The Anaconda standard. [volume] (Anaconda, Mont.) 1889-1970, 1895-12-28

see men appointed superintendent who
never taught school q minute in their
lives. "a superintendent should pos
sess natural ability; his learning should
be deep and comprehensive. and he
should not be too bookish II he expects
to be man of great influence. While
he may know theories, he must not fail
to be practical, for by the practical we
judge the soundness of the theory)
One Of the most theoretical superin-
tendents 1 ever knew was not able to
reduce any OF his theories to practice.
A superintendent must not be above
his patrons. One said to me once, La
boring men are beneath my notice."
say such superintendent are not At to
have charge of school systems, and I
When we look down upon honest toll
and refuse to grasp in hearty hand
shake the horny hand of toip' for the
reason that we look down upon labor
as degrading. we are making of our
boys dudes or tramps. Every boy
should be taught to do something, and
that upon the right conception of man
ual labor rests the safety of nations.
(Boys and girls who have received the
proper training in the schools, those
who have completed the work of the
entire course. will not be found at some
ones back door begging bread) 1t il
the duty OF every superintendent to see
that such training is given. The super
intendent should be a man able to
measure educational values and to de-
eide when educational movements are
made. whether. IL introduced into his
own school room. they will succeed or
fail.
A superintendent In this state once
said he had introduced a new method
into his work, but he knew when he
put IL In Ii was going to fail. 1t Is a
noticeable fact in school work we go TO
extremes. For long time we had lit
tie In grammar work except technical
grammar. Then we changed, and we
tried nothing but language lessons. 1t
is now pretty generally conceded that
both have their place in our schools.
The superintendent should have GER
tain data, as pole stars. to build his
work upon. There are certain things
he should believe and know, and these
will give him equipoise. A superintend-
ent without a balance wheel Is like a
ship without a rudder, at the mercy of
every wind that blows. ~
He may study carefully the report of
the committee of ten, then supplement
this with study of the report of the
committee of fifteen, he may then pc
ruse the report of Commissioner Har-
ris on the correlation of studies and
conclude to follow the recommended
tions laid down, yet the first discour-
aging word uttered by the board shat
tiers his good resolves and he concludes
the old course is good enough after
all. The superintendent should be an
expert in weighing the qualifications
OF teachers. While 1 would not advise
that the superintendent be given the
appointive power. yet a board of edu-
cation ought not to appoint a teacher
the superintendent could not recon-
mend, neither should the superinten-
dent expect that every one he might
recommend would be appointed. There
should be a desire on the part of both
board and superintendent to place
those in charge of children that are
competent. The superintendent should
so deport himself that whenever he
made recommendations of any kind his
board could feel that he was conscien-
tious in the matter.
Many boards know very little about
the inward workings of the school ex-
cept through the superintendent.
A superintendent should be a real.
live supervisor of work, not a mere
figure-head. A great deal has been
said about teachers of the graded
schools losing their Individuality, that
the work is one "horrid grind" / have
yet to see a good. live. energetic teach
er that did not stamp her individuality
upon her work. So much has been said
about teachers losing their individual
ity that many superlntendents have
wondered II they ought to do anything
but make up reports and grade new
pupils. There are some superintendent
that claim teachers ought to be left
to themselves. That they should work
out their own salvation. This stand
leaves the superintendent little to do
and makes of him a clerical man.
Boards cannot afford to pay $1,000 or
$1,000 yearly for clerical work
The superintendent should be to the
teacher guide, counselor and friend.
In our schools we have the expert
enced and the inexperienced, the COM
petent and the incompetent The
teacher should not be allowed to grope
but should know what approximately
ought to be accomplished in the term
This being determined the superinten-
dent should by general meetings,
grade meetings and personal explana-
lions and advice aid the teacher to ac-
complish the work. II the teacher is
an inexperienced teacher and has good
methods and good balance the superin-
tendent is not much needed except TO
give occasionally a word of encour-
agement. And even with some expert
enced teachers a suggestion is appre-
ciated. Sometimes you receive the re-
ply That's 50, / don't see why / did
not see that myself. Thank you for
the suggestion" Shall we not give to
ouT tcdCntTs the Dsncut OF our study,
our observation. our experience? As
we pass from room to room we find
here and there something really val
liable in a pedagogical way. Shall we
not give the benefit OF Miss AS method
to Miss Il, when we see Miss b using
much inferior method? Or IL we
have a method by which a teacher can
accomplish the same work in much less
time. shall we be backward in explain
ing the method? However, IL is not
with the experienced teacher we have
our trouble as rule. 1t is with the
inexperienced and incompetent We
have no state normal school and the
high schools are not called upon to
train teachers especially. and IL they
were. few who attend are mature
enough to successfully teach the
crowded rooms of the graded schools.
Many times teachers who have had
years of experience In teaching small
country schools are unable to do much