The Brattleboro daily reformer. (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1913-1955, 1921-03-02
INTELLIGENCE IN
TEACHERS NEEDED
Profession Should Be Made
Attractive TO Persons
of Character
BETTER GROUPING OF
CHILDREN DESIRABLE
Special Attention Should Be Given
These OF Weak intellectual Capabili-
ties COuntry's Aim and Ideals
Should BE Interpreted in Schools.

FNffbNA0 AJG AhEtA NACu III SNks1Ot5H
ATLANTIC CITY. y. J. March p
The first and immediate way of getting
better teaching throughout the country
is d guide into the profession those of
god intelligence and good character that
th teachers are instructing, Mrs. Su-
sci NJ. Dorsey, of Los Angeles told the
apartment OF superintendent OF the
>rionai Educational association here
tIay.
While we are guiding into other vo-
ctioas, what is to prevent us from
uinting the way into our own Mrs
dorsey asked. by seeing with Il clear
tSIon its rcgoncratug dcstinieS, the
bad that leads to supreme service; by
1viting the best of those whom we
each TO enter vocation second to
zone in opportunity, we shall have bet
en- teaching
Public school teaching can be greatly
improved by Il more intelligent group
lg of children according to their intel
rctual capabilities and their general
ouduct SO that instruction may be
ldapted TO their varying degrees of in
diligence, and especially to the peculiar
leeds of the large group of averaged
hildren, Mrs. Dorsey said.
There are those i'm the class doomed
10 failure. and this paralyzes teacher
effort. She continued. OF late, empha-
Sis has been placed, and rightly, upon
the necessity OF Segregating the educa-
tionalIy unfit, for the sake of the chill
dren. What l wish to urge is the nee
c>Sity of such segregation in the inter
cStS Of good teaching.
by referring to agc-grade tables, it
is found that about Onc-third Of the chill
dren in the public schools are one year
or more behind grade. When we elimi-
nate the two or three per cent that are
actually Predetermined. there still remain
the 81 per cent who could very well get
back TO grade if they could be given at
teution according to their needs.
An experiment in the interests of the
30 per cent has recently come under my
observations Each child has a portfolio
containing n series of lesson exercises
aud questions increasing in difficulty but
expressed in plain. understandable Ian
auagc; each lesson in the series forming
Il distinct unit which may require
longer or shorter time for mastery. A.
soon as one unit is mastered. the child
passes on to the next. When a difficulty
is met. the teachers help is asked. il be
ing understood that the help given shall
be such that the child will really solve
the difficulty himself. This experiment
undertaken in the interest of mi>ftS and
average children has resulted so help
fully that in many instances belatcJ
children have covered two and even
three grades in a half-rear and been
entered into their regular grade quite
able to move on with the successful pu-
pills of their own age.
The points of Improvement over the
ordinary type Of lesson are these: Su
uerfiuouS material and yerbiagc are elm
mated.
n third measure that will contrib
ute to tins cad is a somewhat better adj
iWStm"ut ri teacher training gwen in de
paItncuts Of education 10 the everyday
needs Of the child. There is need of q
coming together of the departments of
education and the public schools since
the greater number of those vino grad
nate from the schools of education are
20 become the teachers of Just boys and
girls in the elementary or high school
Those Young instructors need to under
stand thoroughly two things: First
that university methods. attitudes. and
even standards cannot be carried into
the teaching of boys and girls; and sec
oud. that a greater emphasis must be
placed upon the development of children
than upon the development of subject
matter
Our departments of education must
train men and women of sympathy and
of understanding hearts who viii care as
much for the present life of the child
and for his future fate as for the last
lot and 1.-THE of Il finished recitation in
- favorite subject. They must under
stand that the young have emotions as
we'll as intellect and that unless these
emotions are educated to right express
sion. they will turn and rcnd society.
Il am rot urging the increase of I'M
defined. amleSs teaching of ideals Of
democrae'. social service and patriot
ism. ! am asking that these ideals be
cl.v4tali.od into a body of teaching ma
tsrial which shall clearly define the I'M
DERIVING principles of the governmental
and SOCIAL experiment on which the
American people hav" embarked and in
The mids Of which We are living The
place w,ich the public school holds i'm
the genGal scheme of this experiment {:
how ia the public school M to IT,
time he realized its duties and ssh
hiIities n this general scheme a. what
j. the next step in order to achieve q
fuller HaliZatiOn of the particular Sprv-
ice to g rendered by this American in
etitutio are matters of first Importance
i'm tcater training.
"AnOccasional reminder to nrospec-
tive tachers by those entrusted with
their aiming, that loyalty to country
and r-eTencc for the fac should be
taugh will not suffice. What we need
is > ch body of informative material
to il innate and illustrate the whole
Subtle of the responsibility of the in
3ividil to society and to the statP. nrP-
naret from the point of view of public
schnC education in a land-such as ours.
7 France was able to stand fast
withler word They shall not pass Il
was acaUse her children grown to man
hooflad been educated from their earli-
est ars 10 n sense of the national dan
ger nd of the necessity of nrenqratioo
aadeSistence to the death. So must
AMIGA iuternret her national aims
aaideaIs and through unified in4tr1,c.
+ioin the public schools establish in thu
he's of her people a national defense
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