The Montgomery advertiser., 1907-02-24

the constant supervision of professional teachers and their year of work In the actual schools of the city. teaching real lessons to real children in real school rooms, is not unlike the actual hospital practice that is considered necessary and invaluable part of the training of 8 modern medical school Like the stu- dent doctors in the hospitals the stu dent teachers in the schools Of ProVl- dence receive compensation for ther services and many of them have thus entered permanently into the local pub lie school system.
 Nor has this system proved. as it's op- ponents at first insisted it would, one sided arrangement, beneficial to the University at the expense or the chii- dren. It has been found in practice that the children also benefit by the arrangement, for the classes presided over by the student teachers are not only in the hands of young men or wo- men theoretically well trained for the position but are also carefully watched over by the older teachers appointed to supervise their younger associates. And in addition to these teaching appoint ments there are also other appoint ments that give the young University graduate an opportunity to teach and observe conditions in the public schools without direct remuneration.
 The new Idea of university influence that has so immediately found its place in the community was Indeed first sug
 gested at meeting of the Brown Uni- versity Teachers Association, an organ ization composed of graduates now In the teaching profession and naturally including many Providence teachers. Professor Walter Ballou Jacobs. who has direct charge of the courses, was fon several years prominent in the pulp lie school system of Providence before he was appointed to the Department of Education at the University. The att tendance includes a large proportion of the public school teachers. It Is not improbable that the municipal authori- ties will further enter Into the spirit of the new movement by future arrange
 ment that shall grant such teachers as have accomplished specific amount of the work a leave of absence long enough to complete the requirements for the degree by continuous study Alto gether, therefore. the surprising success of the movement is at least partly ex- | plainable by local conditions.
 Nor is 1t without interest as the par
 tial revival under better conditions, of
 the earlier custom, still followed by l many American colleges, of sending
 members of the University teaching
 stan to deliver lectures at more or less | distant places. Ten or fifteen years ago
 the University sent it's instructors all 1 over Rhode Island, their visits to the
 smaller towns and villages correspond | ing to the lectures of lyceum course. l But only one or two lectures could be
 delivered at each place in winter and l they brought to town hall. school house | or church vestry a miscellaneous audi
 ence that could hardly be expected to | get the greatest possible good out of | them. It became finally evident that | the task imposed upon the individual
 lecturers was out of proportion to the l good actually accomplished and the cus- | tom was gradually abandoned. The in- | auguration of extension teaching" was | to a certain extent the resumption of
 the older sphere of usefulness under
 conditions that not only greatly in-
 crease its opportunities for individual mental profit but place 1t entirely with
 in university limits and in the univer- l sity atmosphere.