The Nevada County picayune., 1916-04-20
PUBLIC EDUCATION IN ARK
 kkSAS
No. 5. The Training of Tsscher,


 By Dr. J. R. Jewell, Dean of School of Education, University of Arkansas.
 We live in republic removed but one step from pure democracy Thomas Jefferson wrote to Washing, ton in 17S6, Our liberty can never be safe but in the hands of the peopla themselves, and that too of people with certain degree of education" One of his last public utterances was. So long as l breathe l shall claim right to further public education" Madison wrote. "A popular govern. ment without a popular education is but the prologue to farce or trage- dy. or perhaps both"
 There are now enrolled In the pub. lie schools of this country moro than eighteen million children. They are taught by five hundred thousand teachers The average school room life of teacher is less than six years the country over and in this part of the great Middle West 1t is much less than that. More than eighty thou. sand new teachers find their way into the school room every year. Sixty thousand of them are untrained and have no other way 10 perfect them selves In methods of teaching, admin istration and discipline than by their experiments on defenseless children: sixty thousand more have been ex. perimenting on the little folks for s year. and another sixty thousand are just beginning to feel at home after two years of learning through exper fence, that is. If they have intelligent supervision.
 < But only about half the population between the ages of five and eighteen is enrolled in any public school dur, ing any particular year. Consider this In the light of the importance of an intelligent citizenship as seen by our forefathers whe framed our constitu ton. and the importance Of as perfect an education as possible for all the half whe are in school will readily be seen. Moreover, the average child of school age is receiving only ninety days of schooling each year Clearl. then 1t is imperative that since the only place this problem may be i'm mediately attacked tx on the side Of instruction. we must provide the most skilled teachers for our children, es pecially through the first six grades for the average American neyer gets beyond them. and it is only through the common scholarship acquired dur assure ourselves of the common heri tage Of the American institutions Of which we are so proud
 IL is not true that teachers are born and not made. any more than the same statement would he true TOT lawyers or engineers. Al any rate they are not born ready made so ciety dignines teaching by calling it a profession, which means that our teachers must consequently have q clear idea of the scientific principles which determine its procedure. All of us have seen the natural teacher with her wonderful "knRck.' doing wretChedly bad things in wonderful ly skilful way. She learned as an SD prentice would who had no master No intelligent man would employ such a workman on piece of labor demanding skill
 This is not merely q school mans point of view Now that we are hear. ing so much about efficiency business men the country over are demanding that the teachers of the public schools should have professional training. In diana and California each require work in either an accredited normal school or in Teachers College in addition to high school graduation De fore young man CT a young woman may offer to teach even the poorest country school in the state Missouri demands half year of college peda- gogy and psycholoEy with full time given 10 it daily, before teaching in its best accredited high schools Prac. tically ali of the white teachers ot Louisiana have professional tratD ing Kansas is demanding normal N VT Ntt A>S t'NNit'i AAttl. t@0 ia Ua set aside sufficient school funds o enable her to procure tho best teachers from any of the neigh. boring states
 And Arkansas must either insist ou all her teachers being professionally prepared or see her sons and daugh. ters. on whose intelligence and train ing alone will depend the future pros perity of our great state. so poorly prepared for life, and they will not be able to compete with the youth of other states