River Falls journal. [volume] (River Falls, Pierce County, Wis.) 1872-2019, 1910-05-26
IN a great university a short time

In a great university short time
since a professor in mathematics
gave course in trigonometry. He
openly told his students that all he
he wanted them TO do was to under
stand the theory he gave them in
lectures three times a week for
semester. The students who pass
ed" in this course could not to-day
solve a simple problem to save their
souls, unless they have studied the
subject since. A professor of Eng
students who want to teach English
in high schools. The semester is
taken up in explaining that English
is an unaffected language and has
no grammar. Drill in the analysis
of difficult English sentences would
be a most excellent training for
these young people. 1t would de-
velop their analytic power and
would add to their efficiency as
teachers. But what would be use
full and the useful is with many col
lege professors taboo. In many of
the best institutions in this country
to-day teachers are taught the art
Of teaching, not by practice and
criticism, but by lectures on peda-
gogy. One of these lecturers re-
Gently said to his students in the
teachers course" in an academic
subject, Remember that in the
high school you are to teach the
subject. The professor of peda-
gogy will tell you that you must
teach boys and girls, but this is
nothing but can't" Which, being
interpreted, means that the teacher
must have her interests centered in
biology, physics, and the like, and
not in her pupils. They may be in
terested or not, they may learn or
not; that is their affair and not the
business of the teacher.
You can find scores of young men
and women now about to get di-
plomas from leading institutions of
the country who are saying to one
another that teaching is going to
be soft snap. "You assign the
lessons and you have the book SO
YOU can see whether the pupils re-
cite correctly or not" School
board officers might as we'll make
use of monographs in their school
rooms as to employ teachers who
act upon such instruction as is
given by some university professors
who are so absorbed in their sub
iects as not to care a rap about stu
dents as young people to be trans
formed into worthy, efficient citi-
zens. To be sure, there are many
young people, especially among
those who have had experience in
teaching, who have a higher con-
ception of the teachers function.
The school says, | will test you
by what you know; the world says,
will test you by what you can do
The solution is for the school to
teach both knowledge and doing.
The school should transform knOwl-
edge into power as rapidly as
knowledge is acquired. There is
only one safe and sure way to do
this and that is to put knowledge
into practice as promptly as pos
sible. One reason why our schools
are so sadly divorced from the prac-
tice side is that so many teachers
are not trained in making knowl-
edge useful Students often get
more knowledge as to the formation
of words in the English language
from three months of word analysis
than they do from eight years of the
: study of Latin for the reason that
in general teachers of Latin seem to
think their students will learn this
without having their attention call
ed to ii. Most of the subjects in the
curriculum are largely bookish and
they are taught in bookish way.
| We must instruct our training
schools to give US high school
teachers who know how to develop
the initiative, the active nature, the
thinking power, the doing power.
, We must also introduce extensively
into our schools such subjects as
manual training, domestic science,
commercial branches, agriculture
and the like, in all of which the do
ing side is still prominent. A Ju-
dicious amount of such work COM
bined with the more bookish sub
, iects taught in a less bookish way
than now will tend powerfully to in
5 crease the actual efficiency of high
t school graduates. In many OF our
: best schools there is now this Ju-
r. 4, ~