perfect con- 
trol over it is the rarest of accomplishments. Even so calm and self- 
regulatinfj a mind as that of Kant required assistance in this respect, 
and when engaged in profound meditation he used to fix his gaze on a 
neighboring church-spire which was very familiar and therefore not 
likely to excite him or distract his attention from the train of ideas that 
was before his mind. It is perfectly natural for the child's attention to 
flow outward, and itisagTcattax upon his powers of self-control to ask 
him to turn it inward upon some subject of imagination or thought. 
Similarly we must not expect the child to keep his attention fixed on any 
one thing for any considerable time. This entails mental fatigue and 
lassitude, and he must have some new stimulus presented which will 
call his attention in some other direction and act as a mental tonic. 
The child needs a certain amount of novelty, and is repelled, not at- 
tracted,.by a stereotyped phrase or a much-used illustration. Yolk- 
mann, one of the most acute of German psychologists, has pointed out 
that the new education has done away with the maxim of the old — 
*^ Make your instruction interesting'' — and has substituted for it, " In- 
struct in such a way as to awaken an interest that will remain active 
for life." No pai^fc of the training of the attention is more important 
than this. For attention awakens interest, and it is an essential part 
of the teacher's work to arouse interest in a number of directions and 
to start the mental activity along those lines in which it is best and 
most profitable for it to continue in after life. This power of attention 
cannot be implanted by punishment and force 5 it must be trained and 
encouraged to grow of itself. John Locke has some excellenr remarks 
upon Attention (Thoughts concerning Education, 167), and among them 
one on this very point. He says : 

'Tis, I know, tlie usual method of tutors to endeavor to procure attention in their 
scholars and to fis their minds to the business in hand by rebakes and corrections if 
they find them ever so little wandering. But such treatment is sure to procure the 
q^uite contrary ofitect. Passionate worde* or blows from the tutor fill the child's mind 
with terror and affrightment; which immediately takes it wjiolly up, and leaves no 
room for other impressions. I believe there is nobody that reads this, but may rec- 
ollect what disorder hasty or imperious words from his parents or teachers have caused 
in his thoughts ; how for the time it has turned his brain so that ho scarce knew what 
was said by or to him. He presently lost the sight of what he was upon, his mind 
was fiUed with disorder and confusion, and in that state was no longer capable of at- 
tention to anything else, * * • The great skill of a teacher is to got and keep 
the attention of his scholar; whilst he has that, he is sure to advance as fast as the 
learner's abilities will carry him; and without that, all his bustle and pother will be 
to little or no purpose. To attain this, he should make the child comprehend, (as much 
as may be) the usefulness ^of what ho teaches him, and let him see, by what ho has 
learnt, that ho can do something that he could not do before ; something which gives 
him some real power and real advantage abovo others who are ignorant of it. To 
this he should add sweetness in all his instructions, and by a certain tenderness in his 
whole carriage^ make the child sensible that he loves him and designs nothing l>iit 
his good, tho only way to begot love in the child« which will make him hearken to his 
lessons and relish what he teaches him. 



TRAINING OP TEACHERS. 37 

Having trained the pupil to substitute ideas and subjective states for 
external stimuli to his attention, the next step is to develop his ability 
to attend closely to that which is in itself unimpressive and uninterest- 
ing — in other words, to train his powers of application, ^o power is 
more helpful to him in after life than this. Proverbs and folk-tales in 
many languages have shown us that there is a popular recognition of 
the fact that persistent application will in the long run win as against 
greater ability indifferently concentrated. For this training the puz- 
zling problem in mathematics or logic and the translation from Greek 
or Latin are unsurpassed. The hours spent in laboring over a lexicon to 
determine the exact significance of a difficult construction in Homer or 
Sophocles, the time and patient thought consumed in working out an 
original demonstration in geometry or an involved problem in algebra, 
are not wasted. Every minute of painstaking exertion leaves its im- 
print upon the character. It is stronger and more self-reliant for each 
victory gained, just as certainly as it is weaker and more irresolute for 
every struggle given up in impatience or despair. 

The training of the senses is a topic on which psychology suggests 
much, but on which a great deal of that much has been said. We know 
that all the material of our external knowledge comes to us through the 
senses, and therefore the more extensive and accurate that sense-given 
knowledge is, the richer and truer will our mental life be. Dr. Fitch 
says something about this in his excellent "Lectures on Teaching :'' 

Tlie child who has learned in infancy to look steadily at the forms and aspects 
of things near him, is later in life a 1t)ettor observer of natnre and student of physi- 
cal science. He gets more enjoyment and moro culture from seeing pictures or fino 
scenery than if he had been accustomed to gaze aimlessly and vaguely at the things 
around him. He who has been taught, by exercises ever so childish, steadiness of hand 
and precision of touch is better fitted hereafter to be a good draughtsman or musician. 
And no training of ear to the finer differences of vocal inflection and expression is 
without a very important bearing on literary perception and taste. • • • Wo 
know that the development of greater sensitiveness to sight and sound is accompanied 
almost necessarily with the development of intellectual power ; that outward ex- 
pression is a great help to inward clearness ; and that whether wo call the quicken- 
ing of physical sensibility a part of lower or of higher education, it is too important 
a factor in the life and usefulness of a man to be disregarded by any teacher, whether 
high or low. 

Inasmuch as the range of sensibility is fixed by limits but slightly 
variable, the principal part of sense training will consist in increasing 
the power of sense discrimination. To do this the young child must be 
surrounded by objects of varying sizes, shapes, and color, from which 
he can select those which agree in certain particulars and place them 
in separate heaps. This is the initial stage, and by increasing the 
number and complexity of the objects and diminishing the number and 
prominence of their points of difference, the process may be carried on 
indefinitely. After a comparatively short exercise of the senses in this 
way, the mind will be found more observant of detail, more acute and 
accurate iu discrimination and classification. In a well-organized sys- 



1 



38 PROCEEDINGS — DEt^ARTMENT OF SUPERINTENDEl^Cl!. 

tem this training beginR systematically in the subprimaryor kinder- 
garten period and may be afterward carried on through the mediam of 
the object-lesson, concerning which Professor Bain has a aseful chap- 
ter (in Education as a Science), and with the use of some of the 
models and charts that the Germans have devised for the purpose. 
While a sound theory as to sense-training may be said to prevail, yet it 
is certain that our practice in this respect Is still deficient. The impor- 
tance of sound and psychologically justified procedure in this depart- 
ment of mental training can not be overestimated and should invariably 
be insisted upon. It has been shown that the study of botany is of 
great value for the training of the senses, for flowers and plants are 
easily obtained and they present many minute points of difference and 
resemblance, the detection of which is a sense-training in itself. Ento- 
mologists also claim that their science is of great value as a means of 
training the senses. 

The training of the faculties which next develop — conception, ab- 
straction, generalization, judgment, and reasoning — connects itself nat- 
urally and easily with the training of the senses. When the child has 
observed individual tables of various forms, sizes materials, and so on, 
he will readily point out what qualities belong to this table as " this 
table " and what belong to it as '* a table." The latter are the material 
for a concept. Every-day life, the ordinary furniture, and objects in 
the home or school-room, will supply the ingenious teacher with all the 
material he can use in a month or two. The centring of the attention 
on specific qualities and the considering of them apart is the basis of 
abstraction and generalization, which proceed very rapidly as soon as 
the pupil has learned to look for causes. The fact that every event has 
an adequate cause should be kept unceasingly before the learner and 
illustrated for him again and again with every possible subject and 
from every possible point of view. History aftords examples which are 
at once interesting and easily traced. Mr. Courthope Bo wen (Science 
and Education, Vol. I, No. 4), in touching upon this subject recently, 
has given a suggestive illustration. He says that, starting from our 
modern agricultural troubles, we may attempt a more elaborate chain oi 
reasoning and accumulation of causes in explanation of the peasant re- 
volt in the latter part of the fourteenth century. The demands of the 
peasants, the actual occurrences of the rebellion, and the events which 
immediately preceded and followed it, will suggest sufiQcient causes to 
the teacher and his pupils, and into these causes investigation may then 
be made. The analogy between this outbreak four centuries ago and 
recent events in Europe and America is very striking, and would he 
a most instructive study for a class of somewhat advanced pupils. 

When a student is once impressed with the necessity and value of 
determing chains of caussltion between phenomena, whether they be of 
language, mathematics, natural science, or history, he has come in con- 
tact with the true scientific^ spirit and will never again pass wholly 



TRAINING OP TEACHERS. 39 

beyond its influence. Direct search for causes on the part of the pupil 
himself is the best exercise in this, but a strict adherence to chains of 
causation by the teacher in his teaching is invaluable. In this, as in 
uioral training, experience has demonstrated that more may be accom- 
plished by the power of example than by direct instruction. As a mat- 
ter of fact, this teaching by example is now recognized as the most 
efficient means of imparting elementary instruction in morals. It takes 
advantage of the imitative instinct, which, all-powerful in some of the 
lower animals, is still very strong in man, and especially in children. 

Having acquired a habit of close and intelligent observation, the child 
must next be encouraged to describe what he' sees and hears, and to do 
so with thorough accuracy. This is a difficult thing to induce a young 
child to do, because of his vivid imagination and his fondness for exag- 
geration. These tendencies can be held in check, however, by keeping 
before him the object of which he is giving an account, and comparing 
each statement as it is made with the object. It is also desirable that 
his account be clear, concise, grammatical, and coherent. Verbal cor- 
rection is, of course, useful, but nothing will develop the above desirable 
characteristics so rapidly and effectually as composition writing, when 
the child is old enough to begin this, under careful supervision. 

That this early exercise in careful observation and its accurate ex- 
pression is of genuine importance to the subsequent mental development 
receives additional proof from the study of the early training of men 
who have aftjerward made their mark in the exact sciences. Very 
positive testimony may be found in the life of Agassiz (Houghton, Mifflin 
& Co., 1886, Vol. I, p. 3, etseq.). We read there that that love of natural 
history which marked the great naturalist showed itself in very early 
life, and that while yet a small boy he had his collections of fishes, birds, 
rabbits, and other i animals, whose families he raised with the greatest 
care. ''His pet animals suggested questions, to answer which was the 
task of his life, and his intimate study of the fresh- water fishes of Europe, 
later the subject of one of his important works, began with his first 
collection from the lake of Morat" (p. 4). Agassiz was also given to 
amusing himself with all manner of handicrafts when a little fellow. 

While yet young he could cut and put together a well-fitting pair of shoes for hia 
Bisters' dolls, was no bad tailor, and could make a miniature barrel that was perfectly 
water tight. He remembered these trivial facts as a valuable part of his incidental 
education. He said he owed much of his dexterity in manipulating to the training 
of eye and hand gained in these childish plays. (Pp. 4, 5.) 

The several intellectual processes, it must be remembered, present 
themselves in infinite complexity, and they are intimately connected, 
No state of consciousnesid, even in the pupil, is absolutely simple. It 
contains an admi3;ture of two or more processes of knowledge. And 
this fact makes the teacher's work more difficult than ever. It would 
be comparatively easy to lay down rules first for the training of the at- 
tention, then for the training of the sense-perception, and so on, if we 



40 PKOCEEDINGS — DEPARTMENT OP SUPERINTENDENCE. 

could presuppose their individual and unimpeded development. Some 
writers on pedagogies express themselves as if this was the case. But 
the facts are very different. Mind develops as a whole, though various 
phases of it predominate at various times, and it is not pulled out like 
a telescope, each section of which takes its proper place before its suc- 
cessor is set in motion. The teacher has therefore to thread his way 
cautiously through the ways of mental phenomena presented to him 
and make provision for all the separate influences which he finds at 
work. Since the development of mind is gradual no date can be set at 
which the power of conception or judgment will emerge from some fan- 
cied prison and begin its course. The more complex phenomena appear 
very gradually and quietly from the simpler. Yet experience shows that 
certain pieriods may be roughly determined, during which some one 
mental operation with its peculiar capacities and impulses is in the 
fore-ground. One of the most suggestive of these mappings out of 
periods in the pupils is that of Beneke. He finds four periods. The 
first extends to the end of the third year; during this time instinct 
and the sense activity are prominent. The second period extends 
from the end of the third to the end of the seventh year ; during this 
time the internal, mental activity asserts itself and increases until it 
about balances the activity of sense-memory, and imagination develops 
and conscious design takes the place of instructive impulse. The third 
period extends from the end of the seventh to that of the fourteenth 
year 5 now the purely mental activity increases rapidly, it frees itself 
more and more trom sense, and develops a tendency to abstraction and 
thought. The fourth period extends from the end of the fourteenth 
year to the close of school life, and sees the coinpleter development of 
the higher powers and forms the transition to adult life and indepen- 
dent intellectual and moral activity. Pfisterer, iu his Padogogische 
Psychologie, proceeds on a division of mental life somewhat more 
elaborate than that of Beneke. He distinguishes the suckling age, the 
age of childhood, the age of boyhood and girlhood, and the period of 
youth. The suckling age embraces the first year of life, and is charac- 
terized by the ascendency of instinct, bodily life, and sense. The age 
of childhood ends at seven, and in the beginnings of self-consciousness 
are manifest though the outer world is still engrossing. The period of 
boyhood and girlhood closes with the fourteenth year, and is the period 
of elementary instruction. The period of youth, corresponding closely 
with the fourth period of Beneke, follows. Brief experience or a mo- 
ment's reflection will show that these schemes are valuable, not for what 
they assert, but for what they suggest. They are based on psychology, 
but a theoretical psychology. They approximate the truth, but laws 
to which no exception is allowed must not be founded upon them. The 
thoughtful teacher will use and not abuse the suggestions which they 
convey. 
But is intellect all of mind ? Are there no other sides of psychical 



TRAINING OF TEACHERS. 41 

activity f Psychology answers : You have taken no notice of feeling 
and willing, of the emotional and the active sides of mind ; you have 
spoken only of the cognitive. Of course, feeling and activity exist, and 
indeed ftir surpass in importance the cognitive powers, during the early 
years of babyhood and childhood. They enter into every fibre of our 
being. No cognitive act is without its pleasure or pain, nor without its 
influence, remote it may be, on some future activity. The training of 
the will is the forming of character, the chief end of all education. It 
occupies the first and foremost place in all pedagogy. The training of 
the emotions is only less important. The sense feelings, the egoistic 
and altruistic sentiments, the intellectual, moral and religious senti- 
ments, the Aesthetic emotions, the cultivation of taste, fall under this 
head, and the mere mention of these topics is suflBcient to indicate how 
impossible it would be to treat them incur present compass. 

It remains, then, to ask what hint psychology gives as to the ideal in 
education. What is the aim of it all f What is its deepest signifi- 
cance f To this question psychology gives a two-fold answer, one di- 
rect, the other indirect. The first reply is that man must be developed 
as an end in himself and to participate in the fullest life of the race. 
The second reply is indirect and comes through ethics, for which psy- 
chology furnishes the foundation — sound judgment, proper feeling, right 
action. But the same psychology that places this same goal before us 
all, tells us unmistakably that we can not all reach it in the same de- 
gree. Our endowments are qualitatively alike, quantitatively different. 
No perfect human mind is without the power to know, to feel, and to 
will, but no two minds have these powers in equal degree. Mathemat- 
ics takes four elements and proves conclusively that the number of their 
permutations and combinations are limited. Each one of them can be 
determined. Nature's methods are far different. The four influences 
of the original capacity, hereditary tendency, natural environment, and 
social environment combine to form countless millions of minds, no two 
alike. We may be born free and equ^^ before the law, but we are not 
bom free and equal mentall3% Each has his own talents and each his 
own corresponding duties and responsibilities. That each is account- 
able for his abilities and for no more and no less than his abilities the 
parable of the talents illustrates. He who had five talents was not re- 
quireei to return the product of ten, nor was he who had two punished 
because he returned less than he who had five. Each was accountable 
for his own. And this is the teaching of psychology, and of ethics 
through psychology, as to the aim in education. It is the best, alike 
for all, and yet to no two the same. We arc not to envy others, not to 
despair because we cannot reach their level. Our proportionate ideal 
is within reach of each of us. 

When we are hearing so much of the power of reason and mind, and 
when the one goal of perfect knowledge and absolute command over 
nature is being emphasized by some philosophers as that which is to be 



42 PKOCEEDINGS — DEPARTMENT OP SUPERINTENDENCE. 

reached by all men alike, it were well to remember that there are limits 
to what the mind can accomplish. It were well to recall the fact that 
in the eighteenth century the extreme claims made for the reason re- 
sulted in exposinc^ the whole fabric of knowledge to the bitter attack 
of the most thorough-going skepticism that the world has ever seen, 
and that in consequence the most powerful thinker of modern times 
made it his chief aim to demonstrate, not the power, but the weakness 
of human reason; for in this way could he perform the greatest service 
alike to philosophy and to science. Amiel, whose mysticism is remark- 
able for its subtle psychological analysis and its profound philosophic 
insight, emphasizes the moral and religious aspects of this truth in his 
Journal Intime (p. 83). These are his words: 

We must learn to look upon life as an apprenticeship to a progressive rentinoiation, 
a perpetual diminution of our pretensions, our hopes, our powers, and our liberty. 
The circle grows narrower and narrower; we begin with being eager to learn every- 
thing, to see everything, to tame and conquer everything, and in all directions we 
reach our limit, nonplus ultra. Fortune, glory, love, power, wealth, happiness, long 
life, aU these blessings which have been possessed by other men seem at first promised 
and accessible to us, and then we have to put away one dream after another to make 
ourselves small and humble, to submit to feel ourselves limited, feeble, dependent, 
ignorant, and poor, and to throw ourselves upon God for all, recognizing our own 
worthlessness, and that we have no right to anything. It is in this nothingness that 
we recover something of life; the divine spark is there at the bottom of it. Resig- 
nation comes to us, and, in believing love, we reconquer the true greatness. 

Psychology is Amiel's warrant for this beautiful passage. It teaches 
a lesson too little incorporated in education. But no education can be 
complete which, dwelling on the strength and power and capacity of 
mind, fails to point out its weakness, its dependence, and its limitations. 
The well-trained intellect, and the well moulded character are no longer 
dogmatic, and they are no longer skeptical. Least of all, are they pos- 
itive. The truest strength of mind is found in the recognition of its 
limitations. 



DISCUSSION. 

D. L. KiEHLB. Ladies and Gentlemen : If I were to fulfil the appoint- 
ment made for me on this programme, I would feel bound to ask the 
president to make a supplementary explanation, and that I be allowed 
to discuss a question that has not been presented in the paper. How- 
ever, I shall not insist upon that ; I,shall merely say that I will not dis- 
cuss the subject as assigned to me on the paper. I shall only take oc- 
casion to make a few remarks suggested by the paper and by such ex- 
perience as I have had in the department of education. I agree with 
and heartily approve the doctrine laid down in this paper. I believe 
no system of education worthy the name unless it be based in iutelli- 
geni and learned psychology. 

Now, with regard to the application of this doctrine, I observe first, 
that we are undertaking a discussion in the subject of education some- 



l-KAlNli^G OF tEACHERS. 43 

wliat like that in medicioe, for there have been those who question 
whether there is a science of medicine. Yet we agree, that while there 
is some empiricism there is a science. So in the subject of education, 
while there is empiricism, there is more and more a re ulation of the 
laws of education. We have observed this in the laws of medicine, that 
a man may be well informed in the department of anatomy and med- 
icine, and yet be a miserably poor doctor. He may know all about the 
anatomy of the patient, and when called doesn't know what to do. It is 
equally true with regard to the subject of psychology. There is such a 
thing as knowing all about the science of psychology, and yet wheji the 
learned psychologist is brought into the presence of the children, he 
doesn't know what to do with it any more than he would with a sick 
baby. 

I have known of teachers who, when discoursing upon the subject of 
psychology, before a class of students, showed themselves utterly 
oblivious to the forty or fifty boys who were listening to the maxim under 
discussion. What is true of medicine and true of a man who may be 
learned in the subject of psychology may be also true of a teacher. He 
may have learned a vast amount of psychological science, and yet know 
nothing about teaching or the application of it. The psychologist who 
will know something about the psychology of a boy must look a boy 
over and not a book about a boy. Therefore I urge this point, that our 
normal schools, or whoever else has anything to do with the training 
of teachers must see to it that they must instruct in the thing itself and 
not in the book about the thing. Our young teachers in our normal 
schools who are receiving instruction must be trained in the alphabet 
at least in the subject of psychology. I have seen the work done in 
normal schools in such a way from a text-book, that it never occurred 
to those teachers that there was any object that corresponded to the 
word " lesson " and " recite." 

Now in regard to the work to be done : the leaders of education cer- 
tainly ought to be psychologists ; they ought to lay out the lines broad 
and see that the training is in the right direction. With regard to our 
elementary teachers, the rank and file, I don't think I would make 
psychologists of them. I would have them given some good common- 
school ideas, such as has been suggested in the paper, in the alpha- 
bet objectively, in the alphabet of psychology, so that they will teach 
intelligently and yet not professionally. I expect some day we shall 
have a science of hygiene, which' every mother and every boarding- 
house keeper will be required to understand. I suppose that they 
ought to understand what the tendency of food is, and just about how 
much food a person should have, but in the mean time Providence has 
so arranged it, in order to continue the race at all, that the body itself 
assimilates about as much as it wants, and throws off the remainder. 
And it is also provided in the home, that the mother, without very 
much scientific knowledge, has a spiritual m^tvuct) ^\i«vi >iXi^ \>^^ ^^aa. 



44 PROCEEDINGS — DEPARTMENT OF SUPERINTENDENCE. 

a cough, and knows about what the matter is with the children, if the 
doctor don't; so that the children do grow and a good proportion of 
them live. Now if the main body, under the care of a loving, intelli- 
gent, observing, unscientific father and mother, can grow and assim- 
ilate enough to make a man and a woman in the end, I think it possible 
that "there may be a good teacher who is not very far up in the sciences, 
if he has got the love of the work in him, and is devoted to it, and is 
fairly observant. Within the last year, having a little girl in school, 
eight or ten years old, I was on the point of rebellion with the teacher 
about the manner in which he taught arithmetic. Yet to my astonish- 
ment the girl is learning arithmetic. I almost gave it up, but she is 
going to know something about the science. Well, now, there are two 
sides to this question. We must not magnify the pedagogical; but I 
think we must not lose sight of the other side, that the soul of the child, 
as well as the body, has moral capacity and can get along with a pretty 
poor teacher if even fairly intelligent and careful. 

Now with regard to the character of the teacher: there are some 
things which a mere discussion in psychology may overlook. It is true 
that the mind does not aggregate to itself as a snowball. We want 
more in the illustration; we want a plant, a spiritual plant with a 
spiritual consciousness, reaching up toward something, with an eye 
that looks upward ; and a begetting of that spiritual purpose and am- 
bition is the very secret of the best kind of education. 

Therefore, in our normal schools the most important part of the work 
is the begetting of the spirit of the teacher. We rebel at taking these 
young people into our normal schools when they can read well, and it 
is objected that we keep them there so long. Now, notwithstanding 
all that, the good normal school, the ideal normal school, is the one that 
has an atmosphere, a spiritual atmosphere aboutit, that loves the pupils, 
gives tone to the taste and the spirit of the teacher, independent of all 
these intellectual pursuits, so that if the student don't know any more 
about the books than he learned in other schools, he is a good teacher. 
Give me the teachers that can beget and foster a high spiritual and in- 
tellectual tast^. When the doctor comes to your house and looks at 
the boy and sees that his tongue is clear he says that the boy doesn't 
need the doctor any more, if he is pale ; feed him because his taste is 
right ; he wants rest. And so the teacher that can cultivate a taste for 
that which is good, good in literature, noble in purpose and ambition, 
the love by which he shall forgive, is yet a great teacher, and he belongs 
to that class whose names are enrolled in the scroll of the world's his- 
tory and will always be remembered. 

So much for this side of the matter of education. Therefore I should 
say, insist upon psychology as a true intellectual basis, but remember 
that individual character, taste, and high purposes are the essential and 
highly important characteristics of all good work among teachers. 



TEAINiyG OF TEACHERS. 45 



CITY TEAINKra AND PEACTICE SCHOOLS. 

W. S. Jackman, 

Pittsburg Central High School. 

We live in an active utilitarian age. It is pre-eminently an age of 
applied thought. Its spirit pervades every field of human action and 
seeks to destroy all that it can not bring into accord with itself. Our 
school system is not to escape this general test of utility, and if it is to 
remain, it must prove itself capable of a development which will keep 
it abreast of the rapidly advancing times. There was a period when 
teachers were permitted merely to discuss the problems of life and char- 
Ecter in temples ; but now, by living, by acting, they are called upon to 
)how their teachings true. 

We may, perhaps, congratulate ourselves to-day upon the general 
excellence of our schools. At no previous time have so many things 
contributed to their welfare. The log cabins of old have given way to 
well constructed, healthfully located buildings that are justly the peo- 
ple's pride. The personal interest of patrons, the more liberal appro- 
priations for apparatus and libraries, and especially the increased at- 
tention given to the careful and systematic training of teachers for their 
duties are unmistakable indications of the high favor of our schools in 
the public eye. 

But notwithstanding these substantial evidences of prosperity, there 
exists a wide-spread dissatisfaction with the work accomplished in the 
schools. When the pupil leaves the care of the teacher and i)asses 
over into the hands of the man of affairs, the latter complains that the 
results of school-room education, for some reason, are not proportional 
to the time spent in acquiring it ; that the pupil is not only unfitted for 
the practical tasks of life, but he often finds imi)lanted in the boy vi- 
cious ideas of honest labor which sooner or later injure or ruin the man. 
Complaints of this character are not new to the teacher, but with great 
self-complacency he has hitherto passed them by almost unheeded as 
unworthy, irrational efforts to estimate the value of his high calling in 
mercenarj^ terms. This dissatisfaction, however, can no longer be 
charged to the chronic grumbler or the ignorant opponent of popular 
education. It is expressed everywhere and by men whose opinions we 
are bound to respect. It is further emphasized by the significant fact 
that parents remove their children from school to the farm, the work- 
shop, or the counting room at the earliest opportunity, believing that 
time spent with books is precious time lost in fitting for the real duties 
of manhood and womanhood. If it were shown that this preparation 
can be more thoroughly made in our schools, the necessity for compul- 
sory education laws would not exist. Private schools also are but 
another partial measure of the lack of confidence in the public schools. 



46 PROCEEDINGS — DEPARTMENT OF. SUPERINTENDENCE. 

But the most decided expression of discontent is fouud in the great tend- 
ency everywhere apparent to replace much of the old curriculum with 
other and so-called practical studies under the collective head of Indus- 
trial Training. In short, the world has invaded the school-room. It has 
taken an inventory of the entire outfit and has stamped its price in 
terms of utility upon all that is done. Whether or not the teacher will 
be permitted to retain his exalted place in public favor depends upon 
his energy and intelligence in adapting his work with the pupils to the 
demands of the practical world. 

Evidently the cause of this disturbed condition is either that the 
studies themselves are poorly suited to develop the mind of the child 
so that he may successfully assume the duties of the future man, or it 
must be sought in the imperfect methods employed in teaching them. 
Judging from the strength of the present movement in the direction of 
manual training, it is safe to say that there is even a dangerous inclina- 
tion to the former view. It is a dangerous inclination because it sets 
up all that is usually understood by industrial training as practical 
against all that we now have as not practical^ which is a most unfortu- 
nate distinction. It must be the first and greatest work of the training 
school to demonstrate to its pupil-teachers the radical error of this 
notion, and through them to educate the public to a broader conception 
of the necessities of the developing mind of childhood and youth. Upon 
this point let there be no misapprehension. Appropriations for build- 
ings and apparatus for manual training are perfectly proper ; but, that 
education may be symmetrical and complete, similar and equally sub- 
stantial provisions and training are needed for imparting practical in- 
struction in the rest of the curriculum as well. Practically educating 
our pupils means much more th.an pinning them down to the details of 
a trade. Their education must be made worth more to them than the 
dollars and dimes they can earn by it. They must be taught that they 
can leave the world a legacy of character that may be of greater value 
to it than a legacy of money. We may bring a laboratory, a workshop, 
a bank, and all the rest into the school-room and still the pupils may 
receive an education of a most unserviceable nature. If the teacher 
has failed in the past to mould character with history and literature, 
he may fail to do it in the future with an anvil and hammer. If pupils 
now leave the school helpless with their science and mathematics, they 
may leave it hereafter equally helpless with their handsaws and chisels. 
Manual training may become one of the greatest " fads " (excuse the 
word) that has ever tried our schools in this age of " fads.'' It is even 
powerless of itself, without improved instruction all along the line, to 
inspire the young with that respect for honest labor the lack of which 
is now so deeply and justly deplored. If honest labor has been despised, 
it is not because it is honest, but because it is unremunerative and 
the laborer is illiterate. The laborer himself detests it the most, for its 
grinding demands have prevented that acquisition of general intelli- 



TRAINING OP TEACHERS. 47 

gence and intellectual power which alone can command the respect 
and admiration of men. The most complete and elaborate training in 
the workshop, if it can be associated with nothing better than many of 
our present unnatural methods of instruction with books, will not make 
the mechanic an intelligent man, but will make what might become an 
intelligent man a mechanic. 

The pressing need of the times is that methods ef instruction be com- 
pletely revised and reconstructed, with due reference to the demands 
that the fhture may have in store for the pupils. A boy or girl can get 
a practical education only by having the lessons of the school-room 
presented exactly as the lessons of life will be presented. They need 
not be the same lessons — they can not be the same lessons. But any- 
thing, everything, all things actually done in the school-room give 
the pupils a sound lesson as to how anything, everything, all things, 
will be done in after years. It gives them a glimpse of the realities of 
life which is never forgotten. It is, in fact, a lesson in the realities of 
life. By erything practically taught in the class-room helps to close that 
unnatural chasm which now separates the realm of books from the world 
of business. Our schools are said to be in a transitional stage. This 
is an ever-present fact. They change because the world outside changes, 
it is to be hoped, to higher and better things. In adapting the training 
of the one to the requirements of the other lies the heaviest labor of 
the thoughtful, conscientious teacher. If long experience has given 
skill in this direction, he must still feel that it has been gained at a 
fearful expense to the pupil. It is to these tedious experiments of the 
teacher learning his art by a sacrifice of the child's mind that the pres- 
ent condemnation of our schools is due. The age of experiment for the 
teacher in the public school-room is happily passing away. Academic 
training prepares no better for the profession of teaching than it does 
for the profession of law or medicine. It has at last dawned upon the 
public mind that if it is important for those who care for a child's body 
and have charge of its legal rights to have professional training, it is 
not less important for those who train its mind. 

In large cities, now the chief centres of industrial interests and ac- 
tivity, in the bitter struggle between capital and labor, in the severe 
competition between man and man, people more fully realize that relief 
must come through popular education. Opportunity is here presented 
for the training school, if properly managed, to do effective work. In 
response to the just demands for more practical results in the schools, 
it must equip teachers who will by improved methods, rather than by 
new subjects, work the reform. To the mechanic who now deplores as 
wasted the time he consumed in parsing Paradise Lost it must be 
shown that the fault lies not with the immortal Milton 5 to the trades- 
man whose arithmetic has been of but little assistance it must be dem- 
onstrated that it was the arithmetic not taught that is to blame 5 to 
all, that if science has not given skill to the hand and keenness to the 
eye the fault rests not with nature. 



48 PROCEEDINGS — DEPARTMENT OF SUPERINTENDENCE. 

If the demands for practical education are most urgent in cities, iere 
may also be found the conditions most favorable to meet them. The 
function of the training school is distinct from that of the high and nor- 
mal schools, but it is by no means independent of them. They are in- 
valuable — nay, indispensable in their systematic and uniform academic 
and professional instruction, and graduation from them may with fair' 
ness to all be made the accepted requirement for entrance to the ti-ain- 
, ing school. Academic work must be completed and thoroughly done. 
The individual who can teach what he does not himself know or under- 
stand is a creature of iiincy. In the high school and college a student 
studies a subject with reference to his own instruction ; in the normal 
school it is considered with a view to imparting that instruction to 
others ; while in the training school opportunity should be given him to 
work out those ideas in practice and to improve that practice by a sys- 
tematic study of the mind development of those who receive the instruc- 
tion. If entrance to the training school be established upon an academic 
basis lower than that of graduation from the high school, the tendency 
will be for the latter to unload upon it its weaklings and the immature, 
and the stream will be polluted at its source. 

An indispensable adjunct of the training school is the practice school. 
The name " practice school " is somewhat unfortunate, but it should be 
in fact exactly what its name im^jlies. In it the inexperienced teacher 
must make his first blunders and learn his own weakness. Here must 
come the first rude shock between his methods of teaching and a child^s 
methods of learning. Those with experience understand that even the 
best text-books can be but imperfectly adapted for practical instruction 
in individual cases. The amount of energy wasted by inexperienced 
teachers in attempting impracticable things, or in presenting the different 
parts of a subject in an unnatural order, is simply enormous, while the 
loss of time thus entailed upon the pupil is irreparable. No more dif- 
ficult task confronts the teacher than that of arranging perhaps hun- 
dreds of lessons so that his pupils may advance regularly without waste 
of time. Every teacher has his moments of inspiration. To every one 
comes at least an occasional day when he feels that his work has been 
well done. A quick wit may be able to prepare here and there a prac- 
tical, stimulating lesson which will brighten the eye and quicken the 
heart- beat of the pupils, but this alone does not constitute good teach- 
ing. Enthusiasm one day and dullness the next not only lowers the 
average of general interest but presents a subject in a fragmentary and 
unprofitable way to the child's mind. Eaeh lesson of the hundred or 
more must have its clearly defined purpose. That is the absolute test 
by which it may be determined whether the lesson shall be taught or 
not. To so select, arrange, and present all the parts of a subject equally 
well, the difficult as well as the easy, demands a skill which no theory, 
no lectures, nothing but actual trial and observation can give. It re- 
c^uires trained genius and a mature mind. 



TRAINING OP TEACHERS. 49 

That the training school may afford the teacher amplfe opportunity to 
formulate and by actual trial discover proper methods of teaching the 
different branches, it must be an ideal school in its equipment of appa- 
ratus and appliances for rendering instruction concrete. The teacher 
should be trained in the manipulation of ready-made apparatus and 
should be stimulated to invent additional means of illustration suited 
to his special need. To this end, if a work room were provided and 
supplied with suitable materials many a lesson might be made clear, 
interesting, and useful, which otherwise would go down on the list of 
things not practical. Above all does he need practice in the manage- 
ment of a class when each member of it is engaged in using apparatus 
for himself. The peculiarly trying difficulties of this situation are un- 
dreamed of by those unaccustomed to such work. Pupils in grammar 
and high schools are dependent to a much greater extent than is sup- 
posed by most teachers upon concrete illustrations for actual instruc- 
tion. With this in mind, it is not difficult to account for unsatisfactory 
results when it is considered how meagrely most schools are supplied 
with illustrative apparatus. Science alone offers almost unlimited op- 
portunity for the teacher to make his instruction of the highest practical 
value. Here he may teach the pupil to see, to think, and to do. From 
the lowest grade throughout the whole course, observation and experi- 
ment may be carried forward and refined until the pupiPs hand acquire 
the cunning of the accomplished artisan, and his mind the discernment 
and judgment of a sage. Above all, and best of all, in the apprehension 
of nature and her laws through his experiments his mind is lifted to 
things eternal as he finds himselfbesidethatmighty ocean on the shores 
of which Newton stood. 

Perhaps the most grievous lack of young teachers is practical knowl- 
edge of the child-mind at work. This knowledge can be gained only 
by systematic observation and careful study of the child itself. Mem- 
ory serves the teacher but poorly in recalling the effects, adverse or 
otherwise, that lessons and objects made upon him in childhood. His 
training has hitherto been largely a theoretically professional one. The 
child's mind has been described in the text-books and its peculiarities 
jotted down as so many shoals and reefs upon the teacher's chart. 
Stuffed with the psychology of old minds and impressed with the dignity 
of his profession, the luckless teacher has too often entered the school- 
room in that unfortunate condition of having "puf away childish 
things." In the inevitable and distressing conflict between his methods 
wrought out in the study and the child's mind instinct with nature, it 
too frequently occurs that the child and not the methods is thought to 
need revision. Every child in the practice school must be an object 
lesson in psychology for the teacher. Especially ought he to be trained 
in the psychology of the failures, and in the art of developing strength 
in the weak. In improving machinery it is naturally the weak and im- 
perfect parts that receive attention, but a common failing of young 

882— No. 2 4 



50 PROCEEDINGS — DEPARTMENT OF SUPERINTENDENCE. 

teachers is to devote tliemselves, through a misguided ambition, to the 
strongest portions, which may need assistance least. 

Without a model practice school a well-equipped training school can 
not exist, but it is a feature requiring great tact and skill in its man- 
agement. Its size should be governed by the number of practice 
teachers employed, audits grades be such as will afford sufficient range 
of work. The chief difficulty in maintaining it lies in the well-grounded 
dislike that parents have to furnishing their children to the inexperienced 
teachers as subjects for experiment. The difficulty may be removed 
naturally by the training school proving its worth through its excel- 
lence of instruction. The chief responsibility of this rests upon the 
faculty. The training teacher should combine qualities of mind and 
heart that are, however, but seldom found in any one. With a broad 
basis of ripe scholarship he should have professional skill derived from 
a close study of pedagogics and actual experience in the details of 
every day class-room work. It is in such details that the inexperienced 
teacher most needs his assistance, l^othing is more bewildering and 
discouraging to young teachers than the criticism and instruction com- 
monly typed by the glittering generalities of the ubiquitous professional 
institute '^ talker^' who possesses the singularly happy faculty of telling 
others just how to teach subjects that he has never '* campaigned over" 
himself. As a critic, by kindness, sympathy, and rare good judgment 
he should win the confidence of his pupil-teachers, and yet be so keen, 
candid, and forceful that a repetition of their mistakes will be impos- 
sible. 

There lies outside the training school and somewhat beyond its prov- 
ince a condition upon which its ultimate success l^^rgely depends. It is 
the question of the teacher's tenure of office and his salary. The teacher 
is but human ; if considerations of food, clothing, comfort, luxury, 
wealth, and ease in declining years affect others they must affect him 
also. It is these human qualities that fit him to be the teacher of 
humanity's children. But nothing has contributed more to the degra- 
dation of the profession than the uncertainty of position and the unre- 
munerative returns. This question is so complex and far-reaching that 
its consideration requires the soberest judgment. The most singular 
misconception of the problem is expressed by those who advocate the 
policy of providing the teacher after a given term of service with a pen 
sion from the State or some other source. The unpleasant features of 
the teacher's life at best, are numerous and humiliating enough*. Too 
often he finds himself at the mercy of ignorant and unscrupulous men 
who for personal or political reasons may cast him off ruined ; it may 
be without the decent formality of a public charge or trial. His salary, 
generally meagre and given with begrudging hand, is barely sufficient 
for his present needs, leaving but little for the inevitable " rainy day.'^ 
If there be added to these the hateful idea of a pension, it will tend to 
drive every energetic and self-respecting man and woman from th© 



TRAINING OF TEACHEKS. 51 

school-room. If, after spending a roand sum and all one's youth in 
preparation for a kind of work for the State, which practically outs him 
off from other avenues of business, if after long and arduous service in 
a cause which lies at the foundation of a people's prosperity and a na- 
tion's strength, there can be nothing better in store for him than a beg- 
garly pension, then rather than this, let the beggars teach the schools. 
In this wonderful land of ours, where so many avocations are offering 
rich investment to nature's capital of self-reliance, energy, and tbrift, 
no calling can thrive or ever be respected whose followers must in the 
end become pensioners. The safety and perpetuity of the State de- 
pend upon the enlightenment of its citizens, and that must be cultivated 
as their first and highest duty. But this is a strictly business age, and 
the teacher's calling has its business as well as its professional side. 
The intelligence of a nation cannot be picked up in the streets for 
nothing, nor can it be bought as a commodity at so much per pound in 
the market. It must be secured at whatever cost requisite to support 
its teachers upon an equal footing with their provident but independent 
and prosperous fellowmen. There is no demand to-day for martyrs. 
The individual may understand that popular education is demanded by 
the principles of our Government, but the country is not so poverty- 
stricken that it becomes necessary for him to sacrifice his life and the 
comforts of his family in providing it. Our profession cannot engage 
and retain men and women of the highest order unless it offers induce- 
ments equally attractive with those of other successful lines of busi- 
ness. If this be a mercenary view of the matter, it does not follow that 
under the operation of the plan suggested only the mercenary will 
teach the schools. The conscientious man feels that he owes it to him* 
self and family to make the most of the short time allotted to him by 
nature to provide for the necessities of old age. It happens more fre- 
quently that a man, because he is conscientious, is driven out of the 
profe^^sion from a due regard to those dependent upon him than that he 
is constrained to remain from a sense of duty to mankind in general. 

It would be manifestly unwise at this time to bestow upon all teachers 
the gift of a permanent position. It would be equally unwise to greatly 
increase the salaries of those positions while it remains so easy for the 
unqualified to obtain them. It is as important to protect the public cof 
fers from the mercenary as it is to retain competent teachers by good 
pay. 

The natural way out of this difficulty lies through the training school. 
Its course should be made so comprehensive and thorough that the city 
would feel fully justified in assuring its graduates the reward of a per- 
manent position, as vacancies occur, and at a salary suflftcient for inde- 
pendence through life, and from which a thrifty teacher may lay up a 
competence for a green old age. These inducements will, on the one 
hand, attract to the teachers' profession its share of the highest tal- 
ent that the country affords and direct it through the best channels of 



52 PROCEEDINGS — DEPABTMENT OP SUPERINTENDENCE. 

instruction and training that may be offered. On the other hand, it will 
debar those who from lack of brains or perseverance will not sabmit to 
the ordeal of patient, conscientious preparation for a noble work. In 
the end^ this plan will prove the most economical to the State, the most 
beneficial to the people and the most honorable for the teacher. 



DISCUSSION. 

The discussion was opened by the reading of the following paper: 

TEAINmO SCHOOLS. 
By William B. Povtell, 

Superintendent of Washington (D. C.) SchooU, 

It is of the first importance that teachers do intelligent work at every 
point of educational effort and that, in turn, they secure work on the 
part of pupils that is intelligent. Such work is attractive and, if directed 
aright, is always profitable. 

If every effort of the learner were made for the purpose of adding to 
information, understood and classified, that is, for making the next step 
into the unknown to secure a broader view or to get more accurate in- 
formation, — information that is needed, information that is classified 
when obtained, because sought for a purpose, — the supervision of schools 
would be made easy. Ko means on the part of the management of 
schools should be spared to secure teaching that will result in this 
kind of effort. Among the means employed to secure such teaching is 
the norm^A training school. 

The first work of the city training school, and, as I believe, of all nor- 
mal training schools, is to lead the candidate for teacher's duties to an 
appreciation of the purposes of the school as an instrumentality in or- 
ganized society for the development of man to a higher plane of duties 
and activities. As a. learner in school, it has not been necessary, pre- 
vious to this, to know why the school exists as a factor of social, civic, 
and moral economy. Every endeavor to broaden the field of his hori- 
zon has been to extend the economic application of power gained or of 
information acquired to the business affairs of life and to secure better 
self development. All of this variety of application, however, has 
served to give him preparation for a re-studying (or review) of his ac- 
quisitions, in a new light and for a new purpose. 

The use to which the young normal student is now asked to apply 
his knowledge differs widely from all previous applications that he has 
made of it. He is brought to an understanding of this new use and an 
expertness therein, however, by processes not unlike tho^e previously 
employed in -his education. The new field in which he is to use his 
knowledge or acquired skill, or the material upon which he works, is 



TRAINING OP TEACHERS. 53 

the child — the human soul. As in the past, when new applications of 
his knowledge were required, ho must make a special and careful study 
of this new field for such application. 

For convenience and clearness of presentation, the work of the nor- 
mal training school is considered under four heads : 

FirsU the learner or child ; 

Secondj the body of facts to be learned or the course of instruction; 

Thirdy the appliances, processes, and methods ; 

Fourthy the means of increasing the information and broadening the 
view of the teacher. 

The first requires the study of the human being and the laws of spir- 
itual and physical growth and refinement. 

The second requires a new study of academic knowledge or body of 
facts to be used, involving a new arrangement that will give to this 
knowledge a quality or attribute not before seen by the learner, namely: 
that of agent or factor. 

The third requires the acquisition of skill in the use of means to the 
end. 

^he fourth requires a study of the knowledge taught in the school, 
on other and broader lines of sources and uses than those on which the 
teacher has heretofore viewed them. 

These four categories of mental and physical processes are given in 
the order of their relative values and in pedagogic sequence, the first 
three of which constitute the basis of the science and art of pedagogy. 

These are not three co-ordinate parts upon which the superstructure 
rests, but rather three broad foundation groups of activities in column, 
the first controlling the kinds and conditions of the second, while the 
third is easily determined by the conditions, kinds, and requirements 
of the other two. 

For. the normal student to begin with the study of the third of these 
groups is to begin his professional column at the top, or (to leave the 
figurej to put him in possession of a few or many artifices of whose 
purpose he knows nothing, and of whose results he can form no cor- 
rect judgment. This is done by much of the eftbrt of recent years to 
improve our schools by visiting to observe good teaching, by institute 
work in which model lessons are given, by the study of methods in 
training schools, from which pupils go forth in possession of plans for 
hearing lessons or for doing things of whose educational value they 
have little or no knowledge. 

Scholastic information or academic knowledge, acquired for its own 
sake or for its economic value, when applied to the business of life, 
does not properly fit its possessor for the duties of teacher. Teachers 
thus prepared have done much to improve the race. The world's prog- 
ress and present condition show how much. A failure to appreciate 
the work of the schools of the past would betray an ignorance of the 
growth of civilization and of the factors producing it. Teaching has. 



64 PROCEEDINGS DEPAETMENT OP SUPERINTENDENCE. 

at all times, developed methods for the accomplishment of its purpose. 
These have been good relatively, because they have been consistent 
with the ends sought. 

But the teaching of the past has done more ; it has, here and there 
in places innumerable, made a study of itself, and has held itself up, 
as it were, on props, without the apparent interruption of its work or 
duty, until, by a study of the child, a purpose has been determined 
consistent with its true mission, whereon has been built a superstruc- 
ture which is at once a gratification to the practical man and the ad- 
miration of the idealist. 

It is not to be understood that these three groups of activities are to 
be developed and taught exclusively in order. For the sake of clear- 
ness, however, it will be necessary to so consider them in this paper. 

A thorough understanding of psychology can not be given to the 
normal student at this stage of his development. Fortunately, a 
thorough knowledge is not necessary for intelligent work in his chosen 
calling. A few broad principles may be made plain to him and he may 
be led to understand the application of these to the teaching of the 
different branches named in the course of instruction, and may be made 
to understand also those processes and methods by which these branches 
of information are made to do duty in giving to the child cultivation 
and information. 

Most of the intricate mazes laid down by psychologists are to be 
scrupulously avoided. 

The student can be made to understand in a general way the three 
great categories of mind-action, — cognitions, emotions, and volitions. 

He may be made to understand the three methods of gaining knowl- 
edge, — ^by perception, by induction, and by abception. 

He can understand the mental processes employed in gaining infor- 
mation by each of these methods, and may be made to know the cha.i- 
nels of knowledge employed by each of these methods, whether orig- 
inal or symbolic, and, if symbolic, whether primary or secondary. 

He can understand what classes of facts may be learned through 
original channels and what classes must be learned through symbols. 

In the application of what he knows of mind-action, he can be made 
to understand that it is necessary to establish in the mind, by means of 
the first method and in original channels of knowledge, facts or data 
with which comparison is made when knowledge is to be gained by 
either of the other two methods, and may thus be led to appreciate 
the importance of a broad, systematic, and careful training of the per- 
ceptions. 

After this much is understood, he will readily see the necessity of a 
corresponding primary training of the emotions and of the volitions, 
by use of original channels— the establishment of standards for com- 
parison by objective teaching. 

He may be led to see the value of example in conduct and environ- 



TRAINING OF TEACHERS. 55 

ment for the establishment of facts and standards for comparison by 
which the child's moral nature is to be trained, and to see also the 
value and to know the proper methods of indaction and conclusiou in 
moral training. 

The student at this age may be led to see the value of methodical ac- 
quisition and careful classification of knowledge in the training of 
memory. 

These mental processes are so simple as to be readily understood by 
the ordinary high school graduate, and are §o broad in their applica- 
tion as to serve as a safe guide in all the work of the school. 

A thorough study of the necessity and use of standards of compari- 
son, gained by means of the senses, through original channels of knowl- 
edge, leads directly to the determination and establishment of the first 
steps in each branch of study. 

This statement leads to the consideration of the next division of my 
subject. 

The second work of training the teacher is to lead him to understand 
the course of instruction in all its parts and purposes. The student is 
not prepared for this work unless he possesses a good knowledge of 
each branch named therein, academically considered. All knowledge 
of the subject audits applications is not necessary. 

Now, he should be led to view from the standpoint of an educated 
person, by turn, each subject considered as a whole, to select therefrom 
the essentials or framework, that he may see the lines which his teach- 
ing must follow in the development of that subject. This analysis re- 
quires, first, the ability to distinguish between the principal and the 
subordinate, which proceeds from an intelligent comparison; second, 
the courage and good sense to reject for the time being, that unity may 
be preserved, the numerous interesting facts and processes that are but 
applications of the knowledge sought to the business, duties, and pleas- 
ures of life, and embrace at once that great body of processes and ap- 
plications called practical that confuse both teacher and pupil, and too 
often prevent the systematic training of the mind as well as the proper 
understanding of the subject taught. 

Having discovered the outline of essentials, which shall serve as a 
chart for all the teaching of a subject, the learner next investigates his 
subject in the light of his knowledge of psychology to determine the 
order in which his selected parts can be taught. Now he decides that, 
if the child is to be taught number, he is to begin with numbers of 
things and not with symbols of numbers of things, and, having been 
trained in the relation of things numerically compared, he is next to be 
made proficient in seeing relations of numbers, as represented by their 
symbols, after which only may he lead the child to make application of 
this knowledge of relations to the business transactions of life. 

Now, in this logical and psychological study of the subject under dis- 
cussion, the student will find in the appUcatvou oi uxxmem.^ ^^wwssrs. 



56 PROCEEDINGS — DEPARTMENT OP SUPERINTENDENCE. 

to business transactions many points at which it will bo necessary to 
leave for a time the work in number and establish in the mind of the 
child facts as standards of comparison by objective teaching, that is, 
the establishment of a known from which to lead by training the senses 
in original channels of knowledge; for he sees that leading from the 
known to the unknown has a broader and sometimes a different appli- 
cation than leading from the known of the subject teaching to the next 
higher step in logical sequence. 

If the study outlining or of which an analysis is making is geography, 
the pupil sees, after making his logical outline and determining the 
lines or departments of knowledge by application of the laws of mind- 
growth, that there must be established in the mind of the child, before 
he can do intelligent work, by the study of book or map or chart, data 
as standards for comparison, as diversified as are the kinds of facts to 
be learned. These, he knows, are established by means of the senses, 
through original channels of knowledge, and that these channels must 
be sought in field and valley, on the mountain side, in the mine, in the 
factory, in the kitchen, in the parlor, in the art gallery, by observation 
of processes and their effects, by observation of changes, by compari- 
son of material before and after processes. 

Not only does the young teacher learn by this analysis of the subject 
the logical arrangement of the parts thereof, but he learns also the 
psychological sequence of the parts ; not only does he learn the place 
of each part, but he learns the relative importance of each part of the 
study and decides upon the relative time and emphasis to give to it 
when teaching it, and thus learns that a symmetrical short course is but 
a part of asymmetrical long course of the same subject. While learning 
what to teach and deciding the proper sequence of what he teaches he 
should be led to investigate anew the sources of information and to de- 
termine the practicable means of presenting it, and should be made to 
prepare much of the material necessary for the proper presentation and 
development of the subject. 

By means of this analysis of the subject and of the processes em- 
ployed in teaching it (I distinguish between processes and methods of 
class instruction) the student learns to distinguish between the means 
by which the subject is developed and the product for which the sub- 
ject is taught. He learns to make maps and charts, not as an end to 
be exhibited for prizes, but as a means for the development) of relative 
size and i)osition, and takes no pride in sand-maps and product charts, 
except to show them as a means by which he has trained his pupils to 
study methodically and understandingly. 

The normal student learns by this careful study of relations, values, 
and purposes, by the classification and arrangement of knowledge, 
the place and purpose of objective work, and decides that object teach- 
ing is not a branch of education by itself to be taken up as a separate 
study^ but that objective work must form a part of the means by which 



TRAINING OP TEACHERS. 57 

every branch of information is taught the child daring the formative 
years of his life. 

From the standpoint of him who logically views a subject, every de- 
partment or branch thereof is seen in its relation to the whole, and every 
])art of information connected therewith is so classified tbat its value 
is known and its connection to the subject as a whole is understood. 
The best teaching is possible only with such a view in mind. 

But the teaching contemplated by this paper and demanded by the 
schools of to-day does not proceed from this logical view, however 
clear and perfect it may be by partitioniugs and definitions and illus- 
trations. A re-arrangement of facts must be made, suited to the possi- 
bilities of the learner and the requirements of the growing mind. 

If a tree felled before the learner were the object of investigation and 
study, or if the tree were to be reduced to stovewood and carried away 
in armfuls, the thought would be but imperfectly illustrated by it. 

The master hand could and would begin work at the base of the tree; 
the child, however, can begin only at the extremities of the different 
branches. The treatment of the work by the master is that which pro- 
ceeds from a logical view, but that which the child can do must proceed 
from a plan which afibrds him work suited to his strength and skill. 
This demands an entirely different' arrangement. But only he who can 
see the logical arrangement is competent to make a new arrangement 
that is adapted to the growing abilities of the child, and that will ulti- 
mate in the mastery and logical arrangement of the whole; or, to 
bioaden the application of the figure, the tree with its great branches 
and its many smaller ones shall represent the whole body of facts, by 
means of which the child is to be trained. Its outer parts, those tender 
twigs which alone the child can break and carry, belonging to all the 
different branches or limbs, so formidable where they unite, are the 
parts with which the child must begin. 

He only who sees this great work in its entirety can properly direct 
the work of the child that it may always be possible and interesting to 
him, always profitable and always leading to those combinations and 
unions of parts that are places in his progress that mark the limits of 
units of work and also the combinations of units of work into higher 
units. 

No teacher who has studied methods alone can do this work, however 
proficient he may be ; no teacher who has academic information alone 
can do this work, however broad and diversified that information may 
be ; no teacher with academic information alone, though possessing 
skill in class management, can do this ^ork aright. 

He only can do this work who has a logical view of the information 
and can make and understand such natural aixangement of it as is 
suited to the needs and possibilities of the child and as will ultimately 
lead to and result in a knowledge of the facts and a logical arrange- 
ment of them. 



68 PROCEEDINGS — DEPARTMENT OP SUPERINTENDENClfl. 

This viewing and arranging of the body of facts and processes, called 
a course of instruction, can be made intelligently only by him who un- 
derstands at least as much of the philosophy of mind- growth and devel- 
opment as has been suggested before in this paper, and these two 
studies— the study of the child and the study of the body of facts and 
processes to be taught — developed in parallel lines, the study of each 
aiding in the study of the other, under skilful direction and by careful 
and adequate observation of children in training, should constitute 
the chief work and demand the main effort in the normal school course 
of him who would be a teacher. 

I emphasize this. part of the work of normal training, because, after 
varied and close observation I am persuaded that poor work in the 
schools is due mainly to the absence of an intelligent knowledge of its 
purpose and value, and I am further persuaded that an enthusiastic 
chasing up and down the land for institute processes, or for summer 
school methods, will not result in better work, if they are to be prac- 
tised by teachers who know not their application and are wholly unable 
to test their results. 

Methods, natural methods, proper methods, intelligent methods, 
ef&cient methods, proceed naturally, easily, and inevitably from this in- 
telligent view of work to be done whenever opportunity offers for its 
doing. 

With this heterodox statement I proceed to the third part of my sub- 
ject. 

It is now necessary to require the pupil to study and arrange smaller 
units of work by the employment of the same philosophy and the same 
mental processes used in the analysis of larger subjects. The object of 
all this is that the pupil-teacher shall know why he does this work in 
every instance. This why includes the psychological why and the aca- 
demic why. The pupil-teacher is made unwilling to do work whose 
double purpose is not seen 5 unwilling to do work whose parts are not 
arranged; unwilling to do work that is unsymmetrical ; unwilling to 
do work unsuitM to the capacities of the child. The teacher is thus 
trained to form an intelligent estimate of his own work, for each point 
developed is a test of the strength of the pupil, which, in turn, is a test 
of his own success. 

The pupil-teacher must learn to teach by teaching; few can learn 
well by observing the teaching of others. As well attempt to teach a 
person to sing, or to play an instrument, or to preach a sermon, or to 
plead a case at law, by observation. 

This teaching should be done under circumstances and conditions as 
nearly like those with which he will be confronted in his regular work 
of teaching after leaving the normal school as it is possible to make 
them. FTe should be put in charge of an entire school, and should be 
held responsible for its conduct and general management, as well as 
for the teacihiug, long enough at one oefibd ;o develop and teach at 
least one unit of work in each Kranches of study, and 



TBAININQ OF TEAOHEBS. 59 

should have one or more periods of practice in each of many grades, 
and, if possible, in each of all grades of school. 

It is practicable and profitable for a class of twenty normal students 
to teach four or more schools. It is found at the close of the year that 
schools so taught have been better taught and have made more ad- 
vancement than other schools in the system of corresponding grades 
taught by good teachers. 

The poor teaching at the beginning of the year must be met by ample 
supervision. 

The work of the training teacher now i&, firsts to know that the pupil- 
teacher understands definitely and broadly what he is to accomplish, 
not what he is to do ; second, to inspire and encourage him to work in- 
telligently, honestly, and earnestly. The student should not be bur- 
dened with formal methods, suggesting questions and answers, or any 
other " toggle-and-link " contrivance that weakens or destroys origin- 
ality and represses spontaneity. With the outline of work to be done 
well in mind the teacher develops strength more rapidly if he is allowed 
to invent his own methods of giving it. Just criticisms after the work 
has been done will result in more successfulviethods the next time, and 
the teacher will thus learn to criticise his own efforts respecting unity, 
method, symmetry, completeness, and style. 

The kind and just criticisms of the training teacher during the year 
(all ju8t criticisms are kind), as well as those made by associate mem- 
bers of the class, will free the teacher's efforts from all radical error 
and trim from them much of their crudeness and give to them method, 
accuracy, and efficiency. 

The pupil-teacher by this work does not prepare for his future use a 
book full of sample lessons, but he acquires the ability and strength to 
analyze a unit of work, to arrange the parts in proper order to be 
taught, and to know the values of the parts, and acquires an original 
Avay of developing them, which is good, because it has been developed 
by trial and proved by criticism, but its chief merit is that it is his own. 
The same reason exists for developing the individual when a teacher is 
made as when a child is taught in the schools. Imitators do not do 
good work. Their work requires too much supervision, too much re- 
adjusting and setting right. 

It now remains to speak of another work in the preparation of the 
teacher. This should begin in the normal school. The teacher will 
find it desirable to continue this as long as he finds it desirable to 
teach. I refer to broadening the view of the student by bringing him 
under the influence of mature and well-developed minds. In addition 
to teaching at least one unit of work in each branch of study in each 
grade of school, he should be required to visit the various grades of 
school, following a prescribed plan. Each visit should be made for a 
definite purpose. The visits will therefore be systematized and re* 
ported. The results must be criticised. The pupil-teacher, during the 
last half of the year, should attend all grade meetingSi held either t<y^ 



60 PROCEEDINGS — DEPARTMENT OP SUPERINTENDENCE. 

specific or general purposes, should be made to report these, and should 
have his reports criticised. He will not understand grade meetings at 
the beginning of the year; they will serve only to confuse him. He 
should hear lectures by specialists toward the close of his normal school 
year — the artist, the scientist, the succe^ssful business man, the histo- 
rian, the traveller, the physician, the lawyer, the school superintendent, 
the college specialist. I don't include in this list the institute lecture 
fiend. These lectures, too, may be reported and the reports criticised. 
I would have these lectures for the purpose of giving the pupil a broader 
general information, a broader view of a general application of knowl- 
edge, not expecting that everything heard would bo remembered, but 
believing, if the lecturers are properly chosen that everything heard 
would be understood and classified, for the student's work of the year 
has been to train him to understand and to classify. 

The teacher's mental horizon must ever recede, his plane must 
broaden. I would have these lectures that this thought might be im- 
pressed on the young teacher and habits consistent therewith fixed. 
The teacher should ever work with that nascent inspiration belonging 
to new growth and new achievements. 

I would have the normal student listen to the words of successful 
men for another reason, namely, that his work shall be imbued with 
and inspired by the latest thought, the latest process, and the latest 
application of knowledge ; that his teaching, whether literary, scien- 
tific, historical, or other kind, shall be in harmony with the latest de- 
velopments of those subjects. 

How many a myth is thus dispelled, how many an error is thus cor- 
rected, how many a formula is thus eliminated, which otherwise poor 
. childhood must learn only to be forgotten. 

I would have the pupil-teacher visit art galleries, museums, libraries, 
public works, business houses, factories, police courts, asylums, by 
direction and for a purpose, to see the results of effort, to catch the 
spirit and know the ways of life, and to learn the tendencies of man 
under the varying conditions of development. 

The pupil-teacher must be made to know early in his career that true 
education lies along those lines that lead to the highest culture and the 
broadest economic value. 

The following paper was read in continuance of the discussion : 

THE PUEPOSE AND MEANS OF CITY TRAINING SCHOOLS. 

By S. S. Parr, 

Svpei'intendent of Schools, St Cloudy Minnesota, 

Ladies and Oentlemen : Before beginning some points of the paper 
which I have prepared, I desire to review briefly, thinking perhaps by 
so doing I could have the attention of this meeting to some of the re- 
marks which have been previously made upon this question. I think 

• 

the gentleman who preceded mo missed the p " ' p^ach exercise has 



TRAINING OP TEACHERS. 61 

been preceded by an apology. ]!^ow I think I have not missed that 
fact. I want to apologize that I missed the subject in thinking of the 
first paper. It seems to me that it was directed to manual training. 
There is running through all these papers a vein of curious criticism. 
I want to quite agree with what the gentleman said in regard to defini- 
tion, only I want to push that thought one step further and define the 
normal school itself. The definition, like charity, begins at home, and 
the normal school can do no better than api^ly that definition to itself. 

The historical origin, — The cicy training, or normal school, is an Amer- 
ican institution. There is nothing like it in purpose and organization in 
any European country. 3^ormal schools there are either state or de- 
nominational instrumentalities. The American city normal school is 
uniques It is the creation of the municipality to which it belongs, and 
is intended to supply a local demand. Schools of this class are com- 
monly founded under the special or general act empowering the corpora- 
tion to organize and maintain schools of various kinds. 

According to the reports of the Bureau of Education^ the first train- 
ing school organized in this country was that of Philadelphia, in 1848. 
Boston followed in 1852; St. Louis in 1857; and Indianapolis in 18GG. 
According to the latest report there are about twenty-six such insti- 
tutions now in operation. 

City training schools are a part of the general movement to secure 
intelligent and trained teachers. This movement originatedP in Ger- 
many, at the close of the seventeenth century, and has spread from there 
to all civilized countries. The distinct impulse to which we owe our 
American normal schools is that inaugurated by Horace Mann and Ed- 
mund Dwight in Massachusetts, in 1839. The Kew York and Pennsyl- 
vania schools are a fruitage of the Massachusetts movement. The nor- 
mal schools of the three States mentioned have inspired those of the re- 
mainder of the country. 

The principal cause which has called. city training schools into exist- 
ence is the fact that in thirteen^ of the States supplied with State, city 
and other normal schools, the ratio of teachers instructed at such schools 
to the whole body of teachers is only eighteen per cent., and that in six^ 
States among those best supplied with normal schools of all kinds the 
ratio of yearly graduates to the number of new teachers demanded is 
only about sixteen per cent, of that number. 

Another influence which has led cities to organize training schools of 
their own is the quality of State normal school work. These schools 
pitch their work mainly to the needs of the rural districts, from which 
their pupils come, and to which they as teachers return. The pupils 

' Beport of the Commissionor of Edncation, 188S-B7. 

2 California, Counecticut, Kansas, Maine, Massachusetts, Minnesota, New Hamp- 
shire, New York, Pennsj-lvania, Rbotlo Island, Vermont, West Virginia, and Wiscon- 
sin. See Beport of Commissioner of Education, 1886-87. 

3 New York, Wisconsin, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, California, and Kansas. 



62 PROCEEDINGS — DEPARTMENT OF SUPERINTENDENCE. 

derived from these localities are deficient in the commonest elements of 
technical academic knowledge, and require that by far the greater 
part^ of the instraction given shall be applied to supplementing this de- 
ficiency. 

If we take into account that each locality selects its teachers mainly 
from among its own citizens, in connection with what is true of the 
quality of State normal school training it will at once bo seen why 
cities, which draw the largest supply of material for teachers from high 
school, academy, and college graduates, have organized normal schools 
to supply their own special needs. Omitting the professional subjects 
from the curricula of our*Qtate and private normal schools, their train- 
ing belongs to the high school or below. Persons of the classes named 
are already possessed of the common technicalities of academic knowl- 
edge, and can not be induced to subject themselves to a course of train- 
ing of which this kind of knowledge is the staple. 

Gitieif sailing on the sea of politics, as a ship sails on the main, says 
Plato, in the " Laws," have to be watched night and day. Yet they are 
always centres of educational intelligence and progress. They are ever 
ready to give new- ideas a trial, and to adopt and use whatever has 
proven itself good. This spirit has made them the first localities of 
limited extent to demand special training for their teachers. Their 
population and wealth have made it possible to realize this demand. 

Sailing on Plato's sea of politics has introduced another element into 
the educational life of cities that has undoubtedly had much to do with 
the founding of the class of schools we are considering. Influential mem- 
bers of city school-boards of city councils, and of the controlling polit- 
ical element, have relatives and friends and the dependents of their sap- 
porters and followers, who must be provided with opportunities for 
place. High school graduates have their friends at court to urge their 
claims for place in the teaching force of the schools through which they 
have come. The country towns and smaller cities send up their sprink- 
ling of experienced and aspiring teachers who wish to push their way 
into the teaching force of larger places. To offset the claims of this class, 
high school graduates and those who are advanced by personal favor 
must, in decency and deference to public sentiment, claim for them- 
selves the advantages of i)rofessional training. City training schools 
provide such persons facilities to this end, and afford a line of escape 
from crudity and inexperience to the schools themselves. 

In brief, such appears to be the historical genesis of the city training 
school. 

The purpose of the city training school, — The purpose of all normal 

^ Tho Report of the Commissioner of Edacatlon, 1886-87, pages 398-399, shows by 
actual count twenty-two academic studies or terms, and six professional studies or 
terms, in the type of curriculum given for the Pennsylvania schools, as representa- 
tive eastern schools ; and twenty-live academic and six professional subjects or terms, 
in the California schools; as representative western sohpols. 



TBAINING OF TEACHEBS. 63 

school work is the same. Schools exist in different environments. 
Pupils present themselves possessing the most divergent kinds of intel- 
ligeDce. The demands of the localities for which particular schools 
train teachers are variable. But in all this diversity there is a recog- 
nizable constant. This is the quality which forms the dividing line 
between academic work — that common to high schools, academies, and 
colleges — and that which, by contrast, is called professional trainiogi 
and has as its specific end intelligence, skill, and efficiency in the art of 
teachiug. 

The purpose of anything determines its nature. The quality of pro- 
fessional teaching-knowledge is fixed by its design or end. It relates to 
certain specific activities of the human mind, concerning which it deals 
with definite and chosen relations, selected to suit the organizing idea 
of educational science. The science of education finds its significance 
in the art of teaching, which is a process of doing intended to produce 
a succession of foreseen changes, each of which holds definite relations 
to the other changes of the series. Each change is produced by the ap- 
plication of means which are consciously chosen to accomplish their 
work. 

The fundamental thought in teaching is that of conscious purpose 
and conscious means. Teachiug does its work by studied steps. It is 
not a game of chance, in which the end is not seen, or, if seen at all, ap- 
pears as through a glass, darkly. Means are not selected at random, the 
hand using the first tool it falls upon. In these conceptions lies the 
difference between teaching done on a foundation of academic knowl- 
edge, however lofty its quality, however high the grade of institution 
which bestows it, and that which rests on the fundamentally opposite 
basis of true normal school training. The academic teacher wields his 
pupils' minds and his subjects at random. He is like the marksman 
who fires at the target with his eyes shut. Such a teacher is wanting 
in systematic insight into the effects his means produce ; he does not dis- 
tinguish between the essential and the accidental ; and does not per- 
ceive the successive steps necessary to the end sought. He is an atbitrary 
and capricious manipulajtor of subject and pupil. 

Such teaching is the polar opposite of what professional training 
seeks. The goal for which it strives is conscious, intelligent wielding of the 
pupiVs powers and of the subjects of their exercise. For the accomplish- 
ment of this end, development is a process in which the place and value 
of the various means must be recognized. In conceiving the school as 
an agency for*growth, the difference between spontaneous eilucation 
and school-training is a distinct and well-defined conception. The aims 
of the school, direct and remote, are discriminated. Training is a process 
involving definite forms of activity. The modes of adapting i)articular 
minds and particular subjects to each other are, to the end we are con- 
sidering, matters of conscious thought. Whatever it may be called, the 
9chool-process has true professional quality when it has these ciiuiacter- 



64 PROCEEDINGS — DEPARTMENT OP SUPERINTENDENCE. 

istics ; but, under any circumstances, however broadly it may be labelled 
normal school training, if the quality of conscious action is lacking, that 
is what it is not. 

We can not reasonably argue that the normal school must not do any 
academic work. Taking into account the classes of persons from whom 
teachers must be drawn under present circumstances, a large share of 
the training of most teachers' schools must be academic. Institutions 
of this class do not become culpable until they crowd out the professional 
work they may justly be expected to do and allow the opposite quality 
of training to supplant it. 

We must hold clearly before our eyes the fact that the difference be- 
tween academic and teacher's training is a qualitative and not a quanti- 
tative one. There is a qualitative difference between general psychol- 
ogy and educational psychology ; between a general knowledge of 
the nature-sciences, language, history, or mathematics, and a teaching 
knowledge of them ; between the history of education for generalintel- 
ligence and the same facts organized to enlighten the process of teach- 
ing, and between that view of organization, government, recitation, and 
other sub-processes of the school which serves all classes of people, and 
that view of them necessary to wield the school as an instrument. 
Whether the course extends over a week or over four years, whether it 
trains in but one subject or in the whole curriculum of subjects, this quali- 
tative difference is the organizing principle of all normal school work. 

The normal school exists to make its pupils conscious of this dif- 
ference, conscious of the sharp contrast between the action of mind in 
the one kind of exercise and its activity in the antipodal kind. Such 
schools find their lasting reproach and disgrace in allowing their pupils 
to step back and forth between academic knowledge and what they call 
professional training, without any consciousness of the fundamental 
distinction in the quality of thought in each. The moment the normal 
school fails to realize this end, it may be a teachers' school in name, but 
it is not so in fact. Its halls may be filled with academic specialists, 
who are stars of the first magnitude; it may be equipped with libraries, 
laboratories, museums, and every other form of appliance, but the pres- 
ence of specialist and appliance serves only to emphasize the all-pervad- 
ing poverty in the essential elements of teachers' training. 

In schools in which the two kinds of work must go on side by side, 
the destruction of the professional quality by academic training is pre- 
vented by rendering the pupil conscious of the difference, whenever he 
comes within the field of cither, in their purpose and mt3ans. He must 
understand that both forms of knowledge are modes of thinking objects 
as ideas. In academic thought the powers of the mind are applied to 
dissolving facts in the crucible of understanding. Consciousness is 
directed toward the objects upon which thought is exercised, without 
direct reference to the mode by which means may be used to reproduce 
the train of thinking which constitutes this consciousness. The pro- 



TRAINING OP TEACHERS. 65 

duct of such action is a series of conceptions which, as Hamilton says, 
is logical in point of form and possesses that correspondence of idea and 
object which we denominate truth. It is formed without any thought 
as to how the process which creates the conceptions may be reproduced 
in another mind. But in all teaching knowledge the question is con- 
stantly present, How can this train of thought be used to reproduce itself 
or its related counterpart in the mind of another person t What is the 
value of this series of ideas in stimulating a given class of minds to 
realize their possibilities of action ? How can the value of this form of 
mental activity be expressed in terms of the development of mind I 

Finally, to reduce teaching knowledge to the simplest form, it is a 
kind of introspection. Perhaps the thought is nearest the truth when 
we say that it is a special application of what Porter calls the philo- 
sophic consciousness to the problem of mental growth under stimulation. 
A. good name for it is the teaching consciousness. The presence of this 
form of consciousness is the essential characteristic of normal school 
work. The purpose of the normal school is to confer the habitual and 
studied power of this phase of introspection. Its presence constitutes 
growth of any kind professional teachers' training. Its absence de- 
cides beyond question that the thought in which it is lacking is aca- 
demic in quality. Psychology, method, school-economy, and the history 
of education are as thoroughly academic as chemistry, astronomy, and 
the calculus, without they are accompanied by this form of introspection 
and by the thought of the conscious use of subjects and faculties as 
means for the production of definite and ordered development. 

The city normal school exists for the purpose of conferring the teach- 
ing consciousness on its pupils, or, at least, advancing as far toward this 
end as its circumstances will permit. If this principle be admitted as a 
fact it is plain that its end is to secure thinking and power of a certain 
quality. The amount of exercise the school can bestow must be fixed 
by the environment in which it exists. 

The means of the city training school.^ThQ conception which is comple- 
mental to the idea of purpose is, of course, that of means. 

Definite conception of the purpose for which anything exists is itself a 
means to enable that object to realize its design. Purpose is a general 
category and must be carried into the details of exercises, lessons, and 
subjects, no less than into the thought of the nature of education. 
It is the major of the two great organizing conceptions of training, its 
complement being the category of instrumentality. As an organizing 
idea it demands quality of thought as its predominant element and 
quantity of ideas as a secondary consideration to this. 

The principal means in school education of whatever kind is the free 
action of the pupiPs powers. Everything else is subordinate to this. 
It is the agency at the centre of the process. Eesults flow directly 
from it. The teacher is a director of these powers. He supplies occa- 
sion for their exercise by wielding them upon the subjects of instruction. 
882— No. 2 5 



66 PROCEEDINGS — DEPARTMENT OP SUPERINTENDENCE. 

Tbe secondary instrumentality that conscious teaching uses most di- 
rectly is the stimulation of the pupil's powers by some ideal of action, 
which is possible to the will, presented as a thought to the intellect. 
The pursuit of this end furnishes activity, out of which come habit and 
grov/th. 

The teacher is a primary means in another sense. Through him the 
pupil is furnished conventional forms for his activity and thus saved 
the effort of repeating the tiresome toil of the race in discovering culture. 

The guidance of the course of study and the use of text-books, 
libraries, laboratories, seminaries, classes, etc., are secondary means. 
Through them the teacher wields the pupil's powers upon subjects and 
moral acts. They are convenient devices for fixing lines of action for 
the pupil's thought and effort and for the teacher's direction. 

As the purpose of the city training school is qualitatively distinct from 
that of other schools, so must be its means. 

In academic study the powers are exercised on the general relations 
of things for the purpose of understanding them. These relations are 
the ones that give insight into the place of their objects in the world of 
nature or of spirit. Through them the object is classified, generalized, 
and explained. Its relations of time, space, cause, substance, part, con- 
trast, and design are traced with a view of reducing it and the way it 
acts and reacts on its environment to terms of thought. The result is a 
knowledge of the thing as a reality possessing possibilities, which plays 
a part in the infinite warj> and woof of material being or of spiritual 
existence. This mode of exercise of the human powers is designed to 
give what Eosenkranz calls a view of the world. In its acquisition con- 
sciousness is directed toward objects in its single or undivided form. 
TJie mind is not concerned with the processes by which results are 
reached, but with the results themselves. 

In the training of the city normal school the faculties are exercised on 
the same objects and the same general relations as in the graded school, 
academy, and college, but the knowledge and iDower sought are dif- 
ferent. They are to serve another end ; they are to give special intelli- 
gence in the directing of one mind by another for the purpose of school 
training. In the particular nature of this exercise of the powers of 
body and mind is found the qualitative difference between the means 
of normal school and academic instruction. The quality of the means 
is in the way the act of thinking or doing is performed. The subject 
studied or the deed done may be the same as that employed for graded 
school, high school, or college work, but the mode of thought or action 
differs according to the purpose Avhich it serves. In the fact that every 
lesson studied and every exercise participated in must be consciously 
examined in its bearing on the school process is the most comprehensive 
conception involved in the consideration of the means of the city train- 
ing school. If this relation is lost sight of, the study or act at once 
1pT»«es into the means of the high school or ^^^'^v institution of that 
/kind. 



TEAINING OP TEACHEES, 67 

In the exercise of the facalties for their training in teaching power, 
as in the act of teaching itself, there is involved a doable consciousness. 
On the one side this consciousness thinks the idea as a thought or truth, 
on the other it looks at the activity involved in it as a means of devel- 
oping the mind of another. This duality of consciousness is, without 
exception, characteristic of all normal school means. It is as distinct 
from the consciousness of ordinary thought as perception i^ from mem- 
ory. Its use goes into every lesson and every exercise of the teachers' 
training school, and gives it, a« a means, a quality its ideas did not before 
possess. 

As the purpose of the normal school is to bestow this form of con- 
sciousness, so its presence in every part of the curriculum is the most 
characteristic means employed. These two facts — the purpose sought 
and the presence of this purpose in every exercise of whatever kind — 
are the organizing laws of the normal school. They constitute the gov- 
erning chart for its conduct and furnish the true -criteria of its success. 

Criticism of existing schools on these principles, — ^The author of this 
paper regrets that the time was too short to collect information as fully 
as seems desirable. This fact will excuse any generalizations that seem 
hasty. 

Out of twenty-five courses of study inquired into sixteen were one 
year in length, five were one and one-half years, one two years, one 
three years, and two four years long. Schools having a one-year course, 
as a rule, spend one-half this time in practice teaching. This reduces 
the time given to professional study to something like twenty weeks. 
In this short period the student is expected to acquire a working knowl- 
edge of educational psychology, method, school economy, and the his- 
tory of education. That amount of time is not sufficient for any one of 
them. 

In fourteen out of the twenty-five schools examined, after subtracting 
from the faculty the teachers in the schools of practice, the professional 
instruction js given by one person, a condition which renders specializa- 
tion of teaching impossible. This arrangement virtually reduces what 
is denominated a school to a chair of didactics, with a practice school 
attachment. The chair of didactics is not adapted to the wants of high 
school graduates. 

The shortness of the course in most of these schools is due to two 
causes. In all except three of the tweoty-five schools, graduation from 
high school, or its equivalent, is the condition for admission. Owing to 
the confusion which exists in even intelligent people^s minds concern- 
ing what constitutes i)reparation for teaching, and in consequence of 
the belief that high school training constitutes preparation for the 
duties of the school-room there is no demand for a long course of teach- 
er's training. Further, the persons who enter city training schools are 
women, who take up the business of teaching for a time, but not with 
tiie expectation of making it their life-work. 



68 PROCEEDINGS — ^DEPARTMENT OF SUPERINTENDENCE. 

Those schools having courses three or four years long^ are more 
properly high schools than normal schools. In one of these, out of a 
total of fifty-two subjects, eight are professional, and forty-four high 
school academic. In another of them, in a total of 3,618 exercises., 
constituting the course, 3G4, or 10 per cent, of the whole, are of a pro- 
fessional nature. Indeed, these schools, for those who become their 
pupils, take the place of the city high school. 

The general belief in the efficiency of practice, or experience, as an 
agency for fitting teachers is attested by the fact that eighteen out of the 
twenty-five schools, whose workings have been examined, have practice 
schools as part of their equipment ; seventeen of these are of the number 
of schools which have courses of training not to exceed one and one-half 
years long. Thus in nearly all cases, fully half the time of preparation 
is devoted to the practice of the art of teaching. As previously pointed 
out, practice and criticism are alike empirical. Perhaps the explana- 
tion of the presence of this large element of unscientific effort is due to 
the failure of didactics as a science to assert itself with authoritative 
force, owing to its own indeterminate and empirical nature. Much of 
the want of direct connection between the theoretical and the practical 
elements, plainly apparent in most city training schools, may, we think, 
be traced to the same source. 

In the curricula of the twenty-five schools examined there is a great 
variety of terms applied to what is called professional work : " Science 
and Art of Teaching,'' " Theory of Teaching," " Educational Science,'' 
** Didactics," '^ Pedagogic Method," and the like. These terms show the 
curricula to which they belong to be wanting in an organizing idea ; 
they are characterized by the dififuseness which springs from lack of 
organization. 

Educational science, looked at quantitatively, falls into four kinds: 
1. A study of the mind as an activity developed by conscious means — 
Psychology ; 2. A study of the modes by which the pupils' faculties 
and particular subjects are adjusted to each other — Method ; >3. A study 
of the school as a process involving Organization, Government, Study, 
Eecitation, Play, and iEsthetic and Eeligious Training— called, for want 
of a better name, School Economy; 4. A study of the historical de- 
velopment of the teaching consciousness — History of Education. The 
subjects named are the special applications of the principle of the teach- 
ing consciousness to the process of training, and comprise the entire 
scope of the normal school curriculum. They represent the systematic 
means of teaching organized about one comprehensive and dominant 
thought. 

The gradual increase of city training schools shows a rising barome- 
ter of popular appreciation of the conception of trained teaching, and 
an awakened consciousness of the value of professional training, among 

1 Examples of theso aro the Girls' Normal Schoolj of Philadelphia, aud tlio Normal 
College, of the city of New York. 



TRAINING OP TEACUERS. 69 

superintendents, principals, supervisors, and other classes of directive 
school people. In this they are an earnest of continually better suc- 
cessors, until their places shall eventually be filled by institutions 
which give professional training- of the highest type. 



COUNTY INSTITUTES. 
By Albert G. Lane, 

Superintendent of Cook County (III.) Schools^ 

During the last ten years numerous meetings of teachers have been 
held, for various periods of time, and under several difi^'erent names. 
The terms "teachers' meetings," •* conferences," "institutes,'' and "con- 
ventions," are commonly- used to denote the meetings, continuing from 
half a day to one week, in which the time is devoted to general lectures, 
papers on theory and methods of teaching, school economy and man- 
agement, followed by a general discussion of thoughts presented. 

Institutes, assemblies, teachers' retreats, summer schools, and sum- 
mer normal schools are names applied more generally to gatherings 
that continue in session from two to six weeks, in which continued in- 
struction is given in academic and scientific subjects, in psychology, 
theory and practice of teaching, and methods and principles of educa- 
tion. 

The verb to institute signifies to begin, to set in operation, to fix, to 
appoint, to prescribe, to train, to educate, to discipline, to form by in- 
struction. 

Then institute, the term most commonly applied to teachers' meetings 
of every kind, signifies that which begins to set in operation at a fixed 
time, according to appointment, a prescribed outline of work, the sub- 
jects to be so related, presented, and taught by an expert that the 
teacher may learn how to train a mind so that its unfolding powers 
may be quickened and led out sj'^stematically by the discipline of re- 
peated correct action and thought. 

In Illinois, the statutes provide that the "county superintendent of 
each county shall hold annually a teachers' institute continuing in ses- 
sion not less than five days at such times as the schools in the county 
are generally closed. The superintendent is authorized to secure such 
assistance as ho may need, but the instructors must hold certificates of 
approval from the State superintendent." 

There were 13,6G0 teachers in attendance in 1886 out of 23,000 teach- 
ers in the State. The total cost of these institutes in 188G was $27,550. 
The expense is met by a fee of one dollar paid by each applicant for a 
teacher's certificate or for a renewal of a certificate. Counties are au- 
thorized to make additional appropriations. This law was modelled 
after the Iowa law. In that State there were 18,000 who attended in- 



to PROCEEDINGS — ^DEPARTMENT OP SUPERINTENDENCE. 

stitutes in 1886, out of a total of 24,232 teachers, tlie expense being 
$49,781. New York reports 18,295 in attendance out of 31,000 teach- 
ers. The expense was $19,000, which was paid by the State. 

Pennsylvauia 18,000 out of 24,000 ; cost $38,000, paid by the counties. 

Ohio 14,000 out of 25,000; cost $20,500, paid by the counties. 

Indiana 13,734 out of 14,006 ; cost $9,000, paid by the counties. The 
Banner State! 

Accordiug to the last report of the XJnited States Commissioner of 
Education, out of 28 States reporting an entire teaching force of 276,000, 
one-half, or 189,000, attended institutes. 

Some of the States, Kew York and Pennsylvania, provide by law for 
the dismissal of the schools for not over one week, and teachers receive 
their salaries if they attend the institute. The Illinois law provides 
that the schools may be closed not to exceed five days in the year, nor 
more than three days in one term, and that teachers shall be paid if at- 
tending an institute. This is intended to provide for special extra 
meetings of teachers beside the regular county institutes. 

The great body of teachers are employed in rural and small village 
schools; their education is limited; their means of acquiring special 
knowledge of school work by association with others at their homes is 
restricted; their possession of books and periodicals relative to teach- 
ing is inadequate ; their power to train children is undeveloped and 
deficient. 

About one-third of all the teachers of this country are attending the 
meetings which are held for special professional improvement. The 
statistics showing that about 140,000 teachers attended institutes in 
1886' indicate the pressing demand for the most skilful, wise, and effi- 
cient management of institutes that can be devised, so that this army 
of men and women who mould and shape the lives and characters of 
millions of children for weal or woe, may be aroused, inspired, in- 
structed, and fitted to perform the important duties of their high call- 
ing. 

Teachers' gatherings have been comm*on in many sections of the coun- 
try for forty years, and have been instrumental in making some teachers 
realize that their work was one demanding the highest order of talent 
and the broadest preparation. They have raised in the public mind a 
limited sentiment of appreciation for skilled teaching, but sJcilled teachers 
are scarce. The demand exceecls the supply. The best evidence of ad- 
vance and growth in professional training for teaching is found in the 
efforts of teachers to meet the demand for broad, comprehensive work 
in training child mind. Many of the institutes are very limited in their 
work, confining the instruction given to the branches upon which ex- 
aminations are held. In fact, they devote most of the time to a review 
of the common branches. There are undoubtedly localities where this 
kind of work is most needed ; but the instruction should be given by ex- 
perienced teachers, who have power to present the work so as to develop 
trae edncational principles* 



TRAINING OF TEACHERS. 71 

The greatest demand, then, is for a better knowledge of the objects 
and purposes of an education, and of what constitutes real power in 
school training. 

Institute work, as arranged and conducted in many places, does not 
meet the requirements of the active, progressive teachers; hence they 
do not attend the meetings. 

Many teachers lack a proper appreciation of their real needs. They 
are able to satisfy a people equally ignorant of the possibilities involved 
in the training and education of children ; therefore they become indif- 
ferent and do not avail themselves of the opportunities offered for their 
improvement. 

State superintendents are limited by a failure of legislators to com- 
prehend the far-reaching consequences and value of the educational 
work of the State. Smaller appropriations are made to supervising 
school officers as a rule than to any other department of the Govern- 
ment. This is true also in counties or districts outside of cities, where 
officers examine, supervise, and direct teachers. 

How'shall the institute work be made more effective f 

By securing as institute instructors the best teachers that can be 
found in the land. By recognizing that both subject-matter or direct 
instruction in the branches to be taught and the laws and principles of 
mind growth in a child must be presented ; that the teacher must see 
these facts and principles developed in children, and that he must be 
able to observe true mental laws in presenting work to them. By en- 
larging the powers of the State superintendent, providing additional 
assistants, who, with the superintendent, shall be able to systematize, 
develop, and encourage the institute work of the State. 

How create a demand ? 

By legal enactment, as has been done in States where officers are re- 
quired to hold a county institute for at least five days. By petitions of 
teachers to legislators and county authorities asking for legislation and 
appropriations. By united action on the part of the leading educators 
in a State or county, organizing and conducting an institute, using the 
best local talent, and demanding sliilled instructors from the State su- 
perintendent or State normal schools, where there are any. 

How shall expenses be met? 

]N"o more equitable method has been presented than that required in 
Iowa, Illinois, and Nebraska, and some other States, where each person 
examined pays a fee of one dollar, the fund thus raised being devoted 
to institute purposes, and the State or county, or both, aiding by special 
appropriations when necessary. 

In !N[ew York, Pennsylvania, and, under limitation, in Illinois, where 
the time of the institute is during school terms, and the law provides 
that salary shall continue, by all means let attendance be compulsory. 
When competent institute instructors have been provided and all ar- 
rangements made to give teachers instruction, let attendance be a necea- 



72 PEOCEEDINGS — DEPARTMENT OP SUPERINTENDENCE. 

sity to those who may desire to teach. The officer charged with the 
duty of examiuing teachers and issuing certificates has the power to 
secure a full attendance by recognizing and aiding those who manifest 
professional skill and ability, but an arbitrary use of power would be 
unwise. Make the institutes of positive value to teachers and they will 
attend. 

There must be a classification and arrangement of work that will en- 
able teachers to obtain the kind of instruction they need most. Teach- 
ers in graded schools should have work bearing specially on the grade 
in which they teach. Where the number of teachers in graded schools 
is sufficient to arrange for a classification by grades — as in all large 
cities, and in counties where there are many graded schools — let there 
be one or more divisions of primary and of grammar grade work. 
Where the teachers are mostly from rural schools where one teacher is 
employed there should be a division into sections so that fifty or sixty 
teachers shall be in one room under an instructor. Those teachers 
whose schools are largely made up of children in the first, second, 

I 

and third reader should constitute one section, and those having 
schools of mostly advanced pupils should constitute another section. 
This would apply to meetings of one hundred to one hundred and 
twenty teachers. If a larger number are in attendance, then a closer 
division can be made, having three sections, making the classification 
according to the special conditions, needs, and experience of the teach- 
ers. In an institute of two hundred teachers from graded schools there 
should be at least three divisions — primary, intermediate, and advanced 
sections. In the primary grades the foundations are laid for a child's 
training. There the work should be the very best that can be given. 
There the elements of mental philosophy can be applied and their 
action observed. There more depends upon the plan, thought, and 
purpose of the teacher, because oral instruction is predominant, and 
the child must be directed in his efforts. There the habits of observa- 
tion, memory, and expression are formed. There children begin to ob- 
tain thought from books, and they must be skilfully trained that words 
may bring to them vivid pictures. There most of those who begin the 
work of teaching are assigned, and they need a foundation of correct 
educational principles. In the primary section should be presented the 
practical methods based upon true psychological principles, which may 
bo used in teaching a child reading, language, number, and the em- 
ployment of the hands in various kinds of constructive work, that shall 
finally bean essential element in his education. 

In the intermediate grades are introduced the beginning of geogra- 
phy, the first steps in history, and the applications of number. While 
the same general laws must be observed in teaching, as in the primary 
grades, the special application of those laws varies, and the character 
of the institute work changes. 

In the advanced grades all tl^e maturer powers of mind are to be 



TRAINING OP TEACHERS. 73 

aroused. Teachers must be taught how to lead pupils to independent 
investigation and thought, how to search for information from the store- 
house of others' work, how to work more skilfully in applying general 
principles to specific things, and in developing greater power of expres- 
sion. 

The superintendent or chief of&cers who are vested with the power to 
license teachers should have the general supervision of institutes, that 
they may — 

(1) Exert authority or power in securing attendance. 

(2) Classify with authority. 

(3) Learn most of each teacher. 

(4) Be able to recommend to school officers the best teachers. 

(5) Bear the full responsibility of the failure or success of the work. 
Who shall teach in institutes? 

The efficient and successful instructors in normal schools, because 
they are supposed to be doing constantly the very work that should be 
done in an institute. 

The most successful and practical teachers in the schools of the State 
or county, who have by education and experience demonstrated their 
power to direct and instruct others. Such persons as shall be author- 
ized by the State superintendent of schools. 

A distinctively American system of education has not yet been un- 
folded. We still study with profound interest the efforts and thoughts 
of educators of other countries. In many things we are striving to pat- 
tern after systems of education born and matured under vitally different 
conditions and surroundings. The kindergarten and the manual train- 
ing represent different phases of an educational system. To be under- 
stood this must be seen in all its relation to other work. Work is the 
inheritance of mankind. How to work in the world's material, how to 
apply forces already known, and how to discover unknown powers, then 
to analyze and utilize them, is a part of the mission of life. This power 
of seeing, investigating, knowing, and creating is an inherent faculty 
in childhood. To a great extent the teachers have ignored these first 
and natural laws in mental growth. 

A great part of our schools are destitute of apparatus to illustrate 
any subject, and in many of them the teachers are incapable of using 
properly the charts and apparatus which enterprising agents have been 
able to sell to the school officers, who knew the school work was defi- 
cient and thought these appliances could feed hungry minds. 

The workshop should bo connected with the institute to enable teach- 
ers: 

To construct forms and solids to be used as the basis of language, 
number, and arithmetic. 

To learn how to prepare charts for reading, language, number, etc. 

To prepare relief and outline maps. 

To collect, classify and preserve plants, insects, birds^ etc. 



74 PROCEEDINGS — DEPARTMENT OP SUPERINTENDENCE. 

To construct simple apparatus, to mould forms, to dissect objects, and 
to use the microscope. 

To learn to use all means and appliances tliat the most enterprising 
and progressive teachers have developed and tested as an aid in the 
science of teaching. 

To appreciate the great value of illustration and construction, or in- 
dustrial training, in the education of a child. 

In making preparation for the annual county institute of Cook County, 
which was attended last August by seven hundred and thirteen teach- 
ers, over six hundred of whom were teachers in graded schools, the 
work has been divided into seven sections. 

The teachers in graded schools are classified into five sections accord- 
ing to their grade of work in school, as follows : (1) First grade section. 
(2) Second grade . section, (3) Third and fourth grade section. (4) 
Fifth and sixth grade section. (5) Seventh and eighth grade section. 
(6) All, high school teachers constitute the sixth section. (7) The 
seventh section includes teachers in rural schools who have had some 
experience. Those who have never taught, but expect to teach in coun- 
try schools, will be assigned to second and third sections of graded 
school work, because such persons coming directly from high schools or 
grammar schools, although poorly qualified to teach anywhere, are better 
able to teach the older than the little children, consequently their 
greatest need is a knowledge of the principles and methods in primary 
instruction. 

The instructors are selected from the teachers of our county normal 
school, our State normal schools, and from the best primary and gram- 
mar school teachers that can be found anywhere. 

The work outlined for each section is based entirely upon the general 
outline of study used in the county schools, consequently each teacher 
has an opportunity to study and investigate the work, methods and 
principles involved in the work of her own grade. Teachers of first and 
second reader pupils are not required to spend a large part of their time 
in learning how English shall be taught in high schools, how graphic 
history may be presented, or what subjects shall be omitted from arith- 
metic or geography, however x valuable as a mental discipline, or desir- 
able these special subjects may be to teachers in the higher grades of 
work. The whole effort of the institute is to present the grade work to 
teachers in such a way as to illustrate the best methods, based on cor- 
rect pedagogical principles, that can be used in teaching. 

One week immediately preceding the opening of the schools in Sep- 
tember is given to this grade work. The teachers go directly to their 
schools aroused, enthused, and inspired to do better work, and ready 
to put into practice what they have acquired. 

For one week preceding the general institute, arrangements were 
made last year for special instruction in the sciences, botany, physiol- 
ogy, zoology, and chemistry. Teachers learn something of taxidermy, 
dissection, collecting and mounting insects, plants, moulding relief 



TRAINING OP TEACHERS. 



75 



maps m putty, constructing charts, etc. About one hundred teachers 
took up this extra work, many being the best teachers in the county. 

The same general plan will be followed for 1889. 

The following was the fall programme for the institute of 1888 : 

Cook County Teachers' Institute. 

(August 27 to August 31, 1888.) 
At Normal School Building, Engletvoodf HL 

DAILY programme. 



Time. 



9. 20 to 10. 15 
10. 15 to 11. 10 
11. 10 to 12. 00 
1.00 to 1.40 
1.40 to 2.30 
2. 30 to 3.00 
3. 00 to 3.45 



Time. 



9. 20 to 10. 15 
10. 15 to 11. 10 
11. 10 to 12. 00 
1.00 to 1.40 
1. 40 to 2.30 
2. 30 to 3.00 
3. 00 to 3.45 



Time. 



9. 20 to 10. 15 
10. 15 to 11. 10 
11. 10 to 12.20 
1.10 to 1.40 
1.40 to 2.30 
2. 30 to 3.00 
3. 00 to 3.45 



First grade section. 



Lectures in 

Kindergarten Instruction. 

Language 

Music 

Number 

Reading 

Moulding and Paper Fold- 
ing. 



Fourth and fifth grade 
section. 



Lectures in 

Reading 

Geograi)hy 

Language - . . . 

Arithmetic 

Music 

Drawing 



Country School section. 



Lectures in 

Language 

xVritliniotic 

Geography 

Reading 

Science 

Civics 



Second and third grade 
section. 



Assembly Hall. 

Language. 

Number. 

Music. 

Reading. 

Drawing. 

Botany. 



Sixth, seventh, and eighth 
grade section. 



Assembly Hall. 

Geography. 

Civics. 

Arithmetic. 

Language, 

Music. 

Psychology. 



High School section. 



Assembly Hall. 

Zoology and Physiology. 

History and Literature. 

Mathematics. 

Botany. 

Physics. 

Dissection and Microscopic 
Studies. 



3. 00 to 4. 00 Special work in dissection, moulding maps, wood- work, 
botany, chemistry, zoology, water-color painting, etc. 



\ 



76 PROCEEDINGS — DEPARTMENT OP SUPERINTENDENCE. 

Since Horace Mann traversed the State of Massachusetts appealing 
to the teachers and the people to recognize the momentous results that 
were to be the outgrowth of the right or wrong training of children, 
organizing institutes and conventions in which he set forth the methods 
and the fundamental laws and principles of education, there has been 
a sure, steady growth in public sentiment in favor of thoroughly 
trained, competent teachers. The institute has done much to supply 
and sustain the normal schools, and has brought the colleges of our 
land to recognize teaching as a profession by the establishment of de- 
partments of pedagogy. 

Three-fourths of all the teachers in this country are working faith- 
fully for the most part, but with little or no adequate idea of the results 
which should be attained or of the correct ways to reach them. These 
teachers, millions of children, and the people of this country still need 
Horace Manns to travel up and down, warning, entreating, arousing, 
inspiring, demanding that the children be properly educated. 

TJiis endmust he reached. The destiny of this nation hangs upon the issue 
of universal educations The attainment of this result depends wholly 
upon the high aims, right methods, true principles, and real power of 
educated, trained teachers. 

The institute is one of the great agencies through which these results 
are to be reached. 



DISCUSSION. 

John Hancock: I comefromaStatethathasnosuch normal school, 
from a State that has no county supervision — that central thing in all 
public school education. You might ask what State it is that is in this 
lamentable condition, that lacks these two great forces, the normal school 
and supervision. I won't tell you. However, while a State may be pro- 
vided with normal schools, it is not certain that they as an instrumental- 
ity will not reach the great body of teachers. Th3 State Kormal School 
may furnish a few trained teachers ; I had almost said well-trained, but 
that is not always true 5 but it will furnish a few teachers better trained 
than those who have no training at all. But the county institute is the 
people. The teachers in the county institutes must learn, what they 
arc to learn at all, of the principles of education. The State Normal 
School may send out a few teachers who will be centres of influence and 
will very much elevate the whole body of teachers, perhaps meeting as 
a circle going out and out and touching each other ; but when they get 
down to the real normal school work it must be done in the county 
institute. 

Now the question arises. What sort of instruction shall we give in 
the county institutes ? I don't know whether the gentleman who pre- 
ceded me gave the average time of these institutes. 1 believe the usual 



TRAINING OF TEACHERS. 77 

time of the institute in the year is one week ; in some places the session 
may be two weeks; but if it goes beyond that it is a sort of academic 
school for answering questions. It is a very poor kind of school. But 
let us suppose that the institute is one of one week and is designed for 
professional instruction largely. Now, how is this to be done in one week ; 
what can wo do in one week? Shall we have a series of schools reach- 
ing from year to year ? I think they have it in Iowa, a regular graded 
institute work, which I suppose to be graded academic work largely. 
Shall we do that ? I have been teaching in institutes for a great many 
years and I have found that when I have been in one institute for a time, 
if I intermit two or three or four years and go back, the teachers are 
largely instructors tome; that is, there is a constant change going on, 
so that they seem to have a graded system of work going on, some be- 
ginning at the middle and some at the close. 

Kow, ladies and gentlemen, I don't mean to say one word about psy- 
chology this afternoon, as my friend Kiehle, from away off in Minnesota, 
seemed to say some very wise words on that subject. Those of yoii who 
have read Coburn's Autobiography wiU remember what he said. He 
said: 

When I went up to Edinburgh I found there a man, and he was a teacher of natural 
philosophy — Dugald Stewart — and that man got hold of me in some way and I began 
to take interest iu things that I had not been interested in before, and I became a 
young man very different from what 1 had ever been before. His presence was with 
me always, a transforming sort of influence. 

If we had the right kind of teachers we could get some of that influ- 
ence in our county institutes. I remember going into an institute one 
time, and I attempted to get them interested in things that laid outside 
of their accustomed channels of thought, to broaden those channels and 
lift them out of those ruts, and in the afternoon of the second day we 
had the subject for discussion: What shall we do to make our institute 
more practical? And one young man got up and said, " We want to learn 
something about the branches we teach; we want to go over our gram- 
mar and geography and get ready for a certificate." After they got 
through with it I got aroused. I don't often get that way, but I was 
aroused, and said, *' These are not the things you want at all. You need 
something very different from that 5 you need to leave off your narrow 
ways of thinking and doing; you have come up here one week to learn 
broader ways, to get some spirit of inspiration; that is what you come 
up for.'^ I said it so earnestly that I convinced many of that institute 
that it would be a good thing to be done, and what, as I might say, if 
they could not, to carry out a torch with them to kindle a little blaze in 
the different districts in which they went to teach. 

I sometimes believe our whole scheme of education is false. I believe 
we teach against natm^e. We are the sum of all our antecedents, largely ; 
our minds and dispositions are formed by hundreds of generations back 
of us, and when we come up to be taught we must be taught in ws.^^ 



78 PROCEEDINGS — ^DEPARTMENT OP SUPERINTENDENCE. 

counter to these mighty influences. We have gone counter to this nature 
that we have within us. Let us teach according to that and we shall 
have splendid results. Our friends console us when one man says, "I 
have forgotten all the mathematics I ever knew.'' . The power is with 
you still. 

It is an episode that I drew around the word " inspiration." If man 
can do what man has done, I don't think his definition is broad enough. 
If he is brought in contact with the best thought and best things that 
have been done in the world, that is all a man wants in this world in the 
higher education. The higher education is the education. That higher 
education is the product of having ourselves moved mightily from 
within. Now, that is what the institute can do if you have the right 
spirit of instructors ; otherwise, an institute is of no value whatever. 

Kow, how shall we get these good institutes? Shall they all come 
from the normal schools? Shall they be appointed as in New York, and 
license a band of State institutes as instructors? Several years ago in 
the city of Cincinnati, when we had an institute there, we sent out 
every year the very foremost men in this country to go and teach our 
institutes, and their very presence alone was suf&cient to work up the 
teachers and make them live, as it were; and in the course of a few 
years that institute had become in itself a liberal education. Some of 
my friends here will bear me witness to the fact that the teachers have 
the pick of all this country to talk to them, a man of high thought and 
high endeavor, when he does not say a word. I am one of those little 
fellows who like to bask in the sunshine of these men whose lives have 
been devoted to thinking good and noble thoughts and doing good and 
noble things. TDheir inspiration comes to me, and so they come to these 
young men and women in the city. 

Much depends on the institute instructors. In Ohio we have no sys- 
tem of institutes. In Indiana we stand on spontaneity. Our institutes 
are managed entirely by the teachers themselves. They do not always 
employ the instructors wisely. 

While I am all at sea how these things shall be done, I am rather in- 
clined to the '^ no plan," if we may so term it. In Ohio we get pretty good 
results as to work. I believe the thing to be done in the week institutes 
is simply to stimulate the teachers and get them into broader ways of 
thinking and into kinder ways of feeling. I remember of going out from 
an institute and hearing one girl, whose eyes had always been bright 
during the whole week, remark, " I have had inspiration enough to last 
me a whole year." 

One other thought : Perhaps there are two classes of teachers who 
attend institutes, those who already have an interest in professional 
work. There is another class who go over the work of examination. 
The first class will be benefited by the higher kind of institutes 5 the 
second class may catch a thought that will do them good ; but if their 
mind is on the coming examination) it will not do them much good. I 



TRAINING OF TEACHERS. 79 

would eliminate the academic work from the county institute. The few 
hours which the teachers have to spend ought to be given to the higher 
work. That mere academic work, it is doing work over twice. There 
are other schools provided for doing that work and which can get bet- 
ter results than can be got out of teachers' institutes. 

Henry Sarin : Mr. President, Ladies, and Gentlemen — I am not 
here to represent any particular State. I do not claim the merit of 
representing the great Northwest, which my friend from Boston twits 
me on. I find at least ten of us representing that section. But I would 
if I could — if I had the language and the ability to do it — I would put be- 
fore this Department to-day a plea for -the teacher in the common schools. 
I would put before you to-day a plea, if I could, that would move this 
Department to do something in behalf of the schools in our rural dis- 
tricts 5 for it is there that we are making American citizens, my friends, 
and it is in those schools to-day that there is the greatest need of 
persistent hard work. I don't know that the normal institute reaches 
there as it should, or that there is any other means by which we can 
reach the common school teacher except through county institutes. In 
the position which we occupy we can feel something of the great 
throbbing wave of educational advancement which is going through 
the country ; but the only means by which we can reach them is through 
the annual gathering of these rural school teachers. 

Some of the gentlemen have made reference to the State I have the 
honor to represent. We expended last year in our normal institutes 
over $52,000, and when we closed we had in the treasury of the State 
over $14,000 of funds unexpended. We expended of the $52,000 over 
$43,000 for instruction alone. We have no disposition to abandon the 
normal institute 5 bat we do feel year after year that we ought to get a 
great deal more out of it than we have been able to. The State gives 
each. county $50; all the rest is raised by an assessment upon our 
teachers. Every teacher pays a dollar for his certificate ; the same in 
the institute ; and my friend from Chicago will excuse me wben I say it 
is an exceedingly unfair way to conduct an institute. I think the State 
of Iowa is great enough and rich enough to expend $50,000 every year 
on her school teachers 5 and I think the time is coming when she will 
do it. The gentleman from Ohio says, in regard to the length of time 
our institutes last, that it is on an average two and seven-tenths weeks. 
The fact is, we were in session four weeks. The original purpose of 
the county institute has very largely been lost sight of in many i)arts 
of the State. I fully believe with the gentleman from Ohio that it was 
their design that the normal institute should be turned into a cram-" 
ming school; and that has been the case in some counties in our State, 
and is the case in various parts of the ]S"orthwest. I had an institute 
under my care a few years ago. I gave an advanced class some very 
practical hints in regard to school management. Mt^xXJckftV^v^.^xsxfe^'^ss^ 



82 PKOCEEDINGS — DEPARTMENT OF SUPERINTENDENCE. 

wlio have never taught. Before they are enrolled they should be re- 
quired to pass au examination the requirements of which have been 
known to them for at least a year. Then their work at the institute 
should be to review points in which they are deficient and to receive in- 
struction in organization and management of schools, and in such mat- 
ters as will tend to guard them against mistakes arising from their in- 
experience. 

At the close, before they leave the institute, they should be definitely 
informed as to the amount and kind of work, both academical and pro- 
fessional, which they will be expected to finish during the year, and in 
which they must be examined at the beginning of the next institute, 
and before .they are permitted to pass into the next higher grade. Care 
must be taken not to require too much of them 5 the amount must be very 
reasonable so as not to overtax their time and strength. 

Having passed the second examination, the work of their second in- 
stitute should be devoted to elucidation of points connected with that 
year's work. Then they should be ready to take the work of the next 
year, which should be largely devoted to professional subjects and to 
reading professional books. 

The examination at the end of this period should be not technical, but 
rigid, calculated to show how thoroughly they have digested and as- 
similated the books which they have read. 

The work for the succeeding and last period of twelve months should 
be wholly professional, devoted to elementary psychology and the his- 
tory of education. 

Here we have the preliminary examination, followed by the work of 
three successive years, not very extensive, but thorough; each year's 
work, the ground and baseof the institute instruction, following it. At 
the close of such a course of institutes those teachers who have attended 
through the whole (series) and who have shown their fitness and ability 
to instruct and govern children and youth, might be granted a certifi- 
cate good for three years, renewable at the end of that time for ten 
years, if the holder could show continued improvement in his profes- 
sion. 

Something of the kind here indicated has been tried, but not with that 
thoroughness which enables us to say anything of its success or failure. 

I believe that the plan which I have sketched, however, contains the 
elements out of which,or rather the basis upon which, the future institute 
will be constructed. That feeling along these lines of thought, we shall 
eventually reach a conclusion which will render the institute the most 
important and most effective factor in our educational work. 

E. E. HiGBEE : How is it possible for us to come to any conclusion 
in regard to county institutes in such an endless variety of suggestions f 
I give up any prospect for having any general law for institutes. All 
that I have attempted to do has been confined simply to three things : 



TEAINING OF TEACHERS. 81 

(4) The professional work, if it is to reach the highest degree of suc- 
cess, must be given by those who are {a) adepts in methods of impart- 
ing kuowledgo ; (h) who have that enthusiasm which begets enthusiasm, 
who are to the teachers in the classes as the steel is to the flint; (c) and 
whoso instructions are guided by that wise philosophj'^ which induces 
a spontaneous, yet lasting, self-activity on the part of the learner. Tell 
me with any degree of exactness the worth of the instruction, and I can 
foretell with equal exactness the worth of the insf. '*^«5elf. 

(5) The institute as first devised exerted a wide inuuw ^^^ the 
tone of public feeling in relation to the schools. The institute oi us. ^ 

is very often as isolated from the public as the high school. It is looked 
upon by the community as something with which they have very little 
to do. The evening lectures, of which there should be several, should 
be devoted very largely to arousing an interest in the schools, and to 
disseminating among the people true ideas of education, what it is, 
what it is worth, and how it is obtained. The fact is, the schools are 
losing their hold upon the public, not because the public do not appre- 
ciate their work, but because they do not understand it ; they look upon 
the schools very much as we look upon a piece of complicated machin- 
ery — ^it is very intricate, and therefore very wonderful. 

The institute ought to afford us a very ready means of bringing the 
schools and the people together once more. It is right to say here that 
the institute, if it is to be a permanent force in our educational system, 
should be controlled by the State. Those who are employed to aid in 
its administration should be compelled to give proof to some authority 
of their ability and fitness for the peculiar work intrusted to them. In- 
stitute workers must be recognized as specialists, and be largely treated 
as such. 

I am thoroughly convinced that we are approaching a period when 
the normal institute must choose between a new departure in its man- 
agement or being abandoned as worthless. If it is to remain as a fac- 
tor in our educational system, then some degree of permanence must 
be attached to its work so that it will no longer be looked upon as the 
end, but as the means to an end. 

(1) In the first place, some amount of academical knowledge should 
be required as a prerequisite for enrolment in an institute. It may be 
only enough to entitle the holder to a low-grade, certificate even, but it 
should be something fixed and definite, and known to the teachers in the 
county. The effect of this plan would bo to shut out a certain amount 
of worthless material ; as the conditions of enrolment were gradually 
raised, the institute would take higher rank in the public mind, while 
at the same time there would be room to make a marked improvement 
in the character of the instruction given. I believe this step would 
change the whole tone of the institute. 

(2) The institute must be graded upon a different plan from that gener- 
ally pursued. The lowest grade should be largely formed of tl\<i%<ik 

882— No. 2 G 



82 PKOCEEDINGS — DEPARTMENT OF SUPERINTENDENCE. 

who have never taught. Before they are enrolled they should be re- 
quired to pass an examination the requirements of which have been 
known to them for at least a year. Then their work at the institute 
should be to review points in which they are deficient and to receive in- 
struction in organization and management of schools, and in such mat- 
ters as will tend to guard them against mistakes arising from their in- 
experience. 

At the close, before they leave the institute, they should be definitely 
informed as to the amount and kind of work, both academical and pro- 
fessional, which they will be expected to finish during the year, and in 
which they must be examined at the beginning of the next institute, 
and before .they are permitted to pass into the next higher grade. Care 
must be taken not to require too much of them ; the amount must be very 
reasonable so as not to overtax their time and strength. 

Having passed the second examination, the work of their second in- 
stitute should be devoted to elucidation of points connected with that 
year's work. Then they should be ready to take the work of the next 
year, which should be largely devoted to professional subjects and to 
reading professional books. 

The examination at the end of this period should be not technical, but 
rigid, calculated to show how thoroughly they have digested and as- 
similated the books which they have read. 

The work for the succeeding and last period of twelve months should 
be wholly professional, devoted to elementary psychology and the his- 
tory of education. 

Here we have the preliminary examination, followed by the work of 
three successive years, not very extensive, but thorough; each year's 
work, the ground and base of the institute instruction, following it. At 
the close of such a course of institutes those teachers who have attended 
through the whole (series) and who have shown their fitness and ability 
to instruct and govern children and youth, might be granted a certifi- 
cate good for three years, renewable at the end of that time for ten 
years, if the holder could show continued improvement in his prolfes- 
sion. 

Something of the kind here indicated has been tried, but not with that 
thoroughness which enables us to say anything of its success or failure. 

I believe that the plan which I have sketched, however, contains the 
elements out of which,or rather the basis upon which, the future institute 
will be constructed. That feeling along these lines of thought, we shall 
eventually reach a conclusion which will render the institute the most 
important and most effective factor in our educational work. 

E* E. HiaBEE : How is it possible for us to come to any conclusion 
in regard to county institutes in such an endless variety of suggestions^ 
I give up any prospect for having any general law for institutes. All 
that I have attempted to do has been confined simply to three things : 



TBAINING OF TEACHERS. 83 

First, to arouse a public interest in educational matters. The minds 
of men generally are not trained to it because there is no profit in it ; 
it brings no dollars and cents. So it becomes necessary that public 
sentiment should be aroused, and I find county institutes to be a very 
fine organization for that purpose, to gather the men in — the physicians, 
the lawyers, the ministers — to get them all in and there have the oppor- 
tunity at least of challenging their attention to school work. We have 
county fairs of the same kind in Pennsylvania to get an exhibit of the 
county in its material interest, and I have no doubt it does farming 
good. But here is the chance of showing off the teachers of the 
whole county, challenging the community at least to look at them, 
to see tliem in a body. I want the institute to serve that end, and 
therefore I made them, so far as I could, mass meetings of education. 

There was another thing I had in view. Our teachers are of necessity 
young. In the profession of teaching we cannot expect the age that 
we find in the profession of law, medicine or in the ministry. It is idle 
for us to expect that, with our present system. We have them in the 
old country. I met them in Belgium ; the majority of them were sixty 
years of age, the great minority were twenty to thirty years of age. It 
will be years and years before we can reach any system such as that; 
and we must expect therefore that our teachers will be young girls and 
young boys, many of them simply teaching to get spending money, or to 
open the way to get to some other point, some other method of living. 
Now, such being the case, I found it very necessary to arouse an inter- 
est in the work. I wish to cultivate the esprit de corps^ that teachers 
might at least see a large body of teachers around them and begin to 
feel that they are teachers, that they belong to a body of men called to 
an individual work. I never aimed at having instruction given defi- 
nitely, like the driven ox. I don't believe you can do it in the two or three 
weeks or six weeks. It is hard enough work to do it in the normal 
school in a year or two years ; and that instruction can't be given in our 
institutes with any degree of satisfaction. But what I did desire is 
that our teachers should know something outside of their professi(»i that 
would be an advantage to their profession. The teacher must be broad 
in culture ; he must stand before the pupil with breadths of knowledge 
to answer and feel what the child desires; and it is only by broadening 
his knowledge that he will be a good teacher. I don't mean that he 
should understand the whole theory and art of teaching; but he should 
understand more. It will take nine lawyers and more to make a man if 
they confine themselves to law and go not beyond it. 

What do we want in our association with each other ? Do we want 
to come here and see my friend Newell and hear him talk and play the 
pedantic bore ? I want nothing of the kind. I want not Ne well's pro- 
fession but l^ewell himself; he is broader than the profession. We 
want the coming together of life with life, spirit with spirit, soul with 
soul, deeper than any particular professional characteristics^ and tU:<y^t^ 



84 riiOCEEDINGS — DEPARTMENT OP SUPERINTENDENCE. 

we secure in our institutes by getting broad men, by getting strong men, 
by getting men who will lift the profession out of its ruts and lift it by 
his aspirations and inspirations. But do not understand me to say now 
that we succeeded. Wiien we have succeeded we will put the institute 
on the shelf. 

I have gone into the State of New York, and I admire much of their 
work there; in fact I have been half converted since my visit last year; 
but I am not fully converted yet. I have been in Michigan ; I like 
their work there. Also in Illinois. But, as I started out with saying, 
you no more can saddle New York on Pennsylvania, or Iowa on Illinois, 
than you can harness Pegasus with a mule. 

H. S. Jones : Mr. President and fellow members of our association: — 
I am well noted to weary you on this subject, but I am not going to fire 
off, I will make this remark and stop : This beautiful presentation of 
the institute as it is managed in Massachusetts will be printed, and I 
want you not only to read it, but study it. 



STATE TEAOHEES' INSTITUTES. 
By John W. Dickinson, 

Secretary Massachusetts State Board of Education. 

An institute is a society organized for teaching the principles of 
things. 

A teachers' institute is an association of teachers, established for the 
purpose of discussing the principles and methods on which the science 
and art of teaching are founded. 

A State teachers' institute is one established and directed by State 
authorities. 

The idea of a school teachers' institute was invented at a teachers' 
convention held in Tompkins County, New York, some time, I believe, 
in the year 1843. 

The first institutes were organized and supported by their members. 
Horace Mann, observing the work of these voluntary associations, thought 
it best to present to the teachers of Massachusetts an opportunity to 
judge of their value from personal experience. 

Hon. Edmund D wight, a personal friend of Mr. Mann, and ever ready 
to aid him in carrying out his educational plans, contributed $1,000 to 
enable liimto try the experiment of training the teachers of the Com- 
iponwealth by means of teachers' institutes. To encourage attendance, 
the funds contributed by Mr. Dwight were expended in paying the board 
of the members of the institute. The first teachers' institute in Massa- 
chusetts wa^ held in the town of Pittsfield in the autumn of 1845, two 
years later than the first held in New York. The Governor of the State 



TRAINING OF TEACHERS. 85 

was present, and was, tbroaghout the session, one of the most attentive 
and interested observers. Ho was himself a gradnate of the public 
common schools of western Massachusetts, and he knew well of their 
great deficiencies and their great importance. 

The experiment at Pittslield was considered by all to be eminently 
Ruccessfnl. 

Governor Briggs, in his next message to the Massachusetts Legis- 
lature, recommended a generous api)ropriation for the support of teach- 
ers' institutes to be held in different parts of the Commonwealth and 
under the direction of the State board of education. The recommenda- 
tion was approved by an almost unanimous vote of the legislators of 
the State, and from that time the teachers' institute became a State in- 
stitution. 

The first teachers' institutes ever held in the Commonwealth of Mas- 
sachusetts were conducted after the manner of a public school. 

The members were formed into classes ; they were required to prepare 
lessons and recite them, and to conform in all respects to the formalities 
of a well-regulated school. 

Tiio expenses of the members while attending the institutes were 
paid by the State, and their wages by the towns, the same as though 
they were doing their regular school work. 

The exercises of the early institutes had less to do with a discussion 
of methods as founded on principles than with a study of the subjects 
to be taught. Arithmetic, grammar, geography, and reading, those 
studies known as the common English branches, were pursued with 
reference to a knowledge of them as subjects, rather than with reference 
to the method by which they should be presented to the learner's mind. 
The evening exercises consisted of lectures on subjects of interest to 
the teachers and to the people as well. The lecturers endeavored to 
communicate information ; to magnify the value and necessity of pop- 
ular education and to awaken a deeper interest in the public schools. 
Among those accustomed to speak to the teachers and the people at the 
first Massachusetts institutes, were the most distinguished educators of 
that time. They were such men as Louis Agassiz. the great naturalist; 
Prof. Arnold Guyot, the most noted geographer of his time; Prof. 
William Russell, the renowned teacher of elocution; Dr. Lowell Mason, 
the pioneer teacher of vocal music in the public schools ; Samuel Green, 
the grammarian ; and Warren Colburn, the mathematician. Those dis- 
tinguished philosophers attracted the attention of the teachers of the 
Commonwealth and inspired them with a desire to increase their knowl- 
•edgo of the subjects they taught, and to improve their methods of 
teaching these topics to others. 

The interest that these gentlemen manifested in the simple work of 
the elementary schools elevated thesQ institutions in the estimation of 
the people, 'and gave a new impulse to the cause of public instruction 
tliioaghoat the State. The State teachers' institutes, tk^wotmviN.^'^wJv^^ 



86 PROCEEDINGS — DEPARTMENT OP SUPERINTENDENCE. 

and special, well-educated supervision, as a means of placing over our 
public schools competent instructors, have done much toward producing 
a radical reformation in these institutions, and toward enlisting an in- 
telligent sympathy in their support. In Massachusetts the State insti- 
tutes are organized and directed by the State board of education. 
When the State board is satisfied that fifty teachers of public schools 
desire to unite in forming a teachers' institute, it shall, by a committee 
or by its secretary, or, in case of his inability, by such person as it may 
delegate or appoint, give notice of a time and place for such meeting, 
and make, suitable arrangements therefor. To defray the expenses to 
procure teachers and lecturers for such institutes a sum of money is an- 
nually appropriated to be paid out of that half of the income of the 
school fund not apportioned for distribution to cities and towns. The 
board may determine the length of time during which a teachers' insti- 
tute shall remain in session and what sum of money, not exceeding 
$300, shall be appropriated to meet its exi)enses. These 'are the prin- 
cipal statutes regulating the establishment of the institutes. As a fact 
the institutes are held wherever they are invited, or in those towns 
which may consent to receive them on a request from the secretary of 
the board. The secretary also organizes the institutes, appoints the 
teachers, and arranges the exercises to be conducted. 

The school* committee of the town in which an institute is to be held 
is requested to invite the teachers and school committeemen of as 
many other towns as it pleases to join with it in the exercises and 
hospitalities of the occasion. In later years the institutes have been 
attended by school officers as well as by teachers, and by the people of 
the community in large numbers. The subjects taught are, first, the 
principles of teaching and the true method founded upon them ; second, 
the application of the method to teaching the various branches enum- 
erated in the list of compulsory studies. 

This includes presenting to the institute a set of topics on the study 
brought before it, and a full plan of teaching these topics to others. 

The means of illustration are presented also, as well as the manner 
of using them. 

It is the duty of the institute teacher to show that in the construction 
of the topics he presents he has provided for teaching his subject ac- 
cording to the principles illustrated in the lesson already given on prin- 
ciples of teaching. 

In teaching the individual topics themselves, he is expected to ex- 
hibit a practical application of the true method founded on the same 
principles. In this way it will appear that the work of the institute is 
to train its members to teach rather than to give them information. 
Great care should be exercised in presenting the principles and method 
of teaching. 

The laws of the human mind which control it in the acquisition of 
knowledge and in the development of its faculties can not be made 



TRAINING OP TEACHERS. 87 

objects of consciousness by means of words alone. Learned lectures 
written and read on this subject to a company of young persons who 
have never before directed their attention to it do not always com- 
municate mtlch solid information, nor are they the occasions of much 
Hseful knowledge. The subject must be taught by directing the learn- 
er's mind to its own operations, and to the conditions necessary for their 
performance. 

In teaching to the members of an institute tfie principles or laws of 
the mind upon which all teaching depends, and in devising a method of 
teaching that shall be in harmony with the principles, a simple plan 
may be devised by which these most important and fiindamental topics 
may be made clear to all who may give their earnest attention to the 
exercise. 

First. The institute teacher should teach, not tell his class in words, 
but teach the definition of teaching. This may be done by teaching 
what an object of thought is, and what a subject, and what it is to pres- 
ent these to the learner's mind, as occasions for knowledge, and for that 
development of the faculties which may be produced by their right ac- 
tivity. From this teaching, the definition of the act may be easily de- 
rived. 

A clear understanding of what it is to teach is important. It will 
prevent the teacher from too much talking and explaining, and assign- 
ing lessons from text-books to be coipmitted to memory and recited 
without ideas or without any development of active power. It will lead 
^ him to present the objects and subjects of the lessons to the learner's 
mind and simply direct the thinking that should follow. 

Second. After the definition of teaching has been thus presented, the 
ways or methods of performing this act should be considered. 

There are two methods of teaching and study. One employs the ana- 
lytic process, the other the synthetic. The laws of the intellect that 
determine its modes of activity in acquiring knowledge and which form 
the basis of a philosophic method of teaching are, first, the law which 
requires that whatever is to be known shall be made to hold the rela- 
tion of object to the mind ; second, the law that requires the object to 
hold the relation first of unity and then of parts or attributes in their 
order. 

These two laws of the intellect are the principles upon which a 
method of teaching should be based. The objective element of the 
method is based or founded upon the first principle. The analytic ele- 
ment is founded upon the second principle. From tlie two principles 
found in the laws of the intellect that control its activity may be de- 
rived the analytic objective method of teaching, which the mind must 
be trained to use with facility, that its power may be 'cultivated. It 
must be borne in mind that the analytic process includes two acts of 
the intelleot. The first in order is an analytic act; the second a syn- 
thetio. Both these acts, taken together and iu tti^ orsAfc^ ^^y^^'^'^^V^^, 



88 PROCEEDINGS — DEPARTMENT OP SUPERINTENDENCE. 

constitute one process of the intellect, called the analytic process. The 
synthetic process is the reverse of the analytic. After teaching with 
considerable care the nature of method and the characteristics of the 
two methods which may be used, it may be easily shown what the prin- 
ciples of teaching are, and that the analytic method is founded upon 
them. 

From what has now been taught, it will appear that school exercises 
may accomplish three ends : (1) They may direct the pupil to some 
useful knowledge; (2) to a right method of study; (3) to a right use of 
the faculties. It will also appear that there is a logical relation be- 
tween the analytic method of teaching and the ends to be secured by 
its use. 

This part of the subject should be made clear by objective illustra- 
tions, in which the pupil teachers should Jbe made familiar with the 
application of method in teaching. 

The lesson on the principles and method of teaching is the most im- 
portant exercise that can bo brought before a teachers' institute. If it is 
successfully given and faithfully received, it will communicate that 
knowledge which will make intelligent work of every school exercise 
the teacher will be required to conduct ; it will guide him to a true course 
of studies and to a way of presenting the different subjects enumerated 
in the course to the learner's mind ; it will prevent him from making the 
unfortunate mistakes that a false i)hilosophy is sure to introduce. 

The lessons of the institute that follow the first should all be given 
after the same manner, and for the purpose of making the teachers fa- 
miliar with the application of the principles and method to teaching the 
various branches which are required to be pursued in the schools. These 
illustrative exercises will include an exhibition of both elementary and 
scientific teaching, and an explanation of elementary as distinguished 
from scientific knowledge. 

This will require the institute teacher to supply himself with the 
means of teaching the facts he would present to his class, and to use 
them with special reference to the scientific teaching that is sometime 
to follow. That he may give to his institute class the best exhibition 
of his skill as an elementary teacher, he should be provided with a class 
of children, and spend a portion of the time allotted to his lesson in 
directing them in their elementary thinking and in giving proper ex- 
pression to their thoughts. Complaint is sometimes made that the ex- 
ercises of the institutes are too exclusively confined to elementary 
topics of study and teaching, and no scheme of scientific work is illus- 
trated. 

The institute lessons should include both the elementary and the 
scientific elements of instruction. The subjects of the institute lessons 
should be those taught in the public schools, including industrial draw- 
ing, modelling in clay, the construction of simple apparatus for illus- 
trating the facts of natural science and vocal music. A simple system 



TRAINING OF TEACHERS. 89 

of moral instraction should also be taught iuconuection with a plan for 
intellectual training. The mind is developed as a moral power by turn- 
ing its attention to the moral quality of its acts, and to doing what 
ought to be done. 

The cultivation of moral habits should be carried on with the cultiva- 
tion of the intellect. The relations of school life, and the various exer- 
cises of the schools provide favorable occasions for the development of 
the moral nature of the child. 

The teacher is supposed to be a model person, worthy of imitation. 
If this supposition accords with the facts, the pupils will be subject to 
the molding influences of a good example. The natural desire and the 
ability to imitate render the education of the young possible and mag- 
nify the importance of a good living example. 

The acts of obedience, which a wise and efScient school government 
requires, will train the pupil to a thoughtful consideration of his con- 
duct and to the habit of self-control. The habit of loyalty to the rules 
and regulations of the school, accompanied with a desire to promote its 
welfare, is a good one to cultivate in the minds of the young as a prep- 
aration for good citizenship. 

* The exercise of studying by the use of the true method will develop 
the intellect and create in it the power to think so as to discover the 
truth. The habit of independent deliberation before making a choice 
is most favorable to good morals. To create such a habit is the con- 
stant aim of the intelligent teacher. The relations of pupils in school 
to one another as a community will ofifor an opportunity for instruction 
on the subject of public as well as private morals. As the affairs of 
social life are carried on in connection with promises and contracts, and 
as promises will avail nothing if the members of society are not faith- 
ful in making them, and do not trust them when made, the teacher 
should endeavor to impress upon the minds he is attempting to develop 
the infinite value of fidelity to that which is morally right, and the ob- 
ligation every member of the school is under to exercise it in all the 
moral relations he holds to others, as well as in all he holds to his own 
well-being. Such fidelity in the relations of social life, and of the life 
of the individual, seems to constitute the vital element in all the virtues. 

If successfully cultivated in the minds of the children in our public 
schools, in connection with their physical and intellectual instruction, 
this fundamental virtue will appear as a ruling principle in their lives 
as citizens of the State. The best ideas on the moral training of the 
young are in favor of the right development of the mind as an intel- 
lect, as the only solid foundation for good morals. A rational plan of 
moral instruction should be the subject of one imi)ortant lesson at 
every State teachers' institute. 

The teachers selected to give instruction at these institutions should 
be thoroughly educated persons, both in the philosophy of teaching 
and in the various subjects of instruction. They should make special 



90 PROCEEDINGS — ^DEPARTMENT OF SUPERINTENDENCE. 

preparation for every lesson they teach, that no time may be lost in at- 
tempts to say something or do something which may produce a tem- 
porary sensation, though it has no educational value. They should 
have an abundance of common sense — ^that original gift to a portion of 
th6 race, valuable for its discriminating power, in judging of the pro- 
prieties of time and place, and for its foresight in preventing mistakes. 

Teachers' instituteia if rightly managed may produce some good re- 
sults. They may furnish an opportunity to the teachers of. a commu- 
nity to become acquainted with one another. 

The association of professional people with one another enables them 
to make common what each one knows. 

The teachers' institutes furnish occasions for improvement in study 
and teaching, by directing attention to new ideas, and by exciting an 
ambition to study.' They magnify the importance of popular educa- 
tion, and strengthen the schools by improving them. 

They encourage the teachers to attend the normal schools, and the 
school authorities to employ trained teachers. 

Neither training schools nor teachers' institutes can take the place of 
normal schools. The one may add some skill to the labor of the school 
teacher, and the other may give some useful hints and awaken ambi- 
tion to improve, but it is reserved to the normal school to teach the 
science and art and history of teaching, and prepare the teacher for 
an intelligent application of his knowledge^ so as to secure the great 
ends of school life. 



MANUAL TRAINING. 



RELATION op MAlfUAL TRAmnTG TO BODY AND MIND* 

By C. M. Woodward, 

Diteeior of the Manual Training School of the Washington University, St. Louis, Mo. 

• 

Mr. Chairman, Ladies and Gentlemen of the Department : I am left 
somewhat deserted to night; the paper which I shall have the honor of 
reading was intended to follow a more elaborate paper from Mr. MacAl- 
ister and then one from Mr. Button. I therefore have been very moder- 
ate in the limits which I have taken and in the phase of the subject 
which I have treated. I have confined myself to one or two features of 
the question. I only hope that after I have read what I have prepared, 
if there is still time, others will add something. So far as I am con- 
cerned, if my experience in manual training has fitted me to answer any 
of the questions you may ask, I will answer to the best of my ability. 

The mother of a Philadelphia boy said last spring to the principal of 
the Philadelphia Manual Training High School, " I just want to know 
if I can carry a bed down and let my boy stay at your school all the time ; 
for he doesn't want to come away, and he wants to leave home every 
morning right after breakfast." Substantially the same story of deep 
interest has been told me hundreds of times during the nine years since 
the St. Louis Manual Training School was opened. And this interest 
is no "craze,'' no ephemeral enthusiasm. The newness was worn off 
the broom long since, but it still sweeps wonderfully well. In many 
instances the third of three brothers rejoices as steadily in the work of 
the school as did his elder brother years ago. Some scraps of parental 
testimony I shall give later on. 

In speaking of the relation of manual training to the mind and body 

we are all forced to make comparisons. If the new system has no fruit 

which the old does not yield, if it fails in valuable results where the 

other succeeds, or if the new product does not on the whole outweigh 

' the old, then the new has no sufficient excuse for being. 

In making these comparisons, my strictures will not indicate hostility. 
Our best critics are our friends, for their criticisms can not be explained 
away on the ground of unfriendliness. In pointing out defects, or in 

* In this paper I parposely omit all reference to the moral inHaence of manual 
tcaining, and to its economic value. These suh^eota lia^e \)e^u \tx^^\ft^ ^^^^V^s^^« 



92 PROCEEDINGS — DEPARTMENT OF SUPERINTENDENCE. 

quoting others who point them out, I am not attacking the public school ' 
or classical schools. The physician who tells his patient what is the 
matter with him, and how to improve his condition, is not attacking 
him ; ho is only preparing the way for a better regimen. 

MANUAL TRAINING IS POR ALL. 

I shall not go into an elaborate discussion of what the schools ought 
to teach, in order to fix our standards of excellence* I shall assume, 
however, that we are aiming at universal education, that boys whom 
manual training should help and strengthen are all the hoys who are 
growing up to manhood. I am not thinking alone of the few who are 
to bo trained to leadership, while the many are to be left untrained 
to fill the great army of directed workers. I am not thinking of one 
boy in twenty who is to be trained in theory while the nineteen are to 
be left to practical labor, having the one to lay out their work for them 
and to do all their thinking. Is not our aim to make men self-directed, 
self determined, anct therefore free "? So long as one is educated only 
byproxvj so long as another is to perform his calculations, to make 
liis drawings, to design his forms while he slavishly executes as di- 
rected, so long we can lay no valid claim to be a free people. 

The proper education of today is a preparation for the duties and 
responsibilities of life. Our students must therefore come out of school 
with the elements of high character, with a vigorous, healthy body and 
mind, able to put both hand and brain to work, to enter readily into 
sympathetic co-operation with the institutions of their country and 
time. Practical accomplishments are essential to a good education, 
though they are not the whole of it. "While training to the full the 
faculties of the individual, including his mechanical powers, and fitting 
him to act his part as a citizen, a home-builder, and a bread-winner, wo 
must not fail to set high value on the finest products of the human mind 
and to give fair introduction to tlie gretOit fields of art and philosophy. 

I do not wish to spend much time upon definitions, yet I am forced 
to declare that many educators have erroneous ideas as to what man- 
ual training is and what it aims at. Half that was said in San Fran- 
cisco last summer in criticism of manual training sprang from mis- • 
conceptions. One man spoke of the agricultural college and the de- 
partment of mining engineering in the State University as examples 
of manual training. Another long argument against it was based upon 
the assumption that the ^* logical outcome of hitching manual training . 
to the public schools'' is teaching trades. The author fancied that a 
manual training school is a factory and that it produces ^' manufactured 
articles;" and soon. Iconfess I am beginning to lose patience with such 
misconception, which seems little less than misrepresentation. Have 
these men been both blind and deaf for the last six or eight years? 
Have they not seen what wo are actually doing, and have they not heard 
the reports wo have made from time to time *? Do they think that they, 



MANUAL TEAINING. 93 

without experience of manual training, see more deeply into its essence — 
that they more clearly detect its tendencies than do we, who have been 
in contact tvith it, studying its nature and influence for years ? 

I think I am safe in saying that no one of us, from Boston to San 
Francisco, from St. Paul to Kew Orleans, engaged in the conduct of 
manual training schools, whether public or chartered or on chartered 
foundations, has any such notions as these men assume that we have. 
On the contrary, the tendency of every thoughtful supervisor of manual 
training is to make the instruction and practice less technical, less in- 
dustrial, more scientiflc and more universal. 

NOT A TRADE SCHOOL NOB A TECHNICAL SCHOOL. 

A manual training school is not a school for the training of carpen- 
ters and blacksmiths, of machinists and mechanical engineers, like the 
Worcester Polytechnic in Massachusetts, and the Eose Polytechnic in 
Indiana, both organized by the late C. O. Thompson ; nor yet is it like 
that admirable "Trades" school founded and conducted by Colonel 
Auchmuty in New York City. 

In a manual training school, properly so called, no attempt is made 
to cultivate dexterity at the expense of thought. No mere slight-of- 
band is aimed at, nor is muscular exercise of itself held to be of educa- 
tional value. An exercise, whether with tools or with books, is valuable 
only in proportion to the demand it makes upon the mind for intelligent, 
thoughtful work. In the school-shop the stage of mechanical habit is 
never reached. The only habit actually acquired is that of thinking. 
No blow is struck, no line drawn, no motion regulated, from muscular 
liabit. The quality of every act springs from the conscious will accom- 
panied by a definite act of judgment. At the same time I plainly see 
that the trade tendency is to be guarded against. There is plenty of 
bad advice, foolish schemes, and indiscreet haste for putting manual 
training where it does not belong, and where no adequate preparations 
are made for it. But in this respect we are not singular ; every good 
cause has much to fear and to suffer from its friends. I beg of jou not 
to hold manual training responsible fo;;r all that is said and done in its 
name. 

On the other hand, we must not suppose that all who fiiil to accept 
our estimate of its value in education are to be classed as hostile to new 
ideas. Let us reason together with candor and mutual respect. This 
is the place to ask and answer questions, to state objections, to present 
arguments, to give testimony, and to quote experience.^ A priori 
reasoning has its time and place, but it pales in the presence of actual 
experience. ♦ 

We have a most remarkable example of a priori reasoning in the essay 



iTliis paper was read at the March meeting of the Superintendout's Departiueut of 
tho Natioaal Educational Association at Wasliiugton, in 1889. 



94 PROCEEDINGS — DEPARTMENT OP SUPERINTENDENCE. 

of Mr. E. K. Buelirle,of Lancaster, Pa., on practical education. I have 
not space in which to quote even a summary of the arguments he evolves 
from his inner consciousness to do battle against manual training. 

Before proceeding to give the results of actual experience, it seems 
to be necessary to say that the St. Louis Manual Training School is 
now closing its ninth year of regular work. It will graduate its seventh 
class in June next. Its enrolment for the year 1888-89 is two hundred 
and forty-one boys, in three grades. The minimum age of admission is 
fourteen years. The requirements on entering are substantially those 
of good high schools. All students take the full courses in mathemat- 
ics, science, drawing, and tool- work in wood and metals. In language 
and literature the students elect between a continuous course in En- 
glish, history, rhetoric, civics, and political economy, and a course in 
Latin and French or German, with a weekly exercise in English litera- 
ture. The number of present graduates is two hundred and thirty- 
nine. 

THE VERDICT OF PARENTS. 

I now propose to present some new evidence from the most reliable 
sources of the practical influence of manual training. It comes from 
those who have had the very best opportunities for observation, and 
whose deep interest in the matter does not usually blind their eyes to a 
school's faults. Parents are valid witnesses. Here follows my circular 
of inquiry : 

Jaiojary 28, 1889. 
To the parents of pupils in the Manual T^raining School : 

I have been invited to lay before an important body some facts in regard to the 
influence which manual training has upon the health, growth, and proper culture of 
both mind and body. 

No person can be more observant on these points than parents, and no others are so 
able to make just comparisons between manual training schools and other schools. 
Will you not, therefore, aid me by writing fuUy and freely on these points ? I have no 
wish to make a case against any of the excellent schools which are naturally the gen- 
erous rivals of this school. Neither have I any desire to cover up any of our sins of 
omission or commission. Tell the truth plainly, and I will quote you whether you 
speak for or against our system. 

The question of moral influence is not now raised, but if you have any decided 

views it may be of value in other discussions to have you give them now. 

Respectfully, 

^ CM. Woodward, 

Director, 

I give a few of the responses, taking them in exactly the order in 
which they came in. The writers will be found to tell their opportuni- 
. ties for observation. 

No. 1. " My observation of its effectaiupon my son is that your system of manual 

training results in accuracy, facility of adaptation of means to ends, and self-reliance, 

such as in my judgment the ordinary course does not produce.*' 

No. 2. It is " favorable to his physical growth and development." ' 

No. 3. *' I have not words to express our satisfaction at his mental development in 

the same time (Ave mouths). There is absolutely no loss of time in the Manuf^ 



MANUAL TRAINING. 95 

Training School I note the benefit of yonr system in application to study, ambition 
io sneoeedy and in steadiness of purpose. I remark a wonderfal development of these 
traits in our son since ho entered your school. I am comparing your school with three 
others with which I have had experience. I am compelled in simple justice to ex- 
press my preference for your school." 

No. 4. "I have a son in the second year. I am greatly pleased. The progress in 
book study is so good, largely by reason of the fact that zest is maintained and te- 
dium avoided by the alternation of book study with shop work. Healthy growth 
and culture of the mind are promoted by the preservation and improvement of bodily 
health consequent upon the activities of the shop hours. The exertions of the shop 
work of the Manual Training School have the best quality of a sanitary gymnasium. 
Frequent, non-fatiguing, regularly-recurring, health-giving exercise secured through 
a pleasing attention to ulterior objects^ attractive and useful, yet totally dissevered 
£rom solicitude on health account. The outcome of shop work is a faculty of thinking 
about means and methods.'' 

No. 5. "My son is benefited physically, is more systematic and regular in his hab- 
its.'' 

No. 6. " I consider the manual training school the best regimen any boy can have 
to insure him development of brain, muscle, and morals. The system works admira- 
bly in all respects." 

No. 7. From a lady educated in high school and college : 

My brother entered the high school at the age of fifteen, a rather unhealthy and 
an exceedingly indolent boy. The school offered him no special incentive to work, 
and his year there was of small value. The next year he entered the manual, and he 
has been working with renewed interest, not only willing to continue there three 
years, but inspired to go to college. 

During his first year at the manual he was under the care of a physician. The 
physician acknowledges Fred's bodily improvement, but declares that his patient's 
"brighter eye and happier face are due to his treatment, but I prefer to think that 
manual exercises and interesting work have been better tonics than the irregular and 
occasional treatment of the physician. 

Until he entered the manual Fred was not my equal in mathematical power. Now 
he not only sees special cases more quickly and more clearly, but his mind has been 
trained to compare one case with another, and so to generalize. In gaining those 
conceptions so necessary to a knowledge of analytics and physics, I was especially 
deficient, because my mechanical and mathematical imagination had been poorly 
trained. I feel that I can testify that his has been well trained, and I know from as« 
sociation with manual training students in Washington University that this is gen- 
erally the case with them. 

One of the greatest advantages of the manual is that the work appeals to a prac- 
tical boy and keeps him at school in spite of the fever to stop and make money, which 
attacks all boys at a certain age. 

No. 8. **My son attended several good schools in other cities but in none were the 
results anything like as satisfactory as in this school. It appears to his mother and 
to me that both the mental and physical influence has been very beneficial." 

No. 9 has two boys in school, one will graduate in June. One entered 
in September last. He criticises high school graduates severely and 
then adds : 

I cannot as yet tell whether the training in your school will send out my sons better 
fitted for life's work than the graduates of the high schools have shown themselves to 
be ; but I find in them much cheerfulness and ambition in the pursuit of their stud- 
ies; I notice a healthier color in their cheeks, more sparkle in thQVl:^^^^^^\>A^«^\^L-' 
6raI physical improvement since they left city 8choolajin\,\v'^mft^\\^^^<^'svi^i>fJ^<^x^^^ 



96 PROCEEDINGS DEPARTMENT OP SUPERINTENDENCE. 

I notice, also, that whilo tlieir first reports showed much awkwardness in the uso of 
their hands, they have gradually grown more skilful, as skilful perhaps as could bo 
expected from boys whoso ancestors were unfortunately compelled to do all theur 
work with their heads, such as they were, and whore there was not enough mechan- 
ical talent on either side to drive a nail straight. 

This gentleman is the only one who criticizes the school. He thinks 
the boys should not be required to study at home after the full day at 
school. 

No. 10. "This is John's third year. I have five more boys and would like to have 
them all take the same course.'' 

"No, 11. The mother says she studied the effect of the school on other 
boys before her own were old enough to attend: 

I have not been disappointed with the results in the case of my older boy (who 
finished his coarse last June), and now that the second is with you, it is an added ex- 
perience of the value of that system of training. It has seemed to me that the edu- 
cation is more thorough and better assimilated than in otlier schools. Elsewhere 
the manner of study seems to beget a distaste for books, either because there is an 
excess of them or because there is a lack of practical application of what is learned. 
So emulation flags, and the boy is glad to get away from school. 

I can hardly speak too highly of your system. I must go a step further and say that 
there is another element of success in it which is the moral tone which gives it its 
beauty and adorns it most. Probably there is no better evidence of this than the 
positions which the young graduates have taken and hold almost at their entrance 
into life. They show the confidence reposed in them by their employers. 

No. 12. ** My eldest son was among the graduates in 18vS4. My second son will prob- 
ably graduate in June, this year. I saw a marked improvement in the health of both 
in a short time after entering the school, not that they were sickly before, but there 
seemed to be a renewed vigor, and a daily increase of strength, caused by the manual 
training in cod junction with the mental discipline." 

No. 13. *'I am entirely satisfied with the progress made by my son at the Manual 
Training School and, what is equally as good in my judgment, he is satisfied and con- 
tented." 

No. 14. is himself a graduate. He writes : 

Had the first graduate (entering the employ of a large manufacturing company aa 
draughtsman) done unsatisfactory work, the services of a second applicant would 
have been rejected without test. But the fact has been demonstrated to the contrary ; 
the result is that manual training school graduates have the preference. 

The company has employed six or eight of our young men. This same 
writer goes on to say: 

I wish to emphasize one advantage which, in my mother's opinion, the Manual 
student has over the ordinary apprentice : 

"The former learns from the experience of others, the latter only by his own." 

No. 15. **The Manual Training School is superior to other educational institutions. 
I base my judgment upon the wonderful improvement my own son has made in all 
his studies since he entered the school. The improvement is not only marked in his 
studies, but deportment and health." 

No. 16. ** I cannot speak in terms too high of tho benefit w^hich my son has received 
from the training school. The course of instruction seems to have enlarged and 
broadened his mind in a way which, I am satisfied, at least in his case, would not 
have been accomplished in any ordinary school. • I can not dwell too much, also, on 
the benefit which has accrued to his health. At the time of his entrance he was out- ! 
growing his strength, and I felt extremely doubtful about his continuance at school, » 



MANUAL TRAINING. 97 

bat the exercise of the shop seems to have developed and strengthened his general 
constitution to a most remarkable degree.'' 

No. 17. " I note a rapid and marked improvement in him in many ways^ I am 
highly gratified at the progress he has made. He speaks enthusiastically of the 
school." 

Ko. 18. Dr. G speaks of the rapidity and thoroughness of the 

edacation given his two sons : 

They have acquired as much general education in three years as they would have 
gained in six elsewhere. One point in your system I wish especially to commend is 
the interest the boys take in their studies, ^hile at the public schools, it was one 
continual drive to get lessons learned. Since my sons entered the Manual Training 
School I have never had to say, ** Boys, it is time to learn your lessons.'' Had I forty 
boys I would send them all to the training school. 

'So. 19. A student of a technical school wrote *me of his vacation 
work ; he had graduated from the manual two years before, fie tells 
me of his success in a draughting-room and in the Exposition, and adds 
that- 
one of the most valuable fruits of manual training is the habit of systematic work. I 
mean the habit of laying a definite plan before starting upon a piece of work or action. 

Ko. 20. Probably most school superintendents have seen the inter- 
esting reports of Superintendent Cole, of Albany, and Superintendent 
Gomptony of Toledo, touching manual training in their respective high 
schools. The latter publishes a significant letter from a prominent citi- 
zen of Toledo, a close observer of men and things, and a fearless critic. 
I will not quote his strictures upon the ordinary high-school graduate, 
but will give a single sentence from his estimate of the graduates of the 
Scott Manual Training School. He has had six or eight of them in his 
employ. He says : 

The power of observation and concentration .evinced by those young men has been 
most satisfactory, and I believe the advocates of manual training do not overesti- 
mate the value of such instruction as is furnished in your school, in securing the 
largest measure of mental discipline and power of application and concentration. 

No. 21. This father, speaking more particularly of the physical influ- 
ence, says: 

Manual training has exerted a very salutary influence upon the general health of my 
BOD, Robert, who was constitutionally delicate and slender. While in the public school 
bo was daily complaining of general debility, exhaustion, and lassitude. The reverse 
has been his experience under your system of training, for while he has a total absence 
of former complaints, he has gradually improved in physical vigor and endurance and 
has consequently applied himself to study with more zest, ambition, and pleasure. 

Ko. 22. This response, with which I must close the testimony of 
parents, is signed by both parents, and is evidently a joint production: 

Our third boy is now in the second year of the Manual Training School. The two 
older boys have taken the full course, and the fourth is hurrying up to get a good 
ready to go. We have not at present any idea of teUing him that we think he can 
do better somewhere else. 

Our boys are sturdy fellows and don't patronize the doctor much ; but the oldest 
had been troubled with headaches during a half year at the high school, and that 
was one of the reasons which decided ns to make trial of the manual. "W^ \iv^^ ti^X* 
Jieard anything of headaches since. 



98 PROCEEDINGS — ^DEPARTBIENT OP SUPERINTENDENCE. 

Dnring these years we have visited the school and have talked with friends whose 
boys attend the manual, and with other friends whose boys go elsewhere or not at 
all. These latter tell us that our boys are exceptional ; that neighbors all around are 
having trouble to keep their boj^s at school. 

We think that the boys at the manual think less about ** trades" than the "aver- 
age boy ; " rather the thought tends towards scientific pursuits-— seeking truth for 
truth's own sake, for, so far as their experience goes, if they know a truth, they can 
nse it. 

I might continue such testimony indefinitely, but this must suffice. I 
can truthfully say that there is but one opinion in St. Louis as to the 
influence of manual training. There are in the city over two hundred 
of our graduates, and their careers are watclied with no common inter- 
est. I respectfully refer the record of these graduates to such men as 
Mr. Buehrle, of Pennsylvania, who is so sure that manual training is 
to produce a " degraded mass of operatives," and to President Gray, of 
Minnesota, who prays so fervently against manual training. 

PSYOHOLOGIOAl. OONSIDEEATIONS. 

TSo one will suppose that I put forward other witnesses because I had 
nothing to say for myself, 1 suppose I have observed more and thought 
more about the peculiar influence of manual training than any parent 
in St. Louis. It is because I have had so much to say and have on 
other occasions said so much, that I now let others speak. But I should 
like to state briefly the influence of manual training upon some of the 
faculties of the mind. 

The first and greatest faculty to be trained is sense-perception. Here 
the influence of manual training is in every way remarkable. In or- 
dinary vision not one per cent, of what falls upon the retina is perceived 
by the mind. In true perception, as Dr. Harris has clearly shown, all 
the figures of logic, and consequently all the faculties of the mind, are 
consciously or unconsciously called into service. Knowledge and ex- 
perience and memory and generalizations are necessary to the opera- 
tions of logic, and manual training is particularly strong in furnishing 
the knowledge and experience, in establishing the major premises essen- 
tial to logical reasoning. Tool instruction and tool practice is full of 
meaning, and it should always be strictly logical. Moreover, several 
senses join in the search for truth. Sight and sound and touch and 
muscular force testify together 5 the memory is called upon for former 
experiences ; the new and the old concepts are compared and classified, 
inferences are drawn, generalizations are made; the newly discovered 
truths are recognized as such, properly labelled, and packed away in the 
store-house of memory, to be ready for service in future discoveries. In 
sense-perception one re-enforces his present by all his past experiences. . 
The richer and more varied that past experience, the deeper and wider 
his perception. A man without personal experience of the external 
world perceives nothing outside himself. A person devoid of experi- 
ence with the manifestations of tbrce has no conception of cause and 
effect 



MANUAL TRAINING. 



99 



Manaal training mnltiplies opportanities for personal experience and 
contact with external realities. One gains not by personal experience 
alone. The experience of the race is recorded in established methods 
and in the appliances of practical arts. The antiquarian sees in a flint 
arrowhead a chapter in ethnology ; in a rusty coin, an era in classical 
history. What must the student of civilization see in a circular saw, 
an engine-lathe, a locomotive engine, in an ocean steamer? To the un- 
taught and. inexperienced the arrowhead and the coin are refuse; the 
saw is a frightful and dangerous thing; the lathe is a stupid machine, 
which does work with precision because it can not help it ; the locomo- 
tive is an awful and inexorable mystery ; the ocean steamer is a grand 
and inexplicable phenomenon, as beyond explanation as the ocean itself. 
But give one a skilful teacher, with a knowledge not only of things but 
of the student mind, and all these exponents of human thought, these 
monuments of human progress, become transfigured; they are luminous 
with the bright records of past experience. The experience of the 
teaeher is recognized and assimilated by the pupil on the strength of 
his own experience. Manual training labors to give the pupil the re- 
sults of human experience along certain lines. ' The various laborato- 
ries of mechanics, physics, chemistry, and drawing give him a modicum 
of personal experience, by means of which he may subsequently inter- 
pret and appropriate the experience of others. 

INVENTION AND CREATION. 

Perhaps the most striking and peculiar function of manual training 
lies in its availability for cultivating a capacity for executive work, a 
certain power of creatorship. Every manual "exercise'' involves the 
execution of a clearly defined plan. Familiar steps and processes are 
to be combined with new ones in a rational order and for a definite pur- 
pose. As a rule, these exercises are carefully chosen and deliberately 
planned by the instructor. However, at proper times and in reason- 
able degree — ^not too early nor too often — pupils are set to forming and 
executing their own plans. Here is developed not a single faculty, but 
a combination of many faculties. Memory, comparison, imagination, 
and a train of reasoning — all are necessary in creating something new 
out of the old. 

This power of invention, of creation, is the highest active power of 
intellect of which we are capable. There may be three stages in the 
entire act of creation, viz : (1) The thought is conceived and elabo- 
rated in the raind. (2) A more or less imperfect representation of it 
is effected through the instrumentality of words, gestures, drawings, 
or models. (3) The full realization of the thought by actual construc- 
tion. The infinite Creator omits the second step ; He does not need it; 
but no finite mind can dispense with intermediate steps. A drawing or 
a model helps to define and complete the thought. This is strikinglY 
true of novices. In like manner as the diawmg jg\N^^ ^\»6ssissvi ^^ 



100 PROCEEDINGS — ^DEPARTMENT OF SUPERINTENDENCE. 

thought, SO actaal realization compels revision of the drawing and a re- 
ciistiDg of the thought. 

^ow, however we may grade these steps in the order of intellectaal 
dignity, it is clear that they are all necessary. It is not claimed that 
the executive and inventive powers can not and ought not to be meas- 
urably cultivated before the manual training school is reached. My 
present point is that in the manual training school these powers find 
continuous and systematic training in the various forms of manual 
work. 

It is scarcely necessary to add, that while constructive tool- work fur- 
nishes the training just referred to, the analytic work of natural science 
(botany, zoology, chemistry, physics, etc.) does not furnish it. This 
remark is not to be interpreted as in any way derogatory to the study 
of science in all schools. The study of science has its high and peculiar 
functions, but it is not the object of this paper to present them. It must 
suffice to say that manual training and natural science work are supple- 
mentary essentials. 

If we omit the mechanical laboratory, we omit a valuable feature. It 
is one of the most fruitful for pupils just in their teens. Manual train- 
ing is physics and art and gymnastics and mechanics combined. It 
keeps the young pupils alert. It stimulates thought and close observa- 
tion. It feeds the natural appetite for mastery over material things 
and forces ; it cultivates the taste 5 it encourages habits of system and 
precision and attention to details; it fosters the judicial characteristio 
of looking on all sides. It teaches one to see the end from the begin- 
ning, to lay plans, to invent, to create, to shorten methods, to econo- 
mize time and material, to save labor; not, as some falsely suppose, for 
the purpose of avoiding labor, but that more may be accomplished. 

A BASIS OF PERSONAL EXPERIENCE. 

One great end of education is to enable people to live over again the 
thought-lives and experiences of others as recorded in our civilization; 
but this can be done only by giving them a certain culture of experi- 
ence along practical human lines. 

The great fault of non-manual training schools is their haziness. The 
pupils look at multitudes of things, but do not perceive them. Having 
eyes they see not, and having ears they hear not. There is too much 
that is dim and muddy and feeble. Substances elude the grasp; 
shadows, uncertain and flitting, are too often the only result. The 
method which reason and experience both approve is reversed, and 
pupils are put to committing to memory matters which they are not 
prepared to understand ; they are expected to profit by the recorded ex- 
perience of others before they have been properly trained in the school 
of experience themselves. Such treatment is naturally distasteful, and 
when one's school life consists too largely of it, the school itself becomes 
irksome and unattractive. Even the memory is sluggish, so faint and 



- • - ' » 



MANUAL TEAINING. 101 

lustreless is the mental impression. The keen relish of a manual-train- 
ing boy for both book and laboratory work is wanting. 

It is useless to claim that it is the boy and not the school that is at 
fault when a healthy boy fails to take an interest in his school duties. 
It is common to insist that the boy has no brains, or is lazy. The charge 
is generally false, and the manual-training school has proved what I 
say over and over again. Boys reported dull in other schools as well 
as those reported bright and industrious have awakened to new life and 
enthusiasm in our school, and that life has extended into all our lines 
of work. There comes a time in the life of every boy when he craves 
with an irresistible appetite what may be called food for his physical 
nature J when the senses are^ most acute ; when he is exquisitely con- 
scious of his growing strength, his increasing power over the external 
world ; when his budding manhood opens the door into the great work- 
shop of nature, and he is satisfied with nothing less than actual contact 
with concrete forms and tangible forces. 

At this period the records of the past have little interest for a healthy 
boy. He must feel and act for himself; he must turn the key with his 
own hands, and himself unbar the gates. He has no natural appetite 
to destroy; he destroys because he cannot create. He can destroy 
without being taught how ; but how to build, how to construct, how to 
create he does not know; there he requires instruction, training, system, 
and they yield the keener pleasure. 

The boy demands reasons, and arbitrary, unmeaning rules are ex- 
tremely distasteful. Until he has a basis of personal physical expe- 
rience with which he may digest the experience of others, books have 
little meaning and are of little value. 

Then is the time to give him majpual training. Give him his saw, 
plane, and chisel; give him^his lathe, his forge and anvil; give him 
his blow-pipe and his crucible, his magnet and his engine, and teach him 
their logic and their power. His mind will absorb them all with infin- 
ite relish. In their forms and uses he will read the thoughts of men for 
many generations. 

A HABMONIOUS EDUCATION. 

Do not be anxious lest he have no opportunity to develop literary 
taste. There is not a single influence flowing from manual training 
which is hostile to good books. Our graduates are hungry for good 
books, and they profit by them. 

We claim to train the whole boy, and the instruction in our school 
fairly justifies the claim. Glance at our daily programme of study, recita- 
tion, drawing, and tool-work. Counting both recitation and study, at 
school and at home, we have on the average daily two " hours ^' of math- 
ematics, two of science, two of language and literature, one of drawing, 
and two of tool- work. What I call an "hour" is about fifty minutes. 

I have known of plenty of pupils of equal grade who give four-ft^tUv^ 
of their time to language and literature, ami tti^ otti^t MNiXi \.q ^xNiXv'Kt 



102 PROCEEDINGS — DEPARTMENT OF SUPERINTENDENCE. 

matlieraatics or science, while no attention at all is paid to either draw- 
ing or shop- work. 

1 know that some people consider such exclusive trainingin literature 
broad and generous, but I think they are doubly deceived. Not only 
is such training not broad, but even the literary training thereby secured 
is less vigorous and healthy than it would be if combined with such 
culture as tends to give proper meaning to the words and figures of 
speech. All our tropes come from the external world and every exercise 
in manual training reveals new force and shades of meaning in our 
household words. 

The same is true of the influence upon literature of applied mathe- 
matics and practical science. As Superintendent Seaver of Boston has 
well said, a word is only an empty box till by personal experience one 
fills it with meaning. In this filling process manual training plays a 
most important part. 

My conclusion is no longer a paradox, but the reasonable effect of 
clearly evident, natural causes, viz, that more mental discipline and 
vahiablo culture can be given by combining manual training with the 
study of mathematics, science, and literature than by omitting manual 
training and giving the attention exclusively to the other subjects. 

DISCUSSION OF PROFESSOR WOODWARD'S PAPER. 

[This report has not been fully revised, nor could the stenographer 
in all cases put down the names of the speakers. In answer to numer- 
ous questions as to the plan and method of the school Professor Wood- 
ward said :] 

Onv classes are divided into sections of twenty or twenty-four. They 
all have three lessons a day, but we do not give any one boy two or 
three exercises the same day in language or literature. 

The first year the boys come to the manual-training school, at the age 
of about fourteen, they begin algebra ; study it for about two-thirds of 
the year and then review their arithmetic. They have a lesson in math- 
ematics every day, and that lesson is learned at home more than any- 
where else. They also have a choice between studying Latin and Eng- 
lish composition or history. No boy does both. As I said, they have 
one exercise in language or literature. Every day there is a lesson in 
science, zoology, botany, or physical geography. They spend an equal 
amount of time in literature, science, and shop-work, and just half as 
much as one of them in drawing. The school day is six full hours. 
The pupils study very little at school. They have three recitations, 
for wliich three hours are appropriated; two hours for shop-work, one 
hour for drawing. Once every week, no matter whether they are study- 
ing Latin or not, the science study is omitted and English literature 
is studied as literature; and that runs through the entire course. 

Now similar kinds of work occupy the pupils during the second year. 
The test for admission for the first year is substantially the same as for 



MANUAL TRAININO. 103 

entering: the high school. We examined last year about two hundred 
and admitted all that we could take, which was exactly one hundred. 
We have one hundred to-day. 

For about half the first year the pupils have exercises in what we call 
joinery. Each boy has a set of tools appropriated to his individual use, 
furnished by the school, and goes through all the exercises which are 
intended to illustrate the principles involved in joinery. His entire 
attention is paid to the work of the part in hand. The exercises have 
been very carefully selected in order to involve all the principles of. 
joinery, the same as in algebra or arithmetic ; the samples are made up 
to include all the parts. The student always makes a careful drawing 
of his work before he executes it. That is for about half the year; 
then he devotes one month to wood carving ; then the rest of the year 
to wood turning, and through the various manipulations the study of 
the forms of beauty occupy his thoughts. He is then engaged not 
only on the matter of joining two parts together, but pays particular 
attention to the fitness of the parts. Then he puts all these elements 
together and combines them; when they come to this exercise each 
one's fancy is consulted. We make no tables, chairs, bureaus, trunks. 
.Ours is a school, and it is intended strictly to teach subjects and ele- 
ments and not to manufacture articles. 

Db. E. E. White : By what means do you determine how much of this 
training is due to the shop and how much is due to the other training 5 
how do you know that this good influence is due to the shop ? 

Answer. Well, I judge of that matter the same as Dr. White wouM. 
The parents themselves see the difference between the total influence 
of our school and that of another school which does not include the 
manual elements. They evidently attach importance to that distinc- 
tion. And then, again, our manual work comes in between the train- 
ing. The boys are not tired at the end of these six hours. I am a high- 
school teacher, and I know that there is not that anxiety to get away and 
to keep away which I was conscious of all the time in the high school on 
the part of the average student. I do know that there is a zest and 
interest which is sustained during the whole day, and when a boy comes 
to the shop from 11 to 1 o'clock and then goes back to his books and his 
drawing, he goes back fresh. It is exceedingly regular, and no boy has 
been found whose constitution is not able to bear it. I cannot see how 
there can be any question of doubt as to its beneficial effect. Of course, 
the graduates of our manual training school enter the higher part of the 
university as Freshmen, and they take either the four or five years' 
course, according as they may select. I know that the manual train- 
ing students are the most clear-headed boys I ever had the pleasure of 
teaching. 

Question. Is it the manual training that makes them so? 

Answer. Well, I will leave you to judge. We must judge according 
to the best of our ability. 



104 PROCEEDINGS — DEPARTMENT OP SUPERINTENDENCE. 

Question. Are there any faculties trained by this course that are not 
trained by the ordinary course, and results obtained other than by the 
ordinary method ? 

Answer. Well, it would take a long while to point out tlie distinc- 
tions in. that respect. Kot other faculties, but some are better trained 
and certain powers are better developed. 

Mr. Maxwell: Is this school a public school system at St. Louis f 

Answer. It is not. 

Question. I would like to ask your opinion whether you think it wise, 
and if wise, practical, to introduce any part of what you have in your 
first year in wood work and wood carving into the ordinary public 
schools, to be taught in connection with what is required for admission 
to your school ? I simply ask for your opinion. 

Answer. My opinion is that no part of it could, with any sort of pro- 
priety, be introduced into primary schools as we have it. It is alto- 
gether beyond the intellect as well as the physical capacity of primary 
students. When you come to grammar schools, any boy in his teens 
may begin on the manual part of our course of study. Now, I should 
be very glad, if I had the means, to open a manual training school to 
every boy in St. Louis who had reached the age of thirteen. I am 
obliged to put the standard where I do because there are plenty of boys 
of fourteen and upward who want to come in. We do not admit them 
until they are fourteen. 

Question. Do you consider the kindergarten a part of the manual 
training course ? 

Answer. I approve of the kindergarten.^ 

Question. If these results, as you claim for the shop, are practical 
only at such a high grade, what are we to do for those below it f 

Answer. Well, I have not said that a course below is impractical; 
but I think it would bo very unwise to put work that belongs to a boy 
of fifteen upon a boy of ten. 

Question. As I understand you, this manual training is the only 
means by which permanently you get the discipline of the observing 
powers and all the faculties up to that age. Am I right ? 

Answer. I only claim that this combination is what gives us these 
results. If I had a manual training school or shop without mathemat- 
ics or science, why, I should not get those results. 

Question. My point is that if these results come from the combina- 
tion, that result comes from the beginning. 

Answer. I say there should be something appropriate to the mental 
and physical status of the pupils in the lower grades, but in this higher 
work we want to develop invention and ingenuity. 

Question. What shall it be for the lower grades f 

Answer. I cannot pretend to answer that. I am not a teacher of 
grammar schools. Those who are may tell you something perhaps, 

^ This evasion was intended to ward off a discnssion on definitions. 



MANUAL TRAINING. 105 

and teach you and me. I don't pretend to have solved the whole prob- 
lem from the kindergarten to the manual training school. I am only 
certain of the ground I stand on. There should be elements all the way 
through. 

Dr. White: That is just the pointin our whole method of teaching — 
training through the senses, and I don't know a scientific school, high 
or low, that does not recognize it. Inasmuch as the training of the sight 
in a state of nature must begin at the cradle, so that the sight of things 
must become a rule, where does the point begin ? Don't you get from 
the laboratory of science and of history just the very best possible train- 
ing for the eye, the judgment, and the hand % Do you not get it in the 
chemical laboratory and outside the workshop, and better outside the 
workshop, as a means, than you do in it? Is not the physical labora- 
tory, the chemical laboratory, botany, zoology, the study of the world 
itself, a better means of disciplining all these powers than the artifi- 
cial methods, than artificial work in the worJ:shop produtjes ? In other 
words, is not the workshop the very lowest form of that very discipline, 
you have commended % I can not see for my life how any true system of 
teaching can fail in this, and have to bo fortified and supplemented by 
bringing in the training of the children in the use of tools, in the maxim 
of the arts and trades, when all nature is at hand, when all the sources 
of observation and training and study are before us. I believe that the 
study of an insect has in it more elements of training than the fitting 
of the joint. ^ 

Mr. Sheldon : Is there a period in the training or the life of a boy 
when he reaches a step where his budding manhood opens the door into 
the workshop of nature (unaided by any of the suggestions you have 
made in the line of manual training), and begins with drawing? 

Answer.. I indorse as highly as any one can, training in natural his- 
tory, in business, in chemistry. Wo have in our manual training school 
a physical laboratory, where every student manufactures his own appa- 
ratus, and they are the people to day that are the most successful. I 
make no direct comparison with that work. I do not claim that any school 
should omit that. I think that nature should always bo studied. I be- 
lieve that many of these very things I claim manual training helps to 
do, science helps to do ; and I believe the more we do of that work the 
better. The doctor calls all this manual training work artificial work; 
that it is the lowest kind of work. They had just as much nature two 
thousand years ago as to-day, but not our civilization. What has 
brought about our civilization but these very artificial elements ? Man 
has come in and introduced something new, has acquired a mastery 
over nature ; and now I say it is not a low or an unworthy motive that 
we should learn something about the great methods of which our civil- 
ization has been the fruit. 

Dr. White: I did not use any such expression of thought in that 
sense. I said that the training of the shop is the lov?e^t iwm ^iV\'^\\SL- 



106 PROCEEDINGS — DEPARTMENT OP SUPERINTENDENCE. 

ing in observation, in judgment, and logic. I am speaking now of an- 
other thing entirely from the shop itself. The workshop of America 
and of the world is a thing of great dignity and blessing, and I never 
can speak derogatorily of the workshop in any way. I am now speak- 
ing of the training of the mind, that it does not present as high a form 
' of training as the other forms of training ; and I do not wish to be put in 
that position at all. 

Answer. Taking it in that phase, there are certain manifestations of 
force in cause and effect. The study of methods, of means to ends, I 
thought was made so plain, that it seems to me they furnish an admirable 
training for some things which neither physics nor chemistry gives. 

Dr. Hancock : Let us hear what they are. You have asserted things 
which you think have grown out of your experience. What things do 
you learn by the use of the hammer that are superior to the things in 
nature around us ? 

Answer. In science, natural history for instance, we find things ready 
made to our hands. And 'the specimens we analyze are often exceed- 
ingly complex. We take an insect and we have to pull him to pieces, 
and we are not always sure that we analyze his structure correctly. It 
is a difficult problem to explain the rationale of his organization. In 
the shop, however, the synthetic process is introduced. We build up on 
clearly defined plans. By manifestations of force and laws of simple 
mechanical methods we go on from one step to another. The reason is 
so closely connected with that which illustrates it, that I don't think 
there is anything else so available. 

Question. The process in the workshop is so simple, and the relation 
of cause to effect so simple and obvious, that the exercise of the mind is 
at the very lowest point? 

Answer. All elementary work should be simple; and in this primary 
work we have the very first letter of those great activities that are 
going to enable our students to understand what is going on in the 
outside world. I believe that our pupils are to be trained for life. I 
believe they are to acquire two things at the same time. While they 
gain manly discipline, they are at the same time to be brought into con- 
nection with the activities that surround us, to sympathize with our in- 
dustrial interests; not that they shall necessarily earn their living 
there, but enter sympathetically into them. 

Question. Is the mind of the child in a suspended state until it 
reaches the age of fourteen ? Now, the child has been looking round 
upon the world up to fourteen years, and reasoning. !N^ow you say 
these simple things are to be learned at fourteen years of age. In other 
words, you introduce your artificial system after the mind has been par- 
tially developed by the application of a higher principle. 

Answer. Shouldn't you re-enforce that by the study of mechanical 
principles and methods'? They contain something that these do not 
contain. You get no training in that conscious power of creation in 
studying nature. 



MANtJAL TRAINmd, 107 

Question. The discussion for the last few minutes has raised this gen- 
eral point in my mind, and I would like to see what Professor Wood- 
ward would say on it. Man has come to find out nature pretty well in 
these days. 1 ask, but does this finding out, this knowledge, aid or give 
strength and beauty in our literature, in our painting, in our story, in 
our music and architecture If Is not art to-day in our country, because 
of this acquaintance with nature, come to be strongly realistic, and is 
all this an unqualified gain except from the stand-point of utility? 

Answer. I am not certain that I fully catch the force of the question, 
but it seem& to me that this cultivation of the intelligence, this recog- 
nition of rational process, cannot but help to improve all these matters 
you have mentioned — ^both our art and our literature — ^in all its forms. 
It seems to me that clearness of thought always reacts upon artistic 
nature. 

Question. As to the results which you claim you obtained in your 
school in the development of the mind and morals, and the physical de- 
velopment, did you examine this question I In the ordinary high school 
there are six or seven or eight studies pursued during the day. In 
your school the bo^ has but three. I want to ask if that does not ac- 
count for his advance in his studies. My observation has led me to be- 
lieve that after taking out three or four studies in our high school we 
accomplish the same result. 

Answer. That seems a very reasonable thing to do if I wanted to criti- 
cise other schools. They aim to do too much. I am very sure there is a 
good deal in that argument, and that opens the door so that these ele- , 
ments can be brought in. Progress in any direction is not dependent 
upon the number of studies and the length of recitations ; it is depen- 
dent upon the amount of close and thoughtful attention that can be 
given. 

Pbofessob LEiPziaEB : I want to ask the doctor what proportion 
of those entering the school graduate? 

Answer. I think 60 per cent. 

Question. Is it larger than from other schools? 

Answer. I think it is. 

Pbofessob Leipzigee : Ladies and Gentlemen — The theme is so in- 
teresting and the hour is so late that I hope you will give me your atten- 
tion for a few moments. I will try to explain to you briefly what we 
do, and will try to answer Dr. White's question. The influence of 
manual training will be to bring out the teaching of science properly. 
If sciences were taught properly in our schools the criticisms that are 
being made against them would not have been made. 

I myself am a graduate of the public schools of this country, atfd I 
remember when I was taught natural philosophy I learned it almost 
exclusively from the text-book. They taught science to children of 
seven years of age. Do not be taught what the result is, but tell what 
it is. They train the eye and the hand and the brain, ^Aivi Wife ^\jks5Vfe 



108 PPwOCEEDINGS — DEPARTMENT OP SUPERINTENDENCE. 

boy and the whole girl is put in school because the object of this edu- 
cation is not for objects, but for boys and girls. 

Kow in this artificial structure which we have raised, the advantage, 
it seems to me, psychologically considered, over the one of nature, al- 
though both have their advantages, is that when you create a geomet- 
rical form you train that most valaable faculty, accuracy. Accuracy 
leads to truthfulness, and when once you get truthfulness you cultivate 
the moral faculty and produce truthful men and women. It seems to 
me that in the early stages the power of drawing has not been put in 
its proper place in the curriculum. Drawing trains the eye. If the 
child is taught to draw at the very early age of seven years from the 
object and not from sketches, it is taught to put down on paper not 
what the teacher says it should see, but what it does see. Then you 
give a training to the eye, heart, hand, and moral faculties. Now it 
has been my good fortune to deal with the most difficult set of boys. 
In theischool over which 1 have the honor to preside I take Hebrew 
boys. Hebrew boys are not descended from a race that are generally 
considered skilled mechanics, and we keep them there seven hours a 
day, and the boys enter at the age of twelve, not at the age of fourteen 
or fifteen. They do not pass a very searching examination because I 
have found out in my experience that many a boy who fails in analyzing 
a sentence from Milton's Paradise Lost can carve and train the same 
faculty by carving or by seeing as I did through the study of Milton's^ 
Paradise Lost. With these boys of twelve we give every day seven 
hours' training. We teach them history, not in a catechetical method; 
we teach them general history; we teach them physics by the laboratory 
method. My theory is this, when a man leaves school he makes a com- 
position which has the power to exi)ress his thoughts. Our boys after 
learning the ordinary manipulations that enter into the use of tools are 
obliged to make one finished product, something which has value, and 
will train them to understand that they must be accurate because the 
thing they are going to produce is going to be useful. My experience 
with these boys is that I have never seen boys so earnest, so studious, 
and so desirous of remaining in school. Knowing the factors that enter 
into and produce the ordinary boy, I subtract the one from the other 
and attribute the superiority of these that we have to manual training. 

The kindergarten is the precursor of the manual trajning school. 
Please bear in mind that when we say "manual training" we do not 
mean mechanics. If it is history, let the pupil illustrate whil# he is 
studying history, by a map. If it is geography, let him use his knowl- 
edge of light clay models. Then send him to a high training school. 
Pr.t the hand and the eye in the school and train them both. It is your 
duty to the child. 

Dr. E. B. White: It seems tome very desirable in this discussion to 
settle the question of agreements and disagreements; to determine 
just how far we agree respecting the use of the hand in the training of 



MANUAL TRAININa. 109 

tho mind and where we differ. Very mucli of tbe discussion to wliicli I 
have listened in years past, and very much that has been written, seems 
to assume that those who are not advocates of workshop training deny 
tho value of all forms of manual activity in school training, and they are 
put in the position of being advocates of old rote and memoriter methods 
of teaching 5 and the contrast is always drawn between the manual 
method and a method of teaching that has been outlawed in this coun- 
try for twenty-five years. This discarded rote method is put up as the 
alternative, and all that is valuable in a true and natural system of 
teaching is used to support the claims of manual training, including 
the work shop. I^ot only the kindergarten but our best elementary 
schools have increasingly recognized and used the eye and the hand as 
means of teaching real knowledge and of mental training. And so I 
think that it is too much in advocating a special form of manual train- 
ing to base it broadly upon the argument for a true and natural method 
of teaching. 

My fear is that public attention and the attention of educators is be- 
ing called away from the great reform that ought to be made in teach- 
ing — a reform that touches every branch of knowledge and demands 
that it be taught in harmony with the nature of the child, and is being 
fixed upon workshop training which at best is mere cornice work in 
general education. My fear is that the attention of our teachers and 
others is being diverted from true teaching to workshop ma"liual train- 
ing which Dr. Woodward says can be best begun at fourteen years of 
^e. If needed reforms in teaching are to be diverted to such a side- 
show, we shall certainly not gain by the movement. 

I am using the term manual training in this discussion in the usual 
sense of training in the use of mechanical tools, with mechanical skill 
as an end. I see no good reason for applying this term to all school 
exercises in which the hand is used. If this be manual training, it has 
had a considerable place in school work for many years. But, as I un- 
derstand the term, manual training is that training which has manual 
skill as an end. It is analogous to the terms intellectual training, moral 
training, physical training, etc. Manual training is that training that 
gives manual results. It is not the use of the hand as a means of attain- 
ing intellectual ends, as is true in many school exercises. It is tho 
manual result as an end that justifies the term manual training, though 
there may be intellectual results. Take, for illustration, such kinder- 
garten work as modelling in clay, folding and cutting paper, etc. Tlio 
object is to give the child a truer conception of form — Jcnoicledge is the 
end. The same is true of map-drawing and many other uses of the 
hand in school training. They are means of intellectual training, and 
can not properly be called manual training. 

There are two school exercises that may properly be regarded as ex- 
ceptions; these are writing and drawing, both of which have inaimal 
skill as an end. But writing is a very old school art, and it %5>ee.\si^ v.^^ 



110 PROCEEDINGS — DEPAETMENT OF SUPERINTENDENCE. 

me very late to give it the new name of manual training. Drawing is 
a manual art and has manual skill as an immediate end, but it has been 
taught in many American schools for over thirty years, and 1 do not 
see what is to be gained by now putting it in the school course under 
the name of manual training. But, by whatever name writing and 
drawing may be called, we are all in favor of them as school studies. 
Manual activity is now recognized as a necessary means of tea<5hing the 
natural and physical sciences, as botany, zoology, physics, chemistry, 
etc. But this use of the hand is not manual training; if it be, then we 
are all in favor of such manual training. 

But we differ respecting that new form of manual training which in- 
volves the use of mechanics' tools, and it seems to me that the real ques- 
tion at issue concerns this workshop training. It is here that we dis- 
agree. I suspect that much of the merit claimed for the St. Louis 
Manual Training School may not be due to its workshop training, but to 
the superior manner in which other branches are taught, and especially 
to its laboratory training in science. For over seven years I was presi- 
dent of a college of science and technology, and supervised the school 
of practical mechanic*, with its workshop training. The courses of 
study in the college — four in number — were so arranged that the Fresh- 
man and Sophomore classes had two of their studies in common^ and 
these courses differed chiefly in the one element of manual labor. The 
pupils who took the course in mechanics had two hours daily in the work- 
shop ; those who took the course in industrial art had two hours in draw- 
ing, etc. ; those who took the agricultural course spent two hours on the 
experimental farm and in the botanical laboratory 5 and those who took 
the course in science spent two hours in the natural history, physical, 
and chemical laboratories. Thus in these courses two hours daily were 
given to four different kinds of hand work. Did the students that spent 
two hours in the workshop have any advantage over the other students ? 
I have no hesitation in saying that they did not; and, if I were to de- 
cide between the educational value of the science laboratory and the 
workshop, I should give the preference to the laboratory ; and if a stu- 
dent does not intend to be a mechanic, I should advise him to take the 
course in science, with its laboratory training. 

I do not object to technical schools or manual training schools. I 
welcome them as a most valuable means of special education ; and my 
judgment is that within ten years the manual training school of this 
country will look directly to the training of mechanics, and its door will 
open practically and efllciently into the mechanic arts. It will thus 
take its true place as a means of special education. The public school 
will hold to its true work of general education, and it will continue to 
be true that the more thorough and efftcient the general education of 
the mechanic, the more fruitful will be his special training when he 
reaches the technical school. 



MANUAL TRAINING. Ill 

APPENDIX TO PROFESSOR WOODWARD'S PAPER. 

THE RECORD OF THE GRADUATES. 

Six classes have graduated from the school. Much interest has been expressed in 
their record as affording .some clue to the influence of their training in the school. 
It has therefore been thought best to give a full list of the names and present occupa- 
tions of these classes as fully as known. At the same time it should be borne in mind 
that the full influence of the school is to be found only by following the careers of 
all who have been for a longer or a shorter time under its influence. About one-half 
of those who attend the school remain to graduate, but the influence of the training 
has been scarcely less marked upon those who have been in the school two years than 
npon the graduates. Moreover, all the graduates are too young to afford material 
for very definite conclusions. The average age of the graduating class is about 
eighteen years. 

Nevertheless, the following tables show that our students are taking no small part 
in the busy world. Very young men are seen bearing heavy responsibilities and 
bearing them well. If the tree is to be judged by its firuit, we have a very good tree. 

ALUMNI. 

Class of 1883. 

Henry H. Bauer, farmer, Dorchester, 111. 

John Boyle, Jr., mining engineer (W. U. 1887). Superintendent Mountain Key 
Mine, Pinas Atlas, N. Mex. 

John L. Bryan, head turner in Pipe Works, Washington, Mo. 

Alexander W. Buchanan, mechanical engineer (Cornell, 1887). 

Peyton T. Carr, clerk insurance office. , 

Edward E Davidson, in real-estate business and manager of the Economy Steam 
Heat Company, St. Paul, Minn. 

Cornelius V. De Jong, machinist, 1410 Leffingwell Avenue. 

Harry Deitrich, pattern-maker at the James Jones Manufacturing XJompany, 2123 
Liucas Avenue. 

William S. Dodd, collector Laclede Gas-Light Company. 

Henry F. Dose was student at University of Illinois. 

Wm. J. Downton, No. 1 Shaw Place, architect's office. 

Leo. Gluck, fifth-year class in mining, Washington University. 

S. D. Hayden, real estate and loan business, Denver, Colo. 

Robert L. Hyatt, farmer. 

Conrad S. Ittner, foreman brick-layer, 2849 Russell Avenue. 

Wm. B. Ittner, architect, St. Louis. 

Albert L. Johnson, B. E. (W. U. 1887), assistant engineer Merchant's Bridge. 

Wm. Love, B. E. (1888), surveyor, street department, city of St. Louis. 

Harry W. Lytance, real-estate business in Chicago. 

Robert H. McMath, B. E. (W. U. 1886), surveyor of the St. Louis Board of Fire 
Underwriters, Gay Building. 

Otto L. Mersman, merchant, St. Louis. 

Wm. G. Nixon, book-keeper for the Missouri Pacific Railway, 2227 Walnut Street, 
St. Louis. 

Everet G. Phillips, engineer and shoemaker, 3016 Cass Avenue. 

Wm. K. Roth, with Adam Roth Grocer Company, 321 S. 23d Street. 

Justus W. Schmidt, student in Germany. 

Greenfield Sluder, M. D. (1887), St. Louis. 

Jules C. Smith, machinist. 

Herbert De Q. Taylor, salesman, Simmons Hardware Company, St. Louis. 

John P. Thul, B. E. (W. U. 1886), draughtsman, office of president of board of 
public improvements, St. Louis. 

John F. Valle, cashier and book-keeper, 5 Bentoa Place. 



112 PROCEEDINGS — ^DEPARTMENT OP SUPERINTENDENCE. 

Cla88 of 1884. 

Grant Becbe, B. E. (1888), with Pond Engineering Company, Omalia, Nebr. 

A. Theo. Bruegel, meclianical engineer (1888, Lohigli University). Teacher of 
mathematics and drawing, Cogswell Polytechnic College, San Francisco. 

Geo. R. Carothers, teacher of manual training. 

Walter Coles, student, University of Virginia. 

Claud N. Comstock, civil engineer (1888, Columbia College), New York. 

Goo. D. Eaton, Jui^iter Mining Company, Du Quoin, 111. 

Alfred C. Einsteio, north-west passenger agent, St. Louis and San Francisco Rail- 
way, Des Moines, Iowa. 

Hamilton R. Gamble, clerk, wholesale drug store. 

Charles D. Grayson, practical mailer, St. Louis. 

Goo. N. Hinchman, draughtsman in office of patent lawyer. 

Ernest C. Klipstein, teacher manual training, City High School, Springfield, Masa 

Charles S. Langdon, draughtsman with Isaac D. Smead &, Co., engineers, Toledo, 
Ohio. 

James L. Marks, machinist. 

Constant Mathey, salesman with Mermod, Jaccard & Co., St. Louis. 

Alexander D. Mermod, salesman with Mermod, Jaccard &, Co., St. Louis. 

Ralph H. Miller, ex-superintendent, Toledot Manual Training School, Toledo, Ohio. 

Geo. S. Mills, principal Toledo Manual Training School, Toledo, Ohio. 

William O'Keefe, clerk, Excelsior Manufacturing Company, 3520 Lindell Avenue. 

Otto II. Olfe, draughtsman with Mississippi Iron Works, St. Louis. 

Harry Pflager, assistant general foreman with Pullman Car Company, St. Loais. 

John II. Pope, B. E. (1888), assistant engineer, with Messrs. Morison and Corthell, 
engineers Merchant's Bridge, St. Louis. 

Edward L. Pretorius, clerk in business department of Wcstliche Post, St. Lonis. 

Wm. F. Richards, clerk in general passenger office of the Vandalia Lino, St. Louis. 

Harry C. Scott, shipping clerk. Mound City Paint and Color Company, St. Louis. 

Percy S. Silver, travelling sales-agent, Pomeroy Coal Company, Atchison, Kans. 

Charles F. Springer, merchant, Chicago. 

II. Reed Stanford, B. E. (1888), teacher of chemistry and algebra, St. Louis Manual 
Training School. 

Homer Wise, managing branch house of Collier White Lead and Oil Company, 
Minneapolis, Minn. 

Edmund H. Wuerpel, student, St. Louis Art School. 

Harry B. Wyeth, orange farming. Winter Park, Fla. 

Class of 1885. 

Wm. F. Barnes, teacher of the manual training department of the Tidioute Union 
Schools, Pennsylvania. 

Hatcher Bates, farmer, Dardenne, St. Charles County, Mo. 

A. M. Bumann, teacher manual training, Omaha High School, Nebraska. 

King Charles Barton, book-keeper, with Omaha and Grant Smelting and Refining 
Company, Omaha, Nebr. 

Judson S. Bemis, with Bemis Brothers' Bag Company. 

Edgar L. Brother, teacher of tool- work, St. Louis Manual Training School. 

Thomas W. Booth, 3301 Morgan Street. 

Albert H. Buck, member of Sopohmore class, Washington University. 

Edward H. Chapman, 1033 N. Compton Avenue. 

Frederiok A. Chouteau, teacher of manual training. 

George W. Danforth, cadet U. S. Naval Academy, Annapolis. 

H. G. Ellis, teacher of drawing, St. Louis Manual Training School. 

Arthur Feickert, baker and confectioner, opposite City Hall, Belleville, 111. 

Charles O. Fisher, clerk, with civil engineer and surveyor, south-west comer Broad' 
way and Market Street. 



MANUAL TRAINING. 113 

Win, F. Hopper, pattern-maker, Dunkirk Engineering Company, Dunkirk, N. Y. 

Clarence H. Howard, superintendent ICansas City Car and Wheel Company, Bir. 
mingUam, Mo. 

H. F. S. Kleinschmidt, teacher of manual training school, Denver Uniyersity, Den* 
ver, Colo. * 

Albert Koberle, student, Senior class in mining engineering, Washington University. 

Wm. P. Laing, machinist, St. Louis. ^ 

Edward L. Lang, secretary Charm Manufacturing Company, 113 Elm Street, St. 
Louis. 

Ernest E. Lasar, machinist, with G. H. Lasar, 910 Autumn Street, city. 

Louis D. Lawi^in, clerk, N. O. Nelson Manufacturing Company, St. Louis. 

Edward H. Lebens, student. Senior class, mining engineering, Washington Uni< 
vcrsity. 

John J. Liohter, Jr., student, Senior class, dynamic engineering, Washington Uni* 
versity. 

Wm. Alex. Magee, machinist, with Kanken &, Fritsch. 

Frank W. Morse, master mechanic, Denver, Texas and Fort Worth Railway. 

Frank E. Nulsen, with Missouri Malleable Iron Company, 1641 Missouri Avenue. 

Geo. R. Olshaasen, student, Senior class, dynamic engineering, Washington Uni- 
versity. 

Charles M. Parker, student. Senior class, Troy Polytechnic Institute, Troy, N. Y. 

Frank E. Reel, law student, Hawk Farm, St. Louis County, Mo, 

Louis C. Rohlfing, doctor of medicine, Solomon City, Kans. 

Edward H. Rottman, commercial traveller, Hilger Hardware Company, St. Louis. 

James L. Sloss, clerk, with Jas. H. Brookmire 6c Co. 

Edward Smith, lumber business, Potosl. 

Geo. M. Stedman, general manager Stedman's Foundry and Machine Works, Au- 
rora, Ind. 

J. Harrison Steedman, student, Senior class, Washington University. 

Hamilton W. Stone, draughtsman, St. Louis Heating Company. 

William T. Treadway, machinist, Jacksonville Shops, Jacksonville, 111. 

Harry L. Whitmauj in business with his brother. 

Charles H. Wright, teacher of manual training. 

Class of 1886. 

Brace C. Alvord, Jr., in cutlery house of A. J. Jordan, 2819 Dayton Street. 

Fred A. Bair, draughtsman, Brownell & Wright, street-carmakers, St. Louis. 

Alfred C. Beebe, member of Junior class in chemistry, Washington University. 

Daniel F. Behrens, clerk with Belding Bros. & Co., silk manufacturers. 

Charles L. Boaton, Junior class, science course, Washington University. 

Charles W. Cahoon, stenographer, St. Louis and New Orleans Anchor Line, 2327 
Adams Street, city. 

Daniel L. Cliffton, 2944 Laclede Avenue. 

Harry MarcyCoudrey, special agent for Travellers* Insurance Company, Southern 
Hotel, 3449 Washington Avenue, St. Louis, Mo. 

Edward L. Dillon, clerk and collector of E. W. Moon, machine works, 1222 Madison 
Street, city. 

Edward B. Fay, member of Junior class of civil engineering, Washington Univer- 
sity. 

W. Adin Field, died while a student at De Pauw University. 

Charles H. Gardner, clerk in Simmons Hardware Company, 3129 Laclede Avenue, 
dty. 
I^enry Gwihner, machinist, 

Wallace Harker, salesman, with Udell &. Crundeu, 2040 Laclede Avenue, city, 

Oscar F. Hartman, clerk with Sells & Co., 1930 Louisiana Avenue, cit^* 

882— So. 2 8 



114 PROCEEDINGS — Dfil>ARTMENT OP SUPERINTENDENCE. 

Joseph Rawlins Hickman, "car tracer," St. Louis JindSan Francisco Railway, 7th 
and Cerre Streets. 

Samuel D. Hodgdou, express business, " extra messenger," Bryan, Tex. 

Charles jl. Hopper, apprentice at pattern-making, 3814 N. 11th Street, city. 

Boone Johnson, draughtsman, Pullman Car Shops, Chicago, 111. 

George D. Johnson, assistant superintendent, Mississippi Glass Works, St. Loais. 

William C. King, clerk with Samuel Cupples & Co., 2947 Thomas Street, city. 

Robert H. Laing, machinist, with G. H. Lasar, 1023 Clark Avenue, city, 

John B. Leggat, member of Junior class, Washington University. 

William M. Loudorman, clerk with Sells & Co., 3426 Chestnut Street, city. 

Ludlow Maury, member of Sophomore class, Washington University. 

John A. McClean, clerk with C. & W. McClean, 2704 Chestnut Street, city. 

H. N. Mayo, teacher manual training, Salt Lake Academy, Salt Lake City. 

JohnN. McQuilkin, teacher of manual training, public schools, Beardstown, 111. 

Herman 0. Moinholtz, draughtsman, Heine Safety Boiler Compapy. 

Richard G. Mincke, clerk, commissary department, Pullman Oar Company, 1723 
Chouteau Avenue, St. Louis. 

George R. Rice, Jr., clerk at office of the Wabash Western Railroad Company, 1131 
Benton Street, city. 

Edward O^Neal Shotwell, 2740 Lucas Avenue, bill clerk, Pullman Car Works, St. 
Louis. 

William H. Slicer, teacher of drawing In the Technical School of Cincinnati, 94 N. 
9th Street. 

Charles B. Spicor, shipping clerk, with W. McBlair *& Co., 2G7D Lucas Avenue, city. 

John B. Steiuert, teacher of mechanics, Nebraska State Mute Institute, Omaha. 

Wm. J. Stelzleni, letter-carrier, St. Louis. 

Wm. M. Stewart, with St. Louis Metal Company, 7th and Howard Streets. 

Henry J. StilleGT, with August Gast & Co. 

George T. Thompson, assistant superintendent of Laclede Gas Works. 

Hugo E. Wangelin, dentist (D. D. S.), Belleville, 111. 

Gustavus E. Wetzel, Jr., with G. E.Wetzel, general commission business, douth-west 
corner Market and Second Streets. 

Rowland Lee Wilson, raising Clydesdale horses and " Shorthorn'* stock at Olney, 
111. 

Louis H. Winter, Jr., assistant book-keeper, Missouri Car and Foundry Company. 

Wm. C. Zelle, membfer of Sophomore class, Washington University. 

Louis F. Zepp, clerk, 3532 S. Broadway. 

Class of 1887. 

Albert H. Baier, member Sophomore class, Washington University 
Frank E. Bauer, farmer, Bunker Hill, 111. 
Frank C. Blclock. 

Walter A. Boock, clerk with Messrs. Grether & Boeck;3706 Delmar Avenue. 
Richard A. Boyle, clerk in bank, Sullivan, Ind. 

William G. Brouneke, member of Sophomore class, Washington University. 
James H. Brookmire, Jr., with J. H. Brookniire &.Co., 2733 Lucas Avenue. 
Henry D. Chapman, member Soi)homore class, Washington University. 
Herman D'Armour, pattern-maker, 2001 Broadway. 
William H. Dan forth, member Sophomore class, Washington University. 
Edward R. Fish, member Sophomore class, Washington University. 
John R. Fordyco, member Sophomore class, Washington University. 
Wm. R. J. Frain, with Samuel Cupples & Co., 4327 Warnc Avenue. ' 
Wm. Allan Gardner, book-keeper, Francis Axe Company, Buffalo, N. Y. . 

Hallock N. Gillette, with N. O. Nelson Manufacturing Company. 
Wallis V. Graves, machinist, Hydraulic Press Btick Company, 2813 Lafayette 
Avenue, 



MANUAL TRAINING. 115 

Ghas. S. Greene, Freshman class, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Boston, 
Mass. 
Wm. R. Grier, office of St. Louis, 111., Gas Company, 601 Washington Avenue. 3126 

Lucas Avenue. 

Harry F. Hammel, 3649 Clark Avenue. 

Michael Isaalb, on surveying party, St. L. & San F. Ry. Address, 101 Park Street, 
Cincinnati, Ohio. 

Oscar A. Kelly, member Sophomore class, Washington University. 

Chas. P. Lampel, with Simmons Hardware Company, 1111 Chouteau Avenue. 

Berthold A. Lange, St. Louis Law School. 

Samuel A. Larkin, machinist, Mo. Pacific Shops, 2630 Randolph Street. 

Wm. H. McCormick, 2827 Franklin Avenue. 

Gustavo £. Meisuer, farming, Bushberg, Mo. 

Landon C. Metcalf, local census work, Kansas City, Mo. 

Ferdinand Moll, with a manufacturing company, 3119 Adams Street. 

Wm. A. Ocker, 3446 S. Broadway. 

Victor H. Poss, member Sophomore class, Washington University. 

Jacob F. Ratz, 1220 Benton Street. 

Chas. B. Rearlck, draughtsman, Dunkirk Engineering Company, Dunkirk, N. Y, 

Wm. V. Reel, medical student. 

Albert A. Rehbein, clerk, Miss. Planing Mill Office, 1937 Biddle Street. 

Lloyd H. Rickart. x 

Denney W. Roper, member Sophomore class, Washington University. 

Wilfred Alex. Schade, cashier, Chas. H. Wymaii & Co, 9th and OliVe, city. 

Adolph Schenk, Jr., 2654 Morgan Street, with Aires Thermometer Company. 

Geo. A. Schlossstcin, clerk, French Window-glass Manufacturing Company. 

Alvin H. Schureman, Mo. Pac. Ry. Passenger Depot. 

Frank B. Schureman, with Simmons Hardware Company, 2814 Dickson Street. 

Charles H. Speer, order clerk, August Gast & Co., 2837 ThomaB Street. 

Geo. F. Steedman, member Sophomore class, Lawrence Scientific School, Harvard 
University, Cambridge, Mass. 

Edmond A. Thomas, book-keeper. Fox Bros. Manufacturing Company, 2730 Stod- 
dard Street. 

Wm. F. Thompson, clerk. Parsons & Co., 1113 Olive, 2320 Scott Avenue. 

John W. Yalliant, member Sophomore class. College of New Jersey, Princeton, 
N.J. 

John C. Van Doom, in employ of Merchants* Exchange, 3000 Qlive Street. 

James Harrison Whittaker, Summerfield, 111. 

Clarence G. Wilgus, farming, Whitehall, 111. 

Geo. H. Wolbrecht, member Sophomore class, Washington University. 

Chas. L. Woodruff, clerk, Wabasli Railway Office, 4519 Blair Avenue. 

Alfred Woolf, with Messrs. Woolf «& Co., 426 Washington Avenue. 

Class of 1888. 

John McCnne Allen, 3424 Pine Street, machinist. Pacific Lock Sd Seal Company, 
Olive Street. 

Geo, Y. Bast, teacher of drawing and tool- work, Oakland Manual Training School, 
California. 

Wm, Herbert Bouton, 2909 Park Avenue, member Freshman class, Washington 
University. 

GtiStave Ernst Bruere, student, St. Louis Medical School. 

L. Dutihl L. Cabanne, 719 Garrison Avenue, Missouri Pacific Machine Shops, ship- 
ping clerk with Ripley & Bronson, St. Louis. 

Edward P. Clark, Jr., 2210^ Olive Street, clerk. 

Wilbur Graham Cory, 1102 Channing Avenue. 



116 PROCEEDINGS — DEPARTMENT OP SUPERINTENDENCE. 

Wm.N. Cummings, 3514 Olivo Street, member Freshman class, Wabhington Univer- 
sity. 

Clarendon Davis, Jackson, Mo., medical student. 

James M. Dudley, 3573 Olivo Street, St. Louis post-office. 

Albert A. Ehrliardt, California, Mo., member Fresliman class, Washington Univer- 
sity. * 

Walter Eisenmayer, milling business, with " TlieEisenmayer Company," San Diego, 
Cal. 

Sidney A. Fairchild, 2117 Clark Avenue, member Freshman class, Washington Uni- 
versity. 

Wendell C. Fletcher, 1045 Groodfellow Avenue, motor inspector, St. Louis Electric 
Power Company. 

Walter H. Fuchs, 1014 S. Fourth Street, member Freshman class, Washington Uni- 
versity. 

Henry M. Greene, member Freshman class, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 
Boston, Mass. 

Jas. Alonzo Hance, Montgomery City, Mo. 

Edward A. Hanss, draughtsman, Peninsula Car Company, Detroit, Mich. 

Charles Hendrich, Washington, Mo., member Freshman class, Washington Uni- 
versity. 

Ernst Hoelke, 2001 Park Avenue, member Freshman class, Washington University. 

Louis W. Holy, 1829 Dolman Street, with Simmons Hardware Company, St. Louis. 

Geo. F. Horneker, Eureka, Mo., student. Commercial College. 

Arno E. Huning, member Freshman class, Washington University. 

Fred. A. Krackauer, 1115 S. Compton Avenue, in Garstaug's Machine Shop. 

Harry Lanitz, 3658 Delmar Avenue, shipping clerk, St. Louis Stamping Company. 

John Gates Lewis, Jefferson City, Mo. 

Rufus Augustus Lewis, draughtsman, with Mr. Annan, architect, St. Louis. 

Wm.'Luedinghaus, 2831 Rauschenback Avenue, in business with his father, Henry 
Luedinghaus, Esq., 1721 N. Broadway. 

^vans McCarty, 2628 Rutger Street, in office of Southern White Lead Company, St. 
Louis. 

Edward C. Meier, 1726 Mississippi Avenue, member Freshman class, Washington 
University. 

Peter Holme Morrison, 1401 Washington Avenue, stndent, St, Louis Medical 
School. 

August H. Mundt, 2355 Rutger Street, draughtsman, with Ranken & Fritsch. 

William L. Nichols, 2710 Olive Street, Freshman class, Washington University. 

Albert G. Nulsen, 1641 Missouri Avenue, Freshman class, Washington University. 

John Erwin Page, 5581 Cabanne Place, draughtsman, Pullman Car Works, St. 
Louis. 

Wm. L. Poppenhusen, Washington, Mo., in hardware business with his father. 

Thos. T. Richards, 2210 Lucas Place, member of Freshman class, Washington Uni- 
versity. 

Francis E. Schwentler, 1908 Carr Street, draughtsman, American Brake Company, 
St. Louis. 

John Stack, East St. Louis, 111., student, St. Louis Medical School. 

Rezin D. Steele, Galveston, Tex., in architect's office. 

Lewis C. Stone, 103 N. Channing Avenue, book-keeper and salesman, St. Louis 
Wheel Company. 

Clarence J. Taussig, 2112 Wavorly Place, member Freshman class, Washington 
University. 

Ralph Day Udell, manufacturer, Indianapolis, Ind. 

Chas. M. Wageley, draughtsman, American Brake Company, St. Louis. 

Total number of graduates, 239. 



MANUAL TRAINING. 117 

THE PSYCHOLOGY OF MANUAL TEAINING. 
By Wm. T. Harris, LL.D., 

Concord f Mass, 

In bringing forward my thoughts on the Psycliology of Manual Train- 
ing, I desire to say in advance that I shall endeavor to assume and 
maintain a judicial attitude toward this Important educational question. 
I shall avoid the position of advocate or polemic so far as I am able. 

As persons interested practically and theoretically in the manage- 
ment of schools we meet from year to year to discuss the vital questions 
that may arise in our province. Practically and theoretically, it is our 
fortune and our choice to find ourselves arrayed on different sides of each 
question. A free comparison of opinions in a friendly spirit gives us 
each matters for further reflection and may lead to partial revision of 
opinions previously held. A free comparison of grounds or reasons for 
opinions is still more profitable. All search for groumds, all search for 
principles, goes back out of the region of surface and diversity of 
facts — goes back out of the multiplicity of details toward unity. From 
differences we converge toward agreement when we begin to compare 
the grounds of our opinions. Principles and fundamental grounds are 
held in common by all minds, and this is necessarily so in case of ulti- 
mate principles at least. 

Now, as a class of people interested in the management of schools, we 
have two opposite trends of opinion before us j we may divide here, one 
class of us tending toward conservatism and the other class tending to- 
ward new. experiments with a view to progress and improvement. One . 
class holds by the heritage of the past, and strives to conserve its power. 
What is established has been established through struggle, and the 
victory of the strongest. A study of the grounds for the existence of 
what is, discovers many and powerful reasons for the continuance of 
the existing order even in presence of the fact that defects are every- 
where visible. The conservative sees the defects but attributes them 
to inefficient administration and not to essential shortcomings in the 
old system itself. 

On the other hand, the party whose watchword is progress bends its 
mind on the discovery of what is inadequate in the old system. It mar- 
shals the shortcomings and refers them to vicious methods inherent 
in the old system. It looks about for remedies and undertakes radical 
changes, bravely confident of their success. And inasmuch as the 
teaching profession is for the main part engaged during its daily tasks 
in the work of repression (inhibition), holding back pupils from doing 
wrong or improper things, teaching self-control, and that action of the 
will which psychologists call inhibitory, it (the teacher's profession) 
tends toward the conservative side too readily. It is engaged in sti*ug- 
gling against caprice and arbitrariness, against raw, unformed hablta 
and manners^ against thoughtless disregard oi t\i(^ mX^x^'^^^ ^1 ^>^^s^^« 



118 PROCEEDINGS — ^DEPARTMENT OP SUPERINTENDENCE. 

This effort is apt to swallow up the teacher and cause neglect of that 
other side of will training — the side of spontaneous, original activity. 
It neglects the positive for the negative, because the negative is the first 
and indispensable, while the positive may appear of itself without any 
education, after the school period is over, or outside of the school. Mere 
positive will power without the negative or inhibitory power will pro- 
duce only anarchy. The new human being must learn to inhibit or 
hold back by an effort of will his native, mere animal, impulses and de- 
sires, having due regard to the requirements of social existence — clean- 
liness of person and clothing, courtesy and decency of manners toward 
others, purity of life, temperance, prudence, fortitude, and justice, all 
requiring this inhibition (or self-restraint over impulse) and conformity 
to pre-ordained ideals of order. Mere spontaneous originality attacks 
all these things and runs riot. 

On the other hand, mere prescription, mere inhibitory will-power, de. 
veloped to extremes, produces only a mechanical civilization — a dead 
mechanical state of social existence. We look upon the Chinese educa- 
tion as productive of such a condition. All is cut and dried and giveii 
to the pupil as a ready-made form into which he must fit himself»by in- 
hibition of natural caprice and inclination. The consequence i9 the 
least possible progress and thecompletest administration of the old sys- 
tern. 

What the philosophy of history must regard as the ideal standard of 
progress among nations is, therefore, not a mere perfection in adminis- 
tration, for this is achieved in the perfectly stationary empire of con- 
servatism. 

The ideal standard of progress is found in the form of government 
which secures the greatest degree of individual development while not 
losing the centralized power of the whole. In the patriarchal empire 
the social whole is perfect at the expense of individual freedom. We 
Americans are apt to think that the German Empire sacrifices to some 
extent the development of the individual for the sake of the perfection 
of the administration of the will of the social whole. Certain it is that 
the German statesman looks upon our American regime as sacrificing 
the welfare of the social whole in order to give an unreasonable margin 
for individual whims and preferences. 

The Anglo-Saxon doctrine (expressed in French words), laissez faire^ 
is thought to go too far when it permits parents to choose illiteracy for 
their children, or when it permits an illiterate community to substitute 
lynch law for the regular judicial process. 

However this may be regarded, there is certainly a mutual relation 
between the form of government, with its administrative process, and 
the self-activity of the individual; and that government is best which 
secures the* greatest perfection of central administration through the 
greatest development of individual freedom. But it remains true that 
the self-activity of the individual must be scficMy limited by the neces- 
sitjr of perfect central adnuiuigitratioa for the good of the whole. 



MANUAL TRAINING. 119 

May we not fn like manner name our criterion of educational progress 
as the approach toward a system that secures the greatest individual 
self-activity of the pupil while it builds up in his character perfect obe- 
dience to law, divine and human, and a sacred regard for truth. 

While our progressive wing of superintendents does not always move 
forward in a straight line, for not all change is progress, yet on the line of 
'cautious experiment there is most advance lo be hoped for. I think that 
the friends of progress will admit that out of one hundred changes not 
more than one real gain results. Yet without experiment there might 
be no progress at all. 

In the present question, that of manual training, we have eminently 
able men in our body taking strong grounds in its advocacy and initiat- 
ing bold experiments in the direction of adopting it into the system of 
elementary instruction. On the other hand, we have men who look upon 
the experiment as unnecessary for various reasons, or else await the is- 
sue of the experiments, thinking that it is safip to adopt the new system 
after it has been proved a success. Experiments are so costly that one 
must be cautious in undertaking them. Kinety-nine fail and one suc- 
ceeds. Meanwhile debate and discussion will aid us in interpreting the 
results of experiment as they appear. It is safe even for conservative- 
minded men to approach the subject theoretically. 

The psychology of manual training is concerned chiefly with the men- 
tal effect of such training and a comparison of its results with those of 
other branches of the course of study pursued in school. What is called 
the ^< educational value " of such training in the use of tools is a matter 
for pyschology. Social necessity — the necessity for useful labor to pro- 
vide a subsistence — this is not a psychological matter in its primary as- 
pect, but only in its secondary, or indirect relation to mind — the effect of 
a conciousness of possessing the ability of independent self-support in 
elevating the tone of character, or the effect of shortening the era. of 
childhood and hastening the day in which the child assumes the respon- 
sibility of self-support. Whatever the ground for introducing a branch 
into the course of study, there is evidently a direct or indirect psycho- 
logical question involved. 

M. Slnys, of Belgium, tells us that in Sweden — 

In the beginning the economic conception was generaUy adopted, and everywhere 
manual training was looked upon as a means of preparing the children of the common 
people to earn their living. But gradually it came to be recognized that manual 
training has a more elevated purpose, aud one indeed more useful in the deeper mean- 
ing of the term. It came to bo considered as an educative process, for the complete 
moral, physical and intellectual development of the child. 

He affirms that in Sweden the combination of manual training and the 
teaching of purely theoretical subjects " ensures the integral cultivation 
of all the faculties and all the aptitudes which make up the complete 
man." 

fhe expression which we often hear used by the advocates of manual 
training — "put the whole boy to school " — states in a plaln^for<i\bl^^^^ 



120 PROCEEDINGS — ^DEPARTMENT OP SUPERINTENDENCE. 

the meaning of the phrase, " integral cultivation of all the faculties and 
all the aptitudes which make up the complete man.'^ 

It hq,s been fashionable in educational treatises since the days of 
Pestalozzi to define the province of education as "the full and harmo- 
nious development of all our faculties." This is, however, a survival 
of Rousseauism, and like all survivals from that source is very danger- 
ous. It is of first importance to consider this definition in the light of 
psychology. 

At first glance we see that it makes no discrimination among the fac- 
ulties themselves; all have a right, each has a right to cultivation, and 
the only limitation of this cultivation is found in the word " harmony." 
What the harmony should be is not said. It is implied, however, that 
the harmony once reached, there would be a perfect human being. 
Harmony implies a sort of balance, and that there is no faculty of the 
soul which may be developed supremely, no faculty like that of Divine 
Charity, for example, which should be supreme. 

Again this definition ignores the great distinction between our higher 
and lower faculties, between our faculties that are means to ends above 
them and those faculties which are ends in themselves. Sound psy- 
chology, for example, looks upon ethical insight as higher than insight 
into what is useful as a means to an end. The adaptation of means to 
ends — the use of physical strength, industry, eating and drinking, any 
sort of bodily training, is subordinate to the question of the end for 
which it is used — moral purpose being esteemed higher. Moral faculty 
is supreme as regards all such things, and is not a co-ordinate factor. 

Esthetic faculty, taste for the beautiful, is not regarded as coordi- 
nate with moral faculty by any people since the Greeks or before the 
Greeks. Gracefulness was the supreme end of life and esteemed to be 
even higher than morality in Hellenic art. It was in the Greek thought 
that this notion of harmony arose as a symbol of perfection. For in 
Greek art alone the physical and psychical ^re in perfect balance; not 
so in Christian art, — and far otherwise in the Christian religion. For 
Christianity teaches that food, drink, raiment, — or creature comforts of 
all sorts — yea, life itself is infinitely beneath consideration when weighed 
against the spiritual service of humanity. Bodily health and vigor, 
sound digestion, good sleep, keen sense-perception, are all good if rightly 
used, or subordinated to higher faculties; but to speak of them as form- 
ing a harmony with the higher is placing the soul and body on the same 
plane, and this is a fundamental error in educational psychology. 

In the third place the definition ignores the distinction between man 
as an individual and man as a social whole, the State, the civil commu- 
nity, the church, the family. It fancies man the individual to be some- 
thing complete in himself and without relation to society — just as we 
can speak bf a clock or any piece of mechanism as complete when all its 
parts are present and properly adjusted. Man has two selves; one his 
natural self as puny individual, and another his higher self embodied in 
institutions* This is the worst defect in the definition, because it leads 



MANUAL TRAINING. 121 

the thought of the educator away from the essential idea of education, 
which is this : Education is the preparation of the individual for recip- 
rocal union with society; the preparation of the individual so that he 
can help his fellow men and in turn receive and appropriate their help. 

The "harmony" definition is abstract ; this definition is concrete. An 
abstract definition is liable to misinterpretation, the concrete one is 
not. Beciprocal help of social whole and individual in the first place 
iihplies both special and general education. To help one's fellows one 
must get skill in some useful occupation. This maybe in any realm of 
human labor, physical or intellectual. But to be able to receive the 
help of one's fellow men implies general education, the capacity to re- 
ceive and appropriate the help of institutions — the spiritual help of the 
race in science, art, literature, and moral and religious ideas, as well as 
in the matter of creature comfort. The world market yields to the indi- 
vidual man for his day's labor a share in the productions of the world ; 
necessary food, clothing and shelter, luxuries, amusements, churches, 
libraries, lectures, newspapers and books. The prudent man buys wis- 
dom and develops his lower faculties only to the extent that they are 
means to this higher end of acquiring wisdom and dispensing it to 
others. 

This criticism of the definition of education which looks toward a 
harmonious development of all our faculties does not rule out manual 
training from education, but the contrary. Manual training fits very 
many for some useful occupation which they may fill as their special 
vocation. Neither does it prove that manual training is not of a gen- 
eral educative character. That is something to be investigated. 

The Slojd instruction, according to Dr. Otto Salomon, the director of 
the famous manual training normal school at Naas, in Sweden, secures 
the following educational results : 

(1) Skill in the use of tools. (2) Love of labor, industry and persist- 
ence. (3) Self reliance. (4) Exactness. (5) Attentiveness. (6) Sharp- 
ens the eye and sense of form. (7) Good bodily training. 

In another connection he gives its educational results as (1) acquisi- 
tion of general dexterity of the hand ; (2) instilling taste for work and 
respect for rough, honest, bodily labor; (3) training in habits of order, 
neatness, exactness, cleanliness ; (4) accustoming to attention, industry, 
and perseverance ; (5) promoting the development of the physical pow- 
ers ; (6) training the eye and sense of form. 

There is no disputing the assertion that the Slojd is educative when 
we consider that all work and all play of every kind are educative in 
one way or another. 

When the domestic work (Hus-slojd) Which formerly flourished in 
the households of Sweden — it consisted in the making of knick-knacks, 
chiefly out of wood — when this failed because of the introduction of 
more elbgant machine-made goods, far more tasteful and elegant in 
form, at a very low price, the peasant could not afford to compete, and 
household work tended toward neglect and disw^e. \\» \s» >s;^\vi •OvvjnX. 



122 PROCEEDINGS — DEPARTMENT OF SUPERINTENDENCE. 

more attention was given to fanning as a consequence^ but farming 
could not occupy all the time in the season of long nights and ^hort 
days. Hence the rise of an association to restore the SKyd, or domestic 
manufacture of knick-knacks in 1846. In 1872 the government began to 
encourage education in this branch of labor. At first wood carving was 
urged, but only to provoke resistance. But later it has been decided 
that variety of work is essential, and at the Slojd normal school at Naas 
the various tools of the carpenter are taught, and also those of the wood- 
turijer and the blacksmith, besides wood carving; the making and 
mending of simple articles is practised ; even wheels and carts are con- 
structed, but mostly such articles as wooden spoons, boxes, boot-jacks, 
mallets, and netting shuttles. The number of schools in which this 
work is taught had increased to seven hundred in 1884, from eight^r? 
seven at the time of our Centennial. 

When we admit that the use of tools in the manufa^cture of articles 
of wood or iron is educative, we do not say much for it. All games of 
boys — ^like marbles, quoits, base-ball, jack-straws— are educative, espe- 
cially in the matters (a) of development of physical powers ; (6) the ac- 
quisition and dexterity of hand and accuracy of eye ; (o) in perseve- 
rance ; {d) in attention. 

A game of whist cultivates circumspection, careful attention, the cal- 
culation of probabilities, and such matters. The first beginnings of these 
things in children are of great interest educationally. The scientific 
observations of Professor Preyer have taught us how important is the 
epoch when the human infant ceases to clutch objects only with the four 
fingers, like most of the ape family, and learns to use his thumb over 
against his two fingers. This contraposition of the thumb began in the 
case he records about the twelfth week of the infant's life — at first a sort 
of reflex action without the will, and then soon after produced by the 
will, so that contrax^osition of the thumb was quite attained by the 
fourteenth week. The infant rejoices in each new power gained, and in- 
cessantly practises it with voluntary attention until it by degrees sio]to 
into a habit. 

The first look of attention on the part of the child of Dr. Preyer was 
given to some swinging tassels on the thirty-ninth day. On the ninth 
week it noticed and gave attention to the ticking of a watch. 

Other important epochs are the following : (1 ) Holding up its head by 
the act of will in the eleventh week. (2) Standing alone in the forty- 
eighth week. (3) Walking in the fiftieth week. (4) Eecognition of its 
mother on the sixty-first day. (5) Eecognition of its own image in a 
mirror in the sixth month— stretching out its hands to the image — also 
recognizing its father's image and turning to look at the real father and 
compare him with the image. (6) In the seventeenth week is noticed 
the first recognition of self— indicated by attention to his own hand; and 
six weeks later an elaborate series of experiments of touching himself 
and foreign objects alternately. (7) The discovery of itself as cause when 
it can produce sound by rattUng a paper, or by striking one object with 



MANUAL TRAINING. 123 

another, or tearing asunder a piece of paper ; tWs is a most delightful 
discovery to the child. (8) But imitation, which begins about the fif- 
teenth week, and by and by develops into the use of language, is the 
most interesting evidence of the growth of the intellect. 

This glance at infant life reminds us that in education things that are 
very trivial at one epoch are of exceeding importance at another. In 
cases of arrested development the educational value of such matters as 
the contraposition of the thumb, the exertion of the will in supporting 
the body erect, and imitation, is coming to be well understood, as one 
may see in recent schools for the feeble-minded. But the order of de- 
velopment of these things is all-important. An act is educative when 
first learned, and then only. After it has become habit it is a second 
nature— a new nature produced by the will — and is no longer educative. 
Man as a bundle of habits is a self-made being. 

Professor Preyer's child was so delighted with the discovery that it 
could put a cover on a box that it deliberately took it off and replaced 
it seventy-nine times without an interval of rest. It was an educative 
step in its development, a step in the discovery of its selfhood as an 
energy, as well as a step in the discovery of adaptation in the external 
world. 

Many educational devices have been proposed for schools which 
merely repeat lessons that the child has already made for itself in in- 
fancy. The so-called object lessons of school are quite frequently of 
this character. So lessons on the properties of objects, the qualities of 
wood, stone, metals, etc., are not of much use in school, because such 
things are provided for in the child's self-education. I do not, of course, 
refer to the scientific study of such things, which classifies and exhausts 
those qualities and gives the history and geography of the object — 
science is a different matter. The cultivation of the powers of observa- 
tion in our schools — this, too, is very often the farce of repeating les- 
sons which have been learned by the child before he could talk. 

Kow, all the lessons of infancy involve such training in dexterity of ' 
the hand, accuracy of eye, the sense of form, industry, perseverence, 
the gaining of the power of careful attention, and the development of 
the body, such training as is claimed for the Slojd education. More- 
over, the lessons of cleanliness and neatness and industry are taught by 
the good mother quite early to her child. The child learns to use knife 
and fork and spoon very early. By and by ho learns to use the jack- 
knife, and we all know the self-education that goes on in the use of this 
tool among Anglo-Saxon boys. 

But what of all this? one inquires. Although it is educative it is not 
properly 'school education. How does such infant education differ from 
reading, writing, arithmetic, geography, history — yes, even from gram- 
mar? Here is the vital point of our discussion. 

Man elevates himself above the bruto creation by his ability to with- 
draw his attention from the extern:il world of the senses and give at- 
tention to energies, forces, producing causes, \>rVwciv^\cb^, ^"^ Qa»\\.Vk^^ 



124 PROCEEDINGS — ^DEPARTMENT OF SUPERINTENDENCE. 

from the particalar to the general ; without losing the particular ho 
grasps together the whole realm of the particular in the general, or, in 
more significant language, in mastering the cause of anything he grasps 
together and comprehends an indefinite series of effects. He is not 
obliged to hold the details, that is to say, memorize all the facts and 
hold their details in a store-house. He can see them all in a principle; 
he can see in a cause its possible consequences. Understanding the 
meteoric process he can readily explain any step in it— clouds, rain, 
snow, evaporation, fog, etc. Without this knowledge of the general, 
which always rests on some insight into causal process real or supposed, 
man would be bound down to the present fact before his senses. But 
with this knowledge man is able to see in the present fact its past his- 
tory; he is able, moreover, to see in the present fact its future as a pos- 
sible fact, which he may realize by an act of his will. 

Man differs from the animal in this great power of seeing ideals and 
in reinforcing sense-perception by adding to each thing or fact before 
his senses the vision of its past and the vision of its future. Man thus 
becomes comprehending; he explains the fact by its process of evolution; 
he becomes practical or a will power through effecting some change or 
modification in the thing or fact in order to realize his vision of its 
ideal. 

A false psychology tells us that we derive all our knowledge from 
sense perception. We see form or shape and color ; feel, taste, smell, 
or hear, hardness, flavor, odor, and sound ; but we do not by any of 
these learn the idea of causal process. This comes through thinking 
and is an original acquisition which thinking mind brings with it, - By 
this idea» of causal process all the data of sense are transformed radi- 
cally. They are given us in sense perception as independent realities. 
In thinking them by the aid of causality we make all these matters of 
sense perception into phenomena, or effects and manifestations of un- 
derlying causes which are not visible or tangible, not flavors, sounds, 
nor odors. 

Ko generalization is possible without ascending from the immediate 
thing or fact to the causal energy. By their common causal energy 
we unite objects into classes, we unite the various heterogeneous things 
such as acorns, oak-leaves, roots, saplings, trees, oak-wood in one 
causal process of the oak. 

Without the idea of causality we could never distinguish external 
objects from our feelings, and hence experience never could begin, 

Man goes back from the fact to its producing cause. But he goes 
back of its producing cause to a deeper cause that unites two or m.ore 
series of producing causes, back of the oak and pino to tree in general; 
back of tree and grass and lichen to plant in general; back of plant and 
animal to life in general. Man's power of thought rises from thing to 
cause and from cause to cause, leaving a smaller and smaller residuum 
of mere sense-data and yet getting nearer the underlying reality which 
causes nil these sense-data. 



MANUAL TRAINING. ' 125 

This is the great point for educators to observe. We do not get at 
the true reality by sense-perception but by thought. Force is never 
perceived directly by the senses ; a thing is here and a thing is there, 
but motion is not perceived, only inferred; force is only inferred. 
Thought puts together this fact and that, this present one and that past 
one, and unites them by the idea of causality, and the idea of force is 
born. 

So thought produces the idea of space, pure space containing all, in- 
fmite in extent, and yet not material, not to be perceived by any of the 
senses. With the ideas of space and time — ideas that thought generates 
of itself in order to think the data of sense-perception into a consistent 
whole— with these ideas of space and time the idea of quantity is 
evolved and mathematics becomes possible. 

In mathematics man beholds not merely a few data of sense-percep- 
tion but the universal conditions of all sense-perception. The laws of 
quantity, as formtdated in arithmetic, geometry, and the calculus, give 
us the logical conditions of the existence of all matter and all motion, 
not only all that exists, but all that may or can exist. 

Now this must be borne in mind when we make comparison of the 
educational effect on the mind of a child produced by learning arith- 
metic and geometry with that produced by learning how to make a box 
or a joint, or weld two pieces of iron. Grant that all these processes are 
educative, at least in the first process of their acquirement. To make a 
box requires special applications of knowledge of a special kind — 
measurement, adaptation, dividing with the saw, the use of the ham- 
mer and nails. It is special, and there is something learned regarding 
the texture of wood and nails, some skill or knack acquired in the hand- 
ling of tools — some pleasurable feeling of self at the consciousness of 
what one can accomplish by his labor. But in the study of mathe- 
matics there is an immeasurably higher feeling of self in the perception 
of the power of the intellect not merely to know passively, but to know 
actively, not merely to know the small portion of the universe presented 
to its immediate senses, but to know the conditions of existence of all 
matter near and remote, now, in the past, and in all future time. What 
a glimpse of the dignity and commanding eminence of mind arises 
through the study of geometry ! The three angles of any triangle are 
equal to two right angles — the pupil need never measure one real trian- 
gle to know this. On the basis of the ratios of the sides of the right- 
angled triangle to one another man proceeds to measure all things in- 
accessible to manual measurement; he measures the distance of the 
sun and of the fixed stars. Compare the feeling of selfhood that is 
gained by the soul in the use of the tools of thought with that gained 
by any form of manual labor. 

In learning arithmetic the boy learns to quantify and measure all. 
things numerically. It is not co-ordinate with the knowledge of carpen- 
tering, but it underlies it; at least there can be no use of the CcU\jeu.- 
tar's rule without some arithmetic. 



126 PROCEEDINGS — DEPARTMENT OF SUPERINTENDENCE. 

But the school studies are for the most part given to a knowledge of 
human nature and human combination rather than to a knowledge of 
material things. This is due to the fact already seen, namely, that man 
is a social being, and is all that he is as a spiritual being — an educative 
being — through this fact of organized existence in institutions. AU 
science, all literature, all art, the whole world of learning, in fact, takes 
its rise in man's dependence on society. Society is the miraculous in- 
strumentality by which each individual aids every other, and in turn is 
aided by all. In food, clothing, and shelter he brings by commerce all 
productions of all climes to his market, collecting f^om all and distrib- 
uting to each. 

In matters of human experience it is still better, because the aggregate 
of human wisdom does not have to be divided in distributing it. Each 
man may receive it whole if he will only learn the symbols in which it is 
stored up. If a child will learn how to read and write he may learn the 
experience of the race through the countless ages of its existence. 
He may, by scientific books and periodicals, see the world through the 
senses of myriads of trained specialists devoting whole lives to the in- 
ventory of nature. What is immensely more than this, he may think 
with their brains and assist his feeble powers of observation and reflec- 
tion by the gigantic aggregate of the mental labor of the race. This is 
the great meaning of school education: to give to the pupil the use of 
the mean^ for availing himself of the mental products of the race. Com" 
pared with what h^ receives from the race, the productions of the most 
original of men are a mere speck in a wide field of view. Every one may 
add something to the aggregate of the world's knowledge, but he must, 
if he is educated and rises above the brute, receive infinitely more than 
he gives. 

Hence, in comparing the educative effect of learning to read with the 
educative effect of learning the carpenter's trade, we must consider this 
difference of scope. The one leads to knowledge of a few tools and a 
limited sphere of the botany of trees — an empirical, but not scientific, 
knowledge of a few wood textures, a few simple processes of combina- 
tion into shapes for use or ornament — all of which brings also a limited 
knowledge of self and of human nature. Its whole educative effect is 
exhausted in a brief time at the manual training school; for we are told 
by authorities that manual training for educative purposes must not be 
carried far enough to produce skill.^ On the other hand, the education 
of learning to read, although it is an<3ificient process of education while 
in school, yet it is followed by its greatest educ^vtive eft'ects afterward 
throughout life ; for the person is destined to use this knowledge of read- 
ing daily as a key by which to unlock the treasures of all human learn- 
ing. The school has given him possession of the means of permanent 
and continuous self-education. It is the difference between a piece of 
baked bread, which nourishes for the day, and the seed-corn, which is 

1 See Professor Woodward^s excellent remarks on the edncative limits of manual 
training in hia book. 



MANUAL TRAINIKG. 127 

the possibility of countless harvests. Education that educates tile child 
in the af't of self-education is that whicli the aggregate experience of 
mankind has chosen for the school. The course of study involves the 
mastery of lettets or the means of intercommunication with the race; 
the means, too, of preserving the harvest of observation and reflection. 
It, moreotrer, involves the use of letters in certain fundamental studies, 
80 as to show the pupil how to master the great general classes of books. 
It initiates him into the use of mathematical books, showing him how 
to understand them by persistent attention and thought, showing him 
that memorizing the words of the arithmetic does not master the book, 
but that it is necessary to think out for one's self every statement and 
see the nficessity of it. The mathematical province of letters reveals 
to the child the realm of man's victory over nature, because having in- 
vented mathematics it is only a question of detail — " divide and con- 
quer" — ^to subdue all nature. 

Then comes geography, lifting a curtain and showing the child his 
race divided into peoples and nations round the globe, all working at 
Botnething that he himself needs, and the spectacle of the world-com- 
merce bringing to him over all seas the desired articles. 

Then there is history, lifting another curtain and showing the doings 
Of man in the past. Man reveals human nature by his actions. Each 
one reveals to himself a small fragment of hu^ian nature, but he does 
not know much of human nature until he looks into history; for history 
reveals the higher self of man as organized in institutions. For the 
firdt time man comes to know his substantial self when he comes to 
study history* His little self beholds his colossal self. 

Then there is literature, which shows in its prose and poetry the col- 
lisions which individuals have made with institutions — Macbeth and 
Othello, Paris and Helen, (Edipus and Faust. It completes for us the 
revelation of human nature, and more than all other studies is human- 
izing and civilizing. The school initiates the child into this realm 
through the intense bursts of impassioned prose and poetry that the 
school readers contain, showing in these all the varieties of style to be 
mastered, and how to master them ; how to ascend from the mere col- 
loquial vocabulary, which the child brings with him from the family, to 
the literary styles adequate to express deep thought or fine shades of 
emotion^ 

The school also makes a study of language in itself— it teaches gram- 
mar, the most diflftcult of all school studies, and the most educative of 
siibtle powers of thought. 

But, it is objected to me here : Does not nature give us the material 
of thought, and language only the symbols of thought? Is not lan- 
guage an arbitrary symbol and nature tbe eternal reality ? I remember 
saying this once myself when I was a youtli in college, and the thought 
so Oppressed my mind that I did not have patience to remain and grad- 
uate, but I left college midway in the course* 

Afterward^ when I came to clear up my t\io\ig\x.\&^ \ X^^^^m \» ^^^ 



128 PJROCEEDINGS — ^DEPARTMENT OP SUPERINTENDENCE. 

that I lived in two worlds — the world of nature and the world of man. 
Moreover, the world of wan was much more complex than that of nat- 
♦ure, and, strange as it then seemed, the world of man was really much 
closer to me than the world of nature. It enwrapped me, so to speak, 
like a garment — a clothing for the mind. Think of nature with its two 
kingdoms, the organic and inorganic, and the human world with its 
three i^rovinces, — the realizations of (1) the will ; (2) of the intellect; (3) 
of the creative imagination. For example, there is the province of in- 
stitutions, with laws and customs and usages, national forms of govern- 
ment, religious systems, moral codes, political methods, etc., as the em- 
bodiment of human will, revealing the nature of human will, just as the 
habits of ants and bees reveal ant and bee nature. If things and reali- 
ties are the material of thought, what material of thought is so impor- 
tant for our examination as human institutional growth? Is it a prod- 
uct of arbitrary will ? It is at least as much a reality as the habits 
and actions of animals and plants in which the botanist and zoologist 
discover the nature of animals and plants. More than this, these laws 
and customs are the most dread reality that we know of. It is a mat- 
ter of life and death to ignore the laws of the state — ^it is a matter of 
wasting all one's strength uselessly to disobey the behest's of custom, 
however slight. What is so close to man as his wrappage of customs 
and usages? This is his bond of union with his fellow-men. 

If it is admitted that these products of man's will are realities and 
material for thought, thipk of their vast complexity and extent. But 
the i)roducts of man's intellect are the multifarious sciences, and frag- 
ments of sciences, all his philosophic theories and all his inventions in 
the arts. Within this division there is the province of language — a vast 
complex system with a structure all its own, yet revealing the structure 
of thought itself, just as forms and usages and laws reveal the nature 
of the human will. And is not language a reality — is it not the material 
vehicle of thought, and does it not exist as an object for thought and 
scientific consideration? In its language lies embalmed the deepest 
peculiarity or idiosyncrasy of a people's growth. It is worth while4x> 
study a steam-engine, an arbitrary product 6f man's inventive mind, 
because the steam-engine is the instrument for the annihilation of dis- 
tance and separation. It renders intercommunication easy and cheap. 
It assists in producing civilization by bringing about spiritual com- 
munion. But infinitely more important to study is the structure of 
language because it is the invention of the soul as a direct and adequate 
means of expressing its internal acts and states — its thoughts, volitions, 
and feelings. By language social union and civilization are realized. 
To study the grammar and vocabulary of a language is to gain an in- 
sight into the structure of soul itself, and at the same time to gauge 
the spiritual development of the people who spoke it. Even the smat- 
tering of grammar taught in schools has the great educative effect of 
turning the mind of the pupil inward so far as to seize definitions and 
classify words by the meaning that they have. It is a study of the 



MANUAL TEAINING. 129 

effect which form has upon the meaning of words. Moreover, a train- 
ing in grammar gives one the power, to some extent, of discriminating 
the accidental from the substantial— a training which fits the mind to 
enter successfully other fields of subtle thought. 

The province of literature and art furnishes wonderful material of 
thought^ for it furnishes the symbol of human ideals and aspirations, 
the grand impulses that move at the bottom of our civilization. 

It has been claimed by some of its advocates that we have in manual* 
training an executive action of the mind while we have only a receptive 
activity in the other school studies. 

There is a distinction in psychology between eficrent and afferent 
nerves — nerves that convey outward impulses from the brain to the mus- 
cles, and nerves that convey impulses from the surface inward to the 
brain, and give rise to feeling. These are named also motor nerves 
and nerves of sensation, or centrifugal and centripetal nerves. This 
distinction between executive and receptive activities seems to be based 
on this difference of nerves. It would be assumed in the first place that 
the most essential forms of human activity are sensor and motor. The 
individual should be receptive of impressions from without through his 
nerves of sensation, or else he should be executive through usiug his 
muscles. Moreover, in order to make this theory apply to manual train- 
ing it must be held that manual training covers the ground of the motor 
or executive. The use of the tools for wood working and metal work- 
ing, such use of a portion of these tools as the manual-training school 
furnishes, is in fact supposed to be an executive training in an eminent 
degree. But all the metal workers in the country, according to our last 
census, amounted to only 685,493 (counting the twenty-two important 
trades) out of a total number of 17,392,099 returned as engaged in gainful 
occupations. This is less than 3 J per cent, of the laboring population, 
and yet the annual product even of this small fraction of our people ex- 
ceeds the home consumption of metallic goods. The workers in wood, 
counting twenty-five trades, numbered only 763,814 out of the seventeen 
and one-half millions of laborers, about 4A per cent. But it is claimed 
that skill in the use of the tools of these trades would be valuable to all, 
no matter what their employments might be. This, however, is a posi- 
tion that cannot be maintained for the following reasons: Every trade 
has its special knack or skill, and not only requires special education to 
fit the laborer to pursue it, but it re-acts on the laborer, and fixes in his 
bodily structure certain limitatictos, which to a greater or less extent 
unfit him for other occupations. Even within the trades devoted to the 
transformation of metals it is found that a long apprenticeship to black- 
smithing unfits one for fine work on jewelry, or for engraving. Too 
much work at planing and sawing, moreover, would injure the skill of 
the wood carver. 

Out of the 92 per cent, of laborers not engaged in any form of wood 
or metal work nearly 5 per cent, are engaged in the manufacture of tex- 

882— No. 2 9 



130 PROCEEDINGS — DEPARTMENT OP SUPERINTENDENCE. 

tile fabrics or clothing. Counting together those who hav3 to do with 
tiiese manufactures and with the care of clothing and with leather manu- 
factures there are 7 per cent, in all whose occupations would be more or 
less injured by an apprenticeship in blacksmithing and carpentry, for 
a certain delicacy of touch is required in the manipulation of textile 
material that can be acquired only by long-continued and one-sided 
training. Trade and transportation employ 11 per cent, of the laborers j 
agriculture, 45 per cent. Manual training, if it includes only wood and 
metal work, fits only 8 per cent, for their vocation, and more or less un- 
fits for their vocations a large part of the remaining 92 per cent of labor- 
ers. 

But the psychology on which this distinction of executive and recep- 
tive activities is based is not sound. It bmits the elaborative faculties 
of the mind altogether. The nerves of sensation may bring in im- 
pressions and the nerves of motion may carry impulses outward, but 
what connects these two activities ? Physiological psychology informs 
us that the brain and the great ganglia at the base of the brain are used 
by the soul in receiving, co-ordinating, and comparing these impressions; 
in short, in thinking upon the data furnished. Moreover, before a de- 
cision is reached there must be internal impulses consulted such as pro- 
ceed from desires and wishes, and then a comparison of ideals, for one does 
not act in order to make a thing into what it is, because it is that al- 
ready. He acts in order to change some real condition into some other 
condition that exists only in his mind as an ideal possibility. The pur- 
pose or ideal being fixed, and the means of realizing it being choseiii 
the will acts and the motor nerves are called into use to set the limbs in 
motion or to utter words of command. That the ordinary branches of 
instruction in school relate to this function of elaboration of data into 
plans of action far more than they relate to the mere reception of sense- 
impressions or to the exercise of the motor nerves, is obvious. It is ob- 
vious, moreover, that in the perfection of this function of elaboration lies 
the culture of true directive power. The general who plans the battle 
and directs, the movement of his troops so that they secure victory is 
of course the executive man in a far higher sense than the private soldier 
who mechanically obeys what he is ordered to do. The general may 
use his motor nerves only in issuing the words of command, while the 
private soldier may exert to the utmost every muscle in his body — ^yetthe 
real executive is the general. 

It is not desirable that children shtiU be taught that rough hand la. 
bor is in itself as honorable as the elaborative toil of thought which 
gives rational direction to the hand. The best function of the manual 
training school is its training of the elaborative faculties of the mind, 
its studies on the rationale of the construction and use of tools, its 
study of mathematics and science. This points out the road of perma- 
nent usefulness for such schools. They may fit master workmen for the 
sevpral trades and occupations, and thereby furnish overseers who not 
only can direct but can teach besides. 



MANUAL TRAINING. 131 

It is sometimes claimed that the educative effect of the manual-train- 
ing school is the remedy for a prevailing distaste for manual labor. 
Professor Woodward phrases it "the overcoming a most humiliating 
repugnance on the part of so-called educated people to using their 
hands." To this it may be said that if it is the object of the manual 
training school to cure dudes of their contempt for honest labor, it 
should first get some compulsory syste:n of attendance for that class of 
the community. Professor Woodward also declares that "the manual 
training school is not an asylum for the lazy." Indeed, his entrance 
examinations carefully sift out all boys who do not give evidence of 
past industry and good habits; in short, all boys who are not already 
in love with honest hand work. If the object of the school is to fit 
ordinary boys for the trades and cure them of aspiration for clerkships 
and professional work, the statistics show an alarming influence in an- 
other direction. In the Chicago Manual Training School out of the 87 
graduates in the three years, 1886, '87, '88, there were 61 at least who 
are reported as looking higher than manual labor,, namely, 4 teachers, 
28 students in higher institutions, 7 entering the professional work of 
architect or engineer, and twelve clerks, while only 25 appear to be en- 
gaged in manual work,' either as overseers or workmen. Of the 100 
graduates of the St. Louis Manual Training School in the years 1883, 
'84:, and '85, it appears that 65 look above manual labor (6 teachers, 29 
students in higher institutions, 21 clerks, 9 professionals), while only 
23 are reported as engaged in work of farming and mechanical pursuits 
as laborers or overseers. 

It is evident that the elaborative function of the mind is the true 
source of executive power. The problems of life must be solved by 
thought before they can be reduced to action without waste of en- 
ergy. 

ISiere is one phase of the psychology of manual training which deserves 
special commentary. -ZEJsthetic training, through drawing properly 
taught, gives an educative effect of a far-reaching character as respects 
all of our industries. In it is also contained the solution of the economic 
problems that lie deep down under the manual training questions here 
considered. 

By proper instruction in drawing one must mean the cultivation of 
the hand and eye by the use of the pencil; but this is only the first 
and least important part; it is more manual and less mental than the 
second requisite, which is an instruction in the ideals of tasteful and 
decorative form, which should be taught in parallel lessons in connec- 
tion with the practical use of the pencil. 

Once trained to recognize the beautiful and graceful in form and ar- 
rangement, and to criticise all defects in this particular, the pupil has 
acquired a precious quality of mind, useful in every occupation and in 
every station in life, whether subaltern or directive. Culture in taste, 
such as drawing gives, fits all laborers for more lucratviek ^X^Xiwi^ ^j>s>l^ 



132 PROCEEDINGS — ^DEPARTMENT OP SUPERINTENDENCE. 

helps our industries by giving our commerce a firm hold on the mar- 
kets of the world. Not merely wood and metal- work profits by this cul- 
tivation in taste, but all manufactures, whether of food, clothing, or 
shelter. 

The educative effect of art is also ennobling, for it leads to the pref- 
erence of an ideal which is not a selfish one. 

If we could see in the Slojd training a more prominent place offered 
to art studies^ we could predict with so:ne certainty the rise of Sweden 
from tlie low rank she holds among manufacturing nations. Instead 
of furnishing raw material to other nations — she sends us pig and scrap 
iron and rags^ — she would begin to send out finished goods, such as Bel- 
gium and France have sent out for a long time, and such as England 
has sent out since the founding of the South Kensington Museum. 

However this may bo, it is pleasant to record the fact that American 
manual training schools give far more attention to the study of draw- 
ing, although perhaps not enough to the analysis and discussion of the 
forms of ornament and free design, or, in other words, to the theory of 
art. 

Whether manual training schools shall develop into industrial schools 
for the training of apprentices to the several trades, or, on the other 
hand, become incorporated into the school system as a general disci- 
Inline, depends, of course, upon the answer which educational psychology 
finally gives to the question. 

1 In the Slojd work it is stated that the chief tool used is the jack-knife, thongh it 
is the object of the training schools of Sweden to secure skill in the use of other tools. 
The political economist can not commend the encouragement of home manufacture 
of knick-knacks, though he may admit that it is better than sheer idleness during 
the winter months. Far better would be the introduction of manufactures requir- 
ing skilled aud combined labor that would draw the peasants into vUlages, as oui 
own manufacturing establishments have done. To some extent work can be given 
out by the large manufacturers to the families of the rural population, as, for exam- 
ple, as is done here with the manufacture of clothing; and such work is found far 
more profitable than knick-knacks, especially when the latter are not made of grace- 
ful patterns or from tasteful designs. 

"In the ofiQcial report of Commerce and Navigation of the United States for 1881 
the imports from Sweden and Norway are reported as — pig iron, $111,176; bar iron, 
$517,959; old and scrap iron, $114,883; total, $744,018. But of manufactures of 
iron and steel only $111,749 are reported. It is surprising to note that we imported 
wood manufactures from them only to the small amount of $137, while we imported 
rags for paper manufacture to the amount of $39,090, but no manufactured clothing 
to speak of. The same year Belgium sent us wood manufactures to the value of 
$118,146, or nearly one thousand times the value of the same item from Sweden and 
Norway. (See pp. 43, 59, 60, 63, 78, 79.) 



MANUAL TRAINING. 133 



TO WHAT EXTENT AND HOW CAN MANUAL TRAINING 
BE INTRODUCED INTO UNGRADED SCHOOLS ! 

By Jeeome Allen, Ph. D., 

ProfeBB<yr of Pedagogy in the University of the City of New TorJc. 

If by "manual training'' we are to follow the definition of Dr. E. E. 
White, viz, tliat " no school work should have this name that does not 
make manual skill or other manual result a direct end," then I should 
say that manual training has but little claim to recognition by the un- 
graded school teachers. But if we take the definition formulated by 
Dr. Butler, and adopted by the New Jersey council of education, I 
think we shall find that there is a place, and a very important and 
necessary place, for it in all the schools of our country. Manual train- 
ing is by them defined as " training in thought-expression by other 
means than gesture and verbal language, in such a carefully graded 
course of study as shall also provide adequate training for the judg- 
ment and the executive faculty.'' The council also says that this will 
necessarily include drawing and constructive work, although it does 
not determine by what special means this instruction may best be given. 
The manual training movement does not mean a trade school move- 
ment, neither does it mean that pupils shall learn to do things that may 
fit them better to enter a certain occupation. If Sir Philip Magnus' 
definition is to be accepted, that " manual training means exercise in 
the- use of tools employed in working in wood and iron," then manual 
training has little or no place in any ungraded school. Drawing has 
been understood to be included in manual training exercises, and the 
kindergarten employments have also been so classified, as we think, 
most correctly. 

The first question to discuss is, do pupils in our ungraded schools 
need " training in thought-expression by other means than gesture and 
verbal language?" In other words, is the course of study usually 
followed in our ungraded schools sufficient to produce the best manhood 
and womanhood ! Is anything omitted that ought to be attended to, 
an'd is anything attended to that ought to be omitted ? Let us then 
inquire what constitutes a good education I 

This question is fundamental, and here we find the definition of edu- 
cation as the equable development or training of all the mental, moral, 
and physical human powers, quite universally accepted. Taking this 
as a basis we also take another statement as universally accepted, viz, 
that we have no means of touching the mind or of knowing its opera- 
tions, except by means of the senses, and that when all of the senses 
are brought into their fullest exercise and made to do their work cor- 
rectly and rapidly, the mind is in a condition to grow in breadth, power, 
and quickness. 



134 PROCEEDINGS — ^DEPARTMENT OP SUPERINTENDENCE. 

ESSENTIALS OF A GOOD EDUCATION. 

I will proceed to formulate the points which seeni to be essential to a 
good education. 

Ill addition to a knowledge of the three R's, all pupils should know 
something about drawing; theyshouldbesuppliedwithlead pencils, com- 
passes, divided rulers, and other articles to draw li nes of a definite length 
and circles of a given diameter, triangles, pocket knives, scissors, heavy 
manilla paper, card-board, paste, equilateral triangles, triangles whose 
sides are three inches, five inches, triangles of different sizes and shapes, 
cut out of card-board with scissors and knives to erect perpendiculars 
from different points of a line and let them fall from points without the 
line. They should construct squares of different sizes and cut them out 
of card-board or other material, and also form ail the simple geometrical 
plane figures by cutting them out of suitable substances. All this work 
could be carried on without immediate class direction. From this work 
pupils should be led to discover many of the facts of geometry, as that 
the angles of an equilateral triangle are equal; that the three angles of 
a triangle are equal to two right angles, etc. Also glimpses may be 
given of the relation of geometry to trigonometry, as well as to many 
of the concerns of life. A little instruction should be given in free- 
hand drawing, but we believe that this work is not as important to the 
child in its bearings on after life as the course just outlined, although 
free-hand drawing might be taught all the pupils, and those who showed 
special skill in executing designs might be encouraged to proceed; and 
yet it would not be best, neither is it necessary to introduce into our un- 
graded schools any extended work in free-hand execution. 

In addition to exact geometrical drawing there should be moulding. 
The power of making things useful and beautiful cannot be very well 
overestimated as an intellectual stimulus. Clay can easily be used 
when tempered and rolled into sheets, and in many ways it can give an 
impulse to the constructive faculty, and many ornamental and some 
useful articles can easily be whittled out from such clay with a knife. 
Wood can be fashioned by pupils into interesting and valuable objects. 
A bench in one comer of an ungraded district school would produce no 
confusion. I am well aware that many would look with a sort of horror 
upon the introduction of a work-bench into a country district school, and 
exclaim, Procul, proeul este^ profani ! But it is a fact, nevertheless, 
that the saw and plane and auger and scroll-saw and some other sim- 
l)le tools with a work-bench may be made the means of powerftil intel- 
lectual stimulus ; and even though pupils should be working at the 
bench in school hours no one need to be troubled thereby. 

The true teacher alms to develop the whole boy and the whole girl, 
and boys and girls can be better stimulated into mental action by means 
of hand, eye, and ear work, than by. the conventional methods laid down 
in the stereotyped programme.^ 

^Soe article on Manual Training in Country Schools, by Henry R. Bussell, in the 
Beport of the N, J. Coanoii of Education. 



kANUAt TRAINING. 135 

KINDEROARTEN PUBLIC SCHOOL WORK. 

The time has passed for an apology for kindergarten methods. Teach- 
ers everywhere bear witness to their excellence, and thus to their neces- 
sity. This shows the regard we should give to them. No one who has 
ever given the kindergarten a fair trial has failed to become enthu- 
siastic over its results. The gifts, the games, the songs, the home-like 
charms, and above all its heart culture, make it the best physical, men- 
tal, and moral gymnasium ever devHsed for young children. But when 
we come to the seventh year of age we reach the dead wall, as far as 
kindergarten is concerned, so that the question of importance for the 
public school teacher is, not whether the kindergarten is a success and 
a necessity, but whether it can be introduced into our ungraded country 
schools. Any one who has had an experience of a child's first day in 
a rural school need not be reminded what it is. The infants sit and 
look and squirm and often cry, as though brought into a world not 
altogether suited to their young tastes. Mr. Sinclair says that he asked 
a little girl if she could tell him anything about an ox. Kot getting an 
answer, he asked a little boy whether he thought an ox was like a potato ? 
The astonishing answer came, " Yes, it is lots like a potato; it has eyes 
and a skin and a body." Now this child was not smarter than the aver- 
age child coming from our country homes. We have stultified the 
dawning power and growing mind of young children by our eternal ab's, 
eVs, and ub's, and by our everlasting drawling and droning over, " It- 
is-a-boy." 

If anything needs to be broken up into infinitesimal pieces and de- 
staroyedfrom the face of the earth, it is the humdrum, unnatural methods 
in use at this hour in ten thousand rural schools all over our country. 

A kindergarten table in the public school where the young child could 
be permitted to play, according to FroebePs idea of play, would be like 
the advent of a blessed angel to let up a cool and refreshing stream of 
water in a dry and thirsty desert. What joy would this table, with its 
beautiful games, and plays, and instruction, and development give to 
the tens of thousands of little boys and girls who are to-day sitting in 
blank amazement and unthinking despair at the new world they have 
been forced into, where native activities are repressed, and where little 
is real and interesting.^ 

A QUESTION ANSWERED. 

There are many intelligent parents who say, " Of what use are such 
studies as algebra and geometry to my sou, who intends to farm!'' 
These parents say that the extra number of studies crowded into 
our course of study keep back the development of their children in 
the right direction. Now, when a parent asks, " Of what use is this 

^See paper by S. B. Sinolair, Ph. B., read before the Proviucial Teachers' Associa- 
tioni Ontario, Angost, 1887. 



136 PROCEEDINGS — DEPARTMENT OP SUPERINTENDENCE. 

study to my child, lie never intends to use it in after life ?" are we to 
write this man down as a fool or a philosopher ? We believe that there 
is more' philosophy in this question than many are disposed to admit. 
Life is short 5 we can not master everything, and you must agree that of 
two studies which afford equally good mental gymnastics, that one which 
has in it the element of practical utility should be chosen. I disclaim 
all intention of utility or end, but I do claim, and I do not believe that 
ifc can be successfully contradicted, that there is philosophy and reason, 
and thus good practical common sense, in the opinions of ordinary 
thinking men and women; that the studies of the school should fit 
pupils, to some extent, for the work of after life.^ 

WHAT KIND OF PUPILS OUR SCHOOLS SHOULD TURN OUT. 

We do not want to turn our schools into factories for producing pupils 
who will crowd into the oversupplied and already overcrowded profes- 
sions, but we do want an education that will train the whole nature 'in 
such a way as to create in the mind of the country boy and of the coun- 
try girl the highest respect for the horny-handed sons of toil, the highest 
respect for the men and the women of our country who earn their bread 
\}j the sweat of the brow. The truth is, that the spirit of our country 
schools has led thousands of country boys and country girls to enter 
the academy, and perhaps go through college, and return out of sym- 
pathy with the surroundings in which the early part of their lives was 
spent. It should not be considered degrading for the leading scholar 
of his class in college or the best scholar in the academy to return and 
work upon the farm or in the kitchen. How comes it that at the pres- 
ent time we have but a small minority who keep the ideal of the dignity 
of work in their minds at the close of a course of study? It is because 
our common-school work tends to divorce education from labor, and 
leads the boys and the girls of our country to realize that there is an 
aristocratic class, and that this class is the educated class. The stout, 
hard-working, rosy-cheeked girl, who comes into the district school and 
proves her keen intellect and sure judgment, is told by the teacher, 
'' You are fit for something above washing dishes and mending stock- 
ings. Go to college; do something worthy of your native talents.^ 
And when this strong, large-hearted, well-developed, rosy-cheeked, mag- 
nificent girl comes back from her college course, she is the pale-faced 
lady, stayed up by the artificial corsets of aristocracy, receiving her pa- 
trons in the parlor, conning over her Latin and her Greek, and never 
deigning to help the mother in washing the dishes, paring the potatoes, 
or mending the clothes of the younger children. You knowthis is true, 
if you know anything at all about the history of thousands of girls who 
have graduated from our highest institutions of idd^rning. 

The divorce that took place in this girl's mind between the dignity of 

1 See paper read by A. G. McKay, W. Gray Teachers' Association, Owon Soand, Octo- 
ber 5, 1868. 



♦ MANUAL TRAINING. 137 

home toil and her new ideal of the work of life, commenced when she 
attended the district schoo}. What we want from the very commence- 
ment of education is the careful conserving and cultivating the ideal of 
the dignity of labor, and this can be done by manual training as we 
understand manual training to be. 

OUR COURSES OF STUDY OVERCROWDED. 

But it is said that our course of study is altogether overcrowded, that 
there is no time in the ordinary district school for anything more. I 
grant it, if the curriculum is to remain in the future as it has been in 
the past. And here I wish to quote some authority to show what can 
be omitted. The first is Mr. A. E. Frye, who says that fully three- 
fourths of precious time in school work is thrown away. For what time 
is more precious than the few years of school life between seven and 
twelve t You cannot sit hero on these benches indifferent to this waste- 
fulness of this precious time. If Mr. Frye can be believed, what pun- 
ishment should be inflicted upon you, superintendents of schools, who 
require pupils and teachers to waste three-fourths of jtheir time in use- 
less work! But here are the items in the geography count, as given 
by Mr. Frye : 

1. Book definitions of natural forms of land and water. 

2. Heights of mountain peaks and ranges ; lengths of rivers ; names of unimportant 
peaks, ranges, rivers, capes, peninsulas, etc. 

3. Answers to the countless text and map questions, which the teachers neither 
know nor care to know. 

4. All details of relief that do not affect the general rainfall and drainage ; and all 
details of coast lines which do not affect climate, or are of no commercial importance. 

5. AU systems of *' construction lines" which are not discovered (by the pupils) in 
the general directions of coast lines, or in the trends of highlands. 

G. Lists of products --export and import — except those of cAie/' commercial value. 

7. Names of the hundreds of towns and cities which are not of commercial, capital, 
or historical importance. 

8. Area of countries, states, and groups of states, together with exact political 
boundaries of the same. 

9. Population of cities and countries, and statistics of races, governments, and re- 
ligions denominations. 

10. AU knowledge that is poured in merely for examinations, and which the pupil 
is not expected to remember after he leaves school. 

Well, now, this will do for geography, but how about the other sub- 
jects ! I wiU introduce Mr. George H. Martin, agent of the Massachu- 
setts State Board of Education, who certainly has a right to be heard, 
and you certainly must respect what Mr. Martin says, especially com- 
ing from so immovable a State as the one in which the conservative 
president of the National Educational Association lives. 

His text is concerning grammar, and his sermon hits some of our old 
grammatical cranks — among whom, I am sorry to say, I must class some 
superintendents of schools — who still persist, in spite of reason and 
sense, in requiring parsing and diagramming to be taught in the schools 



138 PROCEEDINGS — ^DEPARTMENT OF SUPERINTENDENCE. 

under their care. 1 trust these individuals will hear what Mr. Martin 
says touching it, and take comfort thereby. It will do them good. 
Mr. Martin says : 

Some work in theoretical English is included in nearly all the courses of study, but 
the teachers have lost faith in it, and few of them teach ir. con amore. For most of 
the pupils the limit of attainments would be as follows: They can distinguish the 
kind of sentences and analyze complex ones, if the relations are not very obscure ; 
they can distinguish the parts of speech as ordiuarily used, and describe them so far 
as to teU the number and 'case of nouns and pronouns, the tense of verbs, and the 
degree of adjectives ; they are shaky on participles and infinitives; they can explain 
a simple case of agreement between a verb and subject, and the use of the nomina- 
tive as subject and the objective after the preposition and as direct object of the 
verb. In a few schools the pupils can go beyond this. The pupils have little i>ower 
to use their knowledge of grammar to determine whether sentences are correct or not, 
depending for this chiefly upon sound, and, as experiment shows, being as likely to 
judge wrong as right, except in the case of very obvious errors. Few of the schools 
give time enough to this part of the work to secure the necessary training. Whether 
the training itself is worth what it would cost to got it is another question. It is 
also a question whether it is best to teach grammar at all, unless it is carried far 
enough to obtain this practical end 

OOXJNTBY SCHOOLS HAVE ENOUaH OF MANUAL TRAINING. 

Bnt I meet another objection. There are many who say the country 
schools have enough of manual training. The city schools may need* 
this exercise in order to develop the body; but what folly is it to advo- 
cate that the country boy or the country girl should go into the school 
for the purpose of developing his or her body. I think I have suffi- 
ciently shown that manual training does not consist of gymnastic exer- 
cises ; neither is it claimed in this paper that it is for the purpose of 
rendering the hand more skilful, but for the purpose of making all the 
senses acute, sharp, that thereby there may be the rounded, full, com- 
plete, and perfect manhood and womanhood. But it is a delusion and 
a snare that the majority of the men who grow up in out-door work in 
our country places are Apollos, or that all the young women who come 
out of our country farm-houses are Yenuses. 

I do not think that all the country girls are slouches, or all the coun- 
try boys are gawks, for there are many eminent exceptions. Our besfc 
manhood and our best womanhood come from the country 5 but the 
culture — by this I mean the knowledge of the ordinary proprieties of 
life, in standing, sitting, dressing, riding, walking, and even sleeping — is 
found in the well-to-do families of our country places where there has 
been intercourse with the rest of the world, and where the children 
have had the opportunity of knowing what the ideals of the best part 
of the world are. But the majority attending our country schools are 
shut up to what they see and learn within a few miles of the place 
where they were born and where they are foreordained to live. These 
ideals become in a few years crystallized, and their after lives are only 
the prolongation of the circumstances of their early years. The coun- 



MANUAL TRAINING. 139 

try gawky boy becomes the slovenly, uncouth, one-sided farmer man, 
and the country slouch of a girl becomes the wife of this man, and they 
two are well mated and their children are like them. Thus the evil is 
perpetuated. What we want to do is to touch the country life in the 
place where it needs touching, and lift it, bringing it up, and impressing 
upon the minds of children higher ideals of living, speaking, acting, 
dressing, and eating than they have hitherto enjoyed 5 and manual 
training in its broadest sense, such as I endeavored to give it in this 
paper, will bring about this desired result, and nothing else will. 

WHAT COUNTRY SCHOOLS NEED. 

We want, then, to weed out from the country -school all its nonsense 
and in it put sound sense. History tells us that the intelligence of the 
world has found its centre of influence in our towns and cities. There 
are the libraries, there are the lectures, there are the churches of cult- 
ure and power, there are the social gatherings of intelligence. 

Kow, what we need is to extend this good influence into the rural 
districts, and it can only be done through the public school. Granted, 
for the sake of argument, that the church is the great centre of culture 
and uplifting in the world, I have simply to refer you to the fact that 
the church in tens of thousands of places does not reach the country 
district community. The many who do not attend church from . the 
country districts are far in the majority over those who do attend. The 
stay-at-homes among farmers on Sunday are the rules and not the ex- 
ceptions. Shut up, then, in their narrow surroundings, they grow to 
maturity with the ideals of the country intensified by no higher ideals 
than the district school teaches. Touch the district school with some up- 
lifting power, give it the spirit and the life and the animation and the 
force and the virtue that comes from this new education, and the desert 
Will bloom and blossom as the rose ; joy and gladness, intellect and 
culture, will be seen where before there was the tame monotone of hum-' 
drum repetition. 

WHAT THE COUNTRY BOY NiEEDS. 

If it is true that in our city schools little attention has been paid to 
the wants of the individual child, and great attention to fashioning and 
shaping him to courses of study, it is also true in the district school. 
The ordinary country boy learns more of real life, and thus gets more 
of real education, at base-ball and managing horses and the plough, and 
using the hoe and the reaper, and in hunting and fishing than inside of 
school doors. But what it is now proposed to do is to bring some of 
this outside real education inside the school-house. 

The country boy knows what is round, smooth, hard, and qualities 
and properties, but he is utterly unable to describe a cube, a sphere, or 
a rectangle. This new education takes the child, with what he knows 
when he goes to school, and utilizes these activities a^ tJ;vfe %tax^^sl^i, 



140 PKOCEEDINGS — DEPAKTMENT OF SUPERINTENDENCE. 

point. It defines and strengthens his powers of observation, and shows 
him how to describe and use what he perceives. It causes him to have 
powers of condensation, and to abstract himself from what is going on 
about him. It leads him to exercise his thinking faculties far more 
effectively than by memorizing a lesson which he does not comprehend. 
It puts him in the attitude of a discoverer, closely to observe things 
around him and regard the results of his observations. He not only 
sees faces, cubes, triangles, prisms, curved surfaces, but he also observes 
the sap in the trees, the bark, the wood, the different kinds of plants, 
their stems, leaves, roots, blossoms. The fields to him become instinct 
with life. He knocks upon the rocks to find in them a crystal or a fos- 
sil. His mind goes forward in thinking of improvements in a hundred 
arts that come to his notice, and goes backward before the time when 
human history commenced, to study the eras through which the world has 
passed by means of the rocks on his father's farm. As he becomes ob- 
serving he becomes talkative, and anxious to show others, by drawing 
as well as by speaking, the thoughts of his mind. His activities are 
aroused, the power of thinking progresses with equal step with his 
powers of observation and expression ; he takes in the world as a cit- 
izen of it and not as a denizen of the old farm-house, circumscribed by 
the limited view he can get from his father's acres. This enlarged 
thought by means of observation and inductive reasoning is not new; 
that grand old man who sat at the feet of Socrates and drank in wisdom 
from the immortal lips that spake as never uninspired man spake be- 
fore or since — this old man Plato, who brought the idea of Greek edu- 
cation up to its highest and most beautiful fruitage, clearly taught the 
essential principles of the manual training of to-day. The Greeks re- 
ceived the impulse that made the men and the women of the age of Peri- 
cles the best developed and the most beautiful of any men and women 
the world has ever seen. Add to the immortal truths of this old phi- 
losopher the grand inspirations of our Christian civilization, give to 
the old thinkers the power of speaking to us at our height, and imi^rcss- 
ing us in our time with Iho grandeur of their thoughts, and the schol- 
ars that go forth from our schools will be kings and queens among the 
inhabitants of this world. There is no fiction here, as some will tell yoa 
after this address is closed ; there is no ihetoric that cannot be substan- 
tiated by the history of the past. Ko man on this floor will dare to say 
that the equable development of the whole human being is not the 
grandest work in which any person can engage, and no one will dare to 
deny that in the development of this man, soul, body, and mind, there 
must come in forces to make quick and accurate the action of all the 
senses, and bring to its highest development the hearing, the seeing, 
the smelling, the taste, and the feeling, so that the man may receive 
and give impressions both accurately and rapidly, and that the thinking 
machine within us may work up the objects of sense-perception into 
highest objects of thought-production. 



MANUAL TRAINING. 141 

The object of ednoation is to fit yonth for future oitizensliip, and the practical 
question is ''Are we getting the desired result at a reasonable caett^' It is not infre- 
quently charged that there were too mauy studies, and that new ones only served to 
dissipate the time, energies, and powers of the pupils. In reply to that, we must 
recognize that the school is to become the key to useful life. New studios proceed 
not only £rom the increased and increasing demands of modem life, but also from the 
notable discovery of the child's true place in the social fabric. It is proposed nuw 
to bring some outside education inside the school doors. Every American boy knows 
at six years of age what a base-ball is. Ho can tell that it is round, smooth, bard, 
though he cannot call it a sphere. So with a block. He knows its qualities, though 
he cannot describe a rectangle or a cube. The now education takes the child at what 
he knows when he appears first at the school, and simply utilizes his activities as the 
Btlurting point. By a regular system it defines and strengthens his powers of obser- 
vation, and shows him how to describe what he perceives. The pupiFs memory is 
not equal to his teacher's. He is weak in powers of coudensation, aud cannot ab- 
stract himself from recognition of what is going on about him. Connect his outsicle 
life with instruction, show him that the ball is a sphere, that it will roll, is smooth 
and uniform; that a cube has six sides, and you at once connect his aroused interest 
T^ith study. Then he is put on a voyage of discovery, and by observation he per- 
ceives how the faces of cubes, triangular prisms, and curved surfaces differ. This 
leads to capacity of expression, of drawing what he cannot express in words. Thus 
he becomes as anxious to draw as to talk. This action of discernment and expres- 
sion leads to thought, and the pupil, having gained a knowledge of primitive forms 
and derivatives from the faces of solids, essays to reproduce in clay ; aud, by groups 
of his productions, learns the rudiments of design. Thus employment is gLvcu to his 
activity ; his power of thinking progresses with equal step, for he cannot (Study, in 
this way, without thought.^ 

WHAT WOEK IN DRAWING DOES. 

To show what work in drawing is I quote from a description of the 
recent exhibition given and published under the direction of Superin- 
tendent 0, B. Moloney, in the Somerville (Mass.) Journal of December 
22. The method is so clearly presented here that it seems to me the 
best that can be shown under this branch of manual training. 

Observation is strengthened and developed into habit by handling, seeing, aud 
examiniog models and objects, that the pupils may recoguize what they see. They 
are trained to express what they observe by making figures representing the models 
of objects, by accurate drawing of the same, and careful language of description. 
Instruction commences with the forms of the sphere, the cube, and the cylinder. By 
means of tablets cut from stout paper the children are taught the essential shape of 
planes; after which they are taught to combine forms into designs. Having x^ro- 
gressed satisfactorily, the element of color is next taught, first, in masses of Iho 
primaries, then in halves, thirds, fourths, etc., of each, till shades are not only truly 
received and comprehended, but actually fixed in the mind. Children readily form de- 
signs and compositions by colored strips, showing an aptitude beyond the power of the 
pencil to secure. The Ideality is aroused without tho incumbrance of first learning 
how to hold the pencU and to overcome its native instability. All can paste and 
fasten, while only a few can draw, at so early an age. 

As in drawing and coloring, so in modelling in clay, form is studied from primatives 
by infant classes. Objects in common life, domestic utensils, school implements, the 
large ones in miniature, are produced with marvellous capacity, showing how accurate 

^i^^^^^^^^— ^i^M^^^^» Ml ■■■■III I ■■ I ■ I I — .^^^i^^^^i^— — ^^1^1^ — ■ ■■ ,^m I ■■■■■» ■!! ■■ ^m m^%m 

> See remarks of John H. Clark, Somerville, Mass., December 20, 1888. 



142 PROCEEDINGS — DEPARTMENT OP SUPERINTENDENCE. 

the eyo becomes when trained np under so comprehensive a system from the start. 
Indeed, symmetry is perhaps more obvious and apparent to the nascent mind in clay 
than in plane drawing, inasmuch as the different planes of relief assist in developing 
the image in the mind. These clay efforts, after baking, become imperishable ; if 
preserved from breakage, they are immortal. The stndy of color, from the first ac- 
quaintance with the primaries to the charming results obtained by forms and shapes 
cat in sheets of one shade and displayed over different shades, gave satisfactory re- 
sults in harmony. They exhibited the spirit of oil painting. 

In the advanced classes the instruction proceeds under three distinct grades of 
drawing, viz: 

First. Construction, which is at the foundation of the work and represents the facte 
of form. The term '* construction" is used to indicate drawings from which forms 
are constructed, such as working drawings, machine drawings, and architectural plana, 
all of which were exhibited. The actual construction is done in a system of manual 
training. 

Second. Representation, which includes the drawing of objects as they appear. This 
includes perspective, object drawing, charcoal sketching, light and shade, water- 
color, landscape, etc., specimens of which were to be seen. 

Third. Decoration, which includes forms of symmetry and design. This department 
included in the primary work-tablets, paper-folding and paper-cutting, borders, and 
mats, etc. In the grammar grades, conventionalizing of plant forms, patterns for 
surface coverings, decoration of furniture, plate, and other works of art — culminating 
in choice specimens of historic and classic ornament in color— India-ink and charcoiJ 
sketches. 

OUR BEST METHODS OWE THEIR EXCELLENCE TO MANUAL TBAIN- 

INa INFLUENCES. 

We can not be oblivious to the fact that the wave of thought started 
by Eatichf Comenius, and Bousseau, and intensified by Pestalozzi and 
Froebel, is beginning to bear fruit of a most beneficial kind. These 
men thought as few men had ever thought before their time ; and the kin- 
dergarten movement, the drawing and form-study movement, the object 
ive methods of teaching history, geography, number, and language, 
and the manual training movement, all trace their impetus to the labors 
and thoughts of these great men. Today the best methods in all the 
studies of our schools receive their greatest impulse from manual train- 
ing exercises connect-ed with them. The teacher who is hearing lessons 
from the text-book in geography without sand, plaster, salt, dough, 
putty, wood, cloth, leather, or who is not using all sorts of objects in her 
school-room for the purpose of teaching her subjects, is from away back 
from some antediluvian time ; and the teacher who does not accompany 
all exercises in her school with drawing, not for the sake of the work 
done but for the purpose of perfecting and developing the representa- 
tive faculty, is also living yet in a dark educational age. Plant studies, 
animal studies, mineral studies, and the drawing of forms and all sorts 
of graphic exercises are inseparable features of school work, and it is 
because these features are not found in a majority of our country dis- 
trict schools that we urge that there should be a reconstruction in their 
methods of teaching. Models are at hand, not only in the making of 
maps and charts and tables, but in many directions which there is not 



MANUAL TRAINING. 143 

1 

space in this paper to describe, for the purpose of teaching history, and 
from time immemorial, even back to the early period of Chinese civili- 
zation, apparatus has been used in studying arithmetic. The abacus 
is the oldest arithmetical appliance of which we have any knowledge. 
The child never learns to appreciate arithmetical work until by hand- 
ling, cutting, and making forms, fractions, and measurements. A hun- 
dred practical problems are worked out by the use of tools. 

And what shall we say concerning the use made of things in study- 
ing the sciencesf By what word in the modern or ancient languages 
shall we designate that teacher who attempts to cram the facts of chem- 
istry or physics into the memories of pupils without apparatus? A 
chemistry or a natural philosophy without experiments is as abnor- 
mal a thing as a man without a head or a Christian without a creed. 
And yet I am told on good authority that there are thousands of 
country and village schools in which chemistry and philosophy and text- 
books are "recited" from beginning to end without the show of any 
apparatus of any kind, either bought from the city manufacturers or 
made by the hands of the teachers or pupils. You know, gentlemen, 
whether this is a fact or not ; you have the means of determining as no 
others have. I appeal to you whether this is the case ? If it is, some- 
thing should be done; and, as we have defined manual training, it is 
the manual training thing that should be done. Stop the nonsense of 
memoHter recitations in history, geography, elementary chemistry, and 
physics, and arithmetic, and go at the work of developing according to 
the eternal laws of human nature by the methods of manual training 
work. 

CONSOLIDATINa AND COORDINATINa VAEIOTJS STUDIES. 

Time can be saved in school work by consolidating or co-ordinating 
the various branches of study. Supt. Thomas M. Balliet, of Springfield, 
Mass., in a recent report before the Massachusetts State Teachers' Asso- 
ciation, shows clearly that we are repeating in teaching, e. ^., the sphere is 
nsed in primary work ; in geometry we take it up again and analyze it 
more fully and study the relations of its parts ; and then in mathemat- 
ical geography we study it again in studying the motions of the earth, 
latitude, longitude, the tropics, the zones, etc. Then again in arithme- 
tic the same subject is studied when teaching the topics of longitude 
and time. It is a fact that work could be more unified and made more 
scientifically thorough by uniting correlated subjects more intimately 
than they have been in the past. Again, we have divorced history 
from geography, whereas all authors on geography and history claim 
that the two are inseparable. Superintendent Balliet remarks in his 
paper that " the two subjects can and ought to be largely taught to- 
gether,'^ and also that history, if properly taught, will be found the best 
means of teaching civics. Another point upon which economy can be 
exercised is in teaching the language work, as far as the \sv.o\k^\. Ws^^;^<^ 



144 PROCEEDINGS — DEPARTMENT OF SUPERINTENDENCE. 

is concerned. If we should make language the means of thought de- 
velopment, we would save a great deal of time and obtain the best re- 
sults possible. Mr. Balliet remarks that all language work, as far as 
the mother tongue is concerned, should be done lu connection witli the 
expression of tliouglit for the sake of the thought^ and not for the sake of 
the language. By teaching language studies with the " thought '^ 
studies much valuable time may be saved and ample room found for 
the introduction into our schools of work of the most practical charac- 
ter, for which now there seems to be no place. I am safe in saying that 
nothing Detter than this has ever been said in any address. It hits 
exactly and squarely the nail on the head, and our superintendents who 
are wondering how our schools may be improved can gain a hint here 
that will be of inestimable value in their work. 

It is always helpful to refer to results of work done under unfavor- 
able circumstances, and for this purpose I beg leave to call your atten- 
tion to certain reports of manual training work accomplished during 
the past year in the grammar schools of New York City, containing 
pupils entirely from the Fourth and Sixth wards. These reports include 
two excellent principals, Benry P. O'Neil and Hugh P. 0'!N"eil.^ These 
gentlemen have had long experience in training boys, and have been 
and are conservative in their modes of thought. The work that they 
introduced was at first experimental, and yet it was entered upon with 
a spirit of sincerity and earnestness. They gave the methods intro- 
duced the best opportunity they could have under the circumstances 
with which they were surrounded. It is not saying too much when we 
affirm that what these gentlemen did could be done in any school in 
our land and with the same beneficial results. 

WHERE CAN THE TEACHERS BE OBTAINED? 

But the question wjll occur to you, where are the teachers to be ob- 
tained to do this work outlined ? I doubt not many ofyou will say our 
ungraded schools would be far better than they are provided the teach- 
ers were better than they are, and that the excellent results claimed 
for manual training in the country school would be found in any school 
under the inspiration and encouragement of a thoroughly qualified and 
enthusiastic teacher. I agree in the main with this opinion. But you 
must recognize tbe fact that teaching now is not an occupation to be 
taken up by any girl in her teens who can read, write, and cipher in a 
decent manner 5 something more is demanded, and this something is 
special training. The country school of a dozen scholars down in Sleepy 
Hollow, in Hard Scrabble district, where the people are as poor as pov- 
erty and as wicked as sin, needs the best kind of a teacher, and it will 
pay in ten thousand directions to put the very best trained teacher 
possible over the school in which there is but a score of scholars, for 

' For extracts from theso reports, as well as from Supenntendent BaUiet's report, 
referred to above, and others, see pp. 146-152. 



MANUAL TRAININQ. 145 

out of that school may come one man in a generation who will uplift 
his country to a higher level, either politically, morally, or religiously. 
It pays to put good teaching ability in the very poorest and meanest 
school in all this broad land. 

But how shall this teacher learn her business f She is poor, circum- 
stances are such that she can not go very far from home, besides her 
poverty, and unless the instruction is brought within her reach she will 
not avail herself of it. If the city cannot be brought to the elephant, 
then let the elephant go to the city. We must bring normal instruction 
into every county. Our great normal colleges are doing excellent work, 
but the universal verdict is, they do not touch the ungraded district 
school. Tou know this to be a fact ; statistics abundantly prove rt. I 
will not stop here to name them. It is especially true in the Empire 
State, where we are magnificently endowed and magnificently equipped 
with ten nornjal colleges, no one of which expends less than twenty 
thousand dollars each year, and some of them receive special appro- 
priations of from twenty to fifty thousand dollars from time to time as 
their needs may demand. I say, in the Empire State, with all of this 
equipment, the normal schools only here and there touch the ungraded 
schools, and but a fraction of one per cent, of those from the normal 
colleges teach for any length of time in the ungraded schools of our 
State, so that with the present constitution of the normal schools it is 
out of the question to rely upon them to furnish trained teachers for 
the district schools. We must have county normal institutes. By a 
normal institute I do not mean a temporary high school, in which these 
teachers may be taught how to read and to write and cipher, or in which 
a knowledge of the elementary branches may be drilled into them ; 
I do not mean schools established for the purpose of preparation for a 
textbook examination. We have enough of these ; our high schools 
and academies are so common and so near together in all parts of our 
land that there is no excuse for any teacher not being prepared in the 
knowledge of the technicalities of ordinary text-book work. Make our 
institutes purely schools of method, where the teachers can learn by 
actual practice how to do things, be shown the ways of teaching, and, 
as far as possible, learn the elements of the philosophy of education, 
psychology, and the methodology of education. 

In this school let there be no drill in textbooks, no examinations, but 
only methods, and these of the best kind. There are ten thousand teach- 
ers all over our country who are following on in the beaten track of 
their fore-teachers ; they do what they have seen done, and those who 
come after them will do the same. The county superintendents are 
powerless to effect much reform ; they can make a few hints and sug- 
gest a few changes, and examine in text-book work, but they are unable 
to lift teachers to a higher plane ; at least, if they are able to, they have 
not done it to any great extent. What we need is something that will 
toaoh the ungraded school teacher and show her what real teaQbixi^ y^% 
882^No. '2 10 



146 PEOCEEDINGS — DEPARTMENT OF SUPERINTENDENCE. 

show her how her work may be made of such nature as to enlarge the 
character of the children, inspiring the boys and girls under her care 
with the true spirit of education. 

OONOLUSION. 

This is no fiction of the imagination ; it is no ideal arrangement that 
might be adopted in Utopia. The fact is, that all the good that has 
been done in education so far has not been done by those who have been 
sitting up late at night and getting up early in the morning for the pur- 
pose of cramming their poor heads with the dates of history, or the 
rules of arithmetic, the names of the contents and materials of the body, 
and the facts of elementary science. These are important. I would not 
undervalue their importance. I would give them their proper place, and 
a very important place, in the preparation of the teacher j but let them 
not be made an end, only the means to an end. In uplifting the teacher 
let her be shown the instruments at her command by which she can en- 
large the thought of her children, perfect their judgments, intensify 
and make correct their reasoning powers, and their observation, atten- 
tion, comparison, and expression, by means of the training of all the 
senses. 



TESTIMONY. 

Testimony referred to in the preceding paper hy Professor Allen on Manual Training In 

Ungraded Schools, 

HOW COURSES OF STUDY CAN BE SHORTENED. 
[From a report by Saperintendent Thomas M. Balliet, Springfield, Mass.] 

1. Co-ordination of studies. — The different stadies of the curriculum have many 
topics in common. Much time may he saved hy so co-ordinating these studies that 
such topics may be taught together and the pupil he made to realize their identity or 
connection. Mathematical geography, '^ longitude and time " in arithmetic, and the 
analysis of the sphere in the study of form should all be taught in connection with 
one another. Proportion, in arithmetic, should be taught in connection with the 
lever, the pulley, the inclined plane, etc., in physics. In like manner political geog- 
raphy (which is simply history in the process of making) and history ought to be 
brought closely together. These subjects can be taught together in almost the same 
amount of time usually required to teach each separately ; and thus not only valu- 
able time may be saved, but, what is of more importance, the pupil may be led to see 
related truths in their proper relations. 

2. Consolidation of studies, — In the curriculum of public schools there are found two 
classes of studies, — studies that famish the material of thought, and studies that fur- 
nish the symbols of thought. * 

Among the first are found color, form, number, natural history and science, geog- 
raphy, and history. The purpose of the study of color is to build up in the mind the 
element of color in its concepts; that of the study of form, to build up the ele- 
ment of form in these concepts ; and that of the study of number, the element of 
number. Natural history furnishes concepts of the mineral, vegetable, and animal 
world, which science afterwards analyzes, compares, and classifies, and diflCQveirs tl^Q 



MANUAL TEAINING. 147 

laws goveming their formation or their life and growth. Geography famishes the 
mind with concepts of the physical features of the earth, and traces the influence of 
these features on vegetahle and animal life and on the social and moral life of man ; 
whilst history furnishes it with concepts of the past social life of the race, and de- 
duces the laws governing the development of human life through its various stages 
of progress. 

These studies may be termed the thought studies of the common school course as 
found in the schools of to-day. 

The second class are the studies which deal only with the arbitrary symbols of 
thought, with language as the *^ instrument of thought and the medium of expres- 
sion." — (Brooks,) Oral language (including vocal culture, pronunciation, inflection, 
etc., as well as the grammatical structure of sentences) furnishes the oral symbols of 
thought ; reading, the written and printed symbols as means of thought getting ; 
and writing and spelling, the written symbols as means of thought expression. 

These two classes of studies differ radically in their nature—the one class furnish- 
ing the material, the other the mere arbitrary symbols of thought. They differ also 
radically as to the methods to be employed in teaching them. A concept, a thought, 
must be developed, and the process iA a slow one indeed. A word, the symbol for it, 
is acquired simply by a process of association. This association of symbol with 
thought is made most readily and with the least number of repetitions when the 
thought is accompanied with the greatest degree of interest. Interest is the hoat 
that hastens the process of mental soldering. Now, a concept or thought never after- 
wards arouses so great a degree of interest as it docs when clearly conceived or ap- 
prehended by the mind for the first time — when it is accompanied by the "joy of 
discovery." Thought, like certain substances in chemistry, combines most readily 
in its nascent state. The development of thought and the teaching of the correspond- 
ing symbols should, therefore, go together. 

Language can not be acquired by the study of rules of grammar. No person can 
either speak or write well who must consciously construct his sentences in accord- 
ance with grammatical rules. Language should be an unconscious habit, and the 
only means that can develop such habit is practice, guided by correct models and 
the friendly criticism of the teacher. Children should be required daily to discuss 
freely in class, and afterwards reproduce in writing, the substance of their lessous on 
such subjects as geography and history. Interesting reading matter should be fur- 
nished them on these subjects for the purpose of supplementary reading, the sub- 
stance of which they should be required to reproduce from day to day. Such rcpro- 
daction* would take the place of the ordinary " grinding " drill and the tedious 
reviews usually found necessary to impress the facts on the memory, and at the same 
time would furnish the very best, and certainly the most interesting, training in lan- 
guage. Pupils from the fourth grade up should be required to write in this way at 
least from half a page to two pages of foolscap daily. In this way they would not 
only form the habit of using language with grammatical accuracy, but (what is far 
more difficult) they would acquire the power of logically developing a theme, and of 
expressing themselves with fluency, freedom, and ease. 

Penmanship, spellfng, and what are commonly called "language lessons" should be 
taught in this manner mainly in connection with the other branches. The pupil must 
be trained to write well and to spell correctly when he is expressing his own thoughts, 
and not only when he is doing the work assigned for a special exercise in spelling and 
writing. The contrast between the spelling and penmanship of the regular spelling 
and writing lesson and that of the same pupil's composition exercise is in most cases 
very marked. Illustrations of this fact can be found in any of our schools, and it is 
due, not to unskilful teaching, but co the fact that writing and spelling are taught 
too much as separate studies. 

It will always be fouud necessary to give, occasionally, in every grade, separate cxer- 
Oises in writing and spelling, and in the lower grades a good many, but a&fox ujSk>£^x^\!L 



148 PROCEEDINGS — ^DEPABTMENT OP SUPERINTENDENCE, 

exercises are concerned, they ought to consist mainly, as far as concerns spelling, at 
least, of special drills ou the papil's mistakes in the composition exercises. 

It will he found that by thus teaching language in connection with the *' thoup^ht 
studies" of the curriculum there will not only be a saving of valuable time, but that 
language will be taught far more effectually than when taught as a separate branch. 
The amount of writing and spelling required when there is a daily exercise in com- 
position in connection with the lessons in geography, history, etc., will be so great 
that pupils will receive far more training in both than they could possibly receive 
when these subjects are taught as separate studies. The purpose, therefore, in com- 
bining, as far as possible, writing and spelling with other branches is not to slight 
these branches, but to teach them all the more thoroughly and effectively hy teaching 
iheni exactly as they must le practised or used in actual life— as means of thought eJ^res-- 
sion. 



MANUAL TRAINING APPLIED. 
fFrom a report of Hsnbt F.O'Nbil, principal Grammar School No. 1, Fonrth Ward, New York City.] 

The subject of " Mechanical Drawing " — including geometrical problems — required to 
he taught in all the grades, was begun under, I at first believed, serious disadvantage. 
The lesson that we learned from the work of the children is well worth, I believe, 
describing with some detail. 

It was necessary to thorough and effective work, on beginning this subject, — an 
ahsolutely new worJc in all the grades, that every class should start on the subject mat- 
ter assigned for the lowest, or eighth grammar grade, and pass to the next higher' 
along the line of the work of the several grades, as laid down in the manual, only 
after preceding grade-work had been intelligently completed. Farther, to quote 
from the manual : ''The applications of geometrical problems and the graphic solu- 
tions of the theorems require very accurate representation; hence the drawing is to he 
done hy mechanical means," 

For more than three months the only drawing instruments obtainable were the 
ordinary foot-ruler and lead pencil. Foreseeing this unavoidable delay in obtaining 
the necessary supply of proper instruments, I determined to supply the place of com- 
passes by using strings and pins. This was done by myself and teachers, however, 
with a great deal of trepidation as to the kind of work we would obtain. We cer- 
tainly anticipated that great effort would be needed to obtain from the most attentive 
pupils oven passable results ; and that all we could hope for would be the intelligent 
understanding by the pupils of the ideas to he conveyed, leaving aecuraoy of drawing 
oat of the question. 

From day to day we were amazed at the ardor of all the pupils, and at the heaufg 
and accuracy of the geometrical drawings, accomplished by even the youngest boys 
with pins for centers of circles and with strings for radii. You, sir, flaw some of the 
work and can vouch for a porfion of this statement. 

If I had needed argument or experience to make mo an advocate of what is called 
manual training, the results obtained in this way from the very youngest pupils, the 
Jceen delight taken by them in the doing of their work, their excessive, painstaking 
care shown and demanded under such disadvantage— wAic/t care and engrossed atten- 
tion could have spi-ung only from their feeling of delight in thdr work— the absolute free- 
dom on the part of the teacher, during these exercises, from the necessity of *' keeping 
order" — all these would have opened my eyes to the value of this change of methods 
in teaching; for that is really what this "innovation" really is. It is not, as some 
misunderstand, so much an introduction of new subjects to displace subjects previously 
taught, as a change of method in all subjects wherein the child can be permitted to use 
his activity of hand and eye in the doing of work conveying odacationai ideas to his 
brain. 



MANUAL TRAINING. 149 

If teoohoTS, who have not oxamined the sabject closely, could realize how valuable 
to us has been this change from a disciplinary standpoint alone ; if they could see^ 
as we do, that a large percentage of the expenditure of energy by the teacher now 
required in "keeping order" could be saved, and that their classes would become as 
eager to receive instruction and do the work required as the teacher is to impart it, 
the demand for the "new methods" would come from every section of the city. 

As one result of my five months' experience, and a result worthy, I believe, of 
bein^ emphasized, I find, after a cons^iltation with my teachersy that I can abolish the 
practice of " keeping in " after three o'clock for disciplinary purposes. 

Much of the supposed necessity for punishment of this kind arises from the use of 
methods which do not interest the child and against which the child's nature rebels. 
Why not, then, help ourselves by the use of methods to which the child takes natu- 
rally and readily, and thus avoid almost endless friction and loss of energy on the 
part of both teacher and pupil ? 

The work I speak of above and tho spirit evinced by the pupils were not confined 
to selected cases ; they were general ; in fact, boys with the previous reputation of 
being " troublesome," " uneasy," " restless," and " inattentive," showed in most in- 
stances the very best results. 

Id. the "workshop" — ^the logical continuation of the mechanical drawing- work — 
covering tho higher five of the eight grammar grades, there has not occurred a siugle 
instance of misbehavior needing even rebuke. 

Farther, working on the mechanical drawing with strings and pins for drawing 
instraments, as I have described, not only has the work in all other directions been 
fully and satisfactorily done, hut each class has accomplished in this subject tlie full work 
of all ike preceding grammar grades ; so that now, on beginning tho new term, each class 
wUl properly enter upon the work allotted to its particular grade. That is to say, for 
instance, the fourth grade class will take up the work in mechanical drawing be- 
longing to the fourth grade of that subject, having thoroughly covered the preceding 
four grades during last term; and so, in like manner, all the other classes in the 
department. And this, not because the Ipupils were at all "rushed" or "driven" 
by their teachers, but because the boys did the work with perfect ease and could not 
lehMlKieJc, 

And here is as good a place as any to say something of the teachers. 

"When the first proof sheets of the new manual reached us, somQ time before its 
publioation in book form, I cut them in slips so as to divide the grades and subjects ; 
and I distributed the slips among the teachers to be copied, as far as possible, sim- 
nltaneooaly, and thus avoid any loss of time. This had to be done so as to accom- 
modate the teachers of the male and female departments, as we had but one proof 
copy for both. This done, we met for consultation after school hours, as indeed be- 
eame onr almost weekly piractice during the term. At our first meeting the following 
remark was made in reference to the " mechanical drawing :" 

'* Why, this demands from the eighth grade alone work in geometry upon which 
girls have failed in normal college examinations! We'll never do it I" Of course, 
the reference was to such problems as, " Construct a triangle similar to -a given tri- 
angle ; " "divide a straight lino into any given number of equal parts ;" " construct 
a parallelogram w^en the angle and tho adjacent sides are given," etc. All found 
in the lowest grades. 

After the method of presentation of this work had been made clear, and the evident 
ease and delight of all the pupils in doing the work became manifest, of course this 
preliminary " scare" subsided. 

The work in " free-hand drawing," €«pcotaZZy »» the lower grades, has shown fully 
M snrprising results. The readiness with which, after a few weeks, the boys of the 
eighth, seventh, and sixth grades rapidly sketched objects set before them, each boy 
representing the object correctly as seen from his own position, was almost a rovola- 
tieo. The " kitchen " of the female department has famished us with a ^r^o^t ^%- 
. riety of familiar objects which we have freely naeil. The lac\» t\iaA> »VxL>uti& ^qxiti'^'e^ 



150 PROCEEDINGS — ^DEPARTMENT OP SUPERINTENDENCE. 

boys of these grades we have found a much greater facility than in the older boys 
of higl^or grades would seem to indicate great mistakes in our previous methods of 
teaching this subject. 

In the " workshop," too, this same feature was very striking ; the work done by the 
younger boys was, as a rule, the better. When, in time, wo shall receive from the 
primary departments promotions whose training shall have been founded upon the 
study of ^* form" and ** drawing " under the same system of modelling in clay, and 
drawing directly from the object, what additional agreeable surprises will manifest 
thenisolves none of us can as yet anticipate. 

Contrary to general expectation, I have found very few instances of accident 
occurring from the handling of sharp tools in the " workshop ;" and these few were 
trivial and n6|}lceably confined to the older boys. 

The essentials of geography have been better taught, especially the surface feat- 
ures, by means of modelling relief maps. 

[From a report of Hugh P. O'Neil, principal Grammar School No. 23, Sixth "Ward, New York City.] 

The workshop, which was fitted up for the instruction of fourteen boys at a time, 
was made to accommodate twenty-eight by placing pupils at the ends as well as at 
the sides of the benches. Four classes of this number and one class of seven were 
formed. The course laid down in the manual was strictly followed, and the follow- 
ing portions covered during this period : 

All of the fifth grade shop work from the beginning of the grade to the end of the 
sixteenth line on page 132 of the manual. In addition to this all the boys (119) 
were taught to use the drawing boards ; the method of fastening paper on boards, 
and of removing the same ; methoQ of using the T-squares ; the making of card- 
board bevel of 45°, each boy making his own bevel card entirely unassisted and 
without use of angle made by another person ; method of sharpening chisel on oil- 
stone, each boy having been caused to do this kind of work under close inspection ; 
method of sharpening knife in same way ; method of gluing down thin wood slips 
when cut and fitted to an ornamental Greek border drawn on paper on drawing- 
board, all being the work of boys unassisted. 

More than sixty of these boys were taught to make a bevel card of 60^, by aid of 
compasses, each working unassisted. All the bevels, referred to above, were made 
of two cards glued together, and cut at the ends into right and left hand bends. 
One class of twenty-eight were taught to draw simple figures to scale, using the tri- 
angular-scale rulers furnished by your committee. 

All the boys exhibited the greatest pleasure in doing anything connected with the 
workshop, whether the work was to be done in shop or in class-room, and this appear- 
ance of delight in doing work did not appear to decrease in the least toward the end 
of the two months' trial. 

Some things, which struck me as strange in carrying on the instruction in work- 
shop, may possibly be as interesting to you, as in many cases they were a souxoe of 
great pleasure to me. 

I found that the little fellows — ten to twelve years old — took hold of the tools in a 
more workmanlike manner than did the larger boys, as a rule ; that they followed 
instructions in regard to holding and handling tools and materials -with greater faith- 
fulness ; that they tested and tried their work more frequently with bevel-card and 
eye ; that they appeared less discouraged when I rejected work as being poorly done, 
and were more anxious to try again ; that they had a greater regard for the value of 
the tools intrusted to them, and showed more care in laying down and taking up edge 
tools in such a way as to avoid touching the edge against any hard substance. I was 
very much pleased to find that there appeared to be no difficulty in teaching the 
boys how to put an edge on chisel or knife. This was a source of pleasure and a great 
surprise to me. I had often noticed among men the utter want of ability to sharpen 



MANUAL TRAINING. 151 

even a pen-knife properly, and 1 expected to meet with great trouble and many fail- 
ures in the teaching of this kind of work. 

Every hoy handled the chisel properly, oiled the stone carefully, kept the tool at 
the same slant — the great difficulty — duriug the operation, and from time to time 
tried the edge with his thumb or finger, and removed wire edge as carefully as I could 
have done myself. Among the boys were some half-dozen "slow boys" — boys recog- 
nized as " dull" or "stupid " by all the teachers in whose classes they had been— who 
had required constant pushing and extra attention at all times. In every case I 
found these " slow boys" the most attentive to every word I spoke in relation to shop 
work, and in every case doing as good, if not better, work than their heretofore 
brighter school-fellows. 

On the subject of modelling in clay I desire to suggest that it would be well to take 
some steps toward the furnishing of instruction to the class-teachers in thp kind of 
work to be taken up, and in the method of handling the material. 

The clay-modelling is the only portion of the new course in which there appears to 
me to be any likelihood of less success than the most sanguine of your committee were 
hopeful of for the new course as a whole ; and this feeling of anxiety may altogether 
leave me as both principal and teacher receive more light on the subject. 

In closing, I wish to say that the short experience I have had in treating the sub- 
ject of manual tiaining has but caused mo to be more firmly fixed in the opinion that 
some such training, in connection with the school course, cannot fail to be of great 
benefit to the pupils of our schools, and that should any falling off in efficiency in the 
other portions of the school course appear on the part of the scholars in the future as 
a result of the addition of this training to the school work — a thing I do not expect 
to see — such falling off will be more than compensated for by one single item of knowl- 
edge among the many to be acquired through manual training, and that is the knowl- 
edge that no good piece of work of any kind can be performed without expenditure 
of thought and patient attention to detail. This idfea is fixed in the pupiVs mind, 
not by the words alone of his teacher, which may, and fVequently do, "pass through 
one ear and out of the other," but by actual personal experience, and therefore will 
not be forgotten on leaving school like the thousand details of geography, history, 
and grammar. 

[From a report of Elizabeth Cavakkah, principal Grammar School No. 41, New York City. J 

The cooking has been enthusiastically received by the pupils, and never have I 
seen more thoroughly interested workers than there are in that branch of the course. 
Many report, from week to week, the results of home work, thus giving proof of the 
hold it has upon them, and parents are constantly signifying their gratification at its 
introduction. 

The study of the chemistry of cooking, and an intelligent application of this knowl- 
edge, cannot fail to work a complete revolution in the homes of thousands who now 
suffer from ignorance of the simplest laws governing the proper preparation of food. 

Its educational advantage is manifested in the gradual development io self-reliance 
and judgment in pupils who are particularly weak in these respects, and in a cor- 
responding improvement in these who are naturally stronger. 

The children who have instruction in sewing are also much interested. 

[From a report of W. H. J. Siebeeg, principal Grammar School No. 43, New York City.] 

I herewith submit my views as to the results obtained in this school during last 
term in manual training. 

1st. There has been no deterioration in the effectiveness of study in the pedagogic 
branches. 

2d. The children have entered with a will and with zest into the manual-training 
branches, and the results have been a pleasurable surprise to them, their teachers, 
and myself. In mechanical drawing, especially, the inventive faculties of the pupils 



152 PROCEEDINGS — DEPARTMENT OF SUPERINTENDENCE. 

have been brought out to such a degree that they could well t)e proud of the work 
accomplished. 

3d. Shop-work and kitchen have been aids to discipline. I would instance the 
case of a boy who had committed a grievoas breach in this regard. As a punishment 
he was refused permission to work in the shop. After three days had passed he 
humbly apologized to me, promised future good behavior, and begged to be allowed 
to go to the shop with his class. He gave no further trouble to the end of the term. 



WHAT EVERY PUPIL SHOULD KNOW BEFORE LEAVING THE DISTRICT SCHOOL. 

[From a report by Sutt. W. E. Akderson, Milwaukee, Wis.] 

When the boy graduates from the district school he is supposed to have the follow- 
ing knowledge and ability : 

First. He should read English intelligently and intelligibly ppon all common sub- 
jects of knowledge — history, geography, and general literature. He should be able 
to read a newspaper editorial, a magazine article, a poem, a popular lecture, and to 
give it such expression as will evince his understanding of the thought presented by 
the author. He should have a fairly accurate knowledge of the Constitution of the 
United States, the general plan or the practical workings of the Government as shown 
in the organization of Congress, and the mannerofelectiog the President, his powers 
and duties as distinguished from the business of the Legislature ; and further, he 
should understand the necessity and importance of legal tribunals, before which facts 
and laws are considered. He should know something of his prerogatives as a citizen, 
his duties and rights as regards the exercise of franchise. These subjects are ex- 
plained in connection with the reading of the United States Constitution. Further 
than this, he should be able to express himself upon any subject upon which he has 
accurate knowledge or definite opinions, and he should do this in conformity with 
the established rules of literary form — punctuation, capitalization, spelling, etc. 
Moreover, he should be able to use such phraseology and construction as would 
enable him to hold intercourse with the business world in discussing matters of fact 
or conveying information upon any subject in which he may hereafter become in- 
terested for culture or business. 

Second, He should express himself intelligently in English ; he should have a ready 
and correct facility in ordinary computations—the fundamental rules, with the com- 
mon method of calculating interest, the use of decimals, the principles of reduction 
and fractions, and the essentials of mensuration — not learned by rule, but deduced 
from manual practice and observation. Added to this training, he should have a clear 
understanding of the elements of book-keeping, as shown in the plain principles of 
double entry system applied to ordinary business, where the significance of debit and 
credit, and the relationship of the common principles of accounts are established on 
this basis of debit and credit. He should be able to exemplify his knowledge of this 
branch by writing up a simple set of books containing from twenty to thirty items 
of a miscellaneous nature and involving elementary calculations in the sale and pur- 
chase of lots of goods. 

Tliird, Every child leaving school should understand the large facts of geography 
and history. These branches afford a value in which the child gets his earliest cul- 
ture. From the one he gets his first notion of the world about him, the earth and its 
relation to other planets, and the universe, as explained upon the authority of scien- 
tific observation ; the divisions of the earth into land and water ; the nature of its 
surface, the variations of climate and the resulting facts of vegetation and influence 
upon human life, the important facts of commercial geography, and the knowledge 
of those physical laws as exemplified in common natural phenomena. These are all 
essential to the education of the young citizen. Ho should, at the same time, be put 
into possession of the history of his own country. In this field his patriotism is de- 
veloped, love for his native land is nurtured, and he is better able to understand his 
own relationship to his countryr 



MANUAL TRAINING. 153 



EDUOATIOII^AL VALUE OF MAITUAL TEAINING. 
By Geo. P. Brown, Bloomington, 111. 

On my way to this meeting I fell in witli a paper by Mr. 0. M. Wood- 
ward in an educational periodical, which I interpret to be a statement of 
the educational value of shop training us it is estimated by an intelligent 
advocate of this method of educating the young. This paper was 
vv^ritten as a reply to some opinions expressed by Dr. Edward Brooks, 
some months ago, to the effect that but little reliance should be placed 
upon workshop training as a method of intellectual development. 

I think that I may say that all will be pleased to know that one 
apostle of this method of education has undertaken to state with some 
definiteness the educational value of the workshop. This is the first 
attempt of this kind that has been made public which was not so 
vague that it could mean anything or nothing. 

His claim, in brief, is that, in the construction of things with tools 
from the raw material, there is a mastery of the constructive process 
and an exercise of the intellectual faculties essential to a proper educa- 
tion that is not possible to the same extent in the exercises already 
provided in good schools ; that observation and drawing are two nec- 
essary preliminary steps, but that actual construction stimulates a 
necessary psychical activity that the two former do not give. 

He incidentally remarks, "I do not say that every public school 
should have a shop and teach the use of tools." But why not ? If 
these gentlemen have discovered a new form of intellectual training 
superior to the old, and having capabilities which it does not possess, 
why shall it not become an integral part of the common school curricu. 
lumt 

We are told that no environment other than a manual training school 
will sufBce to give this training. Mr. Woodward declares that " the 
ideas involved in the construction of (with) tools — and tools are 
crowded with ideas— are by no means obvious to the average boy. Un- 
der the guidance of a skilful teacher the student recognizes qualities 
in right methods which he never would discover for himself. And this 
is true in a tool laboratory, as it is in a chemical laboratory or in the 
class lecture room. Nothing so stimulates intellectual life as intel- 
lectual life, and a skilfully guided class in tool work is full of intel- 
lectual life. As I said, the tools are full of ideas, and those ideas are 
directly related to the materials to be wrought and to the correct use 
of tools. Without that correct use the id^as involved will not be recog- 
nized. When, however, under skilful guidance, the boy with his own 
hands realizes correct methods of using tools, he unlocks the secrets of 
their construction, and the thought of the maker or contriver stands 
revealed with a vividness that makes the impression lasting and the 



164 PROCEEDINGS — DEPARTMENT OP SUPERINTENDENCE. 

enjoyment keen. A skilful teaclier transforms a shop." In another con- 
nection he says: "There is no doubt but that the untaught, unreason- 
ing, unscientific laborer is extremely stupid." This is said in reply to 
the statement of Dr. Brooks that the father's workshop, where he works 
without a teacher, furnishes the best manual discipline for a boy. 

So it seems that to get at this hidden virtue in manual training the 
workshop and the skilful teacher are needed. Why, then, ought not 
every school to have a shop and teach the use of tools ? 

I understand that the question now before the educational public is 
whether instruction in the use of mechanical tools is of such educational 
value as to justify its introduction as an integral part of the common 
school curriculum. If this question is answered in the afiirmative, then 
the workshop must go into every public school at the earliest moment 
practicable. If it is answered in the negative, then manual training 
may be remanded to the department of special instruction^ and special 
schools will be established as communities feel the need of such in- 
struction, and the general discussion of the subject may cease. That 
there is something of educational value in workshop training under 
the direction of a skilful teacher there can be no doubt. But the ques- 
tion is whether the time of the pupil cannot be better employed and 
a more practical and useful education obtained than is possib/e 
through a workshop course of discipline. That question has not been 
answered in the negative by Mr. Woodward in this paper to wnich refer- 
ence has been made. In fact, he does not seem to have considered it. 
The question can bo answered intelligently only when one has clearly 
in mind the end of common school education and the psychical processes 
involved in the different kinds of training. 

There are four things that the school should do for the pupil that are 
essential to an adequate preparation for successful living, whatever else 
it may do or leave undone : 

1. It should make him intelligent, which implies a reasonably wide 
range of knowledge, and the power to use this in the acquisition of new 
knowledge. 

2. It should cultivate in him the spirit of obedience to conviction 
and the habit of conformity to law. 

3. It should make him industrious, which is persistent self-directed 
activity toward a worthy end, avoiding the two extremes of inaction 
and of " active idleness." 

4. It should establish a reasonable control over the "hand and the 
eye," or the rule of the mind over the body. 

An analysis of our present curriculum of study, including drawing 
, in all the grades, will reveal the fact that all of these results naturally 
flow from it when it is properly taught. I believe that our endeavor 
should be directed toward the better teaching of this curriculum until 
its possibilities have been fairly realized. What changes are needed 
in it will become manifest as our knowledge of it increases. 



MANUAL TRAINING. 155 

The' limits imposed upon this discussion will permit me to speak 
briefly to but one of the purposes of the schools as set forth above. 

To be intelligent, as we have said, one must have knowledge and 
ability to use it in acquiring new knowledge. It is the fault of the 
teaching if the power to use knowledge does not keep pace with the 
acquisition. 

The two distinct groups of activities involved in intelligence are gen- 
erally named Observation and Eeflection. 

Observation is thinking in the presence of the object. It might be 
called concrete thinking. The materials with which it deals are things 
and images of things, and the purpose is to discover relations between 
these. Words are not essential to this kind of thinking. All the fac- 
ulties of perception and understanding are involved in observation. 
Perception, memory, imagination, generalization, judgment, reason- 
ing, all are there. But the range of their comprehension is a narrow 
one. The mind limits itself to the relation of individual to individual 
for the most part. And I will add, parenthetically, that to be able to 
discover the true relations of individuals to one another is the great 
end of education, from the stand-point of intelligence. It is with indi- 
viduals that we have ever to deal in the end. He who can properly re- 
late these or himself to these is, so far, well equipped for successful liv- 
ing. 

But while we all agree that this is the end of intellectual training, 
there is some difference of opinion as to the means whereby it is best 
attained. 

" Learn to observe by observing" is the injunction of the reformers. 
They would keep the gaze riveted upon things. See something — then 
draw it — then make it. This is the sequence of steps by which the 
child is to come into a mastery of the world through the manual train- 
ing process, according to Mr. Woodward. 

The importance of this study, and construction of things in primary 
grades is conceded. This importance has not been sufficiently empha- 
sized until more recent years and since teachers have begun to make a 
more careful and continued study of the process of the mind's growth. 

The people must pass on from the stage of growth we have called 
observation into that in which reflection becomes prominently active. 
While in this lower intellectual stage, objects of sense and of the imag- 
ination must command his attention. And it is not probable that too 
much emphasis will bo given to the necessity for persistent and sys- 
tematic training by skilful teachers in the observation and construc- 
tion of things. Mr. Woodward does not place too high an 'estimate 
upon teaching the child the meaning of a ^^processP But it seems to 
me that he does place too high an estimate upon the relative value of 
the process of mechanical construction. All processes are not of the 
sort that can be worked out by the use of mechanical tools. The most 
important and valuable ones in education are those that are purely 
mental^ with which, the hand and the eye Aiave Tvo\Xim^X»<^ ^q* 



156 PROCEEDINGS — ^DEPARTMENT OF SUPERINTENDENCE. 

As the cliild accumulates experience and his power to construct 
mental images grows and his store of '' concepts of objects of sense ^ 
increases, more reliance can be placed upon drawing for learning these 
mechanical processes. (Who will say that the educational value of con- 
structing a railroad bridge with his pencil is essentially less to an 
engineer than if he constructs it with tools 9) Now, the child is more 
and more exercised in those processes that appeal to the constructive 
imagination through the use of pictures and words. Eeading, geogra- 
phy, elementary arithmetic, history, make these appeals, while drawing, 
writing, and moulding continue to be employed to exercise the pupil in 
the purely mechanical processes. 

But a transition must come in the growth of mind from concrete to 
general thinking. If we should define observation as the exercise of the 
smises, re-enforced by the results of previous experience and by reflection, 
we would define reflection as the exercise of the thought processes re-en- 
forced by experience and the products of the senses. The one consists 
in relating sense-objects, while the other discovers the relations between 
general notions. The materials of thought in the two processes differ, 
as objects and images differ from general notions. General notions are 
not things of sense nor of the imagination, and their only sense-symbols 
are words and sentences. 

The true function of the school as an intellectual training, is to lead 
the child on through concrete thinking into general thinking, which, as 
I understand it, is the seeing of the wider and more remote relations of 
individual things. These more remote relations of things it is needful 
to know in order that one may be able to observe the things themselves 
as they really are. 

This transition from the concrete to the general is a severe discipline. 
It is hard work and little play, sugar-coat it as we may. It is not at all 
surprising that Mr. Woodward's bright Latin pupil should express his 
greater delight in shop- work. It is certainly much easier, and Rosen- 
kranz asserts that '^ man is by nature lazy." What the pupil most en- 
joys is not a safe criterion from which to judge of what is best for him. 

The good teacher has had this severer discipline of the mind in view 
during the previous years of school life, and has allowed the young 
mind to try its wings whenever it was so inclined. But now he begins 
to force it from its resting i)laco in the world of sense into what seems 
to it the less real world of general ideas; not that things are to be lost 
to view, but what is eternally true in them and not what is accidental 
and fleeting is made the principal object of study. Laws, rules, defini- 
tions mUst be seized, and these must bo made the stepping-stones to 
still higher laws and a more comprehensive outlook, in order that one's 
observation of the things he needs to know may be enriched. I do not 
suppose that any one here needs an illustration of my meaning. Agas- 
siz could build up a fish from a scale; Cuvier, a mammal from a bone; 
Gray, a tree from a leaf; an artist, a statue from a limb or a temple 
from a column. 



MANUAL TRAINING. 157 

Suppose that Agassiz, and Cuvier, and Gray had been held to the 
practice of shop-work and mechanical drawing in their youth until 
these had become the nervous tracks along which the mental energy 
had become habituated to pass, and those other lines of broader gen- 
eralizations had never been run. They might, by the force of genius, 
have afterward broken the chains in which their school training had 
bound them, but a common-place boy would have remained bound for^ 
ever. 

It seems, therefore, that we must learn to reflect if we would learn to 
observe truly. To "learn to observe by observing" does not seem the 
most economical use of time after the child has reached that maturity 
that makes reflection practicable. Is it not through the mastery of the 
broader and more comprehensive process of general thinking that the 
most accurate and ready observation is cultivated'? Of course it is 
I>os8ible for one's estrangement from the sense- world to be so complete 
that he can not return to it. But that is the result of bad teaching, 
that is only paralleled by that other kind of bad teaching which keeps 
the pupil so buried in sense that he never acquires the power to reflect. 

When the pupil ha« attained to this power of general thought, he 
should be driven as rapidly as he can go with safety along this way, 
for his school life is very brief. But he travels with safety only when 
he keeps a firm hold of his sense-world, and tests the truth of every 
generalization by that, so far as it is practicable. 

It seems evident that reflection must be developed through that sort 
of exercise that is stimulated through the study of books, guided and 
corrected by a continued reference to things and to experience. This 
has long been known as objective teaching. 

The workshop ought not to go into the upper grades of a general edu- 
cational system as an integral part of the curriculum of study, for the 
reason that the time of the pupils can be better employed, and for the 
additional reason that if it is put there as a process of direct educa- 
tional value it is an instance of educational malpractice. The great 
educational aim at this period should be to run the lines — blaze the 
way, so to speak — of reflective thinking in the pupil's consciousness. 
This period of running lines is the determining period of the child's 
future intellectual and moral character. The tracks of reflective think- 
ing must be laid and extended in many directions in the fivefold world 
in which all must ever live. They may be ballasted and fully equipped 
later. It is a common error to try to equip each line as it is extended. 
We seek for thorough and comprehensive knowledge, when the child 
can acquire only vague outlines of it. And because this knowledge is 
shadowy and vague at the first, some deem it less valuable than the 
more distinct and definite knowledge of individual things. The work- 
shop comes in at a time when the boy has attained to the age of reason, 
and it demands tliat he shall devote his energy to shaping bits of wood 
aad Iron. 



158 PROCEEDINGS— DEPARTMENT OP SUPERINTENDENCE. 

The first ten years of a child's life is the period of concrete thinking. 
The next seven to ten years is the period of transition — what the physi- 
ologists call the period of brain development. In this the necessity 
of thinking with images or with things diminishes as the power to deal 
with general notions increases. After this transition period the col- 
lege takes the pupil and practises him in the use of general notions, in 
gaining a theoretical knowledge of the world. The university follows 
the college and directs the power acquired to the mastery of a special 
vocation. 

This is, in brief, the ideal scheme of education. We are considering 
here only the first two stages of it. But no teacher can conduct the 
pupil along any portion of this course with certainty who has not sur- 
veyed the entire route. 

The course of study of the St. Louis Manual Training School, which 
is for young men, provides that three hours per day be devoted to this 
manual work, and three hours to studies that train to reflection. This 
really meaus three hours of the twenty-four for reflective study, for 
the out-of-school life is devoted to observation in so far as it is educar 
tive. 

I fear that these boys are deceived to their permanent injury when 
they are taught that in this way they will receive the best intellectual 
preparation for living. 

[The explanation made by Mr. Woodward last evening that his boys 
devote six hours in every twenty-four to reflective studies and one to 
drawing, besides their two hours per day in the shop, takes the St. Louis 
school out of the lisjb to which this last remark will apply. But his ex- 
planation shows why these boys go through the manual training school 
so well prepared for the college. They devote, practically, the same 
amount of energy to their reflective studies that those boys do who at- 
tend a high school without a manual training attachment. According 
to his statement they work nine hours per day ; I think that we all agree 
that this is too much time for a boy of fourteen to spend in severe re- 
flective study. From six to seven hours per day is all of such work we 
expect of him. The rest of his time is spent on a sort of work that 
makes no more demand upon this mental energy than does the shop 
work that Mr. Woodward requires of him. For the lighter kinds of work 
in the high school he has substituted the workshop. It gives an ex- 
cellent kind of physical exercise and gives it persistently and systemat- 
ically. It is a success as a gymnasium. The bodily health and vigor 
of many of the boys is undoubtedly improved by it. Eeduce this to one 
hour per day, and require the boy to spend the other hour in the easier 
kind of studies now omitted from his curriculum, and the results would be 
still more satisfactory. It should be noted that only three studies are 
pursued contemporaneously. There is a gain here over the prevalent 
practice of attempting to carry five or six heavy studies together. 

It is probable, too, that there is a degree of interest and enthusiasm 
^mong teachers and pupils in t^ -, Incident to the fact that it is 



MANUAL I'RAINING. 159 

regarded as exemplifying anew movement in education, that keeps all 
working at high pressure. The Lancasterian craze produced wonderful 
results at first, we are told. We all know the marked difference be- 
tween schools of every sort in which the teachers are drones, and those 
where they are enthusiastic and capable. 

When all of these things are taken into account, it does not seem 
to me that any proof and hardly any evidence has been advanced by 
Mr. Woodward that the workshop training is of any direct intellectual 
value to his boys. .Would not all the educational results obtained be 
substantially what they are if the workshop were converted into an 
ordinary gymnasium, and the same interest and enthusiasm in regard to 
it maintained?] 

. I have not time now to consider the relative merits of Drawing and 
the Workshop, and to show that the latter is substantially a repetition 
of the former in these upper grades. This I have done before at differ- 
ent times. I believe in drawing in all the grades of the first two 
periods of education as firmly as I disbelieve in the workshop in the 
higher grades. I see in drawing, if well taught, every kind of mind- 
activity found in the workshop, and much that is not found there. The 
workshop is a wasteful repetition of what the drawing-room furnishes, 
unless the design be to educate mechanics. But that design classes the 
manual training school with special schools, and not among the com- 
mon schools. If the workshop is put into the school as a gymnasium 
there can be no serious objection. In this very mechanical age of ours 
in which so much attention is given to storing up energy to be ex- 
pended at other times and places, it is not strange that the notion be- 
comes prevalent that the jjhysical energy expended in exercise for 
bodily health and vigor may be stored up in mechanical tools for i)Ossi- 
ble future use. But all of these things are very different from the doc- 
trine advocated by Mr. Woodward, or, at least, by the manual training 
apostles generally, which is that it is entitled to a place in the common 
schools for its direct educational value. That doctrine is not pedagog- 
ically sound. 

I have been able to consider but one function of the school — that of 
training in intelligence— and but one point in that, which is the im- 
portance of training in reflection or general thinking. But the work- 
shop will not be found more useful in realizing the other functions. 
It is only as a special school that its right to a place in a public school 
system can be maintained. As such special school there is not only no 
objection to it, but it is needed. It is to take the place of the old 
apprentice system now happily obsolete. Let us have trade schools 
and every kind of special school that our complex civilization requires. 
But let us see to it that we build these upon as broad a foundation of 
general culture and as complete an intellectual training as time and 
circumstance will allow the child to receive. It is the function of a 
common school that is common, to give this culture and traiuin^. 



160 PROCEEDINGS — ^DEPARTMENT OP SUPERINTENDENCE. 

Mr. Woodward: I do not propose to answer his paper; it needs 
very little. But I wish to say that those wlio are interested in the reply 
I had the honor to make to Dr. Brooks, will find it in the February 
number of the New York Teacher. I think it would have been more 
interesting to you if I had read my paper before you read his. I wish 
to say that I did read Mr. Brown's article between the lines, and saw 
that I was a fetich worshipper. I saw in the lines themselves a state- 
ment to this effect, that the manual training fetich is tottering to its 
fall; and from the profound depths of the Missouri woods I could not 
refrain from referring to him as a common neighbor. 



MECHANIC ARTS HIGH SCHOOLS. 
By Edwin P. Seaver, 

Superintendent of Public Schools^ Boston. 

The question of manual training in public schools, though yet unset- 
tled, seems to be growing clearer. The discussion, heretofore largely 
theoretical, now advances in the gathering light of experience. During 
the last ten years have been organized schools and departments of schools 
in which manual training has been made the leading feature. Some of 
these schools are public schools, while others are supported by fees and 
endowments. Definite results of these experiments begin to appear, 
and the most interesting contributions to the discussion now are the 
records of such results and the mean^ used in obtaining them. For ex- 
ample, perhaps the most interesting chapter in Professor Woodward's re- 
cent book is that in which the graduates of the St. Louis Manual Training 
School trace the effects of their training in their subsequent occupations 
and prospects in life. The more such evidence is gathered and published, 
the better. For it is not until the argument from experience has gath- 
ered considerable force that boards of education will be likely to under- 
take, or can reasonably be expected to undertake, new lines of instruc- 
tion in the public schools. Hence, the great value of private enterprise 
in this as in any other movement for the improvement of public in- 
struction. 

On one branch of the general question the argument from experience 
seems already conclusive, proving that systematic class instruction in 
the mechanic arts can be given to boys of the high school age with fa- 
cility, with economy, and with excellent results. This conclusion points 
to the general adoption of a new kind of school. The purpose bf this 
paper is to show that a highly useful and desirable enlargement of the 
public school system, especially in cities and large towns, would be 
made by organizing schools which may be descriptively named mechanic 
arts high schools. This name seems preferable, although another name, 
manual training schools, has already obtained a wide currency. 



MANUAL TRAINING. 161 

A word now as to what is implied in the name mechanic arts liigh 
school. The new school is called a high school to mark its grade or 
place in the public school system, and its relation to other schools below 
and above it. Its pupils will usually come from the grammar schools, 
having finished their studies there at the ago of about fourteen years. 
They will here pursue for three or four years a course of training, 
partly in book work and partly in the mechanic arts and in drawing, 
on a level with other boys of equal age, who take the classical or the 
commercial or the general course of study in other high schools. After 
graduation they will pass either into higher institutions, as the boys 
from classical high schools usually do, or into active life with most of 
the graduates of other high schools. But the higher institutions of 
learning will bo schools of science or technology rather than colleges, 
and the active life will be led- more in the industrial than in the pro- 
fessional pursuits. 

The new school is further described as a school of mechanic arts, in 
order to mark its special aim and the characteristic feature of its 
course of instruction. Its aim, like that of any other high school, is 
both general and special. In general aim all high schools agree. Tliey 
deal with knowledge as science, rather than with knowledge in its 
elements ; they recognize that their pupils are at the age when the 
reasoning powers are developing the most rapidly ; they give the be- 
ginnings of a liberal education ; for their instruction rises to the region 
of general principles, and furnishes the mind with some effective equip- 
ment for independent thought and action. Limited and incomplete 
the liberal culture of the high school may indeed be; yet, so far as it 
goes, it may rightly bo called liberal, if only the school be true to its 
general aim. 

But high schools have also special aims, determined by various consid- 
erations of convenience or utility. These special aims are what char- 
acterize the different species of high schools. In large measure they 
determine the subjects to be taught and the manner of teaching them. 
So it happens that all high schools shape their courses of study largely 
with reference to the probable future occupations of their pupils. The 
classical high school, while pursuing its general aim of liberal culture, 
yet prescribes studies for its pupils with particular reference to their 
probable future occupations in the so-called learned professions. And 
this is right. Likewise the English high school, holding to the same gen- 
eral aim of liberal culture, chooses the particular subjects for its course of 
instruction, with an eye to the wants of the many of its pupils whose 
pursuits in after life are to be commercial. Just so will the mechanic 
arts high school impart a culture as truly liberal as that given by either 
of the others; but in so doing will select studies and exercises with 
the fact in view that most of its pupils will be looking forward to 
occupations in which an experimental acquaintance with the mechanic 
arts will be either highly serviceable or absolutely mdi&^^u^^XAfe* K 
8S2^No. 2 11 



162 PROCEEDINGS DEPARTMENT OP SUPERINTENDENCE. 

glance at the statistics of occupations in oar cities will show that the 
number of boys who would naturally seek the training of the mechanic 
arts high school is greater than the number likely to be drawn by either 
or both of the other high schools, supposing all three kinds of school 
to have been established during a time long enough to make their re- 
spective advantages widely known. 

If the foregoing be a correct analysis of the aims of high school 
instruction, and if experience has shown that these aims, in the case of 
the meclianic arts high school, can be in a satisfactory degree realized, 
then is the claim of the new high school to public support and to a 
place in the public school system, side by side, with the two older high 
schools clearly vindicated. 

There are two points that invite a passing remark. In the first place, 
it seems to strike some persons as very odd that anything worthy the 
name of liberal culture should be imparted by a mechanic arts school. 
The wits treat the idea with ridicule, and the philosophers gravely wag 
their heads as if doubting the entire sanity of a mind possessed of such 
a notion. Both illustrate the vigor with which old ways of looking at 
things survive. Ever since the revival of learning, the habit has been 
to associate liberal culture with classical studies, and with classical 
studies alone. The liberally educated man has been taken to be a man 
well versed in the languages and history of Greece and Eome. No 
knowledge of physical nature however i)rofound, no success in discov- 
ery or invention however brilliant, could quite make up for a lack of 
classical learning. Hence great naturalists, physicists, chemists, me- 
chanicians, architects, engineers, have been supposed to be a little infe- 
rior to what they might have been if only their youth had been spent in 
the study of Latin and Greek. The real-schulen of Germany have 
never quite won that social recognition which the gymnasien have long 
enjoyed. The same is true of the " modern schools" and of the " modem 
sides" of classical schools in England. In France the recognition of 
non-classical culture has been less tardy. In this country our English 
high schools date back hardly more than two generations, while classical 
high schools date back more than two centuries. It should not be sur- 
prising, therefore, if the graduates of classical schools are popularly 
regarded, and are even prone to look upon themselves as members of an 
only true and ancient order of nobility in the kingdom of educated men. 
High schools, which replace Greek and Latin with science and mod- 
ern languages, have hardly in two generations won an unwilling recog- 
nition. And shall it fare otherwise with the mechanic arts high school? 
Must not this newest comer expect to see its claim to a share in the 
work of liberal education questioned and ridiculed ? 

Yet, sooner or later, we may be sure, recognition will come. More 
and more are men coming to see that liberal culture depends not so 
much on the subject matter of study as on the method of study ; not so 
much on the kinds of knowledge acquired as on the kind of man the 



MANUAL TEAINING. 163 

process of acquisition has tamed oat. In the kingdom of educated 
men that is to come, the ancient orders of nobility will no longer hold 
exclusive privileges. The distinctions of rank will turn, not on what 
men know, but on what they can do ; not on the particular schools they 
have been through, but on the value of the service they are prepared 
to render mankind. In such a kingdom a Bessemer or an Edison would 
not yield precedence to a Person or a Bentley. The liberally educated 
order would include all men whose training had given them free com- 
mand of their faculties, together with the ability and the will to manifest 
their power in beneficent activity. That manual training is an educa- 
tional agency well adapted to the purpose of developing mental power 
on a side hitherto neglected by the schools, is a conviction that is stead- 
ily gaining ground. Meanwhile let those laugh who will. But if any 
are earnest in the matter, let them listen to a few words of Froebel, 
who writes thus in his book entitled The Education of Man : 

Every child, boy, and youth, whatever his condition or position in life, should de- 
vote daily at least one or two hoars to some serious activity in the production of some 
definite external piece of work. Lessons through and by work, through and from 
life, are by far the most impressive and intelligible, and most continuously and in- 
tensely progressive, both in themselves and in their effect on the learner. Notwith- 
standing this, children — mankind indeed — are at present too much and too variously 
concerned with aimless and purposeless pursuits, and too little with work. Children 
and parents consider the activity of actual work so much to their disadvantage, and 
80 unimportant for their future conditloas in life, that educational institutions should 
make it one of their most constaut endeavors to dispel this delusion. The domestii: 
and scholastic education of our time leads children to indolence and laziness. Avast 
amount of human power thereby remains undeveloped and is lost. It would be a 
most wholesome arrangement in schools to establish actual working hours similar to 
the existing study hours, and it will surely come to this. 

And in another place : 

It is surely one of the greatest faults of our current school arrangements, especially 
of the so-oaUed Latin and high schools, that the pupils are whoUy debarred from 
outwardly productive work. It is futile to object that the boy at this age, if he is to 
reach a certain degree of skill and insight, ought to direct his whole strength to the 
learning of words, to verbal instruction, to intellectual culture. On the contrary, 
genuine experience shows that external physical, productive activity, interspersed 
in intellectual work, strengthens, not only the body, but in a very marked degree 
the mind in its various phases of development, so that the mind, after such a re- 
freshing work bath (I can find no better name), enters upon its inteUectual pursuits 
with new vigor and life. 

Gould FroebePs language be more apt, if ho had written in this last 
quarter of the century instead of in the first; and for the America of our 
day instead of the Germany of his ? now very largely the child's crea- 
tive activity is employed and developed in the occupations of Eroebers 
kindergarten is well-known to all who are familiar with that beneficent 
system of child culture. The manual training school — or, as I have 
preferred to call it, the mechanic arts high school — has been very aptly 
described by a well-known writer, Mr. 0. H. Ham, aa '<9» VdxySj^Y^^dssX^^ 



164 PROCEEDINGS — DEPAETMENT OP SUPERINTENDENCE. 

for boys of fourteen." Just the sort of school Froebel would have been 
most delighted to see, we may bo sure. 

A second passing remark may be made by way of answer to ai]bob- 
jection. It is sometimes urged that a mechanic arts school cannot 
properly be made a part of the public school system, for the reason that 
such a school prepares boys for trades, and the teaching of trades is no 
proper part of the public school work. The schools, it is said, ought to 
teach how to live, and not how to get a living. The reason given 
for the objection is an overstatement of the fact; but this may be 
waived for the present, to be taken up later. 

Let it be granted, in general, that the instruction of the mechanic arts 
high school has a large reference to the probable future occupations of 
its pupils. Is not the same thing true of the classical high schools! 
Have they not, for more than two centuries, been helping their pupils 
a long way on in preparation for a certain class of occupations— the so- 
called learned professions ! While teaching how to live, have they not 
done much by way of teaching how to get a living, in professional pur- 
suits! Not that classical high -schools are professional schools, but 
some classical training — at least as much of it as a classical high school 
can give — ^is generally regarded as an indispensable prerequisite to the 
final preparation for professional life. When early in the present cent- 
ury the instruction commonly given in classical schools was felt to be 
ill adapted to the wants of the many boys who were looking forward to 
other than professional pursuits, a new kind of high school was de- 
vised — the English high school — which proposed to teach the subjects 
such boys most needed to know. Experience has shown that this kind 
of school is well adapted to the training of boys whose pursuits are to 
be in trade and commerce. Not that it teaches arithmetic and book- 
keeping only ; it gives some liberal training through studies in sci- 
ence and modern languages. Not neglecting to teach how to live, it 
has also taught how to get a living, in useful and honorable callings not 
numbered among the so-called learned professions. Again, girls' high 
schools and high schools for both sexes have been organized in great 
numbers during the last fifty years, and universally their courses of 
study contain subjects which have been put there for no other reason 
than that a knowledge of such subjects is useful in after life— useful in 
the sense of better preparing one for earning a livelihood. For girls 
as well as for boys the teaching of how to get a living has been united 
with the teaching of how to live. 

Therefore, the principle has long been admitted and acted upon that 
public high school instruction may properly have regard to the probr 
able future occupations of the pupils. This is not, indeed, the highest 
reason for a high school's existence, but it is, nevertheless, a very strong 
and legitimate reason, and one which wise people will not ignore. The 
application of this principle has already produced different kinds of 
high schools and different courses of study in the same high schooL 



MANUAL TEAINING. 165 

Carry the application one step farther — take into consideration the 
wants of the many boys who will enter, or might, if properly trained, 
enter^ the various skilled industries — and we shall have the mechanic 
arts high school, as now proposed. 

Opposed to this principle is an old theory that all public school in- 
struction ought to be general, equally adapted to the wants of all, 
and fitted for all to pursue as far as personal circumstances allow each 
to go. This monodromic scheme of education takes little or no account 
of special needs 5 has no room for commercial training nor for industrial 
training, and does not even attempt a full, all-sided mental training; but 
leads, chiefly by way of the classics and the mathematics, to college and 
the professional schools ; declaring all the way along that he will get the 
best education who runs farthest on this single highway, while he who 
abandons the highway and wanders in byways must give up the hope 
of being considered a well-educated man at all. The new theory pro- 
poses to open highways in several directions — in any direction in which 
large numbers of youth with good reason desire to travel — and claims 
for all such highways equal recognition and a share of public support. 

It is proper here to recognize a certain limit beyond which the appli- 
cation of the new theory may not wisely be carried. An acceptance of 
the principle that a public high school instruction may properly be 
shaped with reference to the probable future occupations of the pupils, 
does not oblige us to conclude that such reference may be so specific 
and exclusive as to make the occupations themselves the direct and only 
matters of instruction. To do this would be to sacrifice the general aim 
to the special. It would be even worse. The special aims, when made 
the only ones, would certainly fail of their best realization. The gen- 
eral aim — liberal culture— is ever to be held superior, even for the best 
realization* of the special aims* Therefore, the mechanic arts high 
school can never properly become a mere trade school, making its pupils 
apprentices to a single trade, nor a collection of trade schools. In its 
history thus far it has disclosed no tendency to lose its character in that 
"Way. This is the point in respect to which the objection we have been 
considering rests on an overstatement — the overstatement alluded to a 
moment ago, but postponed. Let it now be corrected. 

It is not true, as alleged, that the mechanic arts school teaches partic- 
ular trades. That very important instruction is to be found elsewhere. 
But it is true that a good mechanic arts school helps boys a long way on to 
many trades. It deals with the leading principles involved in a great 
variety of mechanical processes ; it develops general mechanical skill by 
bringing mind and hand into ready and accurate co-operation, but it does 
not undertake to make its pupils finished artisans in any trade. No 
more does the English high school undertake, in its commercial course, 
for example, to make expert book-keepers for keeping books in all lines 
of business — ^bank book-keeping, corporation book-keeping, railroad 
hook-keeping, broker^s book-keeping, and all ilie i^at. A\\ \\i^\» ^\vR>a.^ 



166 PROCEEDtNGS — t)Et>ARTMENT OF* SUPERINTeKDENC^. 

school can well undertake — and that is quite enough — ^is to familiarize 
the pupils with the common forms, and to train them in the analysis of 
ordinary business transactions, and in the application thereto of the 
fundamental principles of book-keeping. Professor Eunkle has pointed 
out that the mechanic arts are few, but the trades in which these arts 
are applied are many. Hence the mechanic arts and not the trades are 
proper subjects for school instruction. The former involve principles, 
the latter only details of application. Professor Woodward has said 
of the course in the St. Louis school : " Without teaching any one trade, 
we teach the essential principles of all." 

It remains now to mention briefly the results of experience. An ex- 
haustive review of all the experiments that have been made, with con- 
sideration of all the local conditions and influences, would be a most 
interesting and valuable work for some one to undertake ; but the lim- 
its of this paper preclude anything more than a brief mention of the 
main points. 

Experience appears to have proved satisfactorily — 

(1) That a three or four years course of study, consisting of selected 
and graded shop work two-fifths of the time daily, drawing one-fifth, 
and appropriate book work two-fifths, results in a high degree of me- 
chanical intelligence, a good degree of general mechanical skill, and a 
well-marked development in thej[30wer of independent thinking. 

(2) That such instruction takes a strong hold on the minds of a large 
class of boys who are either not so well reached or not reached at all 
by the subjects and methods of teaching current in the older high 
schools. 

(3) That such instruction draws some pupils away from the older 
high schools, but more from a class of boys who have not, as matters 
have stood heretofore, become pupils of the older high schools at all. 

(4) That such instruction is very keenly relished and appreciated by 
boys, who usually like no studies so well as those which have an 
obviously direct bearing on their future occupations, and delight most 
of all in exercises that bring their active powers into productive 
activity. 

(5) That up to a certain point such instruction is a substitute for ap- 
prenticeship, now gone out of use; and, as far as it goes, is vastly better 
than apprenticeship ever was in its best days. 

(6) That such instruction forms an excellent, and no doubt ere long 
to be considered indispensable, part of the preparation of students 
f6r schools of science, technology, or industrial art. Indeed, it is to be 

; remembered that the mechanic arts school, as we now know it, origi- 
nated in a purpose to give such preparation to students of mechanical 
engineering. 

(7) That such instruction is very popular, apparently because it is 
meeting a widely felt want. 



MANUAL TRAINING. 167 

(8) That such instruction — particularly the mechanic arts part of it — 
can be eflectively and economically given to classes in a scbool. 

(9) That a school organized for giving such instruction is Entirely con- 
venient and manageable as a part of the public school system in a large 
city. 

(10) The cost of such a school — building, equipment, running ex- 
penses — is quite in keeping with the cost of any other high school. 

This brings us to the exact question proposed for discussion to-day, 
namely: To what extent and how can manual training be introduced 
into city graded schools ? J\Iy answer is : Organize mechanic arts high 
schools either as separate schools or as departments of existing high 
schools. To this extent, at least, and by this means a now neglected 
educational field can be occupied to great advantage. But this is only 
a partial answer; it applies to only one branch of the question; but it 
is the branch that I happen to have most at heart just at the present 
time. 

To touch for a moment on the other branches of the qu'estion, it may 
be observed that there is for young children the kindergarten, whose 
gifts and occupations appeal largely to the child's active or creative 
powers. The adoption of the kindergarten carries into the schools a 
form of manual training of whose good results there is nowadays little 
serious question. But what of the great gap between the kindergarten 
for children of four and the "kindergarten for boys of fourteen"? 
There is much that might be said of experiments in this field; but it 
must be owned that results thus far are isolated and fragmentary. 
Nothing like a broad, continuous, and effective course of manual train- 
ing reaching from the kindergarten upward through all the grades of 
primary and grammar schools has yet been worked out. 

What can be done with the Swedish Slojd? An answer to this ques- 
tion on the basis of American experience is not yet ready, but interest- 
ing experiments are going on. 

And the better half of the question — that which relates to manual or 
industriiil training for girls — I must now, for lack of time, leave wholly 
untouched. 



168 PROCEEDINGS — ^DEPART^IENT OF SUPERINTENDENCE. 

BISCUSSIOK 

The discussion was opened by Lieutenant Fcrd, who read the follow- 
ing paper: 

HOW SHALL MAl^UAL TBAINING BE INTRODUCED INTO 

THE GEADED SCHOOLS! 

By John D. Ford, IT. S. N., 

Principal of the Baltimore Manual Traininj School. 

The state has exercised the right to train and to care for her young, 
and to care for her insane, her paupers, and her criminals, for so long 
a time that it may almost be said to be the unwritten law of the land, 
that she is to continue in the discharge of these duties; and I think no 
one will now question her right to use all means at her command to 
prevent, as well as alleviate, the latter conditions. It would seem out 
of place to inquire into the conditions of modern life and society were 
not these conditions so intimately associated with the subject under 
consideration. From the very beginning of time the only recognition 
given to the training of man's hand has been to wield the sword and 
the pen ; to commit deeds of blood and record the acts for the admira- 
tion and emulation of future generations. Occasionally, as we read the 
story of the past, wo read of Hiram of Tyre, without whose assistance 
Solomon could not have fashioned the temple ; of Alexander, the cop- 
persmith, who wrought shrines of "Diana" for the Ephesians to wor- 
ship; or of Stephenson and his good work about the steam-engine; but 
these are only some of the exceptions that prove the rule. All through 
history it is war and blood, and always a ready pen to perpetuate the 
story. To come to our own times : The outcome of the Civil War and 
the action of the trades-unions have swept away the apprenticeship 
system, and no provision is made for our children to learn handicraft. 
If one is so fortunate as to obtain a position in works of any kind, who 
is to give the necessary instruction ? The employers have not the time, 
and the employ^, as a rule, feels that he or she is giving instruction 
to a future rival; hence, takes little or no interest in the fortunate un- 
fortunate, — fortunate in that he appears to have opportunities above 
his fellows,— unfortunate in that he is too often deceived, from the very 
causes that I have stated. Show me the works that will give the youth 
opportunities in every branch in the establishment, audi will show you 
an honorable exception to the general rule. Again, the doors of the 
country are thrown wide open, through lax emigration laws, and skil- 
ful foreigners are crowding to take the places that we should train our 
boys to fill. As a matter of policy and of self-protection this ques- 
tion must be met and practically applied, whether we would have it so 
or not, unless we are to be content to see our children grow up to become 
idlers, vagabonds^ and criminals^ Bat I may be met by the question, 



MANUAL TRAINING. 169 

what have the schools or school men to do with this matter ? I an- 
swer, mach ; to-day, everything. Humanitarians tell us that want of 
occupation and false notions of life are two great causes tending toward 
pauperism, insanity, and crime. Young men and women, thrust upon 
the world with false views of life, badly equipped for the struggle, with 
no outfit but that supplied by the schools, and perhaps not having 
taken advantage of all they might have received in the schools, often 
become discouraged and fall, some in one direction, some in another; 
at best a new life is opened, and under favorable conditions much that 
was learned at school is unlearned or forgotten, and a new curriculum 
of business or trade is taken up. The best apparent opportunity that 
presents itself is availed of, and a new career outside of the schools is 
entered upon, liabilities are incurred, responsibilities are assumed, when, 
to the amazement of the victim, he discovers that he has mistaken his 
calling, that a fine carpenter has been ruined in the attempt to make a 
l)Oor lawyer; it is too late to mend the mistake; a human life is wrecked. 

A practical training discovers the taste and bent of the student, re- 
lieves the strains of the purely mental studies by bringing into activity 
the physical powers, giving play to both brain and hand, necessitating 
at all times the watchful application of principles learned in the recita- 
tion and lecture rooms, as well as the principles learned in the shops or 
tool laboratories. This training brings into play, stimulates, and 
strengthens many important organs of the mind, as form, size, color, 
weight, ideality, memory, perception, imaginations, reason, order. What 
will come of a thoughtless, listless, aimless person in the drawing-room 
or in the shops? Nothing; just the same as in the pure literary work. 
Have you ever seen a boy at work, or at the finish of a piece of work, 
in drawing or in the shops ? How intent he is. How he hangs over it ; 
how his very soul seems to be in his deft finders, and how strong and 
how proud he feels at its completion ! There is no uncertainty, no doubt 
about it; it is clearly seen and known to all to be right or wrong. He 
has created something; he feels his power; and — I say it in all rever- 
ence — has he not done a god-like thing f Who can censure him because 
his whole being feels the new power to attempt other tasks, more com- 
plex and more difficult ? 

We claim that there are certain principles, misnamed manual train- 
ing — ^practical training would be a better term — which are valuable ad- 
juncts to the purely mental studies. As I understand it, it is not copy- 
ing lines upon paper and calling that drawing. It is not cutting up so 
much wood or metal under the monitorship of an elder boy, or a janitor, 
or some broken-down mechanic on small pay ; but it is instruction and 
practice in handling and making things ; in free-hand, geometrical, and 
mechanical drawing; in the use of typical tools of all the trades, with 
the reasons for the peculiarities of the tools and materials used, where 
grown, or found, or mined, how prepared for man's use, why one kind 
is preferred to another, where similar materials are plenty, where rare ; 



ItO PROCtlEDINGS — DEPARTMENT OP SUPERINTENDENCE. 

in the various operations pointing out the peculiarities of hardness, 
toughness, brittleness, etc. In laying off drawings and other work the 
pupil is enabled to apply and to acquire a practical knowledge of math- 
ematics, as arithmetic for the sizes, geometry, mensuration, and trigo- 
nometry for forms, physics and chemistry to fashion his tools and work, 
botany for a knowledge of woods, mineralogy for a history of the met- 
als and coals used, history to warn him against the evils of a purely 
mental educatioji, geography to show him the conformation of the earth 
and the location of his neighbors, book-keeping to help him to keep his 
accounts, and whatever else can be found in books, and from men's ex- 
perience that can be made of practical use ; and we believe that this 
sort of training gives mental and physical relief, hence meAtal and 
physical strength. 

Because manual training was tried and allowed to fail fifty years ago 
is no argument against its introduction to-day. Let us carefully study 
the subject and rightly apply our knowledge, and it cannot fail. I grant 
that if we put a carpenter shop into the cellar or garret of one of our 
school-houses, and a class in charge of a janitor or some other person of 
equal calibre, for a time all the boys will go there, just as they would 
go tb a game of ball or to the circus ; but in a little while they will tire 
of it, fall off, and the so-called experiment end in a failure. So it would 
be with music or any other science if the attempt were made to teach 
it in the same way. Would we expect the chemical or physical labora- 
tory to be successful if treated in the same manner If Select your in- 
structor with the same care that you would use in the selection of an 
instructor in any of the purely mental branches, and your practical 
training school is bound to be a success, like the Baltimore Training 
School, full to overflowing; five years after its establishment the people 
are demanding more of it. 

If the cutting of papers and blocks is beneficial (and we know that 
it is) to the average and slow student, is it not of even more value to 
the bright child? If it is desirable to travel over one's country and 
abroad to liberalize one's education, what would be the objection (were 
it possible to do so) to go amongst the heavenly bodies for a still more lib- 
eral education? Do we not now go among them (as far as we cnn) by 
means of our telescopes and cameras? Did not Franklin bring the 
lightning from the heavens by means of his kite ? Have not physicians 
had practical instruction at the dissecting table for years, and who of 
us would be willing to trust his case to the care of one who had not had 
such a training ? Shall we ijgnore and do away with everything that is 
practical and useful to make room for the humanities ? I know it is de- 
lightful to sing the song of Helen of Troy, or to quote Horace and Vir- 
gil, but as our work is where thousands yearly enter the lowest rank, 
and at most but a score or two can hope to complete the course, is it not 
better to give all some of this useful practical training while they are 
in the schools, so that when they do drop out they will have a strength 



Manual fRAiNiNA. 171 

and reserve that, if necessary, will enable them to conquer the forest 
with the axe, build their own houses, or know how men have shortened 
the distance to the Pacific from six months to about as many days f 
Five years ago we started a school on this plan in the city of Balti- 
more; we commenced in a very small way, with sixty boys, average to 
poor in academic standing; we fitted up a carpenter, a wood-turning, a 
pattern-making, a moulding, a forge, and a machine shop, and as good a 
physical laboratory as our small means would permit. For the academic 
work we mapped out a high school course and a course of work in each of 
the shops and in the drawing room. This we found to be a difficult 
task, as there was no precedent for us. While work of various kinds 
was being done in different parts of the country, there was nothing that 
was applicable to our conditions and circumstances ; so we made our 
own course, put the boys to work for two hours each day in the shops, 
with one hour at drawing, and three hours at literary work. At the end 
of the half year we changed the boy to another shop, but continued the 
drawing and literary work, only making it more difficult, more ad- 
vanced, until at the end of three years we gave the boy a final exami- 
nation, averaged the result with his record in the school, and gave him 
a diploma, and we are proud of our school and of our boys. We do not 
say much about those who have gone to the Kaval School or to Lehigh, 
but of the three who are now instructors in our own school, the one 
who is an instructor in another high school in the State, those who are 
electricians, draughtsmen, machinists, civil engineers, etc., and of the 
twenty-six who have come back to us for a post-graduate course in 
mechanical engineering. The school has grown in favor; we have the 
four floors of our building proper (we commenced on the two lower 
floors) ; the yards are almost filled with annexes ; we are compelled to 
use an old dwelling-house adjoining our own property, and have had to 
rent a building that is 50 by 50 feet, on the opposite side of the street. 
We have 513 boys on the roll now, besides the 26 in the mechanical engi- 
neering class, and if we had the room we could easily have another 500 
or more. The Council has purchased three adjoining lots, upon which 
it is intended to erect a building this year, which will more than double 
our capacity. The school is, and from its beginning has been, patron- 
ized by the best people in the city — I mean best people from a social 
stand-point. 

A well rounded training school, like this one, where the usual literary 
branches, elementary science, chemical and physical laboratories, free- 
hand and mechanical drawing, carpentry, carving, pattern making, 
wood turning, moulding, chipping and filing, blacksmithing, tin and 
other sheet metal work, machine-shop work and management and care 
of steam engine and boiler, and study of tools and machines all have 
their proper place and receive due attention, must, in the very nature 
of thmgs, develop the highest type of man for any occupation in life. 
For will they not develop form, size, color, weight, perception, memory, 



172 PROCEEDINGS — ^DEPARTMENT OP SUPERINTENDENCE. 

reason, and invention, so that, put him where you will, he will carve 
for himself comforts which no amount of purely intellectual training 
will enable him to do? For the mechanic, the engineer, and the scientist, 
perhaps, it will not be questioned; the farmer will be better enabled to 
select, repair, and use his tools, machines, and buildings, besides doing 
better work with them; will enable him to make "two blades of grass 
grow where but one grew before ; " the lawyer will better understand 
complications in many cases of patents, divisions of land, of buildings, 
or the working of some machine; the physician and dentist can better 
care for and use the delicate instruments of their profession and de- 
vise others for the benefit of suffering humanity; the merchant, for 
a knowledge of the wares in which he deals and the houses and ves- 
sels in which his goods may be stored; the school-master and school 
officials, to plan and devise the best furniture and appliances for 
the pupils' comfort and advancement; jewelers, to fashion and use 
the delicate and complicated tools of their trade; the clergymen, to be 
in sympathy with the working portion of their congregations, and to 
be able to act intelligently on building committees when orphanages, 
parsonages, or churches are to be built. 

But I have wandered from the question, and if you will pardon me 
I will come to the point and close. After due consideration, it is my 
opinion that to do least violence to the i)resent system of schools it 
would be well to devote three hours each week to kindergarten meth- 
ods, practical elementary geometry, and siraide free-hand drawing on 
the slate, in addition to the present studies, for the whole time in the 
primary grades, for both males and females. Four hours each week to 
be devoted to free-hand drawing from industrial models, measurements 
with the rule, elementary practical geometry, together with the intel- 
lectual work of the grade for the first two years, for males. For the 
females I would recommend the substitution of simple fancy needle- 
work for the rule measurements. For the two next higher grades, for 
males, in addition to the literary work of the grades, I would have me- 
chanical drawing for forty-five minutes each day, and one hour each 
day in carpentry, carving, pattern making, Ibrging, chipping and filing, 
and moulding. For the corresponding grades for females, in addition 
to the academic work of the grade, free-hand drawing from models or 
geometrical drawing for forty-five minutes each day; needle- work, gar- 
ment cutting and making, patch-work and darning, book-keeping, one 
hour each day; music one hour each week; at the end of this grade 
the girl to enter one of the female high schools ; in addition to the 
present literary work, to receive instruction in free-hand, geometrical, 
or artistic drawing for one hour each day for the entire course of four 
years, as well as instruction in the art of house-keeping, garment making, 
needle-work, music, book-keeping and type-writing, cooking, wood 
carving, engraving, printing. On the completion of the seventh grade, 
for males, the young man to select his occupation or trade, devoting 



MANUAL TRAINING. 173 

fouip years at the school, from 8 A. m. to 5 p. m., with one hour at noon 
for recess, four hours each day to be devoted to literary work and 
science, and four hours to instruction and practice 4n the chosen occu- 
pation and drawing. 

The following occupations to be thoroughly taught : 

Carpentry, wood turning, carving; or pattern making, moulding 5 or 
sheet metal work, tin, brass, copper; or blacksmithing; or machinist; 
or book-keeping and accounts; or civil engineering; or architecture ; 
or electrical engineering ; or printing; or agriculture. 

I grant that this advocacy of trade schools may sound radical, par- 
ticularly to those gentlemen who have not convinced themselves or been 
convinced that manual or practical training is a valuable adjunct to 
one's education, to say nothing more of its assistance as a mental tonic, 
as it were, strengthening brain and muscles, and perception and inven- 
tion ; but public education for all children must end in something. Be 
as democratic as we may. States must be more paternal in these mat- 
ters. 

Associations of master builders, and mechanics, and parents on every 
hand are sending petitions to our legislatures and councils asking school- 
men to formulate a plan for such education. For the lower grades the 
work can easily be done by the present corps of teachers. For the 
specialties, graduates of technical or manual training schools can do 
the wosk. The change can be made gradually and at comparatively 
little cost. 

The discussion was continued in the folio wiug paper: 

HOW AND TO WHAT EXTENT MAY MANUAL TRAINING 
BE INTRODUCED INTO CITY SCHOOLS ? 

By H. W. Compton, 

Su^enniendent of Toledo ScJioola. 

It this were a question as to the advisability of introducing manual 
training into the city schools, or a setting forth of the advantages to be 
gained by this procedure, the topic would admit of easier discussion. 
It would present a theme susceptible of more Huent discourse. I could 
easier tell what 'twere good to do than bo one of twenty to follow mine 
own instructions. I could easier set forth the advantages of manual 
training from a theoretical stand-point than tell just how to proceed in 
making it an integral part of the public school system in large cities. 
The mice of the fable were happily engaged in planning how to circum- 
vent their foe, but were dismayed when it came to actually putting the 
bell on the cat. This question of actually putting manual training into 
the schools is rather too intensely practical and business-like. It is 
more agreeable for those who know but little about the subject practi- 
cally to talk about the psychological basis of it and the economic prin- 



174 PROCEEDINGS — DEPARTMENT OF SUPERINTENDENCE. 

ciples involved. It is interesting and respectable to hide one's self in 
a cloud of metaphysics and give forth oracalar utterances for or against 
manual training in the abstract. When it comes to the vulgar and 
commonplace business of providing money, teachers, shops, tools, and 
materials, the philosophers naturally wish to retire from the discussion. 

There is no longer room for fine theories, hair-splitting subtleties, and 
eloquent generalizations. 

The framers of this programme have delegated to others the delight- 
ful and invigorating task of discussing whether manual training otight 
to be put into the schools. We have the cold, unadorned question of 
how to put it there — a question, too, unsusceptible of adornment. We 
have scarcely a fair opportunity even of assailing anybody or of ridicul- 
ing the views of others. We cannot help manual training along or an- 
nihilate it with our unsparing denunciation and withering invective. 
We have a very slight opportunity, it seems to me, to aid in promoting 
or retarding the unreasonable popularity of manual training. 

This question submitted to us is, as I understand it, simply one of 
ways and means. 

In most places where the manual training experiment is being tried in 
this country it is through the philanthropy and generosity of private 
individuals. Even where it is closely connected with public school sys- 
tems in several cities this has been brought about largely by private 
gifts. It has come to certain schools and cities as the kindergarten 
system has come ; in some places, first through the enthusiasm and 
munificence of private individuals, and then, after proving its claim 
upon all interests, it has been gladly adopted by boards of education 
and supported from the public funds. Manual training can be thus in- 
troduced wherever even a few have an appreciation of its benefits and 
can enlist private capital in its behalf. In introducing it in this way, 
what is needed is energy, enthusiasm, conviction, fanaticism, if you will, 
and money. 

When manual training is to be inaugurated through the majority 
of the people by taxation of themselves, the case is somewhat different. 
Before active measures can be taken for the erection of shops and hiring 
of teachers, money must be provided, and before this can be voted there 
must be proper education and preparation of the public mind for the 
reception of industrial work into the public school systems. This, then, 
is the first thing to look to — the preparation of the public mind. 

The people of the different cities are not.likely to tax themselves for 
the purpose of making quixotic experiments. They will demand to 
know (at least the intelligent and moneyed classes) what is promised 
and what has been done by the introduction of manual training into 
educational institutions. If manual training is a beneficent reform, it 
must be generally made known. If it is an ephemeral craze, a tran- 
sient fashion thatisj)assing over the country to divert attention, dissi- 
pate money, and wast6 time, the people should know it. They want to 



MANUAL TRAINING. 175 

know the truth about it. The common people hear about this manual 
training gladly. For one thing they see in it their possible emancipa- 
tion from the necessity of taking children from school at the age of ten 
or eleven years that these children may pick up around shop o factory 
a pittance of money and some knowledge by which they may support 
themselves in after life. 

Tbe people, in considering education, are beginning to ask for re- 
salts, not theories ; for bread, not stones. And the tendency is to ask, 
not " How much do you Imoio f " but "What can you do f*^ 

Thinking people have sense enough to perceive that God has joined 
very closely the mental and physical natures. They are beginning to ask 
in emphatic tones why it is that men have dared to put them asunder. 

It is seen also that the exercise of the mental and physical powers 
causes them to interact beneficially upon one another. So much mental 
philosophy is readily understood because it is demonstrable in common 
experience. 

Manual training, however, is to be tested among the people, not by 
theory and speculation, but by its actual benefits to society as shown 
in the minds, characters, and capabilities of those who have profited by 
what it has to offer. The avowed purposes of manual training and its 
actual results, as thus far gained from the pioneer experiments of 
Europe and ' America, should be placed in every possible way before 
the intelligent, thinking people of our cities. Let them know by gen- 
erous publication and distribution of printed matter, by newspaper 
and magazine, and oral lecture and discussion, the claims and objects 
of manual training, and what is being done by it in Sweden, Swit- 
zerland, Germany, and France, in Chicago, St. Louis, Philadelphia, 
Baltimore, New York, Omaha, and in hundreds of other important 
fields. 

We have been told, in a recent valuable treatise upon this subject, 
that in Sweden, partly by aid of the government, but mainly through 
the untiring efforts of several able and eminent men, manual trainiughas 
been introduced into about one thousand schools with the most bene- 
ficial results to the population. Thrift, sobriety, economy, and indus- 
trious habits among the people have followed in the wake of this in- 
terest in manual training in the schools and homes of the Swedish 
nation. It is interesting and suggestive to read the history of that 
peaceful contest for social and industrial progress. The author of that 
paper, in closing his report upon the introduction of manual work into 
the Swedish schools, says : 

In the beginning the economic conception of manual training was generaUy adopted. 
Everywbere it was looked upon as the means of preparing the children of the com- 
mon people to earn their living. But gradually the question took on its true aspect. 
It was recognized that manual training has a more elevated purpose, and one, indeed, 
more useful in the deeper meaning of the term. It came to be considered as an edu- 
cational process for the complete moral, physical, and intellectual devolopinent of 
the child. Thus were realized in Sweden the dreams of tho&vi \ll\i?>^it\^M^ \i^\y»^V^'^^> 



176 PROCEEDINGS — DEPARTMENT OP SUPERINTENDENCE. 

Comenias, Rousseau, Pestalozzi, and Froobel, in seeiug combined in the primary 
school programme manual traiuiug and the teaching of purely theoretical subjects, so 
as to insuro the integral cultivation of all the faculties and all the aptitudes which 
make up the complete man. 

It is my own belief that far more active effort is needed to inform the 
public mind as to the claims and results of manual training, and espe- 
cially as to its effects upon the mental powers. If you ask what are 
the facts of special importance which should be universally known 
for the education of public sentiment, I would say, briefly, without 
stopping now to reason to the conclusions, it must be known that 
where manual training is to be had in the grammar -and high schools 
of cities, the boys stay to complete the course of study, instead of 
seeking the shelter of railroad offices, banks, and dry-goods stores; 
that pale faces become ruddy, and their feeble bodies usually grow 
round and strong, because proper exercise is given, and the true 
equilibrium of mental and physical forces is maintained^ that it is as 
good for morals as for mind and body in doing away with the idle- 
ness, loafing, and dissipation, so apt to claim the evenings, Saturdays, 
and vacations of city-bred boys; that it develops and fosters new and 
wholesome views as to the proper relations between the poor, the mid- 
dle, and the opulent classes, and banishes that tendency in certain 
circles to look down upon the horny-handed son of toil who wears 
the soiled clothes of the mechanic ; that while it will give to the boys 
and girls an education which will better enable them to take hold of 
the practical business of life, with hand and eye so trained in the use 
of fundamental tools, processes, aud principles as ta be at home in 
any one of a thousand occupations ; that while it does these things 
for .boys and girls it is an educational process, a means of thought 
expression, giving the power to set forth, independently of language 
or gesture, in external, concrete form the subjective experiences of 
the soul, the r'deas and concepts of the mind. These are statements 
which I have come to regard as indisputable facts because of six 
years of daily association with manual training work and the pupils 
engaged in it. These are a few of the facts which, if amplified, illus- 
trated, explained, and widely disseminated and read by the people, will 
make the introduction of manual work into city schools or anywhere 
else a comparatively easy matter. But mankind is 'exceedingly con- 
servative, and when closely analyzed, conservatism is often found to 
consist pf an equal blending of the ingredients, laziness, obstinacy, 
and indifferentism. What is needed in this country to stir the people 
to action and prepare their minds for a complete educational system is 
a more emphatic and universal presentation of its claims. Those whom 
the opponents of manual training sometimes call << cranks and fanatics'' 
may yet do for the schools of the United States what Ahlbom, the 
sculptor, Count Sparre, Abrahamson, and Salamon did for the schools of 
Sweden. These men devoted their time, their learning, and their fort- 
uuea to the cause of putting manual training into the schools of the 



MANUAL TJBAINING. 177 

Kingdom of Sweden, and they have succeeded. These men worked 
for legislation, they wro.te, they travelled, they lectured, they demon- 
strated by actual experiments, at their own expense, the utility of 
manual training, until it became a leading feature of the common school 
system of their country. 

This is how to put manual training into the schools. It is done by 
interested, active, intelligent men who believe what they say, and who 
are willing to make personal sacrifices for their convictions. In my 
judgment it is of little importance to begin to talk about teachers, shops, 
and courses of study for this branch, until the people are aroused and 
instructed and are in a more compliant attitude of mind and are as will- 
ing to furnish the means for instruction in industrial drawing, wood and 
metal work, sewing and cooking, as for arithmetic, grammar, and al- 
gebra. I do not wish to be understood as saying that the masses of the 
people are opposed to manual training. I do not believe they are, so far 
as my experience and investigation go. I think they are rather favor- 
ably inclined to it. It is more indiflTerentism and lack of knowledge as 
to what it is and what it will do for them than active opposition. They 
do not know what the German manufacturer knew who, when discuss- 
ing technical education, said, " What we fear is not protection or free 
trade ; what we fear is that some day you English will wake up to the 
necessity of educating your industrial population as wo do; and then 
with your racial and physical advantages it would be difficult, if not im- 
possible, to compete with you.'^ 

THie worst foes of industrial education are those who ought to be 
its best friends, and they are among the teaching forces of the coun- 
try. I fancy that much of that opposition among teachers and prac- 
tical school men exists because they know very little about manual 
training theoretically, and much less about it practically. They can 
teach and supervise the teaching of all the ordinary branches of the 
common school, high school, and academy, but when it comes to making 
working designs, conducting classes in cabinet-making, wood-turning, 
and carving, they are helpless and ignorant. They would like to re- 
main monarchs of all they supervise, and manual work seems like an 
encroachment upon their absolutism and self-sufficiency. 

The normal schools and training schools for teachers must take hold 
of the matter and provide instruction for teachers in the technical 
branches. Manual training will come, even if it has to wait for a new 
race of pedagogues with larger ideas and more progressive tendencies. 
When teachers know how to teach a branch successfully, they usually 
welcome it to the curriculum ; and those who teach manual training 
must be teachers^ not mere mechanics who know only manual processes, 
nor must they be specialists, developed only in one direction ; they 
should be well-balanced, well-trained teachers who can understand the 
pedagogical value of the instruction, who will aim at developing the 

882— Mo. 2 12 



178 PROCEEDINGS — DEPAKTMENT OF SUPERINTENDENCE. 

powers of sensation, observation, perception, memory, imagination, 
and generalization ; who can show to pupils tha^ the best way to study 
matter and forces is not always from a dictionary or a text-book, but, 
with the various kinds of matter and force before their eyes and in 
their hands ; who realize that a good way to study cohesion is with a 
chisel, and the property of malleability with a hammer. Much of the 
best pedagogical talent of the country now looks askance at manual 
training. And why ! Because it does not know how to teach it, and 
knows but little about its history, its nature, and its results. 

There are summer normals and all- the-y ear- around normals through- 
out the country for the teaching of methods, pedagogical history, theory, 
and the purely theoretical branches. When all these schools begin to 
give teachers an opportunity to study the manual work, as a very few 
normals have already done, the teachers will take hold of it, and one 
great obstacle to the introduction of manual training, the lack of com- 
petent teachers, will be removed. 

I have now spoken of two essential preliminary movements in the in- 
troduction of manual training into city schools : first, the need of re- 
doubled activity to arouse and educate the public mind and stimulate 
public interest; second, the preparation of teachers for the work and 
the education of pedagogical sentiment through the medium of educa- 
tional periodicals, and normal and other training schools. 

The extent to which manual training may be introduced into city 
schools is an important part of this discussion. I have thus far said 
but little about* it, and I have but little to say. I can only offer an opin- 
ion, which is not very firmly established, and a few suggestions bearing 
upon this phase of the subject. My own experience with manual work 
has been with the four highest grades of pupils in a city of 100,000 in- 
habitants, the pupils ranging from thirteen to eighteen years of age. 
For these pupils the work has not only proved very interesting and 
attractive, but it has been most wholesome and helpful in many ways. 
But there are serious doubts in my mind whether manual training in 
the form of actual tool- work Ishould go lower than these grades. I am 
aware of the criticism to be made upon this view, that but a small per 
cent., comparatively, of a city's enrolment ever reach the four highest 
grades. In the city from which I came it is about fourteen per cent. But 
to the best of my knowledge there is no place where the actual handling 
of tools by pupils under ten or twelve years has ever been attended 
with any great degree of profit jor success. In the schools of Toledo, 
Ohio, we have provided a course of instruction, largely manual in char- 
acter, to meet the course in tool-work, extending downwards from the 
higher grades. This course for the younger pupils has in it many feat- 
ures of the kindergarten system. It consists of tablet-placing, cutting 
and posting of designs from colored paper, stick-laying, clay-moulding, 
and the simpler elements of industrial and observative drawing. About 
the only tool used is the scissors, but the work exercises the mind, eyes, 



MANUAL TRAINING. ' 179 

and hands in a very important way. This work the children all take 
great delight in, and it leads up in a systematic way to the manual train- 
ing work proper. This kind of manual or kindergarten work can be 
and should be put into all city schools. 

But when I consider the state of the minds and bodies of children be- 
low thirteen years, and the amount of work which they already have to 
do, and when I think of the lack of knowledge and enthusiasm on the 
part of the people as yet concerning manual training, and also the 
great lack of competent teachers, I am of the opinion that manual 
training, comprising the various branches of tool-work, should not be 
extended lower at the present time than the five highest grades. This 
opinion is liable to change upon the acquisition of new light in the shape 
of new facts and ampler demonstration. 

Mb. Anderson (after the reading of Mr. Compton's paper, referring 
to the resolution appointing the committee of which he had made a re- 
port) : Allow me to explain the condition of this resolution. In the 
first place the committee had no resolution to work upon, as read to 
them by the secretary, and I have to apologize for calling the attention 
of the association to the question, which it seems was called at the last 
meeting of this Department. I have learned recently from the presi- 
dent of the association that this original motion was laid aside and a 
substitute adopted. This substitute imposes upon the committee the 
duty of vigiting the departments of training and reporting thereon. 
The motion for which this was substituted, required the committee to 
examine into the curriculum of elementary schools and report what 
changes might be made, as they thought desirable. Now, the whole 
question was killed. I question very much whether my colleagues are 
able to give the time and attention to this question, and ask to be re- 
lieved from acting upon this 4iiestion further, and beg to name Dr. 
Butler in my place to report ui^on these improvements. 

A Member : When that paper was read by Dr. Allen this morning, 
that covered all God's creation, it seemed to me that I could not com- 
prehend what manual training in ungraded schools meant. The paper 
may fit one thing as well as another. Kow, it seems to me that this 
committee ought to bring in a definition of manual training, I believe 
we are all agreed in what Dr. White said last night ; and I believe wo 
are all agreed that manual training should be in all cities and large 
towns. But Lieutenant Ford said they should be training schools. 
But there were objections, I noticed; and we ought to know what we 
are going to talk about. 

The President: On motion, Mr. Butler is appointed on the com- 
mittee and Mr. Anderson relieved. 

Mr. Anderson : I move that this committee be instructed to define, 
in their report, what is manual training, and to what phase of elementary 
work it is applicable. 



180 PROCEEDINGS — ^DEPARTMENT OP SUPERINTENDENCE. 

Professor Powell: As a member of that committee, I beg and 
pray tbat this Department will not pass that motion. I have not time 
to study my share of the work, to study up a definition. I have an eye 
to the future welfare of the children of this country, and all this Depart^ 
ment, and when I think of the height to which a definition led us this 
morning in Dr. Harris' discussion, when I think of the impracticable 
ideas to which that led us, I hope, in the name of education, that this 
Department will not ask any committee to define it. I don't want a 
definition. I hope the gentleman will not insist upon this question ; or, 
if he does, I hope the Department will not adopt it. 

Mr. Seaborn : I trust, Mr. President, we shall not, at this stage of 
discussion, undertake to define the question. At least, for the present, 
each man had better have his own definition. Dr. White may frame a 
definition that suits him but that does not satisfy me completely, and I 
do the same without satisfyii/g Dr. White. It is the letter that kiUeth ; 
it is the spirit that giveth life. 

Dr. Newell : Manual training is just like mathematics; when we 
speak of mathematics one person means arithmetic, another algebra, 
geometry, and the next means calculus; and. he is right, too. And 
when we speak of manual training it is not of any specific thing, its 
general name including many specific things; it includes the training 
of the hand in the mechanical art schools, of which we heard to-day; 
also in the trade schools and technology schools. 

Dr. Marble : I move the adoption of the definition just given. 

Mr. Anderson: I tine to a point of order, that the committee 

Dr. Marble : 1 move the committee be requested to report the defini- 
tion just given by Mr. Newell. 

Dr. Allen : Mr. President, I think we ought to define education. 
We have had this morning a very severe criticism from a very eminent 
doctor— from a gentleman who stands as high in educational matters 
as any man in this country — and I had supposed that that definition 
that Dr. Harris criticised was a pretty good definition. But I was partly 
convinced this morning that it is not a very good definition, and I 
would like to reconstruct my opinions on that subject. If we are to 
define maiiual training, we ought to define education; and I hope at 
anothei' meeting we may be able to define three or four subjects, so as 
to be able to tell these superintendents of normal schools, who want to 
learn everything in God's creation. I suppose they would settle relig- 
ion and politics. I think we ought to let some things alone until the 
day of judgment. 

Mr. Goody: It seems to me that the proposition to define manual 
training is simply a proposition whether we shall discuss manual train- 
ing or something else. If one man means manual training and another 
means another thing, how can that answer the question? Now, of 
course, there may be differences of opinion as to what definition is de- 
sirable; but it seems to me that there ought to be no difference of 



MANUAL TRAINING. 181 

opinion whether we discuss the question of manual training or some- 
thing else. 

Mb. Woodwaud : I have always claimed that we^hould present the 
thing before the name. I therefore suggest that it is better for us to 
have manual training, and after we have it we will name it. 

The Chairman : I think this discussion has gone far enough, and we 
had better return to the question in hand. It is probable you gentle- 
men will have an opportunity, from year to year, to give your opinion 
upon this question. If it lingers as long in our body as Congressional 
aid did, we will remain friendly. It does appear to the Chair that we 
are leaving the question in a somewhat mixed condition. When I was 
a boy, I looked up to Dr. Harris and Dr. Woodward for advice and coun- 
sel in educational matters ; and now when 1 find all these gentlemen 
differing on this question, it mixes mcupj and when looking at the 
matter, I am like the Scotchman — 

You can aud you can't ; 
You wiU aud you won't ; 
You'll 1)0 damned if you will, 
And you'll be damned if you don't. 

It is now in that condition ; but I mean we young members of the con- 
vention. There is nobody that can settle these questions ; but we have 
the privilege of differing and discussing them, and out of this comes the 
survival of the fittest. 



CITY SUPERINTENDENTS. 



THE WORK OF THE CITY SUPERINTEFDESTT. 

By T. M. Balliet, 

Supei'iniendent of Springfield {Mass,) Schools, 

What is the chief end of man — when he happens to be superintend- 
ent of schools'? • What is the reason, or (to be modest) the excuse 
for his oflacial existence ? Although the law and the rules of the school 
board prescribe everywhere, in a general way, the same official duties, it 
would be found upon investigation that the purpose and character of 
the work of different superintendents ^ary widely and in essential re- 
spects. One makes a study of school-house architecture and devotes his 
time and energy mainly to manipulating an unwieldy andj perhaps, re- 
fractory board, so as to get them to erect good sichool buildings ; an- 
other spends most of his time in attending to the routine work of the 
office, gathering statistics and compiling statistical reports ; a third may 
make the mere machinery of school- work his chief concern, devising 
plans for managing the promotion of pupils, for conducting examina- 
tions and conveniently tabulating the results ; still another may make 
some one phase of school-work, such as language-work, manual traip- 
ing, drawing, geography, etc., the main purpose of his effort. 

Now, I have a good deal of faith in the "man of one idea.'^ As a 
rule, he has one idea more than his critics. But is it not possible in 
our enthusiasm to build up one line of work that we may see the im- 
portance of tTiis particular work in false perspective ? Is it not possible 
that we may neglect the weightier matters of the law by allowing our 
interest and energies to be absorbed in the minor details ? 

The superintendent is, or ought to be, a specialist, capable of doing 
a kind of work which no one without special training can do. Many 
of the details of routine work, usually required of him by boards of ed- 
ucation, can be attended to just as well by some one whose time is not 
worth as much as his is, provided he knows his work. It is bad busi- 
ness management for a board to pay the superintendent the salary of a 
specialist and then require him to devote his time to work which de- 
mands no special training. After paying a physician ten dollars for a 
prescription, it is not economy to pay him another ten dollars to go to 
the apothecary to have it put up — a service which a boy can do equally 

182 



well for twenty-five cents. There is a good deal of work which many 
. superintendents are required to do that could be done quite as well by 
some person whose services could be secured ^or a small salary : 

(1) In the first place, a superintendent ought never to serve as clerk 
Or secretary of the board. 

(2) In the second place, he ought not to spend his time in attending 
to the distributing of books and supplies to the schools* He ought to 
have a clerk or agent to attend to such details. 

(3) Thirdly, he ought not to spend any time in gathering statistics 
and compiling statistical reports. All such work should be done by a 
clerk. 

(4) Fourthly, he ought not to devote much of his time to the exami- 
nation of schools and classes, except in so far as this is necessary to 
determine the character of the teachers' work. I have known superin- 
tendents in small towns to examine the manuscripts of every pupil in 
every school in examinations for promotion. Such wofk is a wicked 
waste of precious time. 

(5) And lastly, the superintendent should not allow himself to have 
his chief interest in what may be called the machinery of public school 
work. The school system of a large city necessarily involves a certain 
amount of mechanism in its organization; there must be unity, conti- 
nuity, and harmony of work. But unity is a very different thing from 
nniformity, and reqllires much less rigidity and mechanical precision in 
organization. Unity is consistent with variety, and is characteristic of 
life; uniformity excludes variety, and is only possible where life is gone. 
A tree has unity, a telegraph-pole uniformity. It is by aiming at uni- 
formity that so many wheels are found necessary in a system of public 
schools that the superintendent has little time for anything but watch- 
ing the running of the machinery, managing throttle-valves, levers, and 
cranks. 

What, then, is to be the chief work of the superintendent? In what 
direction should his Interest lief If there are poor school-houses, he 
must urge the erecting of better ones; if the machinery of the system 
does not run without undu^ friction, he must give it attention ; but his 
energy should not be permanently expended in these directions. 

The sut)erintendent must be, first of all, a teacher of pedagogics. His 
most important work must be to train his teachers to do thorough and 
clear thinking on all lines of educational work which they are doing. 
He must not simply, in a dogmatic way, teach them pedagogical truths, 
but he must train them to observe children, to interpret their observa- 
tions, and to deduce from them the principles that must guide them in 
their teaching. 

The superintendent must do a work that is almost identical with that 
of the teacher of pedagogics in a normal school or college. Indeed, I 
believe that he has more satisfactory conditions or facilities for teaching 
pedagogics than are found in the best normal schools and colleges. 



184 PROCEEDINGS — DEPARTMENT OF SUPERINTENDENCE. 

Students of pedagogics in a normal school or college are often imma- 
ture; most of them have never had any experience in teaching, and the 
course is limited to fronf two to three years. The superintendent, on 
the other hand, has a body of teachers who are mature, many of whom 
have had wide experience in teaching, to which he can appejil; they can, 
in their daily work, apply and test the instruction they recJeive; and 
lastly, the course is limited only by his own ability on the one hand and 
by hjs tenure of office on the other. I know of no opportunity for 
teaching pedagogics successfully anywhere quite equal to that of the 

superintendent of schools. 

Such a course should include a thorough discussion of educational 
psychology, of the general principles of pedagogics, of the application 
of these principles to the teaching of the various branches of the curricu- 
lum, and a series of lectures on the most important chapters in the 
history of education. 

In order that this work may be made a success, however, the teachers' 
meeting must be made the central interest for teachers and superin- 
tendent. It is here that the superintendent must do his most effective 
work. This meeting must take the place of the recitation in a normal 
school or college. It must be an occasion on which there is actual 
teaching of pedagogics done in the way of lectures and discussions. A 
superintendent can make no greater mistake in regard to the teachers' 
meeting than to convert it simply into an occasion for«making criticisms 
on the minor details of the teachers' work, calling attention to the many 
little mistakes which he may have observed during the week, but had 
not the courage to criticise privately, and for giving directions as to the 
mechanical details of school work. 

A mistake equally great sometimes made is, to devote the entire period 
of such a meeting to a discussion of the petty troubles and annoyances 
teachers have met with during the week or the month. If criticisms 
must be made and school-room annoyances discussed, the whole matter 
should be disposed of in ten or fifteen minutes, and the rest of the hour 
be devoted to legitimate pedagogical work. 

The teachers' meeting ought to be looked forward to by the teachers 
as a source of real help, as an occasion for gaining new insight into 
their work, new inspiration for it and higher aspirations in it.* At such 
a meeting a superintendent can give teachers more assistance in one 
hour than he could give them in two weeks by simply visiting their 
schools-and giving individual help. 

These meetings must not, however, be too few and far between. There 
ought to be a meeting of all the teachers in the smaller cities at least 
once a month ; and, in addition, one grade meeting of the primary and 
grammar grades, respectively. I have found it wise to have them come 
more frequently — from five to eight or nine a month. There ought to be 
no difficulty in securing attendance even if they do come frequently. 
At all events^ there should be no roll-call or compulsory attendance. I 



CITY SUPERINTENDENTS. 185 

should no more tliink of calling the roll at a teachers' ineetiDg as a 
means of securing attendance, than I should think of calling the roll on 
Sabbath morning in church to secure the attendance of wayward mem- 
bers. When a minister's preaching is of such a character as to scatter 
his flock, thoughtful elders do not resort to a roll-call to bring them 
back, but they l6ok about for another shepherd. 

The meeting at which all the teachers are present should be devoted 
to lectures on educational psychology and on the general principles of 
tefaching. These lectures should be of such a character as to present 
the subject, as far as possible, in an inductive way, leading the teach- 
ers to observe children and to acquire scientific habits of thought 
and scientific methods of investigation. Psychology and pedagogics 
should be taught, like botany and zoology, in a strictly scientific and 
inductive way. There is no more reason why they should be taught 
deductively in a dogmatic way than why physics or chemistry should 
be so taught. In pedagogics and psychology, as in natural science, 
it is only after the student has had a long, thorough course in experi- 
mental, inductive work that ho is able to verify dogmatic statements 
of principles by referring them to the facts from which they were de- 
duced and to intelligently receive instruction by dogmatic, deductive 
methods. To teach either pedagogics or psychology from the begin- 
ning in a deductive way is to present it to the student as a tradition 
and not as a science, for neither can assume for hiip the character 
of a science until he sees its principles as inductions from facts and 
phenomena. 

I am aware that this position is questioned by some thoughtful 
men, but I must confess to a very strong conviction of its truth, and 
I suspect it would not be dif&cult to defend it. 

If these subjects are presented in an inductive way in the teachers' 
meeting, every teacher will look upon her school as a sort of pedagog- 
ical laboratory in which to experiment, gather facts, and verify generali- 
zations. She will observe and study children as never before. She 
will probably report valuable observations at the teachers' meeting 
which will throw further light on the particular subject under discussion. 
She will form the habit of constantly lookmg beneath the surface 
of her work for principles, and will do nothing for which she can not 
give a good reason. She has learned how to do independent study in 
pedagogics, and now has within her the means of unlimited professional 
growth. I am far from maintaining that a superintendent can raise the 
dead, but I feel confident that it is possible for him to infuse new life 
into the living, and to train the majority of teacners In any except 
our most backward cities to do independent thinking in pedagogics. 
To assume that this is impossible is to give up pessimistically that 
hope which, the proverb says, even those retain who have given up 
everything else. 

The general teachers' meeting gives the superintendent a ver^ ^o<^^ 



186 PROCEEDINGS — DEPARTMENT OP SUPERINTENDfiNCfi. 

opportunity to impress upon teachers the interdependence and the unity 
of tiie work of all tlie grades, to lead them to see the relation of the 
work in feach grade to that ot all the other grades. Teachers are very 
much disposed to assume that the human soul, somehow or other, is 
stratified to suit the grades of public schools, and that one layer is as- 
signed to the first grade^ another to the second, etc., and that all that 
the teacher needs to concern herself about is to study the particular 
layer assigned to her particular grade. 

In the general teachers' meeting, where teachers of all the grades are 
present, this error can easily be corrected. Teachers can be led to see 
that in order to do intelligently the work of any one grade they must 
know what has preceded and what will follow the work of that grade. 
I have always found the general teachers' meeting my best opportunity 
for interesting the teachers of each grade in the work of all other 
grades. This is especially true of high school teachers and the teachers 
of the higher grammar grades, who, whilst they are quite willing to 
admit that primary work comes first in point of time, are generally dis- 
tK)sed to consider it last and least in point of importance. It is a good 
plan to discuss the principles of teaching applicable to all grades in 
this general meeting; otherwise, teachers will fail to see the unity of 
the work of all the grades, and will be interested in taking the classes 
over the ground assigned to their particular grade rather than in devel- 
oping their miuds and character. 

At the grade meetings, the instruction ought to consist of a thorough 
discussion in detail of the work in each of the branches in the course 
assigned to the particular grade. The instruction in educational psy- 
chology and in general pedagogics, given at the general teachers' meet- 
ing, must be made the basis of the instruction at the grade meetings. 
Out of these general principles must now grow the principles of grad- 
ing the work in each study for each grade, and the methods and devices 
to be used in teaching. Each branch of the curriculum should be taken 
tip in succession, analyzed, the natural order of its development de- 
termined, the various steps to betaken marked out, and devices be sug- 
gested. Whilst it is (piite true that teachers should invent their own 
devices as far as possible, it is also true that sometimes the very best 
assistance the superintendent can give a teacher is to suggest some 
happy device for developing a particular point in her work. The de- 
mand on the part of teachers for such help is evidenced by the many 
articles in our educational papers giving devices instead of discussing 
principles. Some earnest men see in this a degeneracy of educational 
journalism, but I confess I fail to see the matter in this light. Teach- 
ers must know ])rinciples, and educational papers must discuss them; 
but I suspect that a more careful study of the teachers' needs and the 
order of their professional growth would reveal the fact that it is easier 
and more natural, for the majority of young teachers at least, to pass 
from and through devices to the principles which ihey illustrate and 



CITY SUPERINTENDENTS. 13? 

which underlie them, than to pass from the principles to the devices. A 
device is simply the application of a principle, and pedagogical princi- 
ples, like principles in other sciences, are more readily seen in their ap- 
plication to specific cases than in their bare, abstract form. After a 
teacher has been trained to look for and discover a principle underly- 
ing every device she employs, there is absolutely no danger in suggest- 
ing devices to her. The only circumstances under which it would be 
hazardous for the Superintendent to attempt to suggest devices is when 
he does not happen to know any to suggest. Then is the time for him 
to take the ground, and take it boldly, that teachers must know enough 
to invent their own devices, and must not look to him for help with re- 
spect to such trifles; that his sphere is to be an educator, theirs to be 
teachers. In this way he will maintain the dignity of the craft, and 
may win for himself the reputation of being too profound as a philo- 
sophic thinker to trouble himself with superficial details. 

What attention should be given to the study of the history of educa- 
tion in the teachers^ meeting f 

It is foreign to the purpose of this paper to discuss the importance 
of the study of the history of education, or the methods to be employed 
in teaching pedagogics j but it may be remarked that the teacher in the 
public schools ought to spend little time in. reading the history of what 
was done to educate people in Greece, Eome, and over Europe in the 
Middle Ages, as long as she is quite unfamiliar with what is done to-day 
in the best schools of America and of Europe. Before a teacher has 
mastered to a fair degree the best educational thought, and has made 
herself familiar with the best educational practice of the day, I believe 
it is a source of confusion rather than of help to attempt to study the 
conflicting educational theories and systems of the remote past. 

Indeed, it is possible for a person of good academic training to make 
himself quite thoroughly familiar with the history of education, talk and 
write quite intelligently about the various theories of education held by 
the philosophers of ancient Greece, about the schools of Charlemagne, 
iherise of the European universities, and the various attempts at popular 
education of stiU later times, without being able himself to apply con- 
' ststently a single educational principle to the actual work of the school. 
The history of education is the one department of pedagogy on which a 
person can "cram,'^ if you will pardon the use of the term, and it is by 
far the easiest department to master. It appears to me that it ought to 
come last in a course of instruction. I cannot help but look with much 
suspicion on the tl^eory held by some thoughtful men that the study of 
pedagogics to-day ought to consist chiefly, if not wholly, of a mere inter- 
pretation of the masters of thought in past ages; that the history of edu- 
cation presents all the pedagogical knowledge there is and can be. It 
seems to me such a theory, whilst it shows a great deal of commendable 
reverence for the past, presents little hope for the future; and is in great 
'danger of converting the science of pedagogy into a mere tradition of the 



\ 



188 PROCEEDINGS — DEPARTMENT OP SUPERINTENDENCE. 

pedagogue, to be sacredly guarded and handed down from generation to 
generation in its pristine purity. 

I believe, in short, that the superintendent should first train his 
teachers to think clearly on the pedagogical questions which confront 
them in their school work ; that he should first give them thorough in- 
struction in the methods of teaching the various branches and in the 
principles underlying them, and that he should above all train them to 
observe the child, interpret their observations, and make their own in- 
ductions, before he give them to any great extent instruction in the his- 
tory of education. 

Next to the teaching of pedagogics in the teachers' meeting comes, 
it would seem, the teaching of the details of method?, the application of 
principles to special cases in the school-room. This the superintendent 
can do only by visiting the school and giving the teacher individual, 
private help. His work as an inspector of schools ought not to bo 
looked upon by the teacher as a species of detective work, but his visits 
ought to be welcomed as those of a friend who comes to help and not to 
find fault. His criticisms, if made with the proper motive and in the 
right manner, will be kindly received by the earnest teacher. 

The superintendent ought, at all times, to be willing and ready to take 
charge of the class and illustrate the point on which he finds it neces- 
sary to criticise the teacher. A person of any tact at all can do this 
without having the pupils know that the teacher has been criticised. 
If we, superintendents, should make it a rule to criticise no teacher 
sharply for a mistake which we ourselves could not avoid making, were 
we in her place, teachers would have little occasion to deplore in us the 
*' rarity of Christian charity.'' 

How should the superintendent deal with poor, inefficient teachers- 
teachers who are pedagogically past redemption 1 '* The poor ye have 
with you always f you may as well thoughtfully make provision for 
them. A superintendent's attitude towards inefficient teachers, and 
through them towards the local politicians behind them, often deter- 
mines his degree of usefulness and sometimes even his tenure of office. 

The purpose of the superintendent must be to secure the best work 
that can be secured, both from the efficient and the inefficient, from the 
quick and the dead. How can he do so with the least amount of finction 
and antagonism ? 

In the first place, it seems to me that it is a serious mistake to criti- 
cise poor teachers severely when it is morally certain that they cannot 
or will not improve. Such criticisms only serve to create the impres- 
sion that the superintendent is prejudiced against them, and if they a^ 
finally dismissed, the matter will arouse unnecessary feeling and antag- 
onism. It is not wise to discuss a surgical operation with a patient bo- 
fore you perform it. It only increases the suffering. 

If a superintendent commands their respect, the best way to criti- 
cise inefficient teachers is to say nothing about them and their work. 



CITY SUPERINTENDENTS. 189 

but simply commend as strongly as he can, truthfully, the work of 
efficient teachers. This is a mode of criticism that accomplishes a 
number of points : 

(1) In the first place, it is a matter of justice to good teachers, en- 
courages them, and makes them loyal. ^ 

(2) In the second place, it secures the good will of thei%teric9ds. 

(3) In the third place, it serves to arouse poor teachersi^if they are 
worth arousing at all. 

(4) In the fourth place, it makes them absolutely helpless. They can- 
not, with any grace, complain because they receive no praise. The 
worst charge they and their friends can bring against the superintend- 
ent is that he lets them alone. 

(5) And in the fifth place, when he finally asks the board to dismiss 
them, it cannot be made to appear that he does so from any prejudice 
he may entertain against them. 

*It foUows from aU this, that the superintendent of schools must be a 
practical teacher himself. He ought to have had considerable experience, 
some time in his life, in teaching all the grades found in public schools. 
The man who has never taught school himself is wholly out of place in 
the position of superintendent; and the occasional appointment of 
such men by school boards through political wirepulling is a sin which 
will be forgiven the present generation by that which is to come only 
through that charity, apparently innate in the human heart, which cov- 
ers with a mantle the sins of the fathers, and refuses to say anything but 
good of the deadc 

The superintendent ought to be the counsellor of the board on all 
educational questions, and in regard to the grading and organization of 
the schools, the construction of the course of study, and the methods 
of teaching to be employed. A board of education should no more feel 
free to ignore his counsel than they would feel free to ignore the advice 
of an attorney on a legal question pertaining to their official acts. 

The superintendent ought, furthermore, to be recognized as the au- 
thority on educational questions in the community. He ought to de- 
mand such recognition, not, however, so much by his words as by his 
works. He ought to fashion the educational thought of the community 
and direct it into right channels. 

It is needless to say that the superintendent must be a scholar, a 
thinker, and, above all, a student. The highest service he can render 
his teachers is to arouse their thinking, to direct it, and to stimulate 
them to do their work with enthusiasm. In short, he must stimulate 
their intellectual and professional growth. Unless he has scholarly 
habits himself, thinks clearly, and works with enthusiasm, he can not 
accomplish this. Physicists tell us that a body at rest is not very apt 
to make other bodies move. The superintendent can not afford to al- 
low anything to interfere with his readiug and study, especially as far 
as e<lucational problems are concerned. The busiest &\i\\^tvwtviM^ist\b^ 



190 PROCEEDINGS ^DEPARTMENT OP SUPERINTENDENCE. 

has as much opportunity, if not leisure^ for study and keeping in the 
current of human tliouglit as far as his own profession is concerned, as 
the physician or the lawyer. There is no valid reason why he should 
not live a life of as intense intellectual interest and activity as thinking 
men in other i)rofessions. The moment he ceases to study with enthu- 
siasm, he ceases to grow and loses the power of stimulating and inspir- 
ing others. The dead may possibly be able to bury the dead ; they can 
not restore them to life. 

I may remark, in conclusion, that in what I have said I have had in 
mind the superintendent of the smaller cities and towns — those not ex- 
ceeding 100,000 in population. 

But what is true of small cities is equally true of our larger cities. 
Here, instead of doing all the supervising alone, with possibly the help 
of two or three special teachers, he must have a large number of assist- 
ants. It is absolutely necessary that teachers come in personal contact 
frequently with some competent supervising officer who will train them, 
as I have indicated, in the science and art of teaching. Each of these^ 
assistant supervising officers should be assigned a certain section of the 
city and be required not only to inspect the schools and report to the 
superintendent the condition in which he finds them, but he should be 
required to hold teachers' meetings, train the teachers, and make the 
condition of the schools what it should be. 

Such a system of supervision is the only substitute, I suspect, we shall 
ever find for the complex machinery of the school systems of our large 
cities. The supposed need of a rigid course of study and frequent ex- 
aminations, grows out of the feeling that there must be unity and con- 
tinuity in the work of the various schools 5 but instead of securing 
unity, this system develops uniformity, and is fatal to genuine educa- 
tional work. 

Unity must come from within. It is a matter of growth. The only 
way to secure it is to train all teachers to understand and apply to their 
work the principles of teaching. As soon as they will all think alike 
on all essential questions pertaining to their work, there will be harmony 
and unity in the entire system of schools. There can be no clashing or 
friction between the various lines of work, because all are pervaded by 
the " unity of the spirit " and are therefore held together " in the bonds 
of peace,'^ 



CITY SUPERINTENDENTS. 191 



DISCUSSION. 

Mr. Blair: I regret exceedingly that my friend, Superintendent 
Moses, of the Ealeigh school, is not here ; and I also regret that 1 am not 
prepared to go into the discussion of the question. But after such a full 
paper as we have had upon this subject, it seems to mo it needs but lit- 
tie di|pussion. I don't know what is left for me to say. There are two 
points I wish to emphasize ; one of those was the fact that the super- 
intendent can not do the work in a school room ; and the other is, that 
in working with the teacher, the teachers' meeting must be the centre. 
The power must go forth from that teachers' meeting. We find that a 
teacher in any subject is a better teacher if she is w^orking along some 
particular line. And so the superintendent must keep in advance of 
the teacher all along the lines of his thought. We have heard of the 
great things the manual training schools are going to do for us ; then 
the superintendents ought to take a course in the manual training 
school. 

Dr. Harris : I have nothing to say of the paper (Balliet's) except 
that it was a most excellent paper. One point I was most pleased with — 
and wish to emphasize it — and that is, that the superintendent should 
get his teachers together and have a kind of normal institute meeting 
once a week to discuss theoretic and practical questions 5 but I would 
say that the meeting of the whole body of teachers of a large city is 
impossible; but perhaps in a city of from forty to sixty thousand it is 
possible to get all the teachers together and hold pi^ofitable discussions. 
The first duty of the superintendent is to make the school strong in the 
community; therefore he should look out for the newspapers, because 
they have their opinions about things, and if they set the current 
against his good things it is not easy to counteract it. The next great 
point is, are his schools popular with the people ? He ought to so pre- 
sent the work of the schools to the people that it will carry them in 
favor of it, that they may feel large interest in it and be proud of it. 
He should see his school board once a week, if he can, and see the mem- 
bers that have opinions of their own and are worth convincing. He 
should in this way carry the working majority always. And this is 
his work with the school board. I^Tow let us take the school board in 
American politics. There will be always some persons elevated to the 
school board to use it as a stepping stone for the legislature or city 
council. Again, tbere will be some persons elected simply because they 
are always harping on the one idea. In the next place, the superintend- 
ent must influence his teachers. But that was very fully dwelt upon 
in the paper. The relation of the superintendent to the i)upils is not 
an immediate one ; his relation is, first, to public opinion; secondly, to 
the people whom he reaches through publications, his school report, and 
in various ways reaching tbe families of the citizens represented in his 
schools; third, with the school board ; andfourt\i,\N\\k\k^\fc^OQL<et^* ^ 



192 PROCEEDINGS — DEPARTMENT OP SUPERINTENDENCE. 

the superintendent is strong with them, he can carry his schools on his 
back. 

Dr. Winship: While we are all agreed with the spirit and largely 
with the details of this paper, there is one phase of it I think very un- 
just to the reader of the paper. We know there is no more charitable 
man in the world than he y yet the impression that paper has made 
upon me is, that whoever did not meet this ideal was not a success in 
teaching or as superintendent. It has been my privilege to see asAnany 
superintendents in their work during the last year as anyone here, and 
I can not call up to-day a single superintendent, except Dr. Balliet, who 
preaches the idea he sets, before us this afternoon. I do not believe 
there is one in this country that preaches that idea. . I think this .one 
thing ought to be stated at the close of the discussion here, that there 
is no one way and no one standard which is superior to every other way 
and every other standard. Success may come with different personalities, 
with different miBthods. There are superintendents in this country wlio 
are as successful as any other superintendents, who never have taught 
school to amount to anything in their life. I believe in the spirit and ideal 
of much of this paper; but I know some of the best superintendents in 
this country whoso success is such as to command admiration of their 
work, who would not, if they could, teach psychology to their teachers. 
I have more than once gone to hear Dr. Balliet when he teaches his 
teachers, for it is better than any normal school training that I <ever re- 
ceived in my life. But that does not say that others are not as success- 
ful in their way as he is in his. We want to go out feeling that this is 
not the onlj'^ ideal of success for a superintendent. 

Mr. Greenwood : Mr. President, just one point presented by the es- 
sayist, and that is in regard to the teachers' meeting. It occurs to me, 
sir, that in a city with a population of not more than sixty thousand 
or even a hundred thousand, teachers' meetings can be held and the 
superintendents reach the teachers in those meetings successfully and 
effectively. To get the best results with the teaching force, meetings 
must be held, the teachers must be reached, inspiration must be gen- 
erated, and I know of no way.in which these influences can be brough 
to bear so successfully as in the teachers' meeting. I know the superin- 
tendent can work in these meetings and here study the higher form o 
these great educational questions ; but I am fully aware of the fact tha. 
when he goes down to those just below and even down to theteache 
who are just engaged in the very lowest work, there the work oft 
superintendent should be felt and should direct and control the wor 
The question may come up, how will you do this ? Organize your teacl^ 



ers into sections ; have your meetings each month ; the teachers wi 

come; the very ablest of the thinking corps called in, and those thi 
come in presenting the exercises upon the theory upon the one hand ai 
the practice on the other j and investigating those questions in th 
way, all can be reached, and the work of the teachers can be brought t^ 



CITY SUPERINTENDENTS. 193 

gether, and with the influence of the superintendent bearing upon these 
teachers, you get the very best work. I hold, then, that the most effi- 
cient work the superintendent can do, is that in which this influence goes 
down and permeates the whole force. I agree perfectly with Dr. Bal- 
liet, that the superintendent ought also be a teacher, not only a teacher 
of teachers, but, if he can, take hold from the very lowest grade to the 
highest. The doctor knows there is something wrong, but does not 
know what to administer. How can we get over this unless the person 
in charge can show this lady or gentleman how the work is to be done. 
There are many points in the work, but the strongest is with the sup- 
erintendent. 

Professob Parr: I want to say a word in emphasis of what Mr. 
Greenwood has said, and call attention to what the gentleman called 
an error of distribution, by arguing that the superintendent may not be 
a teacher, and that some superintendents who have never been teachers 
have been successful, whereas others who have been teachers have been 
unsuccessful. In that he takes up one isolated case and puts it over 
against another; but the gentleman in the paper was discussing a type 
and not individual cases ; but what he says would not apply, because it 
does not apply to the type; it certainly must hold that, other things be- 
ing equal, he who has the ability and experience, will make a better su- 
pervisor than he who has not been a teacher, but possesses the other 
elements. 

The Chair: This is a very important subject. It represents an 
ideal superintendent, and I hope the others will not be discouraged if 
they feel that they do not meet the requirements ; because if you ever 
find a superintendent like the one described, running round loose, exam- 
ine him closely, and you will find wings ; you will find him sitting alone ; 
modem degeneracy has not reached him. But the ideal is a good one 
to have befoire us. The paper is presented in good shape, but I think 
the ideal presented there unquestionable. 

Mr. Hancock: I have heard a vast deal of teaching of psychology, 
and 1 realize the importance of having had experience. All teaching 
must have a root in philosophic principles. But I want to ask Dr. Bal- 
liet whether he has done much in the why of directing teachers' reading 
of the best literature and thus improving their general culture. I 
think he must have done so, else he would not be the ideal superinten- 
dent Dr. Winship has declared him to be. Has he given much atten- 
tion to the culture side of the teacher's work, or the culture side of 
what is supposed to be a part of the superintendent's work ? I suppose 
we shall come to the question, What is the culture value of the teacher ? 
Now, if I could have the choice, if one or the other should have to be 
omitted, I should choose the man or woman of culture, and use them in 
the instruction of the little children. I have not heard anything of that 
phase of the subject in this meeting. 
882— No. 2 ^13 



194 PROCEEDINGS — DEPARTMENT OP SUPERINTENDENCE. 

Dr. Ballibt: It is a question whether the superintendent ought to 
be expected to expend much of his energy in this direction. It is the 
duty of school boards to employ none but cultivated teachers. If he 
is a scholar and cultivated man himself, he will, withoat any direct ef- 
fort, stimulate his teachers to read; if he himself lacks the instincts of 
the scholar and the man of culture, no effort, direct or indirect, will en- 
able him to do so. I hold that the chief work of the superintendent is, 
and always must be, teaching his teachers how to teach. 

Mr. Mertz: Why is it less the superintendent's office in respect to 
culture than to teacher's work ! 

Dr. Balliet : That might be made an argument to do away with the 
superintendent. If the teacher knows her work there is no use for a 
superintendent. I think the school committees do get some cultured 
teachers. 



I 



PRINCIPALS. 



THE SCHOOL PRINCIPAL. 
By Geoege Howland, 

Superintendent of Chicago Schools. 

My felUm'ieachers : 

Once again I come before you, not for the purpose of pleasing the ear 
with rhetoric, nor to excite your wonder by some deep question of philos- 
ophy, or new discovery in pedagogy, but with some plain thoughts based 
upon sound principles, I trust, which, it is hoped, may contribute to the 
pleasure and profit of both teacher and pupil. 

In my efforts once and again to emphasize the personal influence of 
the class teacher in quickening the intellect, and developing the charac- 
ter of the pupil, I have neither lost sight of nor underrated the impor- 
tance and value of that teacher of teachers — the school principal. 

For whatever the character or qualifications of the assistants — whether 
versed in the details of the school room, or but just essaying her un- 
tried powers^ whether running her little round of familiar and unques- 
tioned school duties, or ever thoughtfully seeking for new and more 
fraitful methods, still, with the principal will rest the whole tone and 
spirit of the school; and its influence in enlisting and uplifting the 
thought of parents and people, or letting it sink to a low level of negli- 
gence and thoughtlessness, will largely depend upon the wisdom, the 
enterprise, the intelligence, the true manhood or womanhood of the 
principal. 

Many a teacher, I fancy, wearied, worried, and worn with theever-press- 
ing and perplexing cares of the school room, with its inexorable demands 
upon her vitality and patience, often, in thought, turns her longing looks 
to the prize of a principalship, as a quiet refuge from care, from infinite 
detail, from troublous boys and annoying girls, from wearisome hours 
of examination papers and dull compositions. 

Such do sometimes pass the examinations and become principals, and 
their influence is soon seen in the dull, routine school, in the easily-sat- 
isfied teacher, the memoriter recitation, the unthinking, careless pupil, 
the lounging, slouching, gum-chewing boy or girl, who had better never 
have seen the inside of a school room. The teacher who tires of her 
work, sees nothing but evil in the hearts and minds of the boys and girls, 



1^6 PROCEEDINGS — ^DEPARTMENT OP SUPERINTENDENCE. 

praying for the calm haven of rest in the quiet office with its revolving 
chair and comfortable lounge, may, perchance, obtain a principal's cer- 
tificate, but is not wanted at the head of one of our public schools. 

The teacher, eve^ when upborne by a deep love and a fond hope for 
her pupils, will often find the hours wearying and wearing j the vigilance 
of the principal must be ceaseless and untiritfg. The teacher, with her 
little ones ever under her eye, with ready discernment, soon learns of 
their childish ways, their natures and tendencies, and how to check their 
wayward fancies and thoughtless errors, and direct them into the right 
paths. With those of maturer years and more fixed habits of thought 
and action the principal has to do, and become equally familiar with their 
characters and dispositions — a task requiring a deeper study and a more 
profound philosophy to perceive the real causes of their success or fail- 
^ure in teaching and discipline, and guide the wanderers, often uncon- 
sciously, into better ways, and to more assured success, and these, too, 
seen only at intervals and for brief periods. 

Instead of a single grade of work, he must be alike acquainted with 
the entire course of study, in its general outline, and in its smaller de- 
tails, as ready to suggest a device for the toddling of six, as for the 
studious and thoughtful youth of fourteen, or even the tried and some- 
times trying teacher of untold years. 

His is the life, the impulse of the school ; its controlling and direct- 
ing power 5 its inspiration and its hope ; adjusting and harmonizing its 
various parts, Encouraging here and checking there, making his pres- 
ence felt for good by teacher and pupil at once, omnipresent in his in- 
fluence, never obtrusive, but alive to the working of all the mental and 
material machinery entrusted to his care. 

Nowhere but in the school-room, seeing and hearing, with keen ob- 
servation and nice discernment, can this knowledge, this power and in- 
fluence be acquired. 

Meditations in the office, and theories worked out at the desk fur- 
nish little material to nourish the minds and souls of teachers or pu- 
pils. There are few things more useless for the furnishing of a school 
than the office principal. 

The organization of the school — the distribution of the pupils to 
their several rooms under the appointed teachers hardly need be men- 
tioned as the first business of the principal ; and yet the manner of its 
doing strikes the keynote, as it were, of the year, indicating to the ob- 
servant eye of teacher and pupil, the character of the year's work— 
whether it is to be prompt, firm, and harmonious in its action, or weak, 
dawdling, and discordant. 

In truth, the whole scheme of organization should be clearly and defi- 
nitely wrought out in the mind of the principal before the opening morn- 
ing, as far as the conditions can be known, with alternatives ready at 
his command for possible contingencies. 
^ The plan of the school should be as clearly defined in his thought as 



PRINCIPALS. 197 

that of a coming battle in the mind of the commander^ prepared, how- 
ever, for this or that movement, should the necessity occur, but ready 
with well-digested devices and ample forces, in case of any unforeseen 
exigencies. With wise and calm decision and prompt action, should he 
put his plans into Operation, unruffled by the countless questions and 
suggestions of pupils .and parents, every teacher in her place, every 
pupil promptly to his seat, ready for the work, so that almost with the 
morning bell, the whole school may start off like the machinery of a 
vast factory at the touch of the lever that puts it all in motion, with 
no jarring, no friction, no undue tension, but quietly, smoothly, strongly, 
all in perfect accord for the working out of earnest, industrious, well- 
informed, self-controlled, intelligent, and worthy characters. 

Little adjustments may afterwards be made from day to day, as char- 
acters and attainments may suggest, but by Tuesday morning, at the 
farthest, the school should be in good working order, with carefully 
prepared programmes on the black-board, with teachers ready for their 
assigned work, and pupils knowing their allotted parts, and eager to 
engage in them. 

With scarce forty weeks in the year, we can not afford to spend all, 
or most of the first, in getting ready ; and to whom shall we look for 
the realization of this possible ideal, but to the well-equipped, the wisely 
exi)erienced, the alert, vigilant, calm, high-minded principal. 

If it were true that "we learn to do by doing,'^ which it is not, save 
in a very narrow and limited sense, the principaPs work would now be 
'well-nigh complete, and he might sit back in calm composure to ob- 
serve with silent satisfaction the growing prosperity of his school. 

" We learn to do by doing '' is one of those aphoristic half-truths well 
suited to catch the ear and delude the mind of the unthinking. We may 
acquire a mechanical facility by repeated doings of what we already 
know how to do ; but we learn to do by learning how other people do, 
and by the aid of this knowledge, striving to do something better. The 
mere continuous doing of what we can do dulls the intellect, deadens 
the inventive powers, and stifles progress. If it were true, there were 
no need of principal, or normal school, or any school. Froebel and 
Pestalozzi, Mann and Hopkins might be put aside, and our children be 
left to learn to do by doing, not by instruction, by skilful training, nor 
by study and reading the wisdom and historic records of the past. No, 
n^y friends ; by the mere doing, the generations of men would not attain 
to the school crayon or the ham sandwicli in a thousand years. 

The whole past of our race, with its trials and its failures, its suffer- 
ings and successes, is ours, and are we to put aside all the teachings of 
the writhing centuries and learii to do by doing over again what the ages 
have condemned, and strive to reach, by our unaided efforts, what the 
poorest laborer has as his own ? 

Some years since, to a suggestion of mine with regard to teaching 
geography, the teacher replied : <' I have taught this subject in this way 



i9^ PROClBEbiD*&S — ^DEPARlMEST O* StJPEElN'rENDEKCE. 

for fourteen years, and I think I know.'' She had learned to do by 
doing, and was just fourteen years behind the times. But she still had 
sense ^ she does not teach in just that way to-day. 

Not very much does the best and the brightest of us learn, but what 
we learn from those who have gone before us. Th^ one thing that has 
placed us in the fore-front of our race is, that when we have learned 
one thing we have made it the stepping-stone to something better, ever 
toiling onward and upward to the ultimate good of humanity, ever 
sought and never reached. 

With the organization of the school, the work of the principal has but 
just begun. Here is the starting-point from which he is to advance to 
acknowledged success, or fall back into the ranks of the called, but not 
chosen. 

Yes, my fellow teachers, though yours is the work, ^s has been my 
continual theme, and stronger and stronger my belief as the years gp 
by, the principal is the school ; the school is what he makes it. 

The organization is his, the plan of the work is his, and his the spirit 
that shall animate, the methods that shall execute, and the character 
that shall control. 

But what is the power of one over a thousand *? What can the prin- 
cipal do for the individual pupils ? And yet, just here, I feel, is the 
field of his usefulness ; not in direct, personal iniiueuce, but largely 
through his teachers must he be made known to them ; and yet, to no 
pupil, boy or girl, should his entrance into the school-room be an un- 
important event. 

To the pupils are his best efforts pledged, but by his teachers must 
his purposes be performed. With his assistants, by his wise conduct, 
his earnest purpose, his faithful discharge of duty, by his appreciation 
of excellence and worthy endeavor, his recognition of merit, and kindly 
charity toward unintentional error, he must be in full and hearty ac- 
cord. 

His censures should be without bitterness or humiliation, his sugges- 
tions timely and sympathetic, his personal interest undisguised. The 
strong, successful teacher deserves liis approval, and the young and 
inexperienced his encouragement and advice. His personal sympathy 
in troubles, his aid in difficulties, and his tender guidance out of the 
meshes of mistaken efforts, will not return to him void of kind respect 
and unfailing loyalty. And I have sometimes expressed the thought 
which has wrought itself into my belief, that the principal who can not 
by his discretion, his nice discernment, his thorough devotion to his 
school and its duties, his interest in the success of pupil and teacher, 
win the approvjftland thorough respect of his teachers, during the year, 
or at the most the second year, is sadly lacking in some element of a 
successful principal. 

They may doubt the wisdom of some of his measures, but only to put 
forth the stron^.^er efforts to conquer success ^ he may meet with unmeiv 



PRINCIPALS. 199 

ited censure, only to unite them the more firmly in his defense. And 
he who can not command this concurrence of good-will and unquestion- 
ing support of the better part of his teachers, will find his wisest art of 
little avail. 

With the consciousness that the principal is with her in her efforts, 
feeble though they be, there can be no foundation, no suggestion, for 
the charge sometimes made tliat the teacher has no resource, no re- 
dress. She should feel that he is at hand, and but too willing to render 
any aid, ever ready with his counsel and full support to sustain her, or 
rather to enable her to sustain herself. 

Xot for every little difficulty and annoyance should she fall back upon 
his authority, with paltry complaints and petty questionings, thus step- 
ping down from her true position, forrnnn;; rlie confidence of her pupils, 
and soon losing her own self-respfd. Few things will sooner deprive 
a teacher of her power for usefulness before her class than this habit of 
sending pupils to the office for correction. In truth, her highest useful- 
ness is already gone before the frequency has yet become a habit. 

Quietly, calmly, and firmly, with faith in herself and in young human- 
ity, unruffled by seeming failure and obvious reverses, hoping still, must 
she persevere, trustful where trust is found, kindly interest winning re- 
spectful love, and mutual regard finding expression in willing obe- 
dience, sympathetic effort, and unfailing gratitude. 

Kever in haste or in anger should a pupil be referred to the office, and, 
save in the rarest of cases, not till the principal has been seen by the 
teacher and fully informed of the nature of the fault or failure. Often 
this conference itself will render it unnecessary to send the pupil at all. 

But when the need shall come, as sometimes come it will, the worthy 
teacher should find ready to her support the full authority of the prin- 
cipal, the board of education, and the entire moral force of the com- 
munity. With each and every day should the principal be so well ac- 
quainted with the character of the teacher's work, and her manner of 
discipline and instruction, that no serious difficulty could come upon 
him by surprise, or find him unprepared for the crisis. 

What greater folly than for a teacher, in a moment of irritation or 
weak despair induced by late hours, a hasty breakfast, or jangling 
nerves, or, it may be, by the weariness of too severe study, to send an 
offending pupil to the office 1 The principal is probably away hearing a 
recitation or visiting a room. The offender meets in the hall four or 
five companions on the same errand, all ready for a united raid upon 
the teacher's character, her weakness of temper and control, and listen- 
ing with admiring glee to the recital of his shrewd devices, and their 
finecess in making the teacher mad. 

And when, by and by, they subside into quiet at the principal's ap- 
proaching footfall, what can he do ? " Well, John, what do you want I '' 
"The teacher sent me." "What iovV^ "I don't know." <' What 
have you been doing % " " IJfothing." " Did she send a.u^ ssorL'i.V^ 



200 PROCEEDINGS — DEPARTMENT OP SUPERINTENDENCE. 

"^0 ; she jast got mad. I didn't do nothiDg." The principal throws 
away a little good, bnt inappropriate advice upon him, and sends him 
back to his room to repeat his deviltries. 

And she goes to bed in tears that the principal does not support her. 

No redisess for the teacher! The considerate, fairly intelligent teacher 
can always rest in the assurance that there is no public or private in- 
terest to which the entire people will always give such full and hearty 
support as to any reasonable measures for adding to the efficiency and 
success and the good name of the public school, in which are centred 
their highest hopes and deepest affections. 

Now and then is found an unreasonable parent, it is true, but his un- 
reasonableness is not lessened by an unreasoning teacher. 

My experience teaches me that there is no more fruitful source of the 
irritation and unreasoning complaint of parents than the frequent notes 
of teachers to them that, " the child whispers,^ " your son looks around, 
he laughs,'' "John makes a noise with his feet," "Charles whistled," 
" was tardy twice last week," " I caught Mary to-day writing notes," "I 
wish to have you call and see me to-morrow," " your son cannot return 
to school again unless you come with him," " I told Fannie to stay after 
school and write her spelling ten times, and she went awayj" " Harry 
pulled a girl's hair, and I wish you to punish him severely;" " Willie 
asked to go out, and I found he had been playing marbles." 

How exasperating, how destructive to the order and scholarship of 
the school anyone of these may seem to the sensitive, earnest teacher! 
What sleepless nights and sorrowing days are hers ! Oh, that she could 
teach these young and erring natures to see as she sees! And yet, to 
the laboring, loving, doting father and mother, proud of the bright 
spirits and active minds of their children, how paltry, how frivolous, 
how petty it all seem^ 

"Our children are good children — playful, as they should be; they 
mean nothing bad ; "we wish them to do well, and we think they do. 
The school ma'am is a crank; that's what's the matter; and the prin- 
cipal isn't much better, or he would put a stop to all this nonsense.'' 

Fortunately, with us no one can send a pupil from school for miscon- 
duct, for tardiness, or on an errand but the principal; and I have a 
growing belief that no note, no letter, should be sent to a parent which 
has not been submitted, at least, to the principal ; that no parent come 
to the school in matters of misconduct without first of all meeting the 
principal. If he deems it desirable to call in the teacher, well and 
good ; but the interview should be with the principal. 

Most of the parents of our pupils are workers, and the need of call- 
ing at the school means a half day's pay. Almost all of these troubles 
should never go to the parent; he can do little, or nothing. The 
teacher must guide the childish heart into prompt, orderly, obedient, 
and industrious ways ; and she is poorly provided for her work who 
has often to call upon either parent or principal for the thousand little 
things which stand in the way of the erring ineom^^t«u\J^ ^\xeA^%« 



PRINCIPALS. 201 

The CD-operation of the parent is indeed desirable, and no worthy 
effort should be omitted to. secure it; but it can never be obtained by 
the repeated letter and the frequent complaint. These too often result 
in irritation and the unguarded remark in the presence of the child, 
Tfhich sadly detracts from the teacher's authority, and is the fruitful 
source of much of the discontent and disorder of the school-room. The 
truly incorrigibles are usually from families in which an appeal to tlie 
parent had better have been omitted. 

And when one or two conferences prove unproductive of good, the 
principal had better fall back upon his own resources, nor farther dis- 
turb the parental mind. 

With the perfect teacher, who understands the thought of the child, 
there are, in my judgment, no incorrigibles of sound mind; with the 
average teacher, there will be here and there one; with the poor 
teacher, the good pupil is the exception, and for the most part, is goody- 
goody and dull. 

The bright boy or girl of ten or fourteen years, who is to make his 
way in this world, is full of strong but untrained activities, which, un- 
less grasped and guided by the sympathetic teacher, will lead to infi- 
nite trouble in the school-room and in the home. From the homes of the 
rich, from the homes of the poor, they come to us, and the wise teacher 
must, at the fitting moment, seize upon those vital forces and kindly 
tarn them into the channels of truth and duty. ' 

No sham, no cant, can impose upon the American youth ; straight, 
honest, honorable conduct alone can prevail. The youth has his rights 
as well as the man of mature years, and he understands fair treatment 
and kindly interest. And with no corporal punishment in our schools, 
shall we ask a parent to beat his child ? 

Shall we thus admit our own incompetence, and request the parent to 
sapply our deficiencies 1 Too often the severity of the parent is the 
thing to be deplored, and the kind consideration of the tfiacher the one 
element of humanity that can arrest and save the young heart from 
destruction. 

But the true work of the principal is yet to begin. The teachers and 
their pupils are in their rooms ; the morning song is sung, and the hum 
of busy life is heard. And no more trying time for the young teacher 
can be imagined. Sixty young minds and hearts to be interested and 
secured ; sixty active bodies fresh from the home or the street to be 
brought into harmonious action, calmed, quieted, and controlled. And 
where shall she begin ? Much of this first day's work must be helped 
out by the principal, in seeing that this temporary initial work is sys- 
tematic and pleasing. 

The older teachers need little aid ; they start off without a jar, free 
from friction or idleness. With the closing bell they have their classes 
well in Iiand, their work wisely laid out and lessons assigned, and with 
a few friendly words of wise counsel their classes, ^f?\XXi \i\^ ^\>x:^^'s.^^ 



202 PROCEEDINGS — ^DEPARTMENT OP SUPERINTENDENCE. 

coDfidence aroused, and quiet demeanor, bid a cheerful good night and 
depart. 

But with the inexperienced, who shall depict the slowly passing honrsf 
With no definite aim, ignorant even of her pupils' names, with no as- 
signed exercises, and with longing thoughts of the high school from 
which she has just come, and no developed interest in the little, loving, 
helpless, dependent beings, hanging upon her every word, to which she 
fears to give utterance ; liere is a field for the principal, if wise, to do 
his best work, and lay the foundation for the success of his school, and 
for the most trustful reliance and surest support of his teachers. Happy 
the principal who knows his opportunities I 

The first temporary programme should early receive his careful atten- 
tion. 1^0 unimportant iteui is this programme of work, and should not 
be left to the hap-hazard guess of a young girl, who cannot as yet, 
have given any special thought to the machinery of the school or to 
the development of the mind and character of the child. 

The different subjects should follow each other so that each may be 
a change, a relief from the preceding. Some should command the fresh- 
est, brightest thought of the pupil, while others may require less mental 
effort, and yet serve as an incitement, an inspiration to better work. 
No principal, zealous of the highest success, can neglect the programme 
of exercises for the several rooms of his school. Upon their prompt 
preparation and wise arrangement depends, very largely, the success of 
the school and his fitness for his position as a school principal. 

The weary assistant teacher will be pleased to observe that I make 
no weak apologies for the shortcomings of the principal. 

He has accepted his position for the performance of certain, and sev- 
eral uncertain duties, and is to be held to a strict account for the proper 
performance of such duties. 

Now, apart from his manifold duties of receiving and classifying 
pupils, must h^ see that the daily programme is faithfully carried oat; 
that the teachers have gained a hold upon tiieir children, and aroused 
them to the real purposes of the school and are directing their thought 
and action into the ways of growth and progress. 

There are certain methods in numbers and language which they should 
follow, certain clearly defined ways in geography, in history, which 
every teacher should know and accept ; and the principal, in these early 
days, should, by kindly counsel and timely suggestion, see that the ap* 
proved methods and systems are observed, not disdaining, now and 
then, to take a class himself. Unfortunate indeed the school which 
has reached a point beyond which is no improvement. 
• The excellences of every teacher and her deficiencies should be well 
understood by him, and with a hearty commendation of the good and a 
ready discerning of the better elements of the less successful, and the 
fitting suggestion to remedy the defects, should the principal be ever 
alert, ever courteous, and always reliable. 



PBINCIPALg. 203 

To one the word of encouragement is needed to strengthen her weak 
spirit; to another must he suggest some method or device to enliven her 
work ; and yet again endeavor to impart the true ideal of education and 
its purpose to one who knows and thinks of school only as the avenue 
to the regular salary; guiding and directing all, yet leaving always 
fireedom enough for the teacher to test her own strength and ingenuity. 

In a recent teachers' examination, in answer to a question as to the 
advantages of having a pupil complete the grade under a single teacher, 
I was not a little surprised at the almost uniform statement, in effect^ 
that when a class is promoted to a new teacher, mucb time is lost In a 
complete and thorough review of the previous work to ascertain what 
the class knows. 

It is a fact well recognized by every principal of a dozen years' ex- 
perienoe, that no class in«primary, grammar, or high school ever passes 
to a higher grade more than partially prepared for the work, in the 
opinion of the receiving teacher. This can be safely assumed with no 
loss of time in extensive reviews to learn it. 

Not a day, not an hour, should be thus employed. The class has been 
promoted by the principal, upon what he deems a sufficient test, and it 
does seem a pretty severe reflection upon his judgment and discrimi- 
nation for his assistant to institute a lengtheued investigation into the 
fitness of the pupils for their work. The principal should make it sure 
that the new class enters at once upon the new work. 

Lookout Motintain would never have been climbed if, after the first 
saocessfnl assault, the surviving officers had gone back to see how far 
they had got. It was the impulse of that success that carried the brave 
boys up and over, with little for the officers to do but try to keep up 
with them. 

And so should the teacher, receiving a new class, avail herself of that 
advance of the pupils to go onward and surmount the difficulties before 
them. What though some expressions other than her oWn are used ; 
some definitions given in a difi;erent form from bers ? These can be 
easily righted, if need be, as the weeks go by, without disconcerting 
and discouraging these young, ambitious souls, by sharp criticism of 
their carelessness and negligence, or even their previous instruction. 
She may profitably recall that at the next remove her own forms of ex- 
pression and statements are likely to undergo the same ordeal from her 
superior teacher. 

By the very act of promotion, the principal has decided that the class 
has satisfactorily completed the earlier grade, and should allow no 
fancied insufficiency to stand in the way of an immediate, unconditional 
advance upon the new subject ; and no teacher should, for an instant, stop 
to question the qualifications of the class. Every new topic involves 
more or less of the preceding, and any real defects can readily be rem- 
edied with no discouraging halt or demoralizing withdrawal. Little 
interest do the hopeful boys and girls find in beatmgoNK^ Wi^ q\^ ^\.\:^^ 



204 PROCEEDINGS — ^DEPARTMENT OP SUPERINTENDENCE. 

and gleaning in already shaven fields ; the progressive, loving teacher 
rather should, Boaz-like, taket hem to her hearty and share with them 
the fulness of the early harvest. 

Perhaps there is nothing in which the guidance of the principal can 
be more fruitful of goodresults than in the arrangement and adjustment 
of the different parts of his school, that all by a unitecl, harmonioas ef- 
fort may move on with a single purpose to a common end, and within 
the allotted time. 

Here and there, it is true, an exceptional student may advance with 
quicker step and longer stride, or, perchance, fall behind the movement 
of the class ; but, in our schools, the average pupil should compass the 
grade within the year, and move on promptly and sucessfully to the 
next, and the graduation of a class at an average age of more than four- 
teen or fifteen might well be a subject of investigation by the board. A 
pupil who has been two years in a grade should be peremptorily ad- 
vanced without a question j and any member of the eighth grade, six- 
teen years of age, passed to the high school, unexamined, that they may 
have the trial, at least, of a new teacher. 

Not till the end of the forty weeks should the principal wait to find 
that the class is not prepared to pass grade. The work of the. year 
should be divided in his thought, at least into that of months or weeks, 
as at the races, I notice, they time them at the quarter and the half, as 
well as at the end. 

The teacher may easily be too thorough, too attentive to minute de- 
tail and nice distinctions unsuited to the present powers of the pupil, 
but which, with the nicer discrimination of a higher culture, will prove 
but as a pastime for his thoughtful hours. One of a wider reading and 
a more extended view of the worth of a liberal education, may delight 
to lead the pupils aside into the pleasant fields of learning, and amuse 
them with the curiosities of literature, science, or philosophy. And 
there are those who become so attached to the little ones committed to 
their care that they fain would hold them a little longer, and finish the 
beautiful work, which no one else, they fancy, can do so well. 

But it surely is a mistaken affection that holds back the pupil from 
the speedy accomplishment of his task; a false enthusiasm that would 
luxuriate among the beauties of a culture which can be truly discerned 
only by the mature and finely trained mind ; a foolish pride or ambition 
that seeks or expects to know or teach all of everything or anything. 
With no uncertain or flagging step should the classes, as the months 
and years go on, pass from topic to topic and from grade to grade, 
promptly and surely according to the outlined course, with full ranks 
and ever growing powers and developed characters, under the watch- 
ful, wise direction of the competent principal. 

The examinations too, should be within his knowledge and control. 
I have sometimes heard the complaint of principals that '* the exami- 
nation had taken him completely by surprise; that the class had gone 



PRINCIPALS. 205 

all to pieces." What real room for surprise except that he had not him- 
self known it sooner. Where have been his eyes, his ears, his thought, 
his untiring effort for the lasf forty weeks ? Perhaps in the office con- 
sidering how teaching might be made a profession ; possibly wondering 
at the public depreciation of the worth of the public school, and the 
consequent inadequacy of the principal's salary ; or sometimes, it may 
be, pitying the littleness of those who can be content to attend teachers' 
meetings month after month, and year after year, discussing the same 
old questionsf and labeling as new what they have had for twenty years. 

He has a poor teacher! Then it should not have been a surprise ; he 
should have JiLUOwn it before the end of the second week ; should have 
heard and known whether they could read audibly, clearly, intelli- 
gently ; whether they could comprehend a plain question, and answer 
thoughtfully; whether they understood fractions, could compute in- 
terest^ draw an outline map, get the dimensions of a given field without 
turning to the book for the rule, or could avail themselves of a short 
cut to the result. 

The discipline should not be suffered to become such as to make study 
impossible, nor the instruction such as to leave progress doubtful. His 
influence should pervade the poor room, like the sunlight, filling it with 
light and warmth, even into its foulest corners, that the hearts of 
teacher and pupils may fairly glow with desire and hope of something 
better, nobler. No real examination should be given for which he has 
not prepared or approved the questions, which should fairly^fill but not 
exceed the requirements of the course, and he should be so familiar 
with the aim, the methods and results of the teacher's efforts, that he 
might safely promote a class without a stated examination. 

Few, very few, are the teachers who cannot become fairly earnest, 
faithful, eflRcient workers under the kindly, wise, persevering influence 
of a worthy principal. 

The principal, too, should so arrange the time of examinations and 
promotions that there should be no uncertain delay, but that teacher 
and pupil should start off strong and hearty for their work at the be- 
ginning of the second and third terms, as cf the first, without the loss 
of Ave, ten, or flfteen days, in doubt where they are, or what they are 
to do ; and with an impulse and impetus that shall carry them on with 
spirit and zeal undiminished to the very end of the year, tiQ they pass 
the line, as it were, at the end of the race, with the closing exercises of 
the year. 

Thereas no school, perhaps, which has not some points of marked ex- 
cellence, some teacher, unknown to herself, it may be, who, in her 
wholesome influence over her pupils, in awakening interest, securing 
attention, in the presentation of some subject, or in winning a ready 
and thoughtful consideration and clear expression of topics and judg- 
ments, shows an unquestioned superiority in mental or moral gifts. 
There is, I think, rarely a teacher who does not present some meritor- 



206 PROCEEDINGS — DEPARTMENT OF SUPERINTENDENCE, 

ious indications deserving recognition ; at least, she may display some 
fault in common with ourselveSj which we had not before seen in its 
true deformity. 

l^ot the least important of the principalis duties is to perceive the ex- 
cellences and to promote their spread among the other teachers, to 
assisjb the contagion of good and establish a quarantine against the bad. 
The good of one room should be carried to all the rooms of the school, 
like the fertilizing dust of the flowers, now borne by the busy bee in his 
search for hidden sweets, now wafted by the floating insect in his pleas- 
urable rounds, and now on the sofb air that breathes around us. 

Let the teacher, weak in one point, visit another who there is strong, 
and discuss what she has seen with the principal ; let her visit other 
schools, and bring back the report of her experiences. In her own 
school, the principal himself can take her room for a half hour, and for 
a half day even, in her visits to other schools, ascertaining thus the 
progress of her class, or its deficiencies. 

In spite of the frequent complaints of poor teachers, they are not all, 
or generally, unqualified. They have been under able and skilful teach- 
ers ; have passed a scholastic examination, to which many of our suc- 
cessful teachers would not care to submit ; they have served two; six, 
ten months under the principals eye, as apprentices or cadets, and if 
they now fail, is it not fair, is it not just and right to look for the rea- 
sons of the failure, in most cases, to the principal ? 

Herein do I find the most important part of the principal's work, and 
a partial answer to the question so often asked, " How shall we secure 
good teachers f' To the common reply of the theoretical teacher and 
pedagogical writer — that we must have normal schools — I desire to of- 
fer no word of dissent. If all our teachers could have a good normal 
training, it can hardly be doubted that the school systems of our city, 
our State and country, would be lifted to a higher plane, with a clearer 
and more life-giving atmosphere. 

The normal school can do much. It gives something of the history 
of education, and the work of its great leaders; teaches the elements 
of psychology in its direct application to pedagogy ; leads its pupils to 
observe the thought of the child, and the working of its yet undeveloped 
mind, and carefully and systematically to note the results of this or that 
method ; it teaches its pupils to think, to think for themselves, to rea- 
son upon their own closely observed facts, and to express their thoughts 
clearly, concisely, and freely ; it makes them familiar with various ways 
for interesting the childish heart and openiug up his mind to the study 
of the things around him ; and, best of all, it inspires them with a love 
of the work, a kindling enthusiasm, that shall go far to make them true 
students of childhood and successful workers, at last, in this noblest 
and most entrancing of pursuits. 

And yet, ^ith all this, so unlike are the conditions of the normal class- 
room and the school-room, with its sixty embodied activities, that the 



PRINCIPALS. 207 

normal gradaate, with her training, her theories, her enthusiasm, and 
her high expectations, will, at first, prove a partial failure if left to her- 
self, without the guidance, the encouragement, the help of the sympa- 
thetic, the great-hearted, capable principal. 

Oar good teachers must be made largely in our own schools ; sooner, 
and better for the fitting preparation, but in the actual school-room, 
most she learn to interest, to instruct, to develop, and, at the same time, 
to control with a quiet, discerning watchfulness, an easy grace, and an 
ever-growing power, and by the aid and wise direction of the principal. 

Vacancies in our schools are of daily occurrence. In one there are 
always those below ready and willing to advance to the vacant place — 
the doable-division teacher to the single room, the cadet to the double 
division, all alive to the work, ambitious, able, progressive, with no ne« 
cessity for looking beyond the walls of the school. 

In another, how dilierent the situation I The cadet is weak, unequal 
to the charge of a room, for which a supply is sought elsewhere. The 
first-grade teacher has become acquainted with her duties, and shrinks 
from theiaffort needed for a higher grade ; a sixth or a seventh grade 
becomes vacant, and the city must be searched, the country scoured fof 
a teacher equal to the place, while the several grade teachers plod on, 
as before, in their old familiar round, without promotion, without ambi 
tion, and without meritorious desert. 

Many an excellent teacher do we draw from the outlying districts 
and from the normal schools ; but the best, most progressive, most thor- 
oughly in earnest and successful schools are those which make their 
own teachers; and from no one thing would I judge of the worth of a 
principal so confidently as from his success in converting these young, 
inexperienced, but bright and educated girls into earnest, studious, skil- 
fiil, and inventive teachers, ready at the principal's call to take this or 
that position, whatever it be, with full reliance upon his wisdom and 
discrimination, nor standing upon any supposed or imaginary rights 
that may. be in the way of the best interests of the school. 

TSot long since I read in an educational journal an article upon school 
discipline, in which the writer said that " obedience must be immediate 
and absolute." In a well-ordered school, the discipline should make a 
gmall demand upon the teacher's time or strength ; should not be, as the 
same writer states, " the most painful part of the teacher's work," but 
kindly, loving, winning. What more pleasing than to observe with 
watchfal care the daily development of the mind, the will, the character? 
"Obedience immediate and absolute 1" For the soldier on the battle's 
edge, yes ; but for the child with his instincts of selfhood, his budding 
reason, his untrained will, and his intuitions of freedom, the thing is 
unreasonable, absurd; and impossible. Which of us can at all times 
control his will or command his attention to a dull discourse, a stupid 
book, or an uninteresting recital ? 

Prompt and cheerfol compliance, I admit, but ^' immediate and abso- 



208 PROCEEDINGS — ^DEPARTMENT OP SUPERINTEND£|$rOE. 

lute'' — the words savor of the drill master, the martinet^ the tyrant, the 
despot, rather than of the teacher and guide of youth, and are destruct- 
ive of all true education and worthy development. 

With the quality of the discipline of the school, the principal has 
much to do. The animating spirit that shall give shape to it all is his. 
Obedience, indeed, is a necessity, but an obedience based upon a re- 
spect for authority, and an appreciation of good order and regard for 
a respected teacher. 

I should probably be misunderstood if I should say, as I firmly be- 
lieve, tbat the principal should always sustain the teacher. He should 
make her feel — should let the pupils know that he is with her, even 
when in error, as a firm and faithful friend and support. And in any 
untoward event should he kindly see her through and out of her diffi- 
culties before the thought of censure has taken shape. IfTot censure, but 
counsel, should be his, showing where was the error, how the direct 
issue might have been judiciously avoided, and the insubordinate pupil 
led and lifted to a wiser way and a higher life where the beauty of or- 
der and the necessity of subjection to reason and properly constituted 
authority would be clearly discerned and gladly acknowledged. 

The principal, too, has much to do with the mental growth of his 
teachers. Our teachers' meetings are, of necessity, largely given to the 
discussion of methods of the ways and means of school teaching. 

She who would make teaching a profession must know of the under- 
lying principles of which these methods are but the flower, must make 
her reading broader, her studies deeper than the adopted text-book and 
supplemental reader. 

The spirit of inquiry, of investigation, and experiment, should be en- 
couraged, a careful observation of methods and results, and the sound 
deduction of true means and methods. This rests largely with the 
principal. The reputations of to-day are not won in the high school 
and college, but in the children's room ; nor by the self-seeker striving 
ever for a higher place, but by the self forgetful worker, who sees in 
her little ones the promise of true, upright, honorable men and women, 
for whom her best is all too little. 

The thoughts that I have thus tried to present are not the results of 
any fine theorizing, and hardly the conclusions of any formal reasoning, 
but rather a simple record of what daily comes under my observation. 
How often have I seen a teacher — a whole school, lifted from the low 
level of weak purpose and dead performance to a true realization of the 
educational ideal, receiving the breath of life from the living principal, 
become earnest, faithful, and zealous of good work. 

No longer are their pupils turned upon the street, lost to all hope or 
chance of a wortliy citizenship, but with an ever-growing self-control, 
and an increasing interest in the studies made attractive by a more 
pleasing presentation, are seen pressing forward into the higher grades, 
perhaps to the high school and college, and surely to a worthy manhood 
or TTomanhood. 



PEINCIPALS. 209 

And some, too, Lavo I distinctly in mind, of bright souls and of high 
promise, who, for the lack of this inspiration and upholding, have seem- 
ingly parted with their former zeal aud, grown weary of their unrecog- 
nized efforts, fill in the slow-going hours with half-hearted work and 
meagre results. 

It makes little difference what stuff a teacher is made of ^ she can 
not long stand out alone in good, earnest, honest, healthful endeavor 
against the blighting miasma of an incompetent, unfaithful, unreliable 
priticipal. 

The pupils themselves soon inhale the unwholesome air, and no 
longer respond to the touch of her quickening spirit, grow careless of 
their conduct, negligent of duties, and forgetful of their own good names 
and the fair fame of their school. "No investigation is needed to learn 
the character of such a school; like the darkness of Egypt, it can be 
felt. 

Wo no longer have the little school-house under the hill with its 
single teacher, principal and assistant in one, working outher own suc- 
cess or failure; but each is a part of the one great system. The prin- 
cipal alone can make or unmake it. The work which, in part, I have 
outlined, no one can do but he. Much is asked of him, but no more 
than I often see performed; a high ideal is marked out for him, but 
only because I have witnessed its realiz[)>tiou, and made it my thought. 

It is this that makes me feel, and feel confident that of our 1,700 
teachers and 90,000 pupils in our schools, soon to be the men and women 
of our city, and, I trust, her pride, many, to the last hour of their lives, 
will look back with loving hearts and grateful thoughts for the right 
impulse, the worthy direction, aud true inspiration they received at 
school, through the wise control, the kind interest, and the healthful 
influence of their school principal. 



QUALIFICATIONS OP PEINCIPALS. 
By J. M. Greenwood, 

Suj[)a*int€ndcnt of Kansas City Schools. 

Boards of Education designate in general terms the duties principals 
are required to perform. Among which are the following: 

(1) To devote themselves exclusively to the interests of their respect- 
ive schools, and to have the general management of the schools under 
their charge, and to open and close the same on time. 

(2) To maintain good order in the school building, on the premises, 
and in the neighborhood thereof, and to suspend refractor^' pupils when 
deemed best. 

(3) To see that all pupils are properly classified and distributed. 

(4) To advise with teachers and to assist them in regard to the best 
methods of discipline, instruction, and arrangement of exercises. 

882— No. 2 14 



210 PROCEEDINGS — DEPARTMENT OF SUPERINTENDENCE, 

(6) To see that teachers are properly informed as to the rules and 
regulations governing the school, and that they carry out the same in 
every particular. 

(6) To examine, or to assist in examining, all classes as frequently as 
may be necessary. 

(7) To visit, as often as practicable, the rooms of their assistants and 
to help them in their work. 

(8) To keep all school records according to prescribed forms, and make 
all reports required by the Board. 

(9) To have personal care o^all school property, furniture, apparatus, 
fences, walks, shade trees, outbuildings, and yard j direct and have 
control of the janitor. 

(10) Order supplies under proper restrictions and suggest needed 
improvements. 

These, perhaps, are the chief duties devolving upon principals. 

While a principal may perform all the duties I have enumerated and 
be entirely competent to perform as many more, yet it does not follow 
that he possesses the requisite qualifications to manage a school prop- 
erly. Do we not look for other and higher and broader and deeper 
qualifications than these? Are not all these prescribed duties the 
visible machinery, labelled *' special," that pertain to the external of 
school work rather than to the school-spirit itself? 

Do not school authorities look beneath this exterior for something of 
flesh and blood more nearly akin to humanity than the automaton de- 
scribed under the head of "rules and regulations"? Were we con^ 
structing a real, live principal, or head master, for use and usefulness, 
would we not endeavor to build one of broader mould and. more comely 
proportions than a mere executor of registered decrees ? 

Suppose a large school in a city is to be supplied with a principal, 
does not the superintendent at once set before his mind's eye the kind 
of a man that is needed to fill that vacancy ? Would he not take into 
consideration the school in all its minutice and the tastes and disposi- 
tions of the patrons of that vicinity ? 

I apprehend that an inventory of qualifications somewhat after the 
following would most probably run through the Superintendent's head : 

(1) Will his manner attract or repel teachers, pupils, and parents ? 

(2) Is his voice pleasing; or harsh and grating? 

(3) Is he pedantic and pretentious; or manly and dignified? 

(4) Is he fidgety and nervous; or quiet and equable? 

(5) Is his eye restless and foxy; or calm and penetrating? 

(6) Is his face deceitful ; or pleasant and honest ? 

(7) Is his walk hesitating and unsteady; or direct and firm ? 

(8) Is his judgment wavering and fitful; or judicial and impartial? 

(9) Is his jjLidgment narrow and selfish; or broad and liberal? 

(10) Is his scholarship weak and restricted j or comprehensive and 
^curate ? 



PRINCIPALS. 211 

(11) Is his health tottering; or is it vigorous and strong? 

(12) Is his moral nature weak and vacillating; or is it noble and ele- 
vated t 

(13) Has he stagnated; or is ho still elastic and buoyant t 

These and similar inquiries would arise and each one must be de- 
termine<l positively, indifferently, or negatively. Granting that each 
is determined favorably, there are other qualifications that far transcend 
these and other factors that need to be taken into account. The fore- 
going simply pave the way for those to follow : 

(1) THE PMNOIPAL'S ABIIilTY TO MANAGB. 

Under management is included teachers, pupils, patrons, and the 
reflex influence on education in general. 

A principal who is continually getting into "hot water '^ with his as- 
sistants, or keeping them in " hot water,'' will never succeed well. There 
is too much up-hill pulling for good work. At times a principal may 
have to stir up a " soldiering assistant " who is derelict in duty, and 
give vent to a little righteous wrath ; yet this is only an occasional par- 
oxysm and not a chronic condition. The principal who adopts the spy 
system never has the confidence of his assistants, and he, sooner or later, 
wUl be detested by them. There must be that cordiality of feeling and 
spirit of helpfulness, that mutual respect and forbearance which secure 
the happiest and best results with the greatest degree of smoothness in 
management and work. Impartial, cool, deliberative, inflexibly just, 
without harshness or severity, the principal must deal with his assist- 
ants as co-workers in school. Should an assistant fail either in work 
or management, it is his duty to strengthen her if possible ; but if she 
be incompetent, then he must perform his duty with tact and delicacy. 
la no other situation does the principal's character show in its true 
colors so well as in his relations with his assistants. Should his assist- 
ants know more of schools than he knows, they then shape the policy of 
the school, and he echoes their wishes. If he finds that he is ensnared, 
breaking out of the net is usually attended with more or less discord. 
This condition arises when a weak principal is put in charge of a strong 
corps of assistants. The principal's knowledge of school work should 
exhaustively cover all that is taught in his school. In other words, he 
should be a first-class teacher in every grade from the lowest to the high- 
est. As a preparati6n for this work, he should come to the manage- 
ment of a school with the experience such as actual work in the various 
grades gives. 

His dealings with pupils are under two forms— instruction and disci- 
pline. The positive instruction in his room is designed to fit the finishing 
class for the high school. There is a time in the life of school boys and 
girls when the m«asculine influence is absolutely necessary. Woman's 
mind is differently constituted from man's. She does not see the world 

In aotion as man sees it. Her vision iu some xe^bijecita \^ m^xQi^^^^v^ 



212 PEOCEEDINGS — DEPARTMENT OP SUPEEINTENDENCE. 

man's the more comprebensive. She works more after fixed pland and 
models ; man is more independent and frequently erratic ; she teaches; 
man educates. Both influences are necessary — the one is the comple- 
ment of the other. At this formative period the impress of the princi- 
pal must be felt in the highest class. He should finish the pupils in 
arithmetic, grammar, and history, and send them up well prepared, to 
high school. If there are holes in their education he should patch them, 
•and not relegate the work to his head assistant. 

The disciplinary side is not confined to his own immediate class. It 
permeates all rooms and all classes. Pis influence is felt Everywhere; 
not that the teacher is put into the background, but that, behind her, 
his presence re-enforces her authority, just as his knowledge is con- 
tributary to each teacher in her recitations. In the absence of the reg- 
ular teacher, if he will conduct recitations or question the pupils, the 
effect is a mental tonic to both teacher and pupils. In other words, he 
is a teacher as well as a manager. If he be weak in either one of these 
particulars, he will never be a successful principal. 

A principal mp/y stand well with his patrons, and still be weak with 
his assistants, and positively injurious to the pupils. But it .is not in 
this sense that the proper relation is to be considered. First, a prin- 
cipal, by his ability, wisdom, and superior judgment, must be able to 
convince his assistants and patrons that he can manage a school on 
those broad principles of justice and moderation, and in such a man- 
ner, as to command universal respect. If he be just and ca'pable, and 
conducts his school well, he secures the confidence of those who com- 
mit their children to his care. Second, when a patron knows that any 
matter referred to a principal will receive prompt and respectful con- 
sideration, he has confidence, then, in the man, which it is hard to 
weaken. Whereas, if the idea once becomes wide-spread that the prin- 
cipal is prejudiced, partial, fractious, or unreasonable, his influence is 
gone. There must be confidence in his intentions, and this confidence 
can never be secured by playing off sharp practices or by evading is- 
sues when they arc to be met. Ih all his dealings with patrons, candor 
and politeness should characterize all that he says and does. Tact in 
communicating unpleasant matters to patrons and making the ri'ght 
impression without prejudice, requiresadegrecof diplomacy of no mean 
order. A principal's dealings with the public constitute one of the 
most difScult duties he is called upon to perform. 

If he can manage this part of his work with adroitness and skill, 
and still do honest work in school, he will combine the qualities of a 
statesman with those of a practical educator. 

(2) THE 'principal AS A TEACHER. 

It is as a teacher that the principal should exhibit the highest quali- 
ties. If he be weak either in discipline or in instruction, his weakness 
is felt in all the upper rooms of his school. J'ho older pupils, if not 



PKINCIPALS. 213 

properly restrained, contaminate the lower ones until the entire school 
is more or less affected. The struggle of assistants to hold up the repu- 
tation of a school when the head is weak, vacillating, and rotten, is a 
hopeless effort. Again, if the principal is not first-class in conducting 
recitations and in securing good results in scholarship, his first assist- 
ant cannot make up for this defect. However much it may be glossed 
over, it leaves a blemish that the critical eye will readily detect. 

Since every school contains some teachers that need constant atten- 
tion and assistance, the principal is the proper person to give this help ; 
but if he cannot help when it is needed, or he knows not how to assist 
in the proper manner and at the right time, the teacher is left to blander 
along. By help is meant that the principal knows human nature well 
enough to get the teacher to do the very best work possible under exist- 
ing conditions. Not only this, bat that he infases a proper educational 
spirit into both teachers and pupils, which causes them conjointly to at- 
tempt noble ideals. This comes from the mental atmosphere in which 
be works. If he cannot stimulate his assistants to their best efforts 
without driving or scolding, his mental machinery is deranged. In 
whatever department he appears as a teacher, he must exhibit all the 
qualities of a master workman. This necessitates a critical knowledge 
of all the branches pursued in his school, and how they should be 
taught, as well as entire familiarity with what is doing, or has been 
done, in other localities in this country or among foreign nations. A 
true principal will draw his inspiration from the world at large. 

(3) AS AN EDUCATOE. 

To perform routine duties perfunctorily, make out dry reports and 
then hide in a shell, and call it " supervising a ward school,^ is to add 
insultto injury, and to trifle with a sacred trust. A principal should 
be a true educator in every sense of the term. His scholarship, his 
general accomplishments should be such as to create respect for his 
ability wherever he goes. Among men he should be a man, not a mere 
" school-keeper,'' or pedagogue ; among educators he should take a po- 
sition that comports well with the dignity of his profession. His voice 
and pen — ^his entire influence at all times — should be used on the side 
of justice, goodness, and the elevation of humanity. 

When classes pass out from under his control his connection with 
them should not cease at the school-room door. If he has done his duty, 
sympathetic relations have been established and cemented. As classes 
pass away, he should exact from each member a promise that at least 
one letter a year shall pass between them. They will cherish more 
closely the memories of their school days and feel that the links which 
once bound them so closely together have not all been severed. 

I leave you to fill in the picture between teacher and pupil in after 
years, and how the influence of the one runs into and shapes the life of 
the other. 



214 I^EOCfiEDlNGS— DEPABTMEl^T OF SOTERlNTENDfiNCE. 

(4) AS A WELL-INFORMED MAN. 

The true principal is ever a learner. He may choose to work along 
special lines. Bat whatever his taste may be, he must not stand still. 
If he imagines that a technical knowledge of the branch he teaches will 
suffice for all emergencies, a respectable funeral would be a blessing for 
his school. Mental growth prevents stagnation. Growth may be pro- 
duced in many ways; in natural science; in law, ancient and modern; 
in medicine ; in history ; in politics ; in social science ; in any depart- 
ment of mathematics ; in languages; in philosophy ; in civilization ; in 
literature ; in religions ; in consular and agricultural reports ; in legis- 
lative debates; in political campaigns ; in the science of governments ; 
in magazine literature; in the drama; in the weather ; in mining sta- 
tistics; in political economy ; in psychology; in logic; in art ; in paint- 
ing; in sculpture; in evolution; in manufactures; in commerce ^ in 
the habits of insects ; in the habits of animals ; in travel ; in sli(H*t, in 
every department relating to man's social, intellectual^ morale physical, 
SBSthetic, or religious nature. 

In addition to his educational or pedagogic knowledge, ho must get 
outside of the school room and rid himself of the mere school-master 
idea, and jostle against the world and join in with one or more of the 
world movements. 

(6) AS A PATRIOT. 

Patriotisni is not taught by politicians and an extreme partisan press. 
These teach partyism, and their influence upon the national mind of 
the country is of doubtful utility. Love of country should always 
transcend that of party. Men whose views are obscured by ignorance 
' and prejudice are dangerous citizens at best. Half the time they are 
wrongs and owing to their blindness they will not be righted. Where, 
then, shall we look for the inculcation of those noble and exalted sen- 
timents which should always inspire the American heart, except in the 
public schools of the country, and who can succeed so well in instilling 
these truths as the principals of our schools'? 

' Their familiarity with the underlying principles of our Government 
and of the governments of other nations, and the rise and progress of 
political parties, and the development of social and civil questions, 
eminently fit them for imparting that kind of knowledge which lays 
the foundation for obedient citizenship. 

Entire and hearty sympathy with American institutions is one of the 
highest qaalificatious that a principal ought to possess. 

(6) THE PERCENTAGE INCRUSTATION. 

The percentage mania is the worst form of acute insanity that can 
attack either a principal or an assistant. One consolation exists, how- 
ever, and that is. the subrject is never afflicted with it but once, unless 



PEINCIPALS. 215 

be lingers and passes into a condition rendering recovery hopeless. 'Eo 
other school malady that has ever come within my experience produces 
such dire effects. I can compare it to no other great upheaval unless 
I use the language of Chief Justice Marshall in speaking of the French 
Eevolution, when he said, " It was the admiration^ the wonder^ and the 
terror of mankind.'^ 

Whenever a principal boasts that his attendance, recitations, and 
" other figured affairs" have reached the highest possible results, there 
is just cause tor alarm. 

But one step remains to be taken which could sink the school still 
lower, and that is for the principal to spend all his time in picking up 
small bits of paper in the school yard. This is denominated unusual 
greatness in little things. 

The only effective remedy for this stage of imbecility is to break 
every ideal belonging to this category the principal has set up. 

(7) EVIDENCES OF DRY-ROT. 

This insidious disease appears under many disguises, but its tendency 
is always in the same direction and it leads inevitably to the same re- 
sult — mental decay and brain atrophy. 

I will indicate a few symptoms : First, that of the technical grammar 
fiend, who will spend months discussing the verbs '^went" or "drank" 
in the sentences *' the dog went mad " or " he drank a bottle of wine." 
Of course these are weighty questions, but when a principal will waste 
years of his life upon such tiny matters, we are forced to exclaim, 
**That a little learning is a dangerous thing." 

Sometimes accompanying the grammar disease is that of "catch 
questions in arithmetic," which branch off into circle squaritig and per- 
petual motion. 

Under such circumstances it is clearly the duty of the superintendent 
or some other friend of the victim to helfi liim to get rid of the pre- 
dominant idea, and put him on the main track of life and set him mov- 
ing in other lines. 

(8) JUDICIAL. CAST OF MIND. 

. A principal is called upon almost every day to decide some question 
involving personal rights, duties, or obligations. As a law interpreter 
he is known. Frequentlj^ the success of his school depends upon his 
justice and moderation in settling conflicting interests or in harmon- 
izing differences. As a preparation for such duties, every principal 
ought to be well grounded in the elements of civil and criminal law, as 
well as in the law of contracts and the law of evidence. These studies 
have a tendency to produce deliberation in the mind and the habit of 
sifting mattecs thoroughly before reaching conclusions. A year devoted 
to reading in these lines will be time well spent in giving broader views 



4 * 



216 PBOCEEDINGS — ^DEPARTMENT OF SUPEEINTENDENCE. 

m 

to human actions, and jaster and more liberal interpretations to human 
conducts 

(9) PERSONAL CHARACTERISTICS. 

Promptness, vigilance, energy, decision of character, high and noble 
aspirations, industry, skill, tact, inventive power, integrity, sincerity, 
honesty, plenty of reserve power for emergencies, repose in action, 
ability to dispatch business or work without haste are traits of char- 
acter, if harmoniously blended with favorable temperaments, which 
distinguish the most successful managers of graded schools. 



EXAMINATIONS. 



TEACHERS' BXAMINATlOlfS. 

By M. a. iJfEWELL, 
Superintendent of Maryland Schools, 

" Qascqao ipse miscrrima vidi 



Et qaomm pars magna fui." 

Why should teachers he examined? 

Because in other professions — law, medicine, theology — a course of 
preparation is exacted, and the proficiency of the students tested by 
examination and attested by the examining body. 

Who should be tlie examiners of teachers f 

By the same analogy it should be teachers. As the law student is 
examined by lawyers, the medical student by physicians, the embryo 
preacher by preachers, so the candidate for the profession of teaching 
should be examined by teachers. ISTot necessarily by teachers in esse^ 
but by teachers in posse, those who have been i^roved and put on record 
as having the necessary qualifications for teachers, and among theuul 
place all properly qualified school superintendents. The idea of three 
farmers sitting down to determine on a teacher's qualifications would be 
comical if the result were not so often tragical. 

What conditions should exempt from examinations? 

So far as regards academic attainments, the diploma of a high school 
or college recognized by the State should be accepted as suflQcient evi- 
dence. It would be advisable, however, for the proper State authorities 
to publish a list of the institutions which should be thus recognized. 

WJiat need is therefor re-examination ? 

You do not re-examine lawyers, physicians, ministers, after they have 
received their license to practise or to preach. Why submit teachers to 
this additional test — to these repeated tests ? 

The necessity arises in part from the fact that young people often be- 
gin to teach just when they are beginning to learn. It is necessary that 
the habits of a student be kept up by external stimulus until the internal 
stimulus has been brought into action and the habit of study has become a 
**second nature.'' This process of re-examination should have a definite 
termination. Should there be manifested a necessity for continuing it 



218 PROCEEDINGS — DEPABTMENT OP SUPERINTENDENCE. 

beyond three or four years, let the teacher and the examination termi- 
nate together. 

On what subjects should a teacher he examined ? 

If the proposed teacher has no diploma from high school or college, 
he sbould be examined on the subjects he is required to teach, and should 
be tested also, outside of school text-books, on matters of general in- 
formation which all well-informed persons are expected to know. 

Teachers must be expected to know more than they are required to 
teach, but this surplusage should be of a general not a technical charac- 
ter. In a city not 300 miles from the spot where we stand, a young man, 
a candidate for the lowest grade of teachers to which men are usually 
appointed, must, if he has not the college diploma of the city, pass a 
satisfactory examination (85 per cent.) in history, book-keeping, arith- 
metic, algebra, geometry, plane and spherical trigonometry, analytical 
geometry, calculus, physiology, chemistry, natural philosophy, rhetoric, 
and drawing. 

In all this inventory, is it not surprising that there is no mention of 
psychology, of principles of teaching, of methods, of the history of edu- 
cation, of the organization and grading of schools, of*the large subject 
known as "school economy''? Is it not like undertaking to play 
Shakespeare's Hamlet, the character of Hamlet being left out? 

Would it not be better to omit the " calculus," inasmuch as the teacher 
never gets beyond the elements of algebra, and insert some of the 
purely professional work, something that will distinguish a professional 
teacher from a simple college graduate ? 

For both academic and professional qualifications, the diploma of a 
recognized State or city normal school should be an adequate substi- 
tute; if it is not so practically, the normal school demands reconstruc- 
tion. 

Should examinations be uniform in the State f In the county f 

If State uniformity were desirable it is not practicable. A set of 
uniform questions goes but a short way to the making of uniform ex- 
aminations. The conditions, too, must be uniform. The standard of 
marking must also be uniform. The same man may mark the same 
paper differently at different times, according to the state of his digest-* 
ive apparatus. It is quite possible for two teachers to take the same 
questions, and with different examiners, the better shall fail and the 
worse shall pass. 

But State uniformity is not desirable, bec^se if the same standard 
is set up for all localities, many places that most need a teacher would 
not be able to find one; even if the salaries are equalized the difficulty 
would not be removed, for there are districts in every State in which no 
highly qualified teacher would consent to live for any compensation 
that the district or the county could give him. 

County uniformity we can secure partly, where there is but one ex- 
amining authority; but even in a county some regard must be paid to 



EXAMINATIONS. 219 

* localities. It need not be added that where salaries differ it is absurd 
to expect qualifications to be the same. 
Do examinations always examine ? 
Not alwayS) — as my own experience as examinee proves. 



DISCUSSION. 
The discussion was opened as followi; : 

THE EXAMINATION OF TEACHERS. 

By L. W. Day, 

Superintendent of Cleveland Schools. 

Ladies and gentlemen : I am exceedingly sorry that those who are now 
present were not present at the beginning of Dr. NewelPs paper. I de- 
sire to commend it most heartily to the careful attention of every one 
present^ and trust it may be read, in substance at least, by many who 
were not present. It deals very closely with the question that lies 
close to the entrance door of the publiq school. It is a question that is 
not yet settled, and from the very nature of tbo question itself it must 
forever remain a somewhat unsettled question. For, as the profession 
of teaching advances from step to step, as better methods of instruction 
and management are brought forward, the conditions upon which 
teachers are admitted to the profession or the school-room ought cer- 
tainly to be advanced also. I desire to commend the paper. Upon one 
point I am not sure that I can quite agree with the doctor. I have re- 
spect to the advisability of greater uniformity throughout the States. 
The objections urged against such uniformity seem to me to hold with 
almost equal force against county uniformity. But I submit whether 
there is not a great possibility, in fact a probability, that if the ques- 
tions used throughout the State were uniform, were sent out by the 
State board of education, publicly used by the various examiners, cer- 
tificates issued upon them, and the manuscripts held subject to the 
order of the State board for revision, some good might result from it. 

The law which requires that all who design to teach in the schools of 
the State shall be examined by the State as to their proficiency in the 
several branches in which they are to give instruction is an excellent 
one, the force and importance of which should not bo lessened. 

The authority to whom is delegated the duty of discriminating be- 
tween those who are qualified under the law to teach and those who 
are not, has a most important work to perform ; a work which affects 
more or less directly the vital interests of the schools at large ; a work 
demanding that he should be in full and intelligent accord with the ad- 
vanced methods of instruction and management that characterize the 



220 PROCEEDINGS — DEPARTMENT OP SUPERINTENDENCE. 

schools of the present day. Id the discharge of his delicate daties, ie 
should recognize that it is not scholarship alone, vitally important as 
that certainl^"^ is, that should determine the matter of qualification. 
There are other elements of equal importance which enter very prom- 
inently into the question. 

I would not, for one moment, undervalue the importance of scholarly 
attainment. Without this there can be neither breadth nor depth of 
work, grasp of means, nor clear comprehension of what is to be accom- 
plished. Scholarship is essential, and every teacher should give satis- 
factory evidence of qualification in this respect. Examiners should 
carefully guard the door, and allow none to enter who are not possessed 
of an ample education. But of what avail is this knowledge to the 
teacher in the school-room if its possessor be lacking in the ability to 
impart instruction; if he cannot discriminate clearly between the 
means and the end; if he cannot so direct his work as to inspire con- 
fidence, stimulate thought, and encourage individual effort ? Examin- 
ers should never certify to the ability of any one to teach unless such 
person has given much careful and intelligent thought to the profes- 
sional side of the teacher's work. He who desires to teach, who seeks 
to aid and direct in the development of a human soul, should be willing 
to prepare himself to the uttermost for his work, and examiners should 
see to it that none are authorized to practise upon the children who 
have not gone deeply and earnestly into this matter. With institutes 
in almost every city, town, and county ; with associations, sectional, 
State, and national ; with normal schools located at numerous conven- 
ient points; with educational journals, the best the world affords, within 
the easy reach of all — with all these earnest invitations to proper prep- 
aration, is it too much to require that he who would teach must fit him- 
self professionally for his work? Have not the children a right to 
demand teachers who are at least theoretically prepared, who under- 
stand the history of education and the grand objects sought by the best 
schools of to-day, and who have at least a good working knowledge of 
psychology? Witness the large number of pupils who have withdrawn 
from school, a very large per cent, of whom have done so because they 
have become disgusted with school-room work, preferring ignorance 
and labor to the uninteresting, uninspiring work of the school-room. 
Investigations show clearly that the number of withdrawals from 
schools taught by teachers who understand themselves, their work, and 
their pupils is very small, and confined to cases of necessity. 

Admitting the very great importance of scholastic learning, and com- 
mending our examiners for what they have done in the way of elevat- 
ing the standard of excellence in this respect, let us urge them to more 
strenuous efforts in elevating the standard professionally as well. 

There are of course many difficulties attending such work. They are 
not, however, insurmountable. It need not be very difficult for the 
competent examiner to ascertain, by means of suitable conversation, 



EXAMINATIONS. 221 

somethiDg of the extent and character of the professional reading of 
every applicant who does not come sufficiently vouched for in this re- 
spect by the principal of the normal or other training school, and at 
the same time to note the clearness and ability with which the required 
information is imparted. Such a conversation, judiciously conducted, 
will reveal several other elements vitally essential to the successful 
teacher. But, however close and searching this investigation may be, 
it would obviously be unwise to issue more than a trial certificate until 
the applicant has proven by actual school work an ability to instruct 
and manage a school. Such trial work should bo carefully observed 
by the superintendent or other person qualified and authorized to su- 
pervise the work of iostruction, and only upon his recommendation, 
based upon assurances of at least fair success, should the partial cer- 
tificate be followed by the issue of a full one. Otherwise the partial 
certificate should lapse at the close of the term. 

If it be the duty of the examiner to reject those who are deemed not 
qualified, he should be sure that his own methods are correct ; that he 
himself has a clear conception of the requirements of the schools of 
to-day. He should be a master workman, comprehending the true re- 
lation of the teacher to the school, of the work of the school to the sub- 
sequent life of the child ; in short, he should understand what au edu- 
cation is, and how best to secure it. Ho need not be an infallible man, 
but he must be a most earnest and devoted one, whom neither fear nor 
fevor can swerve from the right, a man of close observation and of 
sound judgment, a ripe scholar, capable of discerning those qualities 
which enter so largely into the make-up of the successful instructor and 
manager. The duties of such an officer are arduous and important in 
the extreme. With proper care on his part, few will be authorized to 
teach in the schools of the State who have not made special preparation 
for their work, and surely none others should be permitted to teach. If 
the attorney, the physician, the minister must spend from two to four 
years in special training before he can be permitted to enter upon his 
work, why, in all reason, should not teachers be required to do the same 
thing f Is it claimed that our profession is so peculiar that no valuable 
preparation can be had except as innocent children are practised upon 
by the novice! Away with such nonsense! On the contrary, it is a 
solemn duty we owe the children to see that they are not practised upon 
by those who* have no interest in the work beyond the securing of a 
comfortable position. 

We are continually striving to elevate the standard of our schools ; 
we are holding institutes, organizing associations, and publishing pro- 
fessional literature for the benefit of teachers already employed, but 
we are silently admitting to our ranks thousands who have given no 
thought to their work beyond preparing for their technical examina- 
tions. The few who attend the institute, do so, in many cases, in order 
to review for the same examination. This is all wrong. Let us require 



222 PROCEEDINGS — DEPARTMENT OF SUPERINTENDENCE. 

a higher standard of the examiner, and stand by him in his attempts to 
establish it. With the doors thus guarded, we may select teachers 
from those certified as qualified to teach, to the very great advantage 
of the schools. 

Dr. HiaBEE : Mr. Newell ought certainly to have known the scholar- 
ship or attainments of the person who was before him. The question 
is not to do away with examinations; they are an absolute necessity. 
We must know the scholarship, the attainments, and professional skill 
of the applicant, so far as it is possible for us to know. We must 
know what is the difficulty ; whether the difficulty is in the examiner 
or in those examined. I have gone through nearly the same experi- 
ence that Dr. IN'ewell has gone. I was examined in Lancaster, and the 
examiner didn't know anything 5 I found that out in a short time, al- 
though I was the one examined. The fault was in the examiner, and 
the whole question is this, who shall examine our teachers ? That is 
the most important feature. In the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania 
we trust the subordinate examinations to the county superintendents. 
The reason we do this is that we suppose the counties will fortify them- 
selves in the directors of the schools. That is the system we have there. 
Of course it fails in many respects. But what shall we do f Tou say 
that you will have the State superintendent examine. He don't exam- 
ine. Suppose he sends down questions. That is not examining. It is 
foolish to suppose, for instance, that a State ever gets a uniform set of 
questions that examines. It is the examiner that examines. He has 
the man before him; he is the man to pass judgment. And how 
could I, as the State superintendent of Pennsylvania, from the 
answers that come up to me, ascertain the character and presence of 
the man himself? I could test his memory. I will give an instance. 
A gentleman came to me once after having endeavored to answer the 
questions of an examination, with this question, thinking he had made 
a mistake : On which side of the river is Geneva ? I said, of course 
on the outside. That is the only answer I would give to such a ques- 
tion. I would be ashamed of myself, honestly, if I was summoned to 
examine a person, to examine him through the questions of another 
man. I would as soon court a girl with my grandfather's loveliness. 

The Chair : Mr. Day said something in the beginning of his paper 
about uniformity of questions in the State. That was tjie custom fol- 
lowed in California before the adoption of the new constitution. For 
some time preceding the adoption of that constitution, it was supposed 
that the passage of the questions through the mails would be risky. 
Finally it was suspected that by some means some of these questions 
occasionally got out ; and the culmination came when one day in San 
Francisco, the evening before the examination, the San Francisco Bul- 
letin published all the questions in full, and the examinations through- 
out the State had to be suspended. The convention met soon after and 
the whole system was broken up. 



EXAMINATIONS. 223" 

Mb. Wise : One of the most difficult things I know of is how to ex- 
amine teachers with a view to ascertain whether they are capable. It 
seems to me that the first requisite is to ascertain whether the candi- 
date is healthy ; and I think a doctor's certificate ought to be gotten to 
show that this party who is desirous to teach is in a sufficiently healthy 
condition to make a good teacher; and I think the moral character 
ought to be inquired into very carefully, whether the person is a proper 
person. After this is done, and not done simply because it is required, 
in a perfunctory way, the next thing I should inquire into with great 
care is whether he possesses the requisite culture. I think with the 
great number of opportunities that our cities and country hold out to 
people to become educated, that every board of education has a right 
to demand this of parties coming forward to teach and avail themselves 
of those appliances ; not only to know them, but to look ahead and to 
adapt this work harmoniously to an extended education. Persons who 
t^ach in the primary school should supplement that by a course in the 
grammar school. Education is continuous, and in order to preserve 
this continuity, persons doing work all along the line should see the 
whole course to be gone over. I believe the greatest fault of the teach- 
ers is the lack of culture. There is too much stress laid on methods, 
psychology, etc.; but I believe that to the teacher who has culture, char- 
acter, and a desire to perform properly the duties she is called upon to 
discharge, these things will come after. As Dr. Harris said last night, 
a good teacher will make good pupils. If they have this basis of cult- 
ure, it seems to me this would be a good foundation upon which to build 
the professional knowledge that they must acquire afterwards. 

The examination, "in my judgment, should be partly written and 
partly oral. I have seen a great many persons who could pass a writ- 
ten examination by anticipating the questions to be asked upon the 
subject. If I were called upon to examine a person, I would simply get 
that person to read to me and afterwards ask oral questions, and I 
could ascertain more in that way than by the ordinary questions asked 
upon the subject of grammar. And another thing that is very im- 
portant to ascertain : We all acknowledge that teaching is a profes- 
sion, and persons who desire to teach but a short time should be re- 
jected. Some eminent educator has said: "In choosing a teacher for 
your son, be much more careful to ascertain his moral character than 
his culture. A man of high character who sets before his boys an ex- 
ample of proper conduct will do more for his boys than a man of the high- 
est culture will do. " 

Me. Dickinson : I am quite interested in this discussion, because 
in my own State we are turning our attention more fully now than ever 
before, to the preparation of the teachers for their work. The statutes 
of our Commonwealth require that every teacher who enters the public 
schools shall have competent ability and good morals. The studies to 
1>e taught in the public schools are uniform in the cities, and the teack- 



224 PROCEEDINGS — DEPARTMENT OP SUPERINTENDENCE. 

ers are expected to be examined in these branches. The examinations, 
according to the statute, are conducted by the school committees of the 
towns. They are the only authority known to the law having charge 
of the schools, their organization and management. But wo feel that 
these gentlemen, although they are good men generally, and perhaps 
the very best that can be found in the towns where they reside, are not 
altogether fitted to examine the teachers who teach in our public 
schools. So there has been a great effort in the past few years to have 
the towns supplied with well-trained superintendents, who understand 
the work, who know something of the philosophy of teaching and the 
methods founded upon that philosophy, and to examine the teachers in 
reference to the subjects taught in the schools and in reference to 
teaching. The small towns of the Commonwealth are nof able to pro- 
vide themselves with superintendents. So in the past few years we 
have been making some arrangements to unite them, and, by aid from 
the State, to provide for them the desired advantages in this respect. 

In the examination of the teachers, I think it is quite necessary that 
we should determine where these persons should receive their educa- 
tion. I feel that the teachers of our schools ought to have a profes- 
sional training. There are some who graduate from high schools that 
make good teachers j but not as a. whole. And so those who desire to 
enter upon the work of teaching should be encouraged to go to our nor- 
mal schools and there prepare thoroughly for their work. The teacher 
himself, after all, under the direction of the authorities, will make the 
school what it is to be. So in the examination, these gentlemen do 
not depend altogether *upon any verbal examination that may be made. 
Formerly, and it was true when I was examined to teach in a country 
town of Massachusetts, questions were asked with reference to the 
subjects to be taught. There was one favorite question always asked 
by the committee 5 it was, to bound Virginia. It was a stated question, 
and if you understand how difficult it is to bound this State you will 
see it requires a good deal of geographical knowledge to do it ; and so 
I prepared myself carefully on the boundary of this State, bufunfortu- 
nately the committee did not ask the question ; but I remember the 
question he did ask 5 he asked me if I could understand the nature of a 
pupil by his looks ; and I thought a good deal depended upon the an- 
swer, and I said I thought I could. He said I was just the man for the 
place he was going to send me ; and that was all the question he asked 
me, and he gave me a certificate, and the certificate stated that " this 
certifies that we have examined the candidate in the branches required 
to be taught in the public schools, and we believe his moral character 
to be unexceptionable,'' and I entered upon the duties of a teacher. I 
found that before the close of the term I did need ju^t such an exami- 
nation. We do not depend upon such examinations now. The super- 
intendents of our schools desire to see the teachers at their work and 
see the relation these persons hold to their pupils, what are the infla- 



EXAMINATIONa 225 

■ 

ences they are exerting over their pupils, and their method of teaching. 
Now, this can be determined perhaps in some degree by.a verbal exam- 
ination. If I were to depend upon a verbal examination, I would assume 
the method of teaching different branches, and would take pains to no- 
tice ncft only the answers themselves, but the kind of answers to be 
given by the teacher; and then I should want to know something pf 
his professional training, and also of the character he sustains in the 
neighborhood where he was teaching. I think the utmost care should 
be taken by the school authorities in introducing teachers into the 
schools. Their minds must be of such a character that you will be will- 
ing to have the style of it impressed upon the children under their care* 
It is alMmportant, therefore, that the teacSer who is to stand before 
the pupils to mould their character is just what we desire our pupils to 
become. And so we can not .take too much pains in the selection of 
teachers. They must know what they are going to teach ; they must be 
thorough scholars, and understand the relation their work holds to the 
discipline of the pupils that come under them ; what a good course of 
stndy is ; what faculties of the mind are to be trained ; all these must 
be understood by the teacher before he is ready to enter upon the great 
work to which he is called. 

I feel interested in this question, and it is an important one now in 
the country: By what means shall the teachers of the country be in- 
troduced to the schools they are to teach ? 

Me. Snyder : The diflSculty with us is largely on this line. We have 
our normal schools and our teachers graduate from them. We ascer- 
tained before we had been organized two days that the chief object of 
their coming to our school is to fix on a certain line of questions. Wo 
have to prepare these teachers on a certain line of questions. Let mc 
illustrate : This question went the rounds last summer, " Why is the 
earth inclined 23 J degrees ! '^ Why, ask the man who made it. Through- 
out our State we have a great many examining boards that are purely 
political. One county I have particularly in my mind, in Ohio, in which 
if the political complexion and the political relationship of the applicant 
be just right, he is going through for a certificate. There are no visita- 
tions made by the examiners ; they do not understand the situation of 
the teachers; they do not understand the community to which these 
teachers go, and therefore do not comprehend what is fully required in 
an examination of their teachers. 

Db. White : As the Chair well knows, I begged to be excused from 
participating in this discussion, but being unsuccessful, I finally con- 
sented to have my name appear. I asked to be excused for the reason 
that, although I have been an examiner of teachers for years in different 
capacities, I know little about it. It is a problem in the administration 
of American schools that has not yet been satisfactorily solved, and 
one of those problems to which we must give very earnest attention in 
882— No, a 15 



226 PROCEEDINGS — ^DEPARTMENT OP SUPERINTENDENCE. 

the near fatnre. The most I can do is to state, in a few sentences, sev- 
eral things that seem to me to be settled by experience. 

In the first place, let me say that our examination systems greatly 
differ. lu Pennsylvania the county superintendent is the examiner of 
teachers; and he is selected on the basis of being a practical teacher 
himself. He knows the teachers, and visits their schools, and has a 
stand -point for his examinations which the examiner in Ohio and several 
other States has not. This suggests one point on which we can all agree. 
The examiner should be himself an educator, a professional teacher, if 
you please. I think we have reached a point in this country when we 
can deu^and that the door to our profession shall be guarded by its 
membership, by those who know practically its needs, and that i)oint 
carried will undoubtedly go very far* to improve the character of our 
examinations, and to raise the standard of qualification required. I 
am very glad to see that Ohio, backward and conservative as it is in 
school legislation, has taken in the past year a step worthy of the high- 
est commendation. It has provided that in cities of the first class, no 
person shall be appointed an examiner who has not had at least five 
years of successful experience as a teacher; that no person shall be an 
examiner of teachers who has not been himself a teacher. The whole 
profession ought to move in that dire<5tion by wise measures. We 
never can secure a proper standard of examination so long as persons 
who know nothing of teaching, who have little personal interest in school 
progress, are made examiners of teachers. There may be exceptions to 
the rule, but I think that the true position is that the examiner himself 
shall be an educator. 

Another point: when the examiner is a superintendent, and can 
know the skill of teachers by personal inspection of their schools, the 
element of skill, of actual success, may be made one of the conditions 
of a certificate. But when this is not the case, I think it is wholly im- 
practicable. As I view it, when the examining board is an independent 
body, the most that an examiner can test in his examination is knowl- 
edge. He can not test skill except as he sees it in the school-room. I 
believe that a great mistake has been made, throughout the West 
especially, and teachers have been very much misled by the assumption 
on the part of examiners that by a question they can test skill. A 
teacher may answer a question of method never so clearly, and utterly 
fail as a teacher. It is true that a knowledge of methods is a very im- 
portant element in success, and this can be tested. 

The first qualification of teachers to be tested by the examiner is 
knowledge, and his first duty is to test clearly the teacher's knowledge 
of the branches of study, his scholastic knowledge. And it seems to me 
that we have reached the time in this country when we may demand 
fair scholarship from our teachers. I know there may be exceptions, 
but as a rule we are not safe in putting a poor scholar into any school, 
and we ought to demand, and the time has come when it ought to be 
nni versallj demanded, that the teacher shall be a scholar, clear, accurate, 



EXAMINATIONS. 227 

and thorough as far as bis scholarship extends. The saddest work doue 
in our schools is the attempt of teachers to teach what they do not know. 
I stepped into a room a few months since to l^ear a teacher give a lesson 
on surface, and it was her purpose to distinguish between a plane and a 
curved surface. She had some idea of method, but her want of knowl- 
edge made that little lesson the saddest farce I ever saw in school 
instruction. A teacher may have tact, but if she be deficient in scholar- 
ship, she can not teach even the elements of knowledge accurately, and 
we need the very best of teaching right in our primary schools. So I 
insist upon it that the teacher's scholarship should be tested by the 
examiner, and also his mental ability and culture. 

I come now to the second element of the examination. What can 
the examiner do to test professional qualifications ? I repeat, that unless 
the examiner is an inspector of schools the most he can do is to test the 
teacher's knowledge of professional studies. We have now reached the 
point when we may demand that he who is to teach school shall know 
something of the guiding doctrines that underlie teaching — the essential 
principles of the art. 

The next element that must be determined is character. I wish to 
emphasize this with the utmost strength of voice. It is not enough that 
the teacher be a scholar; it is not enough that the teacher have profes- 
sional knowledge, or adequate skill in teaching; the examiner should 
satisfy himself that the applicant is a teacher of character. Now I do 
not mean one that is negatively good, free from habits that are wrong 
and iiyurious; not that alone. ]!!^egative goodness is well enough, but 
a teacher who seeks to be successful, should be one who loves purity 
honorybeautyin human couduet andin human life; onewho hates in the 
depth of his or her being that which is mean and low and destroying; 
and if I were to choose a teacher for my children, I would choose one 
whose life, influence, and spirit are all upward, instead of a teacher, 
though wonderfully learned and skillful in manipulation, whose influ- 
ence is deadening morally ; wouldn't you ? 

I think that we may leave skill to be worked out and tested in the 
schools, and those who employ teachers can best determine that matter, 
unless the employer is the examiner. Now, I am very favorably situated 
in that respect, wonderfully so, and almost, as I may say, grievously so. 
I am not only one of the examiners in Cincinnati, but as supeiintendent 
I have the appointment of teachers. But I can not depend upon the 
certificate in making an appointment. That is another matter. And 
so I think that we should make a clear distiuction between what can 
be tested by examination and what can only be determined by actual 
experience, and if the examiner will determine in his examination the 
teacher's qualification on one side of that line, the other can wisely 
be left to be worked out by those in charge of the schools. I may add 
that the professional element in our teachers' examinations is sometimes 
made pretty much a farce by examiners. The quest\Q\\& ^fik&'iL \fc^ 
nothing. The test of the teacher's professVonaV \L\io^\^^%^^wi\.^'^^^ 



228 PEOCEEDINGS — ^DEPARTMENT OP SUPERINTENDENCE. 

an increasing one. As the teacher's experience increases, this profes- 
sional test should be wider and more and more and more thorough. In 
re-examining experienced teachers, I would drop the scholastic part of 
the examination and make it purely a professional one. I hope teachers 
may soon reach a point when their future employment will not de]>end 
upon an examination, when they will have the evidence of their ability 
settled, and when they will not be harassed and humiliated by being 
subjected from year to year to these examinations. 

I wish to add that Ohio has taken another good step ; she has pro- 
vided that when a teacher has taught successfully for three years, he 
may receive a five-year certificate, renewable without examination^ pro- 
vided he is teaching and is successful. I think we have great reason to 
be encouraged 5 and if we could work on these lines unitedly our pro- 
fession would stand in a very different light from that in which it has 
stood in the past. 

Mr. Maxwell : Mr. President, Ladies, and Oentlemen^L do not rise 
for the purpose of attempting to add anything to what has been so well 
said in this discussion ; I rise simply because I want more information 
upon this very important subject from whoever may be in a position to 
impart said information. £ believe that this question of examinations 
of teachers is the most important question that we, as superintendents, 
have to consider. I believe that the examination of teachers is the most 
important work that we, as superintendents, have to do. It is through 
this work that the character of the schools, the character of the teach- 
ing, is very largely determined. If the superintendent or examiner 
lacks in attending to this work, incompetent teachers will get in; those 
who are deficient in knowledge, those who are deficient in skill. Per- 
haps the only word of Dr. White's very admirable address to which I 
could take exception is, that the most the examiner can do in con- 
ducting an examination is to pass knowledge. I hold a slight modifica- 
tion of that doctrine, and that is, that the principal thing the examiner 
can do is to test knowledge and equally to test intellectual ability. We 
may argue thus : if a person has the mental ability to acquire a certain 
amount of knowledge in a given time, that person has the requisite 
amount of mental ability to perform the work of the teacher.*. It re- 
mains to be determined after the examination, to be determined by 
actual experiment before the class, whether that person has the ac- 
quired or natural skill to perform the work of the teacher. Kow, ad- 
mitting all that has been said of the importance of this work as to the 
necessity of making examinations strict, making them thorough tests, 
whether of knowledge or mental ability, I have felt in my own experi- 
ence that the business of examination, particularly with regard to 
scholastic knowledge, may very easily be carried too far. I became 
superintendent of schools in Brooklyn about a year ago, and there found 
a system of examinations which I have been obliged to carry out. I 
believe there ia such a thing as having examinations in public school 



EXAMINATIONS. 229 

wors of such a obaraoter and conducted in sach a way as to bar ont 
some of the noblest characters and best scholars in our country who 
would otherwise come into our schools. It is a pet theory with me that 
the public school and the university should be very closely connected. 
I shall offer the following resolution : 

Resolved, That a committee of five be appointed to formulate the soholostic and 
profeflsional attainments that should ho required for admission to the positions of class 
teacher and of principal, and how far diplomas of graduation from high schools, nor- 
mal schools, coUeges, and universities should ho taken in lieu of examination, and to 
report at the next meeting of this department. 

I will not attempt to say anything in advocacy of this resolution, ex- 
cept that I believe that if we could have some doctrine formulated on 
this subject as the expression of the unanimous opinion of the sapcrin- 
tendents of this country we would all feel the benefit of it in our whole 
work. This country is pre-eminently the country of local home-rule. 
Each county, city, and State has its own system of public education, 
all more or less alike, but differing in details. Very different it is in the 
edacational countries of Europe, where there is a central board, or min- 
ister of public instruction, and where the work is done in the same way 
all over *he country. I suppose every superintendent here has met with 
the same difficulty I have met with in trying to carry out any systematic 
plan o^ qualification for applicants for position — that of local political 
influence. That is something that every superintendent has to fight. 
Uow I believe that if for no other reason than for the purpose of having 
something behind the local superintendent, having the voice of this 
great department behind him in his work, it would be well that we 
should formulate some definite doctrine. It may not be the best ; but 
I should like to see some definite doctrine, however defective, formulated 
by this convention and spread before the country as the unanimous 
•wish and'opinion of the superintendents. 

Dr. White: In my notes I had reference to the test of professional 
knowledge. The test of scholarship should test knowledge, power^ and 
skill. 



EXAMINATION FOE PEOMOTION IN THE PUBLIC SCHOOLS. 

By William DeWitt Hyde, 

President of Bowdoin College, 

This is a question on which there is abundant evidence at hand, and 
on which, although the doctors disagree, the arguments on all sides 
have been ably and exhaustively presented. 

In favor of examinations it is urged that they afford a stimulus to the 
pupil, making study definite, systematic, and sustained ; that they are 
a guide to the teacher, making instruction responsible and efficient; 
that they are a guamntee to the superintendent of faithfulness on' the 



230 PEOCEEDIKGS — DEPARTMENT OP SUPERINtEi^DEi^CJa. 

-p^Tt of both pupil and teacher, and that they render grading impartial 
and uniform. 

Agai^nst examinations it is urged that they foster in the pupils ner- 
vousness and disease; intermittent strain rather than steady advance; 
superficial and hurried cramming, rather than substantial and perma- 
nent progress ; the cultivation of a particular kind of smartness, rather 
than a firm and thorough grasp of knowledge ; that they beget in those 
who are gifted by nature with an abnormal preponderance of portative 
memory a shallow vanity in its possession 5 and that they give over 
to discouragement and disgust those in whom nature has so mixed 
the intellectual elements as to render them good for something besides 
the passing of examinations. It is urged that they rob teachers of 
originality and independence, that they strip instruction of all spon- 
taneity and inspiration, inducing in their place uniformity, constraint, 
routine, servility, and deadness. And finally, it is claimed that in so 
far as superintendents rely upon examinations for their estimate of the 
work of pupils and teachers they are sure to be misinformed ; that 
their grading will be one-sided and unfair ; that the precocious adepts 
at verbal memorizing will be pushed ahead so fast that they never will 
master anything, and that the slow substantial plodders, who take time 
and pains to assimilate what they learn, will be compelled fo go over 
the same ground so often that they will be discouraged and drop out 
before the course is finished. 

This sharp division of opinion is expressed in a great diversity of 
practice. Some superintendents insist on examinations for promo- 
tion, attach much weight to them, and say that they work well. 
Others have discarded examinations altogether, and say that they are 
better off without them. Others regard them as a necessary evil and 
retain them as a matter of form, but base promotion almost entirely 
upon reports of teachers as to the age, character, capacity," and pro* 
ficiency of their pupils. Others employ examinations as a convenient 
penalty to inflict on the stupid and negligent pupils of a class, and 
hold up immunity from this dreadful evil of examination as a reward 
to the bright and studious. 

Such is the sharp division of opinion and the wide diversity of prac- 
tice on this subject. 

I find myself in agreement with every argument advanced on both 
sides ; and yet neither one of the four practical solutions of the question 
seems to me satisfactory. 

On the one hand a graded school system is an impossibility, a con- 
tradiction in terms, unless there is included in it some thorough, broad, 
systematic means of ascertaining the proficiency of the pupils. On the 
other hand examinations, as they have been conducted in many of our 
schools, have been prolific of injury to the physical, mental, and moral 
natures of pupils and teachers alike. 

Not the continuation of examinations as they have been 3 not the aban- 



EXAMIKATIONS. 231 

donment of them altogether ; not a half-way compromise between snch 
examinations and none at all; bnt a more reasonable and just system 
of examination is the true solution of the problem. 

The subject of examination has not received the thought and atten- 
tion which it deserves. The existing methods of examination are alto- 
gether behind the times. We have been making rapid progress in in- 
struction. The old theory of instruction, which made it consist chiefly 
iu stufBng the pupil's mind with a lot of isolated facts, which were 
to be kept stowed away in the pigeon-holes of -memory, is exploded, 
and the practice which was based on that theory has been abandoned 
by all good teachers. The teacher of to-day aims not chiefly to cram 
the memory with a load of particular verbal propositions, but rather to 
develop the powers, organize the faculties, and awaken interest; to 
couple flEtct with principle; to see the particular proposition in the light 
of its universal relations ; and to grasp and retain facts under the form 
of laws which include them, and in* connection with processes which 
embody the practical workings of law and fact combined. Not bare 
possession but power to use; not naked apprehension and arbitrary re- 
tention, but rational comprehension and vital assimilation are the chief 
ends at which our best teachers aim to-day. ' 

While instruction has been moving rapidly forward under the impulse 
of psychology and pedagogics, examination has been standing compar- 
atively still. We have been testing new methods by old standards. Is 
it then surprising that we hear from many quarters complaints like 
this, " The best teachers do not obtain the highest per cents, from their 
pupils f Of course they do not, any more than new wine confined in 
old wine-skins produces the highest per cent, of well-preserved wine. 
New methods require new tests. Instruction which aimed chiefly at 
filling the memory with isolated facts rightly enough was tested by an 
examination which aimed to call out on a given occasion specimens of 
all the particular propositions that had been stowed away within the 
previous month or term or year. But to test the work of a well-taught 
pupil in a modern school by such an examination is as absurd as testing 
a locomotive on a turnpike. Such an examination is an imposition upon 
the mind of the pupil, and an insult to the intelligence of the teachers; 
an injustice against which every wise parent ought to protest ; a nuisance 
of which every superintendent ought to rid his schools at once. If ex- 
toination for promotion means of necessity a single set of questions, at 
the close of a period of study, covering minutely all the details included 
within thdt period, then let us by all means do away with this relic of 
educational superstition and pedagogical barbarism, and leave our pu- 
pils to a " go-as-you-please " course through the public schools until ma- 
turity or the necessity of earning a living compels them to withdraw. 

Before consenting to such an entire abandonment of system as this 
involves, let us consider what examination is ; what it is for. Let us 
aee if there is not a more rational method of exammaUou'^XvVOQL V^^f^ 



232 PHOCEEDINGS — DEPARTMENT OP SUPERINTENDENCE. 

complish the desired ends, and at the same time avoid the evils that 
have so generally accompanied them. 

An examination is simply an exhibition of what the pnpil has learned. 
Its aim is to show how far the pupil has profited by his study and in- 
struction, and how much practical good he has gained from them. 

Now a pupil may get hold of what he learns in a variety of ways. The 
good he derives from study may be of various kinds. There are at least 
three distinct forms in which he may possess that which he has learned; 
apprehension, applica4;ion, and comprehension. 

The first, apprehension, simply lays hold of the lessons as presented 
by book or teacher, and carries them in that precise form in the mem- 
ory. The second, application, consists in the power to use what has 
been learned, in forming new combinations, solving new problems, and 
dealing with new cases. The third, comprehension, grasps the mean- 
ing of the subject as a whole, distinguishes the main features from the 
subordinate details, and sees the subject in its broad relations to other 
domains of truth and life. 

Since knowledge may take these three distinct forms, examination, 
which is to exhibit broadly and fairly the pupil's attainments, should call 
for the display of knowledge in each of these three forms. The methods 
of conducting such a threefold examination will vary with different sub- 
jects of study and modes of teaching. Not as a model of what all sys- 
tems of examination ought to be, but as a specimen of what in sou)^ 
cases examination might be, the following outline is suggested. 

The three kinds of examination, testing apprehension, power to mak^ 
application, and comprehension, should be distinct in method and sep' 
arate in time. 

The first kind of examination, testing apprehension of the precise da* 
tails of the particular lessons, should be very frequent. It may be eitheir 
oral or written. It may take the form of a weekly review or of a daily 
review at the beginning of the regular recitation. The period covered 
by this examination or review should be brief; not extending over more 
than the work of the previous week. These daily reviews or frequent 
examinations serve a double purpose. They are an indispensable aid 
to teaching. As a recent writer has said, " nine-tenths of all we remem- 
ber in life is very much more due to conscious or unconscious reconsider- 
ation than to any primary vigorous mastery of it." Of course every 
teacher begins his lesson with at least a few hasty questions on thfe 
lesson of the day before. But in the mind of both pupil and teacher 
this review is apt to be regarded as a secondary matter. By making 
this review a separate thing, and by making the results of these reviews 
an element in promotion, several important advantages are secured at 
once. The pupil feels free to display ignorance and difficulty on the ad- 
vance lesson, and will ask questions ; this gives the teacher a chance to 
teach the lesson to the best advantage. It gives each pupil a chance to 
have the benefit of the teacher's instruction and explanation on difficult 



EXAMINATIONS. 233 

points, before he is held finally responsible for knowing tliem. It com- 
pels the pupil to go over each lesson three or four times, and gives the 
teacher an opportunity to bring out three or four times the prominent 
features of each lesson. 

These results, tabulated and accompanied by the teacher's comments 
as to the age, character, capacity, temperament, health, and proficiency 
of the pupil, afford the superintendent one very important element in 
the problem of promotion. He kpows by this the pupiPs fidelity to ' 
regular daily duty. He is sure that the pupil who stands well in these 
reviews, not for one day or one hour only but for three or four days, 
has had in his memory at least the contents of his daily lessons, and 
since the period covered has been in each case brief, this has been ac- 
complished without requiring the pupil to carry at any one time an ex- 
cessive load of memorized details. 

The second kind of examination is to test the pupil's power to make 
practical application of what he knows. The pupil should be required 
to hand in the results of work assigned by the teacher in connection 
with his studies. The pupil should be allowed all the time he needs to 
do this work, and should be taught never to hand in any work until it 
represents the very best that he can do. The kind of work will vary 
with different subjects. In manual training, of course, the actual things 
made by the pupil constitute his answers to this kind of examination. 
Problems in arithmetic and algebra, the demonstration of original prop- 
ositions in geometry, the writing out in the pupil's own language of a 
story told by the teacher, in grammar and rhetoric, a record of experi- 
ments witnessed or performed in physics and chemistry, the analysis of 
flowers in botany, maps in geography, summaries or narratives follow- 
ing a different thread or order from that of the book in history, transla- 
tions in language, are appropriate subjects for such collateral examina- 
tion work. 

This kind of examination also has a great educational value. It 
teaches the pupil to turn his knowledge to account. It trains him in 
neatness, accuracy, and method. It enables him to test himself as he 
goes along. It gives the teacher an insight into the strength and weak- 
ness of the pupil, and affords an objective point toward which supple- 
mentary reading and instruction can be directed. 

Furthermore, this test is more nearly like the test of actual life. We 
seldom in real life have catch-questions sprung upon us. We know what 
is expected of us beforehand, we have time to think it over, to consult 
bur books, to make a few rough experiments, and then if we fail it is 
solely because we do not know how to do the thing. Now, this second 
type of examination, giving the pupil, as it does, all the legitimate helps 
he can get and all the time he wants, and with nothing to fret or worry 
him, tests him precisely as the world will test him after he leaves school. 
Henco it is at once a most valuable feature of education and a most ef- 
fective test. The only objection to it is that it giv^^ vwcl Ci\>^^x\»S5Sfes ^^'^. 



234 PROCEEDmoS — ^DEPABTMENT OF SUPERINTENDENCE. 

• 

cheating. Well, so does the actual world for that matter. But cheat- 
iug, wlietber in the world or in school, is in the long ran unprofitable 
and easily detected. An observing teacher can easily detect work 
which is above the level of the pupiPs own powers 5 and £he school, by 
trusting its pupils to be fair and honest, and at the same time exposing 
and punishing dishonesty and unfairness when it is detected, can intro- 
duce a moral discipline of great value in connection with this kind of 
examination. And even if the work is to some extent done dishonestly 
it can not all be done unfairly ; and even the neat and orderly and in- 
telligent copying of work has some educational value, even if it has no 
value as a test and less than none from a moral stand-point. Notwith- 
standing this single objection, such collateral and original work, repre- 
senting the best the pupil can do with plenty of time and plenty of 
books, in the same freedom and responsibility as he will have in later 
life, may fairly enter as the second of the three elements^ determining 
his promotion. 

The third kind of examination should come at the end of the course. 
This final examination should aim to test solely the pupil's comprehen- 
sion of the subject; his appreciation of its main features and more im- 
portant bearings. The questions should be set by the teacher, or by 
the superintendent with the advice and consent of the teacher, and with 
special reference to the points emphasized by the teacher in the final 
review. These questions should never go into the details of particular 
lessons. They should be confined strictly to those prominent features 
of the subject which have been so reviewed, reiterated, and dwelt upon 
that every pupil who has paid attention and taken an interest in the 
subject will be perfectly familiar with them. The questions on the final 
examination should be based on the review as conducted by the teacher, 
not on the text-book. The questions should be suggestive to the thought 
rather than reminders to the memory. The pupils should be told plainly 
and repeatedly that this final examination will be such that no amount 
of cramming of the text-book will help them to pass it; that all that 
will be necessary is a clear understanding of those main topics which 
have been dwelt on in the class during the final review. Such an ex- 
amination will be as easy as play to those scholars who have been atten- 
tive, interested, and thoughtful. It will be blind as Egyptian hiero- 
glyphics to those who have been listless and indifferent. It will be 
impossible for any one to pass it who has learned the book by rote, and 
done nothing more. 

This.examination, too, has a great educational value. It furnishes 
an objective point toward which the oral instruction of the teacher may 
be directed in the last few weeks of the term which are devoted to com- 
prehensive review. It will help to fix in the mind those leading features 
of the subject which such a review, as conducted by a good teacher, 
seems to bring out. It cultivates in the pupil the habit of thinking 
about his studies, and accustoms him to see the meaning of what he 
learns. 



The results of this examination may rightly enter as a third element 
in determining a pupil's promotion. 

Now, putting the results of these three kinds of examination to- 
gether wo know all that we need to know respecting a pupil's attain- 
ments in his studies and his fitness for proDiotion. We know, with re- 
spect to each pupil, how well he has learned his daily lessons ; we know 
how intelligently, neatly, and effectively he can put in practice what 
he has learned, and we know how firm a grasp he has on the broad 
outlines of the subject as a. whole. We have secured these ends with- 
out worry or fret on the part of the pupil ; without subjecting our 
teachers to distrust or constraint, and without the bother of any nice 
mathematical calculation on the part of the examiner or superintendent. 
We have given each type of mind among our pupils a fair chance to. do 
his best on his own lines. The memorizer has had his opportunity in 
the frequent reviews. The carefhl, plodding, painstaking pupil has had 
his chance to take all the time he needed to do his best on the work to 
be handed in ; and the pupil of quick, keen, intuitive perceptions has 
had his turn in the final examination. Every pupil who is fitted for 
promotion on any ground whatever has had a fair chance to make his 
fitness manifest. And more than that, our examinations have in every 
case been important instruments in furthering the acquisition of accu- 
rate, available, and significant knowledge, as well as tests of its pos- 
session. *Such a system of examination meets every requirement for 
the sake of which examinations are advocated, and avoids every evil 
on account of which they are opposed. At the same time, by making 
the final examination only one of three determining considerations, it 
accomplishes the end aimed at by those who do not lay much stress on 
the final examination; and by making this final examination of such 
a broad and general nature that it will be easy as play for the faithful, 
and diflicult for none except the listless and inattentive, it attains the 
end of those who examine one portion of a class and exempt the 
other. 

Such a system of examination gives the pupil definiteness and stim- 
ulus in study, with no temptation to cram and no occasion to worry. 
It gives the teacher freedom in the methods, and enforces responsibil- 
ity for the results of his teaching. It enables the superintendent to 
know and appreciate every kind of excellence in his teachers, and to 
judge them by a broad and just standard, and to know and appreciate 
every kind of capacity and attainment in the pupils, and to grade and 
promote them on the basis of a fair and comprehensive exhibition of 
proficiency and power. 

It insures an education which is neither so loose as to be desultory 
and demoralizing, nor so mechanical as to fall into narrow routine and 
dead uniformity ; an education which thoroughly masters details, while 
it does not overload the memory with unwieldy burdens of disconnected 
£EM$ts ; an education which puts its knowledge into practice, and yet 



236 PEOCEEDINGS — DEPARTMENT OP SUPERINTENDENCE. 

does not allow principles to bo forgotten ; an edacation which is broad 
and comprehensive, without becoming vague and superficial. 

In a word, examination thus conducted is a system. It recognizes 
that there are more types of mind than one, and that knowledge has 
manifold processes, as apprehension, application, and comprehension. 
It gives to each type of mind and to each process of knowledge scope 
and recognition, and at the same time holds them all in due subordina- 
tion to the great governing aim of education, which is to develop in 
symmetry and harmony the minds of all its pupils. 



EXAMINATIONS FOR PROMOTION. 
By William M. Giffin, 

NewarTCf N, J, 

Mr. President^ Ladies, and Oentlemen : This is a timely subject, one 
that has been far too long neglected. I desire, independently of aaj* 
thing that has been or may be said on the question, to offer a few earnest 
protests. Let me add, however, as an introduction, that lam in io^ 
sympathy with the following thoughts which must have been written 1>J 
a practical teacher, inasmuch as they show a perfect familiarity with tt^^ 
subject, and the opinions are expressed as only a man of experience c^^ 
express himself. They are as follows : 

Examinations, as ordinarily conducted, do not give the results of gocT*^ 
teaching, because they are based upon the supposition that knowledge :i^ 
everything. A cross, selfish, and even brutal teacher may make go(^^ 
text-book scholars. 

They may know a wonderful number of facts in history and geography^^ 
they may be quick in mathematical calculations, and excellent in th^ 
languages, and yet with all this they may send their pupils out into the 
world fit only to become Wall street sharpers, boodle, vicious, and tricky 
politicians. But are these things the measure of their success ? By no 
means. Just such men pulled Rome down, and just such men will cause 
the ruin of our country should it fall. The imparting of knowledge is of 
minor importance. We are running wild over strength of body and mind, 
and neglecting the culture of the soul. 

There are some who will say that all this is "nonsense,'' "preaching," 
and all that. It is not nonsense, and if it is preaching, the more of it the 
better. We want some earthquake that will shake a few of these funda- 
mental truths into the inner consciousness of thousands of teachers who 
are wild over facts. They are everlastingly asking, " Who 1 " ** What ? ^ 
"WhenP "Howt" 

This is the beginning, middle, and end of all their teaching. If they 
find a pupil who can tell the name of Queen Victoria's great-grandmother, 
or conjugate the Greek irregular verbs^and give Cicero's idiomatic ex- 



EXAMINATIONS. ^37 

pressions, they at once pronoance him <^ excellent." Special results 
stand at the end of all their ideas of school work. 

Taking this, then, as a text, I protest (I) against any of the powers that 
be, so arranging their coarse of studies, and so conducting their exam- 
inations, and so judging their teachers as to make them (the teachers) 
feel that not only their salaries and their positions, but almost their 
<< everlasting salvation,'' depend upon just such teaching as above de- 
scribed. How absurd to jadge of the competency of the teacher by 
the results she may obtain from term or annual examinations, thus caus- 
ing her to become a machine for cramming, pouring into, and stuffing 
the minds of her pupils with words, words, words, in order that she may 
prepare them for the annual farce, causing her to give as much time to 
the 6. G. D. and the L. G. M., and that other father of frauds, alligation 
(because, you know, they may be in the examination), as she gives to the 
common sense practical principles of arithmetic. 

It also tempts her to compel her pupils to con by rote the chron- 
ological tables in history so that they may be up in all the dates, thus 
making the settlement of Few Hampshire or the battle of the " Kegs " 
of as much importance as the discovery of America or the Declaration 
of Independence; and hence instead of awakening a love for history in 
the minds of the pupils, causing them to acquire a life-lasting dislike for 
one of the grandest studies in the curricula of our public schools. 

(2) I protest against the unkind, unjust, and arbitrary regulation in 
too common: use, which says thgt a child cannot be promoted who ob- 
tains less than sixty-five per cent, in any one study. 

lam willing to haveanyamountof patience with achildwho knows four 

of five studies so well as to be able to obtain an average of seventy -five 

per cent, when getting absolutely nothing in the fifth study. Heaven 

, only knows where we would have been to-day had we, when at school, 

• been obliged to obtain sixty-five per cent, in our spelling examination. 

, • We were filled with admiration for Sir Isaac Newton j we admired 

Benjamin Franklin; we appreciated the plays of Shakespeare; the 

force of Webster; the statesmanship of Hamilton, and the generalship 

of Washington ; but these did not awaken our indescribable wonder, 

our unbounded amazement, as did the performances of Mr. Philips, of 

Hoosier schoolmaster fame. It was 'way beyond our comprehension 

how any man, woman, or child under the starry-decked heaven could 

roll out letter after letter which, combined in regular or irregular, wise 

or otherwise order, make up the words of our English language. 

And yet such ability xcas or is no more an evidence of brains than 
the horns of a snail are an evidence of rapid transit. 

I have a dear friend, who towers head and shoulders above me intel- 
lectually, who can write page after page of manuscript without so much 
as thinking of consulting the dictionary. He is also well up in historical 
information ; he can, at almost a moment's warning, give wings to his 
imagination and fly off into space, filling page after page with beautiful 



23& PROCEEDINGS — DEPARTMENT OP SUPERINTENDENCE. 

word pictures. Yet, even to this day, let him be soaring ever so high 
heavenward, I can bring him down to' earth more quickly than Darios 
Green ever thought of coming, by simply patting the following question 
to him : *» John is thirty-six years old, and one-fourth of his age is three- 
nintbs of William's ; how old is William f ' Not only will it bring him 
down to earth, but unless instant relief is given there are alarming symp- 
toms of a congestive chill. Oftentimes have I been riding in the horse- 
car with hira, when, seeing a dime in his hand, I have taken it, placed a 
nickel there, and when the conductor came in I paid both fares ; he in 
the mean time looking at me in a dazed sort of way, says, " Well, I sup- 
pose that is all right, but I'll be hanged if I understand'it.'' 

Many of the brightest lights ever known could not have been pro- 
moted under such a system; e. g.^ John Locke, who could write a mas- 
terly work on the understanding, but who, it is said, did not and could 
not master the multiplication table. 

(3) I protest most emphatically against the too common practice of 
measuring the child's brain by the answers he may give to a set of pet 
questions proposed by a disinterested, fully-matured, non-professional 
committeeman who has no more knowledge of the principles of teaching 

.than has a frog of the tonic sol-fa system of singing, and who is just 
about as successful as an examiner as is the frog as a songster. 

(4) I protest against the idea that a pupil may spend the whole year 
in acts of pure cussedness, idling away his time day after day, using 

* up more of the teacher's nerve force tjjan any other half-dozen pupils, 
and finally receive a promotion to a higher grade because he sat up 
until the " wee small hours " during the last month of the school year 
learning the words of his text-book by heart, and on the examination 
day gave three-fourths of his answers to the above-mentioned pet 
questions correctly, and who, notwithstanding his wordy description, 
e. g.y of the battle of Gettysburg, coUld not tell whether it were fought 
in Pennsylvania or the Fiji Islands were he given all the glittering gold 
of California and the sparkling diamonds of Brazil for doing so. 

Do not conclude from these remarks thatl have no sympathy for the 
unruly element in our public schools. 

I had occasion not long ago to express my views on the subject under 
the following circumstances : I enter a class-room from which a class 
has just been excused and there find the young teacher with a pale, 
care-worn face. 1 ask why she looks so care-worn. She tells me she 
feels down-hearted and discouraged, in short, like giving up entirely. 
" Why ?" I ask. " Well," she answers, " Johnnie Blank is so bad ; I 
do not see any improvement in him ; I fear I shall never reach him. 
Why not suspend him ! I could do so much hotter were he out of the 
class." "Let me see," I reply; 'Hiow long have you had the class ?'' 
" Eight days." '* Indeed, so long I What is expected from your class 
in language this term*?" (The work as laid down in the manual is 
here explained by the teacher.) << Has Johnnie mastered the term's 



EXAMINATIONS. 239 

language yetf **Why, no, indeed! How could hel^ "What is 
expected of you in arithmetic!" "Subtraction and multiplicatiou.'^ 
** And can Johnnie work all problems or examples in these two rules ?" 
<' Why, no; this is only the second week, and we are not expected to 
finish these subjects till the last of the term.'^ "Has Johnnie had any 
inHuence brought to bear on him that will make it difficult to master 
either one ot these subjects I " "1 think not; how could he 1 " "Which 
is harder to build, subtraction tables or character!'' "Character, no 
doubt.'' " And yet you thought it strange that I should expect the 
subtraction tables in two weeks, when you are looking for the character 
in eight days." A change begins to come over her face 5 I continue 2 
" By whom are our schools supported ? " " By the people," she answers. 
" Why do the people support them, some of whom have no children!" 
**That all may receive an education," she answers. "And why do they 
desire that all should receive an education ! " Her answer is, " That 
all should become better and more useful citizens." " Is there any 
danger of the good element in our schools becoming bad citizens! " 
She replies, "As a rule, no." " Is there any danger of the bad element 
becoming bad citizens ! " " Yes," she says, " there is danger." " Then," 
I ask, " how can you best serve the State, by teaching the good boys 
the subtraction tables or by teaching the bad boys kindness, love, sym- 
pathy, and a due respect for the rights of others !" " Certainly the 
latter," she answers. " Then, will it not be better to keep Johnnie in 
the class, so that while you are teaching Henry the ' Good' his subtrac- 
tlon tables you may also be building up the character of Johnnie the 
' Bad,' who will soon master the tables when oiice made to have a liking 
for better things ! " 

I am rewarded by seeing the face that but a few moments before was 
the picture of despondence now covered with smiles of hope and joy, 
and I say to myself when alone, " Surely the time spent in studying 
such a work is far from being wasted." 

Hence, you see, I am in full sympathy with the bad boy, on the other 
band. I have in mind at this moment four pupils who were as faithful 
workers as any I have ever had,%nd, morally speaking, were beyond re- 
proach. One of them, a perfect little lady in every respect, was obliged 
to pass through a saloon every time she came to and from school, as 
there was no other way of reaching her home. These children worked 
faithfully every day ; gave undivided attention, and, one of them par- 
ticularly, asked more common-sense questions than any of her class- 
mates. They were not all members of the school at the same time, and 
hence were at different times candidates for admission to the high 
school. They each failed, one of them lacking something like four- 
tenths of one per cent, of receiving the required seventy- five per cent. 
average. Another lacked two-tenths of one per cent., another eight- 
tenths of one per cent., and I now recall still another who lacked but 
eight one-hundredths of one per cent. 



240 PROCEEDINGS — ^DEPARTMENT OP SUPERINTENDENCE. 

None of these children were admitted to the high school, since Uiey 
did not obtain the seventy-five per cent, average at the annual exam 
ination. 

(5) Then, I protest with all the force that within me lies, against tbo 
practice of not promoting a conscientious, hard-working, faithful pnpil, 
who, because of, perhaps, a little indigestion, over-anxiety, or sleepless 
night, caused by over-excitement brought on in anticipation of the 
forthcoming test, may lack a few tenths of one per cent, of answering 
correctly the ten pet questions, which, if answered correctly, give no 
idea of the real power and skill of the mind of the answerer. 

I can give you a chapter here from real life, illustrating my meaning. 
A few years ago a young lady was transferred from one school to an- 
other. In the past everything had depended on her class average. A 
few weeks before the term examinations began she became pale, nervous, 
and irritable ; her new principal noticing this, asked her the cause, 
when she expressed surprise at his having noticed anything unusual in 
her conduct. 

She then frankly acknowledged that the forthcoming examination 
was worrying her greatly. She said that this being her first examina- 
tion in this school, she was particularly anxious to have a high class 
average. The principal smiled and replied, ^' Should your class happen 
to have alow average, I presume j'ou will have been a failure.^ ** Yes,'* 
she answered, '^ I presume I shall have been.'' Her trembling voice 
and downcast eye spoke louder than her words. 

The principal then said, '^My dear child, go on with your work, and 
if you do as well in the future as you have been doing in the past, I 
shall be perfectly satisfied with your results, and shall not care whether 
your class average is forty or twice forty per cent. By the way, do you 
know you might have a class average of ninety per cent, and be a fail- 
ure, while on the other hand the average might be forty per cent, and 
you be a perfect success P " Why no I" she replied, *' how can that be 
possible!" "I'll show you," said the principal, turning to the class of 
little second-year pupils; "Children," said ho, "I'm going to teach you 
a new lesson to-day. You may repeat after me, ' Geography is a de- 
scription of the earth's surface.' Say it again. Again. Once more. 
Now, who can tell me what is geography f Willie may tell me. May, 
tell mo. Class, tell me. Johnny may tell." 

" There," said he, turning to the teacher, " they know that, don't 
they F " Yes, there's no doubt they do." " Then if I were to give 
them an examination, and the first question was, ^ What is geography P 
you would admit that it was a fair question?" "Yes, certainly." 
" Very well. ' Children, an island is a body of land surrounded by 
water.'" This was repeated and recited as before. "N^ow,"said the 
principal, " the second question will be fair if asked as follows: ' What is 
an island?'" "Yes, perfectly fair." "And if the children answered .as 
ihey have answered me now, you would give them perfect marks !" " I 



EXAMINATIONS. 241 

certainly should." " Very well, I shall now prove to you that they 
know absolutely nothing about the subject." He then began question- 
ing them as to how many had ever seen a geography. Up went their 
hands. When asked about how it looked, they answered "A description 
of the earth^s surface." The question was then put, "What is a geog- 
raphy itself?" The definition was again repeated. When asked how 
large they thought a geography was, one thought it was as large as his 
fist, another as large as the desk, still another thought it was as large as 
the blackboard, when at that moment a little fellow in the back part of 
the room with the most intense earnestness pictured on his face, raised 
his hand and exclaimed, "Oh! I know, sir; I know! I know!" "Well, 
my boy, what is itf" "It's a great, big, live nanny-goat." 

There was not a smile upon his face, nor did any members of the class 
laugh, evidently thinking his answer was right. The little fellow, no 
doubt, had some time heard that goats were a destruction to the eartht 
hence his error. 

Think of a child being promoted after such a test, with perhaps an 
average of 75.1 per cent., while the conscientious child who wotks faith- 
fully during the year is left behind as he receives but 74.0 per cent. 

Such a system simply impresses upon the minds of the pupils that it 
is not our daily life that is of importance, but that all is to be summed 
up at the eleventh hour, when it will be determined, regardless of our 
every day record, whether we are to be rewarded or punished. Is it at 
all surprising that hundreds and thousands of our young men learn to 
take the chances when they come in contact with the world, inasmuch 
as their whole education has tended to impress them that such is life? 
God be praised that He has allowed us to live tosee the day when such 
a system has been forever banished from our beloved city. And, oh, 
what a change in the atmosphere of our schools. We now teach things^ 
not words. Instead of one text-book in history, we are using all we can 
find, besides reference books. Some that have been on our shelves un- 
used for years are becoming so worn as to necessitate the purchase of 
new ones to take their place. I may as well stop right here, as there 
are so many grand improvements, " The which, if they should be written 
every one, I suppose that even the world itself could not contain the 
books that should be written." 

(6) I protest against the ridiculous farce of subjecting the first-year 
pupils to any formal or official test taken from text-books in order 
to ascertain who shall or shall not be promoted, or to find out the com- 
petency of the teacher. 

By so doing there is impressed upon the minds of the young teachers? 
who generally have charge of these pupils, that the first and only thing 
for them to do is to give the children a certain amount of book knowledge. 

Had we the examining of these little folks we should find out the ability 
of the teacher and the progress of the pupils by such questions as these : 

882— No. 2 16 . 



242 PEOCEEDINGS — ^DEPABTMENT OP SUPERINTENDENCE. 

" How do you like your school f '^ ^« When should you start for school!" 
" Bow should you fix your hands and face before starting?" '"^What 
should you do to your shoes ?" " What just before cominpr into school f ' 
" Let me see you take your slates out,'' " Clean your slates," '' Show 
me how you hold your pencils when you write," " Put away your slates,*' 
**Tell me some nice little verse yon have learned," "What is a tooth- 
brush?" " When should it be used!" "You may get ready for an in- 
door recess," " Take your recess," "Attention," " Stand," " Sit down," 
" Stand, and pass to your line," " Pass to the yard," " Place your slate 
on the teacher's desk, each one in turn," " What is the first thing your 
teacher says to you in the morning ! " These are a few of the many 
things I would ask the first-year pupils, in order to test the competency 
of the teacher and the progress of the children, rather than the follow- 
ing: " How many bones in the human body!" "What is a scalene 
triangle!" What in the room maybe said to be semi-transparent!" 
" Write by the Arabic notation 16998," " Express the same by the Ro- 
man method," " In which hemisphere do you live !" " What is language 
proper ! " etc. 

There are thousands of children in our country this very day who 
have no idea of the true value of an education. Their idea of it is to 
get a per cent, in an examination. " What are you studying for, chil- 
dren !" asted a certain examiner in one of our largest cities a few days 
ago, whe^ with one voice the class shouted, " MarJcs!^^ 

If given their choice in knowing much and ranking low in their class, 
or knowing little and ranking high, they would unhesitatingly choose 
the latter. We know of a young lady who not many years ago had au 
average of ninety-nine per cent, in five studies and nearly went into hys- 
terics because she did not get one hundred per cent. 

What was the trouble here! She longed to outrank somebody. She 
wanted to say she stood higher than somebody else did. We know 
many, very many others who did not care whether they knew a subject 
or not, if, by any hook or crook, they could answer a sufiacient number 
of the questions to obtain the seventy-five per cent, which entitled them 
to promotion. The only incentive these children ever had was, " K you 
don't study you won't pass." The forthcoming examination was the first, 
last, and only thing used to incite them to effort, and this was used from 
the beginning of September till the last of June. 

Oh, the lying, copying, cuff-defacing that has been done at these an- 
nual, todecide-all, farcical, examinations. 

My pen is too feeble, my vocabulary too limited, my patience too 
weak, my abhorrence too great, to undertake a description of them. 

Aud now in conclusion let me ask you not to misjudge me. Do not 
think me so swinish, so long-eared, so narrow-gauged, so old-fogyish, 
as to do away with the all-important element in teachin^j^ knowledge 
and increiKsing mental power, viz, the drill^nd testing exercises. I 
should use them every day of my life, since such exercises, as Di\ White 



EXAMINATIONS. * 243 

says, ^^ arouse interest, increase attention, and add an increased energy 
and x>ersistent mental action." Nor would I underrate the value of 
the written examination when ^^ supplementing it with the current work 
of the school, and used in the same spirit, and with equal common sense 
as the oral test," for when thus used ^' the written test is a most valua- 
ble means of school training." 



DISCUSSION. 

Me. Littlepibld: Mr. President and Fellow Superintendents— I 
can add little to what has been so well said in this discussion and noth- 
ing to the substance of what I have said upon the subject of examina- 
tions elsewhere, possibly in the hearing of some present. If, however, 
one may assume that his remarks are remembered, he may further flat- 
ter himself, with the Autocrat of the Breakfast Table, that his thoughts 
are for repeated use, like a carpenter's tools, and not like so many post- 
age stamps, each to be only once uttered. 

Examinations are a conspicuous feature in modern school methods. 
At their best they are a process of teaching as well as of testing. The 
recitation, like the merchant's petty cash account, must be balanced 
daily; the examination, like his trial balance, covers a longer period; 
both are necessary to good book-keeping. Eeviews are considered in- 
dispensable in some form ; judicious examinations are reviews, pure and 
simple, with an extraordinary power added to dbmpel attention. Use- 
ful as are the innumerable helps for teachers, in their proper place, 
there is still very little room in school hours for ready-made instruction. 
The clothing for each child's mind must be fitted to order ; recitations 
are the process of measuring, cutting, and making — examinations that 
of trying on to wear. The best teachers are least confined to routine 
methods ; and, if left free, are able to use the very odd individualities 
of their pupils as avenues for instruction. In teaching, as in other 
affair^, results must constitute the chief criterion of success. Examina- 
tion day, with its conclusive measure of results, corresponds to the div- 
idend day of a corporation, to the harvest home upon the farm. It is 
not a sufficient test of a good teacher to find him using good methods 
from time to time; it is not fair to judge a pupil by the brilliant or the 
dull acquittal he may make of himself in recitation upon the spur of the 
moment; both ought to be judged also by the staying quality of the 
instruction imparted. Scholars must be trained to grasp and hold, not 
only the lessons of the day, but the whole subject analytically, covering 
the study of months. Eecitations cultivate critical power in matters of 
detail : examinations the power to generalize with breadth of view. 
The former must be daily to prove constant study, the latter infrequent 
in order to give time for the assimilation of whole subjects, both being 
kept subordinate to the instruction as aids and measures^ not as ends in 
themselves* 



244 PEOCEEDINGlf— DEPARTMENT OF SUPEBINTENDENCE. 

There are as many kinds of examination, good and bad, as there are 
methods of teaching. The unreasoning hostility, therefore, in certain 
minds, to examinations in general, aiming as it does to make the very 
term odioas, suggests the lawless scene in Jalius GsBsar where the mob 
tear the innocent Oinna to pieces becaase ^^ his name's Oinna." Evi- 
dently a defender of examinations should be privileged to 8i)ecify the 
chief characteristics of the instruction he wonld consider worth exam- 
ining, as well as of the discipline to be maintained in the schools to be 
examined. The more teachers arc occupied with labored compromises 
upon misconduct, the less time they will have for the term's work of 
instrnction. Examinations are distasteful chiefly to Ill-disciplined 
schools, and they are worthless as an exponent in such schools, for they 
can not be taken in disorder. 

Another preliminary question, interesting to the friend of examina- 
tions, concerns the moral atmosphere in which they are to be taken. 
Examinations originate largely in the purpose to introduce into school 
life searching experiences, like those of manhood, which test the whole 
moral and mental fabric of character. Absolute fairness on the part 
of an examiner in all matters connected with the examination, the 
method of conducting them, the marking of the answers and. the expla- 
nation of the marks, entire self-reliance on the part of the pupil, and 
perfect honesty on the part of both, are essential conditions without 
which examinations may become harmful, if not positively immoral. 

Satirical critics seek^o depreciate, examinations, by asking you to fix, 
if you can, a percentage upon the religious devotion, the business fidel- 
ity, or the various moral qualities of your various-neighbors, as if that 
were not just what happens in every testing experience of real life. A 
moral estimate, an examination mark, is being placed upon every human 
being, with approximate accuracy, by those who know him on earth, 
and with perfect accuracy, as we are taught, by the recording angel. 
So that it is not only true that examinations involve the question of 
good morals, but that among the young even more than among the old 
the subject of morals and manners is always set for examination, and 
with this added emphasis, that nowhere may human character be so 
thoroughly analyzed and so readily moulded true as in the school-room, 
in the presence of a noble teacher, where it is " wax to receive and mar- 
ble to retain." 

The methods of teaching employed in the schools to be examined 
must largely determine the character and the usefulness of the exami- 
nations given. Text-books are aids only. It is the subject that must 
be taught. Printed questions assist the pupil to learn his lesson, but 
the teacher should ask his own, without a book. A few definitions and 
concise rules should be learned verbatim, but not the ordinary para- 
graphs of the text. Empty rote forms of recitation will disappear if 
the pupils be trained to consult reference books by indexes, cyclopedias, 
dictionaries, magazines, and supplementary text-books, wherein they 
mny find everything they have to learn stated in several different wj^js 



• EXAMINATIONS. 245 

aDd may thus be compelled to choose their own langaage. If a text- 
book says ^^New Hampshire, from its high mountains, is often called 
the Switzerland of America," let the comparison be fully explained. 
The words **from its strength" should never have been accepted, as I 
once heard them, in full answer to the question, "Why was Louisburg 
called the Gibraltar of America ?" The geography lessons wijl accom- 
plish the highest purpose by awakening in the minds of the pupils a 
desire for more information than any single text-book can give concern- 
ing the manners, customs, and resources of a people, thus leading to 
the preparation of lessons out of such works as the Conquest of Mexico, 
Miss Woolson's Southern Sketches, Travels in Central Africa, etc. 
Ck^ography may be made as fascinating as are the zigzag tales of 
travel that should accompany it into every land. 

Beading, with its necessary adjunct of physical training, is the most 
important branch of school instruction, considering that the good reader 
is good at everything. Teachers and pupils ought to become imbued 
with the enthusiasm of the college gymnasium. And, yet, reading is 
the most neglected branch of instruction, owing to the fact that gener- 
ally it is not examined and marked as it should be. 

Penmanship in many schools is not examined, and hence is in an ex- 
tremely ungraded condition, as every subject must be which is not reg- 
ularly criticised. Scholars will resolve to command the pen only when 
they see the teacher sit at a conspicuous desk and do with a pen the 
very things they are called upon to do. 

In arithmetic the aim must be to dwell upon the simple essentials, 
with much analysis of concrete examples, for the sake also of the lan- 
guage and the logic. The four fundamentals must be made familiar 
during the three primary years. Fractions of things, as well as mere 
expressions of fractions, must be dealt with daily, the little odds and 
ends being never disregarded. In teaching money matters, let the 
pupils make out bills for goods bought and sold near by, let them make 
change with toy or real money, let them reckon the actual taxes that 
are assessed at the City Hall. Let them handle the pound, the peck, 
the yard-stick, the right angle, and the cubic inch, as well as living 
notes, checks, and, if possible, government bonds, loaned for the pur- 
pose. Simple accuracy is the highest goal in numbers. Let it be un- 
derstood that a miss is as bad as a mile ; that it is of no practical value 
to get common problems pretty near right. 

All such subjects as arithmetic must bo taught with the aid of vivid 
illustration and, if possible, with the aid of visible objects. True, the 
crime of illustrating a simple subject to death is sometimes committed 
by teachers, or by speakers who have been teachers, but the power to 
call up an ingenious example still remains an unfailing exponent of the 
good teacher. 

One of the chief benefits that will accrue from manual training when 
soon that branch shall be engrafted upon the curriculum, will result 
fipom the closer anion that will be establisbeOi \i^X.^^^\i \\i\\i%^ ^\i>^ 



246 PBOCEEDINGS — ^DEPARTMENT OP SUPERINTENDENCE. 

words, from the physics of wood and iron, from the chemistry of cook- 
ing, from the physiology of work. Every day the schools widen their 
swath of practical knowledge. Here, a school will be found assorting 
and naming specimens of the wild flowers gathered in the vicinity, to 
speak from my own experience 5 there, another school absorbed for an 
honr in the study of a well-filled cabinet of woods and minerals ; and 
there, another school closely watching the development of a fine collec- 
tion of cocoons, to observe the first emergence of the insect; and there 
another, scanning with microscope a selected portion of meat structure 
in order the better to understand the facts of physiology. Many a good 
teacher has evidently heard the grand injunction : ^* Let mother Nature 
come into your school-room and be your assistant. She is not too proud 
to do so. She will help you if you will let her. '^ 

The study of English is profiting most by the reforming methods. 
The actual use of language now occupies attention, and simple rhetoric, 
without its hard names, becomes familiar in the common schools. Tech- 
nical syntax may be made as absorbing as a game even to the boy who 
hates grammar. Ask him by way of introduction to the subject to an- 
alyze the sentence '* A letter may be carried three thousand miles for 
two cents,'' rather than the sentence " Attention is focused conscious- 
ness." Beautiful supplementary readers abound in all the best schools, 
their selections serving as appetizers for the rest of the same author's 
writings. Public library lists, like these I will leave here, together with 
a few copies of our manual, are doing wonders to improve the children's 
taste for reading and to extend their horizon of studies. Such funda- 
mental biographies as those of Franklin^ Hamilton, the Adamses, Jef- 
ferson, and Webster must be included in the story of our country. 
Shakespeare, Scott, Dickens, Cooper, and Longfellow are perfect elec- 
tric search-lights upon the by-ways of general history. Every lesson, 
in whatever subject, must be made a language-les8on> orally at first, 
but finally in writing, which, as Bacon says, maketh an exact man. 
Letter-writing, the chief literary occupation of life, begins now in the 
lowest primary grades. Translation of narrative poetry or prose into 
the pupil's own words is a good exercise in language, with care to ex- 
press the exact meaning. For example, one of our pupils wrote from 
an original which you will recognize: 

All night long the snow had been heaping itself silently upon the fields and high- 
ways, covering everything. Every fir, pine, and hemlock was clothed with ermine, 
which an Earl could not buy, and the smallest twig of the elm-tree had its coating 
of snow and ice. 

The household classics, like Webster's American Union, or the Old 
Clock on the Stairs, must not be practised upon in this way for fear of 
mutilating their strength or their beauty of form : 

" Every day is a fresh beginning, 
Every morn is the world made new ; 
You who are weary of sorrow and sinning, 
Here is a wonderful hope for you, 
A hope for me and a hope fox i^oti.'' 



EXAMINATIONS. 247 

What better warnings could ring in their ears forever than are con- 
tained in the school collections of memory geois for children. 

Incisive maxims, too, are much in use to point a moral and to f.onvey 
sententious language lessons. "Politeness," said a little girl in our 
schools, "is like an air-cushion; there may be nothing solid in it, but 
it eases the jolts of this world wonderfully.'^ '* Give your tongue niore 
holidays than your hands or eyes,'' was what a thoughtless boy repealed 
when called upon at school, in the midst of one of my addre^^ses, 

In spelling, teach the meaning and use of the word, as well as its 
form, so that it shall become an available addition to the pupil's vo- 
cabulary. Every illustrative sentence should contain, in good English, 
a thought worth expressing. " Why did England impose taxes upon 
tl^e Colonists ? " is a better interrogative example than "Who is at the 
door?" "The crater of the extinct volcano was full of ice, and from it 
an immense glacier extended down the valley," is a good example of a 
thoughtful sentence written by one of our pupils. " The queen with 
her magic wand caused fairies to come forth from huge paper flowers," 
iB another. In teaching the word beautiful, for example, notice also its 
synonyms with their shades of meaning, as a beautiful picture, a lovely 
character, charming manners, a handsome face, pretty dresses, elegant 
furniture. With the word export, teach also import, transport, s«x>port, 
parport, report, portable, deportment, porter. Children like to wander 
thus in company with an inquisitive teacher among the family trees of 
words, and they may easily be led to love the i^rand old classic tongues, 
whose bequests have made our fortunate English the richest of all the 
modem languages. The wisdom of requiring pupils to use the words 
they spell in original sentences is conlirmed quite as much by their 
ignorance of the meaning of common words at first as by their ultimate 
command over the same words. "I bought a pound of promisma^is 
oandy " is the faulty example of One of our pupils, which, after all, may 
have expressed the fact. In the sentence " Mr. Smith made 9 cainci- 
dence to sell his farm for two thousand dollars" the writer was evidently 
thinking of coincidence as, in general, an agreement. " The collision at 
the fair consisted of icecream and cake" speaks better than the piipil 
knew of the typical collation on such occasions. A somewhat disap- 
pointing effort to write us a thoughtful sentence was that of the lad who 
said " The colonists became saturated with the gold fever of 1 849, and 
they all died but Captain John Smith." The little boy who wrote 
"The bear resorts to stratagem when he wishes to catch a fish" had a 
better command of the new word than the other, who said "I made a 
8tratag€7n and hung it on the wall." The same may be said of the two 
boys who said, respectively, "Ida Lewis is the heroine of Newport Har 
bor;" " I went heroine and caught a great many." 

Having thrown out a few hints concerning the kind of instruction I 
would aim to encourage, permit me to describe briefly our unique system 
of examinations, which we think growd naturally out of such methods* 



248 PROCEEDINGS — DEPARTMENT OP SUPERINTENDENCE. 

Oar school year of forty weeks is divided into foar equal terms, and onr 
manual apportions the work accordingly, referring to subjects, for con- 
venience, by pages as well as by name, despite the ridicule of certain en- 
thusiasts who would no doubt like to abolish street numbers, door-plates 
being so much more topical. At the end of the Fall and the Spring terms, 
each of our teachers conducts in her own way a review or examination, 
marking each pupil excellent, good, passable, poor, or very i>oor. The 
teacher's recommendation at the end of the year is one of the necessary 
requirements for promotion. Near the end of the Winter and the Sum- 
mer terms, each teacher prepares and sends to the superintendent'soffice 
a pap^r of specimen questions, suitable for the average pupils of her 
class, upon the half yearZs work in each subject and embracing many of 
the distinctive features of her instruction. These specimens are grouped 
by subjects. Each group is sent to a teacher of the next higher grade, 
who, with the curriculum before her, prepares a second paper contain- 
ing no question copied verbatim from the specimens, and yet none sur- 
prisingly remote from them. These second papers, with the specimens, 
are sent again to the superintendent, revised by him, if necessary, and 
then printed, ready for examination day. After the examination, the 
specimens, and sometimes the pupils' answers, are circulated among all 
the teachers of the grade* A teacher will put her latest device, her 
brightest thought, into her specimen papers, and by this system of cir- 
oulating everything, good things become common property. 

The paper thus finally set, being the joint work of the teacher, the 
teacher of the class above, and the superintendent, is at once novel 
and yet free from surprises. Tests must be aimed at the average pupil. 
If harder questions come in for the bright minds, let them come as al- 
ternatives, not to discourage the faithful plodders. Monosyllabic an- 
swers are convenient to examine, and often that is all they are good 
for. The ability to reason and describe must be tested as well as the 
memory. 

We allow pupils an ample stated time to answer the questions, and 
thou send the answers promptly to be marked by the examiner who 
propai^d the questions. Thus each of our teachers is charged with the 
duty of mai^kiug all the answers to some one set of questions for a grade 
bolow, and for the sake of greater fairness she marks first all the an- 
awevH to the first question, then to the second, and so on ; setting down^ 
In the nmrgin with a blue pencil the value of each portion of an answer, 
and indliuitlng by means of a series of well-known critical marks any 
special faults or excellences. The advantage is great of having all the 
answers to a tost paper judged by one person unacquainted with the pu- 
pils. The staudaiHl is more uniform and impartial, and each answer is 
measured by just what it contains rather than by what the pupil is be- 
lieved to have once known upon the subject. Answers upon all subjects 
should be marked also in some degree with reference to arrangement^ 
penmanship, spelliug, and construction, and the marking should be 



EXAMINATIONS. 249 

done with mechanical acQariicy. One of oar professors at Cambridge, 
they said, nsed to give minus marks, so that students with whose work 
he was specially displeased would get twenty-five or thirty per cent, less 
than nothing. After the answers are marked, before they are placed on 
file at the office, our examiners return them to the pupils who wrote them, 
and who now have opportunity, hearing the correct answers given, to 
see wherein they fell short, as well as to appeal from any error in the 
marking. With the marked answers, the examiner sends to each teacher 
a memorandum of observations made upon the answers of her class ; 
and each of the older pupils is sometimes requested after seeing his 
mistakes to write a sort of confession. <' I must not use so many ab- 
breviations,'' says one, " or divide a syllable at the end of the line." " I 
must make shorter sentences, and not omit small words," says another. 
" I must think better what is called for in questions which ask how or 
why," says a tbird. There is drudgery about a critical examination, 
bat it seems business-like to the pupils to hand them back their papers 
carefully marked and later their report cards. It impresses upon them 
indelibly the lessons that form the subject-matter of the examination. 
The parents in the community respect the verdict which issues from 
what they consider a fair and square system of examinations. 

There are many opponents of examinations actuated by all sorts "of 
motives. One class, whom we may dismiss with a word as trimmers, 
fancy they will catch the favor of doting parents and superficial teachers 
by depreciating so laborious an institution as examinations confessedly 
are. Another class of honest objectors were formerly teachers, famous, 
perhaps, for their searching examinations. They remind me of the 
school commissioner who said that as a young man he considered cor- 
poral punishment inhuman, and resolved never to use it ; that later as 
a teacher he often found it a salutary measure, but that; now, being no 
longer a teacher, he considered it a relic of barbarism which ought never 
to be employed. 

As to the objection that examinations cramp the teacher and check 
the delightful excursions he would make laterally by way of illustration, 
that depends upon the character of the examinations. Tliey can be 
made as comprehensive as can good instruction. Any line of knowledge 
upon which clear inquiries cannot be framed and answers given suffi- 
ciently definite to be measured must be too intangible for the common 
schools. 

The fear that examinations put too great a strain upon children is an 
effeminate notion which would exempt them from all tasks. An intel- 
ligent paper of questions, upon a whole subject thoroughly assimilated 
presents no terrors to children. Pupils who are unnerved by an exam- 
ination are, as a rule, unprepared to meet it. The traditional best 
scholar who always fails, through nervousness, to do himself justice at 
examination, is simply not the best scholar. His liability to nervous 
distarbance is an element of weakness which needs strengthening^ aa 



250 PROCEEDIKGS — ^DEPARTMENT OP SUPERINTENDENCE. 

would weak spelling or arithmetic. The best^lesson he can learn is that 
of self-possession. The chief characteristic of the gre^t men, living and 
dead, whom we ask children to imitate, is the nerve they have to face 
whatever comes. Washington passed creditable examinations at Brad- 
dock's defeat, at Trenton, at Yalley Forge. Grant did not get nervous 
while working out the problems of Vicksburg and Richmond. Lincohi 
listened for three mortal days to the critical instrument in the next room 
ticking off the mighty scenes as they were enacted in the awful tragedy 
at Gettysburg. 

As to the unusual effort exerted at examination time, to which vari- 
ous odious terms are applied by the critics, it is simply a process of call- 
ing up for ready use the knowledge gained, just what the lawyer does 
with his cases, the clergyman with his sermons, the statesman with his 
legislation. The sustained energy necessary for such trials constitutes 
one of the chief nourishers of mental vigor. As to the alleged strife for 
mere marks at examination time, if the pupil be prepared and the exam- 
ination be conducted fairly, the marks are not " a low motive,^' butfonly 
an exponent like the figures on a dial. It is as natural to characterize 
good scholarship briefly at eighty per cent, as to style him a millionaire 
who owns certain lands, houses, and privileges. In either case the sig- 
nificant thing is what the figures represent. Competitive examinations 
and prizes given to rank pupils and teachers one above another are 
vicious, for they foster the desire to win at all hazards, as much through 
the misfortunes of rivals as through one's own merit. But when we 
remember that in the contest of life it is the duty of every aspiring 
youth to win at least qualifying excellence, we should be careful not to 
fall in with the enfeebling fashion of the times to remove from the young 
all the common incentives to honorable emulation. " Cromwell, I charge 
thee fling away ambition," was the injunction of an insincere man, dis- 
appointed, soured, and such an injunction it often is, when repeated in 
efl'ect from various sources; for example, by those subtle politicians who 
say that the office should invariably seek the man, never the man the 
office. Let our boys and girls be brought up under the influence of no 
such hypocrisy. Teach them first to fit themselves well for whatever 
duties await them, and then, in the spirit of the golden rule, to grasp 
thosti duties boldly and firmly, ever proudly remembering, as the Pres- 
ident of the United States said at the dedication of the Garfield monn- 
ment here, ever proudly remembering, especially in the free schools of 
a free people, that to every American citizen the way is open to fame 
(Uid station, oven until he 

Moving up from high to higher, 
Boooincs on fortune's crowning slope 
The pillar of a people's hope, 

Tho oentro of a world's desire. 

Mu. Parti : It strikes mo that this question could be more sensibly 
sctded upon a basis of thought than upon a substratum of feeling. It 



EXAMINATIONS. 251 

does seem that the moving principle upon what has been said on both 
sides is rather one of feeling than of thought. It is the conservative 
element against the following of the advance element. Any discussion 
of the question that leaves out of sight all the conditions, and which 
does not take into aocount a difference in the value of these things, 
must be personal. I do not recall now that any one has said what shall 
be the principal test. Some of the gentlemen are talking about modes 
of testing knowledge as a butter inspector would test a piece of butter. 
It seems to me that those gentlemen who are advocating the old ques- 
tion of dealing with what the pupil has acquired, are simply putting 
into practice the same mode of test the butter inspector uses. iNTow, to 
my mind, the chief test of the pupil's work has been what he has done 
ftt)m-day to day in his school in the presence of the teacher. An ex- 
amination may utterly fail to reach that, fail to test the pupil's power 
to organize, to apply his knowledge, and utterly ignore that large sub- 
stratum of unconscious knowledge which the pupil possesses. Un- 
conscious knowledge is worth more than all tlie conscious knowledge 
any one of us have. It makes no difference about* the name, however. 
That unconscious knowledge which enables us to take facts and use 
them is the most powerful knowledge we can get. Therefore it seems 
to me that some fusion of these ideas, some reasonable, centrally con- 
necting link between them, would come nearer to the truth than what 
has been uttered from the standpoint of feeling on both sides. 

Db. White : I have been interested very much in both of these pa- 
pers. I think in the discussion of this question we shall simply argue 
and antagonize if we fail to make a discrimination between the exam- 
ination and the use made of its results. I don't know any considerable 
number of teachers or any very eminent teacher that denies the value of 
the tests as an element of teaching. I think we all agree that the teacher 
must test, and test wisely, the results of his instruction. So that the 
examination is an essential element of teaching. The oral recitation, 
with its test, had a great power. And so the oral test runs through all 
our teaehings; but the written test is more modern, exact, and can be 
used more efficiently. And so the paper I read this morning covers 
this truth arid shows the examination is a valuable element in school 
administration. Now, as to the question of the use made of these re- 
sults. Shall the pupil be permitted, shall the right of that pupil to 
undertake the work of the next year be determined by written ex- 
aminations periodically given and the work of that pupil be described! 
That is where we differ. So I think we must make very clearly a dis- 
crimination between the examination as a teaching process and the ex- 
amination as to the majority of the pupils' right to be promoted in the 
grade. I will not enter i n to the discussion of this question, except to make 
this distinction. I wish, however, to say this, that I do not think it profit- 
able to get up a controversy over this question. In my judgment, we 
will not settle this in this way. I think every superintendent^ ever^ 



252 PROCEEDINGS — DEPARTBiENT OP SUPERINTENDENCE. 

principal of a school, if he shoald be the head of it, ia connection with 
those who work with him, mast determine for himself what he shall do 
with the*examinatious. Mach depends apon the condition. The lon^i^er 
I live and the more I see of school work, the more I am satisfied that it 
is unwise to throw out the conditions under which the school is ad- 
ministered. I threw out at Cincinnati two hundred written examiua- 
tious for promotion. It is now universally conceded to have been wise. 
But we were under peculiar conditions; we were in ruts thirty years 
deepr and every turn I made to improve the instruction of thatcitylran 
right against that examination wall. It is grooving our teachers' work, 
making it ruttish, mechapical. ** I must prepare my wares for the mar- 
ket; I can't answer the question whether I am teaching right or wrong; 
those who are over me must answer that. My business is to prepare my 
wares for the market ; I will not ask myself whether this is right or 
wrong.'' Such was the language of one of the teachers who had the first 
school in that great city, and she taught right to the market, straight. 
I fonnd that in Cincinnati and struck it down. We are going to work 
it out on that line. I am not sure I would have done so in a city where 
the examinations had independency. But we have just as many exam- 
inations in Cincinnati as we ever had, but no pupil is promoted on the 
results; they are to disclose to the teachers how well they are teaching 
and the pupils how well they are learning. It is solely a teaching ap- 
pliance, and when the year closes, thirty thousand pupils are promoted, 
and the next year's work begins. The thirty thousand pupils promoted 
last June were promoted more wisely and justly than they were under 
any written test that could possibly have been given in that city; and 
the classification was better. When I entered the city of Cincinnati, 
the upper third of every class in that city was a year below the other 
class ; and the lower third was drumming on the work until they reached 
the seventy per cent, required. We had very little scholarship. The 
standard has been changed with us. 

Let us test our appliances by the result in good teaching, and in good 
scholarship, and in good character. If you can get good results in your 
way, I am not going to fight it ; and if I can get good results in my way, 
let me alone, and let us work away with the single purpose of making 
the public school worth the mone^^ that is put into it, and making this 
country strong and pure. 

Mr. Maury: Suppose you have written ex<iminations in the high 
school, or normal school, or grammar school; may I ask Dr. White his 
opinion as to who shall prepare those questions for examination? 

Dr. White : That depends altogether on the circumstances. In a 
city of ten thousand inhabitants, where the superintendent knows every 
teacher and parent, I presume that superintendent could prepare those 
questions more wisely than any one teacher could prepare them. His 
questions doubtless would be fairer than those prepared by a teacher. 
But, in a city like Cincinnati, you will find that a little more difficult, 



EXAMINATIONS. 253 

and so in a city like ISfew York you will find it very difScult to manage. 
In Cincinnati the principal prepares the questions for their tests; 
sometimes 1 prepare them. I send them out simply to see what results 
the teachers are securing. The principal wishes to see how well his 
teachers are improving in their work, and we have all varieties of 
questions during the year. When I was a teacher I always assumed 
the right to prepare written questions and test my own class^ whether 
they were tested by anybody else or not. I always felt that was my 
right. 

Question. Is it a very valuable test? 

Answer. BTo; they show to the teachers, that they don't know as 
much as they supposed they knew. They are really teaching ques- 
tions, and their value is in the influence they exert on the school. 

Mb. Mauky : Suppose a class is to be examined for promotion, and 
the topic be science, or mathematics, or any other subject; is it the 
province of the teacher of that school to examine, to ask questions; or 
does that lie as a matter of right in the superintendent to prepare the 
questions for examination, or does it lie with the school-board? I only 
wish to make this question practical, how to get at the result, not to 
ask the leading question but the* question to be considered. Can any 
one else prepare questions for examination of a class so well as the 
teacher? 

Db. White: I think if I had charge of that school and the pupils 
were promoted on the result of this examination, I should assume the 
right to prepare all examinations. I have teachers in science, for in- 
stance, for whose classes I would not think of preparing questions. 
They are so much higher than I am in science and so much more com- 
petent than I am that I would not undertake the preparation of ques- 
tions for their classes. I think that the teacher, in the final analysis, 
is the one factor to determine the right of the class to be promoted. If 
I had two science classes, of course I must prepare these examination 
questions or get somebody outside. I can't answer this question very 
wisely. 

Mb. Maxjby: I had an object in bringing this question before this 
body of superintendents. There is a principle at stake, it seems to me, 
and that principle is, what are the respective duties of the teachers, 
principal in a high school, and the superintendents to the school board ? 
I take it that the school board is largely legislative, that the superin- 
tendents possibly sometimes might be inclined to hold some reins in 
their hands that were better to be left in the hands of some others ; and 
right here is a very important point — that of examinations. It seems to 
me that if Dr. White would answer that, it might well claim the atten- 
tion of this company of superintendents. Ko one but the teacher can 
know what ground has been gone over, and therefore I think no ac- 
curate test can be given by questions prepared by outside parties^. 
That is the thought that I have wanted to leave on the minds of this 
great body of educators. 



HIGHER EDUCATION. 



THE STATE ASD THE HIGHER EDUOATIOK. 

By Feed. M. Campbell, 

Superintendent of Oakland (Cal,) SchooU. 

We are living in an age and in a country where, more than ever be? 
fore, and more than anywhere else on the globe, the good things of life 
belong to all men in common. In other ages and in other countries, the 
many have toiled that the few might be idle ; the many have been ig- 
norant that the few might be intelligent ; the many have been slaves that 
the few might be free. It is the very corner-stone of our Government — 
the principle that to all men shall be secured the enjoyment of every 
free privilege that belongs to human nature. It is for this that the 
greatest minds of our times have labored ; it is towards this that every 
good influence of the time is tending, !Bven the "communism'^ of the 
ignorant immigrant is buf a frantic and misguided attempt to help on 
the same effort of the age ; frantic and misguided, because he fails to see 
that the wealth of the capitalist, and the art of the artist, and the learn- 
ing of the scholar, and the wisdom of the statesman already are com- 
mon property. Not a great industrial enterprise is undertaken, not a 
vast scheme of public improvement, not a scientific discovery but the 
poorest man and the most illiterate man reaps the advantage of it. For 
him also the telegraph works, and the railroad runs, and the ship sails, 
and the picture is painted, and the book is written. Nothing that adds 
to the commonwealth but makes every man the wealthier. It is not 
only that for every man the sun shines, and the rain falls, and the air 
is sweet, but for every man also the law is just, and the community is 
peaceful, and society is industrious, moral, and intelligent. 

For what is it we mean by that grand word the commonwealth f 
The etymologists tell us that just as health is derived from hale, and 
means the condition of being hale or whole, so wealth is derived from 
well, and means the condition of being sound or well. It is in this 
original sense of the word that the compound term is used. The com- 
monwealth means, therefore, not the common riches or money, but the 



HIGHEB EDUCATION. 255 

common voell^imng^ that soundness or health of the community which 
necessarily is common* to all, because every man's well-being, in the 
highest sense, is a contribution to — nay, is an essential condition of-— the 
well-being of all. Public virtue, then, and public intelligence, these 
constitute the true commonwealth. And these can be attained in but 
one way : in the attainment by every individual member of the com- 
munity of personal virtue and personal intelligence. 

What, now, is the state ? It is the organization of society to con- 
serve this common weal. Whatev^ else the state may do, or may 
leave undone, its one indispensable f auction is to secure to society 
those two foundation-stones without which no civilized society can 
exist — virtue and intelligence. Other good things can be left to indi- 
vidual effort to accomplish. The getting of a living, for instance, is a 
thing that chiefly concerns the individual, and can safely be left to the 
urgency of his own wants, for a motive. It is a good thing, no doubt, 
that every man should have the means of livelihood ; but it is no part 
of the state's functions to furnish this to him ^ for it is an axiom in all 
free governments, that nothing shall be done by the state that can and 
will be done by the individual for himself. It is only a parental gov- 
ernment, and that means a tyrannical government, that oversteps this 
limit. But there is no nation which has ever attained these two fun- 
damental elements of well-being — ^virtue and intelligence — by merely 
separate, individual efforts. To put down crime, and to put down igno- 
rance, have everywhere and always required that combined and persist- 
ent effort which can be put forth successfully only by the organized 
forces of the community, or what we call the state. These, then, are 
the two mighty arms of the state ; the one arm encircling the honest and 
peaceable citizen, and protecting him against the murderer and the 
thief; the other arm infolding the coming generation, and protecting 
them against the brutishness or the rapacity that would withhold from 
them their birthright of free intelligence. And this protection simply 
means self-protection ; for what is left of civilized society if it fail to 
protect y^^renent against crime, and its fature against ignorance— that 
prolific mother of all miseries, and wrongs, and disasters ! 

Such, then, being in the truest sense the common weal, and such the 
function of the State — to conserve this for its own self-protection, what 
is the relation to it of the higher education ? 

To begin with, what do wo mean by the higher education? Tlie term 
is vaguely useil by many persons, and much of what is said about it, 
therefore, goes wide of the mark. And yet, if one reads the writings of 
tljD.se most competent to speak on such subjects, it is plain that they use 
the term for a perfectly definite and intelligible idea; an idea as to wijose 
definition the foremost minds of our time seem entirely to agree. The 
term *' higher education" is used by them to mean, not any particular 
study or set of studies, nor any particular method or plan, or grade of 
instruction j but every study, and all instruction which is wisely adapted 



256 PBOCEEDINGS — ^DEPARTMENT OP SUPERINTENDENCE. 

to a certain higher end ; the end, namely, of the complete development 
of fall intellectaal and moral manhood and T^omanhood. 

For is this, by any means, the end had in view by all the advocates of 
education, and by all their varioas schemes. There are, in fact, two to- 
tally different theories about education, and about the office, specially, 
of public education. The one is the theory^ that the schools and col- 
leges, at least so far as they are supported by the State, should confiDe 
themselves to teaching how to get a living, or how to make money; wc 
may call this the narrow education (if, indeed, it is proper to dignify it 
by the name of education at all) ; the other is the theory that the schools 
and colleges should first insure virtue and high intelligence as the safe- 
guards of society; and it is this higher end that is denoted by the term, 
"the higher education.^' This is no new idea. It has been the view of 
the broadest minds of all times. It is expressed in those noble words 
of Milton ; 

I call, therefore, a complete and generous education, that which fits a man to per* 
form justly, skilfully, and magnanimously, all the offices [that is, the duties], both 
private and public, of peace and war. 

And John Stuart Mill says : 

The very comer-stone of an education intended to form great minds must be the 
recognition of the principle, that the object is to call forth the greatest quantity of 
intellectual power, and to inspire the iutensest love of truth ; and this without a 
particle of regard to the results to which the exercise of that power may lead, even 
though it should conduct the pupil to results diametrically opposite to those of hm 
teachers. 

And Matthew Arnold says : 

The aim and office of instruction, say many people, is to fit a man to get on in ihm 
world. It is not this, and the modern spirit more and more discovers it not to be this. 
This is, at best, but a secondary aim of instruction . Its prime, direct aim is to enable i^ 
man to know himself and the world . Such knowledge is the only sure basis for action^ 
and such basis it is the true aim and office of instruction to supply. To know himeelf^ 
a man must know the capabilities and performances of the human spirit ; and th^ 
value of the humanities is, that they afford for this purpose an unsurpassed source o f 
light and stimulus. As our public instruction gets a clearer view of its own foD^" 
tions, and the relation of the human spirit to knowledge, and to the entire circle o^ 
knowledge, it will certainly more learn to awaken in its pupils an interest in that* 
entire circle, and less allow them to remain strangers to any part of it. 

And again Matthew Arnold expresses the essential liberality of tUB 
idea implied in the term "higher education/' thus : 

This one's special aptitudes are for knowing men — the study of the humanities 9 
that one's special aptitudes are for knowing the world — the study of nature. Tb*^ 
circle of knowledge comprehends both, and we should all have some notion, at at^'S 
rate, of the whole circle of knowledge. The rejection of the humanities by the realist^* 
the rejection of nature by the humanists, are alike ignorant. Evidently, the begiO' 
nings of a liberal culture should be the same for both. The mother tongue, the el^' 
ments of Latin and of the chief modern languages, the elements of history, of aritl^" 
metic, of geometry, of geography, and of the knowledge of nature should be thestndi^^ 
of the lower classes in all secondary schoolsi and should be the same for all boys ^^ 
this^tage. 



HIGHER EDUCATION. 257 

And Sir John Lubbock says : 

It will, no donbt, be said by some, that it is better to know fonr sabjecta well than 
to have a smattering of many. This is no doubt trne, bat no one wishes that boys 
fihonld have a smattering of any. It is one thing to know a few stray facts of a sub- 
-k ject; it is qaiio a different thing to be well grounded in it. 

President Oilman^ in an address delivered at Baltimore^ a^ks this 
qaestion : 

What, then, in onr American system, is the right scope and aim of a college f It is 
not [he says] a place of professional and technical study— not a place where lawyers, 
doctors, preachers, engineers, army and navy officers, and teachers receive their spe« 
cial training. Schools for such purposes may exist in connection with colleges, but 
are not what we commonly call colleges. But it is a place where a foundation, lib- 
eral and thorough, is laid for future study ; and where the mind is well trained, ac- 
cording to the best experience of the world, in those habitfi and traits which are 
essential to intellectual success. 

And if I may add one more quotation to illustrate the meaning in 
which tliis term^ " the higher education,^ is used by our foremost men, let 
me quote from an address by Bishop Harris at a commencement of the 
University of Michigan : 

The educated man [he says] can always command and use his faculties for all they 
are worth, tie^may be a man of much or little capacity, according as nature has en- 
dowed him. He may be a man of much or little power ; but if he is truly educated, 
he will count for all that he is worth. He will fulfil his destiny. He will do his 
part. To be completely and symmetrically educated in this sense is the birthright of 
every man; and the denial or perversion of this inalienable right is a terrible wrong, 
for which there is no earthly compensation. Therefore, I hold [he continues] that it 
jfl wrong, unspeakably wrong, to require a child to work for his living. It is per- 
fectly true that it is good for a child to learn habits of industry and self-reliance ; but 
these things are good only when subordinated to the purposes of education. They 
hecome evil when they are allowed to usurp its place. Therefore, I repeat, it is un- 
speakably wrong to require a child to work merely for his living. The pitying 
heavens yearn over no sight so dreadful as children bound like galley slaves to their 
^el tasks in factory or field, and toiling with joyless faces to earn their daily 
^fead. The story of wronged and oppressed and distorted childhood, neglected by 
^orldliness, or held in slavery by mammon, has yet to be fitly told. A few years ago 
^Q^land's poetess thrilled the heart of Christendom with a wail of agony as she told 
Wie horror of it in the Cry of the Children. Let it resound throughout the world, I 
^h till all earth's little one are emancipated, and the sun in his course phall no more 
^^k down upon the joyless face of a child that pines in bondage to mammon. For the 
hirthright of childhood is education, and it is a sight to make angels weep to see it 
forc©^ or permitted to barter its birthright for its daily bread. Hardly less cruel is the 
^tro^actiou of a false utilitarianism into education. The usefulness of a study is not 
^h© ineasured by its availability for the business purposes of later life, but solely by 
^^ fitness to educate or develop the student's powers. Till that is completed he should 
^^Vei^ be required or permitted to learn a thing simply because he hopes to use it to 
"J*'^^ money with. The object of education is not to learn useful things, but to become 
. ^^ to learn and to use them ; and it is a great wrong to the student to intrude the 
^**^^liment8 and the spirit of money-getting into his educational life. The allure- 
r^^^t^B of mammon and worldline'ss are too often permitted to call our youth away , 
**^ the proper business of the school and college. 8hort roads and by-paths are 
^^^d up to tempt them to abandon the proper work of education, and to go, pre- 
^^rely, to schools of professional or technical instruction. The consequence is -the 
'^^tng forth of half-educated men, and inexperienced men, to ^\&«.Cl Wvi <:.^\^%.^^^«se^ 
882— No. 2 17 



258 PROCEEDINGS — DEPARTMENT OP SUPERINTENDENCE. 

heal the diseases, and lead the thinking of the generation. Let ns all protest agi^ingt 
this great evil; for, nnless it is counteracted, it will lead to the impoyenshment of the 
age. Let our colleges and nniversitles make men first, and then make lawyers, and 
physicians, and teachers of them. For that nation is greatest, not whose natural 
resources are greatest and most ahundant, not whose wealth, or civic or military 
achievements are most splendid, hut whose people are hest filling np and realiz- 
ing the capahilities of their heing ; whose men are counting for most in individual and 
national life ; whose men are hest able to use themselves for all that they are worth, 
and so are true lords of the earth beneath, and true children of the heaven above 
them. 

This, then, as expressed in these quotations, these utterances of some 
of our leading minds, is the sense in which we understand the higher 
education — the education, namely, whether in school or college, not with 
any lower aim of ministering to selfish greed or ambition, but with the 
higher aim of developing high intelligence for the service of society* 

And now, if the true well-being of society consists in the virtue and 
intelligence of its individual members, and if the true function of the 
State is to secure these, guarding its very existence from crime in the 
present generation, and from ignorance in the coming generation, is it 
not easy to see what are the true relations of the State and the higher 
education ? Can any one doubt that this education is the thing of all 
others which the State must, at any cost and at all hazards^ secure and 
maintain 1 

Yet there are many who seem to be as blind as noonday owls to this 
vital truth. Probably there is no subject on which so many fallacies and 
false doctrines are afloat. It is, as I have said, an age when all things 
are diffused among all men, and both the wisdom and the unwisdom of 
the age are common property. Every one talks, and nearly every one 
writes; and it would be strange, indeed, if such a question as that of 
public education did not get its share of sophistry and shallow miscon- 
ception from many an idle tongue and pen. Men do not know what 
vital interests they are aiming to destroy. Indeed, one is sometimes 
reminded of the famous mountain howitzer of which our earliest Ameri- 
can humorist, John Phoenix, told in early California days. He de* 
scribes his experience on a wonderful surveying expedition. They weie 
called upon to explore a very dangerous part of the mountains, and i^ 
order to arm themselves adequately against the savages, they conceiv^^ 
the bold and original idea of mounting a howitzer on the back of * 
mule. On the first occasion of attack they rapidly wheeled the md^® 
into position, aimed the gun with beautiful precision, and — ^lighted tt^^ 
fuse. But no sooner did the sagacious animal become aware of tt>^ 
fizzing of the fuse than he commenced a series of rapid revolution^^' 
bringing the howitzer to bear on all points of the landscape in quic5^* 
succession. The surveying party is said to have disappeared in ar^^^ 
directions, and — the end never was known.J So, when any speaker^ C^^ 
writer, or sect, or party takes frantic aim ip. their shallow fanaticisnr:^^ 
or bigotry, or ignorance at public education, we look to see them shortly 



HIGHER EDUCATION. 259 

fleeing for life from their own fire, and we think of the mountain how- 
itzer and the revolving mule. 

Of the many sophistries which are thus scattered in a moi-e or less 
promiscuous way, there is time to note but two or three. One of these 
notions is that the training of a boy's hands to a particular trade is of 
equal importance, to the State^ with the education of his mind. The 
truth of the matter is simply this : Such a training of the hands is a 
good and useful thing, especially to the individual concerned ; and there 
are a number of pressing necessities which will drive men up to this, 
but the education of the mind is an absolutely indispensable thing for 
the well-being of the State ; and yet, there are no such immediate press- 
ing urgencies felt by the individual and driving him up to furnish this 
to his children. Accordingly, while the one can be left to the individ- 
ual, the other must be secured, beyond all peradventure, by the State. 
Mark the essential difference : the necessity of getting a living forces 
itself upon every man, for his own, immediate, selfish interest. The 
necessity of educating his children has no such visible urgency upon 
the ignorant man ; that is for the interest of others, rather than bis own 
selfish interest ; and the consequences, even to them, are too remote 
and far-reaching to be appreciable by his dull mind. If o doubt the 
State would be better off for having an abundance of skilled artisans, 
but intelligent men it must have, or it is on the broad road to ruin. 
And it is for precisely this reason that every wise community looks out 
first of all for public education of a high grade. The security of society, 
the stability of all our institutions, the progress of all good things 
among us, absolutely depend, not on the training of the fingers to cer- 
tain trades, but on the education of the mind to high intelligence. 

Education by the State tends to none of those forty different evil 
things which the revolving demagogue points at in his successive wild 
attacks. It is simply the determination of the State to protect itself, 
and to secure the safety and progress of society. The evolution of man- 
kind from a savage state has consisted simply of this, the growth of 
human intelligence. There is but one way to secure this as a perma- 
nent possession: it is by taking the children and youth and educating 
their minds. It is a way that was discovered a long while ago, and un- 
less we are going back to the dark ages we are not likely to abandon it 
now. 

People should remember that in talking about public education, they 
are discussing a very serious problem. We have a great mass of igno- 
rance and vice already in our midst ; and already a great mass of chil- 
dren who will, as surely as the successive suns rise, grow up to ignorance 
and vice unless we all, i. e, unless the State itself looks out for them. 
If our institutions are to be preserved, to say nothing of improving them, 
men had better take soBer and conservative ground on those matters. 

A second sophistry is the assertion made by illiterate persons (and by 
those more literate whose business it is to pander to them) that the schools 



260 PROCEEDINGS — ^PEPABTMENT OP SUPERINTENDENCE. 

and colleges encourage idleness, and do not train boys and girls to nsefal 
work. They imply, if they do not assert, that the activity of the intel- 
lect — that good, hard, thorough study is not honest work. The truth is, 
if a man affirms that learning a difficult subject is not work, it simply 
shows that it is so long since he learned anything that he has entirely 
forgotten the sensation. And if he affirms that it is not honest work, 
he insults the whole world of active brains. If there is any one thing 
that public education does accomplish, it is the training of children and 
youths to work. Day after day they come to their field of labor in the 
schoolroom, each with an assigned task, which, in spite of any feeling 
of indolence, in spite of distractions and hindrances, it is his duty, and 
if the school is properly conducted his pleasure, to do. There never 
was a more shallow and utterly unjust accusation against our schools 
than the one we sometimes hear, that they do not teach boys and girls to 
labor and to respect labor. For it is the very core and essence of the 
whole public school system, that it trains the pupil daily to do some defi- 
nite piece of worJcj and to do it well. The truth is, that, proportionally 
to the child's powers, his daily task in the school-room is probably as 
hard work as he will ever be called on to do in the whole course of his 
life ; and he learns there a habit of self-denial, of self-control, of con- 
scientious application to duty, which would alone go far to make a man 
of him 5 and this, moreover, is a moral training of the very highest order. 
There is no work which a boy can do that is half so useful to society 
as the labor of his intelligence ; for it is that, and that alone, which can 
fit him to serve society in whatever best way he is capable of. We do not 
need the labor of children and boys in carrying on the industrial work 
of the world. The best use we can put them to, the use we must put 
them to if we would secure the future of society, the only use we have 
any right to put them to, in fairness to their own birthright, is to give 
them the opportunity to be intelligent men. Then, if they become 
mechanics, they will be intelligent mechanics ; if they become farmers, 
teachers, writers, statesmen— whatever they are, they will do their work 
intelligently and well ^ and they will be safe and useful citizens of a 
country that requires for its safety, not machines, but thinking men. 

And yet there are prosperous men who begrudge the tax they pay for 
public education ; and there are even ministers of prosperous churches 
who decry all but the three E's in the free schools of our country. 

The truth is, the opponents of the higher education catch much of 
their talk from abroad. In aristocratic governments there is naturally 
great fear lest the lower classes should be educated above their station 
in life. These governments want, first of all, to have a contented peas- 
antry. But, fortunately, in this country, we want no such ignorant 
peasantry. .How dare these aristocrats in disguise stand up and say to 
our people: " I am a superior being; it is safe forme to be intelligent; 
I may study, and read, and think, for I belong to the higher classes. 
For you, only a low grade of education is safe. There is danger that 



HIGHER EDUCATION. 261 

you will be educated above your station in life! Grovel there in your 
ignorance and degradation, and be contented, while I walk by in my 
higher intelligence, and decide for you how much arithmetic and geog- 
raphy it is prudent to let your children learn ! ^ It is a wonder they do 
not alter their Bibles and read there, " Suffer the little children of the 
higher clashes to come unto Me.'^ 

!No, it is too late, in these days and. in thi* free country of ours, to 
limit our public education to the bare prevention of absolute and brutish 
ignorance. We must give our children — all our children — of rich and 
poor — of citizen and countryman— the State's children — ^for they are hers 
as well as ours — ^those liberal opportunities to make the most of them- 
selves which we name the higher education. If or must it be left to the 
uncertain establishment and maintenance of institutions by individuals 
or jealous sects. We must sustain, l^ and through that organization of 
society which we call the State, the whole system of free public educa- 
tion, open to all who will come, generous and ample in its scope, from the 
kindergarten up to the State university. We claim it in the name of 
justice and fair play to the coming generation ; we claim it in the name 
of our reputation among the foremost peoples of the world, and we claim 
it in the name of that commonicealth — that possession of high virtue and 
intelligence, which has slowly lifted the race from barbarism to enlight- 
enmeut, and which alone can insure its future. 



THE STATE* AND HIGHER EDUCATION. 



By Heebeet B. Adams, Ph. D., 

Associate Professor of History in the Johns Hopkins University* 

This is an era of educational endowment upon a generous scale. A 
recently published report of Colonel N. H. E. Dawson, Commissioner 
of Education, shows that the sum total of noteworthy educational 
gifts during the year 1886-87, was nearly $5,000,000. More than two- 
thirds of the entire amount were distributed among nine institutions} 
four of them collegiate, one academic, three professional, and one tech- 
nical. The institution most highly favored was Harvard University, 
which received from individual sources nearly a million dollars. From 
one man came a legacy of $6:50,000. Haverford College, supported by 
the Society of Friends, received $700,000 in one bequest. Of the 209 
gifts recorded by the Commissioner of Education, 25 represent $50,000 
or more ; 72 were sums between $5,000 and $49,00d ; and 112 were sums 
less than $5,000. The most striking fact in all this record of philan- 
thropy is that such a large proportion of the entire amount, fully, two- 
thirds, was given to higher education. The year 1888 is richer than 
1887 in individual bounty to institutions of learning. ]^early ten mil- 
lions were given by three persons for the encouragement of manual 
training, but there are rumors of even larger benefactions for university 
endowment. The collective returns for 1888 are not yet published, but 
it is certain that the past year will surpass any hitherto recorded in the 
annals of American education. 

Whatever forms modern philanthropy may take, one thing is certain, 
universities are not likely to be forgotten. At the founding of the new 
Catholic University in Washington, Bishop Spalding said that a univer- 
sity " is an institution which, better than anything else, symbolizes 
the aim and tendencies of modern life. " Will not broad-minded people 
recognize the truth of this statement and strengthen existing founda- 
tions ? Senator Hoar, at the laying of the corner-stone of the new Clark 
University, said, " The university is the bright consummate flower of 
democracy. " Will not American patriots cultivate endowments made 
by the generosity of sons of the people ? Are the noble gifts of Johns 
Hopkins for the advancement of learning and the relief of suffering 
likely to be forgotten by present or future generations ? All history 

S62 



THE STATE AND HIGHER EDUCATION. 263 

testifies to the gradual up-building of universities by individual bene- 
factions. The development of European and American colleges is one 
long record of private philanthropy. Private philanthropy will do all it 
cauy but public interest de&ands that the State should do its part. 

The encouragement of higher education by government aid, in one 
form or another, has been a recognized principle of public policy in 
every enlightened state, whether ancient or modern. Older than the 
recognition of popular education as a public duty was the endowment 
of colleges and universities at public expense for the education of men 
who were to serve church or state. It is a mistake to think that the 
foundation of institutions by princes or prelates was a purely private 
matter. The money or the land always came from the people in one 
form or another, and the benefit of endowment returned to the people 
sooner or later. Popular education is the historic outgrowth of the 
higher education in every civilized country, and those countries which 
have done most for universities have the best schools for the people. 
It is an error to suppose that endowment of the higher learning is con- 
fined to Eoman and German emperors, French and English kings. 
Orowned and uncrowned republics have pursued the same public pol- 
icy. Indeed, the liberality of government towards art and science al- 
ways increases with the progress of liberal ideas, even in monarchical 
countries like Germany, where, since the introduction of parliamentary 
government, appropriations for university education have greatly in- 
creased. The total cost of maintaining the Prussian universities, as 
shown by the reports of our Commissioner of Education, is about two 
million dollars a year. Only about nine per cent, of this enormous out- 
lay is met by tuition fees. The state contributes all the rest in endow- 
ments and appropriations. Prussia now gives to her universities more 
than twice as much as she did before the Franco-Prussian War, as 
sl^own by the report of our commissioner at the Paris Exposition in 
1867. In that year France gave her faculties of higher instruction only 
$765,764. After the overthrow of the second empire, popular appro- 
priations for higher education greatly increased. The budget for 1888 
shows that France now appropriates for college and university faculties 
$2,330,000 a year, more than three times the amount granted under 
Louis Napoleon. Despotism is never so favorable to the highest inter- 
ests of education as is popular government. Louis XIV and Frederick 
the Great, according to the authority of Eoscher, the political econo- 
mist, regarded universities, like custom-houses, as sources of revenue, 
fbr the maintenance of absolute forms of government. The world is 
growing weary of royal munificence when exercised at the people's 
expense, with royal grants based upon popular benevolence and re- 
dounding to the glory and profit of the prince rather than to the folk 
upholding his throne. Since the introduction of constitutional govern- 
ment into European states, representatives of the people are taking the 
power of educational endowment and subsidy into their own hands, and 



264 PEOCEEDINGS — ^DEPARTMENT OP SUPERINTENDENCE. 

right royally do they discharge their duty. The little Eepablic of Swit- 
zerland, with a population of only three millions, sapports foar state 
universities, having altogether more than three hundred instructors. 
Its cantons, corresponding upon a small s&de to our States, expend 
over $300,000 a year upon the higher education. The federal govern- 
ment of Switzerland appropriated, in 1887, $115,000 to the polytechni- 
cum and $56,000 in subsidies to cantonal schools, industrial and agri- 
cultural 5 besides bestowing regularly $10,000 a year for the encourage- 
ment of Swiss art. The aggregate revenues of the colleges of Oxford, 
based upon innumerable historic endowments, public and private, now 
amount to fully two million dollars a year. The income of the Gam- 
bridge college endowments amounts to quite as much. But all this, it 
may be said, represents the policy of foreign lauds. Let us look at 
home, and see what is done in our own American commonwealths. 

Maryland began her educational history by paying a tobacco tax for 
the support of William and Mary College. This colonial generosity to 
another State has an historic parallel in the appropriation of a township 
of land by Vermont for the encouragement of Dartmouth College in the 
State of New Hampshire, and in the corn that was sent from New 
Haven to the support of young Harvard. In colonial days Maryland 
had her county schools, some of them classical, like King William's 
School at Annapolis. All were founded by authority of the colonial 
government and supported by aid from the public treasury. The prin- 
ciple of state aid to higher education runs throughout the entire his- 
tory of both State and colony. 

The development of Maryland colleges began on the Eastern Shore. 
In the year 1782, representatives of Kent County presented a petition 
to the Legislature^ saying that they had a flourishing school at Ches- 
tertown, their county seat, and wished to enlarge it into a college. The 
General Assembly not only authorized the establishment of Washing- 
ton College, which still exists, but, in consideration of the fact that 
large sums of money had been subscribed for the institution by public- 
spirited citizens of the Eastern Shore, resolved that "such exertions for 
the public good merited the approbation of the Legislature and ought 
to receive public encouragement and assistance." These are the very 
words of representatives of Maryland more than a century ago. Their 
deeds were even better than their words. They voted that £1,250 a 
year should be paid from the public treasury for the support of Wash- 
ington College. That vote was passed just after the conclusion of a 
long war with England, when the State and indeed the whole country 
lay impoverished. Toward raising this government subsidy for higher 
education, the Legislature granted all public receipts from marriage 
licenses, from liquor licenses, fines for breaking the Sabbath, and all 
similar fines and licenses that were likely to be constant sources of rev- 
enue. 

The founding of St John's College occurred two years later, in 1784. 
This act by the State of Maryland was also in response to a local de- 



THE STATE AND HIGHER EDUCATION. 265 

maud. It was urged by the citizens of Annapolis that King William's 
School, although a classical institution, was inadequate to meet the 
educational demands of the age. It was very properly added that the 
Western Shore, as well as the Eastern, deserved to have a college; and so 
St. John's was established as the counterpoise of Washington College. 
The legislative act is almost identical with that establishing the earlier 
institution, although the appropriation was larger. The Legislature 
gave St. John's four acres of good land for college grounds and build- 
ing sites and an annual appropriation of £l,7oO current money. This 
sum, in the words of the original act, was to ^^ be annually and forever 
hereafter given and granted as a donation by the public to the use of 
said college on the Western Shore, to be applied by the visitors and 
governors of the said college for the payment of salaries to the princi- 
pal, professors, and tutors of said college." The establishment was to 
be absolutely unsectarian. Students of any denomination were to be 
admitted without religious or civil tests. Not even compulsory attend- 
ance upon college prayers was required ; so modern were the legisla- 
tive fathers of Maryland. 

The next step in the higher educational history of Maryland was the 
federation of the two colleges into the University of Maryland. The 
two 'boards of visitors and two representatives of each faculty consti- 
tuted the University Convocation, presided over at Annapolis on com- 
mencement day by the Governor of the State, who was ex officio chan- 
cellor of the University. One of the college presidents acted as vice- 
chancellor. Thus more than a century ago Maryland inaugurated a 
State system of higher education which, if it had been sustained, would 
have given unity and vigor to her academic life. But unfortunately, in 
1794, the Legislature yielded to county prejudices and withdrew £500 
from the £1,250 annually granted to Washington College and began to 
establish a fund, the income of which was distributed among various 
county academies on both shores of the Chesapeake. This was the 
origin of the subsidies still given in one form or another to secondary 
institutions in the State of Maryland. In 1805 the remaining appro- 
priation of £750 belonging to Washington College and the entire £1,750 
thitherto granted to St. John's College were withheld for the avowed 
purpose of " disseminating learning in the different counties of the 
State." 

For six years there was famine in the land as regards the support of 
higher education. At last in 1811 the Legislature resumed appropriations 
to St. John's College. Kealizing that it had misappropriated to local 
uses subsidies "granted annually forever" to St. John's, the Legislature 
endeavored foi: many years to compromise by giving a smaller allowance. 
The court of appeals ultimately decided in 1859 that such a readjustment 
was a breach of contract, and that the college could collect what was 
due it from the State. There is, perhaps, some excuse for the economy 
of Ma?»ryland in its treatment of St. John's College, namely, "hard times." 



266 PROCEEDINGS — ^DEPARTME^NfT OP SUPERINTENDENCE. 

A State that went through the financial crises of 1837 and 1857 without 
repudiation deserves some historical credit. St. John's College was sus- 
pended during the Civil War, but appropriations were renewed in 1866, 
and have been continued, with slight variations, down to the present 
day. The amount granted in 1888 was $3,000 for the institution itself 
and $5,200 for boarding twenty-five students^ one from each senatorial 
district. 

The first University of Maryland ceased to exist by the act of 1805, 
which withheld appropriations from St. John's College; but in the year 
1812 a new University of Maryland was instituted by authority of the 
State, in the city of Baltimore. The proceeds of a State lottery were 
granted to the institution for a library, scientific apparatus, botanical 
garden, etc. The corporation was to have a full equipment of four 
faculties, representing the arts, law, medicine, and theology. Two 
faculties of law and medicine still perpetuate the spirit of the founders 
of the University of Maryland, and are honorable and distinguished 
promoters of professional education. It cannot be said that they were 
ever treated with adequate generosity, though they actually received 
from State lotteries between $30,000 and $40,000, and were never ta^ed. 

The present generation has not been so generous to the cause of higher 
education as were the fathers of the State, but nevertheless Maryland, 
in her entire history, has appropriated something over $650,000 for what 
may be strictly called college education, n<Jt counting $60,000 given to 
the State Agricultural College, nor $40,000 proceeding firom State lot- 
teries. While this collective bounty is small, it is money given by vol- 
untary taxation and not taken from institutions of learning. Most of 
the amount was raised in times when the State was poor or heavily in 
debt, and when public money came with difficulty. Moreover this finan- 
cial generosity of Maryland establishes the principle for which we are 
contending, namely^ that this State, like all other enlightened States in 
the world, has recognized the duty of support to higher and unsectarian 
institutions of learning. She has at different times appropriated $650^- 
000 to colleges and the'University of Maryland from her public treasury. 

Let us now inquire what other States in the American Union have 
done for higher education, always recognizing of course great inequality 
in State population and in the taxable basis. 

Virginia, whose earliest educational foundations Maryland helped to 
lay by bet tobacco-tax, has expended upon colleges and university over 
$2,000,000, during her history as a State, not counting the colonial 
bounty to William and Mary. Since the war Virginia has given her 
University $40,000 a year. Before the War, she gave $15,000 a year. 
The original university-establishment cost the State about $400,000. 
The people of Virginia are proud of their University, and it would be 
suicide for any political party to cut off the yearly appropriation from 
the institution founded by Thomas Jefft^rson. The State of South Caro- 
lina was Jefferson's model for generous appropriations to the cause of 



THE STATE AND HIGHER EDUCATION. 267 

sonnd learning. She has given $2,800,000 to that object. Georgia has 
given $938,000 for the same purpose. Louisiana has given $794,000 
from her State treasury for the higher education in recent years, and, 
according to the testimony of her own authorities, has distributed over 
$2,000,000 among schools, academies, and colleges. Texas has spent 
upon college education $382,000, and has given for higher education 
2,250,000 acres of land.* The educational foundations, both academic 
and popular, in the Lone Star State, are among the richest in America. 

Turning now to the Great West, we find that Michigan has given 
over $2,000,000 to higher education. She supports a University which 
is as conspicuous in the North- West as the University of Virginia is in 
the South, upon one-twentieth of a mill tax on every dollar of taxable 
property in the State. That means half a cent on every hundred dol- 
lars. This University tax-rate yielded last year $47,272. Wisconsin 
pays one*eighth of a mill tax for her University, and that yields $74,000 
per annum. Wisconsin has given for higher education $1,200,000. 
Nebraska is even more generous to her State CTniversity. She grants 
three-eighths of a mill tax, yielding about $60,000 a year. The State of 
California grants one- tenth of a mill tax-, which yielded last year over 
$76,000. Besides this, the University of California has a permanent 
State endowment of $811,000, yielding an annual income of $62,000, 
making a total of $128,000 which the State gives annually to its highest 
institution oi learning. Altogether California has expended upon 
higher education two and one-half million dollars. The State of Kan- 
sas^ the central empire of the Great West, gives already its rising uni- 
versity at Lawrence $75,000 a year, "levied and collected in the same 
manner as are other taxes. '^ 

It is needless to give further illustrations of State aid to American 
Universities. These statistics have been carefully collected from origi- 
nal documents by historical students, who are making important con- 
tributions to American educational history, to be published by the 
United States Bureau of Education. The principle of State aid to at 
least one leading institution in each commonwealth is established in 
every one of the Southern and Western States. In New England, 
Harvard, and Yale, and other foundations of higher learning appear 
now to flourish upon individual endowments and private philanthropy ; 
but almost every one of these collegiate institutions, at one time or 
another, has received State aid. Harvard was really a State institution. 
She inherited only £800 and 320 books from John Harvard. She was 
brought up in the arms of her Massachusetts nurse, with the bottle always 
in her mouth. The towns were taxed in her interest, and every family 
paid its peck of corn to make, as it were, hoecake for President Duns- 
ter and his faculty. Harvard College has had more than half a mill- 
ion dollars from the public treasury of Massachusetts. Yale has had 
about $200,000 from the State of Connecticut. While undoubtedly the 
most generous gifts have come to New England colleges from private 
sources^ yet every one of them, in time of e)metgeiic^,\\aa> ^Qi\si^\i<^^^ 



268 PROCEEDINGS — ^DEPARTMENT OP SUPERINTENDENCE. 

before representatives of the people and stated the want. They have al- 
waysobtained Stateaid when it wasneeded. Last year the Massachnsetts 
Institute of Technology became somewhat embarrassed financially, and 
asked the Legislature for $100,000. The institution got 8200,000, twice 
what it asked for, upon conditions that were easy to meet. 

Turning now from historic examples of State aid to the higher edu- 
cation by individual American Commonwealths, let us inquire briefly 
concerning the attitude of the TJnited States Government towards in- 
stitutions of science and sound learning. 

Washington's grand thought of a National University, based upon 
individual endowment, may be found in many of his writings, but the 
clearest and strongest statement occurs in his last will and testament 
There he employed the following significant language : 

It lias been my ardent wish to see a plan devised on a liberal scale, which wonld 
have a tendency to spread systematic ideas through all parts of this rising empire, 
thereby to do away local attachments and State prejadices, as far as the nature of 
things would, or indeed ought to admit, from our national councils. Looking anx- 
iously forward to the accomplishment of so desirable an object as this is, in my esti- 
mation, my mind has not been able to contemplate any plan more likely to effect the 
measure than the establishment of a' University in a central part of the United States, 
to which the youths of fortune and talents from all parts thereof may be sent for the 
completion of their education, in all branches of polite literature, in arts and sciences, 
in acquiring knowledge in the principles of politics and good government, and, as a 
matter of infinite importance in my judgment, by associating with each other, and 
forming friendships in juvenile years, bo enabled to free themselves in a proper de- 
gree from those local prejudices and habitual jealousies which have just been men- 
tioned, and which, when carried to excess, are never-failing sources of disquietude to 
the public mind, and pregnant of mischievous consequences to this country. Under 
these impressions, so fully dilated, I give and bequeath, in perpetuity, the fifty 
shares which I hold in the Potomac Company, * * ♦ towards the endowment of 
a university, to be established within the limits of the District of Columbia, under 
the auspices of the General Government, if that Government should incline to extend 
a favoring hand towards it. 

Here was the individual foundation of a National University. Here 
was the first suggestion of that nobl^ line of public policy subsequently 
adopted in 1846 by our General Government in relation to the Smith- 
sonian Institution. The will of James Smithson, of England, made in 
1826, was "to found at Washington, under the name of the Smithsonian 
Institution, an establishment for the increase and diffusion of knowledge 
among men." A simpler educational bequest, with such far-reaching 
results, was never before made. Whether James Smithson was influ- 
enced to this foundation by the example of Washington is a curious 
problem. Smithson's original bequest, amounting to something over 
$500,000, was accepted by Congress for the purpose designated, and was 
placed in the Treasury of the United States, where by good administra- 
tion and small additional legacies (in two cases from other individuals) 
the sum has increased to over $700,000. Besides this, the Smithsonian 
Institution now has a library equal in value to the original endowment, 
and acquired by the simple process of government exchanges ; and it 



THE STATE AND HIGHEE EDUCATION. 269 

owns buildings-equal in value to more than half the original endowment. 
During the past year, as shown by the Secretary's report, the Institution 
was "charged by Congress with the care and disbursement of sundry 
appropriations,"^ amounting to $220,000. The National Museum is un- 
der the direction of the Secretary of the Smithsonian, and the Govern- 
ment appropriations to that museum, since its foundation, aggregate 
nearly $2,000,000. The existence and ever-increasing prosperity of the 
Smithsonian Institution are standing proofs that private foundations 
may receive the fostering care of government without injurious results. 
Independent administration of scientific institutions can coexist with 
State aid. It is a remarkable testimony to the wisdom of George Wash- 
ington's original idea, that Andrew D. White, who, when president of 
Cornell University, happily combined private endowments and Govern- 
ment land-grants, lately suggested in The Forum^ the thought of a 
Kational University upon individual fouhdations. This thought is a 
century old, but it remains to this day the grandest thought in Ameri- 
can educational history. 

George Washington, like James Smithson, placed a private bequest, 
so that the General Government might extend to it " a favoring hand;" 
but in those early days Congress had no conception of the duties of 
government towards education and science, although attention was re- 
peatedly called to these subjects by enlightened executives like Thomas 
Jefferson, "Father of the University of Virginia," James Madiso;i, James 
Monroe, and John Quincy Adams. It took Congress ten years to estab- 
lish the Smithsonian Institution after the bequest had been accepted and 
the money received. Unfortunately, George Washington's Potomac 
stock never paid but one dividend, and there was no pressure in those 
days towards educational appropriations from an ever-increasing surplus. 
The affairs of the Potomac Company were finally merged into the Ches- 
apeake and Ohio Canal, which became a profitable enterprise, and en- 
dures to this day. What became of George Washington's " consolidated 
stock" of that period, history does not record. Jared Sparks, Washing- 
ton's biographer, thought the stock was "held in trust" by the new 
company for the destined university. There is probably little danger 
that it will ever be thrown upon the market in a solid block by the Treas- 
ury of the United States, to which the stock legally belongs, unless the 
present surplus should suddenly vanish, and the General Government 
be forced to realize upon its assets for the expenses of the administra- 
tion. 

George Washington's educational schemes were by no means vision- 
ary. His stock in the James Eiver Company, which like the Potomac 
Company, he had helped to organize, actually became producti\'e and 
was by him presented to Liberty Hall Academy, now Washington and 



> Report of Samuel P. Langley, Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution, 1887-88, 
p. 7. 

•The Forum, February, 1889. 



270 PROCEEDINaS — DEPARTMENT OF SUPERINTENDENCE. 

Lee University, at Lexington, Va., were General Lee died and was 
buried, having served his native State, as did George Washington, in 
the capacity of a college president. Washington raised Liberty flail 
Academy to what he called " a seminary of learning upon an enlarged 
plan, but not coming up to the full idea of university.'' He meant to 
make it one of the three Virginia supporters of the University at Wash- 
ington. Liberty Hall, or Washington College, his own William and 
Mary, and Hampden-Sidney, were all to be State pillars of a national 
temple of learning. 

Washington's dream of a great University, rising grandly upon tlie 
Maryland bank of the Potomac, remained a dream for three-quarters 
of a century. But there is nothing more real or persistent than the 
dreams of great men, whether statesmen like Baron von Stein, or poets 
like Dante and Petrarch, or prophets like Savonarola, or thinkers like 
St. Thomas Aquinas, the fathers of the church and of Greek philosophy. 
States are overthrown 5 literatures are lost; temples are destroyed; 
systems of thought are shattered to pieces like the statues of Pheidias; 
but somehow truth and beauty, art and architecture, forms of poetry, 
ideals of liberty and government, of sound learning and of the educa* 
tion of youth, these immortal dreams are revived from age to age and 
take concrete shape before the very eyes of successive generations. 

The idea of university education in the arts and sciences is as old as 
the schools of Greek philosophy. The idea was perpetuated at Alex- 
andria, Eome, and Athens under the emperors. It endured at Con- 
stantinople and Eavenna. It was revived at Bologna, Paris, Prague, 
Heidelberg, Oxford, and Cambridge under varying auspices, whether 
of city, church, or state, and was sustained by the munificence of mer- 
chants, princes, prelates, kings, and queens. Ideas of higher education 
were transmitted to a new world by Englishmen who believed in an 
educated ministry and who would not suffer learning to perish in the 
wilderness. The collegiate foundations laid by John Harvard in Mas- 
sachusetts and Commissary Blair in Virginia were the historic models 
for many similar institutions, north and south. George Washington, 
the chancellor of William and Mary, when he became President of a 
Federal republic, caught up, in the capital of a westward-moving 
empire, the old university idea and gave it national scope. There upon 
the Potomac he proposed to found a National University, drawing its 
economic life from the great artery of commerce which connects the 
Atlantic seaboard and the Great West. As early as 1770 Washington 
described this Potomac route as <' the channel of the extensive and 
valuable trade of a rising empire." 

Was it not in some measure an historic, although an unconscious, ful- 
filment of that old dream of Washington when, a hundred years later, 
Johns Hopkins determined to establish upon the Maryland side of the 
Potomac a university with an economic tributary in the Baltimore aud 
Ohio Railroad, which follows the very windings of that ancient channel 



THE STATE AND HIGHER EDUCATION. 271 

9f commerce ? Forms of endowment may change, but university ideas 
endure. They are the common historic inheritance of every enlightened 
age and of every liberal mind 5 but their large fulfilment requires a 
breadth of foundation and a range of vision reaching beyond mere lo- 
cality. Universities that deserve the name have always been something 
more than local or provincial institutions. Since the days when Eoman 
youth frequented the schools of Grecian philosophy, since the time when 
ultramontanes and cismontanes congregated at Bologna, since students 
organized by nations at Paris, Prague, and Heidelberg, since northern 
Scots fought southern Englishmen at Oxford, university life has been 
something even more than national. It has been international and cos- 
mopolitan. Though always locally established and locally maintained^ 
universities are beacon lights among the nations, commanding wide 
horizons of sea and shore, catching all the winds that blow and all the 
sun that shines, attracting, like the great light-house of Ptolemy Phila* 
delphus on the island of Pharos, sailors from distant lands to Alexan- 
drine havens, or speeding the outward voyager. 

The nations of the Old World are proud of their universities and col- 
leges. Three years ago all Germany and the learned institutions of all 
Europe united in celebrating the five hundredth anniversary of "Alt 
Heidelberg." Last summer at Bologna, under the auspices of the Ital- 
ian Government and of the minister of public instruction, the whole civ- 
ilized world was represented by academic delegates, who had come joy- 
fully together to celebrate the thousandth birthday of ." the mother of 
studies." Every country in Europe takes pride in the history of its 
universities and of its system of public education. It is time that some- 
thing should be done for the history of learning in these United States. 
Dr. G. Stanley Hall, the president of Clark University, in his Bibliog- 
raphy of Education (page 41), says : "A history of educational institu- 
tions in this country is greatly needed. The field is very rich and almost 
unknown, 'No comprehensive history exists." 

Before educational specialists can have a History of American Edu- 
cation that is worthy of the name, there must be a vast amount of spe- 
cial investigation. There must be many local and State contributions 
to the subject before national generalizations of any permanent or prac- 
tical value can be drawn by educators. One might as well generalize 
upon the character of the American people without an historical study 
of immigration and without taking a census of the population, as to 
write a History of American Education before obtaining the local 
facts. 

A great deal of pioneer work in this direction has been done in Bar- 
nard's American Journal of Education; in the Annual Eeports and Cir- 
culars of Information published by the United States Bureau of Educa- 
tion ; in the periodical and educational journals of the country, and in 
the local histories of particular institutions of learning and of particular 
systems of schools. A strong and novel impulse in the direction of or- 



272 PBOCEEDINGS — DEPARTMENT OP SUPERINTENDENCE. 

ganized inquiry concerning the history of edncational institutions in 
this country was communicated to the country in its centennial year, 
1876, by General John Eaton, then Commissioner of Education. The 
spirit of local co-operation was enlisted in many of our American colleges, 
and considerable historical work was then done. Some of it was locally 
published, but most of it never saw the light. Popular support and 
Government appropriations were lacking for the adequate prosecution 
of the work. One magnificent result, however, of this new spirit of 
organized inquiry was the great volume on the Public Libraries of the 
United States, their History, Condition, and Management, published 
in 1876 by the Department of the Interior for the Bureau of Education. 
A single contribution to the history of education, edited by Dr. Frank- 
lin B. Hough, was published by the Bureau in 1883. It was a pamphlet 
of seventy-two pages, called Historical Sketches of the Universities 
and Colleges of the United States, and related to the University of 
Missouri. 

The idea of systematically investigating the history of higher educa- 
tion in this country was revived anew in connection with an inquiry un- 
dertaken by the speaker, at the instance of General John Eaton, con- 
cerning The Study of History in American Colleges and Universities. 
Although concerned primarily with the history of a single department 
of instruction in a few representative colleges, like Harvard, Tale, Co- 
lumbia, Cornell, the University of Michigan, and the Johns Hopkins Uni- 
versity, the writer could not fail to discover something of the general 
historic interest belonging to the development of certain institutions of 
learning north, south, and west. To represent a school of history and 
politics in the South, he had proposed to introduce an account of Wil- 
ilam and Mary College into the above report, but this institution proved 
so generally interesting, as representing the history of education in Vir- 
ginia, that the present Commissioner of Education, Col. N. H. E. Daw- 
son, under whom the report on The Study of History was completed 
for publication in 1887, encouraged further elaboration of the above ac- 
count for a special Circular of Information. The mongraph on The 
College of William and Mary ; a Contribution to the History of Higher 
Education, with Suggestions for its National Promotion, was issued as 
Circular No. 1, 1887, and was cordially welcomed by the friends of 
higher education in all parts of the country — north, south, east, and 
west. Aside from the generous public interest kindled in the honora- 
ble history and sad misfortunes of this oldest of Southern colleges, next 
to Harvard the oldest in the country, the publication of this Circular 
accomplished the more practical result of arousing the State of Vir- 
ginia to a consciousness of its educational inheritance and to an appro- 
priation to restore the old college to a career of active usefulness. If 
no other end than this had been effected by the above Circular, the Bu- 
reau of Education would have been justified in entering the field of 
Southern educational history^ where historical and quickening work is 



THE STATE AND HIGHER EDUCATION. 273 

most needed. To illustrate the eflfect upon the educators of the !North 
as well as at the South, it may be added that this mouograph furnished 
materials for a presidential address at a well-known Northern university 
and for an historical oration at one of the most influential Southern 
universities. 

The immediate success of this pioneer monograph on William and 
Mary College led the way to the larger thought of treating the history 
of higher education by States. Accordingly the remaining colleges of 
Virginia were grouped together by the editor in authorized sketches, 
supplementary to a study of Thomas Jefferson and the University of 
Virginia. The idea was favorably received. The need of making gen- 
erally known throughout the whole country the higher educational sys- 
tems of individual States and sections is illustrated by the remark of a 
college trustee in Massachusetts concerning the University of Virginia: 
"I had not the faintest idea that any such university ever existed or 
that education ever was on so high a plane in the South." Jefferson's 
ideas concerning university education, and indeed concerning education 
in general for this country, were far in advance of his time. Through 
the instrumentality of professors like George Long, Thomas Hewett 
Key, Charles Bonnycastle, Dr. Robley Dunglison, and other professors 
introduced from Europe, Jefferson's plan for an elective system and for 
real university work in schools of language and science, was practi- 
cally realized more than fifty years ago. The publication of the facts 
regarding Jefferson's unique creation, in the vicinity of his own home 
at MonticellOj has proved^ not only of historical interest but of positive 
educational value. 

The work of organized inquiry into the history of American higher 
education by States and groups of States was demonstrated by experi- 
ence to be practicable, and, by .general encouragement, to be welcome 
to all parts of the country. Certain general principles were adopted in 
the further prosecution of the investigation. Under the direction of an 
editor, aided by the resources and documentary collections of the Bu- 
reau of Education, the preparation of the State monographs was as- 
signed to representative and scholarly men from the State or section of 
country especially concerned. In all cases the active co-operation and 
assistance of the various higher institutions of learning in each State 
were enlisted through a sub-editor. An attempt was made to make the 
reports at once compaet and readable, with a good analysis of contents 
and a few attractive illustrations of college or university buildings, the 
plates being by no means confined to the showing of externals, such as 
dormitories and facades, but picturing also in many cases library and 
laboratory interiors. In compensation for the lack of absolute his- 
torical completeness, full bibliographies of the sources of information 
were to be appended to each chapter or great subject, so that future 
students of our educational history might profit by the way-marks left 
by pioneers. 

882— No. 2 ^18 



274 PBOCEEDraGS — ^DEPABTMPNT OP SUPERINTENDENCB. 

Althoagh anaided by any special appropriations, and absolately de* 
pendent upon the slender resources of the Bureau for the preparation 
of Circulars of Information, the work has been extended from Virginia, 
the oldest of American Oommonwealths, throughout all the Southern 
States, where monographs are either completed or well advanced. The 
report on North Carolina has lately been published. The returns from 
Soutb Carolina, Georgia, and Florida are already in the hands of the 
Government Printer. The work has not been restricted to the South. 
In anticipation of the historical interest connected with the observance 
of the centenary of the settlement of the old North-West Territory organ- 
ized inquiry was early extended beyond the Ohio River. A monograph 
upon the History of Higher Education in Wisconsin, prepared by Mr. 
David Spencer, under the general direction of Prof. William F. Allen, 
of the University of Wisconsin, has been accepted and sent to the Pub- 
lic Printer. At a meeting of the American Historical Association, held 
in the National Museum during the Christmas holidays, an introductory 
paper upon the whole subject of Higher Education in the North- West 
was read by Prof. George W. Knight, of the Ohio State University at 
Columbus, a graduate of the University of Michigan and author of a 
scholarly monograph upon Federal Land Grants for Education in the 
North- West Territory, published among the Papers of the American 
Historical Association, Vol. I. More elaborate monographs, based upon 
pioneer work in a vast and unknown field, and representfng^ the history 
of colleges and universities in the States of Ohio, Hlinois, and Michigan, 
will soon be completed. 

Here upon this desk lies a manuscript History of Higher Education 
in the State of Indiana, mother of the President recently inaugurated. 
This history was prepared by Prof. J. A. Woodburn, of the State Uni- 
versity at Bloomington, who has studied for two years in Baltimore. 
While no brief description can do justice to an exhaustive and laborious 
work, it may be summarized as representing — 

(1) The services of the old Continental Congress and of the Federal 
Government towards education in the old North- West Territory. 

(2) The early beginnings of higher education in the Territory of In- 
diana and the rise of State seminaries and academies, with their growth 
into the State University. 

(3) The work of the State normal school and of the various polytech- 
nic and industrial institutions in the State of Indiana. 

(4) The organization and early history of the denominational colleges 
and of other institutions of learning in Indiana. 

(5) The development of the school system and the final union or ar« 
ticulation of the same with the colleges and the University. 

Work of this kind has been pushed not only throughout the North- 
west but through the South- West. It has been carried beyond the Mis- 
sissippi Eiver, to the Pacific slope. The leading idea has been to do 
pioneer work in the West and South, where almost nothing has been 



THE STATE AND HIGHER EDUCATION. 275 

hitherto accomplished towards a systematic history of colleges and uni- 
versities. But the older sections of country have not been left out of 
consideration. State monographs are in preparation or contemplation 
in all of the New England States, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylva- 
nia, Delaware, Maryland, and the District of Columbia. Everywhere 
the attempt has been made to secure the co-operation of good men and 
scholarly investigators, with proper historical training for the work en- 
trusted to their hands, and with a scientific spirit rising above all con- 
siderations of sectional, or sectarian, or economic interest. In all cases 
the work has virtually been a labor of love. The funds available fot 
this wide-reaching and important undertaking have barely sufficed to 
pay expenses actually incurred, to say nothing of properly compensa- 
ting local contributors for their time and painstaking research. 

An illustration of the practical value to the whole country of inves- 
tigations like these lies upon the desk before you. Here is an elaborate 
monograph, which has occupied many months of patient toil, on the 
History of Federal and State Aid to Higher Education. The work was 
done by Dr. F. W. Blackmar, for several years a professor in a Oalifomia 
college and now Professor of History in the University of Kansas. Some 
of the State superintendents of education here present have doubtless 
received numerous inquiries from Dr. Blackmar, who for the past three 
years has been studying in Baltimore. When this monograpli begins 
' to come forth in proof from that tomb of manuscripts, the Government 
Printing Office, some of you will probably be asked to look over the 
portions concerning your own State, as Dr. Dickinson has already done 
for Massachusetts, Mr. Hine for Connecticut, Dr. Murray for New York, 
etc. f 

Without anticipating the interesting facts and figures contained in 
this important monograph, facts which have been kept back &om indi- 
vidual applicants for information until results could be published to the 
pubUc at large, it may be said that the work describes : 

(1) The attitude of every American colony and State in this Union 
towards the higher education, considered from an historical point of 
view. 

(2) The chief legislative enactments by colonial courts and State leg- 
islatures concerning the establishment and encouragement of higher 
education. 

(3) The history of all financial aid and support given to higher edu- 
cation by every colony and State in this country. The author has 
found out, from a laborious examination of original statutes, the actual 

\ amounts of money appropriated and of lands granted for education by 
each of the several States and by the Federal Government, throughout 
our entire history. There is not a practical educator, college president^ 
or trustee in the land who will not appreciate the importance and util- 
ity of such a financial history of higher education in America. 

(4) The monograph further shows the piogx^^^) ^^^^L^'^m^^T^^ ^s^ 



276 PROCEEDINGS — ^DEPAETMENT OF SUPERINTENDENCE. 

present tendencies of higher edacation in these United States. The 
history is given of West Point Military Academy, of the Naval Acad- 
emy at Annapolis, of the Congressional Library, of the Smithsoniaa 
Institution, the National Museum, and of the United States Bureau of 
Education, together with all the financial relations of the General Gov- 
ernment towards science and education since the beginning of our life 
as a nation. 

These matters are here communicated to the assembled superintend- 
ents of education from all parts of the Union because it is important 
that you should appreciate their scope and significance, and because 
you are in a position to strengthen and uphold the highest work of the 
Bureau of Education. The Bureau was originally founded, in the year 
1867, '^for the purpose of collecting such statistics and facts as shall 
show the condition and progress of education in the several States and 
Territories" (Barnard's First Annual Report, 1867-68, p. 63. Garfield's 
speech). What better method could there possibly be of showing the 
condition or progress of education in these United States than by an 
historical review of the origin, growth, development, and present ten- 
dencies of American institutions of learning, beginning with the high- 
est, as did our forefathers, with colleges and universities, and gradually 
enlarging the horizon of inquiry until the whole field of secondary and 
common school education is embraced in the retrospect ? The broaden- 
ing plains are best seen from the hill-tops. Unless American educators ' 
see to it that the higher education is properly recognized in our State 
and National reports, our whole system of educational inquiry will 
degenerate into common school statistics and essays on pedagogical 
methods. The Bureau of Education ought togake a commanding place 
in the educational work of the country. By the highest kind of original 
investigations, at home and abroad, it ought to win the respect and 
confidence of the best men engaged in educational work, whether college 
presidents or superintendents of schools. Why is it that the interests 
of labor and of agriculture can be raised to the dignity of Departments 
in the United States Government, with a Secretary of Agriculture hold- 
ing a Cabinet office, while the educational interests of the Bepublic are 
allowed to remain upon a lower level? Simply because the educa- 
tors of this country are content with that level, because they do not 
exert one-half the compelling energy of either the farmers or the labor- 
unions. The Bureau of Education ought to become a ministry of pub- 
lic instruction, with a recognized place In the Oabinetfand with a con- 
stantly energizing influence proceeding from the capital of this country 
throughout the length and breadth of the land, stimulating the colleges 
and the universities, as well as the school systems of the whole country, 
by publishing the results of organized inquiry. The present Commis- 
sioner of Labor touches tjbe vital interests of American labor and of all 
American society by his reports on the condition of working classes 
and on the statistics of divorce. The Bureau can attain an honorable 



THE STATE AND HIGHEB EDUCATION. 277 

and inflaential position in the educational life of the country only by 
keeping the vantage-ground already gained, by pursuing higher lines of 
activity, by pressing boldly forward for larger appropriations and higher 
objects, and by enlisting the cordial support of the best friends of ed- 
ucation throughout all these States. Thus gradually the pressure of 
public opinion will be brought to bear upon Oongressmen, and Congress 
and the nation will recognize at last that the interests of public educa- 
tion are quite as important to the entire American people as are the 
interests of any one class, like our American farmers or our American 
workingmen, however honorable the aims of both classes may be. 

Strengthen all existing foundations of the higher education in 
America, whether in the individual States or at Washington. Bring 
the representatives of public school systems and of our American col- 
leges and universities into more hearty and efftcient alliance. Co-oper- 
ate with every respectable agency for the higher education of the 
American people, whether by summer schools, teachers' institutes, the 
distribution of good literature in popular form, or by the institution of 
home reading circles and university extension lectures, now so popular 
in the manufacturing towns and mining districts of England. Break 
down the antagonism between mental and manual labor. Make in- 
dustrial and technical education as honorable as classical culture and 
the learned professions. Teach the science of government and social 
science, European as well as American history in the public schools. 
Then shall we all have greater respect and toleration for our fellow- 
men ; then will all begin to appreciate the necessity of supporting all 
forms of education, even the highest, by the combined efforts of society 
and the State. A noble popularity must be given to science and art in 
America. The people of every State should be led to see that the higher 
learning is not for the benefit of a favored few, but that it is beneficial 
and accessible to the sons of citizens, of whatever station. In the 
proper co-ordination of the common school system with the high school 
and university, the Western States are leading this republic to a more 
thoroughly democratic state of society, with fewer artificial distinctions 
of culture, with more of the spirit of human brotherhood than the world 
has hitherto seen. The Eastern colleges and universities will continue 
to train professors and to develop science, but the West and South will 
•apply both men and ideas to democratic uses. The whole country 
needs this popularization of culture. With universal suffrage and the 
sovereignty of the people at the basis of our political life, popular in- 
telligence must be cultivated so that it may be both able and willing to 
hold fast all that is good in human history, not only civil and religious 
liberty, but all that makes for happiness and righteousness in a great 
nation. 

Professor Powell : It is known to the members of this Depart* 
ment, but not to the mass of the people of the United States, that Wash- 
ington, with its various departments, is to-day a vast unlversitY^douL^ 



278 PKOCEEDIKGS — ^DEJ^A.RTBIENT Ot* StJPUKINTEKDENCfi. 

a great educational work in this country. And I want to say that I be* 
lieve that by no other instrumentality is the Q-overnment doing so much 
good educationally, as through its Bureau of Education. I believe it 
has been true ever since the establishment of that Bureau. The reasons 
are obvious to you all. In consideration of the remarks that have been 
made I wish to offer the following resolution : 

Besolved, That the monographs published and in preparation by the Bureau of Edu- 
cation upon the history of colleges and higher institutions in the seyeral States are 
worthy of special consideration ; and that, iu the opinion of this Department^ similar 
studies of the history of elementary and common school education would be of lasting 
value and interest. 

Ex-CoMMissiONEB EATON : It is very delightful to me to see this ripen- 
ing of fruit, this coming .of results. It is very fortunate that the body 
here present are pressing, with resolutions, this publication of informa- 
tion which has been so long delayed. But they need to do more. It is 
not enough to say that we prize these publications and this work here, 
in words, and then drop the idea. It needs to be pressed where it will 
tell upon the source of the funds by which this publication must be 
effected. Now, it is not merely that the Commissioner devises these plans 
and these experts carry them out in the preparation of this valuable mate- 
rial; it may lay months and years and finally become dead matter unless 
there is money for the printing of these monographs in the possession 
of the Government. This idea of historical treatment of education was 
fully outlined, in all its details, at Philadelphia. Three thousand dollars 
were spent in sending a man personally to the different colleges and uni- 
versities of the country to arouse within them the historic spirit. They 
had not prepared their histories. There was to be not only an exhibition 
at Philadelphia of education in the different States, of what these States 
could present, but history written and printed and very full notes of 
some hundred and fifty colleges were secured. Then what happened! 
The money failed ; and if the money should fail here at this point, the 
resolution and monographs would become dead matter; and this is the 
point I urge, that we see our members of Congress, that we move upon 
the source of money by which this endeavor will be perfected. It is 
true that while I said this material accumulated became dead matter in 
a sense, a large amount of it has become public. The history of the 
University of New York came out of this collection of material ; and so 
with the historic publication in reference to several other institutions; 
but the great body of it has been of no special service to the country on 
this account. Now don't let the money fail. And let me say here that 
all of this work is embarrassed, not merely for lack of money to publish, 
but to pay services. Why should these men sacrifice their time and 
endeavor for our benefit and that of the country while there is so much 
money to be had for everything else ! The teachers need to emphasize 
their demands, as the friends of labor emphasize their demands. Have 
we not seen a bureau in their interest come into being in a very short 



THE STATE AND HIGHER EDUCATION. 270 

time and the salary of the officer advanced to five thousand dollars, 
while the Commissioner of this office, representing education at the na- 
tional capital, can receive only three thousand dollars, and can have 
only about fifty thousand dollars a year to spend on his clerical force ? 
It is time, gentlemen, it is high time that there was action, emphasized 
action, until the results are secured. Money is not only needed to pay 
service, but to give room for service in this country where land is so 
cheap and properties are so obtainable. Look at the history of the 
treatment of that office with reference to space. When I first went into 
that office we had two rooms; and then we were driven out of that 
building into another, and another, and back to where the offio^e is at 
present, and then not allowed all of that small building. Go there 
to-day and see how the museum is crowded out of place, and the books 
of the library have to be put in rooms where work is going on all the 
time. Shall it be said that there is not interest enough in education in 
the United States to furnish that office a proper home, a proper working 
place and proper means ? 

Mb. SooFiBiiD : We have appointed a good committee to memorialize 
Congress, but it won't get much further unless every man in every sec- 
tion of the country shall put his shoulder to the wheel. In Kew York 
we adopted this plan in some of our Congressional districts. I happened 
to be the man in our district, and it is my business whenever any edu- 
cational matter comes before Congress, to at once prepare and send to 
every educational man in that Congressional district, for his signature, 
a memorial to our member of Congress. We can accomplish anything 
we like almost, in the way of advancing the work in the department of 
the Bureau of Education, if we only set about it. I believe the educa- 
tor can mould public opinion as no other man in the vicinity can mould 
it, if he only knows how to do it. And I hope the men in this country 
will keep posted on what is before Congress, and will earnestly set 
about it, and put a sustaining hand under the Commissiofier and furnish 
the means. 

Mb. Pabb : I want to add just a word in emphasis to what has been 
said,* with this added thought, — that in place of going to these men as 
suppliants, we should stand squarely on our heels and demand as a 
right the action we desire. Teachers lack the courage to stand up and 
demand what they need. We have an educational text-book which is 
unpopular with the educational people of the State, and yet in the face 
of that fact there were but two men in the State to stand up and oppose 
a measure which was passing through our Legislature which we thought 
very detrimental to the educational interests of our State* 



EDUCATION IN THE SOUTH. 



By Hon* W. E. Gabrett, 

Soufh'Wesiem Journal of Education, Nashville, Tenn, 

Mr. President : The condition of education in the South has for many 
years engaged the attention of the jfriends of education in all parts of 
the United States. Its history has received an impulse from the recent 
publications of the Commissioner of Education, in which Prof. Herbert 
B. Adams has directed attention to several prominent Southern colleges. 

The whole subject; whether viewed in its present condition or its past 
history, comes more immediately into notice on account of the location 
of the nextmeeting of jbhe IN'ational Educational Association in a Southern 
city. In* discussing education in the South from a Southern stand-point, 
I do not wish to appear as its eulogist, or its censor, or its partisan. I 
shall make no effort to present an array of statistics, or an exhaustive 
historical treatise. It is my purpose, rather^ to sketch some of itschar- 
acteristic features, to suggest some points in which it has differed from 
the education of any other section of the country, and to do all in my 
power to correct some impressions which seem to me to be erroneous, but 
which have gained currency both at home and abroad. 

Some persons have discussed the subject from the stand-point of sta- 
tistics, and have drawn from the tables of illiteracy hasty and illogical 
conclusions. No candid observer will deny or wish to disguise the facts 
of the United States Census, or the inferences legitimately drawn from 
them. The tables of illiteracy incontestably prove that the ratio of per- 
sons over ten years of age, exclusive of the colored population, who 
cannot read and write, is greater in the South than in any other sec- 
tion of the United States. These statistics certainly warrant the infer- 
ence that, tried by its results, there have been grave defects in Southern 
education which have not existed in other sections of the Union. The 
finger of fact, however, does not point to the cause, and these statistics 
do not justify such inferences as the following: 

As the ratio of those who cannot read and write in Massachnsetts is to the ratio 
who cannot read and write in Virginia, so is education in Massachusetts to education 
in Virginia. 

Education in the South has been neglected, teachers have been incompetent, the 
colleges and higher institutions have been imperfect and inadequate, the academies 
and preparatory schools have been insufficient, very little money has been expendedi 
and the whole population is indififerent to education and largely iUiterate. 

280 



EDUCATION IN THE SOUTH. 281 

Again : 

The history of early American literature plainly shows the dearth of Southern pro- 
duction in the departments of history, poetry, fiction, and what may be called the 
current or lighter literature. 

This fact can not be denied. Without stopping to engage in a meta- 
physical discussion as to whether this is due to the lack of genius, or to 
the direction of genius into different or higher channels, on the principle 
of Metternich, that those who make history do not write history, or as to 
whether it indicates the lack of the literary or the commercial element 
of book-making, I deem it sufficient to my purpose to point out the fact 
that no statistics warrant the assumption that the dearth of Southern 
production in the enumerated fields of literature proves the inadequacy 
of Southern education. 

On the other hand, writers of ability have shown by computations, al- 
most statistical, since the exact statistics of early Southern education 
cannot be reached, that the Southern States have, in the past, in pro- 
portion to population and resources, spent as much money for educa- 
tion as any other section of the country; that they have always main- 
. tained universities, colleges, and institutions of high grade, and an ad- 
equate number of academies and preparatory schools; that the work of 
these institutions and the attendance of pupils have be*en fully equal to 
that in other sections of the Union. From these facts, which, I think, 
cannot be successfully denied, conclusions have been drawn in favor 
of Southern education, some of which are misleading. It is needless to 
pursue the enumeration of these apparently conflicting views. Can 
they all be true? i^erhaps not; but to a certain extent, I think, they 
can be reconciled. 

The South did, indeed, make a grave educational mistake, but not 
the mistake so frequently attributed to it. This mistake limited the 
usefulness of education in the past, embarrasses its efficiency at the 
present, and presents to those who wish to investigate its former work 
only meagre statistics and scraps of history. This mistake can, per- 
haps, be best pointed out by contrasting the educational systems of the 
three sections of our country which are geographically distinct from 
each other, the North-East, the West, and the South. In making this 
sketch, I shall introduce copious extracts from an address which I had 
the honor to deliver, August 5, 1885, before the Tennessee State Teach- 
ers' Association, on The History of Teachers' Institutes in Tennessee^ 
I shall offer no apology for this, because I believe that those who hear 
me will listen with more interest to words spoken among Southern ed- 
ucators in family council than to language carefully weighed for gen- 
eral circulation. 

The first institution of learning in the United States was Harvard 
University, founded by an enactment of the General Court of Massa- 
chusetts, in 1G36, j ust two hundred years before the development of her 
public school system under Horace Mann. 

William and Maiy College, in Virginia, was ^jroi^^itftd. m l^\a ^Vi^'^j^a. 



282 PROCEEDINGS — DEPARTMENT OP SUPERINTENDENCE. 

its corporate existence in 1660, but was not in actual operation until 
1692. Other colleges and universities were established. Whoever 
takes the trouble to investigate the early history of education in this 
country will be struck with the fact that the attention bf our fore* 
fathers was directed, in the first place, to the higher education. The 
QoUege preceded the school, extending its influence downwards. In the 
]!^orthEastern States, beginning as early as 1642 in Massachusetts, com- 
mon school education was stimulated by enactments of exhortation, by 
statutory suggestions, and by legislation directory to local authorities. 
In the South, it was left solely to accident and private enterprise, and 
was ignored in legislation until 1777. In our colonial period, organized 
systems of common school education were nowhere to be found. Exclu- 
sively in the South, and to a great extent in the whole country, education 
was built from the top. Is it wonderful if its foundation was defective? 

New England was the first to discover the mistake. Early in its his- 
tory, Massachusetts began the reform, but it took many years to reach 
complete results. 

New England may thus be regarded as the prototype of common school 
education in America. Her common schools were' the first to be woven 
into comprehensive and efScient public system. To her must be ac- 
corded all the honors which belong to the pioneer who marks out the 
road. To her still cling some of the faults which inhere in all prototypes, 
embedded and crystallized in early formation. 

In the North-East were first tested the appliances brought to bear by 
the State for developing education into a science. Here the centrifiagcJ 
tendencies of the old systems were first corrected. The teacher was 
taken from the school-room, where he had so long worked alone, apart 
from his co-laborers, and was thrown into contact with the educational 
world. The four parties to education were thus brought together, the 
teacher, the pupil, the parent, and the public. Friendly supervision by 
State and county of&cers, gathering statistics, diffusing information ; 
the normal school, for the systematic training of teachers ; the popular 
institute, where all the parties of education meet on a common level; 
all these beneficent appliances soon began to reflect into each school- 
room the combined experience of all the educators of the country ; and 
better still, the strong common sense of the American people was thrown 
into the school-room in a current as refreshing and as purifying as a 
etream of fresh air into an overheated atmosphere. 

The schools of such a system must, inevitably, soon surpass the 
schools of a system where no such appliances are used 5 not from any 
superiority of learning or ability in the individual teacher, but from the 
community of thought and the unity of action. Improved methods are 
disseminated, school wants are understood by teachers and the public, 
superior appliances are provided, schools are more equally diffused j in 
short, education flourishes through the only means by which anything 
can reach complete development in this country^ the public sympathy. 



JEDtJCATlON IN THE SOtJTH. 283 

Although similar systems existed in some other portions of the coun- 
try, yet the system of New England was the first to develop into vigor. 
Such a system could not long be left to one corner. It is now the sys^ 
tern of the United States. 

Education in the West was not left to evolve its slow growth from its 
own conditions, hindered by early errors. It sprung into existence in 
the full blaze of the nineteenth century, and used the dear-bought ex- 
perience of others. The sagacious statesman, Thomas Jefferson, who 
contributed more than any other person to make possible the develop- 
ment of the West, was defeated in his native State in one of the dear- 
est wishes of his heart. He was one of the few men in the South who 
grasped the idea of a public system of instruction. When his most 
strenuous exertions failed to engraft such a system on the laws of Vir- 
ginia, he was compelled to be content with founding a great university. 
Yet, so much delighted was Jefferson with this much of victory, that he 
caused to be engraved on his tomb, " Thomas Jefferson, author of the 
Declaration of American Independence, and of the Virginia Statute for 
Eeligious Freedom, and Father of the University of Virginia" — a fit- 
ting epitaph, which tells us that the same hand which penned the dec- 
laration of human rights, points to education as the means to preserve 
them forever. 

When Virginia was induced, largely through his influence, on De- 
cember 30, 1780, to make the great Christmas gift by which she ceded 
the North- West Territory, Jefferson, who was in Congress in 1784, when 
this cession was accepted, became chairman of the committee to pre- 
pare a plan for the organization of the Territory, and laid the founda- 
tions of the American policy of territorial government. When Louis- 
iana was added to the United States, that joint monument to the genius 
of Jefferson and Napoleon, the only handwriting of Napoleon now left 
on the map of the world, the same system was extended to the new Ter- 
ritory, and afterwards to all the other Territories. 

As the great West began to be peopled, an educational advantage 
was enjoyed which no other portion of the Union had felt. Each State 
received as a birthday present from the United States a magnificent 
donation for education. The system was built from the bottom. No 
top-heavy branches, no crystallized strata impeded its growth. 

The common school followed close on the heels of the pioneer, and ex- 
panded into higher edacation in direct response to popular demand. 
The New England methods and systems grew and widened in the virgin 
soil, and the education of the West, although the youngest, is to-day 
the most robust and healthy plant in America. 

What has been said in reference to the other sections may be suf- 
ficient to indicate the great mistake of the South. It was not the mis- 
take of indifference, or ignorance, or inertness. It was the mistake of 
methods and systems. It was the error of prejudice, inhering in their 
old English blood, and confidence in their time-honored English insti- 



284 PROCEEDINGS — DEPARTMENT OF SUPERINTENDENCE. 

tatioDS. With difficulty the people were brought to believe that State 
aid was legitimate to found colleges and universities. They believed 
that common school education would flourish better in private hands, 
and that it was not a legitimate subject of State legislation. An illus- 
tration of this sentiment is shown in the fate of Jefferson's school bill, 
presented to the Legislature of Virginia in 1777. He urged his own 
State to establish a complete and general system of education, consist- 
ing of elementary schools, academies, colleges, and a great central uni- 
versity. He urged this during the whole course of his political life, in 
every way in his power ; by bills in the Legislature, and by letters to 
I legislators, reaching almost to importunity. In 1777 a committee was 
appointed to revise the laws of Virginia. This committee consisted of 
Messrsi Pendleton, Wythe, George Mason, Thomas L.Lee, and Thomas 
Jefferson. In this committee Mr. Jefferson proposed his first plan for 
public education in Virginia. It was approved by the committee, and 
he was requested to prepare a bill. Jefferson thus alludes to it in his 
autobiography (Vol. I, page 47). 

I accordingly prepared three bills for the revisal, proposing throe distinct grades 
of education, reaching all classes. Firsr^elementary schools for all children generally, 
rich and poor. Second, colleges for a middle degree of instruction, calculated for the 
common purposes of life, and such as \vould be desirable for all who were ia easy 
oircumstances. Third, an ultimate grade for teaching the sciences generally and in 
their highest degree. 

These bills were presented to the Legislature, June 18, 1779. The re- 
port of this committee embraced 126 bills, involving radical changes in 
the jurisprudence of the State. 

Jefferson says : 

Some bills were taken out occasionally, from time to time, and passed, bnt the 
main body of the work was not entered on by the Legislature until after the general 
peace in 1785, when, by the unwearied exertion of Mr. Madison, in opposition to the 
endless quibbles, chicaneries, perversions, vexations, and delays of lawyers and demi- 
lawyers, most of the bills were passed by the Legislature with little alteration. 

He alludes to action of the Legislature on his three educational bills 
with evident chagrin: 

These bills were not acted on until the same year, 1796, and then only so much of 
the first as provided for elementary schools, and in the elementary bill they inserted 
a provision which completely defeated it ; for they left it to the court of each county 
to determine for itself when this act should be carried into execution within their 
county. 

The result was that Jefferson's first school bill, after passing into a 
law, was allowed to become a dead letter, not a single county putting it 
into operation. The following sketch of his plan for elementary schools, 
the portion of his general system in which he felt the deepest interest, 
ia taken from the last bill which he prepared for the Legislature, and 
enclosed to a friend, September 19, 1817. In this bill he collates, in a 
finally matured form, substantially the same suggestions contained in 



EDUCATION IN THE SOUTH. 285 

the bill passed by the Legislature forty years before, and frequently re- 
newed in the interval. The quotation marks below enclose Jefferson's 
language. 

JEFFERSON'S PLAN FOB ELEMENTABY SCHOOLS. 

(1) " Be it enacted by the general assembly," etc., " That the superior court of each 
county shall appoint three visitors," etc. 

(2) The visitors shall divide the county into wards, making a division similar t9 our 
present division into school districts. 

(3) The visitors shall appoint a day and place for a ward meeting. The voters of the 
ward, whom he styles warders, shall vote on the following questions : * * First, the loca- 
tion of a school-house for the ward, and a dwelling-house for the teacher (the owner 
of the ground consenting thereto); second, the size and structure of the said houses; 
third, whether the same shall be built by the joint labor of the warders or by their 
pecuniary contributions; fourth, to elect by a plurality of their votes a warden, resi- 
dent, who shall direct and superintend the said buildings, and be charged with their 
future care," 

(4) " If they decide that the said buildings shall bo erected by the joint labor of the 
warders, then all persons within the said ward, liable to work on the highways, shall 
attend to the order of the warden, and, under his direction, shall labor thereon until 
completed, under the same penalties as provided by law to enforce labor on the high- 
ways. And if they decide on erection by pecuniary contributions^ the residents and 
owners of property within the ward shall contribute toward the cost, each in propor- 
tion to the taxes they last paid to the State for their persons and for the same prop- 
erty, of which the sheriff or commissioner shall furnish a statement to the warder, 
who, according to the ratio of that statement, shall apportion and assess the quota of 
contribution for each, and be authorized to demand, receive, and apply the same," 
etc. On failure of any warder to pay his quota, the sheriff is ordered to collect the 
same '^ under the powers and regulations as provided for the collection of public 
taxes." 

(5) "It shall bo the duty of the said visitors to seek and to employ for every ward, 
whenever the number and ages of its children require it, a person of good moral 
character, qualified to teq>ch reading, writing, numerical arithmetic, and geography, 
whose subsistence shall bo furnished by the residents and proprietors of the ward, 
either in money or in kind, at the choice of each contributor, and in the ratio of their 
public taxes, to be apportioned and levied as on the failures before provided for. The 
teacher shall also have the use of the house and accommodations provided for him, 
and shall, moreover, receive such standing wages," etc. "At this school shaU be re- 
ceived and instructed gratis every infant of competent ago who has not already had 
three years' schooling," etc. 

The remaining sections, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, and 12 contain some matters 
of interest, such as provisions for succession, penalties, etc. Our limits 
preclude a synopsis of them. 

It will be seen that while Jefferson omitted from his plan any provis- 
ions for State or general supervision, he went further than the most 
liberal enactments of the present day, in the direction of rendering the 
teacher's position permanent, by providing a residence for the teacher 
of every district school. The practical defeat of this bill was a fatal 
blow to common school education in Virginia and the entire South. 
Yet, the people were far from being indifferent to common schools. 
These schools sprung up all over the land, and were sustained by a 
large psktronage. They were supported aa i^x\\iX.<b ^Ti\»^x^^veR»i\yi ^x^- 



286 PKOCEEDINGS — DEPABTMENT OF 8UPERIKTENDENCB. 

tion fees^ and were not accessible to all. There was another class of 
schools which must not be overlooked. Unnoted in the statistics of the 
census, ignored in the quantitative philosophy of the statistical reasoner, 
the home school exerted a quiet but powerful influence in the South. 
In a population, agricultural in habit and rural in taste, occupying a 
country divided into large plantations, the best primary teacher, the 
natural teacher, the mother, in many cases, found leisure to teach her 
own home school. In other cases, the private tutor conducted the fam- 
ily school, and made no report to the censas-taker. Some of these 
schools did a work whose methods were surpassed by those of Boger 
Ascham, or Pestalozzi, or Froebel only in publicity and post-mortem 
laudation. 

It is a mistake to suppose that any general feeling ever existed in the 
South to confine education to the wealthy classes. It is true, to some 
extent, that the system' tended to produce that effect, but no such de- 
sign ever existed among its promoters. Still, the Southern system^ or 
rather want of system, produced its legitimate effects. There were many 
good schools, there were many teachers of zeal, learning, and ability; 
but they were not all good schools, and they were not equally distrib- 
uted. The higher institutions, universities, colleges, and academies, 
which require concentration at a few points of means and appliances, 
were enabled to procure these necessities of their existence. They lived 
and thrived. The success they attained and the benefits they conferred 
are attested in the statistics of the census. 

Thus the South persevered in its old English system, and continued 
to build from the top while its foundation was defective. The primary 
and common schools needed wide diffusion and adequate support, or- 
ganization, and system. Those who suppose Southern teachers, as a 
class, to be wanting in learnin^and ability, have failed to do them jus- 
tice. Many of them had too much learning. Some of them were col- 
lege graduates who understood books, but did not understand the 
children, and who had mistaken views of popular education. What 
they lacked was professional training and skill ; what the system lacked 
was intercommunication, appliances, and supervision. Each teacher, 
unaided by his co-laborers, remained alone in his own school-room, and 
was, perforce, either a failure or an original genius. Each neighbor- 
hood worked out the separate problem of its own education. 

One of the most fatal defects was the tendency of the primary and 
common schools to crawl up to the grade of the high schools, leaving a 
vacuum below. This defect must inhere in any private system of schools 
taught by men of learning, whose thoughts aim at college, and whose 
tastes, ambition, and interest alike tempt them to the higher depart- 
ments. But such a tendency, working for years, will ruin the primary 
instruction, causing it to be undervalued and ignored* It is no reproach 
to the teacher it such a system was found inadequate to popular edu- 
eation and was discarded by the South. 



EDUCATION IN THE SOUTH. 287 

The period extending from 1867 to 1875 marked the dawn of a new 
era in Southern education. The establishment during this period of 
public school systems in every Southern State is one of the political 
miracles. Whether the change in public sentiment which niHde this re- 
sult possible is due to the revelations of the census or to other causes, 
it is not my purpose to inquire. The revolution has been accomplished. 

Let us examine its effects. We will take Tennessee as an example, 
and what is said of Tennessee will apply, in the main, to the other 
Southern States. 

Prior to 1867 there had been in Tennessee no State system of public 
schools. There had been some inefficient State aid and several inade- 
quate legislative enactments. The interest upon the school fund 
amounted to $90,000. This interest, annually distributed among the 
counties and disbursed by them at discretion, was so small and so in- 
judiciously used that it failed to accomplish any useful result, and 
was generally looked upon as a sort of charity fund. The effort in 1867 
to establish a system of State public scbools met with only partial suc- 
cess, mainly for the reason that it was enacted in advance of public 
sentiment The work of its able superintendent, Genera) John Eaton, 
was not, however, in vain, though its fruits were not immediately gath- 
ered. The law of 1867, a good law in itself, was practically repealed 
by the law of 1870. This law of 1870 remitted the whole subject to the 
several counties. A few counties organized schools, but the system 
lacked unity and vitality. The law of 1873 may be regarded as the be- 
ginning of our present public school system of Tennessee. With this 
public system came its four great appliances for developing common 
school education into a science and a profession. These appliances 
are : First, supervision ^ second, normal schools ; third, teachers' in- 
stitutes ; fourth, graded schools. To this may be added a fifth appli- 
ance, now being introduced into many States, the teachers' reading 
circle. 

Southern education is now in a malleable condition. The mistake 
has been discovered, and the remedy applied. The teachers and the 
people are engaged in reconstructing methods and systems. Public 
attention is awakened. The teachers are displaying sound discrimina- 
tion. There is candor and intelligence about them, which makes them 
safe judges of educational theories, and they are willing to listen. 

In the very outset of its educational reforms, the South was confronted 
with a grave problem and burdened with a heavy load, which has re- 
tarded the progress of no other section of the Union. I prefer to state 
this problem in the language adopted by the Tennessee State Teachers' 
Association in its memorial to Congress petitioning national aid to edu- 
cation, which memorial was presented in 1885: 

1. The State of Tennessee established a pablic school system in 1867, made it more 
complete in 1873, and has since maintained it in partial efficiency. The inauguration 
of this system has been attended with peooliar diffioolties. The State lacked school- 



288 PROCEEDINGS — DEPARTMENT OF SUPERINTENDENCE. 

bmldingSj appliances, and all of those accumulations which Iiave accrued to States bo- 
ginning their systems under more favorable auspices, and perfecting them in times of 
prosperity by the accretions of many years. Beginning its school system while yet 
sufferiug from the effects of a desolating war, the State found nearly one-third of its 
population, who had been suddenly emancipated from slavery, unable to contribute 
to the revenues of the State, and totally illiterate. The task thus devolved upou the 
remaining two-thirds of the population to begin a public school system from its foun- 
dation and to provide not only for their own children^ but also for this mass of illit- 
eracy. 

2. The task was undertaken by the State in good faith, and the burden has been 
cheerfully borne by the people to the best of their ability. Taxes have been levied 
by the State, and additional taxes by nearly all the counties, continuously, since 
1873, and the revenues arising therefrom have been equally and fairly distributed 
among all classes of citizens. The following statistics, taken from the reports of the 
State officers for the year 1884, support these statements : 

The scholastic population is 585,391, consisting of 420,997 whites and 150,83*2 col- 
ored ; three counties being included in the total not reporting the ratio of white and 
colored population. The white population is thus 72^ per cent, and the colored 27^ 
per cent, of the total ; 6,395 schools have been maintained for the average period of 
78 days; of these, 4,924 are white schools and 1,471 are colored schools; 77 per cent, 
being white schools and 23 per cent, colored ; 350,143 pupils have been enrolled, of 
which 272,850 are white pupils, and 77,293 colored, 78 per cent, being white and 22 
per cent, being colored. Considering the fact that there were at the outset no school- 
houses for the colored population, and that the necessity to labor and other difficul- 
ties have prevented many colored children from attending school, these ratios approxi- 
mate the ratio of population with surprising accuracy. 

The total taxable property of the State was (226,884,184, and the amount of school 
money received from all sources was $1,292,126. This money was collected from va- 
rious sources, being State, county, poll, property, and license taxes, and the interest 
on the school fund. It is equivalent to a property tax of about five mills on the dol- 
lar, or (5 on each (1,000 of taxable property. 

To this statement of the State Teachers' Association, showing the 
statistics of 1884, 1 append the following synopsis, taken from the re- 
ports of the State offtcers for 1888 : 

The total scholastic population is 652,508, of which 489,674 are white, 
and 162,834 are colored. The white population is thus 75 per cent, and 
the colored population 25 per cent, of the total. Six thousand eight 
hundred and fifty-one schools have been maintained for an average 
period of seventy-nine days. Of these, 5,427 are for whites, and 1,424 
for colored; 79 per cent, being white and 21 per cent, colored. Seven 
thousand four hundred and thirty-nine teachers have been employed. 
Of these, 5,875 are white, and 1,664 colored; 79 per cent, being white and 
21 per cent, colored. Four hundred and eleven thousand six hundred 
and one pupils have been enrolled. Of these, 326,168 are white, and 
85,433 are colored; 79 per cent, being white and 21 per cent, colored. 
The total number of pupils in average daily attendance is 278,876. Of 
these, 220,538 are white, and 58,338 are colored; 79 percent, being white 
and 21 per cent, colored. 

It is proper to state in addition that, by official ruling of the State 
superintendents, schools for white and colored are maintained equal 
leugths of time. It will thus be seen that all the ratios by which the 



EDUCATION IN THE SOUTH. 289 

operations of the system may be tested, school-honses, teachers em- 
ployed, pupils enrolled, average daily attendance — all these ratios con- 
tinue more nearly to approach the ratio of scholastic population, and 
have now, in spite of all obstacles, reached within four per cent, of that 
ratio. 

The total taxable property of Tennessee for the year 1887 was 
$224,909,179,. and the total amount of money for school purposes from 
all sources was $1,707,699.25. This is equivalent to a property tax of 
7i mills, or $7.50 on each thousand. In this estimate, the balance on 
hand at the be^nning of the school year is included in the total re- 
ceipts. I am informed by the State superintendent and by the State 
comptroller that the amount of uncollected taxes will about offset this 
balance. The last report of Hon. Wood E. Thompson, State superin- 
tendent of Arkansas, shows that the amount appropriated by that State 
for school purposes is equivalent to a property tax of 7 mills on the 
dollar. 

Space forbids an enumeration of the enactments or statistics of the 
several Southern States. I cannot forbear, however, to place before 
you the resolutions adopted by the Mississippi State Teachers' Associa- 
tion, at a meeting held in the capitol at Jackson, December 28, 29, 
1888, together with extracts from the able address of Prof. John Wes- 
ley Johnson, of the University of Mississippi, the mover of the resolu- 
tions. Professor Johnson says : 

Considering these matters, the question presents itself to-day, What is our duty, as 
educators, to the negro ? What have we done ? What have our Northern friends 
done ? What has the negro done for himself? When the negro was freed, being in 
a condition of utter helplessness, financially and mentally, he could not be expected 
to do much by himself. The South was too poor, to say nothing of unwillingness, to 
furnish anything like adequate means for this awful incubus upon our educational 
system. Evidently, the duty fell upon our Northern friends to educate this race. 
They prematurely gave him the ballot, therefore they should teach him to use it in- 
telligently, and that, too, as rapidly as possible. Oh, that they could make another 
amendment to the Constitution and qualify him to use it, as easily as they passed 
the Fifteenth Amendment, by which they permitted him to use it. 

After presenting in detail the statistics on which he bases his calcul- 
ations, and which I regret that I am compelled to omit. Professor John- 
son sums up a9 follows : 

In answer, then, to the question, " What are our Northern friends doing t" we must 
say that they are doing much, and doing it nobly. It is probable that about (1,000,- 
000 annually crosses the Mason and Dixon line for the education of the negro in the 
South. 

As to what the South is doing in this same stupendous work, it will be pardon- 
able, I hope, to refer at the outset to the poverty of the Southern States. It is esti- 
mated that the War cost the South, counting the destruction of property by the Federal 
Army and the support of the Confederate Army, about $2,000,000,000. Besides this, 
there were freed 4,000,000 slaves, which, estimated at $500 each, would make $2,000,- 
000,000 more. In the face of such appalling statements, and in view of the fact that 
every industry was completely paralyzed, it would seem unreasonable to expect any- 
thing from the late Confederate States for several generations. 

882— No. 2 19 



290 PROCEEDINGS — DEPARTMENT OP SUPERINTENDENCE. 

Professor Johnson shows, from the report of Commissioner Dawson 
for 1885, that the eleven Southern States expended for edacation the 
sum of $9,760,710; that the colored school population in these eleven 
States is about 40 per cent, of the entire school population,* that the 
two races share the public school fund in proportion to the number of 
edncable children. This would give as the share of the colored children 
$3,904)284. ^< Several causes, however, conspire to make the amount 
less.'' 

After pointing out these causes, he continues: 

Making, then, due aUowance for both these impediments, there still must be paid 
by these eleven States considerably more than (2,000,000 annually for the education 
of the negro. In answer, then, to the question ** What are the Southern States doing 
for the education of the negro f the same answer may be given as in the case of the 
Northern States : ** They are doing much and doing it nobly." With less than one- 
seventh of the taxable property of the Government, the Southern States are doing 
more than the other States combined. The question next arises, " What is the negro 
doing for himself? What part of these vast sums is he paying ?" In truth we must 
say, ** Very little." Under the circumstances very little is expected. In proportion 
to ability, no doubt, he pays quite as much as his Northern benefactors or Southeni 
supporters^ It seems impossible to secure reliable data showing just what part of the. 
tax he is paying. 

At the conclusion of his address, Professor Johnson offered the fol- 
lowing resolutions, which wer^ unanimously adopted, at a full meeting 
attended by leading educators from all parts of the State. They may, 
therefore, be taken as reflecting the sentiments of the educators of Mis- 
sissippi : 

First. That we cheerfnUy approve and heartily appreciate the efforts of our North- 
ern friends in assisting to educate the negro and to improve his general condition and 
efficiency as a citizen. 

Second. That we indorse an impartial system of public schools, separate for the two 
races, believing such to be the most efficient means of educating the masses, both 
white and black, but we demand a longer term than four months. 

Third. Inasmuch as our school fund can sustain only about four months' pabHo 
school, we recommend that the fund be increased by an increase of poll-tax. 

Fourth. That we commend the zeal of the negro in utilizing the public school as 
well as he does, and we would encourage him to supplement the funds by private sub- 
scription, and protract the schools beyond their usual four months' term. 

Fifbh. Inasmuch as the negro is a national factor in our Federal Government, we 
believe it to be an imperative duty of our Federal Government to assist in ftunishing 
adequate means for education. Of aU measures thus far proposed, we believe the 
Blair biU the most adequate and just. 

Sixth. We beUeve, as a rule, that it is best that the colored schools be taught by 
colored teachers; yet, if white people, either from the North or the South, teach colored 
schools in an honest, missionary spirit, we believe such teachers to be entitled to the 
respect, confidence, and sympathy of all Christian people. 

In presenting this sketch of Southern education, I have endeavored 
to render a true picture, free from extenuations or exaggerations. I 
think I am justified in drawing the following conclusions : 

First. The South has done and is still doing more than has ever been 
done by any other people for the education of a race just released ftom 



EDUCATION IN THE SOUTH. 291 

bondage and essentially distinct from themselves in lineage and physi- 
cal conditions. 

Second. I think I may fairly conclnde that the greatest defect of 
Sonthern education in the past has been the imperfection of the primary 
work, the lack of intercommunication among its different departments, 
and the failure to use the great public appliances to secure the adequate 
diffusion of common schools and the harmonious development of its 
educational factors. 

Third. That some excellent features of Southern education have not 
been presented in statistics, and have never received just recognition. 

Fourth. In spite of the gravest diflficulties ever encountered by any 
people in the organization of a school system, the recent educational 
progress of the South has been the most rapid and the most salutary of 
which history has any record. 

Fifth. In a financial direction. Southern educational progress has now 
approached the limit which the resources of the several States will enable 
it to reach for many years. In all other directions, it will continue to 
develop in efficiency. The skill of teachers will increase, and the agen- 
cies at work will expand, but the extension of school terms and the 
accretions ef matured systems cannot be attained from State revenues 
until the general development of the country brings a denser popula- 
tion and larger resources. 

I have alluded only incidentally to our higher institutions, partly be- 
cause it is not my purpose to present a statistical review, and partly 
because the discussion of the essential defect in Southern education has 
led us to look eldewhere. The higher education has not differed greatly 
fh>m that of other sections. It has been said that our higher education 
has been too narrow in its scope ] that all of our colleges have been 
modelled on one plan, and have confined their work to the sphere of 
classic culture and to the production of orators, statesmen, and profes- 
sional men. I shall not stop to discuss this point. Certain it is that 
they have produced such men, and it is also certain that there has been 
a lack of special and technical institutions. 

The South has always had many excellent colleges and universities of 
a general literary character. Two of these have records second in lus- 
tre and usefulness to none in the United States. Others have grand, 
though unwritten, histories, and yet other younger institutions are now 
engaged in making history. In some parts of the South, we have too 
. many colleges, standing as rivals in each other's way. The same may 
be said of other portions of the* United States. 

In nearly all of the Southern States there have been for many years 
a number of academies. Some of these have been excellent schools, and 
some have not. Very few have been endowed. Very few have modelled 
their courses to any general plan of instruction ; and they have usually 
declined to become special preparatory schools. To a certain extent 
they have confol^med themselves to the wants of their several comma- 



292 PROCEEDINGS — ^DEPABTMENT OP SUPBiaNTENDENCE. 

nities, and have partially supplied the lack of public schools. In this 
they have acted wisely, and have understood the needs of popular ed- 
ucation better than the higher institutions. Still, the lack of special 
preparatory schools has been seriously felt by the universities. 

Tennessee and one or two of the South -Western States enjoyed an 
opportunity which did not accrue to the other Southern States. This 
opportunity, wisely used, would have proved a valuable advantage. 
From the failure to appreciate and utilize it, the main benefit was lost. 
Forth Carolina, in 1790, ceded to the United States the " sovereignty 
and territory of all lands" within the present limits of Tennessee. In 
1796 Tennessee was admitted as a State, but the United States re- 
tained the title to the public lands. In 1802, Thomas Jeiierson, then 
President of the United States, had the satisfaction to sign the en- 
abling act for Ohio, the first State carved out of the Korth-West Terri- 
tory, thus conveying to the infant State in 1802 the first fruits of the 
educational seed which was planted by the benevolent wisdom of those 
who framed the ordinance of May 20, 1785. 

It was not until 1806, ten years after its admission as a State, that a 
similar provision was made for Tennessee, in the cession act of Congress, 
which act likewise bears the signature of Thomas Jefferson. By this 
act the United States ceded to Tennessee the public lands to which the 
Indian title had been extinguished. Provisions were made for the bene- 
fit of education similar to those made in the case of Ohio, but differing 
in one important particular. In Ohio, and in the other States carved 
out of the North- West Territory, the sixteenth section in each township 
wa« designated and conveyeddirecttotheinhabitants of the township. 
The admirable system of United States surveys definitely located the 
grant, and the title was vested. Tennessee, which had been admitted 
ten years before its land cession, had not been reached by this system 
of surveys. The township and section could not, therefore, be desig- 
nated, and Congress did not vest title in the inhabitants of a township 
or district. The provision was in the following words : 

And the State of Tennessee shall moreover, in issuing grants and perfecting titles, 
locate six hundred and forty acres to every six miles square in the territory hereby 
ceded, where existing claims will allow the same, which shall be appropriated for the 
use of schools for the instruction of children forever. 

This provision imposed a duty on the State, but failed to vest title ip 
the subordinate civil division. Tennessee had no series of civil divisions 
of 6 miles square corresponding to the township. The grant was not, 
thus, definitely located and vested. In the mean time much of the land 
had been taken up by valid claims, and with the rapid stream of immi- 
gration which poured in, the squatter preceded the surveyor. Many 
acts were passed by the Legislature to protect the school lands, but from 
the vague nature of the grant, and possibly from the failure to appre- 
ciate its value, the opportunity to utilize it was lost. 

Another provision of the same act of Congress, howfever, was turned 



EDUCATION IN THE SOUTH. 293 

to better advantage. This provision required the Legi$lature to set 
apart 100,000 acres for the use of two colleges, and 100,000 for the use 
of academies, one for each county, said lands to be sold for not less 
than $2 per acre, and the proceeds to be invested in funds for the uses 
ixforesaid. To protect these lands, the State attempted to construct 
legislative enactments to serve as a fence against the squatter. The 
I'esult was numberless lawsuits, and finally the loss of much of the 
l>€st land. Most of it, however, was saved, and the proceeds applied 
to the purposes of the grant. The college funds were applied to the 
^Tectipn aiid partial endowment of two colleges, one of which is now 
tie State University at Knoxville, and the other the Peabody Normal 
Oollege at Nashville. The funds of both these institutions have been 
Supplemented by private subscriptions and subsequent donations. In 
a.ddition to these, a number of colleges and universities and schools 
have been established and endowed by the various religious denomina- 
tions of the South- Western States, and located in Tennessee. From this 
circumstance Tennessee deserves the name of "The University State of 
the South." Many of these are excellent institutions. One of them, 
having received a munificent donation, has adopted, in honor of the 
donor, the name of Yanderbilt University. 

On September 13, 1806, 27 academies were incorporated, one in each 
county, and were made recipients of the academy fund. The fund was 
supplemented in most of the counties by private subscription, and was 
barely sufficient for building i)urposes. In most cases, however, good 
and substantial structures were erected, which are still standing, and 
some of them are now public high schools. In addition to these, a 
number of academies were established by private donations, by social 
orders, and by religious denominations. All of these institutions were, 
in the past, maintained by tuition fees. Yery few of them were en- 
dowed. Some of them were called colleges, but they have rarely at- 
tempted to perform college work. They have really been county high 
schools. The assumption of the name college, however, has misled a 
few of these institutions to misconceive their true functions, and has 
exposed many excellent institutions to unmerited ridicule. It should 
be remembered that the name college was applied to institutions of sim- 
ilar grade by no less authority than Thomas Jefferson. 

It, thus, appears that the history of education in Tennessee forms no 
exceptions to the general history of Southern education. Our ancestors 
maintained academies, colleges and universities, but neglected and un- 
dervalued primary and common schools; or at least left them to private 
enterprise, and devoted legislative attention to the top of the educa- 
tional edifice. 

The important part which has been played in education in the South 
by the Peabody Fund, the Slater Fund, and by the donations of Yan- 
derbilt, Tulane, and others, and the work done by various religious 
and benevolent societies in the e»tablishment of colleges and universi- 



294 PEOCEEDINGS — DEPARTMENT OP SUPERINTENDENCE. 

ties for the instruction of the colored race, are too well known to need 
recital. 

I can not conclude this paper without alluding again to the potency 
of the agencies of the public system, and the wonderful effect they have 
produced on Southern education in all its grades from the kindergarten 
to the university. Those educators whose experience has been con- 
fined to State systems which had become mature before the present 
generation of teachers had entered upon the stage, may find some diffi- 
culty in realizing the power of these applfances with which they have 
always been familiar. They may even be disposed to attribute the com- 
pleteness of their own educational systems to the individual strength 
of the separate atoms which compose their corps of distinguished ed- 
ucators, and not to the powerful cohesion of the whole. Those of us, 
however, who have grown up with systems where no such agencies had 
been used, and have subsequently witnessed the effect of their intro- 
duction, can not fail to recognize the force and power of those great 
appliances which can be effectively wielded by no hand but the strong 
hand of the State. We have seen these agencies strengthen the weak 
teacher, arouse the wearied teacher, stimulate the strong, expose the 
Pecksniffs, and modernize the Dominie Sampsons. We have watched 
these influences as they spread beyond the public school, and entered 
the private school, the academy, the college, and the university, bring- 
ing the several departments into communication, and organizing educa- 
tion into a harmonious system. We have seen them reach beyond ed« 
acational circles and permeate the whole population, regulating the 
laws of educational demand and supply, fitting education to popular 
needs, and planting its interests deep in the hearts of the people. 

The teachers and people of Tennessee now wish to expand the hori- 
zon. We desire to look beyond our own State lines. We wish to take 
counsel with our co-laborers in the South, and our brethren from other 
sections of our common country whose public systems are older and 
more matured than our own. Impelled by such considerations, the Leg- 
islature of Tennessee by joint resolution, the Governor by official com- 
munication, the city council, and the board of education of the city of 
Nashville, the Tennessee State Teachers' Association, and many of our 
leading institutions of learning, as well as the boards of education of 
many of our cities, h^ve united in an invitation to the National Educa- 
tional Association to hold its annual session in July, at the capital 
city of our State. But in this invitation Tennessee does not stand alone. 
Actuated by the same sentiments, the entire Southern delegation, at 
San Francisco, held a meeting, and by unanimous and cordial vote, ex- 
tended an invitation from " the Solid South." Our invitation is sincere, 
and our welcome will be hearty. Yet, in view of all that has been spoken 
and written about Southern education, in view of some things that have 
been charged, and in view of some things that have been admitted, it 
maj not exceed the bounds of good taste to say, that we invite you, not 



EDUCATION IN THE SOUTH. 295 

missionaries, bat as friends } that in mingling with oar educators and 
our citizens you will be among yoar peers. 

For many years we have freely laid open the defects of our educational 
systems. Any effort to conceal them would be futile, any attempt to 
X>allia>te them would be unmanly and unwise. But we have never ad- 
znitted the inferiority of Southern educators in intellectual or literary 
sittainments, nor of Southern citizens in general culture. When you 
^isit us in July, we may show you, in our exposition, some features in 
oar education to admire. Possibly there may be some things to sur- 
prise you. If our elder brothers, representing public systems long 
eince matared, s£ould find in our educational field any native flower 
worthy of transplanting, we shall contribute it with pleasure, in return 
for much that we have received fi*om abroad. 

In addition to its educational features, the exposition will contain an 
exhibit of the agricultural and mineral resources of Tennessee. The 
partial development of these resources has attracted the attention of 
the world. We invite you to visit not I^ashville only, but Tennessee 
and the South. Excursions will be provided to take you to the princi- 
pal points of interest. Within easy distance, and reached by rail, are 
some of the finest stock farms in the world. The National Cemeteries at 
Kashville, Murfreesborough, Chattanooga, Memphis, Shiloh, Dover, and 
Knoxville, seven in number, are maintained by the Government, and are 
beautifully kept. Near the battle-fields where they fell, the Confeder- 
ate soldiers sleep in humble graves. On every side along the lines of 
railway can be seen traces of fortifications which mark the battle- 
fields of the Civil War, monuments to American valor, and witnesses of 
that stupendous straggle which astonished the world; whose history, 
the joint heritage of all Americans, constitutes America's proudest title 
to martial glory, and the grandest contribution which the nineteenth 
century has made to human greatness. 

A few hours' ride northward will bring you to the most wonderful of 
Nature's freaks, the famous Mammoth Cave. To the south lie Sewanee, 
Monteagle, and the coal mines at Tracy City, seated on the crest of 
Cumberland Plateau. In Sequatchie Yalley is South Pittsburg. Over- 
looking Chattanooga is Lookout Mountain, whose summit is reached 
by two lines of railway. Here are large, elegant hotels, from whose 
porticos may be enjoyed the most beautiful view in America. Near 
here was fought the famous battle above the clouds. Farther to the 
southwest the coal and iron deposits come together in Birmingham, 
Ala. To the west the Bluff City overlooks the Father of Waters. Off 
to the east, marking the line between Tennessee and North Carolina, 
is the TJnaka range of mountains, which contains the loftiest peaks and 
the grandest scenery east of the Mississippi Eiver. Upon the summit 
of Eoane Mountain is Cloudland Hot^l, the most elevated hotel east of 
the Mississippi. These mountains are pierced by streams which flow 
through gorges similar to the canyons of the Socky Mountains, and are 



296 PEOCEBDINGS — ^DEPAKTMENT OP SUPERINTENDENCE. 

second only to them in grandear. The canyons of tho Doe Eiver and 
of French Broad River are reached by rail. Nature has no scenes more 
beaatifal and few more grand than those which she has hidden ia the 
plateaus and mountains of Tennessee, Virginia, and North Caroliaa. 

We hope that you wiD reach Nashville on the morning of Tuesday, 
July 16, in order that we may welcome you at the barbecue picnic. 
This will introduce you to one phase of Southern social life. Our people 
anticipate much pleasure from the literary exercises of the occasion, a,nd 
from the able papers which will be read and discussed, but they lools 
with equal anticipation to other less formal features of the meeting 
They wish to make your personal acquaintance, to welcome you to tbeii 
homes, and to engage in the pleasure)^ of social intercourse with rep re 
sentatives of education from all portions of the United States* 



NATIONAL AID TO EDUCATION. 



EEMARKS BY HON. H. W. BLAIR, U, S. S. 

My friends, I can not be.insensible to so warm a greeting from this 
select and distinguished body of the educators of America — for the edu- 
cators of America are really the educators of the world. I realize, it may 
be even more than you, perhaps, the great work that you are accomplish- 
ing in this land of ours, by its outflowing influence in this world of ours, 
which is ours, as well as this land of ours, and for the whole of which wo 
are responsible. I have had occasion, during my short public life, to 
watch something of the developments of the American nation as it has 
been wrought out by the educators of this great profession. This is, I 
think, the most important to-day of all the learned orders of society. 
The growth in numbers and in qualifications and in power of the teachers 
profession, I think, is very marked. It is very marked within my own 
recollection. It has never increased to so great an extent and with such 
rapidity, I mean to say, as within the last ten or fifteen years. Its scope 
has never been so extensive. The War opened the great South to the 
educator as an avocation. I have listened with great interest, with 
very great interest, and instruction to the valuable paper which has 
been read to you to-night by our friend from the South, and I think his 
criticsms upon our provincialism, for it is nothing else, of the North, 
with reference to much of the education of the South in times past, is 
very just. Yet, I think that something might be added to what he has 
said; something not, perhaps, complimentary wholly to the North; 
something that, perhaps, is new and strange to many of us, and that is, 
this great development of the intellectual forces. This high quality of 
human endeavor, which was the result of it, was, in the time previous 
to the War, confined almost wholly to about two millions of their, popu- 
lation. It was confined to the wealthy and cultivated classes. There, 
principally, it was confined, and it is a fact, I think, in statistics — I 
have so been taught by the statistics of our Board of Education — that 
just prior to the outbreak of the War, the South, with her two to three 
millions of a really educated class of white people, was educating, with 
liberality, these in the liberal institutions of the country, giving a lib- 
eral education to almost as many of her sons as did the entire North. 



298 PEOCEEDINGS — ^DEPARTMENT OF SUPERINTENDENCE. 

We drew ours from the great, broad millions occupying the whole coun- 
try, and including all classes; while from the South, from the compara- 
tively few who were, by reason of their wealth and their position in 
society, able to attain a liberal education from the comparatively few, 
she educated as many as did the whole iNorth, lacking only about fifty, 
I think, yearly. Now, there never was brought to my mind so vividly 
the truth of the ancient adage that "Knowledge is power" as this fact 
which is illustrated in the history of our own country. Why, these men, 
these two or three millions of men educated, an educated aristocracy, 
having other millions under their control, but all of them combined were 
not more than one-third of the population of the Iforth, and that includ- 
ing the negro population, which was no element of military strength, 
having only by its labors contributed to the sustenance of the army — 
I say this educated two or three millions of human beings held out, 
against the gigantic forces and resources of the whole North, and for 
four long years endured great deprivation, exhibited a plentitude of 
valor, yet accomplished a renown in history which no other two*or three 
millions of men ever achieved since the foundation of the world. I am 
not speaking of their cause, but I am speaking of what they accom- 
plished. Now, our friend has given us a most opportune address with 
reference to this matter of national aid. There is, I believe, the dawn 
approaching. I think the sun is really rising, and that we are sure of 
good weather, and, during the next Congress, we will pass that educa- 
tion bill, and we will get the money. [Applause.] All along in these 
recent years, they have told us that the South needed not the help. 
When the census was taken ten years ago, its developments were looked 
upon as a demonstration of the required help. But we have been told 
that greatly and very rapidly the school system has increased 5 that 
it now embraces everybody ; that there is money enough. Some claim 
that the South is, to-day, better supplied with facilities of educa- 
tion than the North, but you have heard the testimony of a competent 
witness. We know from the very nature of things, those who reflect 
upon it know, or those of our countrymen who do not reflect upon 
it may know, from the mouth of this competent witness, that the neces- 
sity still exists. We know that this necessity is one which falls not 
upon the South alone. We are one country. The ignorant, the illiter- 
ate, and incompetent citizen of the South, or of the North, or of the 
West works an equal injury to that and all sections of the country. If 
the life-seed of our civilization and of our institutions flows from the 
extremities to all the centres of the country, the poison, no matter where 
it is injected, is felt through the entire system, and ultimately it reaches 
with certain death the heart itself. Now, we have got the money needed 
at the South. We need, at the North, the money that is applied at the 
South ; and so it is that I find myself for such work as may fall to my 
lot in the near future ; for it is a great work, a continuous work, to 
meet the misrepresentations, to meet the inertia of the public feeling and 



IjATIONAii AID to EDtJCATIOlir. 299 

of those interested to prevent the passage of the great bill. I say it is a 
great work for those engaged in it, «ind I say I feel encouraged and 
strengthened by what I have heard here to-night for the struggle that 
is to come, and I feel very sure that it will this time result in victory. 
There is one thing that I desire to say to you to-night, and this is 
merely a diversion suggested by the remarks of our friend, and that is 
this : that this profession of teaching in this country is rapidly devel- 
oping, aud is to be the all-important profession; that it owes a duty just 
now to itself as well as^to the people. Every man owes a duty to his 
profession, we are told, a 4ebt which he must pay to his profession, and 
I think that the time is now when the teacher ought to be paying, or 
looking out that he be ready to pay, the debt which he owes to his 
profession. It may be that I am wild in the thought, but I do think that 
in this country, at the present time, there is a real and a rapidly increas- 
ing danger that the free public schools of the country are to be, or are 
to-day, dangerously assaulted, and that unless the remedy be soon ap- 
plied, we shall not be contending with reference to appropriations to 
support the common school at the South, but we shall be contending 
for the preservation of the life of the common school of the country. 
I think the great struggle upon us to-day more real and more dangerous 
than, perhaps, we are apprehending, is this: the danger is between 
the parochial, or denominational school and the free public school of 
the country. I believe that in the great centres of the country to- 
day the common school system is dangerously assaulted. I believe it 
in this great southern country where they have, to be sure, the skele- 
ton of the common school 5 where they have from six to ten or twelve 
weeks of the common school yearly, and the rest of the year in which 
the child may forget what he learns in that brief period. I believe that 
there is great danger that unless the common schools become soon vital- 
ized by streams of beneficence from the treasury of the country, that 
there is a very great danger that you will never have the common 
schools. It is not likely that a people finding results unsatisfactory, 
finding education only partially accomplished by the system under 
which it lives, and a people without traditions favoring the common 
school at all, and a poverty-stricken people also, and whose taxation 
most naturally is to be applied in the repairing of the devastation and 
the waste of war, the reconstruction of highways, the reconstruction of 
public buildings, and all those other purposes which have been accom- 
plished by taxation, prior to the War, but destroyed by the War, and 
which we still preserve at the North, the results of taxation of genera- 
tions, — I say that it is not likely that such a people will continue to 
support an inefficient system of education, general public education, 
for any great length of time. 

Now, all through the southern country, the parochial school is being in- 
troduced ; it is coming into a conflict with the free schools in the larger 
centres of population where resides the balance of power in the conten- 



300 PROCEEDINGS — ^DEPARTMENT OP SUPERINTENDENCE. 

tion between the parties in politics ; and, the parochial schools being 
thus established, in a country of this kind, where there are no prejudices 
or traditions in favor of a different system, have very great advantages 
in the approaching conflict for the possession of the American child. 
Now, the American educator of to-day is an educator accustomed to, 
and who finds his avocation in the i)ublic school of the country, and who 
will never be able to exercise his profession in anj'^ other; those who be- 
lieve in the denominational and in the parochial schools are a different 
class of men, a different class of teachers ; and, just in proportion as they 
obtain possession of the children of the country, as they gather tliem into 
the parochial system, in just that same proportion will disappear the , 
important profession of which you are the honored representatives, at 
least upon this occasion. It seems to me that it may be well, with an 
eye to the preservation of one's avocation, with an eye certain to 
the preservation of the great profession of the teacher, with a view 
to the good that it accomplishes in this country, and in this world, 
that we see to it that the public school, as a system, don't suffer from 
our neglect, and as a consequence of that neglect, this parochial system, 
so rapidly gaining at the North and at the South, greatly undermines 
the free public system of our land. I think, my friends, in that direction 
is a thought which may be elaborated more than one sometimes may 
care to speak about in public; but, there is really danger in that direc- 
tion, and I hope that I may be excused for makiog this passing allasion. 
Now, as I said before, I have very great hope that the education bill, in 
which we have all felt so great an interest, for so long a time, will, dui> 
ing the coming Congress, become an accomplished fact. And, if it does 
so, and if that should be the result of our effort, I have the strongest 
faith to believe that it will rescue the common school system of the 
country from the dangers to which I have alluded. I think if we at 
once utilize the great common school system of the South, and thus 
cast into the balance all opposing forces, the 25,000,000 of population 
who are south of Mason's and Dixon's line, I think the great future of 
the whole country, and the preservation of our institutions, which is so 
dependent upon the free schools of our land, are assured of perpetuity. 
I thank you, my friends, for listening to me during these brief desul- 
tory remarks which I make to you. I thank you for the invitation of 
being present. I feel greatly instructed and a good deal encouraged by 
the remarks of my friend who has addressed us this evening. Hoping 
that you will find your way to your homes in all parts of this great coun- 
try pleasantly and safely, and that in July you may gather to that great 
and important occasion to which our friend has alluded,! bid you good- 
night. [Applause.] 



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