Salem State University - Clipper Yearbook

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I 930 751th exfrarzzbermry hoods 21 Cl6VOfiOn Calling for a true pledge to the ethics of the profession followed, a devotion to give all the realization of the best results possible from the talents given into the individual's keeping. And with all these qualities you will agree with me, I am sure, that there should be found in the schools of our country men and women rich in erlumtionfzl experience, men and women, who, having passed under careful supervision through the training classes of our teachers' colleges, shall have ripened during the years of work which they have carried on, so that they may stand out clearly in the future, lighting well the lanes of progress for the younger men and women who may enter the teaching profession. Summarizing the qualities which I have just considered, you will find that taken together they will spell that one great quality which may be tested with scientific alchemy, and if not found wanting will always mean so much to the successful teacher. A-t-t-i-t-u-d-e. Aptitude, thoroughness, teachableness, interest, thriftiness, understanding, devotion, educational experience, all may be included in the one word, A-t-t-i-t-u-d-e, a word, however, which loses its significance unless properly con- structed. I would have the men and women in charge of the instruction in our schools possess all these qualities developed in high degree, then I believe we can refine our great educational undertaking. I think- then our mass production can be crystallized in the process of refinement so as to produce those qualities which the founders of our nation considered very desirable. The Training uf Teachers in the Svtiente uf Tihutatinn g DR. CHARLES H. JUDD, Director, Srhaal of Edzzcrzlian, University of Chicago HERE has always been something of an antithesis between two markedly different tendencies. On the one hand there has been the tendency to perpetuate in the next generation that which has been carried on by the earlier generation. Many of the courses given in the American normal schools have been courses in the form of dictated personalities that the younger generation has been told they should adopt. There have been, on the other hand, the teacher training institutions, by themselves the best possible centers for the introduction of new methods, and I can find an example in the educational history of Massachusetts perhaps better than any example that can be found elsewhere which will illustrate what I am saying. That same educational statesman who contributed so largely to the establish- ment of the early normal schools in this state, Horace Mann, in a report he made in 1838, introduced a discussion which created very widespread disturbance in his day. He stated that he had consulted the superintendents in charge of the schools in this commonwealth, and he found that eleven our of twelve children in the public schools did not understand the words they read. He did not stop here, however. He would not have been the leader of American education that he was if he had been so discouraged with the fight that he had given up the profession, or said, That is the best we can do. The children must be stupid if 29

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75ffz 047172 zafefrafy g I 930 progress in the industrial realm. A million, aye, literally millions of boys and girls the educational mills and like the product of those Detroit factories have become shining examples of the new era. As the highways of civilization stretching out before them have changed so they themselves in the educational process have been transformed partly to meet the possibilities open to them. There are those persons, however, here and there, real thoughtful persons, who have passed through have examined the results with careful scrutiny. They admit the desirability of quick action. They admire the beauty of new developments. They take pleasure in the adaptations of the youth of the land to meet the new situations surrounding them. At the same time they question with considerable degree of assurance the results ulti- mately to be achieved. They behold a great country, rich beyond dreams in all that wealth can buy or produce, a country which is a veritable empire in its territorial expanse, in its mineral and power resources, a real paradise for great industrial de- velopment, yet, withal, dependent upon the youth of the land in its realization of its highest ideals as well as in its HIOSIZ complete unfolding. In our own beloved country are we building safely for the future or are we con- structing a flimsy fabric which shall be torn by disrupting sociological forces and be totally destroyed by unforseen- and unexpected elements in our national life? It is well for us to study this great mass production in the educational systems of our countrv. The leading part in this large undertaking must of choice be carried by the teach- ers of our youth. What, then, do superintendents expect of the professionally trained teachers? First of all I believe that the superintendent expects of the individual aptitude for the work which the individual is to undertake. Next I would ask of the prospective teacher fh01'0ZLgblZ8J'.f and willizzgneff to toil assiduously in the chosen profession. Aptitude without hard work never may hope to achieve the full measure of success. Also every individual going into the teaching profession should have in high degree the quality of tefztbfzblefzeff. I In a truly successful teacher I also would ask a deep and abiding inferert both in the childrenwhom he teaches and in the subject which he is presenting to them. . The teacher in our school must be thrifzy, thrifty in the use of his time, thrifty in using the most economical methods, thrifty in judging his Opgfatious as vgyell nsihis resources. I close contact with great humanitirians in cfh QCP elffmnzing made Sympaihetlc bl' keen in its perception by a study of natural ffirlcvol ci nstolyi im understimdmg made Standing widened in its applimtion b - 'ld esqan natural consequencesg an under- . ' ' 1 y woi travel and world contactsg an under- standing reverent 1n its worship of the Creator and His llluuifestutions- And with understa Siflsjliile llgigi filcgitxe for the best in heaven and earthg a devotion fast in its led t ' . t P ge 0 the AIHGFICSHI home and to the opportunities of American child- n ' - Cllng I would ask that the teacher possess a real sense of P P merican democracy, a devotion remaining stead- 28

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75ffz eff7172z'fvermfy I Q30 eleven out of twelve cannot understand what they are reading. One of the most common practices of teachers is to attribute the difficulties in the schools not to them- selves but to their pupils. Horace Mann, however, saw with perfect clearness that the difliculty was not with the pupils, and in other parts of that report and subsequent reports that make him what he was, not only a great educational statesman but a great political statesman as well, he pointed out the fact that we must teach the people of this nation to read if we are to have a substantial democracy, for, as Mr. Wright has said, Democracy is produced by education, and Horace Mann saw that with clear- ness. He pointed out that it would be impossible for us to have an intelligent citizen- ship in this country unless we maintained the teaching of reading, and made it possible through that instruction for all to participate in the thoughts that must be carried on by our legislators if we are to have a safely organized government, so he planned in his mind the question of devising some way in which reading could be successfully taught, and he made a new analysis of the reading process. It is very interesting to see that in that new analysis he did not follow the superlicially apparent logic of the others. He did not say, the printed page is made up of sentences, the sentences made up of words, and the words made up of letters, therefore let us begin with the letters, but he asked a new type of question. He said, lt is the meaningful unit with which we should begin instruction, and he pointed out with perfect clearness in that report that a letter is not a meaningful unit and therefore not a valid unit, and the superficial analysis which had led pedagogues to teach reading by the a b c method gave way to an entirely new idea, the idea of a meaningful unit as distinguished from an ap- parent unit. Horace Mann pointed out that the meaningful unit of this printed page is the word, not the letter, and he said we ought to begin teaching little children mean- ingful units and we ought to use meaningful units, not only because those are the legitimate units for the teaching of reading, but because those are the units that will excite and arouse in the children themselves the interest necessary to the success of the etlucational processes. Do you see what Horace Mann did for American education? He took the results that had been established and supposed successful and he scrutinized the results with perfect impersonal justice and willingness to face the consequences which issued from this earlier practice, and when he found it defective, he turned his thought to the discovery of a solution of the problem of a new and valid method, When Horace Mann turned his mind to that type of analysis he made himself the first exponent of a movement that had been going forward, not rapidly at first, but going forward steadily. It is the moment that you and I enjoy in modern form when we measure results and face those results with perfect frankness, and modifv our practice as a result. And we try also to discover those new methods of procedure that shall guarantee success in the type of teaching necessary in a democratic school svstem. NOW When yOu face the analysis in a dogmatic way, as men had proceeded to do in an earlier generation, and the careful analysis of the situation, you have introduced, as l said a moment a of the Past: but 21150 the fufufeg fOr if we can carry forward the opinion of Horace Mann ' d 'f c ' ' - , - - - - . an 1 We an study our results with impersonal justice, if we can he willing to face gO, HH 2L11F1fhCS1S that is of major importance, not onlv to the historv the criticisms of our own failure and then if we Czlll turn courageously to the analysis ' 30 , l