see that to instruct 30 to 40 pupils of such various attainments as the difference in the ages between 6 and 21 years conditions is a difficult task, and that the teacher inust possess a high degree of self-denial and energy to do this work well. He must occupy silently three or more divisions while he instructs one. In order to make this silent occupation of use to the pupils, how carefully must the exercises be selected, how well prepared beforehand, and how much time does their control and criticism consume? How must the teachers continually study the means of doing the work most thoroughly in the shortest possible time? It is self-evident. The ungraded school demands the most skilful and thorough teacher and educator, The communities with ungraded schools are mostly far removed from larger towns and cities. Their inhabitants belong mostly to the less wealthy and cultivated. Not rarely there is a lack of intellectual incitement and æsthetic refinement so essential for a young person to feel and imitate. Frequently the few refined are too far removed socially from the majority to encourage intercourse between them. A teacher who is to work in such a community has great difficulties to overcome socially. His education may predispose him for the intercourse with the few cultured families, but he is rarely in such pecuniary situation as to mingle with them freely, socially, and familiarly. For the sake of his efficiency he can not withdraw from the society of the majority. Much tact and a strong character are necessary to do the right thing under all circumstances; to displease neither the one nor the other. The teacher of an ungraded school must not only be a thorough teacher and educator, he must at the same time be a man of wisdom and of character. "But what kind of a teacher do we find in many ungraded schools? Young people just dismissed from the same kind of school. What is the cause of this? Because this class of school is considered the proper one for the beginners and it is the most poorly paid. When the latter have instructed in such a school for some time they either strive for a village school or they abandon the work of teaching altogether and other tyros take their place. "These young people enter upon their duties and find themselves before a gigantic task. Hardly any one of them has ever seen a school properly conducted; some will perhaps remember one thing or another from their childhood experience. "Many a one would find it a difficult task to instruct one division properly and to gain its attention and interest, and now he is called upon to employ four or more divisions at the same time. If he loses all hope and grows dispirited is it to be wondered at? It is a wonder if he does not lose courage and succeeds in creating order and fresh life out of chaos." How "As a rule there is little enthusiasm among the teachers of ungraded schools. can there be any as long as the teachers do not know or even feel what great opportunities for doing good to their fellow men are put into their hands. Instead of creating fresh life and vigor they consider their work a drudgery from which to flee as soon as there is a chance seems natural. They know no better. No one has ever opened to them the portals of science or pointed out the blessings which may be conferred upon a community by conscientious, thorough work in ungraded schools. "School directors having charge of ungraded schools should never employ teachers who have not at least served an apprenticeship of several years in a graded school under the supervision of a competent principal or superintendent. The salaries of teachers in ungraded schools should, of course, be much better than those of subordinate teachers in graded schools. Teachers who have successfully taught in ungraded schools will form the best material from which to select principals and superintendents for village and city graded schools, because they are familiar with all the details of the entire course from the primary grade to the high school. "A public school teacher, especially the teacher of an ungraded school, who successfully leads the young to the high aims of intellectual and moral culture, is certainly one of the most useful servants of the State; hence the community should do everything in its power to retain the greatest possible number of such men in the profession and to secure to them satisfactory and respected positions." * * * Grading country schools.-Superintendent Cornell, of Colorado: "Our country schools cannot be made as thorough and efficient as they should be until a definite course of study is adopted and the pupils classified. If the country schools are graded the work must be accomplished largely through the efforts of the county superintendents. They must see that the teachers properly classify the pupils of such schools, and keep proper records of such classification. From these records the teacher should make monthly reports to the county superintendent, which shall show the progress of the school. The mere adoption of a course of study by a school board will avail but little unless some system is inaugurated for having it carried out and made permanent. It is not expected that any one course of study can be adopted in detail in every school. County superintendents must determine what course is best suited to the schools of their coun ties. Yet, if possible, it will be better to follow one general outline of work in every county." A system of grading proposed for Kansas.-The subject of grading the common schools of Kansas has been recommended by Superintendent Lawhead to the consideration of the Legislature of that State. The objects to be sought and some of the advantages that would result he enumerates as follows: "(1) An ultimate reduction in the number of classes, consequently more time could be given to each class. (2) More systematic work could be done, hence each pupil taught by example the necessity and practical benefit of system in everything-a very important element. (3) Each pupil would realize that his advancement would depend upon the thoroughness with which he performed his work, therefore he would be stimulated to do everything in the best manner possible." Organization of ungraded schools.—Hon. John W. Dickinson, secretary of Massachusetts board of education: "A serious hindrance to successful work in ungraded schools is a large number of classes. A large number of classes seems to make necessary many exercises during each daily session. Where there are many different class exercises in the day but little time can be given to each, and with but little time for an exercise, not much good teaching can be done. "Just as good teaching can be done in an ungraded school as in a school that is graded, and it can be done in the same time and in the same way. "It seems desirable, therefore, that an earnest effort should be made by the committees and teachers having these schools in charge to make the number of daily exercises small enough to make good teaching possible. "This may be accomplished in the following way: "First. By uniting as far as practicable the classes in each subject. "The course of study [for ungraded schools in Massachusetts] is laid out for eight years of school attendance, but there are few schools in which all these grades of work are represented at one time. "By the use of supplementary reading matter, and by the topical method in other subjects, classes representing different grades may be brought together. "Second. By alternating the recitations of the older pupils in certain subjects. Thus the recitations in geography and history may occur on alternate days; so may physiology and grammar; writing and drawing may alternate. The reading exercises of the gher classes may alternate with each other. Third. By frequent and regular substitution of written for oral recitations in most of the subjects. This will leave the teachers free for other classes, and the written papers can be examined out of school. Such exercises are of great value to the pupils themselves. "A written programme should be prepared as soon as possible after the beginning of the term. This should contain the order of exercises for each day of the week, and should indicate the time at which each exercise should begin and end. It should be placed where it can be read by the pupils, that they may be guided in their study. If rigidly followed by the teacher it will train the pupils to habits of promptness and punctuality.” VI.-EDUCATION. A man of more account than his trade.-Superintendent Hinsdale, of Cleveland, Ohio: "One of the most discouraging things that the teacher encounters is the erroneous views of the nature and objects of education that are so very common. An intelligent manufacturer tells me, for instance, that he is anxious to find out as speedily as possible what trade or profession his son is fitted for by nature, and then to educate him to follow it. He says he can see the sense of a classical education for a minister or a physician, but evidently it would be thrown away on a mechanic or tradesman. No doubt it would be folly to give, or seek to give, a classical education to all mechanics and tradesmen, or even to many of them. But that is not the point. After all the preaching of 'sweetness and light' we have heard the number of people who can not raise the question of a boy's education above the level of the daily work that he will probably perform is alarmingly large. These people think a man is merely a tool or instrument, and that he should be educated solely for the reason that a chisel or saw should be kept sharp. Now, it scarcely need be said that education should fit men and women for efficiency in work and business. Life has a physical basis; a man can do nothing without his breakfast, and a complete scheme of education must provide for bread-winning. How a boy or girl will be best prepared in school to earn money, and so to win bread, whether by general studies, by special studies, or by a combination of both, I do not now inquire. But I do assert that a man is of more account than his trade. The life is more than meat, and the body than raiment. Man lives not by bread alone; his life consists not of the abundance of the things that he possesses. The human mind is capa ble of knowledge and of seeking truth for truth's sake; capable of sublimity, faith, reverence, sympathy, and pathos; capable of happiness and joy and love, and to deny it the food that feeds these capacities, to try to appease its hunger with a mere business education, or with the husks of learning, is nothing short of starvation." VII.-GRADED SCHOOLS. THE INDIANA SYSTEM OF GRADED SCHOOLS. The State of Indiana furnishes a typical illustration of the American system of graded schools in its fullest development, in which every child may receive an education at the public expense, beginning with the rudiments of learning and continuing on by successive steps up through the highest grade of the university State Superintendent J. W. Holcombe, in his last published report, gives an account of the system as it has been developed in Indiana, from which the following has been compiled. What the term "graded school" is understood to mean in Indiana.-State Superintendent G. W. Hoss (1865), in interpreting the provision of the statute regarding graded schools said: "1st. A graded school is a school in which the pupils are placed in different rooms and under different teachers according to advancement. Consequently, the greater the number of rooms and teachers for any given school the more favorable the means for perfect grading. From this it will be seen that a graded school as contemplated in the above section can not exist with less than two teachers. With one the school may be classified but not graded. Trustees will therefore have regard to this element when they put up buildings designed for graded schools. 2d. As to the time when a graded school should be established for any given township, no definite directions can be given. There are too many local elements to admit of any special directions. It is, however, safe to say that whenever there are pupils in the township whose advancement is such that the district schools can not furnish them instruction, at that moment begins the need of a township graded school furnishing instruction of a higher grade. The trustee must, however, be satisfied that the number of such pupils is sufficient to justify the establishment of such a school before providing the same. 3d. As to place, I would suggest that whenever practicable the township graded school should be established in connection with a district school, thus economizing in building, perhaps in teaching, also furnishing the means of a more thorough grading in at least one primary school in the township. It is suggested further that a village, if centrally located, is usually a favorable place for the township school." "A graded school, it is therefore obvious [Mr. Holcombe says in continuation], may be extended from the smallest township school of two rooms, carrying its course of study no farther than 'the eight branches,' or including but one or two additional branches,' to the highly developed city system, which embraces elementary instruction in the higher mathematics, languages, literature, and science. The graded school develops as the population increases and as the demand for higher instruction grows. The cities, therefore, first established graded schools, and have, as a rule, extended their system in proportion to their size and wealth. All the cities of the State, and most of the towns, maintain graded school systems, terminating in a high school course of from two to four years." The course of study.-The law determining the subjects of instruction in the common schools of the State is as follows: "The common schools of the State shall be taught in the English language; and the trustee shall provide to have taught in them orthography, reading, writing, arithmetic, geography, English grammar, physiology, history of the United States, and good behavior, and such other branches of learning and other languages as the advancement of the pupils may require and the trustees from time to time direct. And whenever the parents or guardians of 25 or more children in attendance at any school of a township, town, or city shall so demand, it shall be the duty of the school trustee or trustees of said township, town, or city to procure efficient teachers and introduce the German language, as a branch of study, into such schools; and the tuition in said schools shall be without charge: Provided, Such demand is made before the teacher for said district is employed." Upon the extent to which the course of study may be carried, James H. Smart, State superintendent (1880), said: "It is fair to assume that the trustees must provide suitable instruction for all the children who may have a right to attend school; that is, they must afford them such instruction as their attainments demand. If a child has mastered all the primary branches, and, being less than twenty-one years of age, still desires to attend school, the trustees must provide suitable instruction for him. It is not reasonable to expect him to spend further time on branches which he has mastered. The fact that the law permits children to attend school till they are twenty-one years of age is presumptive proof that the trustees may be required to furnish such instruction as is suitable to their attainments till they reach that age. I think the argument here adilaced equally applicable to trustees in cities as to those in townships, as the language of the statute applies to both alike." Upon the power of the school authorities to arrange a course of study, the following official opinion was given in 1833: "The school law provides that instruction shall be imparted in certain studies, the German language under certain circumstances being included in the list. The time at which these studies shall be commenced, the order in which they shall be taken up, and the length of time devoted to each are matters which are left to the trustee or school board.” In accordance with the statutes and decisions cited the local school authorities throughout the State have prescribed courses of study which are essentially similar, while differing in details. The importance of uniformity in the high school grades, which are immediately introductory to the university, has led to an effort on the part of the State Teachers' Association to secure a uniform high school course. (See page 193.) High school commissions.—The country schools, the high schools, and the State universities, which in many States form practically three distinct systems, are in Indiana happily united. The work of the country school or of corresponding departments of the city or town school prepares the pupil for admission to the high school. The latter, if it be a representative one, prepares its charge for admission to Indiana University, Purdue University, and the State Normal School. In the term of Superintendent Milton B. Hopkins, in July, 1873, the following resolation was adopted by the board of trustees of the Indiana University: "In order to bring the university into closer connection with the high schools of the State we recommend the following plan: A certificate from certain high schools (to be named hereafter by the State board of education) of a satisfactory examination sustained in the preparatory course, will entitle the bearer to admission to the freshman class." At the meeting of the State board in the following August, a circular letter was addressed to the presidents of school boards and the superintendents of schools, with a view to determining how many and what high schools were qualified to perform the work of a preparatory department of the university. From that time, whenever a superintendent of schools has presented proof to the board that his course of study and the attainments of his teachers were sufficient to prepare pupils satisfactorily for the university, he has received a commission to certify graduates for admission to that institution. More recently a similar arrangement has been made by Purdue University and the State Normal School. The form of commission now in use is as follows: STATE OF INDIANA. HIGH SCHOOL COMMISSION. This certifies that. Superintendent of the Graded Schools of the .. is authorized by the State Board of Education to certify students of the High School Department of said schools for admission to the Indiana University, Purdue University, and the State Normal School, in accordance with the requirements of the said several institutions. Department of Public Instruction. This plan has had an excellent influence upon the graded schools of the State, stimulating many cities and towns to extend their course of study. Commissions were granted during the years 1885-86 to the schools of 83 cities and towns. |