The Daily Missoulian., 1914-06-15

appearance, goodness, kindness, pa
tience, politeness and neatness are
recognized BY about an equal percent
age OF children in all grades.
Another investigation concerned it.
self with thG opinions Of high school
pupils as to characteristics Of their
favorite teachers. According to the
testimony of these adoleseents those
teachers are the best teachers who
understand boys and girls, who have a
strong personality, who are young, en-
ergetic, enthusiastic, interested in their
work, have high scholarship and are
sympathetic, patient, just, cheerful and
kind. Admitting that the ideal teacher
should represent composite of all
these qualities, it nevertheless is true
that the judgments of children do not
assist one materially in making a salts
factory quantitative analysis of teach
ing efficiency.
One way to measure teaching eff
cheney is to evaluate the causes of
failure among teachers. Two students
at the University of Illinois recently
attempted this, one for grade teachers
and the other for high school teach
ers. thereafter in this paper the word
teacher will be used to refer to high
school teachers, but the facts given
may be applied almost without change
to elementary feachers). The returns
used in rating high school teachers
show that 21 out of every 100 failures
are due to inability to instruct. The
replies of superintendent and princi-
pals show that there are many varie-
ties of poor instruction. Some teach
ers fail because they use inadequate
Methods others because they seem to
be unable to judge the capacity of the
pupils and to adapt the materials to
their maturity levels, others because
they are not familiar with the tech
niuue of the recitation--they do not
know that raeitations may be classi-
fled into lesson typesan still others
fail because they employ obsolete or
stereotyped motheds. Whether these
people could have been saved for sue.
cessful teaching no one knows; but 1T
seems reasonable to assume that they
could, had they been required to meet
certain minimum academic and pro-
fessional standards before they were
granted the privilege OF becoming
teachers. What more severe indlct-
ment can be brought against organ
lied society than that it entrusts to
unframed novitiates the transmitting
of the culture Of the race to the youth
of the land, of training them In habits
of thinking, in modes or behavior. IN
methods of work, and in intelligent
appreciations. Those who really care
for preserving the traditional ideals
of teaching and for making it true
profession, should engage in an or
ganized attempt to prevent none but
the trained to enter it. Whenever
teacher fails because of ignorance 1t
is a criticism upon an apathetic pub
lie that fails to provide adequate
means for training them, or upon the
inefficiency of the superintendent.
Seventeen out of every 100 failures
can be attributed to weakness OF per-
sonality. What is meant by personality
is not always clear. Thinking men
generally admit that it does not repre-
sent an innate and unmodifiable quail
ity 1t is not a temperamental or su-
pernatural something due wholly to
heredity and unresponsive to environ
mental changes. That personality rep
resents a composite of many qualities
each of which is sensitive to change
and subject to training, is generally
accepted. The qualities arranged in the
the order of their Importance as deter
mining personality, as shown by re-
cent Study at the University of Illinois,
are address, personal appearance, opti-
p,ic g la c,,o
sincerity, sympathy. vitality and schol-
arship 1t will he noted that the ma
| terial and most easily noticeable quail
| ties are most important in determining
personality, and that there are no ele-
| ments in the list that do not change
with age and with training. From this
array of items one is confirmed in the
impression that there is no such thing
as a personality that is good for the
schoolroom. There must be a great
variety of personalities all of which
are good for the schoolroom. Bearing
in mind that the qualities that make
| personality never exist in a purely
| ideal relationship in any individual
and that they are modifiable, it is the
problem of the supervisor to give i'm
mediate and personal attention to
them. Generally speaking, the failure
Of SO large a number of teachers be-
cause of defections in personality is 4
criticism both upon training school
! and upon supervisors.
The third cause of failure among
teachers is due to lack of interst in
their work. Fourteen out of every 100
failures are dropped by the wayside
because they are uninterested In
| teaching. Many causes contribute to
this lack of interest. but the most
prominent ones are "a the motive i'm
lpelling the recruit to enter teaching
and (2) her ignorance of the subject
matter. 1t is fact that the majority
of people who enter teaching do so
purely from economic motives. 1t Is
an easy step from the schooiroom as
a student into the schoolroom as a
teacher. And, moreover, teaching is
universally regarded as respectable
Most of the beginners enter teaching
because 1T is respectable way OF
earning a living. Only a comparatively
small number look upon it as profess
sion The professional motive, as a
rule, comes late. It is either the result