Omaha daily bee., 1890-07-27
GERMAN IYD AlfERTCly gcIJoo

| their systematic ana habltua lying and
misreprese NATION.
| ------.------=------s
GERMAN AND AMERICAN SCHOOLS
Among the papers read at the cent
annual meeting of the American Instf-
tute of Instruction was one presenting
some comparisons between the schools of
Germany and those Of the United States,
which are interesting and instructive.
The author of the paper, who was the
perintcndent of schools at Wey-
mouth, Mass, said that in that state
there are ninety female to ten male
teachers, whereas in Germany there
are ninety male to ten female
teachers, the figures being precisely
reversed. The high character of the
German schools is not due to the fact
that the majority of the teachers are
male, but to the professional training
which German teachers receive and must
receive, like ministers, lawyers and doc
tors, and the professional spirit that is
born of that training, You ask Ger
man teacher, said the author of the
paper, why he does SO and SO, why he
| BtlouOS oONH stlIl ouCll COuTSe, anu
his answer is ready. He has a
reason for everything. But you put
the same question to teachers in the
this country and you are very likely to
get II reply, ''because Superintende dent
jenkins or Chairman j ones says so; it is
down in the course of study" We do
notget at first principles as the Ger
| mo a NJ, l.
logical side.
But we have our strong points, and in
some respects are ahead of Germany.
| We have better school books than the
| Germans, at least the elementary text
books. untryar in point of adapt
ability, literary style and typOgraph-
ical finish vastly superior to
the German. We have more
attractive school rooms and better
school furniture. There is more heart
feeling in the management of our pu-
pills. We are more tactiul and trustful,
and are doing more to teach manners
and morals. These points ofexcell cnce,
in the opinion of theauthor of the paper
from which we quote, are due largely to
..
He says they are more cOnscien tious than
the men and have, as rule, greater
governing and teaching power 'Women
have n wonderful power in arousin g the
heroic element, especially in boys, and
bringing out latent nobility of charac-
ter" He suggests that the female
teachers Of the country should be
united. There are nearly two hundred
thousand OF them in the northern states,
and in the whole country not far sh ort of
quarter of million. They would
wield a apowerfu inaue ence ifthey worked
together for common aims.
1t is unques tionable that one Of he re-
forms most essential to the improvement
of the public school system Of this coun-
try is greater attention TO the prepara-
tion and training OF teachers. Undoubt-
edly there has been progress made in
this particular, and that quite gener-
ally, at least in the older
states. The qualifications demanded
Of a teacher are much higher
than were required a quarter of CEN
tury ago, but every one at all familiar
with the subject will admit that there
is still large room for Improvement.
There is perhaps not a city in the coun.
try whose list of educators would not be
very greatly reduced if they were put
to the testapplied to successful teachers
in Germany, and while it may be said
that such thorough professional training
as the German teachers must receive
is not necessary here, it is Ger.
tanly desirable to approximate
it more closely than we do at
present. And there is no reason why
this may not be done without the loss OF
any OF those features in which we are
cOnfesSedly superior to the Germans
The improvement and elevation OF the |
professional spirit among our teachers is
certainly not incom patible with the
maintenance of all those conditions
noted as eXcellences distinguishing the |
schools of America above those of Ger. !
many, There would not necessarily be |
less Of ''heart feeling" in the m anage-
ment of our pupils because of the better
and higher training of teachers,
there should rather be more Of
that feeling, and we should naturally |
expect as to morals and manners the |
best results from the most highly |
trained educators. Whenit is remem-
bered that in this country the profession
Of teaching cOmmandsa better reward
than in any other country, and that
there is almost uni United opportunity
for the thoroughly trained educator,
there is no excuse for toleratng low
standard Of qualifications in our schools
and no good reason why we should long
continue behind any other country in
ing OF our tie achers.