The Worcester spy. [volume] (Worcester, Mass.) 1898-1904, 1901-11-30

applauded. Two of the numbers were
given as encores.
After the announcement of the re-
suit of the election of officers, Super
intendent Carroll introduced the speak
eT of the evening, Thomas M Ballet,
Phi D., superintendent of schools Of
( Springfield, saying that to DR.. Ballet
more than to any other man one looked
for the statement of fundamental edu-
cational propositions.
The subject of the evening was THE
Organization of Secondary Education
Abroad and Its Lessons for Us" DR..
Ballet said that in the matter of ele-
mentary education this country has
/ less to learn of Europe than it has of
/ America. The lessons which European
/ schools can teach America are largely
! concerning secondary schools. Ameri-
. can primary schools are not eXcelled
anywhere and are seldom equalled. The
/ spirit of the kindergarten, the primary
| school, is not mere acquisition of
! knowledge. but growth. Important
: changes are bound to come into Ameri-
| cas- secondary schools within the next
| 25 years.
| Two striking features Of the schools
| abroad are the great amount of oral
| teaching and the absence of the custom
! of having the children learn a lesson
or study lesson before it is presented
| to them orally. The oral teaching. too,
| is different from ours. 1t is not talk
! ing merely; it is not used as a supple
ment to lessons, nor is it thought out
on the way to school nor between les
sons.
| Oral teaching in Prussian schools,
| which may be taken as an instance.
means a preparation such as one would
| give to a speech intended for an audi
ence. 1t means a command of matter.
/ The child holds what is given and re-
states it. 1t would seem absurd to
assign a lesson to a class for study be-
fore the lesson had been taught the
class. We must have more of the live
| teacher and less of the dead teacher.
| The Prussian maps and specimens used
in lessons are more abundant and bet
ter than those used in American
schools.
We have most to learn from higher
! schools. OF these there are three
types all over Europe. None who en-
! ter high schools finish the grammar
school first. Pupils leave the grammar
school during the fourth or fifth year
! for the higher schools which take the
child at the age of nine, ten or eleven,
keep him nine years and graduate him
at the age of eighteen, nineteen or
twenty. Such a school includes the
grammar and high school and two
years of good college work. The whole
course saves time.
The first type is the classical school,
| the second type is the non-classical, the
third is the semi-classical. The speaker
/ explained the difference between these
kinds of schools. At the end of any
! of these courses the student has ac-
comphshed the same amount of work
! all over Europe, except in Switzerland
! Norway and Holland
! The American college has no cores
/ ponding institution in Europe. The
I qualifications of a teacher in the higher
| schools abroad are: He must be a grad
uate of a classical school; he must
( have a university degree: must have
studied pedagogy one year and must
have taught one year as a trial teacher
at nominal salary. Such instruc-
tors are in charge Of boys, some of
whom are only nine years old. These
teachers can handle their material and
I their boys in a mastery way. No
mere normal school graduate can teach
( in the higher schools unless it be in the
subjects Of music, drawing or gym
nastiCs
/ Even in the senior classes Of these
/ higher schools the student is taught
/ orally. The teachers wouldn't know
/ what to do if they had to instruct from
( books. The pupils learn more from
the living contact Of mind with mind
which aids in the development of char
/ acter
( The faults Of the schools abroad are
| that they are not equipped so well to
! teach science, having no such labora-
1 tories as are found in American
( schools: there is the disadvantage of
| boys of nine mingling at recess time
| with youths of eighteen in the COM
/ mon playground; the university life of
/ the student is as extremely free as life
/ in the higher schools is rigid. This is
/ bad for the moral of the university
/ students. 1t is said that one-third Of
| the university men go to ruin, one
/ third die of over-work and the other
Z third govern Europe.
/ When the student graduates from
| the higher school he can begin the
study Of his profession at an age when
/ the American boy is just entering col
( lege.
The course in the American schools
Z can be shortened-first by superior
I teaching; second. by limiting the num-
Der of pupils in a single class from %
. 60 90; third. by separating the bright
and dull pupils; fourth. by eliminating
Z from the curriculum matters not need
/ ed by the university student or by the
grammar school child, as the case may