Harrisburg telegraph. [volume] (Harrisburg, Pa.) 1879-1948, 1919-12-31

. name? IF they can do this said
he, they pass and / send them TO
the Cross Roads school or the school
on the Big Hill, or the school at
Jones Bend He meant to convey
the serious information that he
found it impossible to find teachers
enough of them to supply his
needs-with even the minimum
requisite of preparation, and so had
to complete his corps with what ne
could get.
High school teachers, generally
speaking, upon graduation, have not
been trained to be teachers. The
college course, as rule, is not
chosen with q view to teachlng'
Hundreds of college graduates en-
ter the profession each year without
an hours credit in the subject OF
education. This is particularly true
of graduates in technical courses
and of technical schools. Either the
subject of education is not onered
at all. or, if offered, is neglected
entirely by the student in making
his electives. The motive or the
average college professor in the
class room is the development OF
trained mind, not the production OF
teachers. Method courses IN the
principal high school subjects, sucn
rs Latin, mathematics, history ana
English, are rarely to De 1ouno:
The student generally comes out OF
college with considerable abstract
and concrete information and
knowledge, but without specihc
training as to the most effective
ways and means of imparting it to
others.
The State of Pennsylvania grants
n provisional college certificate TO
graduates who have completed TWO
hundred hours of work in pedagogy
or allied subjects-equivalen TO an
hour a day for about one college
year. This is good, as far is II goes
and no criticism is intended OF Ihe
present law or its application. But
it remains n fact that one can stuuy
pedagogy for over two thousand
hours and still know very little oil
the practice of teaching
Experience Best
"Experience sometimes makes the
best teacher, but not always. II
generally will make one at least
better teacher than he would nave
been without it, and the longer the
experience, within reasonable nmlts'
the better the teaching. This is the
theory upon which most salary
schedules are based, the only checks
being applied in the Exceptional
cases where the rule does not WORK
w if this commonly accepted req
soning relative to experience Is
sound, then the average length ot
experience represented IN SENIOR
system or a State, will measure
fairly accurately the relative efficl-
ency from year to year in teaching.
"Teachers of experience have been
leaving the profession by the thou
sand and their places have been
taken by other thousands of the IN
eXperienced. l do not referto the nor
NAL losses from year to year, whlch
always have existed and which are
fairly constant, but to the abnormal
losses which have taken place our
ing the past few years and are sun
to be reckoned with. We canhoL
subtract twenty or more experienced
and efficient teachers from school
system, or even one for that mat
ter. and then add u like number OF
inexperienced, and come out even III
the operation; and, If many OF the
inexperienced are also unprepareo'
the result is even worse.
"Yet this is n process which has
been going on, and is now going on,
all over the country. The war, or
course. precipitated the situation,
directly or indirectly, but the war is
now over and the condition has not
perceptibIy changed. This fact
makes the situation even more seri-
Gus. Unless we can succeed better
in holding our teachers in service
during the next few years. thereby
raising the average of experience
and efficiency, we shaTl have TO face
consequences in the
schools.
"One would think that with these
lowering standards of the past few
years as to preparation and expert
ence the supply of teachers would
be incBeased; but such is not the
case. At the opening of schools last