Hot Springs weekly star. (Hot Springs, S.D.) 1892-1917, 1896-10-02
EDUCATIONALCOLUMN
NOTES ABOUT SCHOOLS AND
THEIR MANAGEMENT.
The College Graduate. as Teac,,er i'm
the Public standardization Tell
ing How to Make Rclief Maps-What
to Teach Children.
(which succeeds Beat !?

gra0uate succeeds best In school work.
The difference between them arises in
the larger scholarship of one as set over
against the professional training Of the
other. Each has it's respective advan-
tage, and also his respective shortcom-
ing. The logical conclusion is that every
teacher must have the liberal scholar
ship Of the one and the professional
training Of the other-should be a grad
uate Of both schools. One of the most
pleasing and hopeful signs in the edu-
cational growth of Indiana is the large
number who take both the normal and
university course.
But 1t is not my purpose to speak of
this matter in general, but to call at
tention to the conspicuous defect of the
college graduate for public school work.
This defect is that of failing to take ac-
count of the psychological, or chrono-
logical factor in education. He has been
absorbed in the logic of the subject for
Its own sake, and when he comes to
teach 1t the only factor in the process
which he is accustomed to consider is
the subject itself. He teaches Us he was
taught. If he began his work in zoology
with the microscope and protoplasm, it
must begin thus to whatever grade of
pupils 1t is taught, Notwithstanding
that the child naturally and necessarily
begins with the external facts Of color
and form and parts, in action and hab-
Its of the animal. A scientist of the
State once insisted that for the child to
study the color, forms and external
structure of leaves, as was being done
in the schools, was worse than waste
of time. He held that child should
,begin with the inner, the vital principle
of the leaf, by microscopic study, and
thus construct logically the botany of
the leaf. Yet, up to the time of enter
ing school, mother nature had taken an
opposite course with the child. An
eminent teacher Of botany in univer-
sity. who is graduate of normal
school, said recently that his students
do not teach botany we'll in the public
school, because they take the order
which he pursued with them to the
proper order to pursue with pupils in
the grades and in the high school. This
university professor differs from the
one referred to above, in having consid-
cred the child's order Of learning in ad-
dition to the subject matter to be
learned.
Everywhere the logical order of the
subject has been forced upon pupils; so
that just now there is general and
heroic effort to readjust the course of
study to the natural order of the child
In learning. We are no longer satisfied
to follow, in the course of instruction,
the logical order of addition, subtrac-
ton, multiplication and division; or
that of arithmetic, algebra, geometry
and trigonometery. While grammar
logically precedes composition, the
school course reverses the order. His
tory must not be deferred till geog-
raphy is completed. The recent fruit
full agitation Of the question of the
course Of study-enriching 1t, correlat-
ing it and concentrating it's only IN
effort to the psychological order Of the
growing pupil.
The college graduate is apt to make
mistake in management similar to
that which he makes in instruction. He
tries to manage children as he would
young men and women. He assigns
lessons to the child and the adult in
the same way, and assumes that chill
dren will prepare a lesson by being told
to do so. Little precaution, therefore,
is taken to secure the full effort of the
pupil during the study period. Since
college students prepare their lessons
at home, the same custom is carried fur
into the public school. Recently col
lege graduate was superintendent of
the schools of city, and he required
the pupils of the high school to meet
only for the recitations, and that in the
forenoon. This superintendent was
succeeded by normal school graduate,
who Immediately changed the plan and
required the pupils to attend the full
day, and to prepare lessons under the
direction Of the teacher No matter
which Of these was right, their differ
ence illustrates the point under discus
sion. One who manages a school sue
cessfully must conside, the develop
ment of the pupil. There is a time
when the pupil should have the most
minute and direct attention from the
teacher during the preparation Of the
lesson; and there comeh time when
such attention would not only be use
less, but harmful-a time when the pu-
pill should be left wholly free to choose
his own time, place and manner Of pre-
pairing his lesson.
The college man makes in many
ways college out Of a high school. He
breaches, or has it done, a baccalaure-
ate at commencement. He calls his
classes freshman, sophomore, Junior,
senior. They must organize and have
class presidents, and, above all, class
colors and class school yells. They have
football teams and oratorical contests.
Are they not soon to don the cap and
gown at graduation? do not mean to
say that these things are bad, but to
point out a natural tendency Of the col
lege man in managing public school.
OF course the normal school graduate
tends to make parallel mistakes along
the opposite side of the foregoing; but