Green-Mountain freeman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1844-1884, 1867-04-03
Examination of Teachers.

Examination of Teachers.
We recently invited the attention of Super
intendents of Schools to the necessity Of a
more rigid examination of applicants for GER
tifcates as teachers in our common schools
and we again invite their careful consider
alton of the subject. We are well satisfied
that two months school iii year, taught by
competent instructors, would be of more ser
vice to the youth of our State than the six
months usually taught by Indifferent teachers.
Six months of routine recitations, in which
the pupils intelligence is seldom if ever
quickened, or his thoughts led away from the
| books into processes of reasoning upon the
principles from which the books were made,
NAV leave the scholar with an older intellect
/ but it will not make him a thinking reason
ing and intelligent being. Two months in
struction, on the other hand. under a teacher
who calls into activity every slumbcring fac
/ ulty of the intellect, who sets the reason 10
work 10 understand processes. who never lifts
/ the student over the distance between pre-
misses and conclusions but makes him tread
every inch of the ground for himself, will ac-
complish what is far better than laying up
textbooks in the memory, by arousing every
! faculty of the mind, and compelling the
scholar to think and reason and work for
himself And while we are anxious to do no
| injustice to the teachers of our district
schools, we apprchend that quite too many
Of them are no better than machines which
might, perhaps, hear lessons. work examples,
ask the questions in the books and maintain
respectable order, but could never put them
selves intellectually in contact with the in
| tellects of their scholars, or lead their pupils
one step where the textbooks did not show
| the way.
! We make teaching altogether too little Il
| profession, and altogether too much an en-
/ plovment To be resorted To for few terms
while one is in the transition state from the
school to the real business of life. Few Of US
would leave our children to the unskilful
prescriptions of Young man or young wo-
man who had taken up the practice of mcdi-
cine for a few months only as a means of
getting money to use in learning some other
profession. Careless as we are in respect TO
our health, yet careful enough of that
to call in professional physicians when we
are sick But we every year commit the
training and development Of the minds
| and frequently the morals-of our children
to teachers who are quacks, who are teaching
as mere make-shift. who never feel nor
comprehend the responsibilities Of their posi-
ton, and who only resort to that pursuit for
the time being the easiest way Of earning
money. If the children come out Of the
hands of such teachers without fatally wrong
habits Of thinking and study, it is because
the mind like the body has in itself power
IF resisting unhealthy and unnatural action,
and asserts its natural direction in spite OF
the mischievous influences Of false instruc-
ton However 1.-The twig is bent - its nat
ural inclination will resist the force pushing
it from it's right line of growth, and in some
cases NAV prevent fatal injury. But this
renders it none the less important that our
educators should know their business, that
they may be a help and not a hindrance to
ne developm ent of the minds Of their schol-
ars.
The remedy for this evil, under our present
laws, is mainly in the hands Of Superinten-
dents of Schools. Unless person has a GER
tifcate as a teacher wages for teaching can
not be lawfully collected and few persons
will care to hazard their wages by teaching
without certificate Saperintendents, then.
can greatly aid in giving our State higher
grade of teachers, by insisting upon superior
qualifications in those applying for certii-
Gates By the institution of Normal Schools
the Legislature has signifed its desire for a
more thorough preparation for teaching-a
professional training with particular refer
cnce to the work of instructing others. I'm
doubtedly it is contemplated, ultimately, to
abolish the office of town Superintendents
or. if not that, to take from the Office any
mower to grant certificates to teachers. But
these officers can, in the meantime, greatly
advance the cause of education by working
in the same direction ; and by the severity
of their examination of candidates make
their Office what it was designed to be, a bar
rier against the evil of incompetent teachers,
of ouacks in education who do infinitely more
hurt than good in the school-room 1t IS our
pride in Vermont that our school-rooms are
open to every child in the State but let it
not be said to our shame that the teacher S
desk is also open to every one who thinks
money can be earned more easily by teaching
than in any other way.