The Irish standard. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn. ;) 1886-1920, 1915-12-11
PERSONALITY AND EFFICIENCY N A TEACHER
Reverend Father Boyle Superintendent of.Parish
Schools, Pittsburgh Pa)

SCHOOLS, I'll
The Third Plenary Council of Balti-
more has dealt with the whole sub
ject of teaching in the elementary
schools of this country in very nota-
BILE chapter, de Juventutis Institu-
tione." The legislation is adequate
to the demands for information which
the authorities in diocese or in re-
ligious community may make upon it;
it meets the school situation in this
country squarely and deals with it
thoroughly. The efficiency of teachers
comes in for discussion, and Bishops
are urged to appoint, within the year
following the PRONUNCIATION Of the de-
crees of the Council, Commission of
Diocesan Examiners whose duty it will
be to satisfy themselves that teachers
laboring in the diocesan schools are
equipped for the work. The Exam
liners are to issue certificates testify
ing to the efficiency of the teachers,
and pastors are expressly forbidden to
employ teachers in their schools who
have not been certified to them by an
official board of examiners. The Bish-
ops are further required to use their
influence with the Superiors Of re-
ligious communities of teachers, that
normal schools may be established
by the communities for the instruction
and training of young teachers. The
organization of this arm of the admin
istration of diocesan schools is pro
vided for by the Plenary Council in
as detailed manner as is every other
branch of school administration.
The way in which the efficiency OF
teachers is to be established, and the
matter of the examinations, are left
largely to the judgment and the dis
erection of the examiners. The decree
says that the priests appointed by the
Bishop on the Board of Examiners
are to be very competent schoolmen
They will naturally tend to reflect, in
their demands on teachers, the de
mands that are made on teachers In
the system of public schools which
surrounds, and to some extent, influ
ences our own system. In the way
of scholarship, the public school sys
tenn very generally demands the com
mon school course of eight years, the
secondary school course of four years
and an additional two, and sometimes
three years Of normal school work
The normal school is designed to equip
its pupils for the professions of teach
ing; it emphasizes methodology, class
room management, the psychology OF
education and the like, and, strictly
speaking, is professional school. The
equipment, in the way Of general
education, is deemed adequate, If the
teacher has finished the four years of
high school work.
The teacher in a primary grade, or
in third or a fourth grade class, is
required to have this degree and this
kind Of scholarship, as we'll as the
teacher in an eighth grade. The class
work in the lower grades may make
no demands on these stores Of knowl-
edge, but they are thought necessary
to give point and direction to the
teaching there, and to give back
ground of culture and Of information
that enriches the atmosphere of the
classroom, and contributes, as an in
formal element, to the education Of
the child.
I need not say that this course of
preparation is highly systematized, nor
concede that 1t is we'll done. That
goes without saying. 1t is part Of the
great system Of education that, more
and more. reduces the imparting of
knowledge and the training Of young
Americans to a machine-made perfec-
ton and a mechanical uniformity. It
is because it is so efficiently done that
1t seems to me to threaten real edu-
cation. 1t makes teaching largely Inn.
personal, and I suspect that imper-
sonal teaching is of little worth. For
most of US who regard character as
the best product Of a school, the effect
OF teaching that has been divested
80 largely Of the personal element,
must always be sadly disappointing.
A teacher whose mental content and