The daily morning journal and courier., 1904-09-10

The college graduate with special ped agogicaI training has supplanted him. in most of the better secondary schools. Only In the lower grades and small high schools has the mere normal grad nate still hold, and from these posi- tions he is being crowded out by the teacher of better preparation. s-~- At the same time, the normal school itself has made enormous strides in the last decade. Ii is now in the transition stage between the normal school of yes teTday and the normal college of to- morrow. In the latter half of the nine teenth century this class of school grew from it's first inception in modern edu- cation till at the eentury's close there were nearly five hundred such institu- tions, public and private, in the United States. .4z
 Then educators awake to the fact that the normal school was not keeping abreast with new educational ideas. In many quarters it had become a laugh ing stock among both teachers and lay men. In this state the pupil entered at the age of sixteen, passing an examina- tion Of the most parliamentary sort, one that would not now admit him to a good high school. Then courses of two, three and four years respectively were open to him. Only tine four years course gave classical instruction, and that or the most meagre sort. From these schools of which there were a dozen controlled by this state alone, classes of from fifty to two hundred were graduated annually, after nasty study of subject matter not equivalent to u good college preparation and a brief instruction in obsolete methods, accompanied by practice of doubtful prscticahilit.s'.
 Then several young and progressive educators took the lead, and conditions have been radically chanse1. At tfe present time the entrance examination to the State Normal school implies a familiarity not only with the three ,'R's," but with much of the more sd ganced mathematics, elementary scl- ence, history and other i important branches covered in the high school. With these eliminated from the normal courge; a part of the college curriculum has been added, modern methods sub stituted for the old and the training school made to conform to practical ra- quirements. As a result, these schools are getting high school and college graduates as pupils, and are sending a still larger percentage of their gradu- ates into colleges on advanced stand ings to complete their preparation, Moreover, 1t is found that the propor- tion of graduates who intend to make teaching their life work is constantly increasing. The student is unwilling to go through So much purely technical training otherwise,
 As for the future of the normal school, 1t is confidently predicted that it will in a few years rise to the legal sta- tus attained by the law, medicine, theo- logical and other professional colleges, as exemplified by the teachers colleges already found in connection with our large universities. \ full college en- trance examination will be required for admission, and the graduate rank in training and dignity with the members ot other professions.
 i But this standard of excellence has already been attained by the teacher in our best secondary schools to-day. In the public school he is hedged in not only by the minimum state require ment, but by the special rulings of lo- cal authorities in most places more stringent than those of the state de- partment. The teacher blessed with. only the more meagre training required by the old dispensation is to-day sup plying the deficiency by constant study and attendance at summer schools, This is supplemented by close superyi- sion by the state department and by the annual teachers institutes, Competi- tion and the demands of patrons who pay liberally to secure the best obtain- able instruction for their children force fthe private school always to keep in the van in the march of pedagogical improvement
 l What then will be the teacher of the 1 future? The educational prophet sees the approaching ideaIin in the teacher of to-day It is believed, however, that there is soon to be made for him a new lplace in the social scheme. He will be recognized as a member of a profession lof a dignity equal to that of the law, medicine or theology. This recognition ] will be coincident with a more worthy pecuniary remuneration and a A,fned position in the social scale. As a pro- fessional man he will follow the tenden- cy of other professions, long ago adopt ed by the college professor, and become l 3 specialist. Each subject, at leasttin the later years of the secondary school courses, will be taught by those who have made that particular subject their | life work.
 1t is to men and women with their eyes fixed on such an ideal that the ed l ucation of the young is intrusted to- dat *
 '+saNs5'i .as7-s .2-' JAPAN MAD, BUT APPREHENsIvE
 England is Japan-n1ad, it seems. Ap- narantIv t1othinp ir ton nytra va co ,,f for