Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1885-07-25

lied spelling book in the New York City
schools. As applicants are presumed to be
familiar with household and celloquia
!, terms examiners must of necessity assign
words CLEANED from current literature. orl
from such branches OF the natural sciences
as teachers are justly required TO know
In my opposition TO the giving of mere
puzzles, l yield TO no man. In the per
Torrance of the responsible duties of an
examiner | have always observed q golden
mien. The following foot-note TO my
paper on arithmetic, published some
eighteen months ago in the REcoRD-U MON,
bespeaks my views on this subject IN i.
Your ability to instruct pupils Will be
Cleaned from your power 70 illustrate the
few underlying principles Of arithmetiCal
processes. Competent knowledge and an
apt faculty TO impGrt ii are conditions in
diSpensable to successful teaching. We
teachers of common schools are not sup
posed to be erudite. but we are rightly
expected to be respectable opponents and
representatives of general intelligence. A
public school teacher should be able to
eXtempori2e explanatory definitions of the
ordinary words found in school readers
It is Questionable whether a teacher that
cannot read Understandings the ordinary
subject-matter of a daily newspaper, Is
competent to explain to pupils the litera-
ture contained IN those Readers; and III the
judgment of sincere friends Of our public
schools and of public school teachers, such
4 person is lot lit 10 teach State school
So far as l am concerned, | feel ii due to
myself to the teaching profession, to the
best educational interests of this city and
county, TO preclude even the possibility of
positive iliteracy being enthroned in the
school-ro0m. \ diScriminatiye and fair
minded public have already pronounced
these tests not too searching or too difficult
Is ii unfair TO expect public school licen-
tate to read understandingly the columns
Of daily newspaper Is it unreasonable
to require teachers to answer eighty-fve
per cent. of the words found in a two-bit
school textbook, which country school
boys are knCwn to have mastered before
graduation Is it unjust to ask teachers
questions on grammar less difficult than
those actually asked OF pupils in the very
grammars used in this city and county? If
ell this be unjust, then thcinjustice is done,
not to the teachers, but to the pupils Of our
common schools
Out with the captious objections of que
rulous, caviling. "sore-headed friends Of
disappointed candidates, whose minds are
so "irmature as to be unable to grasp
and retain the meaning OF words in news
paper literature
Before [ conclude this painful subject
unhesitatingly state that the system of
training young teachers, and also the SyS-
tenn of examination in vogue in this State
for the last twenty years, are both essen
tally defective. This may seem a bold and
sweeping statement, but stubborn facts suS-
tain it. do not approve of giving an I'M
due amount OF attention to any one branch
OF knowledge to the neglect of any other
] l. =. 4,
Persons possessing finished and we'll
rounded knowledge of common school
branches make the best teachers. Each
branch of knowledge should receive the at
tentiOn commensurate with its compare
tive usefulness Now, as our ideas and
conceptions of all things must be conveyed
and expressed by means of that beautiful
living vehicle of thought, which we call
language, its paramount importance on
reflection becomes seif-evident. Yet.
teachers, with few honorable excep
tons. utterly ignorant of literature, Thet-
oriC and language, are now, and have been
for years past, licensed to teach i'll the
public schools of this State. No tests ON
these all-important subjects have been re-
Quired. Technical English grammar has
been. and is now, one OF the test studies
and one of the hobbies. English grammar
is, indeed, useful but we all know that it
is not an adequate exponent, or rather it is
no exponent at all of English scholarship.
Before We can have an intelligent and
fairly well informed body Of public school
teachers private and State Normal schools
must materially modify their system of
training and education, and Boards Of Elk
aminers amend their rules.
W. J. FYpE.
President Sacramento County Board OF
Education,
Sacramento July 20, 1855.