Belmont chronicle. [volume] (St. Clairsville, Ohio) 1855-1973, 1869-03-18
EDUCATIONAL.
THEORY AND PRACTICE.

EDUCATIONAL.
J THEORY AND PRACTICE.
Our attention has been called to the
! fact that teachers undergoing an exam:
} ination before the County Board of Ex-
aminers pay very little attention to the
questions in Thesry and Practice, think
ing, no doubt. that if they get through
creditably with Arithmetic, Grammar
and the other common branches that il
, will suffice, or that the examiners will
overlook incomplete and negligent an
swers in Theory and Practice. Many
think, perhaps, that questions in this
branch are asked for bunkum, and that
only brief and indefinite answers are
expected Or required. Such is not the
case, sec. IS of the school Law declares
that mo person shall be employed as q
teacher in any primary common school
unless such teacher shall have first OBJ
tanned from the examiners a certificate
Of good moral character, and that he or
she is qualified to teach orthsgraphy,
reading, writing, arithmetic, geography,
english grammar, usd possesses an ode-
q1ate knowledge of the theory and prac-
tice of teaching" Now since examiners
can not visit the schools of the County
and see teachers at their labor, they
have no means of judging of their quail
ification for their work except from
answers to interrogations in theory and
practice. A person may be thorough in
the common branches and yet from
lack Of order, governing power, tact or
self control be totally unfit to teach, ana
on the other hand persons greatly def
cient in clear-headed scholarship may
have those qualities which make them
COED practical teachers. In the ques-
tions propounded by the examiners in
this branch they endeaver to draw out
the teachers knoviedge-of the practical
part of his duties. They seek to discover
how teacher does his work whether
he has system, order, seIf-cOntrol, tact,
and all the other qualities necessary to
make a successful teacher. At the last
teachers examination in this county
the teachers were required to give "a
time table OF their regular days exer-
cises," and out of 60 teachers present not
ten complied with the requirement., the
usual answer being .'open school at 81
o'clock A. H, "Iet out" for noon at IL,
take up a. j and ''let outr at P. M
Now the reason Of this requirement is
so obvious that every one should have
it. and the answers clearly
indicate that such teachers do not ap-
preciate the necessity of systematic
of time in - school room,
or are teo lazy or Indifferent to practice
it. -.sa,-
A proper answer to this question
would have given the examiners bet
ter opportunity to judge of teachers
qualifications for work than whole /
weeks examination on the common
branches. They would have had an
inside view of his school roem, could ,,
have judged whether each branch re-
ceived its proper share of attention,
whether small scholars were neglected,
what time was devoted to black board
exercises, what to penmanship (tso
much neglected., in short they would
have had key to the 'modus operandi'
of the school rsom and the means Of
Judging of such teachers order, system
and aptness TO teach. This In only one J
of the purport and impor-
tance of the questions in theory and ]
practice. We might cite others from 5
the same and previous examinations but /
our space is tso brief. We hope the at
tentien of teachers may be directed to :
this important part of their examina-
lion, and that hereafter the questions in
theory and practice will uot be slighted t
but receive that consideration at their +
hands which they reasonably deserve.
QUERE. S
PARENTS AND TEAGHERs.-I noticed '
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