The Springdale news., 1916-04-21
PUBLIC EDUCATION IN ARK
AASAS
No. 5. The Training of Teachers.

wv y. me framing or Teachers.
by DIT. 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 1886, "Our liberty can never be
safe but In the hands of the people
themselves, and that too of people
With certain degree of education.
One of his last public utterances was.
So long as | breathe | shall claim
right to further public education.
Madison wrote, "A popular govern
ment without a popular education is
but the prologue TO a farce or a TRACE
dy or perhaps BOTH
There are now enrolled in the pub
lie schools of this country more 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 it 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 unframed and
have no other way to 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
year, and another sixty thousand are
Just beginning II 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
ferefathers who framed our constitu-
ton, and the importance of as perfect
an education as possible for all the
half who are in school will readily
be seen. Moreover, the average child
of school age is receiving only ninety
days Of schooling each year Clearly
then it is imperative that since the
only place this problem may be i'm
mediately attacked is 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 never gets
beyond them. and it is only through
the common scholarship acquired dur
ing these early grades that we are to
assure ourselves Of the common heri-
tage Of the American institutions OF
which We are so proud
It is not true that teachers are
born and not made" any more than
the same statement would be true for
lawyers or engineers. At any rate
they are not born ready made. So
ciety dignifies teaching by calling it
a profession, which means that our
teachers must consequently have
clear idea of the scientific principles
which determine its procedure. All
of us have seen the natural teacher
with her wonderful "knack." doing
wretchedly bad things in a wonderful
" skilful way She learned as an ap-
prentice would who had no master.
No intelligent man would employ
such a workman on a piece Of labor
demanding skill.
This is not merely a 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 a Teachers College in
addition to high school graduation be-
fore a young man or young woman
may offer to teach even the poorest
country school in the state Missouri
demands half a year of college peda-
gogy and psychology, with full time
given to it daily, before teaching in
its best accredited high schools. Prac-
tically all of the white teachers OF
Louisiana have a professional train
ing. Kansas is demanding normal
training of all its teachers. Minneso-
Ia has set aside sufficient school
funds to enable her to procure the
best teachers from any OF the neigh,
boring states.
And Arkansas must either insist on
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