The Catholic bulletin. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1911-1995, 1915-07-03

SCHOOLS, PHILADELPHIA, PA,
ON A SCHEME OF ADMlNlsTRA-
TON FOR A TEACHING PRINcl-
PAL.
AS rule the degree of efficiency
OF the supervision in an elementary
school will be the measure of the
schooPs success. All the grades should
constitute a unit, should have one
definite object and be inordinated in
one general plan Hence the necessity
OF Capitalization Of authority and Of
unity IN the planning power
After a brief description of the du-
ties of the principal both outside of
school hours and during class time
the paper urges the Importance of the
help principal can and ought to give
inexperienced teachers and narrates
instances of unsuccessful teachers
being formed into very efficient in
structors as result of this guidance.
Just what number of classes or of
pupils make free principal neces-
sary is point on which there seems
to be a great diversity of opinion.
The writer has made canvass of the
practices that obtain in this matter in
the various dioceses of the East and
of the Middle West.
According to the opinion of our
teaching communities, principal who
will be concerned only with the duties
OF supervision becomes necessity in
school OF seven or more classes.
According to the same authority such
an arrangement will be advisable in
any school of even five classes.
When, however, owing to the death
OF teachers or to economic conditions,
it becomes necessary for one of the
regular teachers to supervise the work
OF the school, special plans must be
made to provide for the performance
OF that part of the supervision that
must be done during school hours.
Since the higher grades as a rule
can be trusted to work by themselves
better than the lower grades, it is
generally advisable for the principal
to take the highest grade for her own.
Then she can so plan her schedule
as to secure a free period in which
she may visit the other rooms, having
assigned to her own class written
work or tests.
IF religious instruction or singing or
drawing lessons be given by someone
other than the regular class teacher
this time can also be utilized by the
principal in visiting other rooms, the
teacher in whose room the lesson is
Delng given taking the principals
class for that period. A plan more
generally followed is for the principal
to hand over certain branch such as
penmanship or reading to the other
teachers, the principal exchanging
classes with the. different teachers for
Ithat period. mi
THE teaching principal will be
forced at times to teach a model les
son in some branch in which she
thinks it necessary, during the BIZ
weekly teachers meeting although as
a rule this is not so effective as Civ
ing the lesson in presence of the
teacher and her class. Since where
various plans are not exclusive of one
another they may all be combined and
used as far as circumstances demand.
But with all her planning and will
all the extra labor the teaching prin-
cipal undertakes, some of the work OF
supervision must necessarily be left
undone.
We cannot urge too strongly on
pastors or others charged with the
care of school, the advisability of hav
ing a free principal. The additional
, expense incurred would be more than
justified by the imposed results that
could be reasonably expected"