The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1898-11-13


school superintendent. If the superintend-
ents who have been in session in Indian
apois during the past week made any
confessions in regard to their professional
experiences they were whispered to each
other in confidence and were not given to
the public. If they had spoken, some of
their grievances, no doubt, would be much
the same as those told to the Atlantic's
readers. These frank disclosures of the
difficulties experienced by educators in car
rying out their plans for the improvement
of the schools are interesting and give a
view of school work not familiar to the
public, which is oftener regaled with COM
plants against superintendent. The three
writer's who engage in these confessions
lay large share of theft troubles to the
fact that school boards are likely to be
governed by personal interests in dealing
with the schools ard to interfere in vari-
Gus ways with efforts to uplift them. One
form Of this interference consists in fore
ing the appointment of friends and rela-
tives as teachers, without regard to their
fitness. Each director has his own list Of
friends whom he wishes to oblige, and it is
a matter of courtesy to make no protest
against the appointments desired by other
members Of the board. 1t would frequently
be to the advantage Of the schools to re-
place old teachers, who have not kept up
with modern methods, with younger and
more progressive ones, but the removal Of
such teachers is apt to be made difficult, if
not impossible, by the board, whose mem
bers place personal considerations before
educational progress In short, the super
intendent is held responsible for the char
acter and condition of the schools, but is
hampered seriously in his attempt to make
them what they should be. Politics, in the
party sense these writer's testify, do not
figure much in school boards. One says:
In twenty years of school teaching and
experimenting l have not known any
school question to be decided by Demo-
Gratis or Republicans as such.'' This testi-
mony is of interest when so much is said
of the desirablity Of taking schools out
of politics." What seems to be needed more
is to take them out of the hands of men of
whatever party who seek, through them, to
promote private profit.
One superintendent touches upon that
ngidity in the school system which re-
strains bright pupils and compels them to
keep pace with slower ones. The result is
evil for both classes, the one being urged
beyond its capacity and the more intelli-
gent losing ambition and becoming apa-
thetic The remedy offered is to make the
course of study for the slower, weaker pu-
pills. and let the brighter ones go faster or
take additional work. THE bright pupils
ought to work as hard as the dull ones.
The teacher of the bright division ought 10
work as hard as the teacher of the slower
division-in the one case in laying out more
work. in the other in seeking simpler ex-
plantations.
Another important confession relates
to normal school training. now regarded in
many educational circles as Indispensable
The writer says:
I have found very fine teaching power in
some young women who never saw the in
side of a normal school, and whose record
was not the best. They had that unexamin-
able, indefinable power. of controlling, in
tereSting and inStructing children that
seems to be an endowment. No normal
school can give this ability, and no lack Of
normal school training can take it away.
He adds:
We must come to this proposition in our
town and in other towns. namely, that
teacher can be discovered only by her
teaching, and the best examination posi-
BILE is q trial In the schoolroom. Given a
young woman who appears to have all the
requisiteS-a good education, good health,
and fair knowledge Of what the demands
of the Schoolroom are-and the only true
way to proceed is to give her three months,
a a q will
then show what she can do, and L do not
believe that a satisfactory test can be
made in any other way.
Some interesting information is given
concerning the methods of schoolbook pub
fishers and their, agents in dealing with
school boards. the ngenuous7statement be-
ing made that publishers will not resort
to means lower than is absolutely neces-
sary for obtaining trade
The only remedy suggested for the edu-
cational evils is the securing of a higher
grade of people to serve on school boards,
but this brings up anew the trouble. back
of it. namely, the apathy of the public in
regard to the matter. IL the Atlantic,
which gives more attention to educational
topics than any nonprofessional periodical,
will point out the way to overcome this
public indifference it will do an inestimable
service to the schools.
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