146

AIMS OF THE DEPARTMENT

of Regents, in June of the next year, established a department or chair of "The Science and Art of Teaching." The aim of the Regents in establishing the department was stated to be: (1) To fit University students for the higher positions in the public school service; (2) To secure to teaching the rights, prerogatives, and advantages of a profession; (3) To give a more perfect unity to our State educational system, by bringing the secondary schools into closer relation with the University."

Some tentative efforts had been previously made in two or three institutions of higher learning in other States, but no permanent departments or chairs had been established. In referring to this action of the Board of Regents, the United States Commissioner of Education in his report for 1889-90 said: "It was not until 1879 that a definite step was taken in the way of recognizing pedagogy as a science and also of recognizing the necessity of training teachers for schools above the elementary grade. In that year the University of Michigan established a chair which took the expressive name of the 'Science and Art of Teaching.""

The work of the department has been ably performed and has been of great service to secondary education in the State. The University has been peculiarly fortunate in the two men who have thus far filled the chair. Dr. W. H. Payne was appointed in 1879, when the chair was established, and served until 1887, when he resigned to accept the charge of an important educational institution in Nashville, Tennessee. Dr. B. A. Hinsdale filled the chair from 1887 until his death in November, 1900, when Dr. Payne was recalled to the position.

TEACHERS' COURSES IN COLLEGES

147

TEACHERS' COURSES IN THE COLLEGES.

As previously stated, teachers' classes were organized in most of the denominational Colleges of the State at an early period. The courses of instruction for these classes were of varying degrees of excellency, but were generally such as to be of essential advantage to the students intending to teach, and consequently to the public schools of the State. Gradually the courses were made more extended and more systematic; and the feeling became very strong among the teachers in these institutions and among their supporters and patrons, that the pedagogical work done in them should be recognized, in some appropriate way by the State.

As a result in 1893, the Legislature passed an act, authorizing the Board of Education to grant teachers' certificates, (the character of which will be explained in another place) to graduates of those colleges which, in addition to the regular four years' course, provided a course of study in the science and art of teaching satisfactory to the Board. Colleges complying with the conditions prescribed, became an integral part of the State system of public instruction so far as the teachers' departments are concerned. Graduates of the Colleges are rendering important service to the Commonwealth, chiefly in the schools of secondary instruc

tion.

SUMMARY OF THE FACILITIES FOR THE PREPARATION OF TEACHERS FOR THE PRIMARY AND SECONDARY SCHOOLS.

I. The system of teachers' institutes.

2. The Normal college at Ypsilanti.

3. The normal schools at Mount Pleasant and Marquette.

148 PROVISIONS ADEQUATE FOR SECONDARY SCHOOLS

4. Department of the science and art of teaching in the University.

5. Teachers' Courses in the colleges.

It will be seen that the facilities for the preparation of teachers for the secondary schools are ample. It is only for the primary schools that any additional facilities of any kind are needed.

CHAPTER XII.

CERTIFICATION OF TEACHERS AND SUPERVISION OF

SCHOOLS.

TOWNSHIP SCHOOL INSPECTORS.

Under the provisions of the first School law of the State the township School inspectors were the examining and supervising board of the township. They were required to examine all persons proposing to teach in the public Schools "in regard to moral character, learning, and ability to teach School," and to give certificates, valid for one year, to those who passed a satisfactory examination. The Superintendent of public instruction prescribed the form of the certificates which were all of one grade. The branches of study, in which examinations were to be made were not indicated at first. An early amendment of the statute made the certificates valid for two years, and forbade the granting of a certificate to any person who did not possess "a thorough and accurate knowledge of the several branches of study usually taught in primary schools." By implication this determined the extent of the examination.

The law also directed that some member of the board of inspectors should visit each school in the township, at least once in each school year, who should "inquire into the condition of the school, examine the scholars, and give such advice to both teachers and pupils as he deemed necessary or beneficial." An amendment to the law in 1859 allowed the inspectors, in their discretion, to grant certificates "for a

150

CHARACTER OF EXAMINATIONS

term of not less than six months nor more than two years." This was the first movement towards grading certificates. No change has been made touching the studies in which examinations should be required, but the organization of graded schools, in which higher branches were taught, led the State Superintendent to append a note to the law saying: "Whenever the applicant proposes to teach in the higher departments of a graded school, or in any advanced primary school, he should be examined in the branches he will be expected to teach."

Until the passage of the act creating the office of County Superintendent in 1867, all examinations of teachers of all grades, and all supervision of the common schools were made by the township boards of school inspectors. In 1857 the graduates of the normal school had been relieved from the necessity of an examination, but the graduates of the University, if they desired to teach in the public schools, had to submit to an examination by the inspectors. This system of certification and supervision continued for thirty years. Of its general character Superintendent Hosford, in his report for 1866, wrote: "The examination, as conducted in a multitude of instances, is simply a form; or, perhaps, to say that it is a mere farce, would be saying what is more nearly the truth, and not unfrequently are certificates given without even the form of an examination. The present system of examining teachers, so far as the securing of competent instructors by it is concerned, is a complete failure, and the system of school supervision, so far as the improvement of the schools by it is concerned, is equally a failure."