The weekly register. [volume] (Point Pleasant, Va. [W. Va.]) 1862-1909, 1876-10-05

cfsosis
f'tfoFpagfts s,trsincd AdAccomplished
in theart Of teaching md handling
schools. Fourth. To supply the in
termodiatc training between the gra-
ded and high school, and the college.
ThisFmay be said to be the want of
the American system Of free schools.
1t makes no provision tolift students
over the chasm between the primary
school and the college. We have the
basement and the upper story but no
stairway to connect them!
And have long felt, and still deep
ly feel that there is great room for
increase of efficiency in the practical
working of our free schools. We all
agree that what costs so much money
ought to be made effective Of much
good. Years ago | attempted to call
the attention of our educators and
Legislators to the two vital defects in
our present system, First. The
want of qualified teachers. Second.
The absence of any adequate and
generally accessible means of supply
ing them. To meet these practical
difficulties, 1 suggested plan of
"Tcachcrs' Normal Instirute"-not
for general lectures on the subject
and methods of teaching, after the
style of already established i'Teach.
crs' Institutes" but for the practical
training of inexperienced teachers
in the details of the teachers work by
actual drill-not to impart knowl-
edge on the subjects to be taught,
except incidentally, but to train the
tenthcrs by regular drill in theart of
teaching. This expedicnt l earnest
ly commended to the Legislature for
their adoption in 1873. At the same
time | inserted provision for it in the
draft of the school law which was
then submitted. But the plan was
new could not be present to explain
it when the bill was taken up, and
probably from being misunderstood
or confoundcd with the existing or
ganization called "Teachers' Insti-
tutCs," it was stricken out. 1t was,
however, generously taken up by DR..
B. Sears, General Agent of the Pea
body Fund, and by means Of an ap-
preparation made by him specifically
for its support, it has been partially
tried under the administration of Su-
pcrintendcnt Byrne. OF the result,
he says: at is believed that no
branch of our school service produc-
ed more beneficial results for the
amount of money expended, than
was realized from these institutes.
When the "Tcacher's Normal In
stitutc" was first organized, l prcpar-
ed 1.-THE request of Superintendent
Byrnc, the detailed instructions for
conducting them, which were fur
nished to the educators employed in
their management and am gratif-.
cd to find that in his report, he cx-
presses as the result of his expert
encc, the conviction that "thc surest
means of obtaining tolerably Qualif
ed teachers in any reasonable time,
is to adopt the plan which l have
0uggostod" 1 am nwnro that some
have expressed the fear that these
"Teachcrs' Normal Institutes" will
interfere with the Normal Schools,
and hence, they may have inferred
that l am not friendly to them
But the very reverse will be true
They will strengthen and enlarge
the interest in the Normal Schools
and all institutions for higher in
struction. They are intended to reach
in u short, direct, practical and elf
cicnt way, the three or four thousand
primary teachers who never can be
reached in any other way; but Of
whom, many persons will be inspir-
ed by the taste of n higher culture
which these Institutes will give them,
to seek the still higher instruction
provided for them in the Normal
Schools, and so in the end, these In
stitutcs will foster n professional
spirit among primary teachers, that
will excite the more cmulous to en-.
ter the Normal Schools, and thus
steadily build up and accomplish u
class of instructors of II higher grade
than we now have. We feel assured,
/ A 1