New Iberia enterprise. (New Iberia, La.) 1885-1902, 1898-09-24
SCHOOL SUPERVISION.


The subject of School Supervis-
ion is receiving more and more at
tentiOn, not only from educators,
but from people generally, particu-
larly school officers. Every rail
road has it's superintendent and
wagon road its supervisor; all fac
tors are put under special super
vision. wherever men are aggre-
gated on common piece of work +,
supervision becomes necessary in
order to economize time and labor
and material as we'll If supervis-
ion is good, and no intelligent per
son doubts it, then the more ex-
cellent the supervision the better
the results will be. These things
are automatic to the normal mind.
Educational work is no exception
to work of any kind. Wherever
men are congregated in such work,
supervision becomes a necessity.
There are certain terms that desi-
gnate supervision that might be
well for us to define in order to get
an intelligent view of this subject.
If but five to twelve teachers are
employed, in any given school, un-
der college grade, the supervisor is
usually designated as principal; if
above twelve teachers are employed
the term superintendent is usually
applied; if higher grade, and if the
faculty be divided according to the
subjects taught rather than accord
ing to the grade of pupils, the su-
teacher is named presi-
dent. Thus we have then the three
terms, Principal, superintendent
and President. The basis of this
is numbers employed and different
iatiOn of work by subjects and
grade of work as far as President
is concerned.
The powers Of the supervising
teacher are governed more or less
by circumstances and the inherent
force Of the supervisor. The funda-
mental principle that brings good
is plentitude Of super
vising power vested in the super
visor, but never exercised by him
in an arbitrary way, but always by
advice or assent as to the other
cooperating.
No supervisor Of a corps Of
;eachers can at once assume the
'ull functions Of his office. It re-
luires time to establish his rela-
ions with his subOrdinates and
With his students and people as
we'll. This is thing Of growth
md requires great deal of patti
,nce, generosity, skill and courage
It times, and these things, too,
,ome very largely from experience;
renee are growths in time.
Taking all this as our premise,
t will be seen that q superintend
mt cannot be efficient if changed
,ften, and the bane affecting our
schools most, at the present time,
s the frequent change in supervi
;Ors or whatever name they may
,e, as we'll as of teachers, too.
AS time is required for growth,
md growth for efficiency in either
or supervising, it is easily
'een that when good teacher or
is found, change should
,nly be made for sufficient reasons,
IN other grounds than competency.
OF course there are circumstan-
.es that demand change. Deaths,
'emoval, or other inevitable cir
that demand changes in
Ill of these positions, yet change is
! thing to be dreaded by schools
md school people generally because
# the destruction of relationships
hat require a long time to estab-
ish.
1t is not the purpose of this arti
lie to argue for the continuance of
Inefficient officers. Whenever edu-
ational institutions do not prosper
lnder their officials, inquiry should
20 made, the trouble located and
he remedy applied.
A great evil in Louisiana parish