The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1920-01-22


normal school graduate, but education
alone cannot make a teacher. The
inexperienced college graduate, as
rule, is not as good a teacher as the
inexperienced normal graduate; which
is but another way of saying that
high school teachers just out of col
lege are, as a rule, not as efficient as
teachers in the elementary grades just
out of normal schools. While some of
our best teaching is to be found in the
high schools, it remains a fact, never
theless, that some of our poorest teach
ing is also found there. In fact, many
of our smaller high schools, admitting
of necessity, as they do, unprepared
college graduates into their teaching
corps are merely laboratories of ex-
perimentation. The students mean
while are the innocent sufferers.
But, after all, the grade of position,
as such, has very little to do with the
case. 1t is preparation for the actual
work of teaching that counts. If the
elementary teacher has not been
trained to teach, the chances are that
she cannot, without experience, teach
effectively. If the high school teacher,
even tho a college graduate, lacks spe-
citic preparation for teaching, the
probability is that his work will also
be poor. And we might go further
and say that if the young college or
university tutor, or assistant. or what
ever he may be, has made no scientific
study of school management and the
! teaching process, he, too, is in the
| same category.
Preparation of Shop Teachers.
In discussing the subject of in
sufficient preparation one cannot re-
frain from referring at least briefly
to the pitiful inadequacy of facilities
for preparing teachers for various
forms of manual work for boys. Of
course we have schools of technology
and well equipped technical depart
ments in many of our higher edu-
cational institutions, but their pur-
pose is to make engineers-not teach
ers. It is at times almost impossible
| to find men with either adequate ac-
ademlc preparation or any pedagogic
| preparation to teach such subjects as
wood working, pattern making, mold
ing, sheet metal, forging, practical
electricity, printing, ect. Plenty Of
| practical men can be obtained, if we
pay them enough, but they must be
trained after they are in service
Most of them never heard Of a course
of study before their employment as
teachers, do not appreciate the i'm
| portance of one, and often are pitt
fully deficient in academic prepara-
ton. But we are obliged to man our
school shops and so we take them in.
The heart of the difficulty is the in
adequate system of training schools
for teachers of industrial subjects Our
| normal schools are not equipped for
the purpose of training in such sub
jects, our technical schools have other
ends in view than making teachers,
and few schools that do aim to do the
work cannot supply a tenth Of the
demand and may be thousand miles
away. 1t is unfortunate, to say the
least, that teacher training in manual
subjects for boys has not more nearly
kept pace with the wonderful devel-
| Opment Of this work in the schools of
the country during the past twenty
years. 1t is really far in arrears.
Loss of Experienced Teachers.
Experience sometimes makes the
best teacher. But not always. It
genearlly will make one at least a
better teacher than he would have
been without it, and the longer the
| experience, within reasonable limits.
the better the teaching. This is the
theory upon which most salary sched-
ules are based, the only checks being
applied in the exceptional cases where
! the rule does not work. Now if this
commonly accepted reasoning rela-
tive experience is sound, then the av-
erage length of experience represent
| ed in school system or a state. will
measure fairly accurately the relative
efficiency from year to year in teach
| ing. And here is where the crisis eX-
lists. Teachers of experience have
been leaving the profession by the
thousand and their places have been
taken by other thousands of the in
| experienced. | do not refer to the
normal losses from year to year, which
| always have existed and which are
| fairly constant, but to the abnormal
| losses which have taken place during
| the past few years and are still to be
reckOned with. We cannot subtract
twenty or more experienced and eff
Gent teachers from a school system,
or even one for that matter, and then
add like number of inexperienced,
and come out even in the operation;
and, if many of the inexperienced are
also unprepared, the result is even
worse. Yet this is a process which
has been going on, and is now going
on, all over the country. The war,
| of course, precipitated the situation.
| directly or indirectly, but the war is
now over and the condition has not
perceptible changed. This fact makes
the situation even more serious. IN
less we can succeed better in holding
our teachers in service during the
next few years, thereby raising the
average of experience and efficiency,
we shall have to face unfortunate con
sequences in the schools.
(The situation in Maryland confirms
the statements of the source of sup
ply described above as being greatly
decreased. The graduates of the
State Normal School at Frostburg
has been as follows: 1917-1918, 81;
1918-1919, A; 1919-1920, II only pos
sible. The total enrolment at the
State Normal School at Towson, near
R1 ltiTn0rp DC cont re hoe JaorooroJ