Nashville union and American. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1868-1875, 1873-12-11

not be found in sufficient numbers, school.
, are left without teachers, while the norma
schools are enlarged and increased in llum
bers. Hence, the latest reports from these
States, where nearly every man and woman
has a thoroughly good elementary educa-
ton, show an inadequate supply of teach
eTs.
But somebody is ready to say: All this
may be easy enough in an old country like
Germany, but we cannot do things that
way in Tennessee; we are too poor |
answer: We are rich enough, il we will
wisely use the means we have. With our
free institutions, and with our natural
wealth of climate, soil and minerals, we
ought very soon TO surpass the highest edIl-
| cational achievements of the Old World.
No intelligent man will think it possible
to do this without the agency of a number
| of literally endowed normal schools for
the training of professional teachers. But
| it will be the work of many Years to estab-
| fish these institutions and through them to
train the 10000 teachers needed to teach
the 100000 children Of Tennessee The
normal schools in New. FORK. Massachu-
sets, and other States that began this work
| twenty or twenty-five years ago. are able to
furnish only small proportion of the re-
quired number of teachers.
What then shall we do? The answer to
this question brings us to my subject. In
| showing the necessity of having well-train-
| ed teachers in order to secure good educa-
ton for our children and in pointing out
the impossibility of supplying these teach
ers at present through the agency of normal
schools, L have established the supreme i'm
| portance of Teachers Institutes in our pres
| ent work in Tennessee. This is the only
! means we can use for the improvement of
those who must teach the present genera
ton in the State. Many of these teachers
are conscious of deficiencies intheir present
work and anxious to learn better methods.
| To these earnest men the Institute will bring
| light and encouragement, while il will help
us in driving out those who are hopelessly
incompetent.
All the States OF the Union that have
made any progress in popular education
recognize the value of the Institute In
many States liberal appropriations are made
| to meet the expenses of holding them; in
| some, the attendance of teachers is made
| obligatory; in others, teachers are allowed
| pay for the time spent in the Institute. In
Tennessee, the law does not provide for or
| even recognize the Institute. 1t rests, there
| fore, upon the Superintendent ard this As
ISOLATION to inaugurate this great work in
our State.
have taken some trouble to ascertain
what the various States are doing in this
| direction, and if the Association will bear
with me, | will present the result of my in
| quiries. | have arranged the States in al
phabetical order, paying no attention to
| logical arrangement.
1,h
| tuteS, but they have been held in MANY
counties with most satisfactory results.
| Superintendent recommends the holding of
them at convenient points, and that a COM
petent teacher be employed to conduct
them.
Misunderstanding.
California holds a State Teachers In
stitute every year in San Francisco.
OF county institutes, Superintendent
Fitzgerald says: In some counties the first
real impulse to the cause of education dates
from the first institutes held in them.
They have done incalculable good, not only
in enlarging the ideas aud exciting the en-
thusiaSm Of the teachers, but in awakening
the interest Of the public generally in the
cause Of popular education.
The advantages arising from institutes
NFiN SliOii1iN dlhl Set iOItn DN
Superintendent SWEET in 1868, in q circular
urging the holding of them in the State:
''NO event in the history of education in
the United States has proved so fruitful of
benehcent results as the organization of in
stitutes and conventions. They are not
intended as substitutes for normal schools,
nor can they educate teachers to the bust
ness of their profession, yet they serve the
who are not temporarily engaged in the
profession, of furnishing those who are not
Systematically trained with the best meth
DDS OF instruction, and of increasing the
efficiency Of professional teachers.
''The exercises of the institute involve an
outline view of subjects relating to the
proper mode Of imparting instruction,
present the latest facts regarding
the progress Of education in our own and
in other countries, and afford an occasion
for experienced teachers opresent practical
views which cannot be obtained from books.
The best thoughts and best requirements of
the most original teachers are elected and
thrown into the common stock of profess
sional knowledge. They influence public
opinion by bringing the teachers labOrs
prominently before the community, and by
promoting a higher estimate of the COM
mon-sch0Ol in its vital relation TO society
and the State. The routine OF teachers
daily life limits his influence to the narrow
sphere Of the schoOi-ro0m, but the proceed
ings Of an institute are carried by the press
TO thousands Of families in the State, and
his views become an active element in pub
lie opinion. No obstacle to the progress of
free schools is as formidable as the apathy
and Indifference of the people.
"Many teachers, though literally educated
and schoOled by experience and travel, a.e
not familiar with the new methods of in
struction known to the professionally train
ed teacher, and to such the practical know
ledge communicated in a single session ofan
institute is invaluable. Nor is the insti-
tute less productive of useful result to pro-
fessionally educated teachers. Associations
and conventions in Other States have chang
ed teaching from a monotonOus routine to
slzillful art. The abstract, didactic, pc
dantic, bloodhound style of the old-school
teaching has been succeeded by more natu-
raj and philosophical methods of developing
the human mind.
mo occupation is more eXhausting to
nervous force and mental energy than teach
ing; and the teacher needs, above all 9TH
ers, the cheering influences Of pleasant,
social intercourse with those whose tastes
and habits are similar TO his own.
"No wonder, then, that the schoolmaster,
buried in some obscure district, surrounded
only by the raw material Of mind, which
he is trying to weave into fine texture,
without access to books, his motives either
misunderstood or aspersed, his labors often
seemingly barren Of result, his services
half paid, his chief study being show to
make both ends meet" ''No wonder that
he sometimes becomes moody and disheart-
ened, loses his enthusiasm, and feels
that the very sky above him is one vast
| blackboard on which he is condemned to
! work out the sum-total of his existence. He
| only needs the social intercourse of insti-
! tutes, and the cordial sympathy of fellow
! teachers, there evoked, tomake the heavens
! glow with hope. There he finds his diff
cIIties are shared by others, his labOrs are
! appreciated, and his vocation respected"
Connecticut holds a State Institute of
coo or 800 members, and about twenty 10
| cal institutes with an average attendance
! of ia in 1872. Tine interest and attend
ance Of citizens were very encouraging.
The largest halls and churches available
were well filed
Delaware has done but little in educa-