The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1920-01-22
TEACHER CRISES.
Discussed by F. E. Downs, Superin-
tendent of Schools. Harrisburg. Pa.

debted to The American School Board
Journal, leading periodical in school
administration, develops a phase of
the teacher shortage problem which
has not been brought out prominently
in Garrett county. While the specific
number of teachers may be as small
as eight or ten, yet this article points
out that we are as many short as
come under the five sources of the
crises, described in full in the article.
The article is also published with
a view Of giving our readers an in
sight into the teachers problem of our
adjoining state of Pennsylvania which
is typical of the whole country:
There always has been, and always
will be, educational problems to solve
some great and some small, some
distasteful and some pleasurable. We
cannot elude the difficult ones if we
would and we would not pass by the
congenial ones if we could. My pur-
pose in this paper sto call attention
to various important phases of the
Teacher Crises, for the reason that
with respect TO such aspects of the
teacher question as | shall attempt to
discuss, the situation is undoubtedly
educatiOnally dangerous and critical.
There never has been a time in the
history of American education so
fraught with perilous educational
possibilities as the present, and the
danger signals all point to the teacher
as the center of interest and the vital
factor in the outcome. Our settle
ment of teacher problems now, and in
the near future, will have much to do
with the quality of the man product
of the nation in the next generation
Five points of danger must be man
ifest to those who have been close OBJ
servers, which in the interests of
orderly arrangement might be stated
as follows:
l. The crisis due to insufficient prep
aration.
2. The crisis due to inexperience.
3. The crisis due to diminishing sup
ply.
4. The crisis due to lowering ethical
standards.
5. The crisis due to inadequate re-
enumeration.
Insufficient Preparation g..
Exact statistics are unavailable, but
one is probably safe in the general
assertion that at the present time
there is larger percentage of teach
ers in the public schools of the country
who by common consent might be re-
garded as unprepared for their work
then there has been during any year
for the past twenty-five years. From
the Office of the Secretary of the
National Education Association comes
a report estimating that ten per cent
of the teachers accepted in order to
fill recent vacancies are below STAN
dard. The cause for this condition
we shall refer to later. The fact that
the condition exists is obvious to those
who have kept in touch with the
educational news.
The close of the war has not i'm
proved matters perceptibly. While
rural schools have been the worse
sufferers, the condition is general. In
our own state, superintendent have
admitted closing their eyes in many
instances to the academic and pro-
fessional preparation of candidates
and to examine results. They have
been obliged to accept teachers fire.
quently with no normal or other
special teacher training and even with
little or no high school education. One
school head facetiously remarked that
his examinations recently had been
oral and that ne asked but three
questions: Can you count; Can
you read your contract; Can you
sign your name?" IF they can do
this | send them to the Cross Roads
School. or the school on the Big Hill,
or the school at Jones's Bend" He
meant to convey the serious infor-
nation that he found it impossible to
find teachers-enough of them to
supply his needs-with even the min
imum requisite of preparation, and
so had to complete his corps with
what he could get.
High school teachers, generally
speaking, upon graduation, have not
been trained to be teachers. The col
lege course, as a rule, is not chosen
with a view to teaching Hundreds of
college graduates enter the profession
each year without an hours credit in
the subject of education. This is par
ticularly true of graduates in techni-
cal schools. Either the subject of ed
ucation is not offered at all, or, if Of
fered is neglected entirely by the stu
dent in making his electives. The mo-
tive of the average college professor
in the classroom is the development of
a trained mind, not the production of
teachers. Method courses in the
principal high school subjects, such as
Latin, mathematics, history and Eng
lish, are rarely to be found. The stu
dent generally comes out of college
with considerable abstract and con
crete information and knowledge, but
without specifs training as to the
most effective ways and means of i'm
parting it to others.
Insufficiency of College Courses for
Secondary Teachers.
The state of Pennsylvania grants
provision college certificate to gradu-
ates who have completed two hundred
hours Of work in pedagogy or allied
subjects equivalent to an hour day
for about one college year This is
good, as far as it goes, and no criti-
cism is intended of the present law or
its application. But it remains a fact
that one can study pedagogy for even
two thousand hours and still know
very little of the practice of teaching.
Two hundred hours of pedagogy-in-