The Republican journal., 1902-01-02
One-Sided Training Of Teachers.
A visitor was recently shown thro,

A visitor was recently shown through
the rooms in which psy chology is taught
| at one of Americas famous schools for
! the training of teachers. The walls were
| covered with excellent diagrams and
charts showing the different parts of the
nervous system. The rooms were well
supplied with expensive models of the
brain and with delicate apparatus for
testing the various kinds of nerve &C
ton. When the visitor was about to
leave, the teacher told him she had no
time to discuss thinking with her
classes. Since this school is called the
State Normal School, and is the only
training school for teachers maintained
at State expense in that Commonwealth,
! the visitor went away wondering
whether that State would not ere long
become missionary ground for the
apostles of true education. To train,
develop, and dicipline the mind surely
means more than the education of the
spinal cord and Of the gray matter of the
brain. 1t involves more than the forma-
/ ton OF habits based upon repeated
nerve action. Important as the brain
and the nervous system are in education,
careful study of their functions cannot
atone for the neglect of inquiry into the
nature of thinking. The true test by
which genuine teaching can be dis
teaching, is found in thinking. The i'm
the gateways of knowledge must be in
terpreted and organized in thought;
otherwise observation lessons have little
value as factors in the mental growth of
the child.
Many young teacher has filled her
mind with facts relating to nervous
action, and with statements of the
principles which are supposed to guide
good teachers in all their teachings.
Although these facts may prove valu-
able IN the management of the indi-
vldual child, and although. the prin-
clples of teaching are at times help
Lin making the needed preparation
for giving d lesson, yet in the alb
sorblng interest and enthusiasm which
characterize instruction when it is at its
best, these facts and principles sink int
the subcOnscious realm, even if they arc
not entirely forgotten. AT each step of
the recitation the teachers chief care is
to make the pupils think the thought
which the words enshrine; and the
supervisor tests the quality of instruc-
ton by ascertaining the quality of the
thinking which the teacher begets in the
pupils. If they repeat words without
comprehending the meaning. the teach
ing is justly stigmatized as parrot work.
If, on the other hand, they think the
thoughts which the words embody, the
class work, even if not above criri-
cism, belongs to the category of good
teachings. Mere nerve action may
beget good habits; but if it does not
involve the exercise of thought it can
notproduce intelligent men and women.
Routine work seldom appeals to the
understandings land review lessons which
do not contain an element of new
thought invariably tend to deaden the
intellectual life. Whenever mental &C
tivity sinks to the level of mechanical
routine, as in the excessive drill in
number work either by the use of ratio
blocks or in the manipulation of ten
digits, the intelligence is apt to become
dormant, and habit takes the place of
thinking, although the exercises strike
the casual observer as marvellous ex-
hibltions of good teachings. athan G.
Schaetf er in the December Forum.