The Democratic advocate. [volume] (Westminster, Md.) 1865-1972, 1885-08-01
Teachers Institutes.

FROM the Pb1tddeLl)Illa Pa, Ledger.
One of the most recent publications of
the Bureau of Education is a report on
Teachers Institutes, prepared by Hon
James IL. Smart, President of Purdue
University, Indiana. Teachers Institutes
may supplement Normal School education
or may be substitutes therefor in commu-
mites unable to support special training
schools for teachers. They were originally
private associations of enthusiastic teachers
who met in convention for the mutual
benefit to be derived from an exchange of
opinions on the subject of educational
methods. In several States they are now
established and provided for by law, and
In some the teachers are required to attend
them. In Pennsylvania the county insti-
tutes meet once a year for five days, and
directors may or may not impose penalty
for non-attendence. The expenses are
paid by county appropriations and enroll
ment fees. Two-thirds of the teachers of
the State are reported as having attended
the sessions in 1882-83, of which this re-
port gives the statistics.
Although all Teachers Institutes have
nominally the same purpose, they differ
very much in their methods and usefulness.
In some the picnic idea controls the exer-
cises. A pleasant summer resort is select
ed for the session, and the lessons and lee
lures are subordinated to amusements and
pleasure seeking. In others the teachers
form themselves into kind of debating
society and, unless they happen to have
among themselves some broad-minded, pro-
gressive educators, their discussions are of
very little benefit But in the highest
type of teachers institutes the instruction
is well considered and systematic. Promi-
nent educators are invited to act as instruc-
tors of the teachers, and discussion of ed
ucational topics is guided by men of learn
ing and experience.
In this compilation by Mr. Smart are
reports of the Peabody Institutes in the
Southern States, which may be taken as
models of the kind which should be estab-
lished where the absence of Normal Schools
makes it necessary to educate teachers after
they have begun to teach, The idea that
any one with an ordinary amount of edu-
cation can teach children has been pretty
effectively uprooted but in the Southern
States and in the rural parts of many other
States lack Of money and scarcity Of train
ed teachers have frequently compelled the
employment as teachers of young men and
young women absolutely ignorant of the
science of education, and even of the meth
DDS of teaching. To such teachers and es-
pecially to those ambitious to improve and
conscious of their shortcomings, such a
Teachers Institute as was held at Spart-
anburg, South Carolina, in 1880, must
have been exceedingly welcome. The ses-
sion lasted for four weeks-not very long
term in which to gain a Normal School ed
ucation, but long enough, no doubt, to start
many of the teachers on the right road
and make them earnest in their work.
Six prominent educators undertook the
work of instruction; classes were formed in
various studies and instruction was also
given by lectures on the study of language,
arithmetic, map drawing, the science of
education and similar topics. The methods
of teaching formed prominent subject for
explanation ,,and discussion, and the abb
stract published of the lectures shows that
very intelligent views were taken of the
best means of educating child for the
practical work of life, and of giving the
most useful education thoroughly as early
as possible in the child's school term.
Education, in its right sense, has much
broader scope than the teaching of reading,
writing and arithmetic, or storing the mind
with facts of history and geography and
rules of grammar The discipline of the
school in training will and characterand the
development of the thinking faculties by
skilful use of the different studies are of at
least equal Importance to the mere storage
of facts and dates or the loading Of the
memory. These are not new educational
ideas, but it is well to have them periodi-
cally presented to teachers, as may be done
with good effect at the meetings of the In
stitutes, for it is most difficult matter to
have them steadily kept in mind as guides
to the actual work of teaching. The most
inefficient teacher by machine methods
could probably prepare, as a matter of the
ory, a fairly good scheme of education;
but, unless frequently reminded of it by
discussion and stimulated by ambitious
aeal, might soon drift back by force of
habit into something quite different. 1t is
so much easier to give out lessons and
"hear" them in a mechanical way, than it
is to educate children as they should be
educated, that only few teachers can of
their own viii keep up their enthusiasm
year after year. and continue at all times
to do their most difficult work with fresh
zeal, thought and power, 1t is for this
reason that Teachers Institutes properly
conducted may be made very useful adj
jupcts to the educational system of State,
Whatever helps the teachers, gives them a
lively interest in their work, and keeps their
minds intent upon their occupation, helps
the pupils also by giving them trained
guides and instructors who instiHctively
avoid the vices of the examining system.