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. . I. _!._, J 




. STATE OF 

: MISSOURI 



OF STATUTE MILES 

- 



KEY 
UNIVERSITY OF MISSOURI. ....... .. ...... _ ...... .. n O 

MISSOURI STATE NORMAL SCHOOLS ..... . ...... .jQ 

Cm TRAINING SCHOOLS ..... ...........,.......... M O 

PRIVATE COLLEGES AND UNIVERSITIES.........,.* 

JUNIOR COLLEGES,...,,, ....... ....... ........ , ...... 1...O 

HIGH SCHOOLS - 1919 

"First Class ..................... ........... ..... ..................,..* 

First Oass with Teaclter Training Courses,,.....^ 

Second Class. ..................... .... ....... ... ...... , ..... ..o 

Third Class...,....,,...,.. ......... ..... ... ..... .... 

Unclassified...,.,. ....... *.... ..... .......... ...................o 



pe Girardeau 



THE PROFESSIONAL PREPARATION 

OF TEACHERS FOR 
AMERICAN PUBLIC SCHOOLS 

A STUDY BASED UPON AN EXAMINATION OF TAX-SUPPORTED 
NORMAL SCHOOLS IN THE STATE OF MISSOURI 

By 
WILLIAM S. LEARNED, WILLIAM C. BAGLEY 

AND CHAELES A. McMiiERY, GEORGE D. STEAYEE 
WALTEE F. DEAKBOEN, ISAAC L. KANDEL, HOMEE W. JOSSELYN 




NEW YORK 

THE CARNEGIE FOUNDATION 

FOR THE ADVANCEMENT OF TEACHING 

576 FIFTH AVENUE 



D. B. UPDIKE THE MERRYMOUNT PRESS BOSTON 



CONTENTS 

CHAPTER PAGE 

PREFACE xv 

I. INTRODUCTION 

A. CHARACTER AND CIRCUMSTANCES OF THE ENQUIRY 3 

B. METHOD AND PERSONNEL 5 

C. A GENERAL STATEMENT OF CONCLUSIONS 7 

Democracy and Education; Education and the Teacher; New Standards 
Essential for Genuine Education; A New Training for Teachers; The 
Teacher and the Public; The Present Crisis in Public Education 

II. THE STATE OF MISSOURI 16 

Surface 'Features; Characteristics of Population; Occupations; Political 
History; Educational Development 

III. ORIGIN AND GROWTH OF NORMAL SCHOOLS 

A. THE ORIGIN OF NORMAL SCHOOLS IN THE UNITED STATES 22 

Earliest Advocacy of Teacher-training; Early Experiments; Development 
of Public Opinion; Example of Germany; Efforts of Educational Leaders; 
The Term " Normal School;" Teacher-training in Germany; Legislative 
Activity in Massachusetts; Normal School Development in Connecticut; 
The New York Practice; Normal School or Academy? The Normal School 
in 1 866 ; Early View of the Function of a Normal School 

B. NORMAL SCHOOLS IN MISSOURI 34 

Early Efforts; Joseph Baldwin; Three State Institutions authorized; 
Method of Locating Educational Institutions; Changes in Status and in 
Scope of Work ; 1871-191^; Growth in Numbers; Opposition; Financial 
Struggles; Effect of Poverty on the Schools; Relations with Colleges and 
Universities 

IV. GOVERNMENT AND CONTROL OF MISSOURI NORMAL SCHOOLS 

A. THE PRESENT SYSTEM 42 

Control First vested in a Single Board; Objections to the Single Board; 
Separate Boards Contemporary Criticism; Attempts to unify the Schools 
Educationally; Present Operation of the Separate Boards; Function of a 
Board not Understood ; What is the Function of a Board of Regents? Party 
Politics in the Boards ; Weakness of the Boards in Material as well as in 
Educational Problems; Lack of Unity in Policies affecting the Whole State; 
Each School a Law unto Itself; Educational Diversity of the Institutions; 
Loss to the Schools of Critical Re vision; The Normal Schools versus the State 
University; Sources of Rivalry; Effects of Institutional Competition; The 
Local Board System Responsible 

B- PROPOSALS FOR A BETTER ORGANIZATION OF PROFESSIONAL TRAINING FOR 

TEACHERS 54 

Preparation of Teachers a Homogeneous Undertaking; A Reorganized 
University; A Professional Board of Executives; Effects of Proposed Re- 



iv CONTENTS 

organization; The City Training Schools should be included; Voluntary 
Cooperation 

C. REORGANIZATION OB" STATE EDUCATIONAL CONTROL 63 

Principle of Centralization ; The State Unit of Administration; Advantages 
of State Control ; Conditions of Successful State Administration ; Unifica- 
tion of Control in Missouri; Experiments in Other States; Lessons from 
Recent Experience ; Relations of Constituent Departments 

V. PURPOSE OF A NORMAL SCHOOL 

A. GENERAL FUNCTION 70 

1. The Existing Conception. Early Conception of the Function of a Normal 
School ; Subsequent Variations ; Special Considerations affecting a Nor- 
mal School's Conception of its Function ; Pressure for Academic Credit; 
Effect of Local Control; "Democracy" the Justification; Professional 
Training long Uncertain as to its Method 

2. Normal Schools should train Teachers. Obstacles to Professional Training 78 
are Disappearing; Unity of Aim Increasing; A Normal School's Obliga- 
tion to the State 

B. SCOPE OF ORGANIZATION 8 

1. Historical View, Early Work chiefly for Elementary Teachers ; Prepara- 
tion of High School Teachers; Normal Schools and High Schools ; High 
Schools and University; Readjustment of Normal Schools for Higher 
Instruction; Results of Reorganization 

2. How should the Scope of a Normal School's Activities be determined ? ef Stand- 89 
ard" Institutions and Others; The Present Policy of Missouri Normal 
Schools Pressure of Local Situation; Example of Other Institutions; 
Expansion a Matter of Pride; Personal Expansion; Service of Normal 
Schools in enforcing the Idea of Professional Training; Criticism by Uni- 
versities partly Ill-founded; The Scope of an Institution's Work should 

be determined in View of all the Facts; Organization of Criticism needed 

VL PERSONNEL OF THE MISSOUEI NORMAL SCHOOLS 

A. TEACHERS 99 

Age, Sex, and Parentage ; Educational Equipment; Secondary and Higher 
Training Degrees; Degrees Classified; Geography of Training; Com- 
binations of Training; Graduate Degrees; Retardation in Training; Re- 
tardation and Graduate Work; Experience; Kind of Experience; Teach- 
ing Assignment; Length of Program; What is a Reasonable Load? Good 
Teaching as Exacting as Research; Productive Scholarship; Economic 
Status Family and Dependents; Length of Tenure; Salaries Varia- 
tion among the Schools; Comparison with the University; The Best Paid 
Groups; Insurance; Teachers at Harris Teachers College 

B. STUDENTS 117 
Age and Sex Nationality and Nativity; Parental Occupation and In- 
come Size of Family; Choice of Vocation Other Teachers in Family; 
Financial Attraction; Distance from School; Previous Education; Quality 

of the Normal School Student; Comparison of Secondary Training in High 
School and in Normal School; Attendance at Colleges and Other Normal 



CONTENTS v 

Schools; Teaching Experience; Immediate Intentions of Students ; Study 
Elsewhere; Students at Harris Teachers College 

VII. CUEEICULA OF THE NORMAL SCHOOLS 

A. OUTSTANDING PROBLEMS IN THE CONSTRUCTION OF CURRICULA FOR THE 

PREPARATION OF TEACHERS 128 

1. Standards of Admission. Professional Subject-matter Well Developed; 
Chief Question is One of Purchase and Distribution of Training; Mis- 
souri has Temporized with Compromises ; An Adequate Policy Needed ; 
Should Preparatory Curricula be Prescribed? 

2. Residence Requirements 131 
a. Prolonged Preparation Needed for Teachers of All Grades Alike; 

Why Longer Training for High School Teaching? Is High School 
Instruction More " Advanced"? Social Distinctions implied between 
Elementary and High Schools; The Elementary Teacher versus the 
High School Teacher; Contrast in Teachers the Chief Obstacle to 
Progress; Distinctions in Training should Disappear; The Outlook 
for such a Program 

6. Adequate Residence Requirements depend upon Prospect of Ex- 139 
tended Service ; Service of Women now terminates with Marriage ; 
Reasons offered for the Present Practice ; Will the Married Teacher 
neglect her Home? Will the Married Woman prove a Less Efficient 
Teacher? Marriage an Advantageous Qualification for a Teacher of 
Children; Enormous Waste of the Present System; Conservation of 
Professional Effort in Europe ; Absence of Organized Effort among 
Elementary Teachers in America; Married Teachers would Require 
Better Conditions ; Effect of Prolonged Tenure on Training 

3. Prescription versus Election of Studies. Definition of Prescription; Theory 144 
of * f Equivalence" of Courses for Professional Purposes ; The Professional 
Student not Qualified to Elect; Sequence Difficult to Maintain; Is the 
Attitude of the Student improved by Election? Effect of Election on 
"Initiative" 

4. The Extent and Criteria of Curriculum Differentiation 148 
a. Incidental versus Organized Professional Training ; Arithmetic ; Other 

Elementary Subjects; High School Subjects; Special Curricula in 
Normal Schools for High School Teachers;* Advantage of Differen- 
tiation. 

6. Degree of Differentiation required; Middle and Upper Grades still 153 
form a Single Field; Mental and Physical Considerations warrant 
Differentiation; Objections to Differentiation; Choice of Service Dif- 
ficult; Knowledge too Specialized; Difficulty of Adjusting Supply 
and Demand; Character and Extent of Legitimate Differentiation 
of Training; Specialized Preparation for Administration; Specialized 
Preparation for Rural School Teachers 

B. ORGANIZATION OF CUEEICULA IN THE STATE NOBMAL SCHOOLS AND CITY 

TEAINING SCHOOLS OF MISSOURI l6l 

1, Curricula as Wholes 

a. General Characteristics of the Normal School Curricula; Personal 
Welfare of the Student placed above Needs of the Service; " Ladder 



vi CONTENTS 

of Promotion" in Missouri Normal Schools; Effect upon the Schools 
Unfortunate 

6. Secondary Curriculum Leading to the Rural Certificate; Contradic- 164 
tory Aims; Secondary Professional Curricula should be Abolished 

c. Collegiate Curricula of the Normal Schools; Not True Curricula; 166 
Existing "Curricula*' not Professional 

d. Curricula of the City Training Schools; The Harris Teachers College 169 
Curriculum for Elementary Teachers; Contrast between State Nor- 
mal Schools and City Training Schools; Normal Schools have be- 
littled Elementary Instruction; The City Training Schools miss their 

Full Opportunity 

2. Organization and Content of Specific Courses 17 '2 

a. Professional Courses of Secondary Grade 1 73 

(1) Subject-matter of the Common School Branches with Emphasis 
upon Method; Concentration and Uniform Treatment needed 

(2) The Psychology of Learning 
(8) Rural Life Problems 

(4) Rural School Management 

(5) Methods and Observation ; Successful Procedure in Minnesota 

J. Professional Courses of Collegiate Grade; Inter-school Variations 177 

(1) Psychology; Introductory Course; Advanced Courses in Psychol- 178 
ogy; Teaching Less an Applied Science than a Fine Art; Psychol- 
ogy Necessary to a Sound View of Education ; Twofold Require- 
ment from Psychology; Proposed Organization of Courses in 
Psychology 

(2) History of Education; Courses offered in Missouri Schools ; Func- 1 84 
tion of History of Education in the Professional Preparation of 
Teachers ; Suggested Rearrangement of History of Education 

(3) General Method and Principles of Teaching; Present Status of 187 
"General Method;" Most Advantageous Position of the Course 

(4) School Management, Class Management, and School Economy; 190 
Relation to Other Subjects 

(5) Observation, Participation, and Practice Teaching IQ9, 
(a) Size of the Training School as related to Normal School En- 
rolment; Control of Local School Facilities Indispensable; 
Minimal Standards of Practice Facilities 

(&) Housing and Equipment of Training Departments ; Bad Con- 1 97 
ditions easily Remedied 

(c) Relation between the Training School and Other Normal 199 
School Departments; Lack of Cooperation in Missouri Schools ; 
Difficulties of Cooperation ; Organized Cooperation 

(d) The Apprentice System as related to the Unification of 202 
Courses; Defects and Advantages of the System at St. Louis; 
Suggested Improvements 

(e) Spirit and Morale of the Practice Schools; Reasons for Low 205 
Morale; Laissez-faire Policy a Mistake; Training School Tests 
show Low Standards 



CONTENTS vii 

(/) Courses in Observation as Prerequisite to Practice Teaching; 211 
Lessons for Demonstration at St. Louis; Courses in Obser- 
vation at the Springfield Normal School; Demonstration 
Teaching at Warrensburg 
(g) Supervision of Practice Teaching 

(i) The Supervisory Staff; Ratio of Supervisors to Student- 
teachers; Status and Equipment of Supervisors and 
Critic Teachers 

(ii) Methods of Supervision; Lesson Plans; Inspection of 
Class Work; Conferences; Testing Results; Program of 
Studies; Should the Practice School experiment with the 
Curriculum? 

(K) Concentrated versus Distributed Practice Teaching 
(*) Most Favorable Position of Practice Teaching in the Curric- 
ulum 

c. Collegiate Courses in Specific Methods of Teaching; Good Special 225 
Method a Function of Subject-matter Courses; "Curriculum" Courses 

d. Courses in Academic Subjects 228 

(1) English and Public Speaking; Amount and Variety Excessive 
for Sound Curricula; Professional Character Negligible; How 
should Content Courses be Professionalized? 

(2) Ancient Languages 232 

(3) Modern Foreign Languages 

(4) History and Government 

(5) Mathematics 236 

(6) Physics and Chemistry 238 

(7) Botany, Zoology, Physiology, Hygiene, and Sanitation 239 

(8) Geography and Geology 240 

(9) Agriculture 240 

(10) Fine Arts 242 

(11) Commercial Subj ects 243 

(12) Manual or Industrial Arts 245 

(13) Home Economics 245 

(14) Library Economy 246 

(15) Physical Training 247 

C, THE O.UALITY OF NORMAL SCHOOL TEACHING AS AN ELEMENT IN THE CUR- 

RICULUM 247 

The Normal School Instructor primarily a Teacher; Characteristics of 
Normal School Teaching; Teaching should be Exemplary; The Elements 
of Good Teaching; Utilizing Good Models; Stimulating Good Teaching; 
Some Form of Educational Criticism Desirable; An ce Educational Ad- 
viser;'* Other Solutions 

D. SELECTION AND DISTRIBUTION OF CURRICULA 258 

1. The Present Situation. Relative Use made of Collegiate Instructors; 
Causes of Waste: Duplication of Classes; An Extravagant Elective Sys- 
tem ; Lack of Intercollegiate Differentiation ; Concentration of Advanced 



viii CONTENTS 

Curricula in Latin; Concentration of All High School Curricula; Ad- 
vantages of Differentiation; Effect of the Present Policies upon the 
Basic Work of the Institutions 

2. Number and Kind of Curricula needed in Missouri. Teachers in Rural 265 
Schools; Teachers in Graded Elementary Schools; Teachers in High 
Schools; How shall this Need be Met? 

VIII. OPERATION OF THE NORMAL SCHOOLS 

A. PRESIDENT AND STAFF $72 

1. The President. Modern Conception of a President's Duties; Function 273 
of the President in the Missouri Normal Schools ; Effects of the Presi- 
dent's Prerogative on the School; Personal Prerogative should be 
Limited 

2. The Staff. Large Departmental Initiative; Effects of the Elective Sys- 
tern on the Teacher; Present Tenure of Position Unjust; Leaves of 
Absence for Study or Experience ; Administrative Use of Professional 
Training; Departmental Distribution of Training; Departmental Dis- 
tribution of Salaries; Secondary versus Collegiate Instructors; Part- 
time and Student Assistants; Instructors in the Summer Session; Train- 
ing of Summer Instructors; Hours and Salaries of Summer Instruc- 
tors ; Contrasting Policies of Summer Session Administration 

B. THE STUDENT BODY : SIGNIFICANT FEATURES IN SELECTION, ORGANISATION, 

AND ADMINISTRATIVE TREATMENT 

1. Men as Normal School Students. Motives in Male Attendance; Reaction 
of Male Attendance on the Institution 

2. Problem of the Secondary Student. Characteristics of the Extreme Age 295 
Groups; Geographical Distribution; Previous Schooling; Opportuni- 
ties for High School Attendance; Teaching Experience; Quality of 

the Older Secondary Student; Treatment of the Young Secondary 
Student; Special Needs of the Older Secondary Student; A State Higli 
School 

3. Organisation of Attendance. The Problem of Normal School Attend- SOI 
ance; Educational Effects of the Present System; Changes in Student 
Body from Term to Term; Sequence of Years; Need of Central Ad- 
ministration and Favorable Legislation; Opportunity of the Schools 

for Independent Action 

4. Admission and Classification 307 

a. Requirements for Admission; Regulations of Local Boards; Exami- 
nation versus " Proving up;" Reorganization of the Secondary Pro- 
gram; "Proving up" Policy established; Uniform Administration of 
Admission Requirements Needed; What should be the Method of 
Admission? 

b. Classification of Students; Procedure at Kirksville; Composition of SIS 
Classes thus formed; Fixed Curricula the Only Solution 

5. Student Programs. Speed the Student's Central Consideration; Much 317 
Pressure for Excessive Programs ; Present Practice: Collegiate Pro- 
grams; Secondary Programs; Time Required for Preparation; Is the 
Standard of Credit in the Normal Schools too Low? 



CONTENTS ix 

6. Student Rating: Examinations. Selective Function of Ratings; The Prac- 321 
tice in Missouri; Comparison with Harris Teachers College; Seasonal 
Changes in Student Failure ; Relation of Examinations to Elimination ; 
Why the Normal Schools are Non-Selective; Lack of Thorough Exam- 
inations a Source of Weakness 

7. Administration of Credit Administration of Credit at Kirksville The 328 
Theory; The Practice; Credit for Admission ; Secondary Credit; Colle- 
giate Credit ; Time Required for Graduation ; Administration of Credit 

at Warrensburg; Administration of Credit at Cape Girardeau; Admin- 
istration of Credit at Springfield ; Administration of Credit at Maryville ; 
Essentials of Credit Administration 

8. Graduation, Certification) and Appointment 344 

a. Graduation 

b. Certification of Graduates ; Present Form of Certification Inadequate ; 345 
Certification should be Specific; Certificates should Issue from One 
Source; The Institutions' Share in Certification; Need of a Unified 
Administration 

c. Appointment of Graduates; Present Method of Recommending 349 
Teachers; Demand for Teachers not yet Specialized; Improvements 
Needed in System of Appointments; Normal School Responsible for 
Teachers in Service 

9. The Quality of Normal School Administration as an Element in the Normal 353 

School Cumculum 
10, Recent Changes in the Institutions 354 

IX. PRODUCT OF THE NORMAL SCHOOL 357 

A. NORMAL SCHOOL GRADUATES OF 1915 357 

Relation of Salaries to Training; Normal School Students at the University 

B. NORMAL SCHOOL STUDENTS AMONG THE TEACHING POPULATION 36l 

1. Teachers in Rural Schools 

2. Teachers and Supervisors in Graded Elementary Schools 364 
a. The State at Large; Conditions of Training; Conditions of Reward 

6. St. Louis and Kansas City 368 

3. Teachers and Supervisors in High Schools 372 

a. The State at Large 

b. St. Louis and Kansas City 375 

4. City and Town Superintendents . 376 

5. County Superintendents 379 

C. WHAT HAVE THE NORMAL SCHOOLS DONE FOR THE STATE? 380 

Normal Schools most Effective in Small Communities; Normal School In- 
fluence Widespread but Vague ; Good Teachers Impossible at the Present 
Economic Level 

X- LINCOLN INSTITUTE 385 

XL SUMMARY OF PROPOSALS FOR THE PREPARATION OF MISSOURI TEACHERS IN 

NORMAL SCHOOLS 387 

Purpose of the Proposals 



CONTENTS 

A. CONCLUSIONS AND PROPOSALS EELATING TO EXTERNAL ORGANIZATION AND 

CONTROL 388 

1. Constitutional Modifications 

%. Legislative Provisions 

3. Administrative Policies of the Board $90 

B. CONCLUSIONS AND PROPOSALS RELATING TO INTERNAL ORGANIZATION AND 

PROCEDURE 391 

1. Purpose and Scope of Normal School Effort 

2. The Curricula 

a. Outstanding Problems of Curriculum Construction 

b. Organization of Secondary Curricula 

c. Organization of Collegiate Curricula 

d. Quality of Normal School Instruction as a Factor in the Curriculum. 

e. Selection and Distribution of Curricula 

3. Staff of Instruction 395 

a. The Presidents 

b. The Teachers 

4. The Student Body 39 



APPENDIX 

I. COLLECTION AND TREATMENT OF DATA 

A. The Normal Schools 401 

B. The Teaching Population 405 

II. CURRICULA 

TABLE 1. Collegiate Courses offered in Missouri State Normal Schools, 1917-18 406 

TABLE 2. Collegiate Offerings in various Normal School Departments; 1937-1 8 41 1 
TABLE 3. Individual Curricula illustrative of the Operation of the Elective System 

in Missouri Normal Schools (10 cases) 41 1 
TABLE 4. City Training School Curricula 

A. The Harris Teachers College Curriculum for Kindergartners 417 

B. The Kansas City Teacher-training Curriculum 418 

111. DATES OF THE FIRST ESTABLISHMENT OF STATE NORMAL SCHOOLS 418 

IV. NORMAL SCHOOL TEACHERS 

TABLE 5. Age and Sex Distribution 419 

TABLE 6. Occupation of Father 41 9 

TABLE 7. Number of Other Teachers in the Family 419 

TABLE 8. A. Degrees and Class of Institution from which they were received 4SO 
B. Degrees held by Teachers at the Normal Schools,, at the Soldan High 



School in St. Louis, and at the State University 
TABLE 9. Degrees held by Teachers in Various Normal School Departments 421 

TABLE 10. Sources of Degrees 



CONTENTS xi 

TABLE 11. Combinations of Training ' 422 

TABLE 12. Total Teaching Experience 422 

TABLE IS. Combinations of Teaching Experience 423 

TABLE 14. Varieties of Teaching Experience 423 

TABLE 15. Distribution of Annual Salaries,, 1915-16 423 

TABLE 16. Departmental Salaries, 1915-16 424 

TABLE 17. Length of Weekly Programs, 1915-16 425 
TABLE 18. Salaries of Normal School Teachers according to their Grade of Work, 

1915-16 425 
TAB!E 1 9- Extent of Secondary Work reported by the forty-one best trained Nor- 
mal School Teachers, 1915-16 425 
TABLE 20. Training of eighty-one Teachers who taught only in the Summer Ses- 
sion, 1916 426 
TABLE 21. Salary and Hours of ninety-three Summer Instructors, 191 6 427 

V. NORMAL SCHOOL STUDENTS 

TABLE 22. A. Classification of the Total Enrolment, 1913-14 428 
J3. "Standard" Enrolment, 1913-14 428 
TABLE 23. Proportion of Men in Various Normal School Classifications, 1913-14 428 
TABLE 24. Changes in the Proportion of Men Students since 1871 428 
TABLE 25. Proportion of Secondary Enrolment, 1913-14 429 
TABLE 26. Age Distribution of Total Enrolment, 1913-14 429 
TABLE 27. Nationality of Parents 429 
TABLE 28. Father's Occupation 430 
TABLE 29. Father's Income 431 
TABLE 30. " Is teaching the best paid employment you could conveniently under- 
take?" 431 
TABLE 31. "Are you self-dependent in paying for your education?" 431 
TABLE 32. Size of Family 431 
TABLE 33. Other Teachers in the Family 432 
TABLE 34. "How many of your family ever attended a normal school?' 432 
TABLE 35. High School Attendance 432 
TABLE 36. Ratings of 871 High School Graduates 

A. Ratings of Ability distributed among Occupations 432 

B. Ratings of Ability distributed within Occupational Groups 433 
TABLE 37. Comparison of Collegiate Ratings at Normal Schools of Students pre- 
pared at High Schools with Ratings of Students prepared at the Normal Schools 433 

TABLE 38. Proportion of Students reporting Teaching Experience 433 

TABLE 39. Distribution of Teaching Experience 433 

TABLE 40. " Do you plan to teach permanently?" 434 
TABLE 41. Kind of Teaching sought by those intending to Teach immediately 

upon leaving the Normal School 434 

TABLE 42, Programs Scheduled by All Collegiate Students in 191S-14 434 

TABLE 43. Programs Scheduled by All Secondary Students in 1913-14 435 

TABLE 44. Distribution of Student Grades, 1913-14 435 



xii CONTENTS 

TABLE 45. Seasonal Variation in Collegiate Student Failure, 1913-14 435 

TABLE 46. Size of Normal School Classes, 1915-16 436 

TABLE 47. Proportions of Large and Small Classes in Various Departments, 1915 

16 436 

TABLE 48. Number of Four-year Bachelor's Degrees from Missouri State Normal 

Schools 437 

TABLE 49- Subsequent Employment of Recipients of Normal School Certificates 

in 1915 437 

TABLE 50. Distribution of Recipients of Diplomas or Certificates in 1915 by Classes 

among their Various Subsequent Occupations , 438 

VI. TEACHING POPULATION 

TABLE 51. Teachers in Graded Elementary Schools, 1915. Duration of Normal 
School Attendance 438 

TABLE 52. Teachers in Graded Elementary Schools, 1915. Proportion of Terms 
spent at each Normal School in Collegiate Work 438 

TABLE 53. Teachers in Graded Elementary Schools, 1915. Distribution of Terms 
of Collegiate Normal School Attendance 438 

TABLE 54. Teachers in Graded Elementary Schools, 1915. Number reporting Col- 
legiate Work at Normal Schools with average number of Terms of Attendance 439 

TABLE 55. Teachers in Graced Elementary Schools, 1915. High School Prepara- 
tion of 1556 Teachers who had attended State Normal Schools 439 

TABLE 56. High School Teachers, 1915 (except St. Louis and Kansas City). Dis- 
tribution of Collegiate Training 439 

TABLE 57. High School Teachers, 1915 (except St. Louis and Kansas City). Dis- 
tribution of Normal School Training 439 

TABLE 58. Subjects taught by Missouri High School Teachers and Supervisors, 

1916-17 440 

VII. BIENNIAL STATE EXPENDITURES FOE NORMAL SCHOOLS, 1871-1918 441 

VIIL THE JUDGMENT OF EXPERIENCED TEACHERS AS TO THE VALUE OF VARIOUS 

ELEMENTS IN THEIR TRAINING 442 

IX. THE RESULTS OF STANDARD TESTS IN THE ELEMENTARY TRAINING DEPART- 
MENTS OF MISSOURI STATE NORMAL SCHOOLS AND IN THE EXPERIMENTAL 

SCHOOL AT THE STATE UNIVERSITY 445 

TABLE 59. Number of Pupils by Schools and Grades 445 

TABLE 60. Median Ages of Pupils by Grades 445 

TABLE 6l. Number and Per Cent of Pupils Two or more Years Retarded 445 

TABLE 62. Number and Per Cent of Pupils Two or more Years Accelerated 446 

TABLE 63. Speed of Addition 446 

TABLE 64. Accuracy of Addition 447 

TABLE 65. Speed of Subtraction 447 

TABLE 66. Accuracy of Subtraction 447 

TABLE 67. Speed of Multiplication 448 

TABLE 68. Accuracy of Multiplication 448 



CONTENTS xiii 

TABLE 69. Speed of Division 448 

TABLE 70. Accuracy of Division 448 
TABLE 71. Comparison of Ranks in Courtis Tests , 449 

TABLE 72. Median Scores in Stone Reasoning Test 449 

TABLE 73. Spelling of Words from the Ayres List 449 

TABLE 74. Spelling of Words from the Boston List 450 

TABLE 75. Speed of Handwriting 450 

TABLE 76. Quality of Handwriting 451 

TABLE 77. Kansas Silent Reading Tests' 451 

TABLE 78. Speed of Silent Reading 452 

TABLE 79. Reproduction of Passage Read 452 

TABLE 80. Answers to Questions on Passage Read 452 

TABLE 81. Compositions 453 

TABLE 82. Summary of Ranks given Each School 453 
TABLE 83. Progress of Training Schools from Grade to Grade in certain selected 

Abilities 455 

TABLE 84. Joint Performance of Training Schools in Courtis Tests 455 

TABLE 85. Correlations b6tween certain Abilities measured in the Tests 456 

INDEX 457 



PREFACE 

THIS Study of the Preparation of Teachers for the Public Schools originated in 
an official request made to the Carnegie Foundation by the Governor of Mis- 
souri in July, 1914. Governor Major defined the problem of the state with respect 
to its teachers in the following words : 

"One of the chief problems confronting this and other states is a wholesome sup- 
ply of adequately- trained and prepared teachers. In this matter Missouri has made 
great progress during the last eighteen months. We have a great university and five 
splendid normal schools, and teachers' training courses in about 75 high schools. The 
question, however, is ever open as to what is the best preparation and what is the 
duty of the State in meeting it, and how can the State secure the greatest benefit at 
a minimum expense." 

The enquiry undertaken by the Carnegie Foundation with the cooperation of many 
students of education began with an examination of the agencies for the training of 
teachers in the State of Missouri as thus enumerated. A study of these agencies, how- 
ever, inevitably disclosed a more far-reaching problem, and led to an attempt to eval- 
uate the process itself whereby teachers are prepared, and to an effort to formulate 
trustworthy principles of procedure. This development of the scope of the enquiry has 
modified the undertaking in certain important particulars: first, attention has been 
concentrated on the normal schools, inasmuch as they represent the professional prob- 
lem of teacher-training in its simplest form ; second, instead of a report addressed only 
to legislators and to lay readers generally, the study has come to include a somewhat 
technical discussion of the fundamental considerations that enter into the organiza- 
tion and conduct of the courses of study intended for teacher-training ; and third, in- 
stead of a short bulletin, there has necessarily resulted a volume sufficiently large to 
admit of the treatment of these professional topics. Throughout the report there is 
woven a discussion of the statutory and administrative conditions in the Missouri in- 
stitutions for the training of teachers; and the general treatment has been greatly 
illuminated by an intensive study of the elements of the Missouri teaching popula- 
tion with which the problem of teacher-training is most concerned. 

While the present report, therefore, is confined to a discussion of the normal school 
and its function, its curriculum, and its capabilities for the preparation of teachers 
for the different grades of schools, it will necessarily be supplemented by a second 
report, dealing with an examination of teacher preparation in colleges and universi- 
ties. This could scarcely be based upon the study of a single institution in one state. 

In the Introduction to the report, not only is the evolution of the study made 
clear, but also detailed reference is made to the teachers and writers on education who 
have participated in its preparation. This includes many representatives of normal 
schools, colleges, and universities, men. whose opinions have been formed upon actual 
experience as well as upon long study of the problem. The result which is here laid 



xvi PREFACE 

before students of education is, therefore, the outcome of the coordinated effort of a 
considerable body of skilled professional men. 

Outside of the information contained in the Introduction, certain aspects of the 
report may be mentioned from the standpoint of the Carnegie Foundation itself. 

The various bulletins dealing with educational subjects that have been issued by 
the Carnegie Foundation in the last dozen years may be grouped in two classes. To 
the first class belong bulletins of a professional character addressed to members of 
the profession concerned. Such was the bulletin printed in 1910 on Medical Education 
in the United States and Canada, which was addressed immediately to teachers and 
practitioners of medicine. In the second group of bulletins are included those which 
are aimed to state in simple and clear form educational questions and results generally 
known to professional men, but whose knowledge is not widespread outside of the 
profession itself. Such a bulletin is that just issued entitled " Justice and the Poor," 
which seeks to convey to the intelligent layman a clear statement of the causes thru 
which a denial of justice to the poor has oftentimes resulted not by any intention 
of the law, but because the administration of the law has not kept up with its intent. 

The present report belongs to the first group of bulletins. It is addressed to the 
men and women who are working in a distinct professional field, namely, that of teach- 
ing a much larger field than that of medicine. No teacher in the elementary or sec- 
ondary or normal schools, or in the school of education of a college or university, can 
fail to be interested in the effort to do what has been attempted in this report. It 
represents the first comprehensive formulation of good practice in the largest field 
of professional training for public service in our country, and it is believed that the 
work has been done with such care that the results here set forth are worthy of the 
thoughtful study of every earnest and intelligent teacher. 

It will be evident to the reader that this exceedingly important task has had a 
most sympathetic handling even tho the treatment has necessarily been critical in 
method. In spite of widely differing training and experience, the authors have been 
singularly unanimous in their conclusions. Aside from the inevitable peculiarity of 
their individual points of view, their examination of the situation has been as com- 
pletely unbiased and disinterested as it was possible to make it. Their commission 
from the Foundation centred in a true statement and a reasonable interpretation of 
the facts, however familiar or however novel the results ; and their conclusions indicate 
this. For example, as urged in the earlier reports of the Foundation, there appears 
here to be no reason why tax-supported normal schools should not give themselves 
unreservedly to the great business of properly preparing teachers. On the other hand, 
bhe contention between normal school and college as to which shall prepare high school 
teachers a dispute that previously seemed important now appears superficial. 
The Carnegie Foundation has had no preconceived theory to promulgate. It has, in- 
leed, never committed itself to any pronouncement concerning normal schools beyond 
,he mere assumption that it is the duty of the normal school to train teachers. 



PREFACE xvii 

This report makes clear that what is really needed is not arbitrary distinctions as 
between normal schools and colleges,, but an enlightened administration of the state's 
entire teacher- training function exercised from a single directing body equipped to 
prepare teachers for all schools as thoroughly as possible. No man or woman faces 
a harder task than that which confronts the untrained teacher who essays to teach 
others that which he has himself never learned. Nothing goes so far to reduce a pro- 
fession to the level of the commonplace as the lack of a background of knowledge 
and of professional spirit in its members. 

To-day in the elementary schools of the nation, and particularly in the rural 
schools, the American woman is carrying the heavy load of public school teaching. 
In every state of the Union young women are teaching whose formal education never 
went beyond one year of high school, who receive little assistance or encouragement 
from the school authorities, and yet who, out of native ability and enthusiasm, thru 
hard work and the saving grace of a wholesome sense of proportion, become true 
teachers. Seldom does a community give credit to the brave womanly figure that 
carries on its slender shoulders so heavy a responsibility. But it is idle with the re- 
stricted preparation, the lack of sympathetic counsel, and the scant pay that are the 
characteristics of elementary school teaching to-day, to expect such heroic service ex- 
cept in a limited number of cases. The aim of each state should be to work toward 
a situation where the teacher in the elementary and secondary schools shall possess 
a training that is adequate and a professional recognition that will attract and satisfy 
the aspirations and the economic needs of able men and women. To open the door to 
a finer preparation for the life of a teacher and to put this profession on a plane of 
the highest honor and dignity is fundamental to any true progress in education for 
our country. 

To attain this is only in part a matter of cost and of the teacher's salary. One "cannot 
go out in the market with any sum of money, however large, and buy good teaching. 
An adequate army of sincere, able, and thoughtful teachers can be recruited only 
from a people who discriminate between that which is sincere and that which is su- 
perficial and insincere. Education in a democracy, to serve its real purpose, must be 
an education of the whole people. The school reacts on the body politic and the ideals 
of the democracy react on the school. An honest and thorough system of public 
schools, manned by able and well-trained teachers, can only arise among a people 
who themselves believe in honesty and thoroughness. 

It must be confessed that the most striking weakness of American political, social, 
and economic thinking lies in the superficial character of our education. In our pub- 
lic schools, and no less in our universities and colleges, education is interpreted only 
too often to mean a smattering of knowledge in many things; seldom is it construed 
in terms of mastery of any one subject or as the ability to think clearly. Our schools 
reflect the almost universal superficiality of our people, and our citizenship is edu- 
cated to the ideal of superficiality in our schools. Inhere is no end to these mutual 



xviii PREFACE 

reactions except an aroused public opinion that will demand sincere teaching and a 
body of teachers who will educate the children of the nation to the ideals of simpli- 
city, sincerity, and thoroughness. An honest system of education and a clear-thinking 
public opinion must be developed together. This is the fundamental problem of a 
democracy. 

Finally, one cannot forget that since this report was undertaken the whole prob- 
lem of education in our country, as in all countries, has received a new emphasis, 
and has been subjected to a new scrutiny. The letter of the Governor of Missouri, 
out of which this study arose, was dated July 18, 1914. Two weeks later Europe had 
entered upon the great war which was later to involve the United States as well. 
This report appears after the actual armed conflict has ceased, but at the very mo- 
ment when our country is face to face with the necessity of evaluating anew its system 
of education. Economic no less than social conditions are upon a new basis. Within 
the last year and a half the value of the teacher's salary often more properly called 
wages has been cut in half by the rise in the cost of living. Along with the demand 
of the moment for an improved and inspiring system of public schools, we are con- 
fronted with a situation in which the best teachers are rapidly withdrawing from the 
profession. The country faces a real crisis in its educational development, and the 
passing of that crisis depends mainly on the possibility of training and bringing into 
the schools teachers fitted for their high task. The whole problem of the service of the 
schools themselves hangs absolutely upon the ability to dbtain the requisite supply 
of devoted, able, and well-prepared teachers. 

In such a situation there is need for preserving a true perspective. The American 
people do not intend that the schools shall be made the victims of any sudden dis- 
turbance. The public, when it understands the situation, will be ready to pay the price 
for good teachers, but it should also be clearly apprehended that a mere raise of pay 
of the future public school teachers, whether in the rural schools or in the city schools, 
is but a partial solution of the problem. The teacher must have before him a career 
that will attract the high-minded and ambitious student. He must be able to earn 
in that career a living salary and one that will provide for his comfort and for his 
protection in old age, but that is only one of the conditions to be fulfilled. Before 
all else we must have in our minds a clear knowledge of what good teaching is, of 
the methods by which teachers may be fitted for their calling, and under what super- 
vision and organization the schools shall be conducted in order that the intellectual, 
social, and spiiitual aspirations of teachers may be realized for the common good. 

Above and beyond all considerations of salary, it is necessary to have among teach- 
ers the spirit which rises out of professional training adequate, scholarly, devoted 

and which will make all who breathe its atmosphere proud to belong to a profession 
where such qualifications are widespread and recognized features. Without such a con- 
dition, no mere horizontal raise of salary will transform our schools into places of true 
instruction for children and for youth. 



PREFACE xix 

It is the purpose of this report to point the way not only to better financial rec- 
ognition of the teacher's service and to make clear to the public its duties in this 
respect, but still more to emphasize the need for that professional conception of 
ability, of knowledge, and of preparation which must characterize the teachers' equip- 
ment before the schools can become the effective agency in civilization which they 
aim to be. 

HENRY S. PEITCHETT. 



January, 1920. 



THE PROFESSIONAL PREPARATION OF TEACHERS 
FOR AMERICAN PUBLIC SCHOOLS 



INTRODUCTION 

A, CHARACTER AND CIRCUMSTANCES OF THE ENQ.UIRY 

THE present Bulletin, the fourteenth in the Foundation's series of educational pub- 
lications, contains the first section of a study begun more than five years ago. In 
July, 1914, the Carnegie Foundation received from the Governor of the State of 
Missouri, Elliott W. Major, an invitation to consider the problem of the "supply 
of adequately trained and prepared teachers" in that state, with reference especially 
to the question, "What is the best preparation and what is the duty of the state in 
meeting it, and how can the state secure the greatest benefit at a minimum expense ?" 

The proposal for an examination into the preparation of teachers for American 
public schools had received serious consideration at various times since the educa- 
tional studies of the Foundation were first undertaken. The problem was found to 
differ materially from that of legal or medical education, in that the preparation of 
teachers involves much larger numbers, is much more local in character, and depends 
more directly on state authority for its management. The conclusion had at length 
been reached that the only satisfactory treatment of the problem at present would be 
one that approached it as primarily a state enterprise. 

The invitation from Missouri was therefore accepted by the Foundation, and the 
enquiry was formally inaugurated at a conference held at Jefferson City, Missouri, on 
November 28, 1914. Here, at the Governor's request, the President of the Founda- 
tion met about one hundred of the leading workers in the schools, normal schools, 
and colleges of the state, and discussed with them the proposed study, receiving, at 
the close of the conference, their unanimous endorsement and pledge of cooperation 
in the undertaking. 

The enquiry was projected in two main divisions. The first was to consist of a 
careful examination of all the various institutions in the state engaged in preparing 
teachers for the public schools. The report which follows embodies a part of the 
results of this phase of the work as explained more fully below. The second division 
contemplated a census of the teachers of the state. It was proposed to make this as 
nearly complete as possible in order to determine the actual characteristics of the 
teaching population with reference to its training, and to secure data from which 
effectively to analyze the problem of teacher supply. The response to this endeavor 
was highly satisfactory; and data were secured from more than four-fifths of the 
twenty thousand teachers in the public schools. The results have been studied with 
care, and will be published in detail in a separate bulletin having as its central topic 
the relations between a state, as represented in its official department of education, 
and the entire body of teachers in its service. 

It was at first expected that the institutional study could be presented as a whole 
in a single volume, but it soon became evident that a sectional treatment wottld be 



4 THE PROFESSIONAL PREPARATION OF TEACHERS 

necessary if justice were to be done even to a few selected aspects of the subject. 
Thus the first question suggested in the Governor's invitation, "What is the best 
preparation ?" immediately assumed formidable dimensions, and an attempt was made 
quite independent of the Missouri study to formulate a theory of the preparation 
of teachers, together with concrete applications in terms of specific curricula,, that 
would be acceptable to the leading students in that field all over the country. This 
set of theses and provisional curricula was issued early in 1917, and elicited an ex- 
traordinary amount of valuable comment and criticism from representative sources 
material which is now being worked over for a revised edition of these proposals. 

In like manner a consideration of the problems found to be uppermost in the 
normal schools on the one hand and in the universities and colleges on the other, 
suggested that separate treatment was advisable, altho fundamentally the two sets 
of institutions have much in common and, judging by present indications, are rap- 
idly approaching an identical conception of their task in so far as the preparation 
of teachers is concerned. Consequently the efforts of the college and university to 
provide professional training in education have been postponed for later considera- 
tion, and the present discussion is concerned solely with the state and city normal 
schools; except as the questions of government and control, curriculum organization, 
and some-others, necessarily involve all state institutions engaged in this work. 

Even with this restriction it was found to be impossible to include within reason- 
able limits an examination of all features, or even of all important features, of normal 
school activity. To many it will appear difficult to justify the omission of any refer- 
ence to housing or material equipment. Still more would probably regard a study of 
normal school financing, here omitted, as of greater importance than many topics 
that have been discussed, while much might have been said concerning extra-mural 
activities such as correspondence study, extension lectures, and other field service for 
which no place has been found. 

Whether well or ill advised, the determining policy in the selection of topics has 
been to consider those phases of a school's life that bear most directly upon its edu- 
cational procedure and success. An institution's per capita costs may have no con- 
sistent relation to its real performance, and a luxurious plant may house an unsat- 
isfactory educational philosophy. Granted, however, a sound purpose and a know- 
ledge of tested and successful procedure, an institution or a state may usually be 
trusted not to attempt more than its funds will permit it to do well. For this reason 
it is primarily the educational significance of a given scheme of organization and of its 
administrative working-out that should be subjected to careful and periodical review. 

It was believed, moreover, that such a treatment would not only prove most help- 
ful to Missouri, but would be of the greatest service elsewhere as well. The purposes 
for which teachers should be especially trained are virtually the same throughout the 
country, and it is greatly in the interests of our national solidarity to make this 
identity complete and emphatic. By virtue of this common purpose institutional 



INTRODUCTION 5 

experience everywhere may be utilized in gradually building up legitimate stand- 
ards of practice whereby any single institution may measure itself or be measured 
by others. It is to such common elements in the educational problems presented that 
this study has addressed itself. There are few of the situations here presented as 
occurring in Missouri that have not appeared in quite as acute form in many other, 
perhaps most, American states, and it is hoped that this more than local application 
may considerably enhance whatever merit the bulletin may possess. 



B. METHOD AND PERSONNEL 

The study was organized and conducted by Dr. William S. Learned, of the Foun- 
dation staff. Dr. I. L. Kandel reviewed the report and contributed the account of the 
rise of normal schools outside of Missouri. At every stage of the enquiry the expe- 
rience in such studies of the President of the Foundation, Dr. Henry S. Pritchett, 
and of the Secretary, Dr. Clyde Furst, has been freely drawn upon. 

Dr. William C. Bagley, Director of the School of Education at the University of 
Illinois when the study was begun, and now Professor of Education at Teachers 
College, Columbia University, was asked to make a special study of normal school 
curricula. Dr. Bagley has had extensive experience in elementary school work as well 
as in normal schools in both eastern and western parts of the country; he is responsi- 
ble for most of the sections discussing the curricula and for innumerable helpful sug- 
gestions throughout the book. 

The other participants in the study as a whole were Dr. Charles A. McMurry, 
Professor of Elementary Education at George Peabody College for Teachers, for- 
merly director of the training department at the Illinois State Normal University 
and at the Northern Illinois State Normal School; and Dr. George D. Strayer, Pro- 
fessor of Educational Administration at Teachers College, Columbia University, 
and late President of the National Education Association. These gentlemen, altho 
already familiar with the Missouri institutions, visited them again for the present 
purpose, and their findings are embodied in the report. 

Important use has been made at many points in the text of the statistics secured 
from teachers in service in the state. The work of assembling and collating these has 
been in charge of Mr. Homer W. Josselyn, previously Associate Professor of School 
Administration in the University of Kansas. 

A specific contribution of much significance for its purpose was furnished by 
Dr. Walter F. Dearborn, Professor of Education at Harvard University. With the 
help of specially trained assistants from his department, Dr. Dearborn carried out 
an extensive series of measurements of various forms of school Achievement in the 
training classes of the five normal schools. These tests supplied an indispensable 
check upon the judgments of the observers, with which they tallied to a surprising 
degree. The main results are printed in the Appendix. 



6 THE PROFESSIONAL PREPARATION OF TEACHERS 

Aside from the persons mentioned above, many others have rendered valuable aid 
as the study progressed, either by way of experienced judgment and advice or skilled 
technical assistance. Special acknowledgment is due to Mrs. Dorothy R. Roberts, to 
whom fell the arduous task of verifying and editing the mass of tabular material on 
which much of the study rests. 

Of the method followed in the enquiry it may be said that it has been the inten- 
tion to base conclusions only upon a first-hand knowledge of all the facts, wherever 
this was obtainable. All of the observers did considerable field work in the state, 
some of them spending several months there; personal written reports were made to 
them by practically every normal school instructor, and by three-fourths of the stu- 
dents in attendance when the schools were visited; many classes were attended, and 
personal interviews were had with a large number both of teachers and of students; 
the school records were carefully examined, and in many cases were verified by grad- 
uates. Conditions affecting the normal schools in the state at large were judged by 
an extended visit to the Ozark region, by interviews with many county superintend- 
ents and written reports from each one in the state, and by personal visits and inter- 
views with the superintendents in the twenty-five largest cities of the state and 
written reports from nearly all the rest* The colleges of the Missouri college union 
were visited, and while the data collected from them 4re not contained in this por- 
tion of the report, these visits threw considerable light upon the work of the normal 
schools and upon educational conditions at large. 

In the great number of facts and impressions thus gathered the authors have tried 
to distinguish the essential features of the institutional situation as they found it, 
tracing it, so far as possible, to the earlier conditions that had produced it The 
catalogues and bulletins of all the schools from their establishment, and especially 
the annual reports of the State Superintendent of Public Schools from 1867 on, fur- 
nished a gratifying amount of material for a genetic treatment of this sort. The 
progress of the schools since they were examined in 1915 and 1916 has not been 
followed except in certain isolated details. The study was considered to have value 
not as giving a minute and complete account of certain institutions, but rather as 
an interpretation of the educational significance of a certain order of organization 
and administration caught as nearly as might be in cross section. Moreover, the most 
striking changes that have taken place since the schools were visited are due to ab- 
normal conditions, consequent upon the war, and have an unnatural relation to what 
went before; there would be little point in describing these. 

The spirit of the enquiry is of course critical, as befits any serious examination 
of arrangements intended to modify the education of a free people; any other atti- 
tude is obviously inconsistent with a true conception of public service. Nevertheless 
it would be impossible to frame or make headway with proposals for improvement 
without a sympathetic appreciation of conditions as they exist. Such an appreciation 
was facilitated to an unusual degree by the hearty and intelligent co5peration of 



INTRODUCTION 7 

the men and women in the normal schools. With the rarest exceptions these work- 
ers met thei representatives of the study apparently without other thought than to 
show clearly the real nature of their problems, and to aid in arriving at just and 
effective conclusions. It is to their aid that the authors are chiefly indebted. Without 
exaggeration, the normal school teachers themselves could be regarded as the authors 
of a large portion of the report, and if it has been urged therein that the develop- 
ment of the educational policies of the schools be entrusted in much greater measure 
to the abler teachers, it is because this conclusion has grown out of immediate contact 
with the persons available for such responsibilities. 

C. A GENERAL STATEMENT OF CONCLUSIONS 

DEMOCRACY AND EDUCATION 

The subject of the present study is of surpassing importance to a democracy. An 
attempt has been made to describe and appraise the efforts of an American common- 
wealth to provide itself with suitable instructors for its youthful population. It will 
be generally admitted that the teachers of children and youth, while not the sole in- 
struments, are by far the most influential instruments thru which a people may con- 
sciously control its future; that they directly determine in great part both the extent 
and the degree to which sound fundamental ideas pervade, unite, and move a people. 
The significance of an enquiry as to how those teachers are chosen and prepared is 
therefore apparent. 

Furthermore, the importance of such a study is vastly increased at a time when the 
whole democratic scheme of life is emerging from a struggle with an opposing world- 
order that exhibits a singularly effective tho misdirected social organization. As an 
outcome of the conflict a sincere democracy is compelled to consider how it may ex- 
change its earlier forms and institutions for more adequate expressions of its own 
cherished ideals ; how it shall acquire the power for orderly and masterful action rising 
out of a clear national purpose, and combine this with its passion for freedom, truth, 
and justice in individual relations. The democratic conception of society has grown 
slowly by the groping application of a few fundamental notions, and is as yet scarcely 
more than in bud; its full bloom into a stable world-order promises a thrilling spec- 
tacle in which America may participate with great effect. What is the central con- 
dition, if there be such, on which this epoch-making development depends? 

As a necessary means of self-preservation the consciously directed spread of true 
ideas has long been an admitted principle of democratic government; general intelli- 
gence has been ftimlj felt to be one of its objects, and the school has been accepted 
as a proper instrument thereto. But as the most effectual means for ensuring human 
safety, welfare, and growth; as the one defence against elements that would ruin the 
whole apparatus of orderly progress; and consequently as the central policy of ademo- 
cratic organization, the wide diffusion of a high Degree < of intelligence has been 



8 THE PROFESSIONAL PREPARATION OF TEACHERS 

neglected to the,present day. This is the task which now confronts us. The condition 
that will determine the successful development of a genuine democracy in America 
rests in our willingness to establish, as our foremost policy of public action, a popu- 
lar education that is substantial and unequivocal. 

Universal compulsory education, tho far from achieved, is a familiar slogan for 
which we make a brave stand; but to the duration and content of this education, and 
to the means used in providing it, we have paid little attention- Longer to counte- 
nance this delusion is to fail in our great experiment. Free and true ideas important 
to human welfare must be brought skilfully and vividly, and thru a prolonged period, 
not to prospective leaders only, as some would have it, but to every child and youth. 
To have this contact is his right as a candidate for membership in a democratic 
society; to profit by it must be made his primary obligation. Even our theory of 
universal education has hitherto been satisfied with a scanty offering formally pre- 
sented and often properly declined; to pass it around to all was our main ambition. 
Henceforth, the state must assume responsibility for the product in the case of each 
normal individual from the beginning well thru adolescence. Hitherto, if each child 
attended a school for a few weeks in the year, it has been considered that the require- 
ment was met; hereafter, it is indispensable that each child develop into what shall 
be, according to his abilities, an educated person, or show why that is impossible. 

EDUCATION AND THE TEACHER 

This shift in education from a nominally universal to a substantial basis involves 
preeminently and almost exclusively the teacher. So far as the state can provide educa- 
tion, the teacher is the substance of it. The measure of our past and present deficiency 
is startlingly revealed by the manner in which we have persistently evaded this fact. 
Education has been much, and on the whole reverently, on our lips, but so little 
have we grasped its purport that the sole factor which can give it reality and mean- 
ing, namely, the teacher, is grossly ill-equipped, ill-rewarded, and lacking in distinc- 
tion. A school system with us is an elaborate hierarchical device that undertakes 
thru successive gradations of textbook makers, superintendents, principals, and super- 
visors to isolate and prepare each modicum of knowledge and skill so that it may 
safely be entrusted to the humble teacher at the bottom, who is drilled for a few 
weeks only, if at all, in directions for administering it ultimately to the child. Mean- 
while superintendents and school boards publicly measure their success by numbers 
enrolled, by buildings and material equipment added, and by multiplied kinds of 
schooling introduced; and the people are taught to accept this as education. Such 
perversions are ample comment on the thoughtlessness of our formula. The school 
authorities are rare who by enlightened and fearless propaganda have convinced their 
public that education consists first of all in the superior quality and skill of its in- 
dividual teachers, and is otherwise meaningless. 

Veritable education, as contrasted with the present dependence upon estimates by 



INTRODUCTION 9 

bulk and housing, signifies a complete transformation in the character and status of 
the teaching profession. Such a transformation once properly accomplished, the other 
necessary modifications will inevitably take care of themselves. America, with its hun- 
dred millions of people, needs upward of three-quarters of a million men and women 
to represent her with the childhood and youth of the nation in a deliberate and thor- 
ough educative process. If wars are to cease and democracy is permanently to hold the 
field, it will be a democracy with sufficient wisdom to confide this, its most respon- 
sible task, to its most competent citizens, and to prepare them thoroughly for its safe 
discharge. Genuine education, in a sense consistent with any honest vision of its mean- 
ing, can proceed only thru immediate contact with keen minds fully informed and per- 
suaded of what the rising generation may become, and dedicated to such achievement. 
Persons so equipped will in general not be had unless the distinguished rewards and 
opportunities of life are attainable thru teaching careers. Moreover, these careers 
must not be mere avenues of promotion, as in notable cases to-day, but must con- 
stitute and be recognized as opportunities for achievement in themselves. Any other 
course means simply to exploit the future in the interest of the present by abandon- 
ing its control to second-rate minds. Plato^s provision that the head of the state be 
the director of education expresses the unavoidable perspective in a completed de- 
mocracy. 1 

NEW STANDARDS ESSENTIAL FOE GENUINE EDUCATION 

Marked changes must ensue in our present system of schooling if we undertake to 
carry out an honest interpretation of our avowed aim of "universal education*" by 
making it not only universal but also education. In the first place our elementary and 
secondary school systems must be thoroughly integrated into one homogeneous and 
indivisible unit a varied but coherent twelve-year career for mind and body, 
whereby, as a youth, each citizen may acquire a certificate of the health, intelligence, 
and character that underlie a successful society. 

This done, distinctions of training, experience, and salary among teaching positions 
within this unit must also disappear. Proper training for teaching the third grade 
should be as prolonged and as serious as training for teaching the tenth or twelfth 
grade, and should be equally well rewarded. To pass childhood thru a graded quality 
of instruction in order finally to place those who survive in charge of real teachers 
only at the top is a blunder that explains more of the dire results noticeable in our 
schools than we dare acknowledge. 

If the status of all teachers, upper and lower, urban and rural, is to be approxi- 
mately the same in an honestly equipped school system, what shall that status be? 
The standards of preparation cannot well be lower in amount than those now de- 
manded for superior secondary instruction. Four years of well-directed training sub- 

1 The State of Vermont already has the enviable distinction of paying its commissioner of education more than any 
other state official, including the governor. 



10 THE PROFESSIONAL PREPARATION OF TEACHERS 

sequent to a high school education is sufficient, with selected material, to lay the foun- 
dations of a superior teacher. Experience, skilled practical guidance, and further spe- 
cialized study, attended always by discriminating selection, should result in a group 
having relatively high mental and social power and fit to serve any community as 
leaders. For to lead youth effectively implies, by any acceptable definition, the power 
and resources required to lead the community also. 

On the other hand, if training of any sort can provide men and women who are 
equipped and willing to serve youth as youth should be served, their service is pre- 
eminent. To the individual parent, as to the state, it is quite the most appealing good, 
after physical health; and it is altogether a more difficult service than any other to 
render well. Teachers that approach such a standard of work, therefore, will require 
the recognition and rewards commensurate with it. This is a test of shifted values that 
can be met in America with the greatest ease. No question of obligation to a class is 
involved; it is a case simply of an enlightened democracy purchasing for the future 
goods that shall make it great. Billions cheerfully spent for defending and extend- 
ing liberty abroad are a challenge, whatever the cost, to broaden and make sound the 
foundations of liberty at home. 

In the schools the attainment of such a standard would modify many things. The 
present methods and attitudes of supervision would disappear; its hierarchy would 
be transformed. Organization would, of course, remain, but the pupil would meet di- 
rectly and constantly a well-selected and tested leader prepared to speak with per- 
sonal effect and to win response by virtue of trained intelligence. Such leaders, instead 
of taking minute orders from higher officers, would themselves assume the responsi- 
bility, in joint action, for the conduct and development of instruction the life- 
long business of capable minds. In other words, education would become ajint-hand 
process by skilled practitioners like any other professional service, instead of a second 
or third hand operation with its consequent perfunctory effects. 

A NEW TRAINING FOE TEACHEES 

The degree of selection and training contemplated promises another sweeping im- 
provement of far-reaching importance. In the teacher of to-day the slight prepara- 
tion required and the casual way in which the work may be picked up or dropped 
result in a person bred to routine and conformity, possessing little original insight 
for his work. He forms one of a secluded class, protected as well as repressed by the 
rigid machine of which he is a part. To correct this, we need to pick out men and 
women of large ability and give them a long and thorough preparation aimed solely 
at their future task. By so doing we can entrust our schools to independent and self- 
possessed personalities who fairly represent the spirit of their time, who bring the 
schools into the vital current of events, and make them closely responsive to the 
criticisms and aspirations of the people they serve. Thus only can we secure a sensi- 
tive and flexible education that moves intelligently and surely on its path. 



INTRODUCTION 11 

In demanding for all teachers the standards now required for good secondary in- 
struction, the reference is to their amount only. To make a teacher in the sense out- 
lined above, which is the only sense in which teachers can be of use under future 
conditions, the present form of preparation, elementary and secondary alike, needs 
revision. It is a matter primarily of point of view. The average secondary teacher 
to-day is a person who has taken a college course for his own sake and as he chose. 
At or near the close thereof he has concluded to "go into teaching" temporarily, 
and with no thought of the requirements of a difficult profession. The elementary 
teacher in the country districts is untrained; in the cities he, or more frequently she, 
has sometimes undergone specific training, but oftener, particularly in the West, his 
elementary school service has been a time-marking occupation until he could secure 
college points sufficient to "promote" him to a high school, itself a temporary stopping- 
place on the road to a profession or, in the case of women, to marriage. In either group 
the point of view of the public service is neither enforced by the public nor dreamed 
of by the teacher. The public confesses by the measure of its own rewards that the 
quality of its teaching service is no supreme or vital matter to it, if only the forms are 
there according to the letter of the law. It therefore offers its candidates, in lieu of 
professional training, an education that fits their general needs, and invites them in 
the intervals of study to come and manage the schools for awhile in order to fill their 
purses. 

We are fast learning that if democracy is to have genuine education and survive, 
this sort of thing must cease. The hollowness of the process has its faithful counter- 
part in the hollowness of the teacher's plan and purpose. For a serious educative 
undertaking, the way must be paved by a thoroughly well-organized course of train- 
ing, directed toward the specific work to be done, and exhausting our professional 
resources in that field. The task is difficult and responsible enough even with the 
most liberal training we know; to omit this, or to conceive the work as an incidental 
diversion for the employment of "general culture," is to miss the point completely. 
The first and sole consideration in planning a teacher's preparation is the question : 
Does this feature contribute most to the effective discharge of the particular duty in 
view, as the welfare of the service requires? Personal considerations are beside the mark. 

Circumstances in America have made us largely dependent upon women for the 
teachers we have, and the proposals made above might not completely equalize men's 
share in instruction even at three or four times the present salaries, tho it would tend 
to do so. Whether this ensue or not, the steps suggested would at least remove the 
meaningless restriction of the profession to unmarried women. To teach well is the 
privilege of maturity and experience; it is the prerogative of men and women of affairs, 
of fatherhood, of motherhood; it is the business of brains and a vigorous social par- 
ticipation that draws the pupil into the stream of interesting and instructive per- 
sons and events. What have immature girls to do with this except as they prepare 
to make it the main object of their lives irrespective of marriage? 



12 THE PROFESSIONAL PREPARATION OF TEACHERS 

The changes urged above have one other interesting and important implication. 
The attainment of an integrated school system, manned by teachers of similar and 
homogeneous training for the purpose, involves a like simplification and coordina- 
tion of our agencies for preparing teachers. To-day normal school and university 
reflect and perpetuate the traditional cleavage between elementary and secondary 
school. In the best instances there is involved here only the friction of overlapping 
territory rather than essentially unsympathetic views of the process by which a 
teacher should be prepared. However far apart some normal schools and some uni- 
versities may be, the enlightened and progressive elements of each party are moving 
along the same intellectual road. 

The time has come to clear up the existing confusion. All institutional education 
for the teaching profession should be placed clearly upon a collegiate footing and 
organized under a single competent direction as a part of the state university, where 
one exists, parallel with medical, legal, engineering, and other similar divisions of 
higher education. This signifies no " concessions " either to the university or to the 
normal schools. " Normal " schools should drop that name, and as professional col- 
leges of education should become an acknowledged part of the greater university 
whole simply because they are a part of the state's system of higher education, which 
is all the term "university" now implies. We would thus secure a unified and cen- 
tralized authority prepared to deal in a consistent and efficient manner with the 
state's largest problem in higher and professional education. 

THE TEACHEK AND THE PUBLIC 

The type of teacher here proposed is a radically different individual from his pres- 
ent prototype, and demands a vigorous and discriminating introduction to the pub- 
lic that he is intended to serve. It is the public that must purchase the services of 
such a teacher; it is the public, therefore, that must be convinced of his worth. 

Upon the teachers themselves the outward responsibility for such a movement can- 
not fairly be placed; from them may reasonably be expected the maximum develop- 
ment and refinement of their own procedure a far more conclusive argument for 
more of it, at its best, than any "demands for social justice" to teachers as a class. 
To double or to treble the public investment in such service, to extend largely its 
resources by broader and richer training, to seek a selection of ability preeminently 
suited to its purpose this is a matter of public policy, and has nothing to do with 
the personal needs or demands of any group of people. This is the work primarily 
of that portion of the educated public that knows the value of good teachers. Spe- 
cifically, it is to school superintendents and school boards, and, above all, to state 
commissioners of education, that the public has a right to look for reasoned and con- 
vincing insistence that the best teachers are worth while, and it is they who are 
responsible for organizing public opinion to demand that the best teachers be em- 
ployed. It is of relatively small importance that teachers should be well paid merely 



INTRODUCTION 13 

because they are teachers, but it is of supreme importance to any society that com- 
petent teachers who are capable of fine service should be amply rewarded and care- 
fully protected throughout their careers. 

To attain this it is proper, not that teachers themselves should agitate, unionize, 
and strike, but that school executives, municipal and state, in well-organized cam- 
paigns, should rally their thousands of lay supporters and attack city and state gov- 
ernments and the uninformed public opinion about them in the interests of better 
teaching. Leadership of this sort in the protection and promotion of a community's 
most precious asset is the foremost duty of state and city superintendents. It is their 
business to make an abundance of good teaching an arresting and winning cause in 
chambers of commerce, churches, rotary clubs, labor unions, and similar civic and so- 
cial organizations of citizen parents who control taxation. Fine instruction does not 
at present prevail in American communities simply because it is not understood; the 
average parent's interest in his child's school is almost imperceptible, not because his 
interest in his child is not profound, but because the teaching purpose and process 
has never taken the parent convincingly into its confidence. That such a confidence 
would too often exhaust the uncertain and ill-preparedi teacher has not assisted the 
exchange. Parent- teacher associations have rendered an important service by promot- 
ing helpful social relations between home and school, but they obviously have not 
taught the parent how to discriminate between the teaching now provided and the 
better teaching that might be provided, nor is that their purpose. Here is a field al- 
most completely un worked. Enthusiasm and personal sacrifice to secure good teach- 
ing for his children are latent in well-nigh every parent. He must, however, know defi- 
nitely and vividly what good teaching is, and he must understand clearly that its value 
is on the whole directly related to its cost. Convince any American public that the 
alleged products of a fine teacher are real, and the cost will speedily become a wholly 
secondary consideration. 

THE PRESENT CBISIS IN PUBLIC EDUCATION 

It is scarcely appropriate to present a study of conditions affecting the future 
progress of public instruction in the United States without more than passing refer- 
ence to the situation of the teacher arising from the universal economic dislocation 
now ensuing upon the recent war. Within a few months the value of a teacher's sal- 
ary or " wages " has fallen approximately fifty per cent There is nothing ominous 
about this fact, inasmuch as the same thing has happened to every other salaried 
professional worker in common with the rest of the world, but there are portentous 
possibilities in the failure of school authorities to make a prompt repair of the damage 
their first obligation. 

Readjustment is slow for several reasons, but chiefly because it is assumed to be a 
question merely of the personal comfort of a class of public servants instead of an im- 
mediate menace to the welfare of the children and indirectly of the communities of 



14 THE PROFESSIONAL PREPARATION OF TEACHERS 

which they form a part. Popular pressure governs public taxation. Orderly children 
comfortably housed exert no pressure. Their teachers may descend the full scale of 
excellence with little popular protest and with an agreeable decrease in the budget. 
Where this result can be achieved simply by letting salaries stand still, as at pres- 
ent, those taxpayers who are intent solely upon their income make full use of the 
opportunity before the friends of education find their voices. To-day, therefore, in- 
stead of a sensitive public opinion moving swiftly to defend our finest possession, we 
have the unhappy spectacle of a rapidly accelerating exodus from the staffs of public 
schools throughout the country ; and very many schools cannot open their doors be- 
cause of lack of teachers, even the poorest. 

The situation is complicated by a further unfortunate but obvious difficulty. The 
school superintendent of any given community should be the one intelligent and 
determined stimulus or rallying-point, as the case may be, for all forces seeking better 
public education. As a matter of fact, however, conditions of tenure in this country 
have been such that in probably the majority of communities the school superintend- 
ent feels more keenly and responds more readily to the pressure of the " business in- 
terests " than to the less vociferous appeals for better schools. Superintendents who 

stake their careers on the one really important objective in their entire program 

better salaries for better teachers court removal, or loss of influence. Hence the real 
initiative in such a proposal is more often awaited from other sources, or is left to the 
school board as it may be moved to emulate other cities. The numerous and splendid 
examples of the contrary courageous policy, by skilfully attracting popular support, 
have steadily improved standards of salary, and have given American schools what 
excellence they possess. In such a crisis as the present, these men gather up all the 
weight of a public sentiment that they have assiduously organized and cultivated, 
and save their hard won gains by bringing their teachers' salaries promptly to the 
new level. 

It may safely be said that it is not the intention of the American people to sacri- 
fice the American school, both present and future, to the whim of a sudden economic 
upheaval an upheaval, the net result of which, far from touching the country's 
resources, has produced such material expansion and enrichment, both absolute 
and relative to other countries, as few nations in history have ever yet experienced. 
Wealth for public education is potentially available as never before. Personnel, too, 
is abundant. To-day, as always, the supply of "bom teachers " is far beyond the de- 
mand. The sole need is to make it worth while for gifted teachers to secure thorough 
training and to spend their lives in providing that which every intelligent adult most 
desires, both for himself and for his children, and that which alone in the end exalts 
a nation. 

All of the elements in the situation favor not only a speedy recovery of the old 
equilibrium, but a notable shift of wealth and emphasis in favor of far better public 
schools, that is, of far better teaching, than has ever been known before. Our illumi- 



INTRODUCTION 15 

nating experiences with education, both positive and negative, in our own army ; the 
significant disclosures of the war in the behavior of foreign nations, both allied and 
opposed, as a result of their educational practices; the greatly refined definition of 
the democratic human purpose and ideal as the assured outcome of the long struggle; 
and finally, the general shock of pervasive change and rapid readjustment that has 
delivered us from old conventions and favors fresh attitudes; all of these novel and 
impressive considerations urge us manifestly in one direction. There probably never 
was a time in our history when popular education could be brought so easily into a 
permanently larger financial perspective, when an abundance of good teaching could 
be made available with such unanimity from all sides, as just now. 

Those who desire this outcome of the present opportunity must move to its accom- 
plishment, and the foremost requirement for the purpose is simply the indispensable 
steering-gear of all successful democratic progress the effectual organization and 
thrust of a resolute public opinion. Whether set in motion by a skilful superintend- 
ent as his main line of defence, or operating in spite of deputed agents, there should 
be for every school system an independent and unofficial organ of approval or criti- 
cism wherewith to focus progressive opinion, to invigorate official ideals, or to turn 
the scale of wavering decisions in favor of the better cause* 

Just now, especially, there is needed in every community that has not already 
doubled its appropriations for teachers' salaries in the present emergency, a vigorous 
Citizens' Committee for Public Safety in Education. Let such a body first conduct a 
more or less, formal referendum on the present issue, clearly stated: "Shall the per- 
sons with whom our children are obliged to spend five to six hours daily in school, 
obeying their directions and absorbing their ideas, be a dull and sordid group of 
spiritless wage workers, or shall they be select and skilful men and women possessed 
of such intellectual and social power and status as we desire our children all chil- 
dren to assume?" Then let this body do its utmost to give the verdict immediate 
effect by demanding greatly increased rewards, better conditions of work, and, above 
all, longer training and more critical selection. 

When the actual desires of the individual parents, and of all other generous and 
far-sighted minds everywhere, become clearly articulate on this point there will be 
no "crisis in education;" there will be only the overwhelming recognition that the 
teacher must represent, not another worker merely, like the rest of us, but a spirit- 
ual institution; that, before all others, this person, set as a copy and guide to youth 
for months and years together, must be the visible embodiment of the ideal that 
the present generation holds for its successors. It will then be agreed that those fine 
personalities that can render this service must be cherished and protected, enabled 
to live life as life is meant to be lived, and encouraged to transmit its best product to 
our children who create the future. 



II 

THE STATE OF MISSOURI 
SURFACE FEATURES 

MISSOURI is one of the larger states and among the wealthiest in the American Union. 
It lies along the west bank of the Mississippi River, extending in rhomboidal shape 
thru some four degrees of latitude northwest from parallel 26 30", which is likewise 
the southern boundary of Kentucky and Virginia. The Missouri River ( " The Great 
Muddy "), from which the state derives its name, forms the northern part of its west- 
ern boundary as far as Kansas City. Turning eastward at that point, the river crosses 
the centre of the state to a point near St. Louis on the Mississippi, thus furnishing 
a natural highway between these two important centres in which the large affairs of 
the entire region are mainly transacted. In length of navigable waterways within or 
on Its borders Missouri stands fifth among the states. 

The total area is about seventy thousand square miles, or nearly two-thirds that 
of the kingdom of Italy. The northern, northwestern, and western portions contain 
some of the most productive farm land in the country, while the south central sec- 
tion is occupied by the low dome of the northern Ozarks, in general elevations of 
from eleven to sixteen hundred feet above the sea. These give place in the extreme 
southeast to a small area of Mississippi lowlands, where conditions are typically 
southern. 

CHARACTERISTICS OF POPULATION 

The population within these limits represents the coalescence of several elements. 
While the territory was still in French and Spanish hands, many Americans, chiefly 
from the southern states, found their way past the French colonies and trading-posts 
that lined the Mississippi, and took up homesteads in the interior. When the Louisi- 
ana Territory was purchased by the United States in 180S, about three-fifths of the 
inhabitants, largely confined to what is now Missouri, were Americans, including 
what negroes they brought with them, and after that date the immigration from Ken- 
tucky, Tennessee, and Virginia continued yet more rapidly. From 1815 on, arrivals 
from north of the Ohio were numerous, tho not until sometime after the Civil Wax- 
did they tend to dominate the state. 1 

Not far from one-fourth (2.7 per cent) of the entire population is of foreign ex- 
traction, and of this element about one-half is German; Irish, English, and Russians 
are the next in frequency, tho in small proportions. The German element is an old 

1 The reports of the county superintendents shortly after the Civil War throw some lighten immigration from other 
f? 1 ??,^. 1 fc ^ fected education. Thus in 1868 Clinton County reports : "The Eastern teachers are generally well qual- 
ified. The Greene County superintendent says : "A large majority of our teachers were educated in the East and 
came here expressly to teach." And the superintendent in Henry County ^ives the following interesting: informa- 
tion : We have a very fair corps of teachers," From "Ohio, seventeen ; Indiana, eleven ; Missouri, ten ; Illinois, five ; 
Iowa two; Virginia, two; Kentucky, one; New Hampshire, one; New York, one; Vermont, one; Pennsylvania, 
SSiJSf T m V n \ ; Te ? n *f ee < ne; and Canada, one." These teachers received from $85 to $40 per month -not 
Sim \\ HT +* each *r? > n th j sam f district to-day. (See Report of the Superintendent of Public Schools, 1808. This 
annual publication will be referred to hereafter as the State Report*} 



THE STATE OF MISSOURI 



17 



one, appearing first about 1845, and passing its maximum inflow long before the 
century closed. The attitude of the state toward slavery as well as its progress in 
education seems to have been favorably afiected by these newcomers. Most immi- 
grants from abroad prefer urban to rural conditions. In 1910 persons of foreign birth 
or parentage constituted thirty-eight per cent of the white urban population in 
Missouri, and only twelve per cent in the rural districts. The total proportion of 
foreign birth in 1910 showed no increase since 1900. The countries from which the 
increases relative to 1900 were largest are Greece, Turkey, Roumania, Hungary, and 
Mexico; Russia and Italy more than doubled the number of their representatives 
and Austria nearly so. 

In total population Missouri, with about three and one-quarter millions, ranks 
seventh among the states, altho its land area gives it only the eighteenth place. 
Nearly five per cent are negroes a slowly dwindling element largely confined to 
towns ; slightly over one per cent of the Missouri farmers are negroes. About three- 
fifths of the total population live in the country or in places with fewer than twenty- 
five hundred inhabitants. This class diminished somewhat (3.5 per cent) between 1900 1 
and 1910, while the urban population increased more than one-fifth during the same 
period. Seventy-one out of the one hundred fourteen counties showed a loss in 1910 
as compared with twenty that had decreased in 1900, while the absolute gain in St. 
Louis City, St. Louis County, and Jackson County, where Kansas City is located, 
far outweighed the gain six per cent in the state as a whole. In density of pop- 
ulation Missouri leads all states west of the Mississippi, and is similar to .New Hamp- 
shire, Michigan, and Virginia in the East. 

OCCUPATIONS 

The distribution of occupations in Missouri follows closely that of the United States 
as a whole. While not quite so typical as Indiana or Wisconsin, the state exhibits a 
disposition of occupations that is wholly representative of the country at large. The 
distribution in 1910 of persons ten years of age and over who were engaged in gainful 
occupations in the United States and in Missouri was as follows : 





Agriculture, 
Forestry, and 
Animal Hus- 
bandry 


Extraction 
of 
Minerals 


Manufacturing 
and Mechanical 
Industries 


Trans- 
porta- 
tion 


Trade 


Public 
Service 


Profes- 
sional 
Service 


Domestic 
and Per- 
sonal Ser- 
vice 


Clerical 
Occupa- 
tions 


U.S. 


33.2% 


2.5% 


27.9% 


6.9% 


9.5% 


1.2% 


4.4% 


9.9% 


4.6% 


Missouri 


35.5 


2.1 


23.6 


7.1 


11.1 


1.1 


4.7 


9.8 


5.0 



As appears above, the emphasis falls on the agricultural rather than on the manu- 
facturing phase of industry, altho both are important. Missouri rants fifth among 
the states in the total value of its farm property, which showed in 1910 a relative 

1 Missouri was one of six states with diminished rural population in 1910, New Hampshire, Vermont, Ohio, Indiana, 
and Iowa being t|ie others. 



18 THE PROFESSIONAL PREPARATION OF TEACHERS 

increase greater than In any decade since I860; it ranks tenth in the value per acre 
of its farm land, and sixth in the total value of its crops, of which cereals, chiefly corn,, 
constitute two-thirds. As the number of farmers decreases, the size of farms increases 
slightly; the proportion of tenant farmers has remained nearly the same during the 
past thirty years thirty per cent, 

In manufactures Missouri is the ninth state in number of establishments, tenth in 
total value of manufactured products, and eleventh in number of wage- earners. Three- 
quarters of the manufacturing is done in ten cities of ten thousand or more inhab- 
itants, two-thirds of it in St. Louis and Kansas City alone the only cities in the state 
having over one hundred thousand inhabitants. The particular industries are well dis- 
tributed. The following furnish the greatest proportions of the total value of man- 
ufactured products: slaughtering and meat-packing (13.9 per cent), boots and shoes 
(8.5 per cent), flour-mill and grist-mill products (7.8 per cent), and printing and pub- 
lishing (5.S per cent). In value of mining products Missouri ranks eleventh. Over two- 
thirds of this comes from lead and zinc mines, which furnish about seventy per cent 
of the entire American output of these metals. 

POLITICAL HISTORY 

Politically the state fills a unique place in the story of the nation's development. 
On its admission as a slave-holding state in 1821 was conditioned the freedom of 
all other territory north of its southern boundary, included in the Louisiana Purchase 
of 1803. As a border state of the early southern group it was peculiarly accessible to 
northern influences, and soon developed a strong anti-slavery minority. This party 
held the state for the Union during the Civil War, and induced it voluntarily to 
abandon slavery and to sacrifice nearly as many lives in the Union cause as did 
Massachusetts. After ten years of radical Republican government during and after the 
Civil War, the state gradually returned to its normal democratic affiliation, which it 
retained until 1909. Since then its parties have been more evenly balanced. The first 
constitution of 180 was overthrown by the upheaval during the war, and was fol- 
lowed in 1865 by an instrument containing a remarkable mixture of intolerance and 
reform, to which in protest succeeded the constitution of 1875, a conservative, and 
in some respects repressive, fundamental law under which, with occasional amend- 
ment, the state has operated ever since. A revision is greatly needed and apparently 
very generally desired. 

EDUCATIONAL DEVELOPMENT 

In education Missouri has furnished an instructive chapter, particularly in its 
experience with the idea of public schooling at public expense. The characteristic 
feature of its history in this respect has been the struggle between a well-informed 
and devoted educational leadership and an exceedingly conservative legislative opin- 
ion. The attitude of the public mind was first determined by the traditions of the 



THE STATE OF MISSOURI 19 

original settlers from southern states, where education was a family matter to be ac- 
complished thru private neighborhood cooperation, or by means of tutor and gov- 
erness. The idea of free public education was associated habitually with charitable 
provision for poor and orphaned children. 1 This point of view was further sanctioned 
by a religious motive,, which operated with more or less vigor to retain all education 
under sectarian influences. The impulse to education was as active in early Missouri 
history as anywhere else in the nation. Denominational colleges were established liter- 
ally by the score. The Baptists alone, the most numerous among Protestant denomi- 
nations, founded sixteen colleges, of which four still survive. But enthusiasm for 
free schools, controlled and supported by state and local authority and independ- 
ent of religious affiliation, was a slow growth. 

Previous to 18S4, therefore, educational legislation was confined to the charter- 
ing of private academies. The legislation of 1834, 1835, and 1839, altho foreshadow- 
ing a system of free public schools, was either wholly inoperative or but partly effec- 
tive. Taxation for school purposes was in general hotly opposed by the rich, and 
by those who had no children. "Subscription" schools, where for perhaps a dollar a 
month per child a teacher would give instruction as long as he could hold attendance, 
abounded in all parts of the state. An act of 1853 permanently established a state 
superintendency, except for the period of the Civil War, and marked progress in 
financial support, but in 1861, altho all counties were organized, about one-fourth 
of the school expenses was still supplied from tuition fees. It was then estimated that 
one hundred thousand children in the state at large did not attend school, and that 
nearly one-fifth of the organized school districts had no schoolhouses. 2 

The close of the Civil War found radical elements for the first time in control. 
These immediately set out to popularize the free public school, and succeeded to the 
extent at least of securing "qualified toleration," as Superintendent Monteith put 
it. Normal schools won a foothold; centralized county supervision was inaugurated, 
and for a time the outlook for public education was bright, only to be clouded again 
by the reaction of 1874 and 1875, when the earlier balance of opinion was restored. 
County superintendents were then abolished contrary to the judgment, it would 
appear, of nearly every important educational authority in the state, and in spite of 
continued agitation they were not restored until 1909. The normal schools fought for 
their lives in the legislature for ten years or more, and when finally accepted, were but 
meagrely supported. The constitution of 1875 laid down financial restrictions that 
have ever since made the state appear to be throttling its own educational interests. 

Thru all this tlie educational leaders of the commonwealth have held a true course; 
the state has at least been well advised. The whole series of state superintendents, 

1 The charter of Ste, Genevieve Academy, 1808, provides that the children of the poor and of Indians shall be taught 
gratis. The constitution of 1820, Art. VI, Sec. 1, reads: " One school or more shall be established in each township as 
soon as practicable and necessary where the poor shall be taught gratis." The school law of 1839 provides schools 
at which children of "indigent persons "are 'to he admitted without payment toward the teacher's wages and 
without supplying their allotted share of the fuel. (Art. IV. Sec. SI, 42.) 
a State Report, 1861, pa&es 107, 108 (Senate-Journal, 21st G. A. Sess. 1, App.). 



20 THE PROFESSIONAL PKEPAEATION OE TEACHERS 

with scarcely an exception, altho of necessity party men, and not always broadly 
educated, labored heroically, regardless of party, for a sound and effective program. 
While recording chiefly their helpless struggles with confused and inadequate legis- 
lation, their annual reports have urged unremittingly the best and most obvious 
practical improvements. To these efforts were added the generally harmonious support 
and propaganda of the university and normal schools, the private colleges, and other 
institutional agencies. From about the turn of the new century, and with the dis- 
appearance of the preceding generation of lawmakers, this tedious campaign of educa- 
tion began to bear fruit, and the period since then has witnessed some excellent con- 
structive legislation the beginnings of a system worthy of the needs and resources 
of a great state. 

As a problem for education, and particularly as a problem in the preparation of 
teachers for a public school system, the State of Missouri may fairly be regarded as 
typical of the country as a whole. Characteristics of surface and population are mark- 
edly representative. In their organization of public education the northern and west- 
ern states are in general superior, while the southern states fall somewhat, often 
considerably, behind. If certain significant criteria given usually in the reports of 
the United States Commissioner of Education be reviewed, the rather low average 
position of the state becomes apparent. These rankings of 1915-16 give the following 
result : 

Amount Rank 
among 
States 

Average expenditure per capita of population five to eighteen years of age $19.97 32d 

Average number of days attendance for each child five to eighteen years of age 96.1 25th 

Average number of days attendance by each pupil enrolled 118.5 30th 

Average number of days schools were kept 161,8 29th 

Number attending daily for each 100 enrolled 73.2 27th 

Proportion of school population enrolled 81.08% 18th 

Proportion of secondary school attendance 1 15.4% 28th 

Average monthly salary of all teachers $69.19 21st 

Income of permanent school funds $872,289.00 7th 

Illiterates among native whites of native parentage 3,4/%? 35th 

In six of the ten items given above, Missouri ranks below the median, and in a 
seventh the state is itself the median among the forty-nine independent units that 
constitute the nation. The relation of school expenditure to the per capita wealth 
of the state would appear to be of equal importance with the points already noted. 
But the fact that Missouri ranks twenty-ninth in per capita wealth and twenty-sev- 
enth in proportion of school expenditure thereon loses much of its apparent mean- 
ing as an educational measure, when it is considered that Massachusetts ranks twenty- 

1 Not given in the Commissioner's Report. The figure used here is the proportion of secondary students in public 
and private schools, 1915-16, with reference to the population from 15 to 19 years of ag-e, inclusive. The latter fac- 
tor was secured by taking, of the total population, as estimated by the Census Bureau for 1916, such a proportion 
as the age group in question constituted of the- total population in 1910. For Missouri this was 10.1 per cent. The 
absolute proportion thus arrived at is, of course, open to criticism; for purposes of comparison., however, the mea- 
sure is significant: it ranges from 35.1 per cent in California to 6.5 per cent in South Carolina. 



THE STATE OF MISSOURI 21 

seventh in per capita wealth and third in the proportion expended for schools, while 
Idaho ranks thirty-first in wealth and leads the states in the proportion given to 
schools. 1 

However closely this condition in Missouri may approximate the average or median, 
the reason for it is hardly typical of those other communities in which a similar or 
worse state of public education exists; in Missouri it is simply an acquiescent atti- 
tude of mind that is responsible, whereas elsewhere the situation is usually compli- 
cated by difficult racial considerations. A thriving university of national importance, 
six prosperous normal schools, a half a score of private colleges of good repute all 
bear testimony to a vigorous intellectual life; while the metropolis of the state pos- 
sesses a school system that competent critics consider among the first two or three in 
America. Such a state may have whatever it most desires. 



1 These figures are taken from the Commissioner's Report for 1917, and are for 1912. 



Ill 

ORIGIN AND GROWTH OF NORMAL SCHOOLS 
A. THE ORIGIN OF NORMAL SCHOOLS IN THE UNITED STATES 

EARLIEST ADVOCACY OF TEACHER-TRAINING 

THE recognition that a teacher should have qualifications for his profession some- 
what more specialized than the vague requirement that he be a "fit person '' appears 
to have dawned faintly toward the close of the eighteenth century. In 1789 there 
appeared in the Massachusetts Magazine an "Essay upon the Importance of Study- 
ing the English Language Grammatically," in which the author advocates the estab- 
lishment of a public grammar school in each county in place of the existing Latin 
grammar schools. "At the head of this county school I would place an able precep- 
tor, who should superintend the whole instruction of youth entrusted to his care, 
and who, together with a board of overseers, should annually examine young gentle- 
men designed for schoolmasters in reading, writing, arithmetic, and English gram- 
mar, and if they are found qualified for the office of schoolkeeping and able to teach 
these branches with ease and propriety, to recommend them for this purpose. No 
man ought to be suffered to superintend ever so small a school except he has been 
first examined by a body of men of this character and authorized for this purpose." 
It may be objected that this statement is not a definite advocacy of training for the 
teaching profession ; it will be admitted, however, that the insistence on proper selec- 
tion and some form of certification are at least essential steps in the direction of 
more adequate professional preparation. 

Professor Denison Olmstead, of Yale College, was more specific in his commence- 
ment address in 181S on "The State of Education in Connecticut." Here is presented 
a definite recommendation of a seminary for schoolmasters in which 6C the pupils were 
to study and recite whatever they themselves were afterwards to teach, partly for 
the purpose of acquiring a more perfect knowledge of these subjects, and partly of 
learning from the methods adopted by the principal the best modes of teaching."" The 
course was to include lectures on the organization and government of schools. Eleven 
years later another Yale professor, James L. Kingsley, advocated in the NortJi Amer- 
ican Review the establishment of an institution "intermediate between the com- 
mon schools and the university.' 1 "Such a measure would give new vigor to the whole 
system of education. The board of visitors, which now decides on the qualifications 
of instructors, must be, in most instances, a very imperfect check on the intrusion of 
ignorance. The teachers, it is understood, have now very seldom any other prepara- 
tion than they receive in the very school where they afterwards instruct, or in the 
school of some neighboring district, where the advantages for improvement are no 
better." In a pamphlet, Sitgrgestions on Ed^^ J cation^ also written in 183, William 
Russell, a teacher in the New Township Academy in New Haven, who in 18S6 be- 
came the editor of one of the earliest American professional magazines, the Journal 



NORMAL SCHOOLS IN THE UNITED STATES . 28 

of Education, supported Professor Kingsley's recommendation and attributed the in- 
adequacy of the common schools to the lack of trained teachers. This defect could be 
removed by the establishment of seminaries for the training and licensing of teachers. 

EARLY EXPERIMENTS 

The suggestions of Kingsley and Russell had been anticipated by a few months by 
the Rev. Samuel R. Hall, who, after a successful teaching experience of eight years, 
opened a seminary for the training of teachers at Concord, Vermont, in March, 183. 
In 1829 Hall published the first American textbook on education, Lectures on School- 
Keeping^ which had a great vogue in many parts of the country, and in New York 
State and Kentucky was officially distributed among the teachers. When the Teach- 
ers' Seminary was organized in 1830 as a department of the Phillips Academy at An- 
dover, " to afford the means of a thorough scientific and practical education prepar- 
atory to the profession of teaching," Hall became the first principal and remained 
until 1837, when he took charge of another school at Plymouth, New Hampshire. 
Lecturing in 1833 on the "Necessity of Educating Teachers," Hall stated that "there 
is not in our whole country, one seminary where the educator of children can be thor- 
oughly qualified for his important work." He then referred to the thirty seminaries 
in Prussia and to a few schools in Massachusetts which "devote particular attention 
to the qualifications of teachers, but yet in connection with a general school for the 
common purposes of education."" He clearly had in mind the establishment of sep- 
arate professional institutions, when he urged, "Educate men for the business of 
teaching, employ and pay them when educated." 

Neither the establishment of the seminary at Concord in 1823 nor its subsequent 
success appears to have attracted much attention. Efforts to secure the establishment 
of institutions for the preparation of teachers became more frequent and more insist- 
ent about 1825, and appai'ently the movement was spontaneous and for a time, at any 
rate, was but slightly influenced by foreign example and practice. In 1825 Walter R. 
Johnson, of German town, Pennsylvania, wrote Observations on the Improvement of 
Seminaries of Learning in the United States ', with Suggestions for its Accomplishment. 
Foremost among his suggestions was that for the establishment of seminaries for 
teachers similar to those existing in Prussia. " A perfect plan for the education of 
teachers and professors would require that the institution with which the school for 
teachers is proposed to be connected should embrace a complete circle of the sciences 
and arts, and that a professor should be appointed to lecture on the mode of teach- 
ing in each separate department." The professional preparation should include the 
study of the theory and principles of education, school practice and government, 
and the science of mental development. In the same year Philip Lindsey, the acting 
president of the College of New Jersey, in an address at Princeton urged that "Our 
country needs Seminaries purposely to train up and qualify young men for the pro- 
fession of teaching. We have our theological seminaries, our medical and law schools. 



m ORIGIN AND GROWTH OF NORMAL SCHOOLS 

which receive the graduates of our colleges and fit them for their respective profes- 
sions and whenever the profession of teaching shall be duly honored and appreciated, 
it is not doubted but that it will receive similar attention and be favored with equal 
advantages." Later in the same year, in his inaugural address as President of the 
University of Nashville, Lindsey emphasized the same point. John Maclean, another 
Princeton professor, subsequently president, recommended in 18S8" the establishment 
(by the state) of an institution to educate young men for the business of teaching." 

DEVELOPMENT OF PUBLIC OPINION 

These isolated instances indicate the tendencies of the day, but the popularization 
of the idea of preparing teachers was not due to these writers. The earliest contribu- 
tion to the subject which attracted general attention was Thomas H. Gallaudet's 
Plan of a Seminary for the Education and Instruction of Youtli^ which appeared in 
the Connecticut Observer in 18&5. "Why not have an institution," asks Gallaudet, 
" for the training up of instructors for their sphere of labor, as well as institutions 
to prepare young men for the duties of the divine, the lawyer or the physician? . . . 
Such an institution would also tend to elevate the tone of public sentiment and to 
quicken the zeal of public effort with regard to the correct intellectual and moral 
education of the rising generation." The curriculum of this institution should include 
the common branches of English education and the theory and practice of education. 
A library and practice school should be connected with the seminary. Connecticut's 
debt to Gallaudet was later recognized when the students of the first normal school 
established in the state, at New Britain in 1850, formed a Gallaudet Society, 

In 18S4-&5 James G. Carter, the "father of normal schools," entered upon the task 
of urging the establishment of normal schools 1 in Massachusetts, and did not lay it 
down until the first state normal school in this country was opened at Lexington in 
1839. His Essays on Popular Education, which appeared in the Boston Patriot ^ at- 
tracted considerable attention not only in this country but also abroad. He argued 
that it was uneconomical to expend money on education until satisfactory and well- 
qualified teachers could be secured. The mere possession of knowledge was no guar- 
antee of ability to communicate it. "When instructors understand their profession, 
that is, in a word, when they understand the philosophy of the infant mind, what 
powers are earliest developed and what studies are best adapted to their development, 
then it will be time to lay out and subdivide their work into an energetic system 
of public instruction. 55 The institution for the training of teachers should be main- 
tained by the state as part of the free school system, and should include a library and 
a school for children of different ages. It is significant that Carter does not yet refer 
to foreign examples, but puts his scheme forward as something new and visionary. In 
18S7 he petitioned the Massachusetts legislature to appropriate money for the estab- 
lishment of a state institution for the training of teachers. On the refusal of the legisla- 
ture he opened a private seminary at Lancaster in 1827, but met with little success. 



NORMAL SCHOOLS IN THE UNITED STATES 525 

EXAMPLE OF GERMANY 

New influences, however, began to make themselves felt about 1830. The theorists 
discovered that everything that had been urged in favor of the preparation of teach- 
ers had already been put into successful practice in Prussia and elsewhere. Henry E. 
Dwight in his Travels in the North of Germany in 1825~1S%6, which appeared in 1829., 
devotes one of his letters to an account of seminaries for the Education of School- 
masters. He points out that "to understand a subject will not of itself enable one 
to impart a clear view of the best mode of communicating knowledge to the minds 
of children. This capacity can only be acquired by previous preparation or by long 
experience." He had great hopes of the results of such seminaries. "Were such school- 
masters provided for the education of youth in Connecticut, the intellectual charac- 
ter of the mass of inhabitants would, in one generation, not only become superior 
to that of every other people, but it would become the wonder and admiration of 
our country." 

EFFORTS OF EDUCATIONAL LEADERS 

After 1830 the work of propaganda was definitely taken up in professional circles, 
and the efforts continued unremittingly until they were crowned with success about 
ten years later. In 1831 William C. Woodbridge began to urge the importance of 
training teachers in his Annals of Education, and in June of that year gave an account 
of the Prussian system. To the Rev. Charles Brooks is due the chief credit for the 
popularization and the ultimate acceptance in Massachusetts of the idea of teacher- 
training. His attention was directed to the subject during a visit to Europe in 1834* 
and by prolonged discussion on his return voyage with Dr. EL Julius, who was sent 
to this country by the Prussian government to investigate prison conditions. In a 
Thanksgiving address delivered at Hingham in 1835 he advocated the establishment 
of teachers' seminaries and proposed a series of conventions to be held in Plymouth 
County to promote the idea. The first convention was held in December, 1836, and 
was followed by five others. Untiring in his efforts, Brooks addressed meetings in 
various important centres in Massachusetts in 1836 and 1837, and extended his en- 
deavors to New Hampshire, Vermont, Rhode Island, Connecticut, New Jersey, and 
Pennsylvania. Everywhere he took as his theme the statement, "As is the Teacher 
so is the School," and drew his illustrations and examples from Prussia and Holland. 
The influence of Dr. Julius has already been mentioned; an outline of the Prussian 
system by him was printed in 1835 with legislative documents in Massachusetts and 
New York. To this was added the inspiration that Brooks derived from M. Cousin's 
Report on Public Instruction in Germany. The translation of this work by Sarah Aus- 
tin, with an introduction by J. Orville Taylor, was published in New York in 1835, 
and in the same year a paper, printed in 1836 and based on Cousin's Report, was read 
before the American Institute of Instruction. Further information on the Prussian 
educational system was furnished in the widely distributed reports of Calvin E. Stowe 



6 ^ ORIGIN AND GROWTH OF NORMAL SCHOOLS 

(Elementary Education in Europe, 1837) and of Alexander D. Bache (Report on Edu- 
cation in Europe ', 1839). 

THE TERM "NORMAL SCHOOL" 

It was at this period that the term "normal school" began to replace "teachers' 
seminaries." There can be no doubt that this was due directly to Cousin's Report on 
Germany and the subsequent Report on Public Instruction in Holland. Cousin merely 
applied the current French term to the corresponding institutions in the countries 
visited by him. The French system of training teachers had hardly begun to have a 
national status when Cousin made- his report. The Convention had, on October 30, 
1794, decreed the creation in Paris of an Nicole Normale in which citizens of the Re- 
public over the age of twenty-one and already instructed in the useful sciences should 
be taught how to teach and then go back to their own districts and in turn train other 
teachers. It was intended that the course should last four months, but the experiment, 
with which were associated such men as Legrange, Laplace, Monge, Hauy, and Ber- 
nardin de St. Pierre, failed. It is interesting to note that the Committee of Public 
Instruction adopted this idea from the plan successfully employed by the Commit- 
tee of Public Safety to train citizens drawn to Paris from all parts of the country, 
in the processes for manufacturing gunpowder and cannon. In a note to his Lecture 
on Normal Schools and Teachers* Seminaries Stowe wrote, "The French adjective nor- 
mal is derived from the Latin noun norma, which signifies a carpenter's square^ a ride, 
a pattern, a model; and the very general use of this term to designate institutions for 
the preparation of teachers, leads us at once to the idea of a model school for practice, 
an essential constituent part of a Teachers* Seminary" The term ecole normale does 
not appear to have been employed earlier than 1794. The successful establishment 
of a state system for the preparation of teachers in 1832 was due to the success of the 
normal primary school founded in Strasbourg in 1810 and planned on the German 
model. 

Beyond contributing the title, the French system does not appear to have exercised 
any influence on the development of normal schools. There can be no doubt that the 
promotion of the idea of training teachers was directly influenced by the Prussian 
example. Brooks himself had no hesitation in recognizing this influence. In a lec- 
ture on the History of the Missionary Agency, in Massachusetts, of the State Normal 
Schools in Prussia, delivered in 1864 at the Quarter-Centennial Normal School cele- 
bration of Framingham, he stated, "I must say, that to the Prussian system of state 
normal schools belongs the distinctive glory of this day." He was conscious, however, 
of the political limitations of the Prussian system; "though I preferred the Holland 
system of governmental supervision, I concluded to take the Prussian system of state 
normal schools as my model and guide." The adoption of the Prussian model was 
evidently not undertaken blindly; the essential social and political differences between 
the two countries were clearly recognized and debated. "There were a few papers that 



NORMAL SCHOOLS IN THE UNITED STATES 7 

laughed at me," said Brooks, "as a dreamer wishing to fill a republican state with 
monarchical institutions." 

TEACH KII-TBAINING- IN GERMANY 

Experiments in the training of teachers had been under way in Germany for more 
than a century before the attention of American students was directed to them. 
Duke Ernest of Gotha had contemplated the establishment of special courses for pre- 
paring teachers in 1654, but an exhausted treasury led to a postponement of the 
scheme until 1698. In 1696 Francke had instituted at Halle a Seminariwn praecep- 
torum to furnish teachers both for his orphanage and higher schools. His example 
inspired several of his disciples, especially Johann Julius Hecker, who opened an in- 
stitution for the preparation of teachers in Berlin in 1748; here provision was. made 
for the study of a large number of academic subjects., pedagogy, and method, and for 
practice teaching. A royal grant was made to Hecker's schools in 1753, and an order 
was issued by Frederick the Great that all vacancies in. schools on royal domains 
and later throughout Prussia should be filled with teachers trained under Hecker. 
Unfortunately Frederick's practice of filling school positions with veterans from his 
armies defeated his own purposes, and the beginning of the nineteenth century saw 
the Prussian elementary schools in decline. 

From this condition the schools were saved by the rapid and extensive establish- 
ment of normal schools under the direct influence of educators who had visited Pes- 
talozzi. In 1803 J. E. Plarnann, who had been a student at Burgdorf, established 
a normal school in Berlin which received royal recognition two years later. At this 
time the government sent a few students to Yverdun; on their return these men 
established institutions for the training of teachers or became inspectors of schools. 
Since the government did little to codify the school regulations or to organize the 
curriculum of the schools, the great progress in elementary education that was noticed 
by American observers was due almost wholly to the rapid increase in the number of 
trained teachers consequent on the multiplication of normal schools. In 1806 there had 
been eleven such institutions, to which fourwere added in 1811 and 181S; in 185 there 
were twenty-eight and in 1840 thirty-eight. They offered a three-year course, and 
under the influence of Harnisch at Weissenfels and Diesterweg at Mors had become 
powerful instruments in raising both the intellectual and professional status of teach- 
ers. Ludwig Beckedorff was especially influential in promoting the welfare of the nor- 
mal schools. From 181 to 1827 he was councillor in the Ministry for Public Wor- 
ship, Education, and Public Health, with special charge of normal schools and ele- 
mentary education. He gave particular attention to the former in the belief that the 
standards of elementary education could be more effectually raised thru the improve- 
ment of teachers than by relying on the amateur efforts of the provincial and local ad- 
ministrative machinery. In 1836 the professional status of elementary school teachers 
was clearly defined by the issue of regulations for the examinations of candidates at 



28 ORIGIN AND GROWTH OF NORMAL SCHOOLS 

the close of their normal school training and again after not more than three years 
of probationary service. The existence of such conditions was bound to strike the 
foreign observer ; and it was the report of these conditions that profoundly affected 
the movement for the preparation of teachers in the United States. 

LEGISLATIVE ACTIVITY IN MASSACHUSETTS 

The establishment of state normal schools became a practical issue soon after 
Carter's election to the legislature in 1885. He had the full support of the Ameri- 
can Institute of Instruction, which he had helped to found in 1830 and before which 
he had lectured in 1881 on "the necessary and most practicable means of raising the 
qualifications of teachers." In 1836, as a member of the Committee of Education, he 
advocated the establishment of a seminary for the professional education of teachers, 
and in the following year he drafted the bill establishing the first Board of Educa- 
tion in Massachusetts. On its creation he became one of its first members. In January, 
1837, the Institute presented a memorial to the legislature praying "that provision 
may be made for the better preparation of the teachers of the schools of the Common- 
wealth." This followed an earlier resolution at a meeting held in Boston at which it was 

" Resolved, That the business of teaching should be performed by those who have 
studied the subject as a profession. Therefore, Resolved, That there ought to be at 
least one seminary in each state, devoted entirely to the education of teachers; 
and that this seminary should be authorized to confer appropriate degrees." 

In the same year Brooks lectured on the subject of teacher-training before the 
House of Representatives. In the following year the Board of Education, stimulated 
by the promise of a gift of $10,000 conditional on the appropriation of an equal sum 
by the legislature for the purpose of improving the qualifications of teachers, passed 
resolutions " accepting the proposition and authorizing the Governor, with the advice 
and consent of the Council, to draw his warrant upon the treasurer for the sum of 
ten thousand dollars, to be placed at the disposal of the Board for the purpose 
specified in the original communication." In these resolutions, as well as in securing 
the gift from his friend Edmund Dwight, Horace Mann played an important part. 
He had in the same year delivered before the Plymouth County Association for the 
Improvement of Common Schools a lecture on Special Preparation, a Prerequisite to 
Teaching, and, as he indicated in the following year, he had definite views on the 
superiority of a specifically professional institution over the academy plan of New 
York. The cumulative efforts of the educational stalwarts of the period, Carter, 
Brooks, Woodbridge, and Mann, culminated in the opening of the first public normal 
school in the country at Lexington on July 3, 1839, followed two months later by 
the opening of a second normal school at Barre on September 4, 1839, and of the 
third at Bridgewater a year later, on September 9, 1840. In 1845 it was resolved by 
the Board of Education "that the schools heretofore known as Normal Schools shall 
be hereafter designated as State Normal Schools." 



NORMAL SCHOOLS IN THE UNITED STATES 29 

The length of the course In these normal schools was one year. Boys were admitted 
at the age of seventeen and girls at sixteen after declaring their Intention to qualify 
themselves to become school teachers, and after passing an examination in orthogra- 
phy, reading, writing, English grammar, geography, and arithmetic. The course of 
study included "orthography, reading, grammar, composition, rhetoric and logic; 
"writing and drawing; arithmetic, mental and written, algebra, geometry, bookkeep- 
ing, navigation, surveying ; geography, ancient and modern, with chronology, statis- 
tics, and general history; human physiology, and hygiene or the laws of health; men- 
tal philosophy; music 5 constitution and history of Massachusetts and of the United 
States; natural philosophy; the principles of piety and morality common to all sects 
of Christians ; the science and art of teaching with reference to all the above named 
subjects." Attached to each normal school was an experimental or model school in 
which the students practised under the supervision of the principal and the obser- 
vation and criticisms of their fellow students; "here the knowledge which they ac- 
quire in the science of teaching is practically applied. The art is made to grow out 
of the science, instead of being empirical." Thus were laid down the main lines of 
the American normal school. 

NORMAL SCHOOL DEVELOPMENT IN CONNECTICUT 

In Connecticut the movement for the training of teachers became active in 1838 
after the passage in that year of the act to provide for the better supervision of 
common schools. Henry Barnard, as chairman of the committee that reported this 
act, urged the importance of the problem of teacher preparation in the House of 
Representatives, and in 1839 the Connecticut Common School Journal published a 
number of articles discussing this subject and giving a history of normal schools in 
Prussia, Holland, and France. This was followed in the next four years by the re- 
publication of the works of Gallaudet, Stowe, and Bache. In the First Annual Report 
of the Secretary of the Board of Commissioners of Common Schools., Henry Barnard 
urged the establishment "of at least one seminary for teachers." Barnard was even 
ready to accept a compromise temporarily by the setting up of teachers' depart- 
ments in academies, altho he was himself convinced that the normal school was the 
institution ultimately desirable. In 1839 he inaugurated a voluntary course for teach- 
ers at Hartford, in which a number of specialists lectured on academic subjects and 
methods of teaching, and Barnard on the relations of the teacher to the school sys- 
tem, parents, and pupils, on school hygiene, teachers' associations, and methods of 
interesting parents. Barnard continued his campaign, and in his Third Annual Report 
declared that "the most effectual way of improving the qualifications of teachers, of 
creating in them, and in the community, a proper estimate of the true dignity and use- 
fulness of the office, of carrying out into practice the soundest views of education, is 
to establish at least one institution for their specific training." Some of the objections 
that were raised and met by Barnard were that teachers could be trained in colleges, 



80 ORIGIN AND GROWTH OF NORMAL SCHOOLS 

academies, and private schools, that special training is wasteful owing to the brief 
professional career of teachers, that special normal schools cannot turn out sufficient 
teachers nor districts pay sufficiently high salaries to encourage training, that the 
expense would be great, and, finally, that the normal school was objectionable as a 
foreign importation. A committee of eight appointed by the General Assembly 
reported in favor of normal schools in 1845, and three years later another commit- 
tee, after visiting normal schools in Massachusetts and academies in New York, made 
a report similar to that of the earlier committee. In 1850 the movement culminated 
in the establishment of the first normal school at New Britain. 

THE NEW YOBK PRACTICE 

The development of teacher- training in New York State differed from that in 
New England. Governor De Witt Clinton urged the establishment of a seminary 
for teachers in his message to the legislature in 186, but John C. Spencer, chair- 
man of the literature committee, insisted that the training of teachers should be 
entrusted to the colleges and academies. In 18&7 an act was passed "to provide 
permanent funds for the annual appropriation to common schools, to increase the 
literature fund, and to promote the education of teachers." Altho no provision was 
made immediately for the third purpose, this is the first act in the country for the 
education of teachers. A few training departments in academies were reported in 
1831. A definite step was taken in 1834, when it was provided that "the trustees 
of academies to which any distribution of money shall be made by virtue of this act 
shall cause the same to be expended in educating teachers of common schools in 
such manner and under such regulations as said Regents shall prescribe." Owing to 
inadequate funds, only eight academies were recognized for the purpose, and eight 
others were added in 1838. Besides academic subjects, teachers in training were re- 
quired to study moral and intellectual philosophy and principles of teaching. In 1840 
the Rev. Alonzo Potter of Union College was commissioned by the state superintend- 
ent to visit and report on the work of the academies. He found that the teachers in 
training were more interested in the academic than the professional studies; they 
did not stay for the full length of the course, three years; and no practice teaching 
was provided, altho this deficiency was not of importance since most of the students 
had already taught. He advocated a course of eighteen months to two years, with 
differentiation for teachers in rural schools and primary schools in villages and cities, 
and commended the special normal schools of Prussia and France. Such schools, he 
declared, "devoted exclusively to the preparation of teachers have some advantage 
over any other method." Horace Mannas view on the subject has already been men- 
tioned. Spencer, however, continued his opposition, and eight more academies were 
recognized as training centres. Colonel Samuel Young, his successor, was of the opinion 
in 1843 that the money was diffused over too many schools, and in the following 
year, under the influence probably of a report on the Massachusetts normal schools 



NORMAL SCHOOLS IN THE UNITED STATES 31 

by the Chairman of the Assembly Committee on Colleges, Academies, and Common 
Schools,, a bill was passed establishing the State Normal School at Albany, and lead- 
ing to the discontinuance of training in the academies. No further progress was made 
with the establishment of state institutions until the appropriation of a state grant 
to the Oswego Normal School in 186$ and the final adoption of the school as a state 
institution four years later. 

NORMAL SCHOOL OR ACADEMY ? 

The divergent practice in the early training of teachers in New York State and 
New England led to interesting discussions of the problem wherever the question 
came up. In Michigan John D. Pierce, in his First Annual Report as superintendent 
in 1836, advocated the training of teachers at institutions organized upon either the 
Prussian or New York models. In 1843, however. Superintendent Ira May hew stated 
in his Report, "Normal schools, designed expressly for the education of professional 
teachers, are indispensable to the perfection of any system of national education.'" 1 
A normal school act was passed in 1849, and in 1853 the Ypsilanti school was opened. 
In I86& the academy system which had been established in Maine in 1846 was 
declared to be a failure, and two normal schools were then established "to be thor- 
oughly devoted to the work of training teachers for their professional labors." The 
State Superintendent, the Rev. Edward Ballard, declared that "the opinion has been 
but too prevalent that a high school or academy can qualify teachers as well for 
their work as the institutions especially established for this purpose. . . . But it must 
be a fallacious supposition to consider, that the discipline in either of these cases can 
be equal to the regular, systematic and thorough drill of the full proposed normal 
course." The same problem came up in Wisconsin, when in 1857 the legislature 
appropriated twenty-five per cent of the income from swamp lands for normal schools. 
Instead of establishing normal schools, the Board of Regents decided to distribute 
the money to colleges and academies maintaining normal classes, which were organ- 
ized by Henry Barnard, who became agent of the Normal Regents in 1858. The 
experiment was not successful, for in 1868 Superintendent J. L. Pickard wrote in his 
Report , "These normal departments of colleges, academies, and high schools have 
not satisfactorily met the necessity. They are almost always subordinate departments; 
nor will the aid furnished warrant giving them a prominent place. Much good has 
been accomplished by these agencies, but they are at present inadequate to the de- 
mand. Permanent normal schools are needed, whose sole business shall be the train- 
ing of teachers." A normal department was opened in the University in 1863, fol- 
lowed by three normal schools in 1866. In his report for that year the Superintendent, 
John Gr. McMynn, made a statement on the subject which deserves the consideration 
of all who are interested in the professional training of teachers : 

"The development of our Normal School system is the most difficult educa- 
tional problem that presents itself for solution at the present time. To make 



32 ORIGIN AND GROWTH OF NORMAL SCHOOLS 

these schools promote the interests of public education, to so conduct them as 
to secure for them the confidence of the people, to so manage them as to train 
teachers in them for the common schools, to guard against the tendency to 
convert them into academies or high schools, to render them so attractive and 
so efficient as to bring large numbers of teachers under their influence, and to 
carry them on with such economy as to keep their expenses within the income 
provided for their support, will demand the watchful care of the people, the 
heartiest cooperation of the Legislature, and the greatest discretion and wisdom 
of the Board appointed to manage them. 

"They may be well attended, the discipline may be excellent and their teach- 
ers well qualified; classes may graduate with honor, and the people may cherish a 
just pride in the attainments of those who have pursued their course of study; 
in fact they may be excellent colleges, but if they are not training schools for 
teachers, and if everything else be not kept subordinate to the specific object for 
which they were founded, the result will be disastrous, not only to these schools, 
but to our whole educational system. The success of Normal Schools in other 
states while it has been such as to warrant a hope that the policy we have 
inaugurated may be successfully carried out has not been so marked and so 
uniform as to assure us that we shall not encounter difficulties that prudence, 
forecast and energy alone will enable us to overcome." 

By 1870 the question had been virtually settled everywhere in favor of normal 
schools. The list presented in the Appendix 1 gives the date of the first establishment 
of state normal schools throughout the country. In some states the schools had been 
preceded by training departments in colleges, academies, and high schools; in others, 
particularly in the south, by teachers' institutes. 

THE NORMAL SCHOOL IN 1866 

There was at this time no consensus of opinion or practice on the length of a nor- 
mal school course, which varied from one to three years. There was, however, consid- 
erable agreement on the content of the curriculum. The course of study adopted in 
Massachusetts in 1866 covered a period of two years, and included arithmetic, alge- 
bra, geometry, chemistry, grammar and analysis of the English language, rhetoric 
and English literature, geography and history, physiology and hygiene, botany and 
zoology, natural philosophy, mineralogy and geology, astronomy, mental and moral 
science, the civil polity of Massachusetts and the United States, The theory and art 
of teaching included principles and methods of instruction, school organization and 
government, and the school laws of Massachusetts. The variations that occurred else- 
where were due to the influence of Oswegoq at Ypsilanti the course of study introduced 
in 1863 included, besides the elementary subjects, object lessons in geography, com- 
mon things, colors, geometrical figures, botany, zoology and properties of bodies, and 
drawing. At Winona, Minnesota, the "best methods of teaching * went side by side 
with the academic study of subject-matter, while the theory and practice of teach- 
ing included "intellectual and moral philosophy ; lectures on the principles of edu- 

1 See page 418. 



NORMAL SCHOOLS IN THE UNITED STATES 33 

cation ; history of education ; didactic exercises or sublectures ; observation in model 
school; preparation of sketches; criticism lessons in teaching; teaching in practice 
school; and school laws of Minnesota." Thus the main lines that were to mark the 
future development of the normal school were already laid down when the Missouri 
system was inaugurated. Some, at least, of the problems that were later to disturb the 
even development of the normal schools appear to have come to the surface. In Mas- 
sachusetts, for instance, "the Board [in 1866] deem it unwise to encourage the for- 
mation of regular advanced classes, whose instruction cannot fail to divert a con- 
siderable amount of the time and attention of the teachers from the undergraduate 
course." In general the defects of the day were not unlike those found at a later date. 
The students suffered from inadequate preparation and fitness; they did not remain 
long enough to profit by the course; the faculties were too small; and on the whole 
the normal schools attempted to do too much for pupils of every type. 

EARLY VIEW OF THE FUNCTION OF A NOEMAL SCHOOL 

It is not out of place to present by way of summary a contemporary view of the 
function of the normal school, given in a special Report of the Commissioner of Com- 
mon Schools in Ohio presented to the General Assembly in 1866: 

66 The course of instruction in most of the Normal Schools of this country is 
two years, with a one year's course in a few of them, for teachers of primary 
schools. While the one single object is to increase the teaching power of the 
student, the exercises have practically a four-fold aim: 

"l.To impart to the student a thorough teaching knowledge of all the 
branches ordinarily taught in common schools. This includes not only a mas- 
tery of the subjects as knowledge, which is the first requisite for successful teach- 
ing, but also a mastery of them as subjects to be taught to others. This is the one 
distinctive idea which runs through every lesson and exercise. 

"$. To impart to the prospective teacher a practical knowledge of the guiding 
principles of his art, and to enable him to reduce such principles to something 
like a philosophical system. In other words, the second aim is to teach the science 
of education. This is usually sought to be accomplished by lectures. 

"3. To impart to the teacher a knowledge of the best methods of instruc- 
tion and government, including the methods specially applicable to each stage 
of the child's progress and to each branch of knowledge. This part of the course 
is sometimes united with the first, each recitation being conducted with a view 
of unfolding the true method of teaching the topic. But in all Normal Schools 
where instruction in methods of teaching is made duly prominent, separate ex- 
ercises are also devoted to the subject. 

"4. To impart to the student skill in the art of teaching by an application 
of his knowledge of principles and methods in actual practice. For this pur- 
pose most Normal Schools have a Model or Experimental Department, in which 
the students practice utider the supervision and criticism of a skilled teacher. In 
the best Training Schools these model-lessons, as they are called, are made the 
basis of instruction in methods. In some Normal Schools the practice of the stu- 
dents is obtained by giving model lessons to their own classes/' 



34 ORIGIN AND GROWTH OF NORMAL SCHOOLS 

B. NOKMAL SCHOOLS IN MISSOURI 

For the preparation of teachers in the public schools of Missouri the state has devel- 
oped, in addition to the university, six institutions supported, except for certain fees, 
wholly by legislative appropriation. Five bear the numbers of the districts that they 
serve, and are usually referred to by the name of the city in which they are located. 
In the order of their establishment as state schools they are: Kirksville and War- 
rensburg, 1870; Cape Girardeau, 1873; Springfield and Maryville, 1906. The sixth, 
Lincoln Institute, is a school for colored teachers located at the capital, Jefferson 
City. As its problems and conditions differ considerably from those in the other 
schools, it is not included in the main discussion. 1 

EAKLY EFFORTS 

Massachusetts was scarcely more than committed to its new institution for train- 
ing teachers (1839) when the obvious value of the plan was recognized and similar 
schools were advocated by educational officers in many states. In Missouri, except for 
the war's interruption, there was a persistent and steadily widening campaign from 
184S until the school at Kirksville was established in 1870. State superintendents, and 
secretaries of state who served ex officio at times in their stead, urged the usual argu- 
ments in annual reports, and one governor (1 844-48) came forward with an elaborate 
plan for a combined industrial and pedagogical school. " Home teachers for home 
schools" as against inferior "foreign or imported teachers" was a popular cry in a state 
where one- fourth of the districts had no teachers, and three-fourths of those that had 
teachers secured them from outside the state. 2 As to the precise nature of the desired 
institution, proposals varied from a normal department in the university to a scheme 
for an independent school in each congressional district eight in all; but the only 
early legislation on the subject was an act of 1849 establishing a professorship of the- 
ory and practice of teaching in the state university, and a system of two-year scholar- 
ships for each county all to be financed with an annual appropriation of $1000. 
The university took no action. In 1856 the Missouri State Teachers Association at 
its first session passed resolutions in support of normal schools, possibly inspired 
thereto by Horace Mann, who attended the meetings. This movement had local effect 
the following year in the establishment of the St. Louis City Normal School, later 
known as the Harris Teachers College. But the war halted the efforts for state schools 
until, at its meeting ten years later (1866), the reorganized teachers association took 
up the subject again in an emphatic memorial to the General Assembly. 

JOSEPH BALDWIN 

The prospect was not unfavorable, therefore, when, in 1867, Joseph Baldwin came 
from Indiana to open his normal school at Kirksville. Altho a private venture, it 

1 See page 385. 

2 House Journal, 1857, 19th Adj. Sess., Appendix, pages 116, 117. 



NORMAL SCHOOLS IN MISSOURI 25 

was started as an avowed forerunner of a state system, and Baldwin entered at once 
into an energetic campaign to place it on that footing. As a leading figure In the pro- 
fessional education of teachers in Missouri for the next dozen years Joseph Baldwin 
deserves more than passing notice. Born in Pennsylvania in 18S7 and educated at 
Bethany College in Virginia, he early sought the frontier, teaching for four years in 
western Missouri 1852-56. During the next eleven years he conducted four dif- 
ferent normal schools in Indiana and Pennsylvania, attended a fifth, and served a 
year in the army. He apparently found his work when he came to Kirksville, for his 
subsequent career was more stable. A man of modest scholarship, Baldwin seems to 
have been a noble, strongly emotional soul, who took up his cause with the ardor of 
an evangelist. He was himself an elder in the Church of the Disciples of Christ, and 
selected two ordained ministers as his first assistants. For all of them the educational 
appeal was a veritable gospel, and this became and long remained the note of the 
whole normal school movement in Missouri. The primary task has been to arouse and 
inspire country boys and girls, usually handicapped by lack of funds and defective 
early training, to secure an education. Large numbers of normal school teachers have 
labored to this end with splendid, almost apostolic, zeal and have done an incalcula- 
ble amount of good. 

THEEE STATE INSTITUTIONS AUTHOKIZED 

In 1870, after much agitation and several unsuccessful attempts, legislation was 
finally secured providing for two institutions to be controlled by a single, central 
board of seven men, the location of the schools to be auctioned off to the towns mak- 
ing the highest bids in land and cash appropriations. A third institution for south- 
east Missouri was voted in 1873. The change from a central board to local boards in 
1874 will be discussed later; but space may be taken here to comment on this method 
of locating state educational institutions the method followed in all subsequent 
cases. 

METHOD OF LOCATING EDUCATIONAL INSTITUTIONS 

The principle seems to be based on the assumption that to have any particular 
community profit by the presence of a state institution is intolerable, but as such 
advantage cannot well be avoided, the community should first be made to pay as much 
as possible for the privilege. While the financial saving to a wealthy state is negli- 
gible, the community paying the bonus has generally laid its plans to " take it out of 
the school" at the first opportunity, thus winning for the new institution not friends 
but exploiters, wh0 claim not only legitimate business but often " jobs." In 1871 
Superintendent Monteith protested against a plan that engendered "so much of local 
strife and bitterness besides tempting an ambitious community to assume a burden 
of taxation heavier than they are able to bear."" l Warrensburg was forced to repudi- 

1 State Report, 1871 , -page 20, 



86 ORIGIN AND GROWTH OF NORMAL SCHOOLS 

ate $50,000 of her pledge of $00,000, and Rolla, after securing the state school of 
mines with the help of a bond issue of $75,000, succumbed in a similar fashion by 
going to court and proving the action to have been taken in an unconstitutional 
manner. Even when in possession the towns have had to defend their title : when the 
university was destroyed by fire, the people of Columbia were literally " held up" for 
a fresh bonus of $50,000. 

Aside from entirely ignoring the educational merits of the problem, the bad effects 
of this system have been marked. Kirksville and Chillicothe were involved in a bitter 
legal wrangle over the first school in the northern district. The Springfield institution 
narrowly escaped going to a border town, Webb City, a fate which, perhaps not un- 
luckily, overtook the third district school because of Cape Girardeau's four thousand 
dollar margin over Ironton in a property valuation, altho Cape Girardeau was at the 
time sixteen miles from a railroad. To its decided detriment the fifth district school 
was located at Maryville, all but out of the state; while Warrensburg, on a single 
railroad and but one county distant from Kansas, won over Sedalia, a thriving and 
more centrally located town, which in 1871 was connected in five of the six different 
directions in which its railroads radiate to-day, The dear lesson from Missouri's expe- 
rience is that state schools should be located by a competent educational commimon on 
educational considerations only, and that the state should pay all the bills. 

CHANGJES IN STATUS AND IN SCOPE OF WORK, 1871-1914 

As originally planned and as conducted for the first thirty years of their history, 
the normal schools offered a four-year course based approximately upon the gradua- 
tion requirements of the elementary school. A convenient break came at the end of 
the first two years, and during this early period by far the larger number of students 
took only this preliminary work, the majority, probably, only the first year either 
in whole or in part. A preparatory year long paralleled the upper grade work for 
mature students who had not completed the elementary school; and a graduate 
honor was offered for successful experience and a course of reading. Practice schools 
were contemplated from the outset, and have been maintained except for certain lean 
years when lack of funds forced their suspension. The summer session, which is now 
more largely attended than all others, was first introduced as a private venture of the 
faculty at Warrensburg in 1894, 1 and has had an extraordinary gix>wth, due not a 
little to favoring legislation 2 whereby successful attendance could be counted in lieu 
of examinations for certificates. 

Until 1904 the schools could be technically rated only as secondary institutions. 
Their character was in fact somewhat different. Most of the advanced students were 
mature men and women, who had had some, often considerable, experience as teach- 
ers; they were a select group with unusually industrious habits, and could not fairly 

1 State Report, 1896, page 85, 

2 Ibid., 1902, page 2 ; 1906, pagre 16. 



NORMAL SCHOOLS IN MISSOURI 37 

be compared with the strictly secondary type of student. There were some also who 
had received a secondary education elsewhere, and were taking only the professional 
work of the normal school. With such a body of students the transition to a genuine 
collegiate status seemed a simple matter. 

In 1904 an agreement between the three existing schools had the effect shortly of 
placing the last two years of the four-year course on a time level with early college 
work. High school graduates were given credit for ten of the eighteen units in the 
four-year "normal" course, and as the number of high school graduates steadily in- 
creased, the last eight units came eventually to correspond to the first two collegiate 
years. For a while thereafter the first two years of the "normal" course were made to 
do duty for the entire high school period by fitting in more or less elastic prepara- 
tory terms. For a considerable time also the high school graduates took their profes- 
sional work in low grade classes with students of less training. Gradually, however, 
the first two years were expanded into a four-year high school course, professional 
work was largely deferred to the collegiate years, and the present organization ap- 
peared. Coincident with the change of 1904 was the projection of two "post-gradu- 
ate" -years leading to the degree of Bachelor of Arts, which included the single year 
of advanced residence work, recognized by the degree of Master of Pedagogy, that 
had been announced shortly before. 

GEOWTH IN NUMBERS 

The success of the summer school with its favorable effect on the total enrolment 1 
has tended to obscure the actual extent of institutional growth during the recent 
period of expansion. The average attendance from term to term at Warrensburg's 
regular session, taken over a period of six years, 1893 to 1898, was six hundred 
thirty-one, and from 1911 to 191 4i it was seven hundred nine, or a gain of twelve per 
cent. Cape Girardeau shows an increase from two hundred forty-four to four hun- 
dred sixty-three, or ninety per cent; and Kirksville, from four hundred fifty-eight 
to six hundred thirty-three, or thirty-eight per cent. 2 For a period of sixteen years 
of recent development in this type of normal school a joint increase of thirty-five 
per cent is certainly moderate, and is much nearer the truth than an apparent gain 
of one hundred forty per cent based on the total annual enrolment. The two new 
schools at Springfield and Mary ville, established midway in this period, may appear 
to have checked the growth of the others. As a matter of fact, however, these have 
served sections of the state that were ill represented before. 3 

1 For an expression of the enrolment of 1914 in terms of a standard unit of enrolment for one year, see page 428. 

2 At Cape Girardeau the facts were available for only four of the six years in the first period. At Kirksville the 
average attendance from 1893 to 1898 was lacking, but was inferred to be seventy-one per cent of the average total 
enrolment in the regular session, this being about the proportion at the other twa schools. 

8 In 1916 over half of Maryville's spring enrolment (268) was from the local county, and with those from counties 
immediately adjoining, made up seventy per cent of the school's total attendance. Greene County, in which Spring- 
field is located, sent one student to the regular session at Warrensburg in 1904-05, the year before the school was 
established at Springfield, but sent 274 to Springfield in 1914. Six contiguous counties sent ten to Warrensburg in 
1904-05 as compared with 188 to Springfield in 1914. Nine per cent only of the regular session students at Warrens- 
burg in 1904-05 came from counties in the present Springfield district. 



38 ORIGIN AND GROWTH OF NORMAL SCHOOLS 

OPPOSITION 

It was a decade or more after their organization before the schools could be said 
to be secure in public opinion. Attempts at abolition were initiated in every legisla- 
ture but one from 1871 to 1883. 1 The constitution of 1875 protected the university, 
but left the normal schools at the mercy of statutory law; they therefore shared the 
fluctuating support of the public school system itself in a community where the tra- 
dition of the free public school was not yet strong. Throughout the seventies the 
catalogues annually devote several pages to general defence; in 1880 the Kirks ville 
bulletin declared : " Success has been achieved in the face of stupendous difficulties. To 
secure the necessary means seemed a hopeless task. At every step bitter and determined 
opposition has been encountered. Public sentiment in Missouri was largely opposed 
to popular education, and hence opposed to Normal Schools, the best means of elevat- 
ing the common schools. 1 " 1 Superintendent Shannon considered that the definite resolu- 
tions of support secured in the Democratic Convention of 1880 marked the end of this 
opposition, 2 altho as late as 1895 President Osborne of Wairensburg observed that 
"in some sections of the state there is strong opposition to the employment of Normal 
School graduates. 1 " 13 The position of the schools was further embarrassed by the pro- 
nounced objection of envious towns that saw in them only local benefits. They charged 
the. state with supporting institutions to take the place of local high schools. Even 
the small elementary practice schools were attacked as so much further aid to local 
education. These critics pointed chiefly to the high proportion of local attendance 
that has characterized all of the normal schools from the beginning a feature that 
is marked even after allowing for residents attracted to the town by the school itself. 

FINANCIAL STRUGGLES 

The struggle for existence, altho finally successful, kept the schools impoverished 
and uncertain of their future. At Kirksville the state spent $50,000 to finish the plant 
after the county had laid out $75,000. But Cape Girardeau alone built the first home 
for its school at a cost of $50,000, and Warrensburg, after spending $150,000, waited 
ten years for $10,000 from the state with which to complete its building. In the mean- 
time, at Warrensburg (1880) teachers gave up part of their salaries to obtain money 
enough to finish off rooms in which to teach, and students gave entertainments to pay 
for the sidewalks. The annual appropriation to each school was reduced in 1877 from 
$10,000 to $7500, and at Kirksville two-thirds of that was long held up by the audi- 
tor. As late as 1898, the state appropriations at Warrensburg lacked $5000 of the 
amount needed to pay the teachers alone ; and for over twenty-five years this school had 
no appropriations for library or apparatus, the necessary sums being eked out with 
small incidental fees, or with tuition from students not pledged to teach or coming 
from outside the state. 4 

1 History of the Mrst District State Normal School, by E. M. Violette, 1905, page 82. a State Report, 1880, page 35. 
8 Ibid., 1895, page 85. * For a complete list of biennial expenditures from appropriations, see pag-e 441. 



NORMAL SCHOOLS IN MISSOURI 39 

EFFECT OF POVERTY ON THE SCHOOLS 

This policy of near-starvation could not fail to react seriously on the operation and 
reputation of the schools. In fact, continued financial embarrassment in the face of a 
pressing opportunity seems to have been the principal cause of their weakness. Every 
new student that could be corralled, and every old student that could be retained, was 
valuable both for his fees and as a means of additional pressure on the legislature for 
more funds. What this led to educationally is seen in President Osborne's protest in 
1886: "The classes are necessarily very large, numbering, in some instances, from sixty 
to seventy members. This renders proper classification impossible under the circum- 
stances. The teachers are overworked, their best efforts are checkmated by a bad clas- 
sification, and both discipline and scholastic acquirements suffer in consequence." 1 Yet 
there were few attempts to hold the numbers within limits consistent with good re- 
sults. In 1889 Warrensburg did raise the age of admission for girls to sixteen, the 
same as for boys, and President Osborne notes that "this change considerably reduced 
the rate of increase in attendance for the year 1890, but the enrolment is still much 
too large for the number of teachers employed."'"' 2 Kirksville and Cape Girardeau de- 
clined to follow. 

Consequently it is not surprising to find State Superintendent Coleman, himself a 
product of the normal school, declaring in 1889: "One real trouble has always existed 
in our normal schools : the students try to do the work required in too short a time. 
The course of study is not too comprehensive, but students are admitted too young 
on too low a standard of scholarship, and then pushed too rapidly." 3 He urges the 
elimination of all primary work, a minimum age of sixteen for admission, and a rea- 
sonable four-year curriculum that actually requires four years. Of course very young 
students, rapid promotion, and the consequent early diploma or degree, mean more 
students ; and, paradoxically perhaps, by holding out a degree close at hand, these 
policies mean longer attendance by each student, thus bringing us again to the funda- 
mental consideration enrolment. All of these tendencies in the normal schools 
have persisted almost if not quite to the present day, and appear distinctly traceable 
to the legislator's policy that considers gross enrolment as the main justification for 
increased appropriations. 

RELATIONS WITH COLLEGES AND UNIVERSITIES 

Conditions such as these were inevitably reflected in the opinion of outside insti- 
tutions with which the normal school came into competition. Reference is made here 
not to the several "private normals 7 ' and small denominational colleges, most of which 
have since disappeared, schools that from time to time made common cause in at- 
tacking the certificate privileges of the normal schools, and that on at least two occa- 
sions 4 came close to success. It is a question rather of the reputation of the state nor- 

1 State Eeport, 1886, page 119. 2 Ibid., 1890, pagre 114. 

8 Ibid.* 1889, page 27. * 1895 and 1905, See Violette, op. cit., page 83. 



40 ORIGIN AND GROWTH OF NORMAL SCHOOLS 

mal schools among the stronger institutions of recognized collegiate standing. These 
colleges., to be sure, had secondary departments, and were therefore in direct compe- 
tition with the normal schools ; the university itself maintained such a department 
until 1893. Furthermore, many normal school students and nearly all graduates were 
as old as the average college student. President Baldwin had projected an institution 
which, in his phrase, was to become the "peer of the college," and which did at first 
essay many college subjects. Conditions which it could not control, however, soon 
brought the normal school to the level of its low admission requirements ; while its 
advanced classes were left empty, it was overrun with elementary, short time students; 
and its financial support was such as to make good educational standards impossible 
in handling such large numbers. 

On the other hand, the university and the better colleges were steadily climbing 
upward; admission requirements were gradually advanced; students entered at least 
for the year and usually for the entire course. While the normal schools were neces- 
sarily local in their sympathies, the colleges, and particularly the university, were seek- 
ing their places in the larger fraternity of scholars, and were jealous of the standards 
that placed them there. The normal schools were victims of an isolated statutory and 
economic situation that governed completely the material with which they dealt and 
the terms of their own operation, while the higher schools were lifted and carried 
along more or less by the current of national educational opinion. 

It is not to be wondered at, therefore, that with no agency at hand to bring about 
and maintain a mutual understanding, friction should arise the moment the question 
of recognition of credit appeared. The nature of entrance requirements and the method 
of their enforcement; the basis on which advanced standing is accepted; the whole sys- 
tem of school credit for promotion and graduation; the organization and sequence of 
courses; the accuracy and completeness of classification; the training of instructors 
and the conditions under which they work, questions like these become vital when 
institutions agree to a mutual interchange of accounts; and it is around these points 
that the criticisms by other institutions have centred. These criticisms became acute 
when the normal schools began consciously to provide for the preparation of teachers 
for high schools. High schools in Missouri have sprung largely from the elementary 
school system, and have carried up out of the elementary ranks the best of the ele- 
mentary teachers. For small schools there was no alternative. Finding themselves thus 
in possession of the field, the normal schools have naturally and very fortunately as- 
sumed the burden of making these high school teachers as good as possible. Meanwhile 
the strong, fully accredited high schools the country over have in general desired a 
college- trained staff. Consequently as weak schools became strong schools the problem 
grew more perplexing. Can the normal school give as suitable and thorough training 
for high school teachers as the college ? If not, why not? 

In the absence of a state authority empowered to study and accommodate the situa- 
tion, controversy has run high both in Missouri and elsewhere, and has done injustice 



NORMAL SCHOOLS IN MISSOURI 41 

to both parties. The service performed by the normal schools has been in itself worthy 
and devoted. They have been a powerful and ceaseless leaven of righteousness and 
progress operating where no other existing force could operate. This fact all honest 
observers must recognize. Their achievement should not be obscured or belittled by 
criticisms aroused thru their aspirations for academic rating. It is inevitable and 
proper in view of their past history, however, that if such rating be accorded, the nor- 
mal schools should demonstrate their fulfilment of the standards by which they seek 
to be judged. Such fulfilment can hardly be by affirmation merely; the burden of proof 
rests with them. 



IV 

GOVERNMENT AND CONTROL OF MISSOURI NORMAL SCHOOLS 

A. THE PIIESENT SYSTEM 
CONTROL FIRST VESTED IN A SINGLE BOARD 

AT the time of their establishment the responsible oversight of the state normal schools 
was lodged with a single board of regents. As this arrangement is in marked contrast 
with the multiple board system of to-day to which it was shortly changed, its main 
features together with the reasons for its discontinuance are of interest. 

The board was created by act of the legislature at its session in 1870; it was to 
consist, in addition to the three ew-officio members of the State Board of Education, 
of four men appointed by the governor, two of whom were to be chosen from the coun- 
ties north of the Missouri River, and two from the counties south of the river, these 
being the districts proposed for the two schools then projected. In the attempted 
legislation of 1869 and in the original drafts of 1870, when first six and then four 
schools were planned, the control contemplated was the same a board first of fif- 
teen, 1 then of eleven members. 2 This plan appears to have been persistently adhered 
to by the promoters of the movement; they evidently thought of the work of these 
schools as the same throughout; duplication was resorted to for the sake of geograph- 
ical convenience, but a single aim was to be defined and attained by a single man- 
agement. With this idea the board located its first two schools, and drew up common 
courses of study and common regulations for their operation. But serious opposition 
was aroused in the agitation over location. 3 Charges of corruption long hampered the 
board in its work. 

OBJECTIONS TO THE SINGLE BOARD 

Aided by such recent experience, southeast Missouri with aggressive sectional zeal 
brought it about that the school assigned to it in 1873 should be entrusted to a sepa- 
rate board, in which the appointive members should all be local. This wedge afforded 
a good opening for an attack on the central board. Other districts felt that they might 
obtain a school more readily if all schools were locally controlled than if they had to 
deal with a centralized management. 4 It was the practice at the time to turn over the 
entire legislative appropriation for an institution to its regents immediately after ap- 
proval. Communities that had bled themselves to secure their respective schools con- 
sidered it intolerable that five or ten thousand dollars that would belong eventually 
to them should be held up for months. As the handling of the money seemed to be 
clearly theirs, it appeared likewise an infringement of their dignity to have even the 
educational affairs of the institution controlled from a distance* So firmly fixed was 

1 House Journal, 1869, page 256. * Ibid,, 1870, pages 299-301. 8 See page 35. 

4 This and certain other statements in this section are made on the authority of conversations with persons actively 

interested in' this movement at the time. 



THE PRESENT SYSTEM 43 

this idea of local proprietorship that later, under the new order, the whole board 
of the Second District School, except the state superintendent, was at first drawn 
from the one county, three being citizens of Warrensburg. Even the normal school 
teachers were opposed to the central board, as appears in a resolution of the Kirks- 
ville faculty of December IS, 1873. 1 

SEPARATE BOARDS CONTEMPORARY CRITICISM 

The old plan gave way in 1874, and was followed by the present system a board 
for each school consisting of the state superintendent ex officio and six others. These 
are appointed from thelocal district by the governor in three classes of two each for six 
years instead of four as previously; at least one member of the board to be a resident 
of the county in which the school is located. The extension of term and the elimina- 
tion of two of the ew-officio members the secretary of state and the attorney-gen- 
eral were clearly steps in the right direction. An amendment of 1889, by requiring 
that not more than four regents belong to any one political party, completed the 
present arrangement. This proviso seems to have done away with the most flagrant 
political abuses of the new plan ; a strong minority of three being usually able to 
make itself felt. 

As to just how the new scheme worked in its early days we have no information ex- 
cept thru cautious public utterances of officials. Two of these are unequivocal enough 
regarding its educational features, and state admirably the principles which later 
experience has in general shown to be correct. State Superintendent John Monteith, 
after seeing the new plan in operation for nearly a year, reports as follows: 

"Organization for the conduct and government of the State Normals is yet, as 
I think, quite far from what it should be. The new law of last winter, in many 
respects good, does not provide the best system of control No large school of 
the class under consideration can prosper, unless at its head is jplaced an accom- 
plished President, learned, of excellent executive ability, and fitted for his spe- 
cialty. When such a head is secured the school is better with the least possi- 
ble outside government. This Director" should, to a very large extent, be held 
responsible for the careful and wise conduct of the school. I am, therefore, op- 
posed to the system of local boards. A general board to supervise the whole 
system of schools, with executive committees to visit and attend to the business 
of each individual school, is found by experience to be far better. It is cheaper. 
It unifies the general features of the schools without impairing their individu- 
ality." 2 

Montejth's successor, Dr. R. D. Shannon, began his service with 1875. Looking back 
on bis double term of office in 1882, he says: 

"By the harmonious cooperation of the boards of regents of the several Normal 
schools, they have been brought much nearer to a common standard within the 
last six years. But this is merely a fortuitous circumstance controlled by no in- 
fluence stronger than the pleasant and agreeable relations between boards sep- 

* Violette, op. oit., page 193. 8 State Report, 1874, page 17. 



4* GOVERNMENT AND CONTROL 

arated by great distance and ignorant both of each other and of the conditions 
and needs of the schools over which they do not preside. ... As there can be 
but one policy upon the part of the State with reference to these institutions, 
since the interests of all sections are identical as to education, and demand 
the same qualifications upon the part of teachers and the same methods of in- 
struction it would be better to secure perfect uniformity in the courses of in- 
struction and perfect harmony in the management of these schools by placing 
three of them under a single board." 1 

ATTEMPTS TO UNIFY THE SCHOOLS EDUCATIONALLY 

In 1874, in view of the dissolution of the central board that was just then taking 
place. President Baldwin of Kirksville urged a joint committee of presidents to pass 
upon applications for graduation, 2 doubtless with the idea that this would also help 
to keep the schools together. In his next report he pleads for "unity of plan, harmony 
of action, and hearty cooperation" 3 among all the state institutions. President Cheney 
of Cape Girardeau, in his report of the same year, put first among his needs "the same 
course or courses of study for all these schools," and "the same conditions of grad- 
uation in all. ' H All these desiderata were secured by Superintendent Shannon thru 
conference, and for ten years the joint board of presidents that President Baldwin 
had suggested went from school to school as an effective body for educational control. 
The result was marked; President Osborne of Warrensburg declared: "The value of 
these measures in bringing about unity in the normal work can scarcely be overesti- 
mated. The tendency of a common course of study towards this end is at once appar- 
ent;" and he saw in it a "means of annually comparing results and thus promoting a 
generous rivalry." 5 But a union held only by 'this voluntary personal tie was bound to 
dissolve as the individuals changed, and the schools drifted apart. Not until 1899 did 
they succeed in bringing about another common course of study. In 1904 they united, 
with important reservations on the part of Kirksville, in essential administrative 
arrangements, and corrected these again in 1914; the important agreement of 1916 
will be mentioned later. These occasional seasons of harmony all voluntary and oc- 
curring only when the situation had become bad were, however, merely incidents 
in long periods of marked divergence. In fact, since 1899 attempts to unite on a cur- 
riculum have been abandoned entirely, and each institution has been busy following 
the particular vision of its own leader, who calls the procedure "meeting local con- 
ditions," or "developing the genius of the institution," or "satisfying the demands of 
the people," or "upholding democracy in education," as the case may be. 

PRESENT OPERATION OF THE SEPARATE BOARDS 

This review of the early changes in organization and of the fitful and futile efforts 
of the heads of the institutions to secure united action, at least in their educational 

1 State Report, 1882, page xii. 2 Ibid., 1874, page 45. 8 Ibid., 1875, page 188. 
4 Ibid. , 1875, page 195. e Ibid. , 1878, page 283. 



THE PRESENT SYSTEM 45 

function, brings us to a general examination of the system as it appears to operate 
to-day. A careful study of the personnel of the several boards of regents was not made. 
Present or past members of each board were Interviewed, in certain cases repeatedly 
and at some length. The character of these gentlemen would indicate that, on the 
whole, the boards have represented a high average of general ability. Some mem- 
bers have served their respective institutions for from twenty to thirty years, the 
tendency in some places, particularly at Cape Girardeau, being toward rather stable 
membership. The additions year by year reflect, of course, the qualities of the gov- 
ernor who appoints them, but on the whole it is improbable that this method of 
selection will anywhere provide a better group of men. The one remediable defect in 
the present system is the rapidity with which the boards may change, in spite of 
a six-year term. Owing to death or resignation it has occurred several times recently 
that three members have changed in a single biennium, and even in the natural course 
of events a governor who so desires may change four members, or a majority of the 
board, within his single term of office. Moreover, the elective state superintendent is 
likely to change within the same period, making an almost complete overturn of the 
group. When it is remembered that the one condition of the successful operation of a 
lay board is that the replacements be made slowly enough to enable the head of the 
school and the older members of the board to educate the newcomers to a sound con- 
ception of their duties, it will be seen that changes now come too fast; to say nothing 
of the unwisdom of having the whole character of the board subject to the ideas of any 
one governor. The board may and often does come together but once or twice a year, 
and its opportunity to study the situation may be very slight; one new member in each 
biennium would allow sufficient elasticity, and would at the same time ensure a stable 
and as well-informed a membership as the nature of the selections would permit. 

FUNCTION OF A BOARD NOT UNDERSTOOD 

It is to a lack of knowledge of their duties on the part of board members that many 
of the internal difficulties of the schools are directly traceable. Most students of edu- 
cation will agree that efficient control of an educational institution involves broadly 
two kinds of responsibility: first, the care that the concrete processes of education 
study and instruction, training and testing shall go forward with the maximum 
speed and thoroughness; and second, solely for the sake of the first, that the material 
means and equipment buildings, apparatus, and salaries shall be adequately and 
economically supplied, A third responsibility, lacking which the otiber two may be 
met in vain, is not so generally discerned, namely, that the aim of the institution 
shall be continually reconsidered in the light of changing situations and promptly 
and wisely readjusted. Under modern conditions all of these obligations are tasks for 
well -trained men giving their entire time to their work, if the business of preparing 
teachers is to be prosecuted with success equal to that even of a modern manufactur- 
ing concern. 



46 GOVERNMENT AND CONTROL 

WHAT is THE FUNCTION OF A BOARD OF REGENTS ? 

What, then, is the function of the regents? By good fortune the field work of this 
study was begun with the school at Mary ville at a meeting with the board of regents 
of that institution, where the impression, subsequently confirmed by the head of the 
school, was gained that almost ideal conditions existed between school and board. A 
perusal of the state reports later revealed a letter from the president of this board 
then president of the local school board giving his views as to the function of a school 
board. We cannot do better than quote this in part: 

"Upon one side is democracy represented by the Board of Education, and upon 
the other a cultured institution. Between the two as an intermediary is the super- 
intendent. The relation of the board to the community is somewhat analogous to 
that of the superintendent to the board. While some of the duties of the board 
are fixed by legal enactment, many of them are by implication. It is its duty to 
look after the highest welfare of the institution intrusted to its care. It is also its 
duty to lead the community to recognize what is best in education. As the Board 
represents a culture higher than the general culture of the community, and as 
its closer relations with the school and supervising officers give to it a wider and 
better view than the views of the community, the work of the Board becomes 
directly educative, and its duty, manifestly, is to inform and direct the commu- 
nity. ... It [the Board] is a non-professional organization with work to be done 
requiring very high professional wisdom and skill. The whole complex organiza- 
tion of the school and its work in detail may come within the scope of its offi- 
cial observations, but at the suggestion and under the direction of the superin- 
tendent. He becomes for it the measure of its efficient service. It should exact of 
him the greatest vigilance and the most painstaking accuracy, and it has a right 
to expect of him candor and frankness. Upon the other hand it should be guided 
by his wisdom and influenced by his recommendations, and it must honor him 
with its confidence and loyalty." 1 

If these principles hold of a municipal school system, they should be doubly sacred 
in a higher professional institution. The all-important business of a board is to keep 
a first-class executive at the head, and then the less government the better, as Super- 
intendent Monteith said forty years ago. Many normal school regents in Missouri 
apparently fail to discover this, and exceedingly few realize it at the time of their 
appointment. To the excellent and devoted men who have seen clearly, who have 
spent their best energies in securing a thoroughly trained, experienced, and able man, 
and have then buttressed his efforts both in school and community with an eye solely 
to the success of the school, are due the good results already achieved. But the labor 
of dealing successfully with those gentlemen who either from igno.rance or self-interest 
do not have this point of view is out of all proportion to the results. Not understand- 
ing the true relation it irks them to be, as they say, "a mere rubber stamp" a feel- 
ing that does credit to their conscience if not to their intelligence. They have been 
appointed; they must justify that appointment by action; and the action taken usually 

1 State Report, 1904, page 55. 



THE PRESENT SYSTEM 47 

tries the nerve of the president and his readiness to sacrifice everything for his pro- 
fessional integrity. If he stands the test, the fight is usually won; if he yields, however 
little, to what he knows to be professionally wrong, he is the tool and toy of that 
board thereafter. For the sake of the school such a test of real presidential timber 
would not be a bad thing, if boards would only drop the timid and reward the brave; 
but that is not their way. Even at Maryville, at the time of organization, the first 
board, and not the president, selected the school's first faculty regardless of profes- 
sional considerations ; the strategic importance of a teacher in the new district or his 
personal relationship seems to have played the important role. In another school, much 
more recently, the leading member of the faculty, next to the president, was ousted in 
spite of the protest of the president's renewed nomination and the president re- 
mained ! Two of the boards have recently elected members of their own body to posi- 
tions of profit in the schools without the consent of the presidents concerned, and by 
one of them a field agent with whom the president cannot cooperate has been main* 
tained upon the payroll for years in face of the president's direct opposition. The 
latter bokrd will not only make appointments distasteful to the president, but will 
invite and encourage direct dealings with faculty members, especially with such as are 
willing to use this method of raising their salaries, and at its annual meeting will 
determine the whole faculty schedule, ignoring the president and reflecting him last. 
So far as appeared, the school at Cape Girardeau has been free from mismanagement 
of this sort. 

Even when board members will not openly oppose the prerogative of the educa- 
tional head in planning the efficiency of his institution, there is a subtler pressure 
which the bravest executive resists with difficulty, namely, the tendency to shape 
nominations and proposals partly to suit the known preferences of the board when 
these are made apparent. A board that cannot abstain from such expression and that 
neglects to reinforce not only a president's right but his complete responsibility for 
the personnel of his corps, runs great risk of leading him to sacrifice excellence in 
a well-meant desire for "harmony." 

PARTY POLITICS IN THE BOAKDS 

However ridden with school politics certain of the normal schools appear to have 
been, and to be, there apparently has been, until very recently, a marked freedom from 
party politics in the operations of the boards. A vain effort from high party author- 
ities to foist off on a courageous president a "lame" party politician as a teacher dis- 
closes an always latent tendency ; in this case the board seems to have loyally protected 
its leader from punishment. Still more instructive and deplorable from every point of 
view was the recent apparent attempt to pay a political debt with the presidency of the 
school at Warrensburg. The proposed beneficiary, a personally attractive and capable 
gentleman and an active party worker possessing strong political connections, was 
a man with but a fragment of even a college education, and without administrative 



48 GOVERNMENT AND CONTROL 

training or experience that would qualify him for such a post. A vacancy was created 
by dropping a man of the opposite party who for nine years had served the school, 
and under whose charge it had enjoyed extraordinary growth and prosperity. From 
all that could be learned, furthermore, this was accomplished without the faintest 
pretence at basing the procedure on educational or professional grounds. With plans 
well laid the board proceeded to the election of a new president, but the alumni were so 
aroused, and the upheaval among the teachers of the school became so threatening at 
the prospect of a leader inferior in training and experience to most of themselves, not 
to mention the grossness of the political barter involved, that the board's courage 
weakened. Fortunately the minority nominee was a choice on which it would have been 
difficult to improve a man with collegiate and graduate preparation and a conspicu- 
ously successful experience of some length at the Warrensburg school; on him the 
board finally united. It is little short of a disaster when for any reason an educational 
institution falls into the hands of a person not qualified to direct it. This was happily 
prevented at Warrensburg. It is, however, a moral disaster complete and overwhelm- 
ing when seven trustees of an institution, or a majority of them, prove false to their 
official duty on the occasion which is the chief reason for their existence as trustees* 
Such a calamity the outcome can scarcely be said to have averted, 

WEAKNESS OF THE BOAEDS IN MATERIAL AS WELL AS IN EDUCATIONAL PBOBLEMS 

The boards do their best work in handling the questions of the second group cited 
above, namely,, those growing out of the material equipment and financial mainte- 
nance of the institution. Here the criticism of experienced and successful laymen is 
of great value, but may be overdone, as is proved in the case where a much needed 
increase in salaries the paramount consideration of a good school was held up 
for years by an active regent, who could see only the need for an enlarged equipment 
and campus improvement. Under this head falls also the paralyzing practice alleged 
and apparently true, of some boards, of judging the worth of a teacher, and his con- 
sequent differential treatment in salary, on the basis .of the number of students that he 
can enroll in his classes. Again, Missouri boards have been known to erect buildings 
and to exclude the head of the school from even an advisory participation in plan- 
ning the structure he is to use. In all these situations the educational consideration 
should obviously come first, and the judgment of those men who are trained and paid 
to know should prevail. 

in the important responsibilities of the third class mentioned those of studying 
and redefining the aim of the school the board of regents is naturally helpless. Not 
only is the average local regent incapable, thru lack of data, of judging what the 
exact aim and scope of the school should be; he is predisposed thru his local and 
sectional sympathies to favor any and all developments of the institution that will 
serve a purely local or sectional end. If it is proposed to have a college instead of 
a normal school, he is in favor of it, of course; shall an agricultural and commercial 



THE PRESENT SYSTEM 49 

trade school be added, he sees great advantages; shall courses for new types of teach- 
ers be advertised, he agrees at once, if the new departure will enroll more students. 
The problems involved are highly technical, and he is perforce at the mercy of his 
chief educational adviser. Here any energetic and plausible president can work his 
will, especially if he can show a matter of deplorable facility that "it won't cost 
much, if any, more." 

LACK OF UNITY IN POLICIES AFFECTING THE WHOLE STATE 

The system bears its full fruit When it becomes, as in Missouri, a question not of 
a single institution, but of a series of institutions established for one well-understood 
purpose to provide a good teacher for every school position in the state. Here are 
five schools with independent local boards as described above, and a sixth, the uni- 
versity, having a general board representing the entire state. All are preparing teach- 
ers, and all are supported by state taxation. The state has a maximum need which all 
the schools together, with the most complete cooperation, could scarcely meet, yet no 
means exists of coordinating the efforts made by each in a practical solution of the 
common problem. In the five normal schools it was probably intended that the state 
superintendent should be the unifying factor common to all boards. This officer, how- 
ever, is himself elective and without much aubhority. He is a convenient counselor to 
the presidents and occasionally to the boards, but as related to the latter, his posi- 
tion, in the opinion of at least two recent incumbents of the office, is isolated and 
relatively without influence. If he were himself a trained and responsible appointive 
officer, and if then normal school boards could elect their presidents only on his nom- 
ination, and change their curricula only with his approval, he could do the state a 
great service thru his grasp of its problem as a whole. 

EACH SCHOOL A LAW UNTO ITSELF 

In the absence of any coordinating authority, each school moves solely in its own 
interest. Its winnings from the legislature are in fairly direct proportion to the politi- 
cal influence exerted by the president or board members. Activity of this sort is in- 
cessant and skilfully directed, but that educational considerations play but a minor 
role in the apportionments is evident from the striking inequalities that exist. While 
the school at Cape Girardeau is luxuriously housed in a fine plant including four school 
buildings and two dormitories, Springfield, with an annual enrolment of several hun- 
dred more students, has been obliged to endure years of excessive crowding in the sin- 
gle structure with which it started. It is a situation true to type, for in 1896 the same 
institution at Cape Girardeau, with an annual enrolment then of three hundred and 
ten, secured an appropriation for building four separate halls for the exclusive use of 
as many literary societies, when the school at Warrensburg, enrolling annually over 
nine hundred students, was unable to secure money enough to pay its teachers. A sys- 
tem that admits of such extremes is bad; the state is merely doling out funds in the 



50 GOVERNMENT AND CONTROL 

dark where the personal or sectional pressure is greatest, and must continue to do so 
until it concludes to entrust its biennial offering for the training of teachers to a sin- 
gle, central board competent to make a rational distribution on the basis of proved 
educational requirements. 

EDUCATIONAL DIVERSITY OF THE "INSTITUTIONS 

In their educational aspects the five schools are as diversified as tho they were in 
separate states. They are all dealing with the same kind of student for the same 
final purpose in the same state community, yet their terminology, their standards 
of value, and their methods of educational bookkeeping are quite unlike; and the 
content of their curricula, their graduation requirements, and their organization of 
fundamental features are widely divergent, the practice in each school expressing either 
the inherited tradition or the will of the present head, modified in some schools to 
an extent by the action of the faculty. Nevertheless, they cannot escape one another. 
When a student offers himself to all in turn, indicating that he may be had by the 
highest bidder for the uncertain credentials he has to offer, the losers naturally suspect 
the winner. Three schools told of losing students to other schools where graduation 
was effected with unexpected speed. One institution offered flatly in its catalogue to 
meet "whatever favors either of the other schools will grant and no more."" In the 
matter of entrance requirements this independent attitude has had noticeably bad 
effect. In 190& two of the schools desired to standardize terms of admission by accept- 
ing on certificate only students from approved high schools and taking others on exam- 
ination. The third preferred to take in all alike and "prove them up," that is, admit 
them to class and throw responsibility on a teacher anxious to increase his enrolment. 
Thus the first two were virtually compelled to adopt that method or suffer the con- 
sequences, and the high schools were denied this much needed support by the institu- 
tions that should have done most to strengthen them. 

Loss TO THE SCHOOLS OF CRITICAL REVISION 

This interplay of uncertain relations is not the major defect. The real weakness in 
the situation is the loss to each institution of the tonic effect that would follow were it 
obliged to keep its practice overhauled under the critical eyes of competent outsiders 
either from other schools or from the state department. Such criticism would require 
it to bring its methods up to a well-thought-out standard agreed upon for all. There 
are such standards in all the matters above mentioned, some of which are found exem- 
plified at each school, but they are checked and often neutralized either by the bad 
institutional habits of earlier years, or by the radical, undigested innovations intro- 
duced on the spur of the moment thru the system of one-man control. It is unthinkable 
that a modern corporation, doing in each of five Missouri towns a business requiring 
from five hundred to one thousand employees in each plant, would tolerate the mean- 
ingless and arbitrary variety in methods directed at identical ends that presents itself 



THE PRESENT SYSTEM 51 

in these five normal schools. Some years ago, to terminate the existing chaos, the 
state inaugurated in each school a standard system of financial accounting and stopped 
there. Meanwhile, the vastly more important interest, that for which the schools exist 
and for which they should be held most strictly to account, namely, their educational 
procedure, goes without scrutiny, check, or control of any sort save by the one man 
whose apparent success and public recognition have no relation, direct or indirect, to 
the proved excellence of his work. In the name of "liberty" the real emphasis is placed 
on "difference;" whereas in all other processes, the effective procedure is first to agree 
on the best way the thing is to be done, and then put the emphasis squarely on the 
quality of the work. Under the present system of local boards such cooperation is 
impracticable. 

THE NOEMAL SCHOOLS versus THE STATE UNIVERSITY 

The absence of material and educational coordination of the normal schools among 
themselves is thus a serious and expensive defect. These same disadvantages are ac- 
centuated, however, in the active friction and lack of adjustment between the five 
normal schools on the one hand and the state university on the other. The normal 
schools, altho virtually identical in scope, are relatively non-competitive by reason 
of their districting. The state's one great centre of higher education, on the other 
hand, almost from its inception, has exercised the function of preparing teachers for 
years many elementary, of late mostly high school teachers and administrative officers. 
Between these two institutional groups competition is inevitable unless forestalled 
either by an adequate controlling organization or by voluntary coordination on the 
part of the responsible educational leaders. The former does not exist; the latter failed 
up to 1916. Even under the entente then arranged it exists only in minor tho impor- 
tant respects; in all matters affecting the field or scope of operations the traditional 
autonomy prevails. In the cases of at least two normal schools this autonomy means 
frank competition with the university competition first in filling positions in high 
schools, and second in securing the attendance of students for a four-year college 
course. Offering as they have elaborate elective programs of a general character, the 
schools at both Kirksville and Cape Girardeau must naturally exert themselves to fill 
the high school vacancies in their respective districts to the exclusion of students from 
the university, and can hardly see without regret the attendance at the university of 
students who might be taking college work with them. The school at Warrensburg, 
altho it has prepared a larger number of high school teachers than either of the other 
two, has not so clearly assumed this attitude; while Springfield and Maryville have 
until recently devoted themselves to the supply of elementary teachers. With due 
growth in size or a slight shift in personal relations, however, there is no reason to 
expect that these schools also will not aggressively press their claims to the high school 
positions within their districts. 



52 GOVERNMENT AND CONTROL 

SOURCES OF RIVALRY 

This competition is the logical outcome of the historical development traced else- 
where. 1 The university, preparing the teachers for the largest and strongest high 
schools and standardizing the conditions surrounding them, has projected its influ- 
ence steadily deeper; the normal school, training the teachers in the smaller high 
schools, has as steadily strengthened its courses for this purpose as small high schools 
have multiplied, and its influence has mounted with their growth. At last the two 
forces have met, and the problem of their mutual adjustment is as yet unsolved. 2 

One of the university's most effective aids in developing its tributary high schools 
has been its high school inspector. For the admission of its graduates to the univer- 
sity without examination, the approved high school has been obliged to satisfy a con- 
stantly increasing list of requirements in all points aifecting its efficiency, including 
the training of its teachers. This has been an incalculable benefit to every high school 
community a benefit difficult of attainment byany other method : yet the operations 
of this inspector easily become the object of suspicion by the normal schools that are 
desirous of placing their graduates in positions that he inspects. Where there is strong 
difference of opinion as to what constitutes -satisfactory training, such as has long 
existed between the university and some of the normal schools, serious conflict may 
and does arise out of a perfectly sincere attitude on both sides. To represent their 
special interests the normal schools have had recourse to a "field agent," either to 
serve expressly as a drummer for students and positions, or to unite that function 
with certain more dignified extension duties. One of these officers professes to know 
intuitively which youth belongs in the university and which in the normal school, 
and to act accordingly, but promoters cannot always be counted upon to decide 
infallibly in such matters. Aside from these official representatives, the instructors 
and officers in all institutions acting as lecturers, commencement speakers, and so 
forth, conduct an indirect and, in itself, doubtless wholesome propaganda; but to 
have these educational servants of the state working at cross purposes in pressing 
the claims of one institution rather than another both state supported is bewil- 
dering and unfair to the student as well as wasteful to the state and hurtful to its 
real educational interests. 

With one notable exception the official literature of the six institutions appears 
to have been restrained and considerate in tone. The publications of the school at 
Kirksville, altho intended for the use of students, have been consistently devoted to 
partisan efforts. The alleged virtues and achievements of this particular school have 
been glowingly set forth, with attacks and reflections both direct and indirect upon 
another state institution. Competition for high school students and positions is con- 
ceived to be the normal condition : "If the universities should gain control of the high 
schools, then the so-called small colleges, the normal schools, and the various inde- 

1 See pages 85-87. 
a See pages 89-98. 



THE PRESENT SYSTEM 53 

pendent technical schools would cease to have the means of competition, and the uni- 
versities would be all-powerful." 1 

It might reasonably be expected that sincere efforts for educational readjustment 
would be taken to the proper agency, the legislature, without seeking to prejudice stu- 
dents by polemics against a sister school. Such competitive exploitation should be 
impossible, and would be were all institutions subject to review and coordination by 
a single authority. 

EFFECTS OF INSTITUTIONAL COMPETITION 

Outside of the institutions themselves, educational and other interests in the state 
at large are influenced to no slight extent by sympathy with one party or the other. 
Certain towns are practically closed to one school or another because of a superin- 
tendent drawn from an opposing institution; influential school board members, biased 
by trivial personal attachments a child who has attended, a good speech, or a favor 
done by a representative direct the patronage regardless of the merits of the appli- 
cants. The state superintendent of public schools, an officer who should make effective 
disposal of all the educational energies in the state, necessarily becomes more or less 
partisan. If, as in several recent cases, he be a man without college or university train- 
ing, he feels himself largely out of sympathy with these higher institutions ; if, on the 
-other hand, he be a university man without normal school experience, he and his office 
are likely to be distrusted by the institutions with which he has most to do. Theo- 
retically he is a Republican or a Democrat ; actually he is pro-university or pro-normal 
school, or so considered; to control the superintendency is therefore worth the effort 
of both sides. 

Under present conditions it is to the interest of each and every institution to push 
its claims before the legislature; this results in the maintenance of a sort of legisla- 
tive lobby. It is not a long step from the legitimate presentation of the needs of an 
institution to the "log rolling" that bases success on efforts of quite another nature, 
and it is declared by competent observers that the tendency to take this step is al- 
ready strong in Missouri. To what extent this is true it is difficult to say, but with 
two sets of institutions sharply and increasingly competitive in an important field, 
there is the prospect that, as in some other states, the people and their representa- 
tives will gradually segregate into "pro-university" and "pro-normal school" groups, 
and that other legislation will be affected or determined by this division. 

THE LOCAL BOAEB SYSTEM RESPONSIBLE 

It is hardly necessary to point out that the conditions and tendencies noted above 
are unwholesome, and that they are plainly traceable to the present system of inde- 
pendent local boards. To sum up the defects of these boards it may be said: (1) that 
in practice, if not in theory, they may, and frequently do, change too rapidly; (2) that 

1 Bulletin (Supplementary), KvrJcsville, September, 1907, page 1. 



54 GOVERNMENT AND CONTROL 

owing to Ignorance of their true duties their members almost inevitably interfere, to 
the injury of the institutions, in matters that the state has assigned to its paid ex- 
perts ; (3) that where their members do not thus interfere, their duties are so nominal 
as not to interest men of the highest ability and public standing; (4) that for political 
considerations they are capable of disregarding their educational obligations; (5) that 
lacking a competent and convincing educational adviser who has the good of the 
whole state in view, they may easily ignore the local head of an institution and make 
serious mistakes, or yet more easily be induced by an enthusiastic president to follow 
a course that is either futile or detrimental to the state as a whole; (6) that the system 
breaks down completely when it is desired to coordinate the work of several institu- 
tions according to one consistent policy. This is shown in irrational appropriations, in 
pointless and wasteful divergences in practice, in the intx*oduction, by irresponsible 
officers, of arbitrary innovations directly affecting other schools, and in the destruc- 
tive rivalry that wastes both funds and energy, bewilders the student, breeds friction 
among public schools and their officers, and injects wholly unnecessary partisanship 
into legislative discussion. In short, under such conditions, education becomes not a 
matter of statesmanship but of politics. 

On the other hand, the best that can be said in defence of the local boards is in- 
conclusive. It is urged that by this system more men are kept actively interested in 
the schools than the few who might constitute the central authority in some other 
plan. This is not necessarily true, for local committees, made up of women as well as 
men, could be designated for the advisory inspection and genuine promotion of the 
school in the community without investing them with power to maintain an irritat- 
ing and useless interference or allowing them by their very existence to block the 
realization of a sound policy for the whole state. Beyond!" this there is 1 little to urge. 
Poor as the system is in general, and bad as it is in some particular spots, the main 
fault lies in its weakness. When established it was regarded by the best contempo- 
rary opinion as much less effective than the centralized system that it displaced, 
and the experience of forty years and of other states has amply borne out the earlier 
judgment. 



B. PROPOSALS FOR A BETTER ORGANIZATION OF PROFESSIONAL TRAINING FOR TEACHERS 

How can Missouri most profitably administer the preparation of her teachers ? 

This is an important and difficult question : important because there is much at 
stake; difficult because changed conditions everywhere demand a fresh answer for 
which no American state has as yet worked out a wholly satisfactory precedent. From 
a material, social, and intellectual standpoint, Missouri has been transformed in fifty 
years; her needs to-day are radically different from those that dominated her reorgan- 
ization after the Civil War. Her possibilities are measured, furthermore, not merely 
by the best that any other commonwealth possesses, but by the degree of skill with 



PROPOSALS FOR BETTER ORGANIZATION 55 

which the lessons learned elsewhere can be turned to account. A state should by all 
means move cautiously and surely in new educational adjustments; but every pro- 
gressive community must expect sometimes to lead the way in making trial of promis- 
ing means of advancement. 

PREPARATION OF TEACHERS A HOMOGENEOUS UNDERTAKING 

A completely serviceable administration of the preparation of teachers in Missouri 
probably cannot be attained without reorganization. We have seen how the existing 
institutions were set up independently. Proceeding from small, tho for the time ade- 
quate beginnings, they have grown with the people's growth, and now hamper one 
another by their unrelated efforts. The present need is to coordinate and blend them 
into a single, powerful, and smoothly working instrument for the great service that 
they are expected to perform. Leaving the two great cities out of account, it may be 
said that, at present, the state is preparing its teachers thru seven unrelated, tax-sup- 
ported agencies. The university, under a board of curators, has prepared or shared 
the preparation of many instructors for the strongest and largest high schools. The 
five normal schools, under their several local boards, have prepared or shared the pre- 
paration of about half of the high school teachers, especially for the small schools, 
and two-thirds of the elementary teachers in graded schools; they have also exerted 
more or less influence over nearly half of the vast mass of rural school teachers. The 
high school training classes, under the control of the state superintendent, are sup- 
posed to prepare exclusively for the rural schools, but have not been carefully regu- 
lated for that purpose. There can be no reasonable question that better results than 
are now accomplished under these several managements could be secured under one 
control. To educate teachers for the public schools is essentially one homogeneous 
task, and in communities as great and as closely knit as a modern state like Missouri, 
this function could profitably be unified in expert hands. 

A REORGANIZED UNIVERSITY 

The main question is, of course, the relation between such a unified system and 
the present institutions. In Missouri the answer to this question is greatly facilitated 
by the nature of the situation. The five normal schools are similar institutions of 
like aims and traditions, and are well distributed over the state. They are at pres- 
ent offering a great variety of elective curricula, but all include the four-year cur- 
riculum parallel with the regular four-year curriculum at the university; none has at- 
tempted to give graduate courses. In spite of the considerable amount of secondary 
work now required of them, it is obvious that in the broadest sense these professional 
training schools, hitherto by accident described as "normal schools," are already, in 
spirit and purpose, essentially a part of that equipment for higher and professional 
education that constitutes a university, whether so organized or not. There are ex- 
cellent reasons why it would be wise to recognize and confirm this fact by incorpo- 



56 GOVERNMENT AND CONTROL 

rating the present normal schools together with the university school of education as 
a state Division of Education fully organized and equipped to provide for all phases 
of the professional training of teachers for the public schools of the state. The normal 
schools would thus become State Colleges of Education within the university and 
subject to the same consideration as any other branches of that institution. 
- Longer to maintain the distinction between the university and the normal school 
as representing a distinguishable difference in grade or quality of instruction is, in 
the cases of the best normal schools in this country, purely factitious; and its eradi- 
cation would be the best possible reason for requiring of inferior schools a genuine 
enforcement of the standards to which most of them now profess their adherence. In 
the numerous American normal schools now doing thoroughly standard work, the 
instructors have as broad and as intensive training as those giving instruction to stu- 
dents of equal advancement in good colleges and universities, and are quite frequently 
superior in this respect. In the content of instruction the normal school provides 
a specialized professional organization of material that in its field is as significant 
technically as any work in medicine or law. The teaching in first class normal schools 
is probably in advance of that to be found in the ordinary arts colleges or even in 
the better medical and law schools. Both institutions use the same tools books, 
both for text and reference, laboratories, and collections frequently making them 
for each other ; both seek the same scientific standards of achievement ; both con- 
duct original enquiries and "surveys," tho in the university this latter purpose neces- 
sarily stands forth more clearly. Furthermore, the interchange of personnel is con- 
stant: students in large numbers proceed from the normal schools to the universities, 
not for different, but primarily for more advanced work than the former are able 
to offer; on the other hand, students from the universities, or those who have had 
both types of training, return to the normal school as instructors, bringing the ways 
and ideals of the university with them. For twenty years the two institutions have 
been more and more acutely conscious of each other as they have moved in con veiling 
lines to the same goal : the normal school proving to the university the vitality and effi- 
cacy of a central professional purpose in preparing teachers, the university serving the 
normal school as a steady and beneficent critic while profiting by its progress. The nor- 
mal schools represent the only type of higher professional education not yet formally 
included in the university group. Fusion of the two in one organization is reasonable, 
and would manifestly promote the fundamental integrity of the state's educational life. 

A PROFESSIONAL BOARD OF EXECUTIVES 

The plan suggested would at once make it possible to consolidate all of the state's 
teacher- training agencies under one educational direction, as well as under a single 
formal government. With this in view the affairs of these five colleges, together with 
the university school of education, should be placed under the direction of a new 
board consisting of the heads of these six units, with whom should sit also the presi- 



PROPOSALS FOR BETTER ORGANIZATION 57 

dent or chancellor of the university and the state superintendent of public schools. 
This board would constitute not merely the responsible authority for the manage- 
ment of certain institutions. It would be a board of expert men in complete charge 
of the preparation and supply of all teachers for the state, and the regulation of such 
lateral interests as the high school training classes in their professional aspects should 
be under its control. Its decisions would be reported to the board of curators of the- 
university for approval, and might of course be vetoed by it. Such action, however, 
would certainly be rare; the habit of a competent group would be to study a mea- 
sure with such thoroughness as to admit of but one conclusion before seeking final 
approval thereon. 

A board for the purposes here indicated should be ensured the power, the i-espon- 
sibility, and the necessary procedure for reaching reliable results. It should nominate 
the personnel of instruction and administration, including the presidents and dean, 
in the component colleges and school of education. It should propose policies and 
regulations for administrative action. With the assistance of the state department 
of education it should study unremittingly the dimensions and character of its prob- 
lem in the number and kind of teachers needed in the state. In cooperation with the 
several faculties, and with their approval, it should work out and revise curricula to 
meet these needs. It should consider and propose the creation or adaptation of material 
facilities with the single purpose of solving in the best possible fashion for the state 
the problem of teacher supply. The expert character of its members, and their relief 
from local and political demands, their opportunities for securing abundant accu- 
rate information, the elimination of competition, and the requirement of frequent 
(at least monthly) sessions for careful discussion and planning would go far toward 
an assurance that the ultimate solution of their problem would be correct. 

EFFECTS OF PROPOSED REORGANIZATION 

The form of organization here described has certain suggestive implications: 
(I) The heads of the several institutions, cooperating as executives of their respec- 
tive colleges under the new plan, instead of being semi-political promoters with at- 
tention divided between the local board and the legislature, would become strictly 
educational officers concerned solely with their individual institutions as carrying out 
a definite state policy framed by them and for which they were responsible. Their ten- 
ure would be permanent and secure instead of biennial and precarious as now; their 
power in the state would be greater and their judgment surer because of constant 
mutual criticism and support; the position would be attractive to trained students 
of education and to men of first-rate ability. 

(&) The teachers in the present normal schools would at once acquire 'fall collegiate 
or university status; salaries, hours of work, and pension privileges, as well as quali- 
fications of training and experience, would be regulated for aH alike; there would be 
but one fraternity of state-employed servants in higher education. The students like- 



58 GOVERNMENT AND CONTROL 

wise would be relieved of invidious distinctions, both actual and alleged, between 
themselves and regular college or university students. In the interests of solidarity 
in higher education the university could well afford to welcome the alumni of the nor- 
mal schools to such standing as their varying attainments might justify, 

(3) Administrative differences would immediately disappear in favor of one thor- 
oughly studied procedure worked out and applied in joint consultation. Admissions 
could be handled from one central office, possibly that of the state superintendent, 
thus securing a just and uniform treatment of credentials. A common terminology, a 
uniform grading and credit system, would convince both teacher and pupil that he 
was not a victim of local idiosyncrasy, but had received standard treatment, open to 
objection possibly on its merits but applied to all alike. 

(4) The curricula would be unified and harmonized, and their administration placed 
on a rational basis. Since all schools and teachers would be of equal standing* it would 
make no more difference whether a certain curriculum for kindergartners or for high 
school teachers were given at one college or another, than it would if they were given 
in different buildings on the same campus. Such matters would be determined on the 
merits of local need and availability in view of all considerations and without insti- 
tutional prejudice or jealousy. A large financial saving would certainly accrue at this 
point. Great advantage for the curriculum would result, too, from the increased flexi- 
bility of the staff of instruction. With intimate association of all colleges in the uni- 
versity, instructors could readily be assigned from one to another for special courses or 
lectures, thus utilizing fully each teacher's best powers. Teachers in other departments 
of the university would be available for the same purpose. Again, with associated ad- 
ministration, the school of education, which would doubtless develop primarily as a 
research or graduate school, would be in an admirable, in fact the only logical posi- 
tion to assist and be aided by the various enquiries undertaken at the five collegiate 
centres. Instructors in the colleges would then be in close and continual contact with 
this work of the graduate school, where they could perfect their training or cooperate 
on special problems. 

(5) Outside of the institutions, the chief effect of the proposed plan would be to 
relieve the state of the element that most disturbs and confuses its representatives 
in providing for higher education. At present each separate school demands all that 
it dares, in the hope of finally obtaining enough to allow it to operate and expand. 
Budgets are made out not on educational grounds, but with an eye to institutional 
success, and the arbiter as to what these various interests some genuine, some fanci- 
ful, some real but inflated shall receive, is a legislative committee of laymen wholly 
uninformed except by the glowing advice of the interested local board members and 
presidents. 1 By the proposed plan the budget for the training of teachers would be 
fully worked out jointly in the board of presidents; the chancellor and the board of 

1 A representative of the enquiry was present at one visit of the state junketing committee. Surrounded by mem- 
bers of the local board of regents and by school officers, these gentlemen went thru buildings and grounds, made 
speeches at the student assembly, and were very uneconomically entertained by the home economics department 



PROPOSALS FOR BETTER ORGANIZATION 59 

curators would be responsible for its suitable incorporation in the budget of the uni- 
versity, and the proposals for financing the state's higher education would come as 
a logical whole before the state's government. With its support merged thus in the 
general budget, the normal school would find immediate relief from the pressure for 
numbers that now exercises such a baneful influence over its educational policies. Ap- 
propriations could be unspecified as to their detailed application, which would be 
subject to the discretion of the board of executives. It would be possible, for example,! 
by economies in other quarters, for a central control to relieve the pressure of num- 
bers at Springfield even on a reduced total appropriation. Such an administration 
would convince the state that within the general scope of its desires, its funds were 
being wisely distributed by those who were engaged "because they knew best how to 
do it, 

(6) To the state at large the benefit of having a single unified scheme of higher 
education would be manifold. The student fresh from high school and anxious about 
his future would receive consistent and unbiased advice at any institution and in all 
of the state's official educational literature, as to where he could best go for what he 
needed. Instead of being lured by personal and printed eulogies to help swell the roll 
of this or that school, he would be told candidly what each school was equipped to 
give him, and would be urged to get the best either within or without the state. Each. 
school would be a stronger institution. When confronted with the alternatives, the 
people of Missouri prefer teachers prepared by institutions that ensure nationally 
recognized standards of excellence to schools that may be swayed this way and that 
by local pressure, and that remain provincial because they lack the detached point 
of view that enables them to lead their communities. Furthermore, the popular effect 
of an orderly, harmonious scheme of education is superior to that resulting from in- 
stitutional strife. Missouri has already seen partisans 6f the university and partisans 
of the normal schools lined up in opposition on questions that were not issues between 
the schools. This tendency is likely to increase as the normal schools grow into more 
and more effective rivals of the university, until wholly irrelevant decisions will be 
reached according as the "university vote" or the "normal school vote" can be more 
effectively marshaled. This outcome ought to be avoided. 

(7) It is worth noting, finally, that an organization in Missouri of the nature above 
described, if carried thru fully and in good faith, would mark a new epoch in Amer- 
ican institutional life in this field. It would serve to seal the fast-closing breach 
between two groups of institutions that have stood aloof in feud-like attitude for 
many years. Not all states, to be sure, are in a position to bring about such a change. 
States in which the normal schools are, and must long remain^ chiefly secondary in- 
stitutions would scarcely come within the scope of this plan. States having no state 
university would be confined to organizing their training agencies in a single pro- 
cm which the schools lean heavily in such events. An agreeable understanding with the legislature was no doubt 
promoted, but as a means for determining the character of the school and its operations with a view to support, the 
occasion is, of course, quite absurd. 



60 GOVERNMENT AND CONTROL 

fessional group. But where there exist side by side a state university and one or more 
professional institutions of collegiate grade, all devoted to the same purpose, there 
would seem to be little question of the wisdom of incorporating all units that are 
functionally similar into one organic whole in so far as their direction and control are 
concerned* 

The one "insuperable" objection to the proposal that has been made by normal 
school men is that "the university would swallow up the normal schools ;" on the other 
hand, the friends of the university regard the plan as impracticable because "the nor- 
mal schools would swallow up the university." To an outside observer it would appear 
to be much to the advantage of the state were this mutual repast to take place as soon 
as possible; whatever may result from the process should then devote its undistracted 
attention to giving Missouri an adequate supply of first class teachers. One normal 
school head agreed that the plan was excellent, but thought it could not be carried 
out without a completely new set of normal school presidents. If the plan is excellent 
and if this opinion is true, comment is unnecessary. 

THE CITY TRAINING SCHOOLS SHOULD BE INCLUDED 

It has been a question up to this point of establishing a vigorous unity of movement 
and purpose for the six state institutions the five normal schools and the univer- 
sity. The reorganization should not stop there. Missouri is peculiar in that a pre- 
dominantly rural population is sealed up behind two great municipal gateways of 
national importance. Between these cities and the state the interests and obligations 
are mutual; they are parts one of another, and every important policy of either should 
aim to recognize and intensify rather than weaken this solidarity. 

In the work of education the one feature that may properly assume paramount im- 
portance in thus binding city and country together, the one responsibility which the 
state should reserve consistently and universally to herself, is the teacher. Local ex- 
penditure for supplies and equipment may vary within limits, but the animating 
spirit of the state's educational system, be it rural, or municipal, or metropolitan, 
should be one and the same. Practically considered, it is a somewhat remote ideal that 
the district school teacher in an obscure village should possess the same training as 
the teacher in the well-developed schools at St. Louis. Nevertheless, that is the ideal 
of American democratic education, and the avenue to its ultimate attainment is plain 
enough : Generous state expenditures for better teaching, and state control of all state 
moneys so expended. While the state has been slowly building up its conviction in 
favor of a policy of normal school support, St. Louis was compelled to embark alone 
upon her- own program of intensive training. Now, however, the state is fully com- 
mitted; she desires the best possible training for her teachers everywhere. And in the 
reorganization of her facilities for this purpose, a reorganization that cannot be long 
postponed, the support and control of ample training facilities for her cities should 
be willingly assumed. There can be little question that in this respect the legislation 



PROPOSALS FOR BETTER ORGANIZATION 61 

of 1915 was a mistake. Here for the first time the state turned over to St. Louis and 
to Kansas City considerable appropriations for local training of teachers, and aban- 
doned all right of control and supervision as to how the money should be spent. The 
inrooting of such a policy means the perpetuation of these two great centres as vir- 
tual islands in the educational life of the state. In the commonwealth of ideas these 
two cities propose henceforth increasingly to walk apart and therefore aloof from the 
state at large. This would be a misfortune, and the way to avoid it is for the state to 
guarantee on its own account teachers that shall be completely satisfactory to the 
cities. The claim of the cities is just the state owes them funds for this purpose; 
but with these funds to allow the cities to wall themselves off intellectually is utterly 
indefensible, and to train up for themselves alone a closed and locally privileged 
class of teachers has just this effect. 

If the State of Missouri were to own and control as part of her training system a 
first class four-year college for teachers in St. Louis, drawing students chiefly from 
St. Louis, but accessible on equal terms from the state at large, and sending gradu- 
ates both to city and town, the immediate reaction throughout the other state schools 
would alone be worth the cost. On the other hand, there is no reason why such a school, 
operating in close sympathy with the local school authorities, should not be fully as 
effective as the present institution controlled wholly by the city. As a constituent unit 
in a Division of Education of the state university, suggested above, such a school 
would virtually set the pace, and would constantly and powerfully influence educa- 
tion all over the state. It is true, of course, that on the part of the city a certain 
intimate sense of proprietorship in its local training agency would be missed. This 
would be more than offset, however, by the soundness of a situation that conceives 
the people of the state to be essentially one, and that, while providing effectively for 
local demands, holds each part responsible for promoting the general movement for- 
ward. For these reasons a state-supported college in St. Louis, and possibly another 
in Kansas City, should be included in the proposed university system, having their 
directors members of the board of administration and coordinate with the heads of 
the other state colleges of education. 

VoLUNTAEY CoOPEEATION 

Pending a complete readjustment of relations, an existing movement toward volun- 
tary cooperation demands more than passing attention. The story of earlier attempts 
on the part of the state normal schools to act in unison has already been told. 1 The 
lack of any real inducement for these combinations, aside from personal sanction, 
seems to have brought them successively to naught. Since the inauguration of the 
present study, however, a plan of cooperation has been worked out that includes a new 
factor, the university, and embraces two features that contribute elements of possible 
permanence. First, the plan contemplates exchange of credit between all state insti- 

1 See page 44. 



62 GOVERNMENT AND CONTROL 

tutlons which satisfy certain fully defined standards. This relation with the university 
is new, and will undoubtedly add force and incentive to the arrangement. The other 
significant feature of the plan is a committee of visitation and inspection selected an- 
nually, one member appointed from the state department to be chairman ; a second, 
selected by the faculty of the university, and a third, by the faculty of a normal school 
the last representing the schools in rotation. It should be noted that these last two 
members represent not the presidents but the faculties of the respective institutions. 
The duty of the committee is to report on each institution's adherence to the pro- 
posed standards, presumably after sufficient investigation. The standards set forth in 
the agreement deal with terms of admission, advanced standing, records, and credit ; 
the preparation and teaching load of instructors; program hours, certificates, and 
degrees of students ; and terminology of courses. 

This agreement among the schools is thoroughly admirable as far as it goes. There 
is danger lest the committee prove either too inquisitive to commend itself to all of 
the institutions, or too tender hearted to accomplish its purpose; with tact and judg- 
ment it should be able to smooth out differences and pave the way for, mutual con- 
fidence in so far as this depends upon correct administration in such details. It would 
be a pity, however, if the real significance of the movement did not go beyond this. 
The responsible heads of the state's training schools have here united in a permanent 
conference group to have definite and frequent meetings, where matters of importance 
will be discussed. Their union has been voluntary and uninfluenced by any outside dic- 
tation. There is an excellent opportunity, under such circumstances, for officials more 
interested in the state than in their respective personal fortunes to proceed from 
minor matters to the real problems that confront them : the actual demand for their 
product, the scope and possible differentiation of their respective efforts, the quality 
and value of their curricula, and so forth. Thru the development of this conference 
group the state might evolve a board of expert leaders in this all-important function 
a permanent "general staff" committed to persistent discussion and sifting of these 
larger problems until the fight solution should be found. In that case no institution 
would feel justified in taking an important step without the approval of this group ; 
and the education of the state's most important professional class would be conducted 
with harmony and clear purpose on a high level. In such an event Missouri would 
establish a most notable precedent -for cooperation. The success of the movement 
would, of course, be immensely facilitated by bringing all the normal schools legally 
into the organization of the university a step that could be taken by statute with- 
out disturbing the impregnable rock of the Missouri constitution; but much can be 
done even without this very desirable change, as the unanimous verdict of such a 
body of educational leaders would probably carry great weight with any local author-, 
ity. There is every reason why the state, unless prepared for radical action, should 
allow the new movement time in which to bear its full fruit, in the hope that this 
possible larger outcome may be realized. 



REORGANIZATION OF STATE CONTROL 63 

C. REORGANIZATION OF STATE EDUCATIONAL CONTROL 

The merits of various types of state administration in educational affairs are not 
the main subject of this study. A well-conducted state department is, nevertheless, of 
such capital importance to a successful management of teacher preparation and sup- 
ply that a brief consideration cannot well be avoided. 

PRINCIPLE OF CENTRALIZATION 

Whatever steps may be taken in Missouri or elsewhere in the name of progress in 
educational organization, it is safe to say that they will represent in some form the 
present inevitable tendency toward simplification, by centralizing power and respon- 
sibility in the hands of a few individuals and these fitted to use it. Most of the not- 
able gains in educational administration during the past quarter century have been 
of this nature. They have come first in cities where the problem could be grasped by 
one brain and the treatment be worked out at one desk. Gradually the principle 
has been applied to counties and larger districts, where wiser selection of officers, bet- 
ter compensation, and larger powers will yet work vast improvement. The natural 
climax of the development has been reached in the movement to galvanize into use- 
ful action the more or less quiescent or perfunctory state departments of education. 
It is with these that we are particularly concerned. 

THE STATE UNIT OF ADMINISTRATION 

In the American Union the state, except for special, purposes, is the largest admin- 
istrative unit in educational affairs. As our commonwealths have become more and 
more self-conscious in laboring for the permanent protection and satisfaction of their 
people, the problem of education has assumed constantly increasing importance. The 
only successful plan hitherto discovered has been to obtain the services of the best 
trained minds available, regardless of cost, and about these leaders to build an or- 
ganimtion with adequate powers. Thru this means the state hopes first to study and 
understand itself, and to have its needs translated into educational terms that may 
be embodied in suitable legislation. It aims, further, to gather and prepare the most 
profitable educational information for the benefit of all in the state who may need it. 
Most important of all, it aims thru this authority to make and enforce standards 
wherewith to express for the state as a whole the educational will and ideals that it 
could not realize in the isolated efforts of its parts. As the economy and profit of 
state regulation has become apparent, its scope has steadily enlarged: it affects in 
varying ways school buildings, equipment, and finances; attendance and curricula; 
the health of pupils and the duties of school directors. But the greatest and by far 
the most important feature of its extension has been its jurisdiction over qualifica- 
tions of the personnel engaged in instruction^ and supervision, reaching sometimes 
even to the selection and pay of important local officers. 



64 GOVERNMENT AND CONTROL 

ADVANTAGES OF STATE CONTROL 

This concern on the part of the state for the selection, training, and control of 
the teacher and school officer is the sanest development of modern school adminis- 
tration. A state making good use of its powers in this direction could probably af- 
ford to ignore most other elements in public education without losing its place in 
advance of its less far-sighted neighbors. For whatever the mechanical and material 
progress in an educational organism, and this has been enormous in America dur- 
ing recent years, the clearest lesson of our growth is that the real level of a school 
system is exactly measured by the character, ability, and well-being of its teaching 
and supervising body. Where these elements have been left to local initiative, pro- 
gress has been fitful and uneven, with sharp and demoralizing contrasts; but where 
the state, representing the major ideals of the people, has boldly asserted its pre- 
rogative, and has shaped its teaching staff into a corps of trained public servants, 
officers of the state instead of local employees, the response from the community has 
been immediate, and the effect on the teachers has invariably been to give them 
dignity, stability, and strength. The obstacles encountered are chiefly those of unre- 
flecting tradition : a public temper that resists high personal qualifications because it 
habitually thinks of public service in terms of opportunity for livelihood at public 
expense rather than as an obligation for the public welfare ; a tendency in institutions 
to prefer expansion by catering to the anticipated future of the institution itself rather 
than by a direct attack on a problem that may involve a degree of sincere self-efface- 
ment; and lastly the root trouble with the whole lay opposition the inability to 
comprehend that a select and highly efficient body of teachers is well worth the rela- 
tively greater money cost. These attitudes are more or less prevalent in all states, and 
yield only to unremitting educational effort 

CONDITIONS OF SUCCESSFUL STATE ADMINISTRATION 

To work its will successfully, experience has shown that a state must have a central 
educational authority possessing well-trained intelligence in technical affairs, coupled 
with full power and responsibility in its field, both completely shielded from political 
influences. When the state has indicated the general direction of its educational de- 
sires and policy, the more liberty that can be allowed its officers in working these out, 
the better, as they involve a multitude of details impossible of legislative regulation 
without destructive results. Particularly in the **pro visions governing teachers'* qual- 
ifications and service the way should be left clear for free initiative and correction. 
Statutes on matters of such fluid detail serve no purpose save to bind the schools to 
the past and to set commissioners the useless task of accomplishing a necessary end in 
some roundabout way. Steady administrative change in matters of this nature, annual 
if need be, as the result of a systematic study of the total situation, is the rational 
method of progress as compared with a set of rigid laws followed by a long-agitated 
change to another set destined to become equally rigid. 



REORGANIZATION OF STATE CONTROL 65 

Of all the phases of the teacher problem with which a state authority should be 
equipped to deal, that of preparation and supply is the most important. At this point 
the state's educational arm should be steady and powerful. Of what use is it to study 
the needs of the schools and to gather wisdom from outside experience if one is help- 
less to enforce reasonable standards of qualification? With no control over the agen- 
cies for training teachers, the central office is at the mercy of fluctuating conditions. 
Confronted with a very pressing and specific need, it is compelled to wait upon the 
independent heads of institutions whose purposes may be in no way identical with its 
own, and whose knowledge of the situation is bound to be far less complete. Teacher 
supply, instead of being a rational problem with known quantities, becomes as uncer- 
tain as a lottery. To secure the necessary results, professional training for teaching, 
when conducted by the state, must cease to be vague and fortuitous, as is much of our 
higher education, and must be subordinated to intelligent forces that are studying and 
guiding the state's educational interests as a whole. For this purpose, therefore, the 
direction of such work, whatever form it may take, should be placed under one har- 
monious control capable of building up a consistent structure to serve the state that 
creates it. 

UNIFICATION OF CONTROL IN MISSOURI 

Ho wean an organization on these principles be brought about in Missouri? The best 
educational opinion will concur in the conclusion that the present system of local nor- 
mal school boards is a disadvantage and should be abandoned. The foregoing section 
was devoted to a plan whereby these schools should be given their natural place in the 
university organization, with their executives in charge of the whole problem of the 
preparation and supply of teachers for the state. Informed opinion will likewise agree 
that it is a serious weakness to have a state superintendent elected by the people as a 
partisan, and that he should be replaced by a skilled officer, chosen solely for his abil- 
ity, on a tenure of "good behaviour," and responsible to a group of intelligent laymen. 

The absolute need for concerted action between these two authorities the one 
responsible for training in state institutions, the other for administration at large 
suggests at once the advisability of placing both functions under one board of rep- 
resentative citizens who shall harmonize their joint operations and ensure that all of 
the educational interests that are supported by the state be developed in a wise and 
mutually helpful manner. Such a step would be unprecedented in the management 
of state educational affairs in America. It is, however, the logical outcome of a power- 
ful impulse toward unity that for years has been actuating the experiments in edu- 
cational administration all over this country. 

EXPERIMENTS IN OTHER STATES 

In certain states, such as Massachusetts, Wisconsin, and, most recently, Illinois, im- 
provement in administration has taken the simple form of bringing several normal 



66 GOVERNMENT AND CONTROL 

schools under the control of one board for the sake of economy. Only in Massachusetts 
has this unification included the state department of education, which, by virtue of 
its relation to the public schools of the state, has a predominant interest in the con- 
duct of the normal schools. The board is served by an appointive Commissioner of 
Education, who thus has it in his power to coordinate the service of the normal schools 
with the needs of the state in admirable fashion. There being no state institutions for 
higher education in Massachusetts except the normal schools and an agricultural col- 
lege, the board is, with this exception, a single authority for educational control. 

Another form of consolidation has sought to unify all institutions for higher edu- 
cation under one management. Thus, Iowa provides an unpaid lay board of nine, with 
three paid lay executives in addition, and places it in charge of all higher institutions. 
This board has no competent educational adviser and executive such as a state com- 
missioner presumably would be, but must depend upon the representations of the 
several heads of institutions, officers who necessarily speak, or must appear to speak, 
esc pctrte on all inter-institutioual questions. In the Iowa plan, too, while the board 
controls the normal school, the state superintendent and his office, which should stand 
in most intimate relation with the normal school, are wholly independent; in fact, 
maintain an attitude of mild opposition to the board. In Kansas the same trio of insti- 
tutions a threefold normal school, an agricultural college, and a state university 
are administered by a paid lay board of three members, likewise without a trained 
educational executive or adviser other than the heads of institutions. Here also the 
state education department, which naturally has a fundamental interest in the train- 
ing of teachers, is left wholly separate and distinct. 

The underlying purpose in Iowa, Kansas, and other states that have initiated sim- 
ilar schemes is to coordinate institutional activities in the interests of economy. To 
do this they have effected a degree of unification under merely "business" auspices, 
as it were, a movement that has had some salutary effects, but the measures taken 
thus far have dealt largely or solely with the material phases of their charges. It has 
not been perceived that the critical problems involved are essentially educational, and 
can be worked out only by men with thorough educational training, empowered to 
act on slowly maturing policies with the intelligent cooperation of able colleagties, 
and with continuous study of the conditions. These states are like Missouri in thinking 
their duty done when they have established a modern accounting system for financial 
expenditures, and in ignoring completely the need for competent leadership in that 
for which the institutions exist. So persistent is this attitude that in Kansas the most 
recent development (1917) has been the appointment of a paid "business manager," 
by law a Kansan, responsible to the board, and expected to handle the financial affairs 
of all state institutions; meanwhile, the direction of the educational policies of such 
institutions as are educational has reverted largely to the local authorities, where it 
should remain as long as no competent educational executive is placed in control. 

The single board plan has attained fuller stature in Montana, where a board of 



REORGANIZATION OF STATE CONTROL 67 

eleven members governs all the higher institutions of the state. This board sought 
a trained man as its educational adviser and executive. So far as our present experi- 
ence goes, the plan is sound. As in the other cases, however, there is an indepen- 
dent, elective state superintendent for the administration of the elementary and sec- 
ondary schools. This disadvantage is not overcome by making him a member of the 
board; were he appointed by it and responsible to it, his relation would be logical 
and strong. 

LESSONS FROM RECENT EXPERIENCE 

The best American experience points to the conclusion that a single board of from 
five to seven members appointed or elected at large for long terms, unpaid, and repre- 
senting high and varied ability, is the most successful form of educational control 
yet devised for a democratic community. But it must be so constructed and equipped 
that it will automatically obtain its educational advice from competent sources. These 
sources of technical advice must not compete with one another, but must be so dis- 
posed as habitually to find their point of view in the welfare of the state as a whole. 
The heads of independent state institutions for higher education do compete with 
one another, and from a point of view not usually chosen with regard to the welfare of 
the state as a whole; such institutional interests should therefore be brought under 
one supervision and be represented by a director or chancellor for the staters under- 
takings in higher education, all of which should be more or less firmly organized into 
what is called the university. 

On the other hand, the so-called state department of education, if it discharges the 
functions properly assigned to it, has a preponderant interest in the performance of 
the higher educational institutions that prepare teachers. Its executive, if a skilled 
appointive officer, as he should be, is virtually the chancellor of elementary and sec- 
ondary schools a position that beyond all question is potentially the most widely 
influential within the range of a state's educational system. The primary concern of 
such an officer is with the great body of teachers in service; he studies their conditions, 
regulates their qualifications, eliminates the unfit, and inspires and improves the capa- 
ble. The best practical reason for his existence is that the state may maintain an ade- 
quate and fully competent supply of teachers in its schools. It is obvious that in order 
effectively to perform such duties he must find the whole machinery for preparing 
these teachers reasonably responsive to his desires and policies. 

The conclusion is unavoidable that to bring these two great administrative cen- 
tres of state education into constant touch with one another under the eyes of a 
single group of men responsible to the public would be a long stride in the direc- 
tion of an effective organization. The state's entire educational program would gain 
greatly in consistency and force if laid out by one permanent, controlling body; 
while the economy of power in the direct methods of a unified administration would 
be incalculable. 



68 GOVERNMENT AND CONTROL 

RELATIONS OF CONSTITUENT DEPARTMENTS 

The question will at once be raised as to the relations of the two executive de- 
partments subordinated by this plan to the single board. On this important point 
there is no actual experience available for guidance. Analogies from business enter- 
prises would favor a single officer as the chief adviser and executive for all purposes, 
and there is every indication that such an appointment will eventually prove to be 
absolutely necessary. When Missouri is willing to spend not less than fifteen thou- 
sand dollars a year for a thoroughly trained and tested man and provide him with 
two or three deputies at ten thousand dollars each, she will inaugurate the organiza- 
tion that will most surely give her educational interests their appropriate place and 
meaning in the state's social economy. At the present time, however, such experts, 
thoroughly familiar with the problems that lie thick throughout the whole range of 
educational effort, would be hard to find at the price that Missouri is probably pre- 
pared to pay. We have men who know higher education well, and others who under- 
stand state administration in all of its phases. A single chief for both departments, 
except with ample funds for a capable staff, would certainly mean the relegation of 
close thought and careful planning in each field to inferior subordinates, while the 
head became a free lance for general purposes. This would not be what is needed. 

The alternative is a single lay board seeking advice, in the institutional field, from 
the head of its whole establishment for higher education ; and in the administrative 
field, from its commissioner who represents the investigative, regulative, and ad- 
ministrative phases of public education as far as the elementary and secondary schools 
are concerned. These two departments are as distinct as are the divisions of army 
and navy in the national economy, and yet quite as interdependent. Their respective 
heads, as Chancellor of the University and Commissioner of Education, should be 
chosen with equal care and receive equal compensation. They should be non-voting 
members of the board and participants in all of its deliberations. Cooperation should 
be their first duty in planning recommendations to the board, and should be the first 
requirement of the board in case of disagreement, even to the retirement of one 
adviser or the other. 

Such an arrangement, so safeguarded, might reasonably result in a more vigorous 
and expert leadership of each department than would be possible, for the same ex- 
penditure, under the one-man system. It would certainly lead to a more thorough study 
and threshing over of joint problems than a single head could require of his less 
skilful subordinates. Its tendency would apparently be away from a cheap bureaucracy 
under spectacular leadership in favor of a better vitalized, working group in closer 
touch with actual conditions. 

To recapitulate : Missouri, were she to act on these proposals, would possess a re- 
organized university which would include all the tax-supported agencies that are 
concerned with higher instruction, unified completely in a single self-acting, self-criti- 
cising organism, and represented by a single administrative head the state's director 



REORGANIZATION OF STATE CONTROL 69 

of higher and professional instruction. "Within this organism the broad function of 
preparing teachers for the public schools of the state would be entrusted to a small 
group of specialists acting in unison and in immediate control of the several institu- 
tions for accomplishing their purposes. Side by side with the university would appear 
the staters large and ever increasing organization for supervising and regulating the 
operation of its elementary and secondary schools, for administering its many aids 
and funds, and for studying and reporting the educational health and needs in every 
part of the commonwealth; this would be in charge of the same board, but subject 
in turn to its own administrative head the commissioner of education, an officer 
ranking with his university colleague, equally fitted for his position, and receiving 
an equal salary. The chief business of the board would be to keep the best obtainable 
executives in these two positions, and to require them, in constant cooperation with 
one another, to furnish reasonable evidence of successful service. Beyond that the 
function of the board would be to uphold and protect its servants ; to interpret their 
aims and measures to the state; and to promote among the people a generous con- 
ception of public education. 



V 
PURPOSE OF A NORMAL SCHOOL 

A. GENERAL FUNCTION 

1. THE EXISTING CONCEPTION 

"WHAT should a normal school be?" This is a question which, according to Joseph 
Baldwin, the first president at Kirks ville, "only the angels can answer." Whatever the 
accuracy of this verdict, it is possible at least to discover what the function of the 
institution has been as worked out in practice in Missouri. 

EARLY CONCEPTION OF THE FUNCTION OF A NORMAL SCHOOL 

The question may be reduced to the following alternatives : the normal school shall 
either provide a general education, making its professional features more or less inci- 
dental, or it shall undertake to give an intensive professional training, exclusively for 
teachers. Of these alternatives, Missouri at any time in her early normal school his- 
tory would have emphatically asserted the latter. From the beginning, the movement 
was in the hands of men who had unlimited faith in the professional idea. Its appeal 
was founded on the prevailing low state of training among common school teachers, 
and it was promoted by teachers, superintendents, and associations of these, who had 
definitely in mind the elevation of the class as a whole. So in 1871 the State Teach- 
ers Association at Chillicothe resolved "that the normal schools should be at the 
head of our educational system; that the course should be purely professional; and 
that all preparatory work should be done in the public schools and universities." * The 
early curricula exhibit this predominant idea very clearly: it was never a question of 
giving or of not giving the professional subjects, but always of how much academic 
material would suffice to supplement the defective preparation with which most stu- 
dents came equipped. All subjects were presented or reviewed from the standpoint 
of their most effective presentation to a class, and the practical usages of instruction 
received heavy emphasis. "No effort has been spared to make the institution exclu- 
sively a school for teachers." 2 "In arranging the course of instruction strict regard 
has been paid to the requirements of the public schools of Missouri, and in carrying 
out that course our constant aim has been to give such training as will best qualify 
the graduate both intellectually and morally for effective work as a teacher." 3 These 
statements from Warrensburg in 1878 and 1886 reveal the attitude of the other 
schools as well. President Baldwin, at Kirksville, declared in 1872 that "every energy 
is directed to preparing for the public schools of Missouri the largest number of good 
teachers in the shortest time," 4 and in 1880 : the aim of the school is "to give culture 
and learning, not for the benefit of the student, but that it may be used in the edu- 

1 State Report, 1871, page 19. 2 Ibid., 1878, page 224. 

8 Ibid., 1886, pa&e 108. * Ibid.* 1872, pa&e 166. 



GENERAL FUNCTION 71 

cation of the masses." 1 Especially instructive are the observations of State Superin- 
tendent Monteith, who was in office when the schools were started: 

" It is a pretty well-defined result of experience, too, that normal schools should 
be quite elementary in respect to the subject matter and curriculum of study. In a 
school system which embraces high schools and universities, there is not the slight- 
est reason why the normal school should duplicate the instruction of these more 
' advanced institutions. I am thoroughly convinced, in observing the mistakes of 
other states, that the normal school is disappointing the object of its design 
when it drifts away from the common schools of the country. With this object 
steadily in view, our Board of Regents are endeavoring to adjust the two schools 
already established to the special conditions and wants of the state. The higher 
mathematics and dead languages, except within a certain eminently practical 
limit, are to give way to a more generous attention to natural science, drawing, 
and the perfecting of teachers in the best methods of conducting the common 
branches of the common school." 2 

Missouri normal schools, therefore, were founded to train teachers. To say "exclu- 
sively" would be technically wrong, as certain readjustments were occasionally made 
here and there ; for example, special classes in Greek were sometimes offered to accom- 
modate a few who wished to go to the university, and certain individuals were occa- 
sionally present who did not declare their intention to teach. But the clear and con- 
sistent aim apparent under all circumstances was to provide teachers, actual or pro- 
spective, with special skill for their duties, and in their reports to the legislature all 
the schools were solicitous to show that the largest possible proportion of their stu- 
dents were actually teaching in the state. 

SUBSEQUENT VARIATIONS 

This fixed purpose of the first thirty years has wavered in some schools during the 
subsequent period. The three original institutions furnish an interesting contrast in 
this respect. In 1909, under the caption "People's College, 1 ' Kirks ville announced itself 
as follows : 

** The State Normal School, Kirksville, Mo., is attempting to do a great work for 
the people of the state by giving studies reaching from the kindergarten through 
the most advanced college courses. This wide range of work meeting the de- 
mands of all the people is found in very few first class schools. While advanced 
common school courses are given in this institution for the benefit of those who 
are preparing to teach in the rural and ungraded schools, academic degrees are 
conferred upon those who have completed the work offered by our best colleges. 
This brings the school in close touch with the people by giving an elaborate edu- 
cation to those who want to enter the professions, and a vocational education 
for those who want to take practical business courses. It cannot be denied that 
the Normal School comes nearer the people than other schools and may there- 
fore be justly called the People's College." 8 

* State Report, 1880, page 159. * Ibid., 1872, page 37. 

3 Bulletin (Supplement), MrTcsmlle, June, 1909, page 1. 



72 PURPOSE OF A NORMAL SCHOOL 

This statement is followed by an extensive program of courses that are clearly not 
intended for teachers one-year curricula chiefly in farming and commerce. Nowhere 
in this bulletin, furthermore,, is there a clear statement that the school is of a limited 
professional character, or that a declaration of intention to teach is required. It holds 
out rather an alluring vision of a sort of educational lunch counter where everything 
"the people "wish may be had in portions suited to their convenience. 

The "People's College''"' idea does not appear to have thrived; at any rate, nothing 
more is heard of it, and the catalogue of the following year goes back plainly to the 
original aim : " The Normal School is not a college for general culture. It is a voca- 
tional institution of college rank. Under the law its students declare their intention 
to teach in the public schools." The subsequent catalogues have shown a single, strong 
professional purpose. 

At Cape Girardeau an enlargement of scope was announced in the same year as at 
Kirks ville. The catalogue of 1909 declares: "The Normal School has a larger mission 
in Southeast Missouri than that of a state college for teachers. . . . The institution 
must be to this section of the state their one great college. It is fully equipped to meet 
the demands that are naturally made upon it. In its college courses; in its agricultural 
courses; in its Manual Training School; in its domestic science and domestic art 
courses; in its School of Music; in its business courses; and in its teachers' college 
the people of Southeast Missouri will find the opportunity to educate themselves for 
their life work." 

Tho placing its teachers college last in the above list, the school elsewhere in the 
catalogue clearly defines its legal teacher-training function as a portion of its activ- 
ity. In the catalogue of 1910 its "Field of Service" is formally described as comprising 
"A School for Teachers," a "Sub-collegiate" department, and "A State College," the 
latter offering (since 1907) courses leading to the degree of A.B. and requiring in them 
no work in education whatever. Here we have, therefore, an institution deliberately 
revising its organization throughout and introducing, not one-year vocational courses 
as at Kirksville, but an elaborate curriculum with a new and alien purpose. It is diffi- 
cult to see how either school could reconcile these departures with the law^s demand 
for an exaction from each student of a declaration of intention to teach in the schools 
of Missouri. Cape Girardeau, and possibly Kirksville, has been saved from embarrass- 
ment thru the fact that but for a single case no graduate has taken the courses ex- 
cept prospective teachers who could also avow their intention to teach; that, how- 
ever, scarcely justifies the appeal for students distinctly excluded by law. This divided 
purpose at Cape Girardeau has never been abandoned. On the contrary, it has been 
officially reaffirmed in the school's magazine publications of 1913 and 1914, 1 where 
the pledge to teach is declared to be out of date, and it is frankly proposed to adapt 
the institution to the needs of men and women who will teach but a short time, if at 
all, and whose professional interest is therefore incidental at best. 

1 The Educational Outlook, October, 1913, page 136. 



GENERAL FUNCTION 73 

Warrensburg, on the other hand, has consistently adhered to the original plan, to 
the extent, at least, of an unequivocal announcement of her special aim in every cata- 
logue down to the present year. An expression in the school's biennial report of 1885 
is a fair sample of the early attitude : " On all proper occasions we have taken pains to 
spread abroad the impression that this school is designed for the training of teach- 
ers and for no other purpose whatever." In the catalogue of 1904 the "Object of the 
School" is defined in the following paragraphs: 

" In the law creating Normal Schools in this State the following passages occur : 

"* The course of instruction shall be confined to such branches of science only 
as are usually taught in Normal Schools and which may be necessary to qualify 
the students as competent teachers in the public schools of this State. 

" ' Every applicant for admission shall undergo an examination in such man- 
ner as may be prescribed by the Board [of Regents], and they shall require the ap- 
plicant to sign and file with the Secretary of the Board a declaration of intention 
to follow the business of teaching in the public schools of this State."* 

" The following is the pledge required of every student upon entrance and 
registration : 

" * I hereby declare that it is my intention to follow the business of teaching in 
the public schools of this State, and that I voluntarily enroll myself as a student 
in the State Normal School at Warrensburg for the purpose of preparing for 
that work.' 

"The limits prescribed for the course of study and the form of the pledge 
show that but one purpose was contemplated by the State in establishing these 
schools, viz.: The training of teachers for the public schools of the State.'"* 1 

Similarly in 1905 and after, the school's "sole function is the preparation of teach- 
ers for the schools of Missouri." " The school does not exist for the benefit of its stu- 
dents, but for the benefit of the whole people." 2 And in 191S: The school's "sole pur- 
pose is to confer on its students that education, discipline, professional training, and 
practical skill which will best fit them for teaching in the public schools of the State." 3 

The schools at Springfield and Mary ville, founded in 1906, have in general followed 
the exclusively professional ideal also, as their catalogues attest. Southwest Missouri 
has been an unusually fruitful field for such single-minded service, and the school 
at Springfield has prospered remarkably. Maryville, in 1914, devotes two pages of 
its catalogue to the exposition of this distinctly professional aim. It is with some sur- 
prise, therefore, that one sees it weakened in 1916. The school now calls itself simply 
"an educational institution," and, besides enumerating the various teacher-groups 
that are provided for, invites also those who are "seeking to secure the preliminary 
college academic requirement" for the university, or students from other colleges who 
seek "to extend their credits in college,"*' and finally observes " that many persons not 
immediately concerned with teaching find pleasure and profit in becoming enrolled 
in our classes," There is no reference to the declaration of intention to teach required 
by law. 

1 Catalogue, Warrensburg, 1904, page 15. * Ibid., 1905, page 20. * Ibid., 1912, page 16. 



74 PURPOSE OF A NORMAL SCHOOL 

SPECIAL CONSIDERATIONS AFFECTING A NORMAL SCHOOL'S CONCEPTION OF ITS FUNCTION 
Before discussing the merits of the question involved in these divergent proposals, 
there are certain additional facts to be considered. In spite of the professional ideal 
that, with the above 'exceptions, has dominated the schools, the notion of a general 
education has almost unconsciously, and for historical reasons, influenced their pur- 
pose. From the beginning the students in these normal schools have been exceed- 
ingly heterogeneous, with a preponderance of mature minds of good ability but with 
very defective preparation due to lack of opportunity. The all -important preliminary 
process was therefore necessarily one of fundamental education, and it is impressive 
to note how consistently the Missouri normal schools have urged this principle, even 
tho at times they appear to have failed to practise it. Throughout their history they 
seem to have been ardent advocates of having something to teach as compared with 
certain schools in other states that sacrificed their character on the altar of "method." 

PRESSURE FOR ACADEMIC CREDIT 

Furthermore, it should be noted that as purveyors to that occupation of teaching 
whereby chiefly needy and ambitious boys and girls obtained the means for further 
education, these institutions stood in tempting relation to the fuller education that 
their students sought. It was a matter of course that the kind of student who came to 
the normal school had taught or would teach; teaching was his most obvious resource 
for temporary support. Hence in very many cases the student accepted professional 
work as a necessary incident, while his real attention was upon the academic work 
that would be accepted for credit in another and higher institution. It was but a step, 
and a very natural step, for the normal school to develop its requirements with such an 
end in view. A genuine desire to prove serviceable to hard-working students who were 
using the teaching profession merely as a ladder, and a less worthy feeling that such 
students brought to the school not only numbers but prestige, combined to enhance 
the "college"" idea as a legitimate goal. Aside from Cape Girardeau's wholly non-pro- 
fessional curriculum already mentioned, the sixty-hour curriculum for high school 
graduates at Maryville, in 1914, illustrates such a purpose: in the effort to offer only 
subjects that might be used for credit elsewhere, no special study of the history, 
geography, and arithmetic that these students were presumably later to teach was re- 
quired, except as it appeared fragmentarily in ten semester hours of practice teaching. 1 

That pressure of this sort has been and still continues to be severe seems evident 
from the replies made by students to enquiries at the various schools. Sixty per cent 
of the students in attendance at the time of inspection declared that they did not in- 
tend to teach permanently. With the women the factor of prospective marriage prob- 
ably weighs heavily; this cannot, however, be true of the men, seventy-eight per cent 
of whom make the negative reply. Such students naturally have little interest in an in- 

1 Good normal schools elsewhere were at the same time requiring 12-15 semester hours in these subjects aside from 
a full semester of practice work. 



GENERAL FUNCTION 75 

tensive professional training; those studies please them best which give them the most 
credit for future use. Even the men who are intending to continue in the field of edu- 
cation find but little inducement in the work properly expected from mosb of the 
women. The latter expect to teach, while the men hope to go directly into adminis- 
trative positions. As a group the men in the normal schools seem to be a disintegrat- 
ing element, yet the efforts made to attract and retain them indicate that their pres- 
ence is nevertheless much preferred to a homogeneous professional group more largely 
made up of women. 

EFFECT OF LOCAL CONTROL 

A third motive for stress on general education has arisen from the complete local 
attachment and control of the schools. The town or county has paid a heavy bonus 
for the location, and naturally exercises proprietorship. The schools are severally in 
the hands of local boards, who really own them in behalf of their respective districts. 
They are maintained largely, to be sure, out of state funds, but the amount of such 
appropriations depends upon the energy and influence of their board members and 
friends who lobby vigorously, and is never in any sense the considered proposal of 
a state authority directing the institution solely for the good of the whole state. 
They become, therefore, the local public educational institutions; and the fundamen- 
tal theory of a school to train public servants for the benefit of the state is largely 
obscured by the more attractive idea of a place where local youth may prepare for 
college, or even pursue collegiate studies and acquire degrees. Town or sectional pride 
urges this interpretation on the institution, which IB turn is anxious to recruit its 
numbers because of its feeling of responsibility to the local community. 1 Regents with 
pet notions find an easy field of influence, and often have slight perception of the larger 
purpose of the school. One of these urged that, as his school had an old telescope in its 
possession, it should undertake collegiate courses in astronomy. Administrators nat- 
urally yield most quickly to the forces that feed and affect the school, and when de- 
pendent solely upon such local influences can scarcely be blamed if truer ideals seem 
distant and impracticable. It is easy, under these circumstances, to include the profes- 
sional idea, because, as already pointed out, it fits the economic situation of most of 
the student patrons ; but to make it really the sole and sufficient reason for the school's 
existence is less easy, and probably cannot be fully accomplished under the present 
system of control. 

"DEMOCRACY" THE JUSTIFICATION 

The situation described in the foregoing paragraph has, of course, developed a the- 
ory, or the interpretation of a theory, for its justification. Great emphasis is placed 

1 An everywhere vigorous and vocal expression of this town pride rises from the vested interests dependent on the 
schools boarding-houses, stores, churches, and so on. Thus, a writer in the local newspaper of one of the normal 
school towns struck a responsive chord when he declared that the present study would undoubtedly discourage 
the attendance of men at the school, and send botto men and women to "enrich the boarding? houses of some other 
place." Kirksville Express, December 10 f 1914 T 



76 PURPOSE OF A NORMAL SCHOOL 

on the perfectly valid creed that the people know what they want, and that democracy 
in education consists in gratifying their desires. But from this creed there is then 
drawn the inference that because the people desire good teachers, the people are 
therefore competent to direct the institution that provides them, and that the in- 
stitution is most "democratic" that yields itself most completely to the popular local 
fancy. Such, unfortunately, are the terms on which it is often possible, thru spectacu- 
lar features, to develop a large school; but such is not the way to give the people 
what they, at heart, desire. An intelligent society has learned not to interfere with 
competent professional service when it would be healed or seek justice at court; that 
service commands the maximum confidence which, for a selected end, most completely 
refines and dominates its choice of means. This temper is superlatively characteristic 
of a good school; it must mould and dominate public opinion in its field; it must 
guard its aims and processes from public interference precisely in order that the pub- 
lic may get the service that it wants. No other interpretation of public service is 
worthy of a democracy, but the present system of local control makes such detached 
and efficient service difficult if not impossible. 

PROFESSIONAL TRAINING LONG UNCEKTAIN AS TO ITS METHOD 

Finally, the development of professional training itself has involved the conception 
of general education in an ambiguous and confusing manner. When the Missouri nor- 
mal schools were established, two theories existed as to their operation. According to 
the first, the purpose of the schools should be solely to teach subject-matter prop- 
erly ; it was said that students would teach precisely as they had been taught, and could 
shift for themselves if filled with ideas to be communicated. According to the second 
theory, only the indispensable subject-matter should be given; the main purpose 
should be to develop the philosophy of method and to test the skill of the candidate 
in using methods. The latter theory was the one adopted and chiefly followed, 1 altho, 
as has been said, the schools appear to have insisted usually that the foundation of 
subject-matter should be substantial Little by little, however, both in Missouri and 
elsewhere, the whole normal school practice seems to have hardened into a formalized 
method from which the schools were aroused thru criticism by the universities. The 
latter had been persistent adherents of the first of the two doctrines noted; conse- 
quently the cult of "method 1 ' received little but ridicule, and in so far as it had de- 
veloped a pose to hide its insufficient learning, its pretensions were quickly punctured. 
Under the fire of this attack many unworthy accretions of "professional "lore disap- 
peared sentimentalism, mystic reverence for formulae, a not infrequent quackery; 
while such conceptions as survived the refining process were eventually accepted for 
use in normal school and university alike. 

Apart from this salutary process, however, and somewhat preceding it, came an 

1 These two points of view are well stated in one of Superintendent Monteith's discussions. See State Report r lBt%, 
page 37. 



GENERAL FUNCTION 77 

increased mechanical emphasis on what the university primarily stood for, namely, 
content. In Missouri this is illustrated by the change that came over all the institu- 
tions about 1900, when within two years the headship in each was transferred to a 
new man. The university high school inspector and former state superintendent of 
public schools went to Kirksville with a commission from the president of the univer- 
sity to "go and put scholarship into that school.' 5 "' The president of Central College 
at Fayette, Missouri, went to Warrensburg, and a successful school superintendent, 
a graduate of the state university, went to Cape Girardeau. The effect of this infu- 
sion of fresh academic blood became immediately apparent in the announcements 
of the schools: the cultural idea; the proposal, in order to make teachers, to make 
" first educated men and women;" the notion of "a broad academic foundation " are 
all insistently emphasized. Accordingly, the studies considered "academic" were set 
off sharply from those termed " professional,' 1 and commanded a certain special respect 
if only because they were terms shared in common with the higher academic world; 
and this distinction has in general been pronounced even to the present day. ~ 

The influence of this development has been marked both on the students and on 
the institutions. In effect the school has unconsciously said to the student: "This 
academic foundation is your education; it is of prime importance, it has nothing to 
do with teaching, it is what you want for life, it will serve you if you proceed to col- 
lege or professional school; as a teacher-preparing agency we are obliged to hang in 
your belt certain tools that will get you a license and may be useful if you teach, but 
they are not big enough to be in the way if you do not, and an educated person ought 
to have them anyhow." Thus its very endeavors to meet more satisfactorily its pro- 
fessional purpose by strengthening the academic foundation haye created in the nor- 
mal school a divided aim which it has not known how to unify, and of which the 
various other centrifugal tendencies already enumerated have taken full advantage. 

In its effect upon the institution itself this situation has been positively disastrous. 
With the emphatic division of subjects into academic and professional groups came 
naturally a corresponding division of the staff. Teachers of educational subjects, 
including the practice-school director and supervisors, should be the core of the in- 
stitution; distinct from them are the academic instructors, who generally will have 
nothing to do with the practice school or its works. In members of the academic 
staff, pride of subject, and often of better training, has bred not a little scorn (car- 
ried over, perhaps, from the universities from whence they came) for the department 
of "pedagogy" and the ill-paid supervisors of the training school. At any rate, these 
academic instructors have rarely been selected for their knowledge of how to teach 
young children; their interests and sympathies are elsewhere, and the organization 
of the school has usually failed to exact of them responsibility for this phase of their 
duty. 

In some normal schools, not in Missouri, the faculty is split from top to bottom 
on this line, and even in Missouri, with the sole exception of Springfield, the cleavage 



78 PURPOSE OF A NORMAL SCHOOL 

Is apparent. The inevitable, tendency of such division of sympathy and purpose is to 
reproduce itself in the mind of the student. His strictly educational courses lack con- 
viction because they lack relation, and fail of the illustrative and cumulative force 
latent in the so-called "content" subjects; the latter, in turn, conceived as ends in 
themselves for "general education," terminate often in a series of blind alleys whence 
the student neither gets further nor sees how his achievement affects his main purpose. 

g. NOEMAL SCHOOLS SHOULD TRAIN TEACHERS 

It is the judgment of the authors of this report that institutions established by the 
state to prepare teachers as public servants for its schools should make that business 
their sole purpose and concern. The character of such preparation is a question of ad- 
ministrative knowledge and policy. It will depend upon the amount of financial sup- 
port available, and will be modified by the varying need for teachers in the state and 
by the rewards offered in the communities to be served. But with their method and 
specific goal thus defined, no consideration whatever should divert such schools from 
their task. 

The grounds for this conclusion are simple and obvious. The question is one of 
institutional economy. Each school has a certain amount of energy expressed in terms 
of its annual appropriation plus its organization and permanent plant. With this en- 
ergy it confronts a definite and difficult task contemplated in the statute, 1 namely, 
with the help of four similar schools and of the university, to place a competent teacher 
in every teaching position in the state. This is a task with which these six schools have 
scarcely begun to cope. It is a task so great that large and important portions of it 
have temporarily to be farmed out, as in the inevitable allotment for the present of 
the teachers of the large cities to the city training schools, and of rural teachers to the 
high school training classes. Hitherto the schools have trained a few teachers thor- 
oughly, and have given a meagre smattering to a vast number. Even the few have 
received a generalized training which will not be tolerable longer if the reasonable 
demands of educated communities are to be met in Missouri as they are already met 
in some other states. There is an overwhelming need for more prolonged and more 
intensive training, extended to include as many as can be reached. In the face of this 
heavy obligation which the state lays upon the normal schools, it is difficult to jus- 
tify the proposal of any school, say of Cape Girardeau, to use its share of the all too 
scanty training funds to develop a local university, This means, as indicated in the 
prospectus already quoted, to relegate its training of teachers to an inconspicuous 
department ; to promote the other phases of collegiate work for their own sake and 
not alone as they produce better teachers; to fill classes, as college classes are BOW 
filled, with some who will teach, some who will farm, some who will be politicians, 

1 The Revised Statutes of 1909 declare that '''the course of instruction in each normal school shall be confined to 
such subjects in the sciences and arts as are usually taught in normal schools and necessary to Qualify the stu- 
dents to become competent teachers in the public schools." See Chap. 106, Art. 14, Sect. 11071. An Act of 1919 ex- 
tends this to include ** such subjects in the arts and sciences as are usually taught in teachers' colleges, normal 
schools or schools of education." Sect. 11075. 



GENERAL FUNCTION 79 

and many who have no specific purpose; in other words, to sacrifice the enormous 
advantage of momentum and morale that inheres in a single fine idea well worked 
out, for a round of inevitable mediocrity. For the school has at best wholly insuffi- 
cient funds for its present logical purpose the preparation of a competent teacher 
for every position in its district. To take over other projects, as these are conceived 
in modern education, is not only to fail in its proper task but to fail altogether. 

The case of Cape Girardeau is especially interesting, inasmuch as for many years 
both regents and administration have made every effort to realize this "larger" 
notion. Elaborate advanced "college" curricula, special scholarships "for graduates 
from other colleges," and an enthusiastic literature have all pushed the idea. But only 
a single graduate has as yet (1917) gone out from such courses; the school is still 
as solely a normal school as is any of the other four. And with good reason : Cape 
Girardeau has taken pride in being a good school, and both teachers and students 
have dimly perceived that it was impossible to be a good normal school and a "great 
college" on the same appropriation. There is doubtless truth in the claim that, as 
college attendance is in great part local, more southeast Missourians would go to col- 
leo-e if they had one nearby. But it is just as true that a good normal school is a pro- 
fessional school throughout and cannot be an arts college; if it wishes to conduct 
a college that is self-respecting, it must have double funds, separate classes, another 
faculty selected for that purpose, and so on. The combination is not a happy one in 
any place where it is now on trial, and the logic both of theory and experience is 
against it. The college agitation at Cape Girardeau has probably done good rather 
than harm; some public interest has been aroused, and a college foundation may 
some time seize the imagination of the wealthy men of that region or be developed 
from the local high school by way of a junior college as elsewhere in Missouri ; but 
the obvious way to help in bringing about this result is for the present institution to 
discharge its own peculiar task well, and to fix its ambitions on becoming the best 
purely professional training school for teachers in the Middle West. 

Cape Girardeau is an excellent illustration of a school appropriated body and soul 
by the local community in the hope of making it the engine of local ambitions. The 
town and county bought the school in the first place, and can scarcely be blamed 
for owning it now. Fortunately state control of the funds, by forcing it into com- 
parison with the other schools, still determines its general line of action, but it can 
probably never reach its maximum power until it acquires a controlling board dis- 
entangled from local concerns and sympathetic with its proper purpose. Reimburse- 
ment of this and the other counties for their original outlay would be a small price 
to pay as compared with the benefit of independent management, 

OBSTACLES TO PROFESSIONAL TRAINING ARE DISAPPEARING 

Other obstacles to an exclusive and intensive professional development in normal 
schools are happily vanishing. Secondary work, to which the normal schools have hith- 



80 PURPOSE OF A NORMAL SCHOOL 

erto of necessity been tied, seems destined early to disappear from them. The phe- 
nomenal increase in high school facilities has brought secondary education within the 
possible reach of nearly every student, 1 and the higher institution owes it to the lower 
to turn back every pupil of high school age who can attend a local or neighboring 
school before coming to the normal school. Many of these country high schools have 
large contingents who come in for the week from the surrounding territory. Especially 
where training classes are installed, every consideration appears to favor the develop- 
ment of local training centres for secondary work. Mature persons, for whom the high 
school makes unsatisfactory provision, should be given opportunities elsewhere* 2 

The question of relation with other higher institutions is likewise being disposed of 
successfully. As this problem has existed, however, an important distinction should be 
made clear. It is one thing for those who have taken a strictly professional course and 
who expect to give themselves seriously to teaching to urge that they be allowed to 
continue their preparation in other institutions without loss of credit; it is quite 
another thing for persons who have no such intention to demand that the normal 
school give them a general education that will see them into college and professional 
school. For the first group adjustment has already been accomplished. Two-year 
graduates of the normal school may enter the School of Education at the university 
without serious loss of credit, and the recent conference arrangement between nor- 
mal schools and university provides that students doing four years of standard work 
at a normal school may be admitted to graduate work in education at the univer- 
sity. The second group should be dealt with drastically, as the institution values its 
professional integrity. If elementary and high school instruction in this country is 
ever to be cleared of its traditionally random and trivial reputation, training agen- 
cies must insist on a curriculum so specific in character as to make its choice a fateful 
step in an individual's career. There will doubtless always be quondam teachers who 
fail and practise law, just as there are quondam physicians who fail and sell insurance, 
but it is intolerable for an honest training school so to relax its administration and 
enfeeble its courses as to put the transient at ease. Every normal school student should 
feel behind him a full tide of pressure from every quarter urging him to teach and to 
do nothing else, and he should contribute the impetus of his own clear decision to the 
general impulse. 

UNITY OF AIM INCREASING 

Finally, in the professional training itself there are discernible strong tendencies 
making for unity. The present schism in staff and curriculum was the result, at first, 
of the difficulty of securing competent teachers of academic subjects who possessed 
likewise a thorough training in education and successful experience in teaching chil- 
dren and youth. This is still an unusual combination, but, thanks to rapid growth of 
schools of education and to improved product in the normal schools, it is becoming 

1 See page 297. a See pag-e 300. 



GENERAL FUNCTION 81 

less rare. In the case of the curriculum, the result seems to have been due partly to 
unsympathetic instructors, but more largely to a desire on all sides to swing as far as 
possible toward the collegiate idea and away from the earlier attitude. It is now evi- 
dent that this emphasis has been greatly overdone. The normal school that is true to 
itself rinds it impossible to be a college. A genuine professional purpose makes itself 
felt much further than the purely technical subjects; it governs the selection of mate- 
rial for every curriculum, it grips every course that is offered, and that in no perfunc- 
tory fashion as formerly, but with a clear, scientific conception of the ultimate aim 
in view. "With a mission like this, why waste time trying to be a college?" is the con- 
vincing retort of the modern training school. Again, if this clearer definition of aim 
affects the attendance of men at the schools, let the situation be faced frankly. There 
is nothing to be gained for the profession of teaching by catering to a set of individ- 
uals who definitely intend to make their normal school course and a year's teaching 
a step to other work. Such a procedure cheapens the course for its proper candidates, 
and advertises most effectually that teaching is a makeshift occupation and prepara- 
tion therefor a farce. It is certainly most desirable to make the teaching profession at- 
tractive to men; but, given higher financial rewards, the surest way to convince them 
that there is something to it is to make it genuinely selective in respect to length and 
character of preparation. If they cannot be held on these terms, there is no help for it; 
any other condition is illusory and dishonest. 

A NOEMAL SCHOOLS OBLIGATION TO THE STATE 

The efficient teacher-training school of any grade is not to be measured by college, 
university, law, medical, or other liberal or professional institutions. These operate 
indirectly for the general good, but their direct aim is rather the intellectual or voca- 
tional benefit of the individual. The school for teachers, on the other hand, is the 
immediate instrument of the state for providing a given number and quality of public 
servants to discharge the main collective obligation of society to the next generation. 
Salaried staffs of physicians or lawyers supported by state or city for the whole people 
would imply a similar function in medical and law schools. Even so, the large number 
of teachers required, in proportion to the number of doctors and lawyers, would tend 
to elaborate and standardize the teacher-training agencies above other schools. Private 
and outside sources would not play so large a part, nor would such wide individual 
variation be acceptable in preparing five thousand as in furnishing three hundred. 

In view of this peculiar relation to the state it is evident that, to be effective, the 
training institution should have two characteristics in a preeminent degree. First, it 
should have a vivid purpose. Its sole aim being to train teachers, every item of its or- 
ganization should contribute either to the final excellence of its product, or to the 
creation and maintenance of conditions in its region that will make its product most 
successful. Irrelevant work that can be done elsewhere should be discontinued as soon 
as possible; bogus or uncertain candidates should be rejected; diversions of aim, how- 



83 PURPOSE OF A NORMAL 'SCHOOL 

ever attractive, should be avoided. The school should do one thing and do it mightily. 
In the second place, it should be wholly responsive. First and last it serves the state 
and not individuals; as an efficient instrument it must be sensitive to control. New 
types or altered numbers of teachers, fresh courses to be added, higher standards to 
be set, all of these should find the training school prepared for continual and auto- 
matic readjustment. The informed and authorized directors of the state's educational 
policy and the state should obviously have such directors should not find them- 
selves helpless because of institutional conservatism, opposition of alumni, or local en- 
tanglements. To ensure this, the school clearly should not be entrusted to an irrespon- 
sible head for personal exploitation; the measure of excellence in administration should 
be a quiet and rapid accommodation to the changing demands of the state's educa- 
tional authority. The loyalty of alumni should be won, not for persons or places, but 
for the skill with which the school does its work and for its flexible adaptation to its 
duties ; the head of an institution who, by personal appeal to numerous or powerful 
graduates, seeks to swing his own policy at all costs is abusing his ti*ust. Finally, to be 
responsive, the school must be free from local pressure and interference. The state as 
a whole invariably wants for itself better things, and defines those wants more wisely 
than can be the case in any but highly developed urban districts. To tie a school 
down to the limited vision of a small area is to deprive the community of that margin 
of superiority which the whole state has achieved and formulated. 



B. SCOPE OF ORGANIZATION 

The successful administration of a school for the preparation of teachers depends 
upon a precise definition of the ground it is to cover. The total field is very exten- 
sive, and with the development of modern educational requirements, presupposes a 
multitude of curricula and a wealth of equipment unimagined at an earlier period. 
A historical survey is essential, 

1. HISTORICAL VIEW 

The plan of operations in the early Missouri normal schools is nowhere better in- 
dicated than in the following paragraphs from the Kirks ville catalogue of 1876, under 
the caption "Professional Department:" 

"The Fifst Year's Work embraces: 'How to Maintain Vigorous Health,' 4 How 
to Study," 'How to Recite,' 'How to Organize and Govern a Country School,' 
and 'How to Teach the Common Branches."' The elevation of country schools is 
the grandest work of the age and is the peculiar mission of the Normal School* 
** The Second Year's Work includes: 'Methods of Culture,' 'Practice Teaching,* 
and 'Graded Schools.' Methods of culture are based on an oral course in men- 
tal philosophy. Educational principles are evolved, and these are made the basis 
of the art of teaching. Teachers are fitted to take charge of primary and gram- 
mar school departments of graded schools, and of the best country schools. 



SCOPE OF ORGANIZATION 83 

" The Third Year is devoted to the thorough study of Psychology and methods 
of cultivating every power of the soul. While good use is made of the best books 
on mental and moral philosophy, much of the instruction is necessarily oral. It is 
left for the future to produce works on these subjects prepared from the educa- 
tional standpoint. The value of the third year's work to student teachers cannot 
be estimated. It opens up to the student a new world, and revolutionizes his mode 
of thought. Here is laid the solid foundation for the science of education, and 
for artistic teaching. Teachers are prepared to work in graded and high schools. 

" The Work of the Fourth Year is directed to fitting teachers for the best 
positions, such as principals, assistants, professors, and county superintendents. 
The teachers of this grade are prepared to discuss philosophically the great edu- 
cational questions. The history of education, the philosophy of education, the 
graded and high school work, the superintendency and the institute work, en- 
gage special attention." 1 

The interesting feature of this prospectus is the fidelity with which the scheme 
reflects the situation then existing: promotion is the fundamental idea, and consists 
in mounting the educational ladder from the rural school to the graded town school, 
thence to the high school and superintendency, to be followed by "institute" or normal 
school work; for such rise in the scale the normal school course Is intended to prepare 
year by year. One grade of teaching with a little added study constitutes suitable 
preparation for the next; the thought of each kind of work as a goal in itself, worthy 
of extended and special preparation and of equal dignity with any other, does not 
occur. For the rural teacher the time when he shall become a "principal, professor, 
or county superintendent" is the zenith of desire; when at the summit he may doubt- 
less aspire higher. This conception of promotion was the outcome partly of primitive 
educational economics, partly of a meagre knowledge of teaching, and is yielding 
but slowly as reward increases and professional preparation develops. Altho the old 
notion still governs much of our practice, we are to-day nearer the time when, with a 
prolonged initial preparation, a skilful teacher may look forward to recognition and 
promotion within the field of service where he did his first teaching. 

EARLY WORK CHIEFLY FOR ELEMENTARY TEACHERS 

Candidates for the two advanced years of the early curriculum given above were 
few, and the normal schools soon found that their chief work was to be with short- 
term students in search of the little learning that would enable them to obtain the 
low grade certificates required by law. In 1878 President Baldwin of Kirksville re- 
ported "over forty classes daily in the elementary " first two years "and but ten in the 
advanced course." 2 "A number attend but one or two terms; most remain from one 
to two years." 3 So, too, at Cape Girardeau in 188$: "Much the larger part of the 
normal work is necessarily devoted to the elementary course."* The state superin- 
tendent interpreted the situation exactly when he declared : 

1 Catalogue, KirTcsmlle, 1876, page 22. 

2 State Report, 1878, page 217. * Ibid., 1874* page 45. * Ibid., 1882, page 169. 



84 PURPOSE OF A NORMAL SCHOOL 

"It must be borne in mind that the chief business of our normal schools is to fit 
teachers for the common primary and grammar schools of the state. We can from 
the office of Superintendent of Public Schools furnish at almost any time the 
applications of as many qualified teachers as are needed for all the public high 
schools in the state, thoseof St. Louis alone excepted. Our common district schools 
in the country are suffering for the want of improved teachers. It is the manifest 
duty of our normal schools to aim at the supply of this demand. Then we must 
arrange in such a manner, if possible, as to allow this partially fitted teacher, 
after a brief term of practice, to return to the normal and increase his stock of 
teaching material by another term of study." 1 

The normal schools took up this task with loyalty and energy. While endeavor- 
ing to maintain standards by selective examinations for promotion and graduation, 
the institutions became genuine evangelistic centres sending into the highways for all 
who could be persuaded to come in. "However advanced, or however backward, stu- 
dents will be received and assigned to such classes as they are prepared to enter." 3 
" The professional course is arranged to meet the wants of the most advanced stu- 
dents as well as those least advanced." 3 "Come for a year if possible; if not, a single 
term will be of great value. While only brave, determined teachers will graduate, all 
will be greatly benefited," " Nearly all our students are from the rural districts and 
about nine tenths of them pay their own expenses chiefly by teaching in the public 
schools of the state. The institution is organized and conducted with special reference 
to this class of students." 4 Such expressions abound in the catalogues. 

The gospel was preached directly also. Joseph Baldwin at Kirks ville records: "Each 
member of the regular faculty aims to spend all vacations in institute work. During 
the year I attended twenty institutes and besides gave a considerable number of edu- 
cational lectures traveling over six thousand miles. Professor Greenwood did nearly 
as much. For the most part we paid our own traveling expenses. 5 ' 5 James Johonnot 
from New York State, the second president at Warrensburg, rebelled at this, claim- 
ing that teachers needed the summer vacation for recuperation and further study; 6 
but he remained only a short time. His successor, George L. Osborne, and all his fac- 
ulty, were as devoted apostles to the rural teacher as was Baldwin. The same spirit pre- 
vailed also at Cape Girardeau, where, as late as 1895, President Vandiver declared 
that "any teacher who draws a reasonable salary from the state during ten months 
of the year should be willing to spend two or three weeks of the vacation in bringing 
the cause of education before the people and showing them the advantages of the nor- 
mal school."" 7 It was undoubtedly the Baldwin-Osborne energy that Missouri needed 
at this time, and a great debt is due these whole-hearted workers among the rugged 
and capable but uninstructed youth of the state. 



1 State Report, 1871, page 18. 

2 Catalogue, Kirk&uille, 1878-74, page 32. 8 Ibid., page 15. * Ibid., 1879, page 21. 
c State Report, 1872, page 166. 6 Ibid., 1873, page 122. 7 Ibid,, 1895, page 90. 



SCOPE OF ORGANIZATION 85 

OF HlGH SCHOOL TEACHERS 

Meanwhile preparation for advanced positions was by no means forgotten. As was 
seen above in tlie Kirksville prospectus, the students and graduates of the last two 
years were intended to become high school teachers or administrative officers, and 
this part of the school's plan receives frequent mention in the reports and catalogues. 
" While we labor to fit our graduates for teaching in graded and high schools, our 
principal efforts are directed to preparing teachers for the common schools of the 
state." * " It has been found necessary to organize classes in Greek to meet the wants 
of those preparing to teach in High Schools." 2 "'The additional training offered in the 
advanced section is intended to qualify the full course graduate for teaching in graded 
and high schools. Our judgment in this respect is fully confirmed by the successful 
work now being done by graduates." 3 "The classification, gradation, and manage- 
ment of graded schools is given special attention that teachers may be fitted for the 
best positions as principals, assistants, and superintendents. 5 ' 4 The state superintend- 
ent in 1871 found the tendency to do advanced work at the outset very strong. He 
says: "The Board of Regents occupies an unenviable position midway between the 
praiseworthy ambition of instructors on the one hand, and the clamor of the people 
for trained teachers on the other. The instructor, of course, prefers to turn out a fin- 
ished job and is inclined to retain the pupil until he becomes fitted for a thorough 
high school teacher. No one can doubt that the highest possible amount of personal 
culture is desirable, even in the teacher of the primary school. But the people cannot 
wait long for something a little better than that which they now have." 5 

NORMAL SCHOOLS AND HIGH SCHOOLS 

It will be worth while to digress for a moment at this point and note how second- 
ary education in Missouri was chiefly built up a consideration that may throw light 
on the relations existing between the normal schools and the high schools. In 1870 
the number of tax-supported schools equipped to prepare students for the university, 
even with the low requirements of that period, was certainly fewer than ten, and these 
were in the chief centres of population. 6 In the same year, however, the county super- 
intendents report sixty-seven "high schools," of which doubtless a good specimen is 
described by the superintendent at Brookfield in Linn County a year or so later. He 
says: "In the higher department we have classes in algebra, geometry, physical geog- 
raphy, and Latin. I have as yet seen nothing in the school law that provides for the 
instruction of classes in those higher branches of study in our public schools. The pol- 
icy may be questionable of taxing the public for the purpose of giving an academic 
education to the few who may wish to avail themselves of it. At present our school is 
attracting numerous pupils from other districts, and it has already become an insti- 

1 State Keport, 1874, page 45 (Kirksville), * Catalogue, KirJcsvUle, 1874-75, page 26, 
8 State Report, 1894, page 202 ( Warrensburg). * Catalogue, KirTcsvitte, 1862, page 56. 

6 State Xlepwt, 1871, page 18. 6 2Md., 1873, pa&e 28. 



86 PURPOSE OF A NORMAL SCHOOL 

tution of which our citizens may be truly proud." 1 This is the situation in a nutshell: 
an intelligent, ambitious community, and a good grammar school teacher who had 
studied Latin; tentative beginnings without warrant in law; pride in the prestige 
secured in the surrounding region, and satisfaction in the tuition fees from outside 
pupils. In similar and smaller communities it seems probable that very many begin- 
nings were made by enterprising teachers who could give instruction in the subjects 
requisite for a teaching certificate. Such centres as could supply this instruction be- 
came training schools for the whole region roundabout, 2 and these incipient normal 
schools protuberances, as it were, on the elementary schools beneath grew and 
finally took independent shape in one, two, or three year high schools. In the East the 
high schools were generally converted academies or were established fully formed on 
that model; in Missouri the typical high school emerged gradually from the vigor- 
ous elementary school. 

It is evident from the nature of this development that such high schools as these, 
in so far as they were related to any higher institution, had their dealings with the 
normal schools where their teachers were prepared and to which many of their stu- 
dents went directly. As their advanced work became an established feature, the best 
of the elementary teachers were assigned to it; in fact, down to a late date the small 
high schools taught little else in their first year than grammar school subjects. 3 The 
university, on the other hand, when it began to be conscious of the importance of high 
schools as feeders, took formal account only of those large schools that could prepare 
students for it. Some influence in behalf of the university was doubtless exerted by 
teachers in small schools who had attended the sub-collegiate training department 
that existed during this early period at the university, but these must have been 
quickly outnumbered by teachers sent out from the normal schools. 

It can be readily understood, therefore, that the normal schools from their earliest 
moments, knowing of these scattered efforts to develop high school departments out 
of the elementary school, and aware of the intimate and natural relation that such 
efforts must bear to themselves rather than to the university, should consider it a 
part of their business to train these teachers, who at that time could really be trained 
nowhere else. In 1890, twenty years after our previous estimate, twenty-seven four- 
year high schools are reported, together with thirty-eight three-year and sixty-five 
two-year schools;* no reference is made to the probably large number of elementary 
school centres where less than two years of high school work was attempted. By far 
the greater portion of this short course work was certainly done by teachers who, if 
trained at all, had graduated from the normal schools or had attended them; the rela- 
tive proportions may be judged fairly enough from the present situation, when the 
normal schools are responsible for training forty-six per cent of the teachers in first 
class high schools outside of St. Louis and Kansas City; seventy-three per cent in sec- 
ond and third class schools; and seventy-six per cent in wholly unapproved schools. 

1 State Report, 1873, page 167. 2 Ibid., 1871, page 17. 8 Ibid., 1900, page 27. * Ibid., 1889, page 11. 



SCOPE OF ORGANIZATION 87 

With such an overwhelming personal interest and concern in these smaller high 
schools as is shown by the above figures, it would have been indefensible for the nor- 
mal schools not to employ every means at their disposal to strengthen these teachers 
as much as possible. The same thing may be said of the smaller principalships and 
superintendences. 1 Many a normal school graduate has succeeded as a teacher, and 
has stepped ahead into an administrative position, not because he had the ideal train- 
ing for that position, but because there was no one with better training who would 
compete with him at that level. He felt at home in the normal school and would 
return thither for his further education ; courses that would help him were the natural 
sequel, and under the circumstances cannot be fairly criticised. 

HIGH SCHOOLS AND UNIVERSITY 

As the normal school's sphere of influence developed upward with the rapid growth 
of the high school system in the manner above described, the university was almost 
as rapidly extending its own territory. For accredited schools, inter-university and 
associational agreements determined certain standards of qualification for instructors 
which the normal schools could not meet; unaccredited schools desiring eventual recog- 
nition sought to reach the university standard, to the prejudice of normal-trained 
teachers, and it became evident that if the normal schools were to hold what they 
had come to consider their own, an entire readjustment must be made. The agitation 
for this readjustment has filled the years since 1900 and deserves special notice. 

READJUSTMENT OF NOKMAL SCHOOLS FOE HIGHER INSTRUCTION 

After disposing of their elementary or "sub-normal" work, the normal schools, in 
1904, took the first radical step in raising their curriculum from the previous four-year 
high school level. It was mutually agreed to organize their work on an eighteen-unit 
basis, and to allow a credit of ten of these units for a four-year high school course, 
thus making it necessary for a high school graduate to complete eight units, or regu- 
larly two years of work, for a diploma and a professional degree. This brought the 
last two years of the normal school parallel with the first two years of the college or 
university, and left a gap between normal and elementary school that was variously 
bridged. In the same year the University of Missouri organized its School of Education, 
primarily for the training of high school teachers and supervisors, and the normal 
schools at once announced theij* proposed competition by offering to give the degree 
of A,B. 2 The immediate motive for this action is said to have been the failure of 
negotiations for the acceptance of normal school credits by the university. That it 

1 Sixty-nine per cent of the superintendents in towns having first class high schools in 1915 had attended Missouri 
state normal schools, In second and third class high school districts eighty-five per cent had attended normal 
schools. Among the latter are counted the principals of the schools where there were no superintendents. See 
page 376, note 4, 

2 All catalogues, 1904. At Warrensburg this proposal was withdrawn in 1906, but was introduced again in 1907. Cape 
Girardeau had offered the A.B. degree since 1902. 



88 PURPOSE OF A NORMAL SCHOOL 

had been in mind for some time for other reasons, however, is clear from the statement 
in the report from Cape Girardeau to the State Superintendent in 1901: "The nor- 
mal schools must offer a full college education. They must reach that standard grad- 
ually, but the purpose should be plainly stated to make them in a few years normal 
colleges." 511 The Kirks ville catalogue of 1903 discusses the question as follows: "The 
normal school finds itself compelled to give other and higher courses. For the past two 
years there has been a constant and increasing demand for graduate (i.e. third-year) 
courses. At this time thirty persons holding diplomas of normal schools and col- 
leges are working in our various graduate classes. Twenty-five of these are graduates 
of our own four-year (Le. two-year college) courses. They claim that the instruction 
which they can get here is more concrete and better adapted to their purposes than 
the instruction which they can get elsewhere." 2 

All of this, together with the formal establishment of a full college curriculum in 
1904, would seem to indicate a considerable call for advanced work. Yet in spite of 
the "demand," it was not until 1907 that Kirks ville first succeeded in graduating a 
single student from this course, and one more was given the degree in 1908 after 
graduation from another institution; none appeared in 1909. Eight years (190412) 
were required to give nineteen students the four-year degree;, even of the "thirty 
persons in our various graduate classes" reported in 1908, only four appear to have 
taken the three-year diploma in that year. Cape Girardeau did somewhat better, grad- 
uating twenty-seven in all by 1912, and thirty-six since that time (1913-17). Kirks- 
ville graduated one hundred forty-four from 1912 to 1917. 3 

RESULTS OF REORGANIZATION 

In general it may be said that the schools have been able to provide but a minimum 
of genuinely advanced work for four-year graduates, most of their courses being neces- 
sarily taken with freshmen and sophomores and some even with secondary students. 
Where advanced work was offered, the teachers in charge, while generally capable, have 
not had the training reasonably expected of competent directors of junior and senior 
college work, and have had almost their whole experience with secondary or early col- 

1 State Report, 1901, page 63. 2 Catalogue, KirTcsvitte, 1908, page 12. 

8 The movement for granting bachelor's degrees has been confined, largely to Cape Girardeau and Kirksville. War- 
rensburg has participated, but to a smaller degree in proportion to her much larger enrolment. Fifteen had taken 
the degree at Warrensburg up to the time this study was begun in 1914; forty more had graduated by 1917, 
making fifty-five in all. Of these slightly over half came from the county where the school is located -all but three 
from the town of Warrensburg. Of the sixty- three graduates from Cape Girardeau, nine were from the faculty or 
their families, while twelve lived in remote parts of the district from which the university or some other good 
college is equally or more accessible; forty, or sixty-three per cent, including" the faculty group, lived in Cape 
Girardeau or close by, leaving ten, or sixteen per cent, to represent the accessible part of the district at large. One 
came from another state. At Kirksville eleven were regular members of the faculty at the time of taking the 
degree; eight of these received degrees without doing work in residence. Nearly three-fifths of the four-year 
degrees granted, 1907-16, were secured by residents of Adair County. The residence of later recipients was not pub- 
lished. Reports from the school indicate forty per cent of local graduates in 1917 and 1918. Maryville granted her 
first four-year degrees in 1917, when twelve students graduated; fifteen graduated in 1918. Of these twenty-seven 
students, eighteen lived in Maryville or close by, and three lived in adjoining counties ; two others were already col- 
lege graduates, and nine were paid various amounts by the school as assistants. Springfield graduated one in 1918 
and twenty-eight from 1915 to 1917. Ten of these lived in Springfield or the immediate neighborhood ; seven came 
from outside the district, and five were regularly employed members of the teaching staff. 



SCOPE OF ORGANIZATION 89 

lege classes. Thus it has resulted that graduation from a four-year course has been 
merely a matter of amassing a sufficient number of elementary credits of an almost 
unrestricted variety, a practice disapproved by all reputable colleges, instead of 
representing definite progress in sequence thru an organized curriculum which is re- 
quired by good collegiate procedure. A third characteristic calculated to cheapen these 
courses has been the pace at which they have been taken. Cape Girardeau, running 
nominally on a schedule of fifteen credit hours per week, has permitted an actual 
median of seventeen hours for the collegiate student body with still more for a very 
large proportion, and in addition has allowed a differential bonus by which the two 
highest ratings earned respectively fifteen and thirty per cent more credit. At Kirks- 
ville this speeding-up has taken the extraordinary form of a private and arbitrary 
distribution of credit, based solely on the personal judgment of the head of the in- 
stitution. 1 

In view of these conditions, it is not surprising that the University of Missouri 
should decline to accept hour for hour the work of the degree courses in these in- 
stitutions until some arrangement for acceptable standards of work could be made. 
Since this study began, such an arrangement has been achieved, and the conference 
agreement of June 2, 1916, stipulates these standards and provides for full mutual 
recognition of credit. It now remains to be seen to what extent the normal schools can 
meet university standards for advanced collegiate work on their present appropria- 
tions and at the same time provide satisfactorily for the secondary and junior college 
work that is expected of them. The large increases in the one hundred twenty hour 
classes in 1917 and 1918 are admittedly due to the new arrangement. Fairness to 
their students should therefore inspire the schools to enforce their revised standards 
to the letter. 

At the present time, as in their early careers, the Missouri normal schools regard 
their efforts as properly catholic in scope and as destined to comprise the preparation 
of every sort of teacher "from the highest to the lowest." The idea is clearly stated 
in one of the catalogues for 1916: "The function of the normal school is to pre- 
pare efficient teachers for all grades and classes of public schools including primary 
teachers, rural teachers, grade teachers, high school teachers, principals and superin- 
tendents. To limit it will of necessity make it less efficient at all points." 

2. HOW SHOULD THE SCOPE 0$ A NORMAL SCHQOI/S ACTIVITIES BE DETERMINED? 

For a professional institution already in operation the question of the ground to 
be covered is a double problem of resources and needs. This assumes, however, that 
the character of the proposed curricula and their cost are already fully understood. 
The first and fundamental question to be answered should be : What does it imply 
in number and quality of instructors, in equipment and organization, to give in a 
first class manner the kinds of training in view? and the next: How many of these 

1 See page 838. 



90 PURPOSE OF A NORMAL SCHOOL 

kinds of training can we undertake with the funds at our disposal ? and the third : 
Considering the types of teacher needed, and the other agencies supplying them, in 
what direction, if at all, is it advisable for us, as experts in state education, to urge 
the extension of our facilities? The precedence which an institution actually gives 
these questions in regulating its operations is a very fair measure both of its sense of 
obligation to the state and of its right to be considered a good higher institution. 

" STANDARD"" INSTITUTIONS AND OTHEES 

It will, of course, be granted that past and, to some extent, present conditions in 
raany localities interfere seriously with the normal school that would do standard 
work; the need is often such that apparently the only justification for a school's ex- 
istence is for it to spread itself out over the whole field, and help every teacher who 
applies to be a little better than he was before. Informal efforts of this kind are desira- 
ble and necessary; with reading circles, correspondence work, and other loosely organ- 
ized schemes for self-improvement they have a well-earned place. The trouble conies 
when such a Chautauqua-like institution loses its power of self-recognition, and an- 
nounces that its all-inclusive achievements represent the best that men know; when 
it seeks to match its uncritical attitude and promiscuous procedure, however well 
intended, with institutions that meet national standards. 

A certain school, for example, decides that with its funds it is justified in offering 
three standard curricula : one for teachers in grammar grades, another for teachers of 
intermediate grades, and the third for primary teachers. It maintains a faculty of in- 
structors especially trained and experienced in these departments; it pays them $500 
to $8000 a year, employs them fifteen hours per week, and provides opportunity with- 
out loss of salary for their occasional release for study. It discriminates in its admis- 
sions to the curriculum, selecting only those students who are well prepared; it re- 
quires continuous attendance upon instruction in fair-sked homogeneous groups thru 
a series of courses organized to give thorough training for specific positions. Such a 
school deserves to be called a "standard" institution, since it is doing its work under 
conditions known to be excellent. Another school with the same amount of income 
offers to train teachers of every kind. It has a staff some members of which receive fair 
salaries, but which includes many of its own recent graduates and even advanced stu- 
dents who are teaching for credit at low figures. The educational equipment of most 
of these instructors is " general; " in many cases their only experience is that of super- 
intendent in a small town. Shifts from one department to another are not uncom- 
mon. Teachers must instruct for twenty- five periods per week, in the summer session 
sometimes for thirty-five, and take time off at their own expense, if not at their own 
risk. There is no specific entrance requirement for students except a general/'sizing- 
up" at the office; students, if sufficiently plausible, may take most of their high school 
work while going thru the "college." To accommodate one-term students, courses are 
organized in twelve-week or even six- week fractions, which may be taken topsy-turvy, 



SCOPE OF ORGANIZATION 91 

whenever students feel like coming. Nearly everything is elective; the same classes 
admit alike those who will teach in primary, those who will teach in intermediate, and 
those who will teach in grammar grades, as well as others who will seek high school 
positions or principalships, and still others who are piecing together four years of such 
courses for an "A.B." Secondary and collegiate students recite together; as many 
courses as possible are therefore "general." 1 ' 1 Such courses are likewise justified on the 
theory that no one can tell until after two or more years of this treatment just what 
it has fitted him for. Experience proves that he takes the highest paid job of any kind 
that turns up ? regardless of his "training." To cap the climax, this school has the 
courage to assert that its performance is as worthy as the best, and to demand equal 
recognition. 

These two examples illustrate a contrast in fundamental conceptions of education. 
Given the same amount of income, the first school is its own severest critic at every 
point, while the second criticises only those who attack it. The first asks always, "What 
is a suitable and adequate training for this position ?" and "Can we provide this with 
our resources?" The other enquires first, "Is there anything that any normal school or 
college gives that we do not offer?" and then declares, "Let us advertise it, and give 
as much of it as we must so far as this requires no additional facilities or expenditure." 
One is a genuine moral leader, limiting its program strictly to that wherein it can 
express the whole truth; the other is a popular and stiperficial educational exploiter. 

Hence, if there is virtue in doing a thing thoroughly well and a limit to legisla- 
tive appropriations, it is impossible to endorse the above quoted declaration that to 
"limit" a normal school in any way "will of necessity make it less efficient at all 
points." We justly view with increasing suspicion individuals and institutions that 
multiply their avowed aims while their resources remain the same; normal schools can 
be no exception. In every other form of human effort, to limit and concentrate is to 
strengthen and achieve. No better illustration of this could be found than the Spring- 
field school ; more than ninety-nine out of every one hundred enrolled there have re- 
ceived the strictly limited type of training in which the school is strongest. The prod- 
uct has been relatively sound because the bulk of the effort has been expended on the 
one thing that the school is best fitted to do. Universalists in speech, they have been 
for the most part Unitarians in practice. 

THE PRESENT POLICY OF MISSOURI NORMAL SCHOOLS PRESSURE OF LOCAL SITUATION 
The real explanation of the announced policy of these schools is complex, but is 
not difficult to determine. It is partly traditional. As already indicated, the earliest 
programs professed to fit for all positions successively. The schools found that their 
graduates, however slightly trained therefor, actually rose to high school and adminis- 
trative positions, and they sought to promote this with appropriate courses available 
by the way. These were frankly makeshifts to help a teacher climb, say 3 from the sev- 
enth grade to a high school position. The schools wisely made no pretence at an or- 



92 PURPOSE OF A NORMAL SCHOOL 

ganized curriculum to ensure a teacher fully competent in high school subjects, for 
their main stress was elsewhere; they simply did the best they could, and let the low 
salaries of the positions justify the inadequacies of preparation. But the "universal" 
tradition was started, and the leap from these incidental efforts to four-year college 
courses purporting to give an organized training for higher teachers in accordance 
with collegiate standards both of curriculum and administration, was made in the dark 
without knowledge of what was involved. 

EXAMPLE OF OTHEU INSTITUTIONS 

Again, the present attitude may be ascribed partly, in some institutions at least, to 
a sort of quasi-cornpulsion. It is not easy, in dealing with an undiscriminating public 
or a jealous local board, when sister institutions in the same or in neighboring states 
are loudly advertising their A.B.'s and B.S.'s, to convince your constituency that such 
a course may be undesirable for you. The reproaches, too, from one's professional 
colleagues of disloyalty to the normal school "cause" in its "fight with the universi- 
ties" are often keen. Warrensburg, altho the largest school, has had until recently al- 
most no graduates above the second year of college work. It developed its regular cur- 
riculum intensively, and probably would have preferred to wait until longer curricula 
could be placed on a thoroughly sound financial basis. At Springfield and Mary ville 
this would possibly also be true, had not Kirksville and Cape Girardeau aggressively 
asserted the other policy. 

EXPANSION A MATTER OF PRIDE 

A third contributory motive appears in the following quotations : "It is impossible 
to prevent ambitious young teachers from working up from the elementary schools to 
the high schools. It is impossible for the normal schools to command the respect of 
teachers if their graduates are thus limited. 111 "If it were established and understood 
that our normal school graduates were not to be accepted as high school teachers nor 
considered eligible for small principalships, we should soon see none but the poorest 
talent presenting itself for entrance at the doors of these institutions. Strong people 
would go elsewhere."" 2 If we mistake not, what speaks here is an institutional pride 
that balks at the acknowledgment to its patrons that there is anything the institution 
cannot do for its students. In so far as this attitude is not one of mere self-aggran- 
dizement, the normal schools would seem to be the victims of conditions about thera 
conditions which in turn are fostered and aggravated by the policy of the schools. 
Promotion has filled the eye rather than fitness for a given position the future of the 
individual rather than the advantage of the school in which he is to teach. The eco- 
nomic situation and the certificate regulations have permitted this, it is true, but it 
is none the less deplorable that a student with a minimum of specific preparation for 
elementary work should be allowed, thru a series of years, to fill his pockets out of that 

1 State Report, 1901, page 53. 2 Ibid,, 1897, pagre 29. 



SCOPE OF ORGANIZATION 93 

job while he is seeking training for a high school position,, a principalship, or for busi- 
ness. The presence of this type of student has enlarged and flattered the institution, 
but it has placed it in a false light. Students ostensibly preparing for elementary 
work suddenly appear in something wholly different or leave the profession, and the 
normal school is directly responsible. An oft-repeated argument in Kirksville cata- 
logues in behalf of the four-year college course is that elementary schools need as 
well- trained teachers as the high schools a thesis that all sincere students of edu- 
cation have long endorsed. The subtlety of it in this case appears when it is seen that 
the school offers no three or four year curricula for elementary work, and that such 
graduates uniformly, and the two-year graduates usually or very often, go into small 
high schools or into principalships and superintendences, to the palpable satisfaction 
of the normal school authorities. Apparent enthusiasm for the downtrodden elemen- 
tary school thus eventuates in a college for high school teachers and superintendents. 
The almost inescapable danger here is a two- fold mediocrity: a skimped preparation 
for elementary teaching and a higher training that cannot be first class. The know- 
ledge of this fact is no critic's secret. Student opinion on the point could not be ex- 
haustively tested, but in the few cases both at Cape Girardeau and at Kirksville where 
opinions were secured, the students, altho in general loyal to the school, felt that its 
higher degrees were not desirable. Only one, a Kirksville graduate, felt resentful at 
having his A.B. degree from the normal school heavily discounted at the university, 
altho he admitted receiving credit at the normal school for five specified courses he 
had never taken. One is puzzled to see how u respect" for such training is an asset to 
any institution. "Strong people" certainly will go elsewhere under such circumstances, 
and only those will remain who fail to grasp the situation, or who by extravagant 
rewards of credit, as at Kirksville, are deluded into thinking they can save much time. 
On the other hand, we have innumerable instances throughout the country of normal 
schools that have set themselves to do a limited task well and which, precisely because 
of that fact, are plentifully provided with high grade students. Certain it is that the 
only sure way for an institution to deserve the respect even of its own graduates is to 
convince them of its integrity and provide them with a training, however limited, of 
which they need not be ashamed anywhere. 

PERSONAL EXPANSION 

There is, however, another phase of this motive, latent in many institutions and 
active wherever an ambitious and not over-scrupulous organizer finds a malleable 
board and a free field. The motto of this purpose is, "A big institution," behind which 
lurks the hoped-for inference, a A big president." The method is first to construct a 
"demand" and thereafter to expand the school to meet it. If skilfully undertaken^ a 
"demand" may be constructed in a few hours by putting into the mouths of several 
patrons or school boards cordial agreement with the far-sighted suggestions of the 
president, and presently the whole student body may be discovered by the same method 



94 PURPOSE OF A NORMAL SCHOOL 

to be clamorous for anew department or degree even the not one of them remains to 
take it. " Our students demand" or "Many letters from school boards urge" is a flexi- 
ble sort of evidence that needs seldom be produced. Of course such "appeals" are "irre- 
sistible" and " must be satisfied," the ultimate victims being students usually ignorant 
of any other institution and without means of judging the true worth of what they are 
getting, students who are flattered by being urged to stay on for "advanced" work. 
Nothing is easier than to impose on students in this fashion. The method followed is 
to suppress all criticism ; if the school gives a course, it is ipso facto the best course that 
can be given in that subject, and ranks with any course by the same name anywhere. 
In spite of meagre equipment and their own hesitation, teachers are led to regard it 
as a species of disloyalty to suggest to students that they can take advanced work more 
profitably at other places. Blind faith in the familiar institution becomes a shibboleth 
to young minds. The school literature is an instrument of blatant self-adulation or 
bombastic compliment: American schools are "considerably better than those in Eng- 
land, Prance, and Germany;" those in the region concerned are "as good as any to be 
found anywhere in the world;" the school itself is always a "great" school; its faculty 
"represents the training of many great universities," including the "University of 
Leipsic and University of Wurzburg;" whereas fewer than half of the teachers have 
even bachelor's degrees from a first-class institution, over a quarter having the ques- 
tionable degree of the institution itself. As for students, "graduates of eastern univer- 
sities come here to school" this on the strength of a local graduate who had been 
East to college and who, returning to his home in the school town for the summer, 
registered for a casual course that attracted him. A course in surveying tempts young 
men under the guise of "Engineering;" the first essays at animal husbandry parade as 
"Thremmatology;" while "Farm Machinery" from a textbook and expounded by a 
student just graduated from the school sounds as important and receives as much local 
credit as the course at the university given by trained and experienced men in an 
extensive laboratory. Meantime the doctrine of "sound scholarship," the "highest 
attainable standards," and so on, is set forth with great unction, while "Democracy 
in Education" glorifies, and perhaps grimly justifies, the whole. 

A decent regard for honesty and justice revolts at this. There is possibly no ob- 
jection to a stated supporting an institutional plaything for one individual if it 
wishes to do so, but to jeopardize the future of its young students by exposing them 
to continued misrepresentation is another matter, A student in a state-supported 
institution is entitled at any time to candid and accurate information with regard 
to the current value of the work that he is doing, both in individual courses and in 
his curriculum as a whole. The curse of the old private educational enterprises lay 
in the commercial interest felt by the institution in retaining the student as long as 
possible; state education is in a sorry plight if it duplicates the same vice and for 
a still more ignoble purpose. It should be the distinctive feature of a state system 
that, however much or little it can offer its citizens, it can at least give them reliable 



SCOPE OF ORGANIZATION 95 

and disinterested counsel. Its schools should make it their first duty to say : "The 
instruction that you need is given best at X; we offer it here for those who cannot 
go elsewhere, but we lack the proper facilities." They will then beget confidence when 
they say: "This other thing we do, so far as we know, as well as it is done anywhere." 
A student so counseled not only shapes his career successfully according to national 
standards, but has had from both state and institution a priceless lesson in downright 
intellectual honesty. 

SERVICE OF NORMAL SCHOOLS IN ENFORCING THE IDEA OF PROFESSIONAL TRAINING 

Finally, the normal schools have been moved by another consideration which goes 
far to justify their whole position. Their contention has been that "there can be no 
harmony or unity in the education of a teacher if his scholarship is received in a 
college where he is trained to be indifferent to, if not positively antagonistic to, the 
pedagogical training that he is expected to get in the normal school." 1 The same 
writer urges that as colleges and universities will not grant proper credit for work 
done in a normal school, "teachers must get their scholarship and their pedagogical 
training in the same school." The successful normal school director has seen intensive 
professional training for elementary teachers bear remarkable fruit ; he knows that the 
graduate of our best normal schools is capable of giving instruction that is amazingly 
superior to the teaching of the college graduate who is without professional training. 
He knows this to be due to the persistent conservatism of college and university with 
regard to scientific education. Therein it is impossible not to agree with him. With 
the same skilful selection of teachers, the same discriminating admission of students, 
the same careful construction and administration of its curricula, the same thorough 
testing and practical training of its candidates, that are now characteristic of the best 
training schools for elementary teachers in this country, the teachers college of the 
future will" abundantly justify its existence, and will usher, in the really professional 
secondary instructor. 

CRITICISM BY UNIVERSITIES PARTLY ILL-FOUNDED 

The past and present situation, however, deserves further analysis. The reluctance 
of higher institutions to accord full recognition to the work done in normal schools 
has been of a twofold character: In the first place, they have seriously questioned the 
right of the study of education to a place among other accepted subjects of scientific 
instruction and research; in the second place, they have questioned whether individ- 
ual normal schools were conducting that study in a fashion entitled to the credit of 
which the subject itself might be worthy. In so far as this hesitation has been sincere 
and not the result of prejudice or institutional feeling, it has been wholly proper* 
The first objection has borne with equal weight on departments of education within 
the colleges and universities themselves, and has not yet wholly disappeared. It has 

1 State Report, 1901, page 171, 



96 PURPOSE OF A NORMAL SCHOOL 

compelled the newcomer to fight for his place, and has thereby required him to refine 
and improve the organization of his subject in order to defend it against concentrated 
criticism. It has but repeated the history of every new claimant for academic approval, 
that, for example, of the study of science or history, or, more recently, sociology. In 
all essential respects, however, this fight for admission has now been won. The depart- 
ment or school of education has achieved freedom and dignity in an ever increasing 
number of higher institutions. Moreover, the work done by good normal schools shows 
marked similarity in spirit arid method to that performed in college and university 
centres. The ideals of the profession, and of professional training, as now set forth 
by the best representatives of both types of institution are virtually identical. 

The second objection, however productive of bitter and often justifiable resentment, 
was also inevitable. It should be remembered that at the date of the quotation cited 
above (1901), the Missouri normal schools were, by their own admission, little more 
than high schools; they admitted students at the age of fifteen practically from the 
elementary school; it was yet three years before their advanced curriculum was made 
even nominally to parallel lower class college work. Surely any wise college adminis- 
trator would think twice before allowing full value to untested transitional credit of 
this sort. Add to this the later administrative practices, such as those at Kirksville, 
that would admit astudent at thirteen, allowing him at fourteen to begin earning u col- 
lege" credit, and to keep " college" and high school work parallel for from two to five 
years, and any self-respecting college would reject the entire institution at once. 

It is true, however, that all along much excellent work has been done for which 
credit in other institutions could not be secured. The spectacle is instructive: six 
wholly autonomous state institutions doing to a certain extent the same work, each 
standing on its rights and dignity and keeping the others at bay for a dozen years, 
simply because there was no agency that could step in, investigate the trouble, and 
secure an understanding ! The institutional spirit of fifteen years ago was not the 
cooperative spirit of to-day. "The longest pole gets the persimmons'" was the univer- 
sity's reply to one normal school president when seeking an agreement, and general 
competition was the result. Under these circumstances, the normal schools took the 
surest way to forfeit the confidence of their more advanced rivals. Subject to no inspec- 
tion or critical review, they begged the question in the easiest manner by claiming 
to do everything, and thereby made a pedagogical blunder that retarded their cause 
and the reputation of professional training as much certainly as the conservatism of 
the university ever did. If, while agitating vigorously, they had first pushed for high, 
intensive excellence in their regular work, matching or surpassing therein the college 
when measured by its own standards, and had then slowly added what they could 
fully maintain, the past decade of their inter-institutional relations would have been 
totally different. Instead, the catalogues reverberated with proposals that every one 
knew had no basis either in suitable instructors or in necessary appropriations, to say 
nothing of students; meanwhile the change in policy and the new emphasis which 



SCOPE OF ORGANIZATION 97 

was attempted could not fail to Injure the relatively less advanced work which the 
schools were obliged to maintain. 

These efforts at expansion have been unfortunate for another reason. Normal 
schools, unlike law or medical schools,, profess to stand primarily for the processes of 
sound education in general, and to reveal by precept incorporated into practice the 
true morality and economy of mental growth; when a normal school or school of edu- 
cation sacrifices this honor, it abandons its most precious and characteristic trust. 

THE SCOPE OF AN INSTITUTION'S WORK SHOULD BE DETERMINED IN VIEW OF ALL THE FACTS 
If the above analysis is correct ; if the normal schools have too lightly undertaken 
a serious responsibility because others would not meet it properly, or because they 
themselves sought the prestige involved, or because they regarded it as their tra- 
ditional right, or because other normal schools were expanding, the inference is not 
that normal schools should not enlarge their scope. To be sure, none of these grounds, 
except possibly the first, can be considered valid. If training for high school teachers 
is not well given elsewhere, it is by all means the duty of the normal schools to agi- 
tate and, if necessary, to appeal for funds sufficient to enable them to do the work in 
a suitable manner themselves. 

There may be other valid grounds. Whether there are or not is the third problem 
that confronts a school, after it has determined what standard training is and what 
surplus funds, if any, it has for extension. These latter questions concern each school 
alone; but the problems of functional enlargement, restriction, or readjustment are 
matters that can be properly determined only in cooperation, as they depend wholly 
on the needs of the state viewed in the light of the performance of all of its agencies 
taken together. 

Cooperation of the sort here contemplated demands a definite, intelligent, and re- 
sponsible procedure. Here, for example, is a school that has never given a four-year 
degree, but has administered two-year curricula excellently. Shall the president, emu- 
lating the example of others, get together by hook or by crook a group of three or 
four students whom he can persuade to stay thru in order to give the school the mys- 
tic blessing of a "four-year class"? We have already seen the kind of fraud on the 
student that such an attempt may perpetrate. Or shall he be required to take his pro- 
posal before his colleagues, say a board consisting of the heads of normal schools and 
of the university school of education together with the state superintendent? Shall he 
be asked to show why his candidates would not be much better off, both as individ- 
uals and as eventual servants of the state, at another normal school already doing 
acceptable four-year work, or at the university? If, after prolonged and thorough in- 
vestigation by this group, it became plain that the university and four other insti- 
tutions with organized standard four-year curricula were unable to supply the de- 
mand, and that there was the prospect of substantial attendance on such work in the 
fifth school, this executive could have the support of tested and trustworthy evidence 



98 PURPOSE OF A NORMAL SCHOOL 

in asking funds to establish his new curriculum in a proper way. Anything short of 
such carefully considered action is a failure in educational planning. 

ORGANIZATION OF CRITICISM NEEDED 

There is no limit to which the continual joint expert study of this functional growth 
and readjustment should proceed. It is far more important than the unification of 
material administration thru a single board, altho undoubtedly it would be much 
facilitated thereby. The executive heads of these institutions are the staters selected 
agents for dealing with its teacher supply. The latter is a growing, shifting, never 
ending problem quite beyond the successful grasp of laymen. The logical and neces- 
sary thing is to require these gentlemen as a single body to regard the state's problem 
as their own in its entirety, and not, as at present, as a districted problem which each 
may dispose of at will. In this manner each president should become, in a way, presi- 
dent of the whole, and see his particular institution as part of the whole organism. 1 



1 See page 66. 



VI 
PERSONNEL OF THE MISSOURI NORMAL SCHOOLS 

A. TEACHERS 1 
AGE, SEX, AND PARENTAGE 

IN Its five normal schools the state maintains some two hundred instructors. Nearly 
one- half are women. Two-thirds are under forty years of age, the median age of the 
women thirty-three being some five years less than that of the men. About two- 
thirds also are of American parentage, and nearly one-half were born in Missouri. Of 
the men two- thirds came from agricultural, one-sixth from professional, and one-tenth 
from commercial families. Of the parents of the women one- third were engaged in 
trade, slightly less than one-third in agriculture, and one-fifth in professions. 

EDUCATIONAL EQUIPMENT 

Concerning the education and experience that may be determining elements in a 
teacher's success, only the more general facts, such as institutional attendance, de- 
grees, and years of various kinds of experience, are statistically measurable. These are, 
however, most suggestive. In the case of an occasional individual they may be mis- 
leading; some unschooled genius may tower in ability above a man with many de- 
grees. Nevertheless, other things being equal, twenty college graduates are practically 
certain to excel any similar group composed of those who have graduated from high 
school only. Moreover, such facts become increasingly trustworthy the larger the 
group. 

Remembering how home environment affects the choice of a profession, it is inter- 
esting to find that four-fifths of the men and about seven-tenths of the women who 
teach in the normal schools of Missouri come from families that include other teach- 
ers. 2 As the same thing is true, altho to a smaller degree, of the state university and 
college teachers, and also of prospective teachers now in the normal schools, 3 with 
the exception of Harris Teachers College at St. Louis, one appears to be dealing here 
with a distinct vocational characteristic, families that already include teachers are 
likely to provide others ; teachers in general represent families to which school affairs 
are more or less familiar. 

SECONDARY AND HIGHER TRAINING DEGREES 

Secondary education in one form or another has, of course, been completed by all 
normal school teachers. Two-thirds received their training in the public high schools; 
nearly one-sixth received their secondary training either wholly or in great part in 
academies or in the secondary departments of normal schools or of small colleges; and 
the remaining sixth experienced various combinations of such schools. 

1 For a description of the data upon which the statements in this section are based, see pages 401, 402. 

2 See page 419. a See page 432. 



100 PERSONNEL OF THE NORMAL SCHOOLS 

Higher education is recorded chiefly in the number, kind, and source of the degrees 
received. Twenty -nine per cent of the teachers have no four-year degrees, the propor- 
tion varying from fifteen per cent at Kirksville 1 to forty per cent at Springfield and 
Maryville. Of the teachers who lack degrees, one-fourth give no record of work be- 
yond the high school, somewhat more claim three or more years of such work, while 
nearly half claim two years or less. The departmental assignment of the teachers hav- 
ing no degree is of interest. More than half thirty-two out of fifty-eight were 
teachers of art, music, physical education, or commercial subjects. The lack of a de- 
gree in such cases is easily explained, altho perhaps its justification is not so simple. 
Those who instruct students of college grade should themselves have had college 
training. But seven teachers without degrees were teaching academic subjects, chiefly 
language; eleven 2 were engaged in supervision of practice teaching, and eight in giv- 
ing courses in education. 

This reflects a characteristic weakness of the normal schools. One would expect these 
schools to require, even for their teachers of arithmetic and grammar, at least as well- 
trained teachers as are demanded by good high schools. This indeed has been the 
tendency. But while the academic departments have been steadily strengthened bv 
better formal preparation, the professional and supervisory departments have been 
conducted more largely on the basis of experience unsupported by theoretical train- 
ing. Nor is it a question of elderly teachers inherited from an old regime;, the me- 
dian age of these deficient teachers is thirty-three. It is certainly unfortunate that 
eleven out of the fifteen teachers in all the schools who were responsible for the criti- 
cal task of directing the candidate^ first practical efforts in teaching, and that eight 
of the thirty-three teachers giving professional courses possessed an academic train- 
ing inferior to that of some of their students. These are the departments of all others 
where it would seem fitting for a normal school to lay stress upon something more 
than an empirical attitude toward " method." Supervisors of practice teaching should 
be among the best trained people on the staff, both in theory and in practice, if a 
normal school is to justify reasonable expectations, and instructors in professional 
courses should manifestly outrank all others in equipment and ability. Students 
seriously expecting to teach feel instinctively that practice courses constitute their 
most indispensable work; and the schools will not measure up to their responsibility 
until they place the most competent and best paid instructors in this department. 

As a justification for partly schooled instructors it is weakly urged that mere de- 
grees or years of attendance at institutions are no- proof of ability to train teachers, 
and individual cases have been effectively cited to support this contention. Such ar- 
gument is no refutation of the fact that a thorough education is an indispensable basis 

1 It should be explained, however, that Kirksville prpvides degrees of its own for many of its degreeless teachers 
while they are drawing full salary as instructors. In the faculty of 1915 six, or thirteen per cent, had received such 
degrees without resident work. Omitting these, twenty-eight per cent lack degrees about the same proportion as 
at Warrensburg and Cape Girardeau. 

2 Fourteen, if the Kirksville degrees above referred to be omitted. 



TEACHERS 101 

for success in any grade of professional instruction, and that education can be best 
ensured at good institutions. Further, the requirement of a degree is some safeguard 
against a lackadaisical habit of many teachers who are always professing to study > 
but who never carry their work to a successful conclusion. That these facts have been 
openly or tacitly recognized at the institutions themselves is shown by the steadily 
increasing emphasis upon a satisfactory institutional qualification for appointment. 

DEGREES CLASSIFIED 

The teachers who have degrees representing four or more years of study beyond 
the high school have been classified 1 to show not only the number of those holding the 
various degrees, but also, in a rough way, the quality of the degrees held. For this pur- 
pose use has been made of the classification of institutions formulated by Dr. K. C. 
Babcock for the United States Bureau of Education in 1911. 2 Whatever the merits 
or defects of this classification, it at least treats all schools measured by it alike, and 
the results secured by applying it, as has been done here, to the state university and to 
a good St. Louis high school, are of interest. Seventy-one per cent of all normal school 
teachers hold four-year bachelor's degrees, as compared with ninety-two per cent 
holding such degrees in the university and eighty-two per cent in the Soldan High 
School. Only thirty-nine per cent of the normal school teachers hold their bachelor's 
degrees from first class institutions as compared with seventy-four per cent at the 
university and sixty-five per cent at the Soldan High School. 

The situation in the individual schools may be traced at will; Cape Girardeau heads 
the list with forty-eight per cent of its staff equipped with first class bachelor's de- 
grees. If only the various kinds of degrees be considered, regardless of duplication, 
Maryville leads with eighty-three per cent of all degrees in classes one and two. Mary- 
ville also has the highest percentage of advanced degrees, all of them but one from 
first class institutions; yet in the proportion of the faculty having any degree it is 
low. Kirksville is lowest by this analysis, having sixty-nine per cent of all of its de- 
grees in the first two classes; its advanced degrees are all from high grade schools. 
In the proportion of first class degrees of all kinds the figures run from forty- two per 
cent at Springfield to seventy-five per cent at Cape Girardeau five per cent below 
the Soldan High School at St Louis! 

It may be urged that the quality of an institution is no certain guarantee of the 
quality of the individual who goes thru it, and in the case of any single individual this 
will be freely admitted. It is not true, nevertheless, that, other things being equal, fifty 
graduates of inferior institutions will represent a training that approaches that of fifty 

1 See page 420. 

* This is substantially the classification later adopted by the Association of American Universities. Class I includes 
institutions of such grade that their graduates would generally suffer no loss of time by transfer to admittedly 
standard institutions (Columbia, Harvard, Yale, etc.); Class II includes schools .whose average graduates would 
transfer to such institutions with the loss of part of a year; Class III indicates a loss of one full year, and Class IV 
of practically two years. Class V comprises all other schools and includes the four-year courses of the Missouri 
normal schools. 



102 PERSONNEL OF THE NORMAL SCHOOLS 

graduates of first class colleges. The low grade school, thru its inferior selection of ma- 
terial, its weaker faculty and equipment, and its looser tension of intellectual perform- 
ance, exercises an influence that only the exceptional student will overcome. The gradu- 
ates of such schools may perform a devoted and worthy work, but when the institutions 
so served place themselves in competition with other institutions, this point assumes 
importance. There can be but one conclusion respecting the normal schools in this 
regard: they are weak. 

GEOGRAPHY OF TRAINING 

Not only the rating but the location of the institutions that serve as a given 
school's intellectual progenitors is significant. There is a marked difference between 
the institution where, by inheritance, the limited ideas and attitudes of that partic- 
ular institution or locality prevail, and the school that invites and provides for a 
generous renewal and invigoration of its mental life by accessions from abroad. Cer- 
tain inferences on this point may be drawn from the facts before us. Including the 
four-year degrees from normal schools, fifty-five per cent of the bachelor's degrees 
held by normal school teachers were from Missouri schools, as were also over two- 
fifths of the advanced degrees. The university issued one-fourth of the first and nearly 
one-third of the second. 1 The women teachers are far behind the men in amount of 
graduate work done, and do a much larger share of it in Missouri. The individual 
schools vary greatly. Maryville has but one Missouri normal school degree, while 
nearly a third of the Kirksville bachelor's degrees are such. Most of the graduate 
degrees held at Maryville, also, were taken outside the state, while at Springfield 
they are largely from Missouri. It is perhaps noteworthy that at Kirksville and Cape 
Girardeau, the two schools at which competition with the university has been most 
in evidence, much of the graduate work of the instructors has been done at the uni- 
versity; at Kirksville this is true to the extent of sixty-four per cent. 

The institutions outside of Missouri most frequented by normal school teachers for 
various degrees were University of Chicago, Columbia University, Brown University, 
and the universities of Michigan, Indiana, Kansas, and Wisconsin. 2 

COMBINATIONS OF TRAINING 

Prom a purely institutional point of view the variety of mental background to be 
found in the faculty of a normal school appears in the combinations of training. A 
table 3 of these data unravels certain strands of influence in a suggestive manner. The 
mode one-third among women teachers includes normal school with college train- 
ing; while the mode among men teachers thirty per cent shows college and grad- 
uate work only. As the men are more frequently heads of departments, directors of 
training, and so forth, this largest single combination in their training is noteworthy, 

1 Half of the bachelor's degrees from Missouri schools came from the university and nearly one-fourth from the 
normal schools. 

2 See page 422. * See page 422, 



TEACHERS 103 

and indicates how closely the university and the normal schools have interacted. The 
table shows a further fact: whereas the university has developed a fairly homogeneous 
form of training for its teachers, the normal school corps is drawn from a wide series 
of combinations; seventy-four per cent of the university teachers have one sequence 
of educational experience, namely, high school, college, and graduate work, while the 
largest group of normal school instructors having the same kind of training contains 
but twenty-three per cent of the whole number. This same wide variation appears also 
in the experience of the two sets of teachers. 

Altho all members of a normal school staff, both those native to the state and new- 
comers from without, may be expected to acquaint themselves with the school con- 
ditions into which their students are going as teachers, it is doubtless commendable 
that a considerable proportion should have that knowledge bred in the bone thru per- 
sonal experience. For the good of the school, however, natives of the state who have 
passed thru its elementary and secondary system should include in their college or 
university training a considerable period of work amid other surroundings. For this a 
summer session elsewhere is not enough. Where such migration does not occur there 
is certain danger. Forty per cent of the normal school teachers had both their second- 
ary and higher work in Missouri, while thirty-two per cent were native born and had 
not left the state previous to receiving their first degree. This proportion does not 
appear excessive. 

GRADUATE DEGREES 

Only about one-fourth of the teachers in Missouri normal schools had ever done 
recognized study beyond a college course, altho nearly all of them were giving collegi- 
ate instruction. Of fifty-two master's degrees, forty- two came from first class institu- 
tions; twenty-two were takeji in Missouri, sixteen of them at the university. Of the 
degrees usually considered as necessary to qualify a teacher to give collegiate instruc- 
tion, there are seven among the one hundred ninety-nine teachers and officers, six 
of them taken from first class institutions, all outside of the state. 

RETARDATION IN TRAINING- 

The retardation of normal school teachers in securing their education deserves spe- 
cial attention. The records of the group show that sixty-eight, or just under half, of 
all the four-year bachelor's degrees with date given were taken after the age of twenty- 
five. Allowing thus three years beyond the normal age of twenty- two as a reasonable 
margin, forty-seven per cent of the women and fifty- six per cent of the men were 
belated. Eleven of the twenty-one teachers who have only the two-year Ped.B. degree 
were belated in getting it. The interpretation of this situation may be aided by com- 
paring similar figures at the university, where eighty-four per cent of all bachelor's 
degrees were taken at the age of twenty-five or under. At the normal schools thirty- 
six per cent of these degrees were taken at the age of twenty-nine or later, whereas 



104 PERSONNEL OF THE NORMAL SCHOOLS 

at the university only about six per cent were taken so late. 1 When the ages at which 
the degrees were taken are examined in connection with the class of institution that 
granted them, the following facts appear: Altho earning nearly half of the total num- 
ber of bachelor's degrees on time, the normal school teachers have earned fifty-eight 
per cent of their low grade degrees and but thirty-nine per cent of their first class 
degrees at the age of twenty -five or before. That is, the poorer degrees come easily 
and at an early age, while the standard degrees corne later. 2 Among the teachers at 
the university, altho eighty-nine per cent of the twenty-eight 3 low grade degrees 
were earned on time, eighty-three per cent of the one hundred ten first class degrees 
were likewise obtained at the age of twenty -five or earlier. 

It will, of course, be suggested that, in a normal school instructor who has spent a 
longer or shorter interval before or between his college years in teaching, belatedness 
is a virtue, whatever may be the case with college teachers. The theory is that the 
maturer student who has taught derives more benefit from Ms college work, particu- 
larly as a prospective teacher ; his trial efforts have revealed the difficulties of teach- 
ing, have focused his attention and appreciation, and have sharpened his motive. There 
can be no doubt of this to an extent. There is danger, however, lest maturity of grasp 
of mere college work be reckoned too much to the advantage of the individual, while 
the loss of momentum and point of view favorable to advanced study and gained by 
fairly early education is ignored. It seems hardly open to question that beyond a cer- 
tain point delay serves simply as a brake; that possessing a college education at the age 
of twenty-four, a student normally makes more intelligent use of the years to thirty, 
and arrives there ahead of the belated college student graduating at that age. Much 
preliminary and unsupervised experience will prove to be a waste of time if not a posi- 
tive injury. Such would undoubtedly be the attitude of medical men toward practical 
medical experience before theoretical medical training. There is a difference here only 
in degree. Professional training in education is rapidly achieving the power to make 
the tyro in teaching appear quite as much of a bungler as is the novice in medicine. 
In both professions a littl.e unskilled experience is probably of use to the practitioner 
in raising and defining problems for future solution ; but the time speedily comes when 
delay in obtaining further education is a loss. Such delay is prohibited in medicine 
for the sake of the patients and should be prevented in education for the same reason. 

RETARDATION AND GRADUATE WORK 

We are dealing here with prospective normal school instructors, all of whom must 
be expected to have done graduate work. The Missouri conference agreement now 

1 The schools themselves vary considerably in this particular. Cape Girardeau leads with 62 per cent of her teachers* 
bachelor's degrees taken on time; the other schools take the following order: Springrfield, 52 per cent; Warrens- 
bur??, 48 per cent ; Kirksville, 38 per cent; and Maryville, 36 per cent. 

2 Here, likewise, the schools show a marked difference, but are consistent in their relative tendency in. every case 
except Maryville: teachers at Cape Girardeau earned 88 per cent low grade, but only 55 per cent first class degrees 
on time; at Warrensburgr, 67 per cent and 85 per cent; at Springfield, 67 per cent and 86 per cent; at Kirksville, 50 
per cent and 26 per cent; and at Maryville, the one exception in sequence, 29 per cent and 43 per cent. 

8 Low class degrees were counted only when no first class bachelor's degree was held. 



TEACHERS 105 

calls for the master's degree as the standard evidence of qualification to teach in a 
normal school, but that can be considered only as transitional; there is no reason 
why the preparation implied in the doctor's degree should not be required of normal 
school teachers as well as of college teachers, if they propose to do coordinate work, 
and if appropriate forms of such professional preparation are now available, as is 
the case. It is of interest, therefore, to discover what relation, if any, exists between 
belated graduation and post-graduate work. It may first be noted that the master's 
degrees taken by teachers in the normal schools are taken late: slightly more than 
half of those who hold such degrees and gave record of their ages took their de- 
grees at the age of twenty-nine or later, while at the university but nineteen per 
cent had reached that age. If now we examine the ages at which those who went on 
for graduate work took their bachelor's degrees, we find that sixty -two per cent were 
twenty-five years of age or under, while of the group that did not go on, only thirty- 
nine per cent took their bachelor's degrees on time. This seems significant. It would 
fairly describe the tendency to say that in general the student who of necessity post- 
pones his college course finds it exhausting, completes it out of breath, and has less 
ambition and energy for the advanced study which is to be his all-important profes- 
sional equipment. 

Judging from the available data, therefore, as well as from the analogy of other 
professions, the effectively trained teacher would be the naturally gifted man or woman 
who has secured his formal training early in a high grade institution and who, after 
a limited amount of successful experience under competent direction, has taken two 
or three years of graduate work. Such a man or woman is ready at the age of twenty - 
seven or twenty-eight, with a sound and comprehensive intellectual equipment, to 
begin a career as teacher, administrator, or expert in educational research. It is to 
this type of teacher, further tested by experience and achievement, that we must look 
to give instruction in the training institutions of this country. 

EXPERIENCE 

After formal training, the most important element in fitness to train teachers is 
likely to be the duration and character of preliminary experience. It is reasonable 
to assume that each type of professional training has a type of experience best suited 
to ensure its highest efficiency. In the preparation of teachers this would appear 
obvious enough: a person can scarcely hope to qualify as a guide for teachers of 
children in public schools without first-hand and continuous experience with the con- 
ditions and problems which he is fitting his students to face. As a counsel of perfec- 
tion such a principle would appear to hold good throughout a training-school staff; 
in actual practice there are some positions, those for example in certain special sub- 
jects or even in highly specialized forms of subject-matter, where such experience may 
be dispensed with. It is unquestionably true, however, that any institution bent on 
closing the gap between its "professional" and "academic" work, and desirous of in- 



106 PERSONNEL OF THE NORMAL SCHOOLS 

fusing a single fixed and all-pervading purpose into its operations, will look first of 
all to its faculty. The thing cannot be done unless every teacher has himself had 
sufficient teaching experience of the particular kind in question to determine the pat- 
tern of every course he gives. There is no such thing as teaching in general, and teach- 
ing in particular is highly specific. We should expect two hundred well -trained normal 
school teachers to exhibit a large amount of preparatory experience, 

The Missouri teachers have had experience; whether it is of the appropriate kind 
may not be so clear. In total years of teaching experience, 1 the normal school teachers 
and the teachers in the private colleges rank together; the median is twelve. The me- 
dian at the state university is nine, and at the junior colleges, six. 

KIND OF EXPERIENCE 

Altho their total experience runs very high, the normal school teachers have a me- 
dian tenure in their present institutions of but four years as compared with five at the 
state university and between six and seven at Washington University. Their experi- 
ence has been of a somewhat different sort, as further analysis shows. Altho two-fifths 
have had less than five years experience in any higher institution, nine-tenths of them 
have had experience in elementary or secondary teaching- The meaning of this fact 
stands out clearly when comparison is made with the other great teacher-training body 
In the state the university, where fifty-six per cent of all who instinct prospective 
teachers of boys and girls have had no experience in teaching outside of college or uni- 
versity. It becomes still more significant when compared with the English training 
colleges for teachers, where the instructors have had practically no experience in the 
schools for which they are preparing teachers, and where, as a result, the training 
colleges are completely out of touch with the lower schools. There can be no doubt 
that the principle of selection on the basis of experience which our American normal 
schools have applied in a general way to the choice of their teachers is a considerable 
virtue that should be conserved as the training of these teachers is strengthened in its 
theoretical aspects. Experience should be more definitely required and more closely 
scrutinized as to its quality. Slightly more than one-fourth of the teachers in Mis- 
souri normal schools lack elementary school experience; yet they are training chiefly 
elementary school teachers. One-fourth have been superintendents a position that 
has usually included secondary and occasionally elementary instruction. Sixty- three 
per cent have taught in high school, while twenty-one per cent have had some expe- 
rience in college or university instruction. Over one-half have taught in rural schools, 
altho in this qualification, as in others, there appears a sharp difference in favor of 
the men. 

Such an array of preparatory field service would seem greatly to enrich the in- 
struction until we discover that there is no well-ordered relation between the expe- 

1 See pa#e 422. 



TEACHEKS 107 

rience and the present occupation : that former high school teachers of English and 
history are now showing students how to teach arithmetic and geography to sixth 
grade children; that courses in school administration are given by teachers who have 
had no adequate experience even in supervision ; and that former principals and su- 
perintendents are now teaching Latin and sociology. In other words, the particular 
kind of experience, instead of furnishing an all-important background for the present 
purpose of instruction, is largely unrelated; teachers have in very many cases received 
their present appointments as promotion out of educational jobs of different sorts and 
not because of distinguished excellence in the kind of teaching for which they are 
now asked to prepare students. It is plain that the close contact between the normal 
school and the public school, fortunate as it is, is rather the chance of evolution than 
the conscious recognition of a sound principle. To secure the latter it should be re- 
quired that in addition to a good general education and specific training in his field, 
every normal school instructor should have had likewise a reasonable amount of spe- 
cific experience in doing the thing for which he undertakes to train others. 1 This 
would maintain a fine tradition in its most effective form. 

TEACHING ASSIGNMENT 

The natural correlative of training and experience is to be found in the teacher's 
present occupation and the conditions attending its pursuit. The latter include many 
phases of administration which will be dealt with in connection with that topic ; 
the aspects having particular significance here are those involving the scope and 
weight of the assignment. An examination of the teaching programs of 1915-16 shows 
that eighteen per cent of all teachers in Missouri normal schools teach more than 
one subject. Forty-two instances occur among the teachers of the regular session and 
fourteen among those teaching only in the summer. They are about evenly distributed 
among the schools, and in all but ten instances involve so-called "college" work. Cer- 
tain subjects, such as education and psychology, especially educational psychology, 
physics and general science, history and economics, have a natural affinity, and, even 
as college instruction, might conceivably be well handled by the same teachers. Other 
combinations are allowable enough in a high school, but are suspicious when offered 
for college credit. Spanish is combined with German, with history, and with photog- 
raphy ; German is offered further by a teacher of Latin and a teacher of French. Physics 
teachers teach also mathematics and chemistry; history teachers teach Latin, mathe- 
matics, and geography. Teachers of education teach geography and chemistry, and a 
teacher of English teaches sociology. Nine teachers in the regular session have a com- 
bination of three subjects. As one might surmise, three of these teach education; one 

i An admirable instance of the successful enforcement of a policy of selecting experience for a present purpose 
is shown in the staff of the St. Louis high schools. It is desired to have teachers with experience m elementary in- 
struction, in order to ensure a true perspective in high school work. In 1915 over sixty per cent of the teachers m 
the Soldan High School were thus equipped, the remainder, with occasional exceptions, having* only hiffh school 
experience. If an incidental advantage can fee secured to this extent in a higrh school, a normal school should hold 
out stubbornly for a requisite that is essential. 



108 PERSONNEL OF THE NORMAL SCHOOLS 

combines it with English and geography, and two with history and mathematics. 
Chemistry combines once with physics and mathematics, once with bacteriology and 
general science, and once with physics and physiology. One teacher gives instruction 
in French, German, and Spanish. To call such work " college" work is probably un- 
justifiable in most cases. It is impossible to expect a collegiate grade of work from 
an individual who must teach five classes per day in two or more distinct fields, and 
teachers who are properly trained will refuse to do it. Injustice to the normal schools 
it must be said that such cases represent a past condition that is fast being outgrown, 
as is shown by the fact that eighty -two per cent of all their instructors are now work- 
ing in single departments. The chief mistake has been in the assertion of claims for 
collegiate recognition during recent years when conditions were admittedly much 
worse than they are to-day. 

LENGTH OF PROG HAM 

Of even greater absolute importance than the diversity of assignment in determin- 
ing the quality of work is the teacher's time schedule. The most striking feature of 
the teachers' quarterly programs in 1915-16 is the wide variation among the schools, 1 
In summer nearly three-fifths of the teachers at Cape Girardeau gave from twelve to 
nineteen periods of instruction per week, while at Springfield only three per cent gave 
so little. Sixty -seven per cent at Springfield had twenty-five or more periods as com- 
pared with four per cent at Cape Girardeau, and six individuals at Springfield had 
thirty periods or more. How can work done under such dissimilar conditions be com- 
pared? Similarly at Warrensburg over half of the programs in the regular session 
called for from twenty-five to thirty-five periods weekly, while Kirks ville asked but one 
teacher to exceed twenty -four periods and but three to exceed twenty. Yet no similar 
variation in salary occurred; in fact, the teachers at Cape Girardeau, while having 
much shorter programs, received on the average higher salaries than the teachers at 
Springfield. There could be no more forcible argument for the need of some regulat- 
ing authority to establish for all the schools a common schedule according to some 
well-considered standard* 

A second fact that stands out is the marked increase of load during the summer ses- 
sion. Twice as great a proportion of teachers were carrying from twenty-five to thirty- 
five periods in the summer term as did so during the regular session; the percentage 
of all summer term teachers carrying such programs was forty-two. If summer work 
involved simply a high tho possible maximum based on a reasonable and compensat- 
ing minimum for the regular session, the case would be different. As it is, every such 
program is super-maximum. No normal school instructor professing to do collegiate 
work should be allowed to teach twenty-five class-periods per week at any time: the 
fact itself brands the quality of the work as necessarily inferior. When the inrush of 
summer students is permitted to create such schedules, there can be but one result: 

1 See page 425. 



TEACHERS 109 

the work degenerates into a genial and superficial formalism of little value; the school 
gyrates thru the summer on the momentum of the good work done in the regular 
session, and is obliged to recover its balance in the fall. The extraordinary industry 
of the summer attendants helps to overcome the evil, but the effect on the faculty 
is exhausting. This judgment is fully corroborated by impressions received during 
visits at the schools, especially at Springfield. The teachers dread the summer terra 
and discredit the work done under such conditions. When the same situation prevails 
throughout the year, comment is of course needless. 

WHAT is A REASONABLE LOAD? 

There is certainly no single or arbitrary rule by which a reasonable standard of 
amount of work for normal school instructors may be determined. It would seem to 
be closely involved with two main factors : the capacity of the instructors and the 
quality of work desired. No one would propose to turn a high school staff into a college 
faculty by reducing the weekly load from twenty -five periods to twelve. The average 
high school teacher would scarcely know what to do with the time; he has a general- 
ized training with or without special emphasis in one or two fields; he has a distinctly 
routine attitude toward instruction, and to him the physical burden of twenty-five 
periods is not excessive. In some high schools, where specialized graduate work is now 
required of teachers, instruction tends to assume a fresher, more intense, and vital 
form; here, therefore, appears also the tendency to shorten hours to fit the better 
type of teacher, not because he can compel it, but because he has the ability and train- 
ing to make his four hours a day worth another's five. Similarly the good college in- 
structor is expected, thru complete familiarity with his subject, to give his material 
an original and vigorous treatment. This he cannot usually do save in a single field 
or portion thereof, and he must live with his sources in their best forms to the point 
of saturation. To such an instructor more than three periods of instruction per day is 
a drain which his study time fails properly to replenish. He must keep abreast of the 
development of his subject, must continually revise his courses, and must himself do 
constructive study. For the sake of his product it is usually well worth while to give 
him time for all of this. 

Assuming a faculty trained to high grade work, the question of schedule becomes 
a question of the quality of work desired. There is an impression that a heavy schedule 
is merely a burden to the teacher; that he continues somehow to produce in larger 
amount the best of which he is capable. This is of course a mistake. A school demand- 
ing that a teacher give twenty-five periods of collegiate instruction per week simply 
gets that teacher's energy and effort spread out thinly over twenty-five periods in- 
stead of concentrated into fifteen, and each class suffers accordingly. It is difficult to 
make the average school board or layman understand this; to them an instructor 
teaching thirty periods is obviously twice as valuable as the one teaching half that 
time. To any one who knows what college work is, however, it is apparent that the 



110 PERSONNEL OF THE NORMAL SCHOOLS 

institution that professes to do college work on such a basis is seriously deceiving 
both itself and others. 

In view of these two considerations, the situation in Missouri normal schools sug- 
gests certain comments. When studied for the purpose of evaluating claims to colle- 
giate recognition, the schools would appear to have failed to realize the terms on which 
such recognition could justly be based. The levels of work to which each instructor 
is assigned are so varied that nearly all cases of excessive program involve some col- 
lege work and several are exclusively collegiate. 1 The length of period in the normal 
schools is the same approximately as at the university. 2 There is no apparent reason 
why the same standards should not be applied. As evidence that they can be success- 
fully applied, the example of Harris Teachers College at St. Louis may be cited. Here, 
in an institution offering two years only of collegiate work, no teacher's schedule calls 
for more than fifteen hours, and the average is considerably lower. 

It is probable, however, that a standard college schedule should not be applied 
abruptly to the normal schools, except for such teachers as are already trained college 
workers. There is on the faculty of each school a considerable number of teachers of 
the high school type; men and women lacking special training and bred by long use 
to the old style normal school program. 3 Some of these are good teachers who might 
yet acquire adequate preparation, or who would at least be acceptable instructors 
in secondary subjects. On the other hand, in so far as the schools attempt college 
work, the present little group of well-prepared teachers should at once be enlarged 
and placed on a strictly collegiate basis in respect to hours and subjects. A training 
school for teachers, of all institutions, ought to make its own standai'ds in these 
respects unimpeachable. 4 

GOOD TEACHING AS EXACTING AS RESEARCH 

There is a feeling on the part of some that the function of a training-school staff 
should not involve research, bub should consist exclusively in inculcating known 
truth, and that consequently a fuller teaching program is permissible. The premise 

1 Out of one hundred twenty-eight programs in academic and professional subjects, eighty-six, or sixty-seven per 
cent, show ten. or more periods each of college work ; nineteen programs are wholly collegiate, and only sixteen are 
wholly secondary. It is urged at Springfield that secondary normal school work should count on a twenty-five period 
basis as ordinary high school work. But Springfield also avers that its two terms of geometry and of history are 
worth three in the high school because of its "college" teachers and mature students! 

3 When these statistics were gathered, the normal schools were operating- in general on a fifty-minute period ; 
Kirksville lengthened some periods to fifty-five minutes, and Spring-field and Maryville reduced some to forty-five 
minutes. Such differences are of little importance in defence of the conditions described. When once adjusted to a 
student-group and prepared to meet it, a teacher welcomes a longer hour; it is the number of such readjuHtments 
that counts. The longer interval between classes at the university as compared with exchange of classes within 
a single building tends to equalize the periods still further. 

3 It was interesting, and often amusing, to observe in personal interviews with teachers how naively this point of 
view was betrayed. Not a few who were teaching " college n classes twenty or twenty-five periods per week a pro- 
gram that would rightfully stagger a mind that understood what it meant spoke glibly of their enjoyment of it. 
It appeared to challenge their idea of a good day's work to stand before a class for as many hours as once they had 
kept a country school. It is needless to say that their instruction was of the corresponding type. 
* Since the data on which this study was based were secured, an agreement between the state university and the 
normal schools stipulates a maximum teaching program of eighteen hours weekly, To what extent this provision 
has been enforced and the nature of its effects have not been ascertained. It is an obviously proper arrangement. 



TEACHERS 111 

back of this attitude is partially true, but the conclusion is wholly mistaken. Techni- 
cal research in education requiring minute and prolonged experimentation is doubt- 
less out of place in a training school under present conditions, altho this may be said 
only with the proviso that these schools be kept in intimate touch with such work 
even to the extent of limited participation. It is not too much to expect that some 
one serious undertaking of a research nature should be under way at every normal 
school all of the time. But the heart of the job in an institution for preparing teach- 
ers is unquestionably the teaching itself. The foremost feature of a successful school 
of this type, the lever on which it must chiefly depend to accomplish its results, is the 
ability of each and every instructor to present continuously the performance of the 
finished artist in teaching as teaching. It is contact of this sort that soonest and most 
deeply fastens fine ideals of teaching in the minds of young students. This ability in 
a teacher is not the ability required to prepare books or to conduct general investi- 
gations. It presupposes rather a constant and sympathetic intimacy with the kind 
of instruction for which the teacher is preparing others; it develops a more and 
more sensitive insight into the needs of students and the ways of winning access to 
them; and, finally, it commands an inexhaustible fund of human interest and per- 
sonal force that by common consent justifies the name "teacher" in the greater sense* 
All of this means devoted thought and a lavish expenditure of power. To teach teach- 
ers is of necessity a work lightly undertaken by many, since a multitude must under- 
take it; but to teach teachers well is the most exacting and responsible as it is per- 
haps the most inspiring business in the academic world. While, therefore, much more 
must be demanded of the normal school instructor than he usually gives to-day, he 
should in turn be protected, even more than his colleague in the university, from 
requirements that check his growth and stifle his best expression. 

PRODUCTIVE SCHOLAESHIP 

For the reasons just indicated one may hardly expect to find in a group of normal 
school teachers that productiveness for publication which is properly characteristic 
of teachers in a good college or university. Fifteen bound volumes by thirteen authors 
represented in 1916 the formal output of these two hundred teachers thru a score 
of years. The largest number at any one school is six at Warrensburg. Two-thirds of 
these were modest textbooks of various kinds, the remainder were doctor's theses or 
dealt with local history. About twenty teachers have contributed occasional scien- 
tific articles to the better technical periodicals of their departments. Perhaps thirty 
have written more or less for local school publications of merit, especially at Kirks- 
ville and Cape Girardeau, and still others contribute now and then to local news- 
papers and magazines. Except for two or three, it did not appear from the reports 
submitted 1 that any teachers could be termed systematically productive in a profes- 
sional sense, aside from their teaching. 

* Individual reports could not be secured from Warrensburg. 



112 PERSONNEL OF THE NORMAL SCHOOLS 

Altho the limitations of Ms occupation may excuse a normal school teacher from 
general research of the usual academic type, such exemption can scarcely apply to 
his strictly professional obligations. The worker of this class is supposedly a labo- 
ratory student in the psychology of public school pupils, and in the changing or- 
ganization of materials for their ultimate use; he is a critical investigator of the 
developing social needs of his community, and of the failures and successes of his stu- 
dents in service. He is confronted with a vast number of difficult and unsolved prob- 
lems with which he must of necessity deal in one way or another; if he is truly pro- 
fessional, he will deal with them as scientifically as he can under the circumstances, 
and with a progressively experimental purpose. Out of this experience should spring 
a lively and invaluable professional literature registering the progress of the teacher's 
own work for the benefit of similar workers everywhei^e. 

The lack of such a literature and, to a great extent, the lack of the attitude that 
would produce it, is readily traceable to causes already discussed. The deadening load 
under which these teachers are forced to work makes it impossible. Four or five meet- 
ings with classes each day not only leaves one no time for any but conventional pro- 
cedure, but it sooner or later paralyzes a teacher's power to originate and carry thru 
anything else. When to these are added correspondence courses, extension appoint- 
ments, faculty committee work, and social obligations with students, a normal school 
instructor is reduced to the status of a teacher in the usual secondary boarding school. 
All of these duties should undoubtedly be performed, but by other people whose chief 
business these duties might be. 

Because of such conditions, and a frequent lack of sufficiently specialized training, 
the professional consciousness of the group, so far as its concern with the productive 
scholarship of its craft goes, is low. With certain exceptions its members who seek 
public recognition do so thru work that takes them out of normal schools instead of 
committing them more completely to the interests of these schools. The educational 
and literary world is filled with men and women who served what they consider a 
hard apprenticeship in normal school work, and date their real intellectual debut 
from the time they left it. This persistent withdrawal and transfer of productive 
minds to other fields, this apparent failure of the work itself to engage and hold 
the devotion of many fine students who have undertaken it, has contributed not a 
little to bring normal school instruction into a certain disesteem. "Academic" work 
elsewhere, even at an equal or lower salary, is very generally preferred. All of this is 
due to mistaken ideals and ought to be changed. The people who prepare public 
teachers are potentially among the most important servants of the state. The soli- 
darity of purpose among persons so commissioned should be profound, and their 
practices should be the result of unlimited professional interaction. More rational 
conditions of preparation, service, and reward among these teachers will undoubtedly 
be marked by a productive scholarship that will be both an immense assistance to the 
profession as a whole and a reassuring evidence of the high quality of its membership. 



TEACHERS 113 

ECONOMIC STATUS FAMILY AND DEPENDENTS 

Before discussing the salaries of the normal school teachers it is important to under- 
stand certain other items that bear more or less directly on their economic situation. 
Nearly nine-tenths of the male instructors in the normal schools are married ; of those 
past forty years of age, all but one are married. Of the women, about eight per cent 
are married, all of these teaching at Springfield and Cape Girardeau. 

The median representative of the married teachers has two children; only three per 
cent have from five to eight children, while nearly half have only one or none. A fair 
comparison may be made between the parent families of all the married teachers over 
forty years of age and the families that such teachers themselves have reared. The 
median number of children in the present generation is two, and but thirteen per 
cent of the families have four or more. The representative family of the preceding 
generation in this group had six children; eighty -one per cent had four or more, and 
thirty-six per cent had eight or more children. The change in family life is noticeable 
even between the older and the younger teachers. The median parent-family among 
all those over forty has six children and one-fourth of the families have more than 
eight; as compared with a median of five with but nine per cent having over eight 
in the younger group. The women come from smaller families than the men in both 
age groups, as they are more frequently from professional or commercial families in 
towns and cities. 

The number of dependents measures the economic burden with greater accuracy 
than the number of children. Here again the men are distinguished sharply from the 
women. Only one-eighth of the men have no dependents, while of the women more 
than half have only themselves to care for. Nearly half of the men have more than two 
dependents, while slightly over one-tenth of the women have as many. One-fourth of 
the men have more dependents than any of the women except two. 1 

LENGTH OF TENURE 

The length of tenure in normal school positions is not unlike that in the univer- 
sity. About sixty per cent of the teachers in both university and normal schools have 
been in the institution from one to five years. Twenty per cent at the normal schools 
and twenty-seven per cent at the university have served there nine years or longer. 
One man in each group has served over thirty years. Among the five normal schools, 
Maryville and Cape Girardeau exhibit the greatest contrast. Maryville has nearly 
twice as large a proportion of one or two year teachers as has Cape Girardeau. Cape 
Girardeau in fact shows a stability of faculty personnel exceeding even that of the 
university, tho the significance of this can of course be judged only in connection with 
training, experience, salaries, and proved teaching ability. 

1 The differences between the schools are sometimes marked, tho probably without significance. At Maryville a third 
of the men and half the women are unencumbered, while at Springfield three-fifths of the women but none of the 
men are without dependents. 



PERSONNEL OF THE NORMAL SCHOOLS 

SALARIES VARIATION AMONG THE SCHOOLS 

The salary variations among the five schools are large, revealing again the lack of 
any stable principle guiding the regulation of wholly identical work for identical pur- 
poses. 1 Teachers at Warrensburg are better off by two hundred fifty dollars than at 
Kirksville, The median salary of women teachers at Springfield is one hundred forty 
dollars less than at Warrensburg, while the median figure at Springfield for both 
men and women is three hundred fifty dollars below the median at Warrensburg. 
Springfield, however, pays three-fifths of its men over eighteen hundred dollars as 
compared with one-quarter so paid at Kirksville and one-eighth at Mary ville. Kirks- 
ville gives only half of its women teachers more than twelve hundred dollars, tho 
at Warrensburg eighty-four per cent receive from twelve to eighteen hundred. Such 
marked differences have no justification and indicate weakness in the general admin- 
istration. 

COMPAEISON WITH THE UNIVERSITY 

The difference between the median salary at the normal schools and that paid at the 
university is $550. 2 For the amount of work done as shown in weeks of service and 
hours of instruction the normal school salaries, if rated by college standards, are ab- 
surdly low. Considering their shorter year's work, the high school teachers of large 
cities are much better paid 3 than these officers of the state engaged in what the state 
recognizes as collegiate instruction for one of its most important professional groups. 
One of the dozen highest paid men in the normal schools receives $2400 for a year's 
work. The corresponding teacher at a standard college receives $2500 to $3000, and 
teaches three-fourths as many weeks in the year and three-fifths as many hours in the 
week. Correcting a moderate college salary, say $2500, for these two extra loads, we 
find that the college instructor would draw about $5500 if at his present rate of re- 
ward he performed the time equivalent of what the normal school man now does for 
$2400. The college instructor does not receive this higher recognition for nothing. 
He supplies in knowledge, training, and grasp of his subject a commodity that is 
worth already more than he gets for it, and if it be proposed to demand an equiva- 
lent from normal school instructors, the indispensable outward indication that such 
equivalence has been established is the approximate equality of reward. 

THE BEST PAID GROUPS 

Normal school salaries show no correlation with rank, as at the university, since 
the normal schools have no such groupings of instructors. Age has some influence. 

1 See page 423. 

2 In arriving at this result the salaries at the university have been raised by the proportion of salary regularly paid 
by the university for summer session instruction to compensate for the additional term of work required at the 
normal schools and included in the normal school teacher's salary. See page 423, note 2. 

a Median salary of St. Louis high school teachers, $1640. Correcting this for six weeks additional instruction required 
of normal school teachers would give about $1875. The hours of weekly program of the two institutions are not far 
apart twenty-two to twenty-five. 



TEACHERS 115 

All those receiving over $#000 are thirty years of age or over. No one over thirty re- 
ceives less than $1080. Those receiving $1600 and above number eight per cent of the 
teachers in their twenties, forty-seven per cent of those in their thirties, fifty-six per 
cent of those in their forties, and all of the remainder. The teachers of the group 
receiving more than $000 number twenty-four, all men, and exhibit certain charac- 
teristics that throw light on conditions of promotion. Only five are over fifty years of 
age. As a group they have had nineteen years of total experience, and have held their 
present positions for eight years. They teach about twenty hours per week, twelve 
of them teaching science or mathematics, six education, and six history, languages, 
or music. Aside from the five who teach mathematics, four only, one each in music, 
history, geography, and English, are specialists in subjects taught in the elementary 
schools ; seven are deans or directors of training schools. Two-thirds of the number 
have their present work clearly correlated with their training and experience, eleven 
having graduate degrees, in most cases from first class institutions; four show excel- 
lent training without specific experience, and three have had appropriate experience 
but lack training. In three-fourths of the cases the visitors' estimates of their ability 
were favorable. 

The sixteen highest paid women receive between $1500 and $2000, Two are under 
thirty years of age; three are fifty or over. Five have no four-year degrees; of the re- 
mainder, eight hold the degrees of good institutions; four have done graduate work, 
one holding a Ph.D. from the University of Pennsylvania. As a group they have a 
median total experience of twelve years, seven of which were in the present position. 
They teach about twenty-two hours weekly in the following subjects: history (1), 
mathematics ($), English (3), art (3), home economics (3), foreign languages (1), and 
supervision (3). Here, as with the men, the special subjects of instruction in elemen- 
tary schools are meagrely represented. Nine of the sixteen teachers show a definite 
correlation of training and experience with their present work; five lack suitable ex- 
perience in elementary schools, and two lack specific training. Four were not visited, 
but only one of the remaining twelve impressed the enquirers as being an unsuccessful 
teacher. 

On the whole, the high salaries for both men and women in the normal schools 
appear to represent a genuine selection with emphasis on good training, helpful expe- 
rience, and genuine ability rather than on age or tenure, tho instances occur of each 
of tbe latter. There is an obvious tendency, however, to favor teachers of academic 
and college subjects or special subjects such as music, art, or home economics, to the 
disadvantage of subjects bearing directly on the needs of elementary school teachers. 1 
This appears to mean either that marked skill in the fundamental function of a nor- 
mal school teacher, that is, the giving of specific instruction in how to teach, has a 
relatively diminished chance of financial recognition, or else that superior ability of 
that kind is not present. 

1 Of the seven well-paid teachers of mathematics five teach arithmetic, one cl^?ss each. 



116 PERSONNEL OF THE NORMAL SCHOOLS 

INSURANCE 

There is no retiring allowance system affecting normal school teachers in Missouri ; 
their provision for the future must therefore depend upon their private savings either 
directly or in some form of insurance. Nearly twice as large a proportion of men are 
insured as of women, the proportion of men varying from seventy-two per cent at 
Springfield to ninety per cent at Cape Girardeau, and of women from twenty-eight 
per cent at Kirksville to fifty-five per cent at Warrensburg. Three-fifths of the insured 
women hold endowment policies only, and one-fourth more hold both endowment and 
other forms. Less than one- fourth of the insured men carry endowment policies only, 
tho two-fifths carry both forms. Of the forty-one women reporting insurance nearly 
one-half report the amount as $1000. One-fourth carry from $1000 to $2000, and 
none holds over $4300. One-third of the men, on the other hand, have from $500 to 
$5000 in insurance, only six per cent holding less than $1500, and the highest group 
thirteen per cent carrying from $8250 to $11,000. Two individuals carry $15,000 
and $17,000. Of the teachers with dependents four-fifths are insured as compared with 
two-fifths of those without dependents, and in general the amount increases with the 
number of dependents. 

TEACHERS AT HARRIS TEACHERS COLLEGE 

The twelve teachers reporting in 1915 from Harris Teachers College at St. Louis 
are older than those in the state normal schools ; the median age of the five men was 
forty-three, and of the seven women fifty years. Nine were Americans, one was of Eng- 
lish, one of Irish, and one of German parentage. Four were children of farmers, and 
grew up in families averaging six children each. Two were born in Missouri, and one 
gave no record; the remaining nine represent nine different states east of the Missis- 
sippi from Tennessee north. One woman and all of the men were married; three had 
children. 

Four teachers of art, physical training, and penmanship had special education for 
those subjects. The rest held bachelor's degrees, all but two from first class colleges, 
and these two later took graduate degrees. Two held the doctor's degree, and one 
other the master's degree; all from first class institutions. Eight had been partially 
trained in normal schools. Teaching experience ranged from twelve to thirty-four 
years with twenty-one as the median; the median tenure of position at the present 
institution was nine years. All but one had experience in elementary teaching, while 
three only lacked secondary school experience. In normal school work the experience 
ranged from three to eighteen years, and two had taught in colleges. 

The salaries are higher than at the state schools, and the men receive over one- 
third more than the women. The median salary for men is $850, and for women 
$1880; the average salary is about $150 greater in each case. 

Compared with the teachers in the state schools, it may be said that the teachers 
at the Harris Teachers College are, as a group, more, mature, have better training, 



STUDENTS 117 

more, and more appropriate, experience, and are better paid. Furthermore, instead 
of twenty or twenty-five periods, their programs average about ten class-periods per 
week with a maximum of fifteen. There are in addition certain obligations in the ex- 
tension department, but the total average load never exceeds fifteen hours. 



B. STUDENTS 1 

AGE AND SEX NATIONALITY AND NATIVITY 

The five state normal schools of Missouri enroll annually between seven and eight 
thousand students. Twenty-eight per cent are men, and slightly over half are second- 
ary students, altho both of these proportions are diminishing with some rapidity. 2 
The ages of the group range from twelve to over fifty years ; about three hundred 
are sixteen or less, and a few more than this are over thirty; but the middle fifty per 
cent ranges from eighteen to twenty-two inclusive. The median age for all students 
is twenty years; in the group attending only in summer, it is twenty-two; twenty and 
twenty-two are likewise the median ages in the secondary and collegiate groups. 3 

Slightly over half of the students report the nationality 4 of their parents to be 
American. Maryville with two-thirds, and Cape Girardeau with one-third, represent 
the extreme proportions. English and German are the predominant foreign ele- 
ments, and occur in nearly equal numbers. 5 Natives of Missouri constitute nearly 
seven-eighths of the students. The collegiate students are nearly three-fifths town 
bred, while but half as many of the secondary students are from town. 

PARENTAL OCCUPATION AND INCOME SIZE OF FAMILY 

A study of the parental occupations emphasizes the dominant rural background. 
Parents engaged in agriculture furnish sixty-five per cent of all the students, altho 
agriculture engages but thirty-five per cent of the industrial population of the state. 6 
Seventy-seven per cent of the secondary students come from such homes, while but 
sixty-two per cent of the collegiate men and forty-eight per cent of the collegiate 
women were children of farmers. On the other hand, twelve per cent of the collegiate 
students are children of professional men, a class who make up less than five per cent 
of the population. 

It is usually difficult even for the farmer himself to form an exact estimate of his 
annual income. It was not surprising, therefore, to secure such estimates only from 
about half of the students who replied. Just half of these report $1000 or less, while 
thirty per cent were from families receiving over $1500. But of the college women 
taken alone, forty-five per cent had family incomes of more than $1500, while only 

1 For a description of the data from which the conclusions in this section are derived, see pages 402-404. 

* See pages 428, 429, 8 See page 429. 

* It is quite possible that some students confused this term with ancestry. The school authorities at Cape Girardeau 
believe this certainly to be the case there. 

c See page 429. c See page 430. 



118 PERSONNEL OF THE NORMAL SCHOOLS 

twenty-eight per cent of the college men were so well off. 1 This modest financial status 
of the student's family reappears in the extent to which self-help is undertaken. Half 
of the men and nearly a third of the women were wholly self-supporting, and a few 
others seven per cent supported themselves in part. Of the collegiate group 
about two -thirds of the men were self-supporting. 2 

As in the case of normal school teachers, the students are from large families. The 
median size is six with sixteen per cent from families of nine or more children, 3 while 
the median student in the school of education at the university is from a four-child 
family, and but eight per cent come from families of nine or more children. 

CHOICE OF VOCATION OTHER TEACHERS IN FAMILY 

The student's selection of teaching as an occupation appears to have been largely 
due to the fact that some other member of the family had taught. This possibility 
appears at least in the cases of over three-fifths of the students ; one-seventh of them 
all belong to families having three or more other teachers. 4 The proportion from fami- 
lies other members of which at some time attended a normal school is still greater 
sixty-five per cent; 5 and in nearly all cases these had attended the particular normal 
school concerned. In two of the schools, Cape Girardeau and Springfield, the students 
were asked what person or circumstance first interested them in teaching. Half of them 
referred the suggestion to their families, and a fifth were inspired by "teachers; 11 three 
per cent suggested their desire for self-support. 

FINANCIAL ATTRACTION 

That the prospect of financial return enters largely into the reckoning appears 
significantly from the replies to another question. "Is teaching the best-paid employ- 
ment you could undertake? 1 ' was answered by seven-eighths of the attendance at all 
the schools. Seven-eighths of the women thought teaching their most promising op- 
portunity, while fewer than half of the men were of that opinion ; the proportion of 
secondary students is a little higher in each case than in the college group. 6 Taken in 
connection with the large majority of men not intending to teach permanently 7 this 
result was, of course, to be expected. Even the forty-eight per cent who favored teach- 
ing very likely considered it more profitable as an immediate and temporary occu- 
pation only. In preference to teaching, agriculture received nearly half of the men's 
votes and clerical occupations nearly half of the women's; professional services of 
various kinds and trade are the next choices. 

DISTANCE FROM SCHOOL 

The effect of the school itself in determining the choices of students is difficult to 
measure. Like most other educational institutions, its influence saturates its imme- 

1 See page 431. 2 See page 431. 3 See page 431. 4 See page 432. * See page 432. 6 See page 431. 
T See page 434. 



STUDENTS 119 

diate vicinity, and weakens rapidly with increasing distance. Accessibility, too, plays 
an important role. The local county supplies about one-fourth of all the students in 
the normal schools, including eighteen per cent who come from the local town. Six 
or seven contiguous counties furnish another fourth ; the remaining twelve or fifteen 
counties in the district contribute a third, while one-seventh come from other portions 
of the state. Three per cent come from outside the state. The schools have steadily 
claimed that much of their local attendance consists of students who have changed 
their residence for the sake of school privileges. This seems technically to be the case, 
but the inference as to its significance may hardly be justified; many have indeed 
moved into town for the sake of the school privileges, but probably not more than 
one-fifth of all these local students come from beyond the next county. 1 

PREVIOUS EDUCATION 

The previous education of normal school students depends upon the occupation 
of their parents. More than two-fifths had their elementary education in the rural 
schools only. The remainder in about equal numbers attended graded schools or had 
a combination of graded and rural school training. When questioned as to the amount 
of elementary school attendance, they show a median of sixty-one months, or between 
seven and eight years of eight months each. The reports of one- third fall within this 
eighth year, a third had more, and nearly a thii'd had less. Over half report having 
had from five to eight elementary teachers; nearly one-third had from nine to twelve, 
and but one-tenth had more. 2 

The high school education of secondary normal school students will be shown in 
considering the administrative problem of the secondary student. 3 In the case of the 
collegiate students, the most conservative figures would indicate that in 191S-14 two 
out of three men and somewhat more than four out of five women had at some time 
attended high school. 4 Two-fifths and three-fifths, respectively, had attended a first 
class high school. Completion of secondary work in high school is, of course, another 
matter. The imperfect records available show that in 1913 14 twenty-eight per cent 
of the collegiate men and fifty-three per cent of the collegiate women had done their 
secondary work before coming to the normal school. 5 Approximately the same propor- 
tions hold in the case of graduates, and are often much higher especially among two- 
year graduates. 6 

1 Data represent resident students at Kirksville, Warrensburg, and Mary ville. Of those reporting local residence 
(440), one-half say their parents moved thither for the sake of school privileges. But of these one-fourth moved in 
from the same county, more than one-third from contiguous counties, and two-fifths only, or one-fifth of the entire 
local group, from the remainder of the district or elsewhere. 

2 Data used in this paragraph were secured from Kirksville, Warrensburg, and Maryville only. An occasional 
student coming: from the practice schools confesses to having had up to one hundred and twenty-five elementary 
teachers ! 

3 See page 296, * See page 432. 5 Reports from 1656 elementary teachers show similar results. See page 439. 
6 In the eight years from 1907 to 1914, fifty-six per cent of the two-year graduates at Springfield took their secondary 
school preparation elsewhere, largely at the Springfield high school and Drury College, these two institutions to- 
gether sending forty-two per cent of those prepared outside the normal school. At Kirksville forty-seven per cent 



PERSONNEL OF THE NORMAL SCHOOLS 

The figures given above were gathered at the beginning of this study for a still 
earlier period and are certainly conservative, owing to the defective records of many 
who were probably high school students. The replies of the students attending when 
the schools were visited in 1915 may show the conditions more truly. To the direct 
question: "Are you a graduate of a four-year high school?" four-fifths of the collegi- 
ate women and three-fifths of the collegiate men reporting at Kirksville, Warrensburg, 
and Maryville said "Yes." Students in all five schools replied as to the accessibility of 
a three or four year high school. Seven-eighths of the collegiate women had had such 
schools accessible, and seventy-one per cent had completed the course; two-thirds of 
the collegiate men lived near such high schools, and nearly half completed courses 
there. 

If the conditions indicated here are typical, they are evidence of the existence within 
the normal schools of two relatively distinct institutions, one recruited mainly from 
high school graduates who come in for the higher work, and the other a shifting col- 
lection of secondary students who in general do not continue their education at the 
institution. Such disparate groups need different treatment. As set forth elsewhere, 1 
the normal school should probably be relieved of the secondary student altogether. 
On the other hand, there plainly exists a collegiate student body of sufficiently homo- 
geneous characteristics and preparation to make possible the organization of profes- 
sional education on a satisfactory basis. 

Two further items in the data on high school attendance may be of interest. One 
is the fact that the collegiate men represent high school training to a much smaller 
extent than the women. In the enrolment of 1913-14, slightly over half as large a pro- 
portion of men as of women attended a first class high school for four years, 2 tho this 
varies at different schools. 3 In turn, twice as large a proportion of men as of women 
were educated solely at the normal school. From the point of view of the ultimate pur- 
pose of the normal school this is an unprofitable situation : a group of people who have 
but a transitory connection with the profession in the state is receiving an excessive 
share of the school's attention. 

The other point to be noted is that the group of students attending only in the 

of all graduates, 1909-15, were prepared in high schools; in 1914 and 1915 alone, fifty-two per cent. At Cape Girar- 
deau, fifty-five per cent of the sixty-hour class of 1914, and in 1917 sixty per cent of all graduates were high school 
graduates also. At Warrensburg, the sixty-hour class of 1915 showed seventy-seven per cent who were prepared 
wholly outside and ten per cent in addition who had over three years of high school work. 

It is noteworthy that in general high school graduates do not remain at normal schools for the four-year degrees. 
At Kirksville, where most of these degrees have been granted, but one-quarter of them were conferred upon high 
school graduates from 1909 to 1915, as compared with one-half of the one and two year certificates which went to high 
school graduates. At Cape Girardeau, 1917, one-third of the four-year degrees went to high school graduates, as 
compared with three-fifths of the shorter course certificates. The figures here given are for groups casually selected 
as more or less complete information was accessible. 
1 See page 295. 2 See page 432. 

8 Warrensburg and Maryville show twice the proportion of the other three schools. At Springfield and Cape Girar- 
deau this might be expected, owing to the backward character of large areas within these two districts. The Kirks- 
ville district, however, led all others in the number of first class high schools in 1915, having fifty-three, as com- 
pared with thirty-seven and forty-four in the Warrensburg and Maryville districts. Yet the proportion of men at 
Kirksville in 1916 who graduated from high schools is only about half that in the other two schools. The situa- 
tion is difficult to explain unless by reference to Kirksville's peculiar policies for attracting and retaining in her 
collegiate department men students whose secondary work is incomplete. 



STUDENTS 121 

summer represents consistently more of the high school product than does the attend- 
ance at the regular session. The collegiate summer students have an advantage of nine 
percent in the number of those having had four years in a first class high school. This 
seems to indicate that the high school graduate is more likely to go directly into teach- 
ing, attending the normal school later as required in order to maintain certificates 
or professional status. Such a tendency coincides with the reports from high schools 
quoted below. 

QUALITY OF THE NORMAL SCHOOL STUDENT 

Certain other facts may be presented in this connection that throw light on the 
normal school student from an outside source. The principals of fifty-eight first class 
high schools, outside of St. Louis and Kansas City, were asked to rate in three grades 
the members of one of their recent graduating classes, first, as to their standing in 
studies, and again as to the quality of their personality, 1 indicating in each case the 
occupation of the student during the following year. The replies show, for these schools 
and classes, the proportions in which the students in three quality groups are distrib- 
uted among various types of occupation or institution. 2 The ratings concern a total 
of nearly nine hundred graduates. 

The most striking revelation is the exceedingly small proportion of high school 
graduates who go at once to normal schools six per cent. The reason, to be sure, is 
not far to seek : over one- third of the girls and nearly one-tenth of the boys from these 
high schools go directly into teaching. For this work most of them have the prepara- 
tion afforded by the high school training classes. 3 

The qualitative features of the ratings are suggestive. The college group, which 
takes forty-seven per cent of the men graduates, includes sixty-five per cent of the men 
whose personality rating is " A " as compared with forty-seven per cent of the men who 
are "A" in their studies. The same relation obtains among the women, altho to a 
less degree. The graduates in the normal school and teaching groups, on the other 
hand, are stronger in their studies than in their personal qualities. Over half of the 
women who rank "A" in studies go to the normal school or into teaching as com- 
pared with less than one-quarter who attend college. 

Analysis of the distribution according to quality within each institution or occu- 
pation* indicates the same result. Of the college men less than one-third received 
u A" in studies, but in morale they are superior, having more "A's" than "B's" in 

1 The enquiry to the principals ran in part as follows: " You are requested to list below the members of the grad- 
uating class, indicating- in each case (1) a percentage rating which shall approximately express the standing of the 
individual in his studies; (2) a letter rating in three grades, from A down to C, which shall express your estimate 
of the general efficiency of the individual as to character, initiative, and personal effectiveness; (3) the occupation 
of the individual during the succeeding year." 

2 See page 482. 

8 Of the fifty-eight schools reporting, twenty-four had training classes that year, and the graduates of these train- 
ing classes numbered altogether two hundred one, practically all of whom taught the next year. This is almost 
tne total number who went directly into teaching two hundred twenty. How many of them finally go to the 
normal schools either for summer terms or as regular attendants is uncertain. 
* See page 433. 



122 PERSONNEL OF THE NORMAL SCHOOLS 

personality. The men graduates of high schools who are in normal school or are teach- 
ing, on the contrary, show high ability in studies, but relatively low ratings for per- 
sonality; thus, while forty- four per cent of the normal school men received "A" in 
studies, only eleven per cent received "A" in personality, as compared with sixty-seven 
per cent who received "B." The women show a contrast of the same sort, which is 
more significant because their numbers are larger. More than half of the college women 
are rated "A" in personality as compared with thirty-six per cent rated "B," while 
at the normal schools and in teaching the ratio is nearly reversed. 

If the collective judgment of these high school principals is correct, it shows that 
among graduates from high school both the immediate work of teaching and the 
normal schools themselves are attracting good and industrious minds but second-rate 
personalities, while the college draws the strongest, most virile, and ambitious char- 
acters, tho not necessarily those who are the best in studies. This would corroborate, 
to an extent, the popular judgment in the matter. It is a situation that can hardly 
be changed until a standard preparation is required for teaching, and the normal 
schools, instead of loosely knit catchalls with vague functions, become intensively or- 
ganized, self-critical, and selective institutions. Such a consummation waits directly 
upon a social policy that will subsidize far more heavily than to-day both the process 
and the product of such schools. 1 

COMPARISON OF SECONDARY TRAINING IN HIGH SCHOOL AND IN NORMAL SCHOOL 

The object of a second minor excursus, undertaken in connection with the consid- 
eration of high school preparation for the normal school, was to discover the quality 
of work done in the normal school by high school graduates, as compared with the 
work done by students whose secondary training was secured in the normal schools 
themselves. With this in view, graduates of each school, except Maryville, who had 
completed there eight or more units of secondary work, 2 were compared, as to the 
ratings earned on their subsequent college work, with graduates who had taken more 
than fifteen units in high school. That is, the marks given in each school to the group 
of graduates prepared wholly outside were compared with those given to graduates 
who had from half (presumably the latter half) to all of their preparation in the school. 
The ratings of about four hundred students were examined. 3 

The results of this comparison are negative rather than otherwise. Kirks vi lie rates 
the high school graduates in these classes slightly higher than the students to whom 
she has herself given secondary training; in the sixty-hour group the difference is 
marked. The other three schools, however, give a few more high ratings to those who 

1 The figures used here are for graduates of first class high schools only. Returns from one hundred twenty-two sec- 
ond and third class and unclassified schools are less reliable, but show the same tendencies, especially in the lower 
ratings of those who leave high school to teach as compared with those who continue. 

8 It was necessary to include some who had had a part of their secondary training outside of the normal school in 
order to make the two groups comparable in size. 
s See page 483. 



STUDENTS 

have taken their secondary work locally. On the whole. It does not appear that high 
school graduates fare conspicuously better or worse than those who take secondary 
work in the normal school. 

ATTENDANCE AT COLLEGES AND OTHEB NOJIMAL SCHOOLS 

The normal schools do not appear to draw extensively from colleges, or to exchange 
many students among themselves. Prom the collegiate attendance at these schools 
during the regular session of 1915 nine per cent had attended colleges, two- thirds of 
them for a year or less. Three-fourths of these were women, and about st third of the 
total had been at the state university. Of the whole attendance for the same time and 
schools, but three per cent had been at other normal schools, and three-fourths of 
these were at other schools in Missouri. 

TEACHING EXPEBIENCE 

The most distinguishing characteristic of the student body in many western nor- 
mal schools, as compared with that of other higher institutions, is the fact that, for 
the most part, its members are drawn intermittently from active pursuit of the prac- 
tice for which the schools are expected to prepare them. In Missouri this situation 
is due chiefly to the mistaken policy of the state in allowing Its teacher supply to be 
regulated largely by local economic considerations instead of buttressing the schools 
with reasonable legislation; but the schools themselves are partly responsible. Altho 
the results of this practice are unquestionably bad for the service in that the lower 
positions are systematically exploited for the sake of the higher, the ad vantage to the 
individual student is marked. It gives him the opportunity of earning the money to 
pay his way, and the effect of these inter-layers of experience upon his education, is 
doubtless stimulating to a limited extent, assuming that he is preparing to teach per- 
manently; where the student is simply alternating study and teaching with some 
alien purpose in view, the procedure has nothing whatever to commend it. 

Of the total annual enrolment in the normal schools, half of the men and three- 
fifths of the women had already taught. 1 Of the collegiate group, two-thirds were 
teachers, while of the secondary students, two-fifths of the men and over half of the 
women had had teaching experience. It is encouraging, however, to note that during 
the regular session the conditions are better. Leaving out the summer session, only 
two-fifths of the students have had teaching experience, and the proportion is greatest, 
naturally, in the collegiate group, where it is nearly one-half; among the secondary 
students the proportion dwindles to less than one-third. For three of the schools 2 it 
was possible to discover the nature of this experience. Rural school teaching predom- 
inates, as one would expect; about one-seventh of those in the collegiate group who 
have taught, lacked rural experience, and practically all teachers among the second- 
ary group have been rural teachers, tho a quarter of them have had some grade work 

1 See page 483. a Kirksville, Warrensburg, and Maryville. 



PERSONNEL OF THE NORMAL SCHOOLS 

also. One-fourth of the college students have done both rural and grade work, and 
about one-tenth have done some high school work. The collegiate women had been 
teachers only; but about two per cent of the collegiate men had been superintendents 
and three per cent had been principals. In length of experience, the summer session 
group shows a median of twenty-one months as compared with sixteen months among 
regular session students who have taught. 

These facts reveal the presence during the regular session of a majority of students 
who are making their education continuous; and show that an evolution from the earlier 
conditions is in progress, tho still far from complete. There would accordingly appear 
to be good reason why the schools should establish thoroughly organized curricula for 
students who are expected to remain and complete the course consecutively, and for 
those only, a suggestion more fully elaborated elsewhere. 1 Provision of another sort 
would be made for those experienced teachers who attend chiefly in the summer. 

IMMEDIATE INTENTIONS OF STUDENTS 

The intention with which students come to the normal schools was sought by 
direct questions to the students in attendance when the schools were visited. Replies 
as to intention to teach permanently have an important bearing upon certain ad- 
ministrative situations,, and are discussed elsewhere. 2 Intentions as to teaching im- 
mediately on leaving the school were stated by all but six per cent of twenty-four 
hundred students, tho with much variation between the schools. Three-quarters of 
the men and nine-tenths of the women intend to teach, but here again wide differ- 
ences appear. Nearly half of the secondary men reporting at Mary ville will not teach, 
while at Springfield only one-seventh so reported. The women are in every case more 
generally committed to teaching than the men, tho less so at Mary ville and JCirksville. 
Questions as to alternative occupations put to those not intending to teach show that 
not far from half both of men and women hope to go elsewhere to study; nearly one- 
third of the men will farm ; the remainder indicate several different occupations. 

STUDY ELSEWHERE 

Questions as to intentions for further study disclose the extent of the influence of 
various institutions. About two-fifths of the collegiate men students and one-tenth of 
the secondary group are bound for some college or university. Over half of the men 
making this declaration name the University of Missouri; about one-third are unde- 
cided, and one-sixth prefer outside institutions. Two-fifths of the women expressing 
the intention to go to college incline to the University of Missouri, but more than 
one-quarter of them are going to Chicago, Columbia, or Wisconsin. Missouri insti- 
tutions other than the state university interest about one per cent of the collegiate 
students in the normal schools who plan to do college work elsewhere. 

1 See pages 301 ff. * See page 298. 



STUDENTS 1S6 

STUDENTS AT HARRIS TEACHERS COLLEGE 

The women studying at the Harris Teachers College ranged in age from seventeen 
to thirty-eight, but only eight per cent were over twenty-one; three-fourths were 
from eighteen to twenty. It is a town-bred group; only seven per cent grew up in 
the country. Over four-fifths were natives of Missouri, and all but four had their 
homes in St. Louis. Nearly two-thirds were of American stock; a few were of Ger- 
man and one of English parentage, and about thirty per cent were mixtures of these 
and other nationalities. 

The fathers of these students were city workers; more than one-third were engaged 
in trade, one-fourth in manufacture and mechanical industries, nearly one-tenth in 
clerical occupations, and the same in various professions. Transportation and public 
service each engaged four per cent. In ten per cent of the cases the father was not 
living. The paternal income was generally given : fourteen hundred sixty dollars was 
the median figure; one-fifth received one thousand or less, and one-fourth over two 
thousand. The total family income was consistently higher throughout, with a me- 
dian of seventeen hundred fifty dollars. In point of size the median family had four 
children; one-tenth had only one child, and one-fifth had more than five children; 
over one-tenth had eight or more. 

The home environment in most cases was not academic. Only forty-three per cent 
of the fathers and thirty-nine per cent of the mothers had attended a high school; 
sixteen and nine per cent respectively had attended college, while eight and twelve 
per cent only had ever taught school* Altho the students at the state schools were 
largely from families some members of which had taught, the reverse is true at St. 
Louis. Almost eighty per cent of the families lacked any previous connections with 
school teaching. The remainder with two exceptions had members that had attended 
a normal school, all but one at Harris Teachers College. 

Nine-tenths of the students came up thru the graded elementary schools alone, 
nearly all of them in St. Louis; the remaining tenth had attended likewise some rural 
school. All but three passed thru the St. Louis high schools, spending there four school 
years or more except in one case. 

Asked why they planned to teach, about one-third of the students indicated finan- 
cial reasons or desire for an occupation; two-thirds expressed in some form their per- 
sonal preference, inclination, or fitness for teaching, or their fondness for children. 
Almost the same proportion, three-fifths, declared their intention to teach perma- 
nently. Notwithstanding the fact that less than one-third indicated financial reasons 
for teaching, fully eighty per cent felt that teaching was the best-paid employment 
open to them. Most of the rest believed that other professional service or some cleri- 
cal occupation was more remunerative. Regarding their professional training, nine 
out of ten students considered what was asked of them as more diiScult but also 
more interesting than their high school work; more difficult because of a curriculum 
crowded with urgent and unfamiliar exactions, more interesting because of "better 



186 PERSONNEL OE THE NOHMAL SCHOOLS 

teachers," 1 <c more individual responsibility and use of reason," and "closer connection 
with future work," "more vital/' "more practical." 

Taken altogether these studen ts are clearly as homogeneous a group as could easily 
be assembled for their purpose. Drawn from those ranking among the upper two- 
thirds of graduates from excellent high schools, they possess a fairly assured and tested 
foundation for special training. No small portion of their "immediate efficiency" is 
due to their inbred knowledge of the school system thru which they have come and 
in which they are presently to teach. The vocational motive is probably somewhat 
more conscious than in the state schools; at least the students themselves have had 
fewer family associations with teaching. Their even age, ability, and mental content 
make the task of the college relatively simple. 

It may be seriously questioned whether this homogeneity, so favorable from many 
points of view, is not a serious disadvantage in important respects. Equality of age, 
general high ability, and similar educational initiation is obviously desirable; but 
that every teacher in the St. Louis elementary schools should have only the provin- 
cial mental content of one rooted in a single spot almost from birth is not so certain. 
In defence of this system of virtually absolute inbreeding it Is urged that it is only 
the inbreeding of ideas that is dangerous, and that as the St. Louis child presumably 
has more varied ideas than one bred in the country or in a small town, he therefore 
possesses greater mental fertility. This theory appears to overlook the fact that the 
mere number of items within a person's horizon has little to do with his resourceful- 
ness. The city child's big buildings, "flats/ 9 street cars, parades, and "movies" may 
blend together into au order of life that taken by itself is precisely as parochial as 
is the experience of the country boy for whom trees, animals, and open country fur- 
nish the principal details. It is only when one such well-understood order of life is 
imposed upon another that fresh mental combinations are liberated and true insight 
is made possible. In those who achieve distinction, this result is brought about thru 
change of residence, travel, study, reading, pictures., and so forth. St. Louis now takes 
persons whose minds already exactly mesh with the cogs of her present system, and 
seeks to develop new speeds and progressive attitudes thru two years of further 
contact with the same environment. It would be better for her schools if she had at 
her disposal a considerable number of teachers equally well trained, but completely 
ignorant of the St. Louis regime. "Immediate efficiency" that rests on such absolute 
habifruation as the present conditions ensure, can hardly miss an unsound tendency 
toward reaction and stagnation. 

A public sanction for the present exclusive arrangement, that is always present, 
and that has constantly to be combated by the school authorities, is the theory that 
Harris Teachers College is primarily a public vocational opportunity for St. Louis 
girls. Much opposition to the "upper two-thirds" rule, already referred to, has been 
encountered on this score, the best interests of the schools for which teachers are 
desired being lost sight of in the attractive idea of convenient breadwinning posi- 



STUDENTS 127 

tions. A further consideration,, of course, is that women living at home may be had 
on terms lower than the salaries for which teachers of equal training could be in- 
duced to come from outside. 

The general situation at St. Louis confirms thoroughly sympathetic observers in 
the belief that the educational interests of the city as well as of the state at large 1 
would ultimately be better served if the Harris Teachers College were a state insti- 
tution, supported by general taxation but operated in close connection with the St. 
Louis city school system. It should then be open on attractive terms to candidates 
from all parts of the state, and from among these St. Louis, or any other Missouri 
city, could select the best teachers it could afford to pay. The training provided in 
the existing state schools is not at present such as St. Louis could profitably utilize. 
The time should soon come, however, when this can no longer be said; these schools 
should offer for the whole state a thorough, selective preparation suitable for a part, 
at least, of the staff in any great city. 

It is impossible to close this section without an expression of appreciation of the 
character of the student body of the normal schools. In or out of the classroom, 
whether in conversation or unconscious of the observer, these boys and girls pro- 
duced the impression of unlimited industry and a consuming purpose. Much of this, 
perhaps, is the result of sheer vocational impulse; certificates must be earned and 
maintained. But the larger significance of their opportunity is seldom absent, and 
the influence of individual teachers as well as, usually, the spirit of the school as a 
whole, continually emphasizes it. It would be difficult to propose a more appealing 
or responsive task for men and women of intellectual and moral power than well-ad- 
ministered professional relations with students of this sort. 



1 See page 60. 



VII 
CURRICULA OF THE NORMAL SCHOOLS 

A. OUTSTANDING PROBLEMS IN THE CONSTRUCTION OF CURRICULA FOR THE PREPARATION 

OF TEACHERS 

CONDITIONS in Missouri suggest several fundamental questions relating to the prin- 
ciples and policies of curriculum organization for institutions that prepare teachers. 
Particularly significant are the questions relating to: 1. Standards of admission; 
2. Residence requirements; 3. Prescription versus election; and 4, The extent and 
criteria of curriculum differentiation. 



1. Standards of Admission 
PROFESSIONAL SUBJECT-MATTER WELL DEVELOPED 

Among the factors that determine the length and content of a teacher's initial pre- 
paration, two are essential : the first is the extent to which the resources necessary for 
good teaching have been organized into disciplines that generate or promote the power 
to teach; the second is the extent to which society is willing to expend money in 
securing the advantage of these disciplines for the teachers of its children. 

Fortunately there is no question as to the extent to which profitable subject-matter 
is available. Education is an old field in its philosophic aspects, and the scientific 
studies of the past twenty years have supplied a wealth of material concerning its 
resources, nature, and processes that has gone far toward its firm establishment on 
a scientific basis. For any grade of teaching the construction of a four-year professional 
curriculum is at best a difficult process of selection among apparently indispensable 
studies and experiences. To compass this in two years can be accomplished only by 
the frank sacrifice of matter of unquestionable importance and the reduction of what 
is retained to abbreviated summaries. The worth even of this training is amply proved, 
however, by the experience of schools everywhere accessible. Specific training was 
adopted first in large cities, and from there has been carried over to the smaller com- 
munities. Nowhere has a community, progressive in other respects, diminished the 
professional preparation given its school teachers. The education of the teacher has 
measured the quality of the school, and that in turn has been an almost unfailing 
index of the quality of the community. Everywhere the natural pressure and demand 
on the part of those responsible for education is for more and better preparation and 
not for less. This would not be the case if the training had failed to show good results. 
The consensus of intelligent opinion is that it does show good results, and, further, 
that in so far as the educative procedure appears defective, it is largely some defi- 
ciency in the character and amount of the preparation of the teacher that is respon- 
sible. 



STANDARDS OF ADMISSION 139 

CHIEF QUESTION is ONE OF PURCHASE AND DISTRIBUTION OF TRAINING 

It is not a question, therefore, of the existence of effective tools, skill, and know- 
ledge wherewith teachers can be equipped. It is a question simply whether the state 
as a whole will deny modern educational advantages to certain groups of its youth 
while they are enjoyed by other groups. St. Louis has had a large number of profes- 
sionally trained teachers for many years, and recent tests of her public school system 
reveal the admirable quality of the results. She would prefer to pay twice their cost 
rather than revert to former conditions. Kansas City has more recently adopted the 
same policy. Educated elementary teachers are scattered thru other towns and cities in 
varying numbers, but outside of a few large towns the elementary schools are in gen- 
eral conducted by partially trained, or locally trained, or wholly untrained teachers, 
who are correspondingly inefficient. To be more exact, the conditions are as follows: 
Teachers of elementary schools with two or more years of professional preparation in 
advance of a high school curriculum constitute forty-one per cent of the total in St. 
Louis, twenty-three per cent in Kansas City, sixteen per cent in the smaller urban 
districts of the state, and a negligible proportion in the rural districts. These figures 
do not fully represent the case, however, for St. Louis, during recent years, has added 
well-trained teachers only, while the state at large is making no such progress. 

For this situation there is no justification ; it is a case of ample funds for well-pre- 
pared teachers in some quarters and meagre funds for poorly prepared teachers in 
others. The needs of the child in the small town or village are as great as those of the 
child in St. Louis ; and the needs of the country lad are greater than either. Rural 
school teaching actually demands a higher grade of teaching efficiency than any 
other branch of public school service: the problems of successful organization and 
instruction are more varied and more difficult; the range of subject-matter in which 
the teacher should be "letter perfect" is wider; supervision is less frequent and usually 
less competent; and the responsibilities of the teacher for community leadership are 
much heavier. To meet these demands, teachers can be had ; excellent training is avail- 
able ; the money cost is relatively unimportant to a wealthy state like Missouri ; the 
only thing really lacking is the determination on the part of the state to give every 
child, wherever he may be, opportunities equal to those enjoyed in the centres of pop- 
ulation that have developed a keener sense of responsibility than the state as a whole 
has felt for itself. 

MISSOURI HAS TEMPORIZED WITH COMPROMISES 

Instead of dealing with this problem in a businesslike and thoroughgoing manner, 
Missouri, like many other states, has temporized with a series of compromises, 
alleging that the more vigorous program was " impracticable." She has prided herself 
on legislation providing that by 1918 no person with less than a high school educa- 
tion receive high grade licenses, whereas such a limit is at best but a reasonable mini- 
mum for admission to training ; and even this requirement is nullified to a considerable 



130 CURRICULA : OUTSTANDING PROBLEMS 

degree by retaining the old third grade certificate intact for teachers with scarcely 
more than elementary schooling. In order to make high school graduates into teachers, 
the familiar expedient has been resorted to of giving them certain secondary courses at 
the hands of a special teacher, and a small appropriation, is being annually devoted to 
this purpose. The establishment of these secondary agencies for the training of teach- 
ers, while doubtless productive of good in many backward districts, has occasionally 
had a distinctly unfoi'tunate effect. The graduates of the high school training classes, 
usually town or city girls, have revealed the same unwillingness to enter the rural 
school service as have graduates of the state normal schools, and the pressure for the 
appointment of such graduates to positions in the home town and city systems where 
high school training classes have been organized is sometimes too insistent for the 
school authorities to resist successfully. This weakness can probably be improved by 
more skilful regulation, especially by recruiting country boys and girls for this work, 
but the only final solution is to place the preparation and the rewards for teaching in 
the rural schools on a level with, conditions in any other group, or if necessary to 
grant an additional bonus to such teachers. 1 

AN ADEQUATE POLICY NEEDED 

In view of the whole situation it should be determined that admittedly low grade 
curricula shall not be tolerated longer than is necessary to remedy even more fun- 
damental defects. States as widely different in the characteristics of their rural life as 
Massachusetts and California have succeeded in making high school graduation a pre- 
requisite for admission to rural school training curricula, and Missouri can do the 
same. A persistent campaign for a larger and more skilfully distributed state school 
fund in such rich and prosperous states as Illinois, Iowa, Kansas, and Missouri, coupled 
with renewed and redoubled efforts to establish the principles of consolidation wher- 
ever consolidated schools are possible, should speedily render unnecessary the effort 
to provide professional preparation on the secondary level. The high school training 
classes have rendered an important service, but to consider them as a satisfactory and 
permanent solution of the problem would be to perpetuate a standard of preparation 
utterly inconsistent with the fundamental significance of rural education to the pros- 
perity and welfare of the nation. 

It should be borne in mind, of course, that a standard prerequisite for professional 
training implies a required training beyond that prerequisite. To set this fact in clear 
relief as well as to increase the emphasis upon the preparatory as distinct from the pro- 
fessional institution, it would undoubtedly be of great advantage completely to sever 
the two kinds of work, and to confine the normal schools strictly to higher profes- 
sional instruction. As explained elsewhere, 2 this appears to be practicable in Missouri 
and should be carried out. 

1 This expedient has been tried successfully in Baltimore County, Maryland. 
a See pagres 166, 295, SCO. 



RESIDENCE REQUIREMENTS 131 

SHOULD PREPARATORY CURRICULA BE PRESCRIBED? 

Assuming that the standard professional curriculum will require a measure of 
preparation equivalent at least to graduation from a four-year high school, the ques- 
tion arises : Shall the character of the preparatory curriculum be more specifically pre- 
scribed ? There would, indeed, be many advantages in making requirements that would 
enable the normal schools and teachers colleges to omit from their professional cur- 
ricula a number of purely academic subjects. On the other hand, definite prescriptions 
of courses that must be completed prior to entrance might necessitate an early voca- 
tional choice upon the part of the high school pupils, and thus, in effect, make the 
high school curriculum preparatory to normal school entrance essentially vocational. 
This would certainly be the case if the subjects taught in elementary schools were 
prescribed as part of the entrance requirements, a policy that has been proposed on 
the ground that it would free the normal school from the necessity of offering review- 
courses. In the mutual interests of both high school and normal school, as well as in 
justice to the secondary pupil, it is believed that the best preparation for the profes- 
sional work of the normal school or of the teachers college would be a well-chosen pro- 
gram of general secondary studies rather than a specific and essentially vocational cur- 
riculum. From this point of view, there could be no objection to specifying among the 
admission requirements the satisfactory completion of certain courses characteristic of 
a liberal education : mathematics, one or more of the natural sciences, twoor more units 
of history, and perhaps four units of English; but to specify spelling, arithmetic, or 
other elementary subjects would be to substitute their inferior treatment on a second- 
ary level for serious professional attention later on. Furthermore, with a period of pro- 
fessional work in view, it is clearly unwise to force a vocational choice before the com- 
pletion of secondary education. The problem of taking care of the necessary "reviews" 
of the common branches in curricula of collegiate grade will be discussed later. 1 

While there are some who consider four years of secondary study as an unattain- 
able prerequisite for professional work, there are a few who would increase this require- 
ment by adding two years of general college education as the basis of admission to 
the professional curricula. This proposal is so closely involved with considerations 
affecting the nature of the professional curricula themselves that it seems appropri- 
ate to defer discussion of it to another publication, 2 



2, Residence 

Two years of resident study at a training institution seem for the present to be a 
reasonable minimum for the preparation of all grades of elementary teachers, and 
should be systematically enforced by suitable certification. This, however, is but the 

1 See pages 149 f., 227. 

2 The Foundation has in progress a revision of its suggested Curricula for the Professional Training of Teachers 
in American Public Schools, in which this problem will he fully discussed. 



182 CURRICULA : OUTSTANDING PROBLEMS 

beginning of a real solution of the problem of elementary instruction in Missouri, 
as in the United States as a whole. To meet the situation in fully adequate fashion, 
two fundamental demands must be satisfied: first, the school-going youth of the coun- 
try must be provided with teachers selected for their natural fitness and in confident 
possession of such knowledge and skill as our best training can supply; and secondly, 
the service of such teachers must be prolonged to the point where, as in other pro- 
fessions, the accumulated power of successful experience may accrue to the permanent 
advancement of the cause they serve. 

a. PROLONGED PREPARATION NEEDED FOR TEACHERS OF ALL GRADES ALIKE 

In planning a program for the preparation of teachers for America one must be 
aware that all the hopes and ideals of our democratic society itself are bound up in the 
eventual result. If the supreme service of one generation to the next is to place it most 
advantageously upon the stage, that service can be concentrated and ensured nowhere 
so effectively as in the selection and preparation of the teachers to whom chiefly the 
task is delegated. Indeed, so far as education thru schools is concerned, the teacher is 
the sole channel of influence. It requires no argument, therefore, to convince a thought- 
ful American that any process that renders his agents who deal with oncoming youth 
conspicuously more successful in bringing to pass the ambitions of the present for the 
future, is a paramount consideration. 

Such a process is emphatically the progressive education of a teacher in the content 
and significance of the social order that he is passing on for reproduction or better- 
ment; such is likewise his refinement in knowledge of the physical and mental makeup 
of the child he teaches ; such is certainly his observant study of skilled teachers and 
his own initiation under their leadership. As already pointed out, the sanction for all 
of this has been fully confirmed in the action of progressive communities everywhere. 
There is no longer any question of requiring that teachers be prepared; the really 
important question now pressing for answer is the question of the extent and appli- 
cation of this preparation among teachers of different grades or groups of children. 

WHY LONGER TRAINING FOR HIGH SCHOOL TEACHING? 

The best approach to a consideration of this problem may perhaps be made bv 
facing frankly at once the concrete issue which throws it into high relief. An accept- 
able teacher in the ninth, tenth, eleventh, and twelfth grades of our public school 
system must have had four years of college training supplemented in the better insti- 
tutions by a year or more of graduate work devoted to education and to the partic- 
ular subjects to be taught. But from the first grade to the eighth inclusive a teacher 
with a normal school training of two years beyond the high school is officially sat- 
isfactory. What are the grounds for this remarkable distinction occurring sharply 
at the end of the eighth grade? In the order of their increasing probability the follow- 
ing explanations suggest themselves. 



RESIDENCE REQUIREMENTS 133 

It is said that a longer and therefore presumably better training has been demanded 
for the teachers of the highest grades because there were fewer of them, and a more 
rigid selection was therefore possible and natural. There appears to be no valid reason 
for believing that this is true. Secondary teachers are indeed relatively fewer than 
elementary teachers because the number of secondary pupils has been and is propor- 
tionately smaller, but if the inference of better training were correct, it would hold 
good also as between eighth grade teachers and primary teachers where the same 
relative disparity in numbers exists. It might be sought for the same reason between 
teachers in the twelfth and those in the ninth grades, even in spite of the depart- 
mental character of this work. No such distinction in length of training is to be 
found at these other points. In fact, the training of the primary teacher is the one 
phase of preparation for elementary instruction that has been clearly differentiated 
from all others and given special emphasis. Plausible as the suggested distinction may 
appear at first glance, there seems to be no good reason why a group of public servants 
should be better prepared for its work simply because the group is small, tho that 
fact may of course facilitate selection occurring for other reasons. 

Is HIGH SCHOOL INSTRUCTION MORE "ADVANCED"? 

A second suggestion frequently offered as a sufficient reason for the distinction in 
question is that the work of the four higher grades, commonly known collectively as 
the "high school," is "advanced" work and therefore requires the "advanced" prepa- 
ration of a college course. And it is thereby implied that elementary instruction is 
"elementary" work and requires but "elementary" preparation or perhaps only "or- 
dinary common sense." Historically there is much truth in this explanation. For along 
period high school teaching could be prepared for only in college, while no college 
concerned itself seriously either with the studies or with the pupils of the elementary 
school. As the normal schools gradually made good their function, the studies and 
pupils of the elementary school became the centre of their attention. Partly for this 
reason and partly because the colossal size and strangeness of the new problem led 
many normal schools into obviously superficial and futile practices, the whole move- 
ment was ignored and often actively misunderstood by the colleges ; even to-day many 
college teachers and officers are uninformed as to its achievement and unimpressed by 
its real significance. 

The work of the normal schools, extended and systematized by university and 
college departments of education, has brought into being a type of preparation fully 
as indispensable to the elementary teacher and to society as a college course can pos- 
sibly be to the high school instructor. The work of one has become as "advanced" 
as that of the other, tho it deals with different materials. Compared with the sec- 
ondary teacher, whose field is narrowly limited, the competent lower grade instructor 
must possess a sure mastery in a relatively wide range of subjects, a mastery that 
the present brief training restricts almost to the bare material to be taught. The tech- 



134 CURRICULA : OUTSTANDING- PROBLEMS 

nical difficulties of teaching and of class management appreciably increase in passing 
from the higher to the middle levels of public school instruction; the equipment of the 
elementary teacher in skilful technique must therefore be correspondingly greater. 
In contrast with the strong natural sympathy existing between the well-chosen adult 
teacher and the mature or adolescent youth, a teacher of younger children finds a 
competent knowledge of his pupils and a permanent interest in them to be a more 
remote and more difficult acquisition that must be sustained, if at all, by motives im- 
plying a large social horizon and purpose. The lack of this, due to insufficient edu- 
cation, is precisely the secret of the mechanical and commonplace older "grade" 
teacher, familiar to every observer. 

In the lower grades primary and lower intermediate the problems of manage- 
ment recede in importance, or are at least less obtrusive, thus giving color to the pop- 
ular idea that the teacher's task is simpler. Here the real need of skill in teaching and 
especially of trained insight into the mental differences of growing children stands out 
in all its significance. School systems in general have been organized to fit their weak- 
est point, which is in the intermediate grades. Teachers that are inefficiently or me- 
chanically trained make necessary the rigid curriculum with its allotted pages, iden- 
tical for each of many varied minds; the mechanical supervision laid on firmly from 
without is inevitable, and the result is the dead average of mass-progress. To be able 
to treat third grade children intelligently as individuals, and to be safely entrusted 
with the adaptation of educational materials to their varying capacities, requires an 
ability that may be had thru education, but that to-day scarcely exists in these lower 
grades, and is rarely to be found in the elementary school at all. Because bright 
children can run unschooled until the age of ten or twelve and then be "brought up" 
to their classes without great loss of time, it is argued that, after all, the early grades 
are unnecessary except for the average or dull pupil. This is an undoubted fact, but 
by another inference the whole evil situation is contained in the irony of it. It is non- 
sense to suppose that under good conditions a teacher who knew her business could not 
have given the bright child the lead that his capacity warranted. With apparently 
little formal effort, the educated and sympathetic parent brings him along so fast that 
he is obliged to stay out until the lock-step of the school catches up. The relatively 
unskilled teacher of to-day, with the best of intentions, wastes the capable child's time 
precisely because the real nature of her business is still a riddle to her, and what in- 
sight she may have bears slight fruit because of a system organized to operate irrespec- 
tive of insight on her part. So far as the work itself is concerned, therefore, it must 
be contended that there is no longer any teaching position in the list for which " ad- 
vanced" preparation may justly and profitably be denied in favor of any other. 

SOCIAL DISTINCTIONS IMPLIED BETWEEN ELEMENTARY AND HIGH SCHOOLS 

A third ground for the traditional distinction in the training of high school teach- 
ers is rather more difficult of analysis, and is much less freely recognized than the one 



RESIDENCE REQUIREMENTS 135 

just discussed. After its inception the modern high school quickly became, like its 
predecessor the academy, the special protege of the institution next above it. Where 
high schools did not exist, preparatory departments in the college itself took their 
place, as in the University of Missouri and other Missouri colleges. The early status 
of the high school, then, was that of an institution suspended from the college in 
the darkness beneath; not until it became full-formed and established did it tend 
to build itself up out of a vigorous common school pressure from below, and even so, 
up nearly to the present day, it has clung to the college for sanction of its aims, 
methods, and program. The inevitable result of this intimate relationship was that the 
high school was regarded and in fact became, like the college, the institution for the 
education of children from relatively wealthy and cultured social groups. The public 
character of the school considerably enlarged the circle, to be sure, but only those 
could attend who, tho perhaps not destined for college, were at least able to command 
the necessary leisure and support for study during four years above the elementary 
school. The impulse to provide this, even at a sacrifice, was found chiefly in homes of 
considerable refinement until the high school added a form of training that met a 
purely vocational need and appealed to a different type of parent. 

Thus grew the tradition of a public school, proudly alleged to be for all, but actu- 
ally patronized by the wealthier and better educated elements in American life, and 
playing but a slight part in the existence of the great majority of the people. For 
these the "common" school did service* Often shunned in the largest cities, tho less 
so where the population was more homogeneous, this outpost of civilized life has been 
alternately the hope and the despair of all who trusted in it as the means for attain- 
ing true democracy. With splendid ideals and obvious possibilities, by resting heavily 
on the power of its traditional appeal, this often crude and awkward servant of the 
state has accomplished on the whole an important service in spite of the wooden sys- 
tem in which it is sometimes wedged, its often thoroughly mechanical processes, and 
its subjection to the constant interference of the incompetent. Its worth has been 
almost wholly positive; its failure, tho apparent, has been a failure in degree only, 

THE ELEMENTARY TEACHEII versus THE HIGH SCHOOL TEACHER 

The two institutions high school and "common 4 " school are completely revealed 
in their teachers. Beginning abruptly with the ninth grade, where compulsory educa- 
tion commonly ceases, the teachers must be college graduates and therefore suppos- 
edly well initiated into the world of letters and culture. It has not till lately been 
thought to matter much whether the teacher was prepared to teach; it sufficed if he 
held a diploma. Most older secondary teachers are painfully aware that their profes- 
sional training began when, they commenced to teach ; they may even be proud of the 
various subjects that they suddenly "worked up" out of a forgotten or wholly vacant 
past. Nevertheless, the teachers in our high schools and academies have been men and 
women more or less at home in the best intellectual life of their generation. Their 



136 CURRICULA : OUTSTANDING PROBLEMS 

varied studies, their college associates, their institutional and social experiences have 
made them in a small way people of " affairs,*" literary, political, social, and even 
commercial, representing interests to which the high school student ardently as- 
pires. They may blunder egregiously in teaching, but even the blunderers possess usu- 
ally something in their personal background that saves them from total failure. The 
stronger schools require evidence of successful experience in their teachers, and the 
tendency of recent regulations has been to require specific preparation for specific 
positions, and still more recently to require graduate study and directed practice 
work. The service offers, in its better positions, an agreeable and respected career in 
close contact with collegiate interests. Such are the teachers who deal with the selected 
youth from the better American homes. 

Below the ninth grade attendance is commonly compulsory for all children for 
whom no other provision is made. Teachers for these grades are recruited from high 
school graduates who are given at most something over a year of specific preparation 
for teaching the elementary school subjects followed by a period of supervised prac- 
tice in the schools. Sometimes the latter is concurrent with study or interwoven with 
it, both requiring not more than two years in all. Married women are not desired in 
the service; since nearly all elementary school teachers are women, the average tenure 
of these teachers, trained and untrained, is about four years. 1 The conditions of the ser- 
vice are exacting; the hours are long, the constant contact with all types of childhood 
is very trying to any but the soundest nerves, the extra demands upon a teacher's 
time and energy for both school and pupil are incessant, and the financial reward is 
utterly insignificant. The net result of the circumstances is that the majority of the 
teachers in these grades seek the work solely from an economic motive, expecting or 
hoping that it will be temporary. Training is given with this in mind. From the nor- 
mal school"^ standpoint it is concentrated on meeting in the shortest possible time cer- 
tain irreducible minima in the way of standards; from the student's point of view it 
represents simply the condition of securing a license. Compared with even two years of 
the four spent in college, the intellectual interests awakened are incidental and fugi- 
tive instead of central and cumulative; mental stimuli received in high school cease 
for lack of attention. Instead of persisting, like Alma Mater, a life-long shrine of high 
thought and feeling, the training school, once finished, ceases to figure in the teacher's 
thought, and his aspirations wither, lacking sure attachment. Whether a teacher for 
three years or thirty, such a brief and concentrated treatment disposes one blindly to 
reverence routine, to follow and to require specific directions, to eye too carefully the 
sources of approval or censure; in short, to fit the system, and, worst of all, to make 
unintelligent supervision easy. If the work becomes permanent, the uncertain attitude 
of the early years may be thrown off and real growth may result. If so, it must still 
spring by will and brain from the thin soil of scant initial training. The common 

1 This average includes rural school teachers. The elementary teachers in the larger cities have a longer average 
"life" probably between eight and ten years. 



RESIDENCE REQUIREMENTS 137 

alternative is to make the prescribed procedure automatic and to employ the mind 
elsewhere. Such is the teacher on whose instruction the attendance of children thru 
eight of the most critical years of their lives is expected, and in Missouri, outside of 
St. Louis and Kansas City, such a teacher receives annually for her services a salary 
of I450. 1 

CONTRAST IN TEACHERS THE CHIEF OBSTACLE TO PROGRESS 

This contrast between the teachers of a selected group destined to furnish the lead- 
ers of society and those provided for the balance of the population is naturally most 
keenly felt by the teachers themselves. The prestige of a high school instructorship 
quite outranks that of a "grade" teacher's position in popular respect, and must, of 
course, do so until training and compensation are equalized and the two schools are 
merged in a single institution. To pass from an elementary school position to the 
high school, as has been possible in small country high schools, or in city schools by 
securing additional training, is rated as promotion to the disparagement of the "in- 
ferior" job. Educationally this situation constitutes at present perhaps the greatest single 
obstacle to progress. As long as the situation requires that a teacher rise by changing 
his work instead of by capitalizing his experience and improving his work, little genuine 
progress toward professional efficiency can be realized. 

DISTINCTIONS IN TRAINING SHOULD DISAPPEAR 

The deductions to be drawn from this brief review of public school cleavage must 
be fully apparent. The present conditions cannot last in a republic pledged to Ameri- 
can principles. The advantages of appropriate adolescent education from the four- 
teenth to the eighteenth year, which are now theoretically open to each child, must 
actually be placed in his possession. The same curriculum for all during these years 
is absurd; but an education equally genuine and thorough for all alike and modified 
only by the proved abilities of the child must be provided for every boy and girl in 
the country thru their eighteenth year, and must be required of them if the United 
States is to face the new world-era a fit and competent nation. This education will 
necessarily assume many forms. The only form that it may not assume is one that 
permits the social and financial status of an undeveloped youth to determine his 
future. Thoroughly exploited and completely discredited in Europe, this system will 
yield here, where its roots are weak, to an educational faith and policy whereby the 
leadership that emerges shall be that of sheer mental, moral, and physical excellence. 

The executor of this future is the teacher and no other. Created and supported 
according to whatever vision prevails, it is he who determines the result. In making 

1 This is the median annual salary of the women teachers in graded elementary schools who have had two or 
more years of training in addition to four years of high school. Such teachers number only sixteen per cent of the 
total ; the remainder lack so much training, but owing to a certificate system that penalizes proper preparation, 
they receive nearly the same salary. The median is exactly the same, but thirty-five per cent only of the second 
group receive more than $450 as compared with forty-nine per cent of the first group. 



138 CURRICULA : OUTSTANDING PROBLEMS 

secondary education compulsory it is obvious that, to accomplish our final purpose^ 
the best present standard of training for the secondary teacher must be maintained 
that is, four or five years of organized and pertinent preparation. It should be equally 
obvious that the problem of elementary instruction cannot be said to have been solved 
until the training of elementary teachers is fully established upon a like basis. This 
done, the American system of education becomes intelligible and defensible : a twelve- 
year period of growth and training under superior conditions for every child, admin- 
istered by a special class of teachers selected for similar and representative character 
and power, and amply trained for their purpose; men and .women who are permanent 
and resourceful students of their work, seeking a possibly equal distinction of ser- 
vice and reward alike within all grades and subjects of instruction, and professionally 
organized for the continued advancement of American schools. 

Whether the accomplishment of the program outlined above is a matter of ten 
years or of fifty is not our immediate concern ; it is necessary, however, to discern 
clearly the goal toward which we ought to strive. Certain communities, like St. Louis, 
are already asking whether a longer training for elementary teachers is not desirable, 
and if so, what form it shall take. New York State is on the eve of converting its 
two-year normal school curriculum into a three-year curriculum to be required of all 
elementary teachers in graded schools. Massachusetts, in her state normal schools, 
has organized three-year courses for upper grade elementary teachers; Rhode Island 
is likewise upon a three-year basis; and scattered beginnings of the same sort are 
observable elsewhere. The feeling is general that, altho the trained elementary teach- 
ers are doing technically better work than the untrained high school teachers, they 
are seriously lacking in substantial education, and the proposed lengthening of the 
curriculum is intended partially to remedy this defect. High school teachers, on the 
other hand, are under no such pressure to lengthen their preparation in point of time. 
Progress for them hinges upon the reorganization of their curriculum for a definite 
objective and the provision of real professional training comparable to that which the 
best elementary teachers already enjoy. Were there apparent a clear tendency toward 
requiring additional years, toward making a doctor's degree, for example, a qualifica- 
tion for secondary instruction, the inference would be natural that the preparation 
for secondary work was destined to maintain its old relative advantage. This is not the 
case. Even the fifth year required of secondary teachers in California, in Rhode Island 
(for state scholarships), and in some other communities, was added rather in order to 
secure professional training without disturbing the unity of the college curriculum 
than because a successful secondary teacher could not be well prepared in four years, if 
provided with a curriculum planned for the purpose. The indications are rather that, 
without prejudice to the secondary instructor, the work of his colleague in the elemen- 
tary school will be regarded as of equal importance, specialization being relied upon to 
provide for the greater intensiveness of the secondary teacher's task, and both candi- 
dates being required to work out a careful technique suited to their respective fields. 



RESIDENCE REQUIREMENTS 139 

THE OUTLOOK FOR SUCH A PROGRAM 

It is improbable that the adoption of lengthened curricula for prospective elemen- 
tary teachers will be in any sense the slow and painful evolution that has brought us 
to our present stage. What was once the gradual attainment of separate progressive 
communities, an enlightened state now accomplishes at a single stroke. The old labo- 
rious methods of educational progress are unnecessary when the principle is plain and 
a commonwealth is fully persuaded; radical and adequate action must shortly take the 
place of the piecemeal legislation that forever falls short. This fact should encourage 
state and institutional administrators in comprehensive planning for the future. There 
must indeed be a rational sequence in the steps taken, the first of which was indicated 
at the beginning of the present section. It should, however, be clearly understood that 
this is but a step in a much larger program to follow. 

b. ADEQUATE RESIDENCE REQUIREMENTS DEPEND UPON PEOSPECT OF EXTENDED SERVICE 
The second fundamental rearrangement that must be effected before the require- 
ments of prolonged resident training can be reasonably enforced is a lengthened term 
of teachers' 5 service. It appears unlikely that under present or predictable economic 
conditions the service of competent men in the elementary schools will assume any 
but negligible proportions except for administration and, here and there, for special 
undertakings with boys. It is true that in the newer portions of the country men are 
still to be found teaching in the elementary schools, as in Missouri, but their number 
has diminished steadily. 1 In general, the men who can be obtained for regular instruc- 
tion at prevailing salaries prove inferior to their women colleagues, and the disad- 
vantage of "feminization," whatever it may be, would be ill remedied by entrusting 
children to weak teachers simply because they are men. 

For the present, at least, the obvious and necessary solution of the problem lies 
in a quite different direction ; namely, in the recognition and development of teaching 
as a permanent and serious profession for capable women who are attracted thereby, 
wholly irrespective of their marriage. The enforcement of this point of view has so vital 
a connection with the extension of residence requirements as well as with the spirit 
and organization of curricula for the preparation of teachers that the considerations 
on which it rests may well be presented at this point. 

SERVICE OF WOMEN NOW TERMINATES WITH MARRIAGE 

It is a widespread practice among American school boards to consider a woman 
teacher's marriage as equivalent to resignation. Where not expressly provided in 
formal regulations, the policy is often tacitly pursued by refusal to reappoint. It is 
safe to say that the initial appointment of married women except when widowed or 
clearly unencumbered with family duties is very rare. The usual justification for 

1 The proportion of men in the teaching body has decreased since 1900 by 10.8 per cent in the country at large and 
by 13,5 per cent in Missouri. Report of the United States Commission&r of Education^ 1917. 



140 CURRICULA : OUTSTANDING PROBLEMS 

this practice is based on one of three grounds. The reason most frequently heard is 
the familiar frank interpretation of tax-paid positions as a proper perquisite for 
the needy citizen. A married woman is presumably provided for; therefore let some 
young girl have the job. 1 A second ground for objection is characteristic particularly 
of school superintendents, and is to the effect that the work of married teachers is 
more difficult to regulate, and that such teachers have meddlesome and redoubt- 
able allies in the persons of their husbands. A third objection to employing married 
teachers is the general and sound social conviction that it is the first business of a 
married woman to look after her home, and this duty is considered to be impossible 
of fulfilment if the woman holds a teaching position. 

REASONS OFFERED FOR THE PRESENT PRACTICE 

The first of these objections is held by a class of individuals with whom argument 
is impossible; the only remedy is time, which may be trusted gradually to substitute 
another point of view toward all public service. A certain warrant for the second at- 
titude undoubtedly exists in experience under conditions that have prevailed in many 
parts of the country. Inferior teachers, or those that have become inferior thru ceas- 
ing to grow, entrench themselves in a community thru long, albeit dull and ineffi- 
cient, service. The very presence of a home with husband and family gives them a 
substantial status and a following. When occasion arises to exclude such a teacher, 
a noisy protest ensues from all the partisans, most of whom are wholly ignorant of 
educational standards if not of the specific circumstances, and if the administration 
holds its ground, a situation may arise that nearly wrecks the system. In reply to this 
it may be said that such episodes are characteristic of school systems in which a 
mechanical tenure prevails, where the notion that teachers stand or fall according 
to the excellence of their work has little root in the schools and none in the com- 
munity. Such cases fall of their own weight when a school administration keeps unre- 
mittingly before both teachers and citizens the conception that teachers exist for the 
good of the pupils; when good work is carefully and persistently held up to view; 
when the standards of selection are high; and when parents are made fully aware 
that meritorious teaching is their due. It requires intelligence to do this. A higher 
order of mental ability and training is necessary to lead and direct well-developed 
personalities having local professional standing as a result of acknowledged achieve- 
ment, than will suffice to handle a group of young girls coming from without, who 
have no immediate friends and make no trouble when dismissed. The supply of super- 
intendents of this type is unfortunately limited, but it is increasing. Except in spo- 
radic cases, this objection, like the first, harks back to the time when fitness and 

1 An unexpected illustration of this attitude appears in a recent action (September, 1918) of the Boston School Com- 
mittee. The rule against married teachers appears to have been in part suspended owing to war conditions. But the 
Committee refused at first to suspend the rule in the case of the wife of a commissioned officer, on the ground, as 
quoted in a newspaper interview with one of the members, that she was already sufficiently provided for. The ap- 
pointment was subsequently allowed, but only in order to conform to an assurance of the Superintendent to the 
teacher in question before her marriage. 



RESIDENCE REQUIREMENTS 141 

training were undiscovered elements in a candidate's qualifications, while the com- 
fort of the board in its relations with insistent citizens, or the convenience of the 
superintendent in running his machine, was actually the determining factor. 

WILL THE MARRIED TEACHER NEGLECT HER HOME? 

The third consideration is of different character and should be seriously studied. 
It is urged that, for a married woman with a family, teaching necessarily involves 
neglect of the home which should be her paramount consideration. An indispensable 
premise to any argument to the contrary must be that the question has to do only 
with a woman well trained for professional life and whose occupation up to the time 
of her marriage was the education of children. It must be assumed further that she 
has been a skilful teacher and that she thoroughly enjoys her work, so that her 
motive in continuing is not merely economic advantage. Women to whom this does 
not apply clearly should not teach. A large number of well-educated women will un- 
doubtedly find complete satisfaction solely in the high art of making and maintaining 
a successful home. One of the finest products of modern higher education for women 
has been the worth and dignity that it has revealed in this undertaking. For the 
woman first described, however, the domestic situation is a complete brief in favor 
of her further teaching service. Her income from teaching produces more than the 
amount necessary to effect the household arrangements that her absence requires, and 
thereby possibly delivers her from a round of petty duties that might be performed 
equally well or better by some assistant duties that are often in irritating contrast 
to the intellectual concerns of an educated woman before she marries, even if they do 
not actually lead to disappointment and stagnation. Meanwhile the teacher's profes- 
sional work maintains and develops in her an intellectual freshness and skill that 
makes her a superior guide for her own children as well as a more interesting com- 
panion for her husband. Trained to systematic mental activity in the problems of 
education, she is now also director of a private laboratory where these problems 
work out, and her partial detachment in teaching gives her a clearer vision and per- 
spective than is possible to a mother unassisted and constantly immersed in house- 
hold detail the usual alternative. With the family grown and gone, the situation of 
the teacher-mother is incomparably superior to that of the mother-housemaid. Her 
connections with the world are stronger and more significant, her grip on vital inter- 
ests is surer, and her satisfactions in life are more durable; she is spared the desul- 
tory "busy- work "of the mother whose mentality has been exhausted in housework; 
and she has before her ten or twenty years of acknowledged usefulness that is the 
logical cumulation of a life of directed study, service, and experience. 

WILL THE MARRIED WOMAN PROVE A LESS EFFICIENT TEACHER? 

The other and, for our purpose, more serious charge is that a married woman would 
allow home duties to interfere with her school duties and thus become a less efficient 



142 CURRICULA : OUTSTANDING PROBLEMS 

teacher. Again it must be assumed that we deal here with well trained and success- 
ful teachers who like their work,, for only such teachers should pass the probationary 
stage whether married or single. It is scarcely probable that such teachers with 
well-developed professional ideals will permit causes of undue interference with their 
duties to continue long even if they arise. However, an argument of perfection can 
hardly be turned against married teachers at this point. It is quite conceivable that 
domestic or private concerns might create occasional diversion, but the same thing 
occurs repeatedly with unmarried women teachers and even with men. It seems need- 
less to press this point. The whole tendency of marriage for both men and women 
is to steady and objectify one's effort, to sift out trivial and careless aims, and to 
lay down lines of growth into a consistent and unified career. To discredit this fact 
in favor of young, unmarried women, without serious responsibility or experience, 
and at a period of conspicuously uncertain and distracted interest, is a manifest 
absurdity. 

MARBIAGE AN ADVANTAGEOUS QUALIFICATION FOB A TEACHER OF CHILDIIEN 

On the other hand s there is probably no work to which marriage and a normal 
home life could contribute a qualification more essential than they could to teaching; 
tho not without its application to men in dealing with adolescents, it would appear 
well-nigh indispensable for women in the intelligent handling of small children. 
In an educated and professionally well-trained woman, marriage and the deepen- 
ing experiences of motherhood could not but serve to clarify her insight, to broaden 
and humanize, her sympathy, and to intensify devotion to her central purpose, a 
purpose that would then link together and coordinate the processes of both home 
and school. This latter result would appear particularly in the transformed relation 
between the school teacher and the community. At present she figures as a detached 
public servant in a class apart. If married and a householder having children, she 
becomes a vitally interested and respected factor in society. With an education supe- 
rior to that of most other women, she possesses, by virtue of her quasi-public position, 
unusual opportunities for leadership and influence and would undoubtedly improve 
them. A town whose schools were taught by its most capable and best educated 
married women would, assuming that these were also well trained for teaching, 
give the country a totally fresh and significant interpretation of public education. 
Such a relation would carry the schools straight to the heart of society's most re- 
sponsible group, and would make them immeasurably more responsive to the pub- 
lic needs. 

ENORMOUS WASTE OF THE PRESENT SYSTEM 

Important as the above considerations are, the weightiest practical reason for the 
married teacher is still another. The largest source of waste that OUT present system 
of teacher supply involves is the waste of experience incurred in the loss each year of 



RESIDENCE REQUIREMENTS MS 

from one-fifth to one-fourth of the entire teaching population. The average teacher 
no sooner becomes fairly efficient than she leaves the service, 1 giving way to a recruit 
who repeats the same mistakes of apprenticeship, leaving in her turn before these mis- 
takes can be transmuted into matured skill. The very nature of the selection that 
produces this loss seems to ensure the heaviest draft upon the best grades of ability 
in the teaching personnel. Those with the most active, the most thoughtful and force- 
ful minds, those who are most attractive and resourceful in dealing with children, are 
oftenest among those that leave, and because they are successful, even under the pres- 
ent hard conditions, they most frequently leave with regret. By encouraging the best 
teachers either thru added salary or shorter hours, or both, to continue in the profes- 
sion after their marriage, this constant drain will be partially stopped as the class of 
selected, permanent workers increases. 

CONSERVATION OF PROFESSIONAL EFFORT IN EUROPE 

The present system is productive of a further loss, the effect of which may be under- 
stood only by comparing American conditions with those prevailing on the Continent 
of Europe. There the great majority of the teachers re men. They assume their duties 
with the knowledge that teaching is to be the life work for which they have received 
a long and appropriate training. No sooner do they become established in their posi- 
tions than they unite, with few exceptions, in teachers' societies that have for their 
object the study and promotion of the schools they teach. These organizations are in- 
cessantly busy. From them proceed the most effective criticisms of current practice and 
carefully studied experiments directed toward improvement. As the body of teachers 
is permanent, this mass of experience is cumulative, fine traditions are created, and 
the teacher in service is educated, sometimes in spite of himself, to a very high level 
of performance. As in the university and secondary schools abroad, so it is in the ele- 
mentary schools : the teachers themselves control and develop in great part the func- 
tion that they discharge. 

ABSENCE OP ORGANIZED EFFORT AMONG ELEMENTARY TEACHERS IN AMERICA 

Consider the situation among the agents of elementary instruction in the United 
States. With much shifting from place to place they are in and out of school work 
altogether in half the time that a child is expected to spend with them. Professional 
coherence and activity does not and cannot exist; there is no time for the great cause 
they are supposed to serve to take root in their imaginations; they move as individ- 
uals without collective force or expression, completely at the mercy of the principals 
and superintendents, good and bad, who direct them. Higher education with us is self- 
directive; secondary education is partly so; while the average elementary teacher is 

1 This statement is more than merely figuratively true. The " average " elementary teacher does not serve more than 
four years, and the studies of teacher-rating jus tiftr the inference that, in the average of cases^about four years of 
experience are essential to the development of teaching: skill to the point where it will he rated as superiorly com- 
petent supervisors. 



144 CURRICULA : OUTSTANDING PROBLEMS 

voiceless except in cities, where she lends herself automatically to a perennial agita- 
tion for more salary. 

MARRIED TEACHERS WOULD REWIRE BETTER CONDITIONS 

If this situation can be corrected at all, it must be as above stated, namely, by 
making a life career of teaching possible and attractive to successful women. Under 
present conditions it is not probable that many teachers of the kind desired would con- 
tinue to teach after their marriage even if the opportunity were given. This is de- 
cidedly in their favor and against present conditions. Children need strong, rested, 
and clear-seeing teachers ; instead of which the present regime is likely to produce 
teachers who are inclined to weariness, nervous tension, and depression. A part-time 
plan for teachers would be harder to carry out, but the actual results would undoubt- 
edly be a great gain. Better forty positions with a short day for skilled, experienced, 
and finely productive married women, whose ability has made them a permanent and 
recognized asset in the community, than a fluctuating, overworked group of twenty 
young apprentices of doubtful intentions and divided interests. 

EFFECT OF PROLONGED TENURE ON TRAINING 

The effect of this point of view upon the professional curriculum is apparent. Many 
normal schools to-day herd their students, much as many superintendents herd their 
teachers. The demand presses; all sorts of material must be utilized; each teacher 
produced is presumably short-lived so far as service goes and must soon be replaced. 
There prevail, therefore, all the usual evils of mass production for the temporary 
repair of excessive wastage : slighted preparation, poor selection, hurried processes, lax 
inspection, and much false branding of finished goods. Given the new motive, how- 
ever, each training agency could seriously set out to make genuine teachers. A dis- 
criminating choice of students, a deliberate, ripened training, and a thorough testing 
of the product would be worth while in preparing a teacher to face her peculiar pro- 
fession of school and home education as a man faces medicine or law. The necessity 
of longer training for longer service would be manifest; fewer new teachers would be 
required; more could be expected of the profession itself in the form of continuous 
and organized self-criticism and growth. 



3. Prescription versus Election of Studies 

A striking difference between the state normal schools of Missouri and the city 
training schools of St. Louis and Kansas City is the closely prescribed programs of 
the latter as compared with the largely elective programs of the former. Various rea- 
sons are assigned in explanation of this difference. The city training schools prepare 
for a clearly defined type of service. The students will presently teach a prescribed 
and uniform elementary curriculum based upon uniform textbooks. Their preparation, 



PRESCRIPTION VERSUS ELECTION 145 

consequently, calls for a very specific treatment of the field. The state normal schools, 
on the other hand, endeavor to prepare for high school teaching as well as for service 
in elementary schools, and in the preparation even of elementary teachers, they have 
believed that the logic of their situation required them to aim toward an adaptability 
that would enable their graduates to meet varying situations. It is not clear, however, 
that this need of ensuring elasticity has been the primary reason for the normal schools' 
adoption of the elective system. The interlocking organization of the one-year, two- 
year, three-year, and four-year curricula, referred to later, 1 provides for a gradual ac- 
cumulation of credits representing work which may transform a teacher of elemen- 
tary subjects into a high school specialist. For this purpose as well as to allow for the 
intermittent attendance encouraged by the state schools, the elective system offers the 
simplest plan for organizing a program of studies. Beyond this, and perhaps still more 
influential in determining the procedure, has been a somewhat unreflective imitation 
by the normal schools of the curriculum policies characteristic of the liberal-arts col- 
leges. The normal schools, it is true, have sought to justify this imitation, in so far as 
the elective system is concerned, by insisting that the needs of the individual are al- 
ways of paramount consideration. If this principle could be effectively offset by a com- 
plementary postulate that would safeguard the needs of the service for which these 
individuals are being prepared, there could be no objection to it; but to make these 
adjustments involves difficulties quite as serious as those that are encountered in ad- 
ministering a prescribed curriculum in away that will not do injustice to the individ- 
ual. The typical student programs cited elsewhere 2 abundantly testify that the Mis- 
souri normal schools have not succeeded in solving the problem in a satisfactory man- 
ner. A final factor in determining the adoption of the elective system has been the 
desire of the normal schools to have their courses articulate closely with those of the 
universities, to which many of their students expect to go. 

DEFINITION OF PRESCBIFTION 

When the question is considered from a purely objective standpoint, however, it 
is fair to ask whether, as a matter of general policy, prescribed curricula are not both 
theoretically and practically preferable either to the elective system or to the group- 
requirement system for institutions that prepare teachers. Under the assumption 
that the institution is really what it purports to be, namely, a strictly professional 
school, preparing for clearly defined and fairly well-standardized types of public 
service, is it not advisable to lay down systematic programs of instruction and 
training, each of which shall comprise the materials that experience has shown to be 
most clearly related to the specific field of service that the student proposes to 
enter? This does not mean that deviations from the prescribed curricula should not 
be permitted ; it means rather that these deviations should be clearly consistent with 
the needs both of the individual and of the service, that they should be subject 



1 See page 162. * See pages 411-417. 



146 CURRICULA : OUTSTANDING PROBLEMS 

neither to the whim of the student nor to the accident of class hours, and that they 
should be permitted only with the approval of an official or a committee acting under 
rules laid down by faculty action. With such a provision, carefully and sincerely ad- 
ministered, the prescriptive system would acquire much of bhe elasticity that is the 
important advantage of the elective plan, and would avoid its evils. The more serious 
disadvantages of the elective and group-requirement systems may be summarized as 
follows. 

THEORY OF " EQUIVALENCE" OF COURSES FOR PROFESSIONAL PURPOSES 

Both systems imply an equivalence of educational values among different courses 
which on their face are not equivalent in their value as preparation for specific types 
of teaching. It is in this connection that the weakness of the group system is most 
apparent. The natural sciences, for example, frequently constitute a single group, 
and a student is required to take so many semester hours of "science." In the eyes 
of those who make this indiscriminate requirement, it is apparently not the content 
or subject-matter of the science courses that is important; the "discipline" of scien- 
tific method is the ostensible end sought. From this point of view, all of the sciences 
are assumed to stand upon the same level. But in the preparation of teachers for the 
specific work of imparting instruction, the nature of the subject-matter can never be 
the relatively unimportant factor that the theory of formal discipline would assume, 
and the particular sciences that are to find a place in a teacher- training curriculum 
cannot so nonchalantly be made a minor consideration on the easy assumption that 
"it is the training that counts," and that for purposes of training "one science is 
just as good as another." Similar allotments of a stated number of hours in the so- 
cial sciences, or even in the narrower field of history, are equally inadequate to the 
needs of specific preparation for the work of teaching. 

The inappropriateness of choice resulting from group election would of itself be 
sufficient to condemn the system; but its case is still worse when it is remembered 
that these group requirements are often mere compromises among contending aca- 
demic departments, each of which zealously presses its own claims for recognition. 
On this basis the outcome has relatively little educational value. Whatever may be 
the evils of the system in tempting the instructor to offer "snap" courses, it is clear 
that the prescribed program removes all such inducement. It also has the effect of 
concentrating the teacher's entire attention on improving the quality of the regular 
standard courses for which he is responsible instead of placing a premium upon vari- 
ety which is bound to be more or less experimental in character. 

THE PROFESSIONAL STUDENT NOT QUALIFIED TO ELECT 

Both systems imply a mistaken trust in the ability of the relatively immature stu- 
dent to determine not only what is best for him as an individual but, in institutions 
preparing for public service, what is best for the service a far more delicate and 



PRESCRIPTION VERSUS ELECTION 147 

important matter. Even when choices are subject to the approval of faculty advisers, 
the advice is not infrequently influenced by partisan or departmental motives that 
tend to overshadow the fundamental needs both of the individual and of the schools 
in which he will teach; while in some cases the advice is purely perfunctory, the stu- 
dent really electing subjects as he chooses or under the adventitious controls repre- 
sented by one's favorite class-hours, the popularity or unpopularity of certain in- 
structors, or even the place of the subject in the schedule of final examinations. If, 
however, curricula are prescribed with minute care and are subject to change only 
by approval of an official or a committee acting under carefully formulated rules, 
there is every likelihood that principles of educational value will be much more ade- 
quately reflected, both in the prescriptions themselves and in the substitutions that 
are permitted. 

SEQUENCE DIFFICULT TO MAINTAIN 

A most serious objection to the elective and group systems is the difficulty in pre- 
serving the essential sequences in courses. An attempt is often made to meet this need 
by stating prerequisites, altho in the Missouri normal schools these are not substan- 
tial either as stated in the catalogues or as enforced in practice. The prescriptive pol- 
icy, tempered as has been suggested by the permission of changes under stated rules, 
places primary emphasis upon sequence and order, and then examines each claim for 
exemption or substitution upon its own individual merits. 

Is THE ATTITUDE OF THE STUPENT IMPROVED BY ELECTION? 

There are certain alleged advantages of the elective and group systems that merit 
attention in this connection. It has been urged that under the elective system the 
attitude of the student is more favorable; he believes that his studies are of his own 
choosing, and consequently, it is asserted, his work is more whole-hearted and thor- 
ough. A careful search was made for evidences of greater interest and enthusiasm 
among the students of the state normal schools as compared with the students of the 
city training schools with their rigidly prescribed curricula. If there were any differ- 
ences, they were distinctly not to the disadvantage of the city training schools, altho 
it cannot be asserted that the policy of prescription had in any sense a causal influ- 
ence. Interest, enthusiasm, and hard work are elements that, in so far as they depend 
upon the exercise of the student's choice, are the product of his initial decision as to 
the goal at which he hopes to arrive. A student chooses whether he will study law or 
medicine, or whether he will become a primary or an upper grade teacher, and works 
more happily when bis goal inspires him; but with his choice once made, any clear- 
headed professional student would rather undertake the studies that a competent 
authority tells him he needs than wander unguided thru a program whose values he 
cannot possibly predetermine. 



148 CURRICULA : OUTSTANDING PROBLEMS 

EFFECT OF ELECTION ON "INITIATIVE"" 

A second supposed merit of the elective and group systems is really a specific ex- 
pression of an educational doctrine accepted by many as axiomatic. Freedom, it is 
asserted, promotes the development of that valuable quality known as " initiative," 
while prescription with its restrictions tends to choke originality and to predispose 
the student to a more or less blind acceptance of authority. No one would deny the 
general validity of this position, but much confusion is likely to result from an undis- 
criminating application of the implied principle to the work of education. Each of 
the words " freedom,"" "initiative,"" "originality, 1 " and "restrictions" may be applied to 
situations having diametrically opposite meanings, and there will always be a temp- 
tation to profit by these possibilities of equivocation, especially in utilizing the prin- 
ciple to support loose and careless practices or to cloak the unwillingness of those 
in authority to assume a corresponding measure of responsibility. Freedom that the 
truth has made is confused with mere lack of direction; "initiative and originality" 
in putting together a bizarre program of studies is substituted for aggressive mental 
comprehension under competent leadership, and administrative laziness makes it an 
august pedagogical principle to allow students to do as they please. It is clear that 
any principle, however valid in the abstract, must be applied with caution whenever 
it can be used easily to conceal or to sanction the path of least resistance. As a mat- 
ter of fact, there is no evidence that carefully constructed and intelligently adminis- 
tered curricula of the prescribed type in technical and professional schools exert a 
deleterious influence upon initiative and originality, and there is an abundance of 
evidence that system, order, and a willingness to undergo discipline are likely to go 
hand in hand with constructive ability of the highest character. 1 

Whatever may be the virtues of the elective and group-requirement systems in 
institutions of general education, their place in professional and technical education 
would seem to be narrowly limited. As an administrative device for facilitating the 
construction of individual curricula, the group system especially may have legitimate 
uses, but even here the many advantages of definitely prescribed curricula made up of 
carefully selected and well-articulated courses would amply compensate for the diffi- 
culties that are likely to be encountered in their construction and administration. 

4. The Extent and Criteria of Curriculum Differentiation 

In constructing a comprehensive program of studies for the professional pz*epara- 
tion of teachers two important questions relating to differentiation arise: (1) How 
are curricula for teachers to be differentiated in general from curricula that are non- 
vocational or liberal in their purpose? and (2) What different kinds of specific curric- 
ula are essential to a preparation of public school teachers that will adequately meet 
current needs? 

x Cf. an illuminating article by E,L. Thorndike, '* Education for Initiative and Originality," Teachers College Record, 
November, 1916. 



DIFFERENTIATION 149 

a. INCIDENTAL versus ORGANIZED PROFESSIONAL TRAINING 

Opinion relative to the first question is divided between (a) those who maintain 
that the best training for a teacher is essentially a "general 1 ' education with emphasis 
upon the subject-matter to be taught, but with added courses in educational theory 
and practice, and (6) those who hold that the curriculum should be constructed 
throughout, academic and professional subjects alike, with a view to the needs of those 
who are planning to teach. The former point of view has naturally been emphasized 
by the liberal-arts colleges that have recognized the importance of preparing teach- 
ers; the latter point of view is characteristic of certain, altho by no means all, of the 
normal schools. 

That a teacher should have the broadest possible foundation in scholarship has 
never been seriously disputed, but there are varying opinions as to the meaning of 
"broad scholarship," and the particular meaning that any one person gives to the 
term is likely to be misinterpreted and exaggerated by others. Those who plead for 
extensive information as an essential basis for all teaching are likely to be accused of 
favoring a superficial acquaintance with many different fields of knowledge, while those 
who lay the emphasis upon depth and accuracy are met with the charge of narrowness 
and pedantry. There has been, and still is, among college faculties a decided prejudice 
against the normal schools for leaning toward the superficial, while principals of high 
schools have not hesitated to accuse college-trained teachers of having no interest 
save in the advanced phases of their own specialties. In each case the criticism, while 
justified in particular instances, has usually been generalized to an unwarrantable 
extent, but the situation that actually exists reveals the need of a more definite 
agreement as to the kind and amount of " broad scholarship " that a teacher should 
possess. 

We have already concluded that the specific preparation for teaching should be 
based upon a general or liberal education equivalent to that represented by graduation 
from a four-year high school. We may assume that this implies an acquaintance with 
the chief departments of knowledge as these are presented in a secondary school. If a 
curriculum for teachers involves only two years of study beyond the high school, it is 
clear that the bulk of this time must be given to the intensive mastery of the specific 
subject-matter to be taught and to the essential minimum of work in educational the- 
ory and practice. But the specific subject-matter that is taught in the elementary school 
is by no means narrow in its scope, and the courses presenting this subject-matter 
assuredly need not be lacking in the breadth and enrichment characteristic of liberal 
studies. 

This point of view, which some American normal schools have recognized in 
theory, and which a few have successfully reflected in their practice, merits serious 
consideration. Is it possible so to organize the content of elementary school studies 
that normal school students undertaking these courses shall not merely "review" 
previously gained knowledge, but rather acquire what will be substantially " new 



150 CURRICULA : OUTSTANDING PROBLEMS 

views " of familiar matter as well as much genuinely fresh knowledge ? Can such 
courses induce a quality of mental effort and ensure a degree of mental growth equiva- 
lent to that which is implied in the courses now recognized as of collegiate texture? 

ARITHMETIC 

In arithmetic, for example, the teacher needs to " know " the process of long divi- 
sion, let us say, in the sense of understanding clearly the reasons for the several 
steps involved, and of having a reasonable degree of skill in applying the process 
quickly and accurately. Beyond this, however, he should understand the mathemat- 
ical logic of the process ; he should know how it evolved, and particularly the dis- 
advantages of the more cumbrous processes that preceded it. He thus acquires a 
quite new view of something with which he already has, in his own judgment, a con- 
siderable measure of familiarity. His added knowledge may not include materials 
which, as a teacher of elementary arithmetic, he will pass on to his pupils, but it 
will deepen his appreciation of the importance of what he does pass on, and it will 
clarify his own understanding of the process itself. An analogous treatment may well 
be accorded to every topic represented in the subject. Even the primary teacher, strug- 
gling with the development of the simplest number concepts and processes, will find 
new insight and inspiration for her work in a knowledge of primitive number systems 
and of the steps that the race traversed in its development of the existing system of 
notation and numeration. If to these genetic studies one adds relevant excursions into 
the psychology of number, especially in connection with tests and scales, it is clear 
that a course of distinctly advanced character and quality is obtained, all of which 
serves the teacher's ultimate need. In treating the more advanced topics, emphasis laid 
upon industrial applications, the construction and use of commercial devices, and sim- 
ilar topics, brings a significant extension of one's range of knowledge. The equivalence 
of such a course to algebra or solid geometry is irrelevant; in respect to the enlarge- 
ment of one's intellectual horizon, its contribution is evident, and its appropriateness 
for the purpose in view need not detract from its value. 

OTHER ELEMENTARY SUBJECTS 

Similarly a course in literature for children offered to prospective teachers should 
involve much more than a study of literature in the form in which little children 
will assimilate it. The very fact that many of the poems and stories of childhood are 
among the oldest and most persistent products of the world's culture suggests at 
once the wealth of material available for a teachers' course in this subject. It goes 
without saying that a teacher can use this literature with children more effectively 
if he knows its antecedents and origins, and consequently realizes that he is dealing, 
not with trivial materials valuable simply because they are adapted to immature 
minds, but rather with a significant and precious human heritage. Certainly in its 



DIFFERENTIATION 151 

cultural quality a course of this type may easily be made to compare favorably with 
any collegiate course in mythology or folk-lore, 

The opportunities in connection with history are equally numerous. The elementary 
school teacher needs a basis in historical knowledge much broader than that which 
the historical content of the elementary program represents, A part of this basis will 
be furnished by the courses in history that he has completed in the high school; 
but beyond this, there must be a comprehensive and illuminating study of the ele- 
mentary materials themselves, involving a knowledge of movements and causal rela- 
tionships which could not be included in the elementary program, but which will aid 
in making elementary teaching effective; and involving, too, a much more serious 
effort to make the past really " live" than the ordinary college course usually attempts. 
Thus the ideal course in history provided for prospective elementary school teachers 
will differ from the ordinary college course dealing with the same materials, but it 
should be no less replete with enlarging experience, and certainly no less worthy of 
collegiate rating. 

The possibility of organizing collegiate courses for teachers in such subjects as 
geography, nature study, and physiology and hygiene is even more apparent than in 
connection with arithmetic, literature, and history. In each case there is a distinct 
need of a course or of several courses differentiated in important respects from cor- 
responding courses organized from the point of view of the typical liberal-arts col- 
lege, but in each case, also, it is apparent that the essential differentiations do not 
mean that the differentiated courses shall cease to embody the accepted principle 
that all teachers should possess a substantial basis in genuine scholarship. 

HIGH SCHOOL SUBJECTS 

We have been speaking hitherto of courses for prospective elementary school 
teachers. Will the preparation of high school teachers involve a similar need of sub- 
ject-matter courses differentiated from courses in the liberal-arts colleges? It may 
be urged that as regards both the materials themselves and their organization for 
teaching, the high school courses in literature, the sciences, mathematics, and his- 
tory do not differ essentially from collegiate courses in the same subjects. Indeed, 
except in the case of mathematics, the ordinary subjects of the high school program 
may be found under the same names on the collegiate list, while the more advanced 
collegiate courses are in many cases only expansions of topics treated more briefly 
in the introductory courses. Thus it might be inferred that the typical collegiate 
courses would form an adequate preparation for teaching the corresponding subjects 
in the high school. To this it must be objected that the organization of its courses 
on the collegiate model has been one of the most serious weaknesses of the high 
school, that modern tendencies in high school development emphasize a type of or- 
ganization more closely correlated with the needs and abilities of secondary pupils, 



152 CURRICULA : OUTSTANDING PROBLEMS 

and that, consistently with this tendency, special courses for prospective high school 
teachers should be differentiated to a very appreciable degree from corresponding 
courses in liberal-arts colleges. There is, in fact, an urgent need for specific courses 
of collegiate character covering the subject-matter of the secondary program, much 
as the courses described above are conceived to cover the subject-matter of the ele- 
mentary program. The high school teacher of mathematics, for example, should 
surely undertake mathematical studies well in advance of those that he proposes to 
teach, and it is quite possible that the content of these advanced courses should be 
modified by the fact that he is to teach high school mathematics. But in any case 
he needs courses in elementary algebra and in plane geometry which will not only 
refresh his mind with regard to elementary principles and processes, but will also 
give him a much deeper and broader conception of principles and a much more facile 
mastery of processes than his earlier secondary course could possibly give. Such 
courses should emphasize the historical development of these elementary processes, 
and they should lay stress particularly upon the possibilities and methods of illu- 
minating instruction by the applications of elementary mathematics to a wide vari- 
ety of scientific, technical, and industrial problems. 

SPECIAL CURRICULA IN NORMAL SCHOOLS FOR HIGH SCHOOL TEACHERS 

If it is true that the subject-matter for prospective high school teachers should be 
differentiated from the corresponding subject-matter taught from the standpoint of 
the liberal-arts college, there may be a distinct place for the preparation of high school 
teachers in at least some of the normal schools, and certainly for the development of 
differentiated teachers colleges in the universities. On the other hand, if subject-mat- 
ter courses do not need to be modified for the preparation of high school teachers, a 
policy which favors the extensive use of the normal schools for this purpose implies 
that much of the work of these schools looking toward the training of high school 
teachers will be a duplication of the work of the liberal-arts colleges. Inasmuch as 
certain normal schools are now engaged in the preparation of high school teachers, it 
would seem advisable to emphasize clearly in some of these normal schools the prin- 
ciple of differentiation referred to above, that is, definitely modifying all courses 
with reference to their bearing upon the problem of high school teaching. The pro- 
ducts of these schools could then be compared with the products of the liberal-arts 
colleges and of other normal schools in which the subject-matter courses are replicas 
of those offered in the liberal-arts colleges. How far the present organization of sub- 
ject-matter courses in the Missouri normal schools will serve the purposes of such 
a test is a question that will be considered in a later section of this report. 1 



1 See pages 228 ff. 



DIFFERENTIATION 153 

ADVANTAGE OF DIFFERENTIATION 

The great advantage of the differentiations proposed is that they permit the con- 
struction of a thoroughly integrated curriculum which, in its turn, serves to concen- 
trate all of the work of the student upon a unified problem. Whenever such concen- 
tration is possible it is obviously the method of educational organization that will 
yield the largest returns. When a student enters upon a program of studies that is 
clearly professional, the time has come for this essential concentration. A teacher as 
a teacher needs what we know as the liberal studies, but just because his need is a pro- 
fessional need, the pursuit of these studies by the prospective teacher may profit- 
ably, and should logically, differ in important respects from their pursuit by students 
who necessarily regard them from anon-professional point of view. A student of chem- 
istry, for example, if he proposes to be a textile expert, fixes his attention primarily 
on the processes as they may be of use to him in a future career; his business is to 
have the formulae at his command. If, however, he be intending to teach chemistry, his 
business is to watch also the organization and sequence of material as it affects his own 
learning process in order that he may help others to master it with a minimum of 
effort; he seeks to comprehend the related fields as thoroughly as possible in order to 
make the central course suggestive and significant; as a prospective teacher he under- 
takes consciously to analyze and assimilate the learner's whole need and point of view. 

b. DEGREE OF DIFFERENTIATION REQUIRED 

The second problem relative to differentiation has to do with the number of spe- 
cialized curricula that are essential in a comprehensive system for the preparation of 
teachers. Present practice distinguishes sharply between the preparation of high school 
teachers and the preparation of elementary teachers ; and, with less vigor, in the prepa- 
ration of high school teachers as among the various subjects or groups of cognate sub- 
jects. There seems, further, to be a general agreement that, in the preparation of ele- 
mentary teachers, the specific training for kindergarten and primary work should be 
provided for in a separate curriculum. A third type of differentiation, already well 
recognized, provides separate curricula for prospective teachers and supervisors of 
the so-called "special subjects," agriculture, drawing, household arts, industrial 
arts, music, and physical education. 

It is clear, then, that the general principle of specific training for specific types of 
teaching service already has a substantial basis both in theory and in practice. In two 
large and important divisions of the service, however, this principle has not as yet 
been generally applied. We refer, first, to elementary teaching beyond the first and 
second grades, and, second, to the administrative work represented by the elementary 
principalship, the high school principalship, and the superintendency. In a third 
division of the service namely rural school teaching the principle of specific 
preparation has been recognized, but rather from the point of view of immediate 
expediency than from a clear acceptance of rural school teaching as a distinctive field. 



CURRICULA : OUTSTANDING PROBLEMS 

MIDDLE AND UPPER GRADES STILL FORM A SINGLE FIELD 

If present practice correctly reflects underlying theory, it is apparently believed 
that the professional preparation of all candidates for elementary teaching beyond the 
primary grades is adequately accomplished by a single undifferentiated curriculum. 
This point of view has undoubtedly been determined largely by factors that are pri- 
marily administrative in their character. The immature and inexperienced teachers 
entering graded school systems have been assigned first to the middle grades, particu- 
larly to the third and fourth. Those who are successful here, and who remain in the 
system, have been fairly certain of "promotion" to the first grade or to the upper 
grades. The specialization of preparation for primary work has modified this situation 
in some measure, altho teachers who have not had this specialized preparation are 
still frequently transferred from the intermediate to the primary grades. In general, 
however, the middle grades have come to be looked upon as the training ground of 
the novice, and in consequence any proposal to differentiate as between intermediate 
grade teachers and tipper grade teachers in the construction of normal school curricula 
runs sharply counter to an administrative practice that has developed to a point where 
it is virtually "taken for granted."" 

The extent to which this situation must be considered in any discussion of profes- 
sional curricula is made plain in the statistics showing the distribution of teachers in 
the various elementary grades in respect to age, experience, and salary. Tables pre- 
sented in the report 1 of the Illinois School Survey, based upon data from 670 teachers 
in the graded town and city elementary schools of the state, indicate that the median 
age of teachers in the lower intermediate grades is ten years lower than the median 
age of upper grade teachers (VII and VIII) and two years lower than the median age 
of teachers in the primary grades (I and II). Furthermore the median age of teachers 
in the higher intermediate grades (V and VI), while somewhat above that of third 
grade and fourth grade teachers and of the primary teachers, is still significantly lower 
than that of the upper grade teachers. Corresponding differences exist among these 
groups in respect to experience and present salary. 2 

The situation in Missouri is not essentially different. The following table, for ex- 
ample, shows a clear tendency in both St. Louis and Kansas City to place the more 
immature and inexperienced teachers in the middle grades, reserving the primary and 
upper grades for the teachers who have served their apprenticeship and demonstrated 
their fitness for what are looked upon as the more difficult and more responsible types 
of work: 

1 The Illinois School Survey, Bloommgton, 1917, pages 11T f. 

2 The comparisons are shown in the following? table ; 

Teachers in Rooms Median Median Years Median 

representing Grades Age Experience Salary 

I, I and II, II 28 9 $576-$625 

II and III, III, III and IV 26 6 526-576 

IV,IVandV,V 26 7 576-625 

V and VI, VI, VI and VII 80 10 626-675 

VII, VII and VIII, VIII 36 15 676-725 



DIFFERENTIATION 



155 



Grade 

Kindergarten 
1st grade 
3d grade 
3d grade 
4th grade 
5th grade 
6th grade 
Tth grade 
8th grade 1 



Median Age of 
Teachers 
St. Louis Kansas City 


35 


28 


31 


36 


26 


25 


26 


26 


26 


28 


29 


33 


30 


36 


31 


40 


41 


i 



Median Years 

Experience 
St. Louis Kansas City 

12 4 

10( + ) 14 

8 8 

6 8 

7 10 
10 13 



Salary Range 
Middle 60% of Teachers 
St. Louis Kansas City 



$801-$1000 
751- 1100 701- 1000 
751- 1100 751- 1000 
751- 1100 
951- 1100 



801- 1000 
901- 1000 
951- 1000 



20 



18 

i 



951- 1100 
951- 1200 1001- 1050 
1001- 1300 1 



MENTAL AND PHYSICAL CONSIDERATIONS WABRANT DIFFERENTIATION 

We have referred to administrative expediency as the primary factor determining 
this anomalous position of the intermediate grades. Certainly educational principles 
could hardly be advanced in its support. The mental and physical characteristics of 
children between the ages of eight and twelve differentiate this period sharply both 
from the preceding school period, between the ages of six and eight, and from the 
following period of adolescence, and clearly indicate that the educational treatment of 
children during these years involves specialized problems that should not be confused 
with the problems of either early childhood or adolescence. This conclusion is cer- 
tainly justified by the evidence already available, altho in general the period has been 
almost as seriously neglected in theory and in investigation as in school practice. 

The work of the elementary school, as at present constituted, therefore, falls into 
three well-marked divisions, each coinciding with fairly definite "nodes" in the men- 
tal and physical development of the child. One should no more expect identity in the 
qualifications needed for success in teaching the fourth grade and the eighth grade, or 
the third grade and the seventh grade, than one expects identity in the qualifications 
requisite for success in primary teaching and eighth grade teaching, or for success in 
sixth grade teaching and high school teaching. The differences involved are neither 
superficial nor negligible; they are vital distinctions that inhere in the very nature 
of child development itself, and should be recognized by specific treatment in cur- 
ricula constructed for the purpose. This done, the present practice of recruiting the 
upper grade positions from the ranks of successful intermediate grade teachers would 
necessarily be abandoned. Intermediate grade work would acquire, the same dignity 
and status as a recognized field for specialization that primary work and upper grade 
work already enjoy. The upper grade positions would be filled by the appointment 
of normal school graduates who had similarly made a special study of upper grade 
problems, and the marked discrepancies as to age, salary, and experience between 
eighth grade teachers and intermediate grade teachers would disappear. 



* The elementary schools of Kansas City do not include the eighth grrade, and the sixthand seventh grades become 
in consequence the "upper grades." 



156 CURRICULA : OUTSTANDING PROBLEMS 

OBJECTIONS TO DIFFERENTIATION 

The arguments against this extension of the principle of differentiation deserve seri- 
ous consideration. Many will urge that it would be disadvantageous as compared with 
the present arrangement in that mature and experienced teachers now in charge of the 
upper grades would give place to immature and inexperienced teachers who would 
much better start with the third, fourth, or fifth grades and then work up into the 
more responsible positions. But it is this assumption that the higher grades are essen- 
tially more responsible positions that does the mischief. Certainly there would seem 
to be little justification for the fact that the eighth grade teachers in St. Louis are as 
a group fifteen years older than intermediate grade teachers, and have back of them 
twice the experience of the latter group, unless it is that these older and more expe- 
rienced teachers are needed at the end of the elementary school course in order to cor- 
rect the defects due to less expert teaching in the middle grades. 1 The provision of spe- 
cific curricula for the preparation of intermediate grade teachers, by placing the work 
of these grades upon a professional basis, would tend to correct this condition, just as 
specific curricula for upper grade teaching would largely offset the lack of experience 
on the part of young teachers there. 

CHOICE OF SEEVICE DIFFICULT 

A second argument against the proposal to specialize intermediate grade teaching 
emphasizes the difficulty of making a choice among different types of service at or 
near the beginning of the normal school training. Students fresh from the high schools, 
it is urged, will have but small basis for determining whether they are best fitted 
for one or another of the three types of elementary service. This objection, however, 
loses much of its force when it is recalled that the principle of differentiated training 
is already accepted. In entering many normal schools now, students must decide 
between the curriculum for primary teachers and the general curriculum represent- 
ing the remaining grades of the elementary school, and students commit themselves 
to high school work, and make their decisions regarding the subject or subjects of 
special study, long before they have tried themselves in practice. In these cases there 
is little evidence that this necessity of making a choice fairly early in the period of 
professional training works hardships that are in any sense commensurate with the 
advantages that inhere in specific preparation for a relatively narrow range of ser- 
vice. Finally, an institution for the preparation of teachers may well provide for a 
term or a semester of common courses before differentiation begins, thus enabling 
the school to enlighten the student as to the character of the differentiated curricula, 
and otherwise to help him in making a wise choice. 



1 It should be remembered that few eighth grade teachers in St. Louis have administrative responsibilities; practi- 
cally all schools are in charge of supervising principals. 



DIFFERENTIATION 157 

TOO SPECIALIZED 

A third objection to the proposal is based upon the advantage of having every 
teacher of the elementary school somewhat familiar with the work of all grades. This 
advantage is not to be questioned, but as an argument it holds against the differen- 
tiations already recognized just as strongly as it would hold against the proposed 
additional differentiations. It remains a stubborn fact that two years 1 time is totally 
insufficient to give a teacher adequate preparation for teaching at every point in the 
elementary system. A teacher can in that time, however, acquire a reasonable facility in 
handling two or three grades well. If by subsequent extension courses, or better by pro- 
longed initial training, more can be done, it is doubtless desirable to extend a teach- 
er's practical knowledge over a considerable range. Even so, it is a serious question 
whether the entire elementary field is not altogether too large for the random prac- 
tice of one person, however well trained. The superintendent who desires that a novice 
be trained for all the grades is looking for an administrative convenience coached to 
"fit in" anywhere at once and expected to acquire real training thru experience. He 
has no idea of utilizing the teacher's practical versatility after she is once placed, hence 
her varied training does little to offset the lack of intensive acquaintance with her real 
work. The need at present in every case is, first, for courses common to all specialized 
curricula, dealing with the organization of the public school system as a complete edu- 
cational unit, and, second, for an especial effort in the construction of each specialized 
curriculum to give the prospective teacher an intimate acquaintance with the grades 
immediately preceding and following those in which the chief service is expected to 
lie. A primary teachers" curriculum, for example, should provide for a study of third 
grade and fourth grade problems as well as for a more detailed study of the work of 
the kindergarten, the first grade, and the second grade; the intermediate curriculum, 
while emphasizing the specific problems of the third, fourth, fifth, and sixth grades, 
should also furnish the student with a perspective of the primary and upper grade 
programs; and the upper grade curriculum should neglect neither intermediate grade 
work nor plinth grade work. But these overlappings should be designed in every case 
for the especial purpose of enlightenment; they should not be expected to furnish 
practical efficiency in the additional grades, a result to be sought only in longer 
training. 

DIFFICUMT OF ADJUSTING SUPPLY AND DEMAND 

A fourth and final objection points to the complicated problem of supply and 
demand, and asks what assurance a teacher who pursues a specialized curriculum will 
have of employment in his chosen field. Again, this argument would not affect the 
proposed differentiations any more than it affects those now existing, unless it be as- 
sumed that the upper grade curriculum will attract a disproportionate number of can- 
didates, and that intermediate grade teaching will always be the least attractive. There 
is, however, every reason to believe that a curriculum that really dignifies the work of 



158 CURRICULA : OUTSTANDING PROBLEMS 

the intermediate grades will, with the gradual equalization of rewards, attract its due 
proportion of candidates, and that the initial difficulties which may be involved in 
the present lack of recognition will be offset largely by the more numerous opportuni- 
ties for appointment. It should be said, further, that any system of highly differen- 
tiated curricula implies, both in the schools and in the state's department of educa- 
tion, a knowledge and control alike of candidates and of available teaching positions 
considerably more complete than is now the case. Needs of individual schools and of 
the state as a whole should be followed with sufficient care to enable the several train- 
ing agencies to estimate with fair exactness about how many teachers of each type will 
be required in a given year. This information can be obtained by any state, and if 
properly utilized would reduce the inequalities of supply and demand to a minimum. 

CHARACTER AND EXTENT OF LEGITIMATE DIFFERENTIATION OF TRAINING 

A brief reference may be made to the type of differentiation desirable in these 
specialized curricula for intermediate grade teachers. Following the suggestions made 
above 1 with regard to the organization of subject-matter courses for prospective 
teachers, the first distinct need in the intermediate grade curriculum is for courses 
that represent on the collegiate level the specific subjects of the intermediate pro- 
gram. That most of these subjects differ considerably in materials and methods of 
presentation from corresponding subjects of the seventh and eighth grades, a brief 
study of any well-constructed elementary syllabus will quickly reveal. The prepara- 
tion of the prospective teacher for dealing effectively with the instruction of the in- 
termediate grades in history, for example, will involve an acquaintance particularly 
with biographical materials, and with the concrete details of social life in Greece and 
Rome, in mediaeval Europe, in England of the sixteenth, seventeenth, and eighteenth 
centuries, and in colonial America. It is not urged that the teacher should know only 
this type of history, but inasmuch as the history taught in the intermediate grades 
necessarily makes the largest use of materials of this type, the teacher of these grades 
should "know" history from this point of view. 

Corresponding differences in treatment are indicated in connection with the teach- 
er's courses in geography. The intermediate grade teacher needs especially wealth and 
accuracy of concrete information concerning the environment in which he is teaching 
in order that he may lead the pupils who are just beginning the study of geography 
from a knowledge of familiar things to an understanding of what is remote; and while 
the course in intermediate geography cannot reflect the environment of every com- 
munity in which the graduates of the school will teach, it can train the student in 
the art of utilizing many types of environmental materials for educative purposes. 
Beyond this the teacher of the intermediate grades should be well equipped with 
accurate and concrete knowledge concerning the various peoples of the world, and 
especially concerning domestic customs and child life. The upper grade teacher, on 

1 See pages 149 ff. 



DIFFERENTIATION 159 

the other hand, will have to undertake a more thoroughly systematized presentation 
of geographical materials in which causal relationships find an important place; his 
preparation, then, will place the heavier emphasis upon commercial and industrial 
geography, with especial attention to the fundamental principles that form the im- 
portant geographical " controls." 

In respect to arithmetic, the features that distinguish the two fields from each 
other are confined chiefly to methods of teaching and concrete applications. It is, 
indeed, in the organization of materials for teaching that the differentiations in all 
of the subject-matter courses will be most sharply drawn. The distinctions should not 
be rigid or artificial. Some courses may be profitably considered as constants in all 
curricula for teachers; other courses may be offered to combined sections, or at least 
without necessary segregation, for a part of the time, grouping students according 
to their different curricula only whenever specialized treatment becomes essential. 
With a limited purpose clearly fixed, significant elements of differentiation will be 
suggested in abundance by further study of the distinctive characteristics of children 
at the various stages of elementary education. It is expert familiarity with these finer 
traits of a child's development and ability to turn them to his advantage that marks 
the professional teacher. 

Curricula so diversified as those that have been suggested must naturally be more 
or less provisional ; they are, however, a consistent extension of a movement that has 
in its inception been highly beneficial. The single curriculum plan has been appre- 
ciably modified in this country by the general recognition of specialized training for 
primary teachers. This movement toward differentiation has been notably successful 
in raising the standards and enhancing the dignity of service in the primary grades, 
and it is only reasonable to assume that a similar specialization of the other clearly 
marked divisions of elementary teaching will have an analogous effect. 

SPECIALIZED PREPARATION FOR ADMINISTRATION 

The lack of adequate provisions for the specific preparation of superintendents and 
principals is due to the interplay of several factors. In the first place the special- 
ized study and investigation of administrative problems is a recent development, 
having made little more than a beginning a decade ago. The materials for a special- 
ized curriculum have therefore been meagre, until lately. In the second place, the 
superintendency itself has not demanded so much in the way of specialized know- 
ledge as in the way of personal qualifications, tact, common-sense, and ability to 
deal with men and women. With no objective methods of measuring the efficiency 
of a school or a school system, the real professional qualifications of the adminis- 
trative officer were matters that could not be clearly defined or emphasized. In the 
third place, and largely as a consequence of these two factors, the tenure of the su- 
perintendency has been and still is most insecure. The " life " of the average super- 
intendent of schools in the Middle West in so far as continuous service in any one 



160 CURRICULA : OUTSTANDING PROBLEMS 

community is concerned was computed in 1914 to be four years. 1 The present study 
of conditions in Missouri shows that the typical superintendent in 1915 had at the 
age of thirty-six served as superintendent in two different towns or cities, including 
the one then employing him, and that the average of the periods of continuous ser- 
vice was three years. 2 

The conditions that have kept school administration from a true professional 
status, however, are rapidly passing. The applications of statistical methods to the 
analysis of complicated problems of gradation and promotion of pupils, retardation 
and elimination, the rating of teachers, and the measurement of achievements in 
school subjects, as well as the gratifying advances in school sanitation, school ac- 
counting, and the wider use of the school plant, have resulted in a large and essen- 
tial body of knowledge already available for specific administrative courses. Such 
courses are now among the most important offerings of university departments and 
schools of education, but their organization with other types of material into formal 
curricula has not as yet been seriously attempted. The preparation of school admin- 
istrators has made rapid progress within the past five years, but the progress has 
been confined chiefly to passing on the fruits of these recent developments to super- 
intendents and principals already engaged in supervisory work. Curricula that will 
formulate the strictly professional training of men and women for this work before 
they assume supervisory positions seem to be the next step in this development. 

SPECIALIZED PREPARATION FOB RURAL SCHOOL TEACHERS 

Specialized curricula for rural school teachers are not uncommon in American 
normal schools, but, as has been suggested, the differentiation has been determined 
largely by the need of preparing immature students for temporary service in this 
field rather than by a recognition of the field itself as worthy of extended, special- 
ized treatment. In Missouri, for example, the "rural-certificate course" in the normal 
schools is offered only on the secondary level. Indeed, the students of collegiate rank 
who are preparing for rural school teaching in the normal schools of the United 
States would probably not number five hundred all told, yet the rural school ser- 
vice itself, according to the Commissioner of Education, requires more than one hun- 
dred thousand recruits each year ! 

The neglect by the normal schools of serious preparation for rural school teaching 
is due primarily, of course, to the low status to which the rural school is at present 
assigned. It is inconceivable that the schools in which more than one-half of the na- 
tion's children receive all of their schooling will be permitted to continue upon this 
low level of efficiency. When the people awaken to the fact that a large proportion 

1 From an unpublished study of 590 superintendents by E. L. Lawson at the University of Illinois. 

2 These figures are for one hundred forty-three superintendents in systems having first class high schools. In sys- 
tems with second class schools the typical superintendent was thirty-four years old, and had held but one position 
for two years. In systems with third class schools he was thirty years old and had held two positions for one year 
each. 



CURRICULA AS WHOLES 161 

of the illiteracy and other evidences of educational deficiency revealed by the army 
tests is due first and last to the weakness of the rural school, they will quickly find 
a means of remedying the situation. Whatever remedy they adopt will depend for its 
efficiency upon securing a mature, well-prepared, and relatively permanent body of 
teachers for the rural service. The cost of such a reform will be negligible in compari- 
son with the benefits involved. 

For the preparation of such teachers, the normal schools should even now begin to 
offer carefully constructed curricula, coordinate in every way with the curricula for 
urban teachers. This would mean curricula that are based upon graduation from a 
four-year high school, and that require for completion at least two full years of resi- 
dence. Even a period of this length is all too brief for a preparation that should 
be at once broader and more intensive than that required of teachers in the graded 
elementary school or the urban high school. Two years, therefore, should be but a 
temporary minimum. Ultimately, as has been suggested in an earlier section, the 
preparation of the rural school teachers, like the preparation of urban elementary 
teachers, should comprise not less than four years of specialized work beyond high 
school graduation. 



B. ORGANIZATION OF CURRICULA IN THE STATE NORMAL SCHOOLS 
CITY TRAINING SCHOOLS OF MISSOURI 

1. Curricula as Wholes 
a. GENERAL CHARACTERISTICS OF THE NORMAL SCHOOL CURRICULA 

It would be unjust to criticise in a captious spirit the normal schools either of 
Missouri or of the country at large for failing to meet the ideals and standards set 
forth in the preceding pages. Generally speaking, those responsible for normal school 
development have sincerely and devotedly struggled to ensure from the meagre appro- 
priations made for their institutions the largest possible service to the people. Dif- 
ferences of opinion have naturally arisen as to the specific type of service that would 
be most valuable. Some normal schools have centred their efforts on improving the 
teaching in the lower schools, and they have consistently held to this as their func- 
tion. Other normal schools have considered it their chief duty to assist in as many 
ways as possible the individual students who have come to them for instruction. 

PERSONAL WELFARE OF THE STUDENT PLACED ABOVE NEEDS OF THE SERVICE 

Institutions of the latter type have, consciously or unconsciously, placed the wel- 
fare of the individual above the welfare of the teaching service which the student 
is presumably to enter. They have recognized, effectually if not explicitly, that this 
service upon its lower levels does not offer attractive opportunities for a life career. 
They have accepted the estimate that the public itself has placed upon public service 



162 ORGANIZATION OF CURRICULA 

in the elementary schools, and especially in the rural schools, when it permits these 
fields to remain barren of attractive rewards, open to low grade teaching ability, and 
subject to the waste and inefficiency that go with the brief tenure of the average 
teacher. Forsaking, therefore, the demands of the service engaging their students, 
these schools have devoted themselves frankly to providing the education that would 
give the students the careers they sought, relying on the theory that the person with 
the greatest amount of general education would of necessity prove to be the best 
teacher, 

Any criticisms of the normal school for neglecting or belittling the field of elemen- 
tary teaching should take into account this attitude on the part of the public. But 
after giving to this factor all of the consideration that it deserves, there still remains 
a conviction that these schools have acquiesced too readily in a situation the transfor- 
mation of which one might justly assume to be their duty. It is their failure to assert 
themselves in behalf of the massive but inchoate elementary and rural school systems 
that strikes one most forcibly. They have been content to follow the tide of public 
opinion rather than to assume a position of leadership in moulding and directing that 
opinion. There is an unmistakable note of weakness in the following- extract from a 
letter written by the president of a large middle western normal school concerning the 
suggestion that the normal school faculties throughout the country might profitably 
cooperate in the construction of something approaching "standardized" normal school 
curricula : 

"I may be wrong but I think these problems should be settled by the legisla- 
tures and by the people thru the common school demands more than by any com- 
mittee of faculties or experts that may be organized. Our present legislature is re- 
modeling in some respects our educational system. This school will be compelled 
to follow that remodeling in every particular if our graduates are to be recog- 
nized and accepted in the service that the state expects." 

That a normal school supported by the state must obey the mandates of the people 
as expressed thru the legislature goes without saying. But it is quite as true that it 
should have had a very considerable hand in inspiring and formulating those man- 
dates. 

"LADDER OF PROMOTION" IK MISSOURI NORMAL SCHOOLS 

The state normal schools of Missouri, considered as a group, have followed the indi- 
vidualistic policy. The general scheme of curriculum organization that was formally 
adopted by a conference of the normal school presidents in 1914, tho actually in use 
for many years preceding, is based upon the assumption that many, if not most, of the 
students will not undertake two, three, or four consecutive years of study, but will 
rather remain in residence for a relatively brief period, perhaps a term, perhaps a 
year, then teach for a year or two, return to the school for another period of study, 
again teach, and repeat this alternation until the desired certificate has been obtained, 



CURRICULA AS WHOLES 163 

or until the ambition to continue study has died away. 1 In order to meet the demands 
of this numerous group of students, the several curricula are so arranged as to form 
a stairway from which one may gradually pass from rural school teaching to graded 
school teaching, and thence to high school teaching, or to supervisory work. The vari- 
ous "curricula" and the "advancement" that each offers over its predecessor are indi- 
cated in the following diagram: 

(The 120-hour curriculum, 
preparing for administra- 
tive and supervisory as 
well as high school posi- 
tions and leading to the 
bachelor's degree 

/The 90-hour curriculum, 
Third College Year \ preparing for teaching in 
(high schools 

{The 60-hour curriculum, 
preparing for teaching in 
graded schools and small 
high schools 

(The 30-hour curriculum ; 
a professional curriculum 
on the collegiate level, 
preparing for teaching in 
rural schools and graded 
schools 

The "Rural Certificate'^ 
course, a general high 
school curriculum, with 
certain professional 
courses in the third and 
fourth years. Prepares for 
rural school teaching , 

It is evident that this ladder-like organization of the curricula is of very great ad- 
vantage to the ambitious student who is unable to pursue his studies for four con- 
secutive years. It not only incites him to a gradual and progressive accumulation of 
credits, but it definitely "motivates" each successive stage of advancement in that 
each curriculum increment when completed will both provide the means of earning 
k money for further schooling and also pave the way educationally for the next step. 

EFFECT UPON THE SCHOOLS UNFOKTITNATE 

But while the arrangement may be advantageous to the individual student, its ulti- 
mate consequences to the public schools are not so fortunate. It deliberately makes 
the service of teaching on the earlier age levels and grade levels a means of promotion 
to the later age and grade levels. Furthermore, each unit of study must aim to fulfil 

1 For example, the Cape Girardeau catalogue (1916, pages 29 ftO'says apropos of the thirty-hour curriculum: 

" This curriculum is arranged to equip students who cannot complete enough work for graduation with a suffi- 
cient preparation to enable them to teach acceptably in public schools until they can continue their work to pre- 
pare them better for teaching." 



- Four-Tear Secondary Curriculum 



164 ORGANIZATION OF CURRICULA 

two functions, (a) prepare the student to teach upon one of the earlier teaching levels, 
and (6) prepare him for advanced study in a quite different field. One or the other of 
these functions will inevitably be neglected. Certainly, preparation for high school 
teaching is not adequately encompassed by adding one or two years to a curriculum 
that is planned primarily for elementary school teaching, nor is it clear that the best 
preparation for elementary teaching is that which, with one or two added years, will 
be the best preparation for high school teaching. Admirably adapted tho the plan may 
be to promote the interests of certain individuals, it seems indefensible from the stand- 
point of the welfare and progress of the public school service. 

This general tendency of the Missouri curricula to emphasize the needs of the 
individual student at the expense of the service appears clearly upon a more minute 
analysis of the arrangement of courses and the content of the various units of study 
that comprise the sevei*al curricula. For convenience, this analysis will deal first with 
the secondary curriculum and then with the four curricula of collegiate grade. 

5. SECONDARY CURRICULUM LEADING TO THE RURAL CERTIFICATE 

Each of the state normal schools of Missouri offers at least one secondary curric- 
ulum of a professional character. This "Rural Certificate Course, 1 " which in its main 
features is now common to the five schools, requires the completion of sixteen units of 
secondary work. It was agreed upon at a conference of the normal school presidents 
and the state superintendent of public instruction in June, 1916, and its provisions 
went into effect on January 1, 1917. A curriculum calling for at least two years of 
professional work above the elementary school had been offered since 1910. At most 
of the schools this had gradually been extended to three years, or twelve secondary 
units. The increase of the requirement to sixteen units is consequently to be looked 
upon as a forward step. The new sixteen-unit curriculum was made practically identi- 
cal with the curriculum for the high school teacher-training classes which had been 
established and subsidized in 1913. Its essential features are as follows: 1 

" I . The following academic subj ects will be required : English, three units. Math- 
ematics, two units (including arithmetic, algebra, and geometry). Agriculture, 
one unit. High School Science, one unit (including biology, physics or physical 
geography). History, two units (one of which must be American history and gov- 
ernment). Industrial and Fine Arts, one unit. 

*& The following professional studies will be required: 
"(a) Subject-matter of the common branches, with emphasis upon method, 

one unit. 
"(6) The psychology of learning, or elementary psychology, one- third unit; 

rural school problems, 2 one-third unit; school management, 2 one- third 

unit (in all one unit). 
u (c) Methods and observation, one unit. 

1 State Report, 1916, page 342. 

2 The names of these courses do not agree with the uniform terminology adopted by the Conference. See page 173. 



CURRICULA AS WHOLES 165 

"3. In addition, three electives, among which farm accounts, bookkeeping, short- 
hand and typewriting, geography of commerce, general science, chemistry, do- 
mestic science, domestic art, music, and physical education are recommended. 

"4. It is recommended that students be required to complete eight units of high 
school credit before taking any of the professional work." 1 

CONTRADICTORY AIMS 

A teacher -training curriculum covering four years of secondary work may be con- 
structed upon one or another of three plans: (1) it may be professionalized from the 
outset ; () it may preserve the essential features of the general high school curriculum 
for two or three years, reserving the third and fourth years or the fourth year alone 
for concentrated professional work; (3) it may be essentially a general curriculum 
throughout, introducing "reviews" and other professional courses wherever conven- 
ient. At first glance, the above curriculum seems to follow the first plan, but one 
is immediately led to ask why, if the curriculum is specifically for the preparation 
of rural school teachers, such subjects as bookkeeping, shorthand, and typewriting 
should be recommended as electives, with the possibility of giving them almost as 
much time as is recommended for all of the professional work; or why physical train- 
ing is elective rather than prescribed ; or why physiology and hygiene are neither 
elective nor prescribed. 

One gains the impression that these proposals do not reflect solely the needs of a 
curriculum for the preparation of teachers. Such a curriculum, if offered on the sec- 
ondary level, should certainly include liberal as well as professional courses; there 
should be room for the algebra, the geometry, the unit of history over and above 
American history, and the unit of science other than agriculture altho with both 
history and science, definite prescriptions would seem preferable to mere quantitative 
provisions. But to combine in one curriculum two distinct groups of vocational ele- 
ments is disconcerting. By no stretch of the imagination can bookkeeping, shorthand, 
and typewriting be thought of as closely related to rural school teaching, nor do these 
subjects possess the liberalizing and broadening values that would otherwise justify 
their inclusion. 

Trivial as it may seem, a situation of this sort is significant in the illustration that 
it affords not only of the still markedly unprofessional character of rural school teach- 

1 There are some interesting variations among the five schools in the way in which the conference suggestions for 
the rural certificate curriculum are administered. Warrensburg offers only 21 units of electives, but otherwise pro- 
vides a curriculum corresponding closely to the proposals above discussed. Cape Girardeau recommends 3 units of 
history instead of 2, and 2 units of industrial and fine arts instead of 1 ; the recommended curriculum at Cape 
Girardeau, therefore, calls for the completion of 18 rather than 16 units. Springfield reduces the electives to 1| units ; 
requires 3& units of English, instead of 3; 2J units of history, instead of 2; and 1$ units of geography and 1 unit 
of physiology and physics. The Springfield catalogue declares that the tabular statement of the curriculum ** meets 
all of the requirements set up by the state superintendent and is what we think is the best possible preparation 
for teaching in rural schools that can be made in a four years' high school course. ..." Maryville offers no free elec- 
tives, adds J unit to the recommended requirements in English, history, and the fine and industrial arts, and 
triples the requirements in science. (Data and quotations given will be found in the respective catalogues for 1917 
with the exception of Maryville, for which the catalogue of 1916 was used, no later catalogue having been published 
at that school.) 



166 ORGANIZATION OF CURRICULA 

ing, but again of the tendency of the normal school to protect the individual from 
attempting to make a career in a field that offers no career. In effect it says to the 
student: "Rural school teaching is a thankless job; yet it may be made a stepping- 
stone to something else. We advise you, while preparing for it, to learn stenography 
and typewriting in case something better should turn up in these fields." 

SECONDARY PROFESSIONAL CURRICULA SHOULD BE ABOLISHED 

The present rural certificate curriculum, then, altho it constitutes in many respects 
a distinct advance over its predecessors, is essentially a "compromise measure," as all 
attempts to construct a professional curriculum upon a purely secondary basis are 
likely to be ; compromises as between the claims of general and vocational courses, 
or compromises among various types of vocational opportunity. As set forth else- 
where, 1 there should soon be no place for professional study on the secondary level, 
and no need for making a choice of a profession before the high school course has been 
completed. The level of rural school teaching can and should be raised to the point 
where certification will not be granted for this work unless the candidate has had 
some professional training beyond the high school. But the normal schools should 
not wait for this advance in the standards of certification before they abandon their 
secondary professional courses. They have made a notable step forward in placing the 
rural certificate curriculum upon a four-year basis, and in recommending that no pro- 
fessional courses in this curriculum be taken before the third year, thus providing 
for the professional studies a background of at least eight units of general secondary 
preparation. It would be advisable immediately to require twelve units of secondary 
work as a basis for these studies, thus concentrating all of the professional work in 
the fourth year and giving this year exclusively to the professional work. Then at a 
definitely stated time, say 19S3, the professional courses could be advanced still 
another year, placing them upon a fully collegiate basis. Another advance should 
make two years of professional work beyond the high school an irreducible minimum 
of preparation for the serious responsibilities of rural school teaching, and ulti- 
mately, when far better salaries can be paid to elementary teachers, all curricula should 
be extended to four years. 

c. COLLEGIATE CURRICULA OF THE NORMAL SCHOOLS 

It will be recalled that the four collegiate curricula of the state normal schools 
constitute an educational ladder in that each curriculum prepares for its successor 
while at the same time it provides professional training and recognition in the form 
of a certificate which may enable the student to teach until he has saved enough 
money to go on with his normal school work. The necessities that this general pol- 
icy imposes on the school in the detailed organization of its collegiate curricula are 
clearly apparent in the paucity of prescriptions and the abundance of elective privi- 

1 See pages 128 ff. 



CURRICULA AS WHOLES 167 

leges, even in the curricula that cover only one or two years. The tabular summary 
which follows suggests the lengths to which this scheme of elections is carried, as 
well as the variations among the several schools ; the data are summarized from the 
catalogues of 1917 (announcements for 1917-18), except in the case of Maryville, 
where the catalogue for 1916 was used. 

Kirksmlle Warrensburg Cape Gfirardeau Springfield Marymlk 

Hours Hours Hours Hours Hours 
30-Hour Curricula 

Specified Courses 10 10 18 10 20 

Restricted Elections 1 10 2 9 3 20 10* 

Free Elections 10 20 6 3 

60-Hour Curricula 

Specified Courses 15 20 24 32| 7 40 

Restricted Elections 1 37J 17J 24 25 

Free Elections TJ m* 12 2* 7 20 

90-Hour Curricula 

Specified Courses 17| 25 26 42i 7 

Restricted Elections 1 42J 47 J 52 45 

Free Elections 30 17J 12 % 

120-Hour Curricula 

Specified Courses 1TJ 25 34 42J 7 45 

Restricted Elections 1 47J 42J 78 75 60 

Free Elections 55 524 8 2J T 15 

NOT TRUE CURRICULA 

It is clear that the groupings of studies in all of the schools except Springfield are 
not curricula in the true sense of the term; they are rather large program patterns 
from which individual curricula may be constructed. This plan of organization again 
expresses the tendency of the normal schools to consider first the desires of the indi- 
vidual student rather than the needs of the service. It is, of course, conceivable that 
there is no inconsistency between these two considerations and that a plan which aims 
primarily to do the "best for the individual" will also be of the largest value to the 
service. In order to determine whether this position is justified, it is necessary to ex- 
amine some of the individual curricula that are actually constructed by students from 
the materials provided by such programs. 9 Ten illustrative programs are reproduced 

1 Including: options and systems of majors and minors. 

3 Five hours elective in group of subjects requiring no preparation outside of class ; five hours in education. 

* Choice of six semester hours of science. 

4 Electives must include stated courses in music, physical education, drawing-, penmanship, and manual arts. 

6 Not more than five hours in technical subjects ; two and one-half hours in agriculture if it has not been taken in 
high school. 

* Not more than ten hours in technical subjects. 

7 Two and one-half hours listed as freely elective for upper grade and rural teachers are specified for primary and 
lower grade teachers. 

* No 90-hour curriculum is listed in the catalogue. 

* The actual curricula of individual students collected in the course of the present study represent a period prior 
to the adoption of the plan that has been outlined above, but the plan in operation in some of the normal schools 
for ten years prior to 1915 was substantially identical with the present plan in so far as the relative proportions of 



168 ORGANIZATION OF CURRICULA 

in the Appendix. 1 They are fairly typical of the way in which the elective system has 
actually worked in practice in three of the normal schools. 

EXISTING "CURJUGULA"" NOT PROFESSIONAL 

The lack of coherence and interrelationship of courses in these illustrative programs 
is not their chief defect. Only in an incidental or casual sense could they be called 
professional programs. In almost every case the selection of courses has been deter- 
mined apparently without the slightest regard to what the clearly predictable needs 
of the teaching situation will be. Under this policy, it is impossible to speak of a 
"professional curriculum/' for what results is merely a miscellany of general studies, 
put together in a haphazard fashion, with a few courses in educational theory and 
practice introduced where they will most conveniently "fit in." 

This detachment of the so-called "professional" work, indeed, constitutes a striking 
weakness in efforts to provide professional preparation for teachers, not only in the 
Missouri normal schools, but in the colleges and universities and in nearly all nor- 
mal schools that are organized on the collegiate model. The notion that an adequate 
professional curriculum for teachers can be formed by adding a requirement in " edu- 
cation" to a "general college course" is thoroughly fallacious; and when only group 
requirements are made, permitting students to choose practically any courses that 
they please, provided only that such courses appear under the name " education," it is 
a travesty to speak of "professional preparation." The Missouri normal schools, hap- 
pily, have not gone so far as this, but the options that some of the schools permitted 
in respect to certain educational courses at the time when the study was begun showed 
a clear tendency to extend the loose elective principle even to the strictly profes- 
sional work. 2 This tendency has, in part, been corrected since 1915. 

prescribed and elective courses are concerned; hence individual curricula made up during these years may legiti- 
mately serve to illustrate the tendencies of the general policy. It should be added, however, that all of the schools 
have shown a tendency since 1915 to reduce the free electives in some measure, to increase the restricted electives, 
and, less noticeably, to increase the prescribed studies. Springfield, indeed, has moved significantly toward a system 
of differentiated curricula, each made up largely of prescribed courses. 

1 See page 411. 

2 Two examples from the catalogues for 1916 may serve to illustrate this tendency: 

At Kirksville only ten hours of "strictly professional" work were actually prescribed for the sixty-hour diploma : 
these hours were distributed as follows : two and one-half in psychology, two and one-half in history of education, 
and five in practice teaching. In addition, five semester hours were to be chosen from four two and one-half hour 
courses: principles of teaching, school economy (school management), rural sociology, and the school curriculum. 

The principle justifying the options is not obvious. The courses in principles of teaching and school economy are 
really complementary courses, the one dealing with the technique of instruction, the other with the details of ad- 
ministration in so far as these are matters of concern for the classroom teacher. The normal school student needs 
both of these courses. Again, rural sociology should certainly be a requirement in all curricula looking toward rural 
school teaching, but it is in no sense equivalent either to the course in the technique of teaching or to the course 
in management. The work offered in the course entitled "The school curriculum," as outlined in the catalogue, is 
far too extensive to permit of adequate treatment in the time allotted to it, and even if the course were abbrevi- 
ated in content or expanded in time, it could scarcely serve as a substitute for the courses in technique. 

At Cape Girardeau, the actual prescriptions in professional subjects for the sixty-hour diploma involved approxi- 
mately fifteen semester hours of work, including four hours of psychology, two hours of principles of teaching, six 
hours of practice teaching, and two hours of experimental pedagogy. But choices were to be made among additional 
professional courses until a total of approximately twenty-five hours had been completed. These choices were be- 
tween educational psychology and experimental child study, or between the history of education and experimen- 
tal child study. Again the justification of these particular options is not clear. There are no two groups of teachers, 
one of which needs a knowledge of experimental child study to the exclusion of educational psychology, and the 



CURRICULA AS WHOLES 169 

d. CURRICULA OF THE CITY TRAINING SCHOOLS 

In striking contrast with the curriculum policy of the state normal schools of 
Missouri is that of the city training schools. The latter, it should be remembered, are 
institutions of collegiate grade only; that is, their enrolment is limited to high school 
graduates. Each offers two-year curricula that are comparable in point of entrance 
and residence requirements to the sixty-hour curricula of the state normal schools. 
But the resemblance ends here. The training-school curricula are prescribed from 
the outset, and they emphasize the intensive study of the subjects that the students 
will later be called upon to teach. The sharp differences between these truly profes- 
sional curricula and the programs of the normal schools may be seen by contrasting 
the individual programs above referred to with the following summary of one of the 
curricula required in the Harris Teachers College; another curriculum from St. Louis 
and one from the Kansas City Training School will be found in the Appendix. 1 

THE HARRIS TEACHERS COLLEGE CURRICULUM FOR ELEMENTARY TEACHERS. S 

First semester: Arithmetic (5); 3 Science (2); Geography (4); Hygiene (1); Drawing 
(4); Primary method (); Gymnasium (2); Music (); Penmanship (); English (2). 
Prepared work, 16; unprepared work, 10. Total, 6. 

Second semester: Psychology (5); Science (3); United States history and civics (4); 
English (3); Drawing (); Reading (1); Gymnasium (&); Primary (); Penmanship 
(1); Music (1); Grammar-grade observation (2). Prepared work, 18; unprepared work, 
8. Total, 26. 

Third semester: Apprentice work (full time). 

Fourth semester: Theory of education and school management (5) ; Child psychol- 
ogy (3); English (4); History of education (1); Educational sociology (3); Drawing 
(); Music (); Penmanship (1); Gymnasium (1); Geography (J); History and civics 
(|); Arithmetic (|); Drawing (J); Music (J); Gymnasium (J). Total, 24 J. 

CONTRAST BETWEEN STATE NORMAL SCHOOLS AND CITY TRAINING SCHOOLS 

Why do these two types of institution the state normal schools and the city train- 
ing schools reveal such striking contrasts? In both cases the typical entering stu- 
dent is a high school graduate, looking forward to two years of professional prepara- 
tion for the work of teaching, and in so far as these two-year students are concerned, 
both types of schools are supposed to be fitting their students for the same kind of 
work service in graded elementary schools. Yet we find the means of effecting this 
preparation radically different. In so far as the efficiency of the preparation is con- 
other, educational psychology to the exclusion of experimental child study ; nor are there two groups the needs of 
which as between the history of education and experimental child study are strikingly differentiated. 

1 See pages 417, 418. 

2 Report of the St. Louis Board of Education for 1908-09, pages 53, 64. Relatively slight changes appear in a mimeo- 
graphed syllabus used in the college at the time the present study was made. These are included in the above 
summary. 

8 Figures indicate semester hours. 



170 ORGANIZATION OF CURRICULA 

cerned, there can be no reasonable doubt that the citj training schools, by concentrat- 
ing upon a single objective, turn out a better product. They are enabled thus to con- 
centrate their energies because elementary school teaching in the large cities offers 
rewards which, inadequate tho they may be from many points of view, are still suffi- 
ciently attractive to impel high school graduates to look upon the service as a rela- 
tively permanent occupation. Outside of the larger cities, however, this is not so fre- 
quently the case. High school teaching is much more attractive and significantly better 
paid ; furthermore, it is far easier of access than in the large cities. Men particularly 
will not be contented with elementary service, and when they undertake normal school 
work they are not often thinking of teaching in the elementary school or, permanently, 
even in a high school. As has been suggested, the normal schools have recognized this 
situation, and have adapted their courses of study and their requirements for gradua- 
tion to meet the wishes of the individual rather than the needs of the schools. 

NORMAL SCHOOLS HAVE BELITTLED ELEMENTARY INSTRUCTION 

This is entirely apart from the question as to whether the normal schools should 
aim to prepare teachers for the high schools. Under the present organization of their 
curricula, they are deliberately encouraging the student to make elementary teach- 
ing, whether in rural schools or in graded schools, a stepping-stone to high, school 
teaching, to the teaching and supervision of special subjects, arid to school adminis- 
tration ; and this rather than any ambition that they may or may not cherish to be 
recognized as competent to prepare high school teachers, or to become "colleges," 
constitutes the most serious charge against them. It is not only possible but quite be- 
yond question that certain normal schools may profitably undertake the preparation 
of certain types of high school teachers, and a normal school which offers courses of 
collegiate grade administered consistently with recognized standards should certainly 
rank with other collegiate institutions. But this does not warrant the normal school 
in discrediting elementary service in the emphasis of its courses, while it glorifies that 
service with unction in public discussion. Nor does it justify it in surrendering its pre- 
rogatives as a professional school. The strength of any professional school lies in the 
fact that it can aim at a definite objective. The weakness of professional adjuncts to 
institutions of general or liberal education lies in the fact that the great bulk of the 
work cannot be coordinated and integrated with reference to a definite goal. The 
normal schools of Missouri seem quite deliberately to have chosen the weapons of 
weakness rather than the weapons of strength. They have adopted the loose program 
of studies in preference to the compact, unified organization of real curricula. They 
have professionalized their work only by the introduction of detached courses in edu- 
cational theory, comparable in every way to the makeshift requirements in educa- 
tion thru which the liberal-arts colleges have sought to justify their claims to recogni- 
tion as teacher-training agencies; and no more than these arts colleges have they 
attempted to professionalize all of their courses, making each bear with its full force 



CURRICULA AS WHOLES 171 

upon the central problem of teaching. The normal schools of this type have been fol- 
lowers rather than leaders. They have vehemently asserted their "rights/ 5 but they 
have failed to justify their independent existence by adapting themselves throughout 
to their peculiar task. They have been imitators, and imitators of something that is 
weak rather than of something that is strong. 

The city training schools, on the other hand, have escaped these pitfalls, perhaps 
in large measure because they have been under no appreciable pressure to build up 
large enrolments, and consequently have not been tempted to lose sight of the ser- 
vice in efforts to meet individual needs and thereby attract students. The service 
itself, too, has been much closer to the city training schools than to the normal schools ; 
they are themselves part and parcel of it; and any shortcomings in their methods 
or courses are likely to be disclosed quickly and effectively. With less temptation to 
scatter their energies, with a constant check upon their work, and under the stimulus 
of a direct responsibility for doing one thing well, they have been impelled to focus 
their efforts upon a central problem. Where they have been well supported and well 
staffed, as in St. Louis, their superiority to the collegiate type of state normal school 
cannot be successfully disputed. 

THE CITY TRAINING SCHOOLS MISS THEIR FULL OPPORTUNITY 

This is far from saying, however, that the training schools are without their weak- 
nesses, or that their curricula, while unquestionably better adapted to their purpose 
than are the inchoate programs of the normal schools, are as satisfactory as might rea- 
sonably be expected. If the normal schools have chafed under the low public estimate 
accorded to elementary teaching, and have expressed their irritation by effectually 
pointing their students away from the lower schools, the city training schools have 
perhaps been too ready to accept the subordinate position of the service for which 
they prepare. They have adopted a professional attitude in the construction of their 
curricula, but they have not fully professionalized their policies. Not only in St. Louis 
and Kansas City, but in most of the city training schools of the country, a single, 
undifferentiated two-year curriculum is deemed sufficient to equip the student with 
the great variety of skills and insights involved in efficient teaching during all of the 
first eight school years. This single curriculum, it is true, usually reflects the actual 
materials of the elementary program, and this is most commendable; but the time is 
so short and the field is so wide that these materials cannot be covered in a thorough- 
going way, and with the ramifications and extensions that are essential if the courses 
are to meet the standards suggested in the earlier sections of the present report. 
There are many, especially among the workers in the state schools, who oppose the 
type of curriculum required in St. Louis on the theory that the work of the teacher 
will ultimately be much more efficient if the training curriculum includes some courses 
of a more advanced and more distinctly " academic" or "general" character. This 
criticism is justified if the courses required in the training school are merely or mainly 



172 ORGANIZATION OF CURRICULA 

"review" courses; but the criticism loses its point when such courses, while dealing 
with elementary subjects, treat those subjects broadly and deeply. This cannot be 
done successfully in a two-year curriculum that covers the entire field of elementary 
teaching. The attempt to do so is as successful in St. Louis as the circumstances 
permit, but a longer curriculum or differentiated curricula, or both, are necessary 
to attain the best results. 

If, then, the normal schools of the collegiate type have tended to make elementary 
teaching a stage preparatory to high school teaching, and have consequently accen- 
tuated the unfortunate distinctions of the teaching service, it can be said with equal 
truth that the training schools with their narrower field, with every chance to pro- 
fessionalize and dignify all grades and levels of elementary instruction, have fallen 
short of their opportunities. After all, whatever may be the excuses for the failure 
of the normal schools to raise appropriately the character and status of elementary 
teaching, the excuses for the failure of the training school to do this are less con- 
vincing. There are few large cities to-day that could not successfully demand a three- 
year training-school curriculum from the graduates of their local high schools who 
wish to become elementary teachers. The training school knows full well the diffi- 
culty of preparing teachers in a shorter time, and it should take the initiative and 
exercise the leadership in bringing about this extension of the training period. For 
the same reason the city training school should be the first to adopt a policy of dif- 
ferentiated curricula that will ensure a fair mastery of a restricted field as a basis 
for an expanding training in elementary instruction. Neither the normal schools nor 
the city training schools can come into their own until they stand firm, not upon 
their right to rank with colleges (a right which they should take for granted), but 
rather upon the right of the elementary teaching service to rank with other types of 
teaching service, and, what is much more fundamental, upon the right of every child 
at every level of his instruction to have a teacher especially trained to meet the pe- 
culiar problems of that particular period. 

%. Organization and Content of Specific Courses 

The preceding section dealt with the organization of curricula as wholes. We have 
now to consider the specific courses that make up these large units. The emphasis 
will be primarily upon the so-called "professional" courses, inasmuch as it is thru 
these at the present time that the professional purpose of the teacher- training in- 
stitutions is chiefly expressed. The principal courses will be analyzed with the aim of 
determining what function each is intended to discharge under the theories now 
apparently governing curriculum organization in the Missouri schools. An attempt 
will then be made to evaluate this purpose or function in the light of the principles 
or standards laid down in the preceding discussions. 



PROFESSIONAL COURSES : SECONDARY 173 

a. PROFESSIONAL COURSES OF SECONDARY GRADE 

The professional courses recommended by the conference of 1916 1 for the rural 
certificate curriculum are the following: 

(1) Subject-matter of the common school branches with emphasis upon method, 

one unit (or one-fourth of a full year's work). 
() Psychology of learning or elementary psychology, one- third of a unit (or 

one-twelfth of a full year's work). 

(3) Rural life problems, one-third of a unit. 

(4) Rural school management, one-third of a unit. 

(5) Methods and observation, one unit. 

According to the conference agreement, no one of these courses is to be elected until 
at least eight units (two years) of secondary work have been completed. The proposals, 
therefore, contemplate three units, or three-fourths of a year, of professional study 
distributed over the last two years of the secondary curriculum. The advantages of 
concentrating this work in the fourth year and later of amplifying it and transferring 
it to a fifth graduate year have been pointed out in the preceding section. 2 We are 
concerned here only with the purpose and content of these professional courses, and 
with their pertinence to the preparation of teachers for the rural schools. 

(1) SUBJECT-MATTER OF THE COMMON SCHOOL BRANCHES WITH EMPHASIS UPON METHOD 
The conference did well to place this course first in the list, thereby implying that 
it will be the first professional work that the pupil undertakes. The time allowed for 
it five periods a week for a year is too brief, but it is as long as a professional 
curriculum on the secondary level can well afford. Then, too, certain phases of ele- 
mentary subject-matter are represented in the general high school courses, especially 
the courses in English and in American history and civics, which are recommended 
as a basis for the professional work. "Methods and observation"" covers the same 
ground also from a somewhat different point of view. 

In the high school training-classes, the course in elementary subject-matter is 
taught by the training teacher, and consequently is treated as a unit course, with 
a tendency, no doubt, to distribute the time and emphasis over the various topics 
as the needs of the class may demand. In the normal schools the work is covered in 
separate courses, each extending over a period of twelve weeks, and each limited to a 
single subject, as arithmetic, grammar, or geography. While the training-class stu- 
dent will have instruction in all of the important subjects of the elementary program, 
the normal school student will have instruction in only three subjects at most. 

CONCENTRATION AND UNIFORM TREATMENT NEEDED 

The normal schools vary considerably in their offerings and requirements. In gen- 
eral, the chief emphasis is upon the relatively advanced phases of the subject-mat- 

1 The conference of heads of Missouri training: institutions described on pages 62 and 164, 

2 See page 166. 



ORGANIZATION OF CURRICULA 

ter those phases that are most clearly represented in the seventh grade and eighth 
grade programs. Where the work in elementary subject-matter is parceled out among 
the various academic departments, this emphasis upon upper grade topics is probably 
inevitable. It is well to ask whether in the normal schools as in the high school train- 
ing classes, the year's work in elementary subject-matter and methods might not well 
be assigned to one teacher a person who is familiar not only with the subject-matter 
but with the means of adapting it especially to the primary and intermediate grade 
pupils who, in the large majority of cases, will form the chief problems of the rural 
school teacher. This policy of making the work a unit in charge of a single teacher 
constitutes one of the marked advantages of the teacher-training classes and one of 
the important elements of their strength. It might even be advisable so to organize 
the course that twelve weeks will be given to primary materials and methods, twelve 
weeks to intermediate grade materials and methods, and twelve weeks to upper grade 
materials and methods; or if not this equal division, at least an organization of mate- 
rials that explicitly recognizes these three divisions of school life. 

(&) THE PSYCHOLOGY OF LEARNING 

According to the recommendations of the conference, a full unit is devoted to what 
might be called simple educational theory. The first twelve weeks of this work are 
given to an elementary course in educational psychology. Essentially the same course 
was given in some of the normal schools prior to the conference agreement. The out- 
lines submitted by the instructors indicate that the time is distributed among the 
various topics substantially as follows : two weeks are spent in the study of conscious- 
ness and its relation to instinctive and acquired modes of behavior; a half-week to 
the structure of the nervous system; four or five weeks to habits, sensations and per- 
ceptions, imagination, memory, and association ; one or two weeks to attention and 
the emotions; and about two weeks to economy in learning and a brief discussion of 
the higher thought-processes. The educational applications of each of these topics are 
naturally given a strong emphasis. 

It is obvious that a course of this sort for high school pupils, limited to twelve weeks, 
can at best touch the problems of mental growth but superficially. There is, however, 
a distinct need for a brief course introducing the student to the concrete problems of 
teaching and giving him some familiarity with the simpler principles of educational 
psychology. It is doubtful whether the course should be known as "psychology," for 
the tendency under such a designation is toward a detached and formal treatment. 
The term "Introduction to Teaching " suggests more clearly both the purpose of the 
course and its close correlation with actual schoolroom practice. 

(3) RURAL LIFE PROBLEMS 

Prior to the conference agreement, most of the normal schools offered two types of 
courses dealing with specific rural school problems : (a) rural school methods courses 



PROFESSIONAL COURSES : SECONDARY 175 

that usually attempted to cover in twelve weeks not only rural school management 
but also the methods of teaching all of the elementary school subjects, an obviously 
impossible procedure; 1 and (b) courses in "rural life," that were concerned largely 
with the broader sociological problems of rural school teaching. With the adoption of 
the unit of " subject-matter and methods " and the unit of "observation and methods/' 
the superficial twelve- weeks courses were abandoned, and the older "rural life" courses 
became the course in "rural life problems," This was an improvement. 

The courses in rural life problems as now offered in the normal schools still vary in 
scope and content, 2 but in general, their development during the past three or four 
years is a hopeful sign that the pressing problems of rural education are to receive 
adequate attention in the normal schools. When the preparation of the rural school 
teacher and the rewards for rural school teaching are placed upon the same basis as 
the preparation and rewards for teaching in town and city schools, there will be no 
dearth of materials for constructing a rich and fruitful curriculum of studies dealing 
primarily with the fundamental problems of rural life and education. 

(4) RURAL SCHOOL MANAGEMENT 

Another forward step which followed the conference agreement was the develop- 
ment of specialized courses in rural school management. Earlier courses in this field 
were not clearly differentiated in most cases from the courses in rural life problems, 3 
and prospective rural school teachers in many instances gained their knowledge of the 
precepts and principles of management in the collegiate classes which dealt primarily 
with graded school problems. At the present time (1917), each of the schools offers a 
separate course in the management of rural schools. It deals with the problems that 
have come to be associated with collegiate courses in school management, classifi- 
cation of pupils, construction of the daily program, initiation and maintenance of 

1 One of the courses found in the spring of 1915, for example, gave three weeks to reading 1 , two weeks to language and 
grammar, and one week to each of the following subjects: spelling, arithmetic, geography, history and civics, and 
agriculture. Another distributed the time of nine weeks among the following topics: child study, observation, 
applying standards of criticism, teaching of English in rural schools, teaching of history and geography in rural 
schools, and teaching of arithmetic in rural schools, each of these topics occupying from one week to two and one- 
half weeks. The class taking the latter course represented every stage of educational advancement from the first 
high school year to the fourth college year. The enrolment as reported by the instructor included not only prospec- 
tive rural school teachers, but prospective teachers of high school English and high school history. A third course 
was reported by the instructor as including a treatment of "all school subjects: English including reading, spell- 
ing, penmanship, arithmetic, elementary science, history, geography, drawing and construction, music." This course 
covered twelve weeks 1 

2 At Warrensburg, the work is apparently divided between, two twelve-weeks courses ; one (Rural School Methods) 
deals with the teaching of the elementary school subjects in such a way that the primary and intermediate grade 
problems receive the chief emphasis ; the other is a more general course dealing with personal and public hygiene, 
play and recreation, vocational education, boys* and girls* club work, and the organization of the community for 
social and economic purposes. At Kirksville, the requirements recommended by the conference are met by a twelve- 
weeks course which treats of the changes that have been arid are now taking place in rural life, the effect of these 
changes upon the rural school, and the redirection and reorganization of rural education. The course at Springfield 
closely resembles that offered at Kirksville. At Cape Girardeau, the course is somewhat more specifically concerned 
with the operation of a rural school, emphasizing such problems as the school plant, consolidation, the school as a 
community centre, and the teacher as a community leader. 

8 A course offered in 1916, for example, dealt with such topics as the tenant system in Missouri, the district as an 
administrative unit, the condition of the country church in Missouri, and school laws regarding county and state 
funds. 



176 ORGANIZATION OF CURRICULA 

routine, marking and grading, school attendance, and discipline, but the treatment 
is guided by the fact that the student is preparing for work in one-room schools. 
The modification is fundamental, for a one-room school presents problems quite differ- 
ent from those of the graded school. Not only is the preparation of the rural school 
teacher made more effective by this procedure, but the collegiate courses, relieved of 
the presence of secondary pupils, can also be more closely concentrated upon the 
graded school problem. 

(5) METHODS AND OBSERVATION 

A marked disadvantage of the rural certificate curriculum lies in the fact that it 
makes no provision for practice teaching. The nearest approach to actual contact 
with the teaching situation is represented by the course in observation. The descrip- 
tions of this course that appear in the several catalogues arouse suspicion that the 
work is largely theoretical and consequently subject to the tendency of such courses 
to become either detached and abstract or purely perfunctory. Only one of the schools 
(Kirksville) has a model rural school that can be used for observation. As the training- 
school facilities in all of the normal schools are so meagre that all or most of the teach- 
ing is in the hands of practice teachers, one may infer that whatever observation is 
required in the secondary courses is likely to be the observation of practice teachers. 

As long as a rural certificate curriculum is offered upon the secondary level, every 
possible step should be taken to make it as effective as possible. This cannot be done 
without providing in some way for practice teaching, and the requirement of a full 
unit for "observation and methods" should certainly include participation and prac- 
tice teaching as well as observation. To give time for these activities, some of the 
materials dealing systematically with "methods" could be included in the "subject- 
matter and methods" course discussed above. In any case, an appreciable amount of 
participation and practice teaching should be provided. 

SUCCESSFUL PROCEDURE IN MINNESOTA 

The plan that has been developed in the high school training-classes of Minnesota 
suggests a standard that other secondary systems of teacher-training, whether in high 
schools or normal schools, might well seek to attain. According to this plan, one period 
each day, practically for the entire year, is spent by the training-class student in 
the elementary school. At the beginning of the year two weeks are given to close 
observation. Then each student takes a group of about five pupils for fifteen minutes 
each day, the teaching being limited at the outset to very simple exercises, prefer- 
ably of the " drill " type. After two weeks of this work, the training-class spends a 
week in visiting and observing neighboring rural schools, and the following week is 
devoted to a discussion of these visits. With this preparation the more intensive 
teaching of small groups in the local graded schools is begun and continued for three 
months. Following this, two months are spent in teaching larger groups, and then 



PROFESSIONAL COURSES : COLLEGIATE 177 

two weeks in actual rural school teaching. For the specific purpose of providing the 
students with experience in beginning first grade work, small classes are organized 
toward the end of the year comprising children in the community who would nor- 
mally enter school the subsequent fall. Students take charge of the classes under close 
supervision and work with them for eight weeks. 

A plan of this sort demands, of course, an abundance of "laboratory"" material, and 
would be quite impracticable in normal schools so limited in this respect as are those 
of Missouri. The high school training-classes, with their relatively small enrolments 
and their abundance of local practice materials, are much more favorably situated in 
this respect. A normal school suitably located with a number of the schools of a town 
or city under its control could readily make similar arrangements. In any case, the 
normal school, wherever located, if it undertakes the preparation of rural school 
teachers, should make satisfactory provisions for a period of both observation and 
practice in neighboring rural schools. 

6. PROFESSIONAL CoUESES OF COLLEGIATE GllADE 1 

The distinction between secondary and collegiate courses in the professional study 
of education has been less a difference in the names and materials used than the often 
more important difference in the intellectual experience and preparedness of the stu- 
dent. The same is true of other subjects, such as literature, history, economics, and 
sociology; the materials to be presented bear the same name whether offered upon the 
secondary or the collegiate level. This is perhaps one reason why the Missouri normal 
schools have failed, until recently, to limit registration in professional courses of colle- 
giate grade to students of collegiate standing, and have thus produced courses of neu- 
tral hue that were neither collegiate nor secondary. In the spring of 1915, twenty- 
three out of fifty-one collegiate classes in strictly professional subjects reported a 
mixed enrolment representing both college students and high school pupils. The prac- 
tice was defended on the ground that the secondary pupils admitted to these courses 
were almost always mature men and women who had had some experience in teach- 
ing. As a matter of fact, however, twenty-eight per cent of the secondary pupils en- 
rolled in these classes were below the age of twenty, the proportion of immature stu- 
dents in the mixed classes being six per cent higher than in the classes that were 
limited to bonajide college students. Wide variations in maturity tend to accompany 
wide variations in training, and there can be no doubt that both the organization of 
material and the work of a class, the members of which vary widely as to training and 
maturity, will suffer in comparison with that of a homogeneous group. 2 It is gratify- 
ing to note that the Missouri normal schools have since adopted a consistent policy of 

1 Conspectus of the professional courses offered in the fire schools during the year 1916-17 will be found in the Ap- 
pendix, pages 40&411. 

2 The range of ages was wide in both groups of classes, but considerably wider in the mixed classes than in the 
classes limited to college students ; the average age-range of the former group was nearly nineteen years as con- 
trasted with fifteen years, the average age-range of the latter group. 



178 ORGANIZATION OF CURRICULA 

differentiating collegiate work from secondary work at every point. With this policy 
established, it will be much easier to enforce prerequisites and to raise the standards 
of professional courses. 

INTER-SCHOOL VARIATIONS 

The variations in the amount and character of the professional work actually re- 
quired in the several schools are interesting in the light that they throw upon the 
general theory under which the curricula are organized and administered. Of strictly 
professional courses of collegiate grade, five may be recognized as constituting a fairly 
well standardized equipment for the prospective teacher: (1) psychology; ($) the his- 
tory of education; (3) general method or principles of teaching; (4) school manage- 
ment, sometimes designated as "school economy 11 or as "school administration;" and 
(5) observation, participation, and practice teaching. Not all of these subjects are re- 
quired by each of the normal schools, but two or more of them are among the require- 
ments of every collegiate curriculum. 1 Psychology, general method or principles of 
teaching, and practice teaching are required by all of the schools for the sixty-hour, 
or two-year, curriculum. At Kirksville, Warrensburg, and Springfield, two and one- 
half semester hours of psychology are demanded; at Mary ville, this amount is doubled; 
while at Cape Girardeau, four semester hours are deemed sufficient, altho two sem- 
ester hours of child study have recently been added to the prescribed studies. In 
practice teaching the requirement of five semester hours or the equivalent is uniform 
among the five schools. A course in the history of education and a course in school 
management are required in four of the schools. These are commonly offered for two 
and one-half semester hours. 

(1) PSYCHOLOGY 
INTRODUCTORY COURSE 

The introductory course in psychology in the Missouri normal schools is "general" 
in its character; that is, it attempts to give the student a systematic account of the 
science as it has been developed by the pure psychologist. In this respect it differs 
from the secondary course referred to in the preceding section. 2 The latter, it will be 
remembered, is usually designated as "educational psychology," and lays its strongest 
emphases upon the topics that are most closely related to the art of teaching. The 
general and systematic character of the collegiate course is shown both in the text- 
books that are employed and in the outlines of courses furnished by the instructors 
in charge of classes. 3 

1 With the exception of the general college curriculum at Cape Girardeau, which may be completed without any 

professional courses whatsoever. 

* See page 174. 

9 It was also fully substantiated by what was seen in the classes visited during the spring of 1916. In one of these 

classes, the first part of the hour was spent in discussing the anatomy of the retina, and the remaining time was 

given to the phenomena of color-mixing, both topics that could profitably be dismissed with a brief reference and 



PROFESSIONAL COURSES : PSYCHOLOGY 179 

The course is apparently conceived by most of the normal school teachers of the 
subject as furnishing the student with an introduction to psychological study for its 
own sake, rather than as a "practical" course dealing with facts and principles directly 
applicable to the problems of teaching, or as an "orienting" course furnishing an ini- 
tial view of the problems of teaching and learning. The course follows the college 
model with fair fidelity. 

ADVANCED COURSES IN PSYCHOLOGY 

In making the introductory course in psychology "general" in its scope'and char- 
acter, the normal schools have not been unmindful of the applied phases of the sub- 
ject. In most of the schools advanced courses are offered, and these almost always 
deal with pedagogical applications. In the state schools, however, with two excep- 
tions, this advanced work is either elective or alternative in so far as the two-year cur- 
ricula are concerned; and consequently it is not generally undertaken by a considerable 
proportion of the students. 1 The two exceptions are Springfield and Cape Girardeau, 
both of which require a course in child study in the two-year curricula. 

As with many of the other "professional" subjects, the value of psychology in the 
preparation of teachers has been seriously questioned. This skepticism has been due 
in part, at least, to the formal and general character of the courses that are usually 
required. The systematic study of psychology as a "pure" science undoubtedly has 
a place in some certain normal school curricula. Its function, however, is not prima- 
rily that of a propaedeutic to the detailed study of the teaching process. It certainly 
does not constitute a body of theory that may be passed on to the beginning stu- 
dent in the hope that he will be able to deduce from its principles and postulates 
the rules and precepts of successful practice. 

TEACHING LESS AN APPLIED SCIENCE THAN A FINE ART 

The traditional organization of teacher- training curricula seems to rest upon the 
assumption that teaching is, or at least may ultimately become, an applied science, 
analogous in every essential respect to medicine, engineering, and agriculture; and, 
consequently, that adequate preparation for teaching is first to lay down the general 
principles and then to apply them to the concrete teaching situation. This assumption 
would make the study of psychology in the normal school analogous to the study 

might even be entirely dispensed with in an introductory normal school course. Another class spent the hour In 
discussing the definitions of psychology proposed by Ladd and Stout; the assignment for the following day in- 
volved the problem "How does psychological analysis differ from physical analysis ?" The instructor was skilful 
in directing the discussion of the rather immature students thru these highly theoretical topics, but it seemed 
hardly a profitable use of one out of only sixty recitation periods given to* the entire course, A third class was deal- 
ing in an abstract way with the practical problem of training memory. The attention was well sustained, however, 
and the hour's work no doubt yielded a profit. The discussion gradually led to the statement of two problems 
which formed the assignment for the following day : * * What constitutes a *natural relationship ' ? " and * ' Are logical 
relationships natural relationships?" 

1 For example, in the spring of 1916, in Kirksville, there were 2T students in one of the two sections in general psy- 
chology as against 12 students in the only other psychological course offered to students of collegiate grade. 



180 ORGANIZATION OF CURRICULA 

of physiology in the medical school, the study of theoretical mechanics in the en- 
gineering school, and the study of chemistry in the agricultural school. 

There is, of course, something of this applied science character in teaching, but 
fundamentally teaching is much more closely allied to the fine arts than to the ap- 
plied sciences. Just as many gifted painters have been ignorant of the science of 
optics; just as many good musicians have an adequate knowledge neither of the 
physics of music nor of the psychology of tone; just as many effective writers and 
speakers would be unable to formulate the principles of style ; so good teachers have 
taught well in the past, and will doubtless teach well in the future, altho quite un- 
conscious of the principles that lie back of their art. The painter, the musician, the 
writer, and the teacher might very likely do their work much better if they possessed 
this knowledge of theory ; but something other than an understanding of theory is 
assuredly the basic element in successful practice. 

Somewhere between the fine arts and the applied sciences, then, but closer to the 
former than to the latter, stands the art of teaching. In so far as psychological prin- 
ciples can explain and rationalize successful practice, the study of psychology by the 
prospective teacher will have a positive value, but no amount of psychology can take 
the place of the study of the actual concrete process of teaching as it is carried on 
by a master, coupled with the patient self-discipline that comes from true apprentice- 
ship. The value of psychology from this point of view is not to furnish general prin- 
ciples from which specifics for practice may be derived, but rather to furnish an in- 
terpretative basis for a study of practice. It is not a propaedeutic to teaching in the 
sense that physics is a propaedeutic to engineering; it is rather an accompaniment, 
bearing to the curriculum for the prospective teacher a relation analogous to that 
which the study of color theories bears to the curriculum of the artist, or the study 
of counterpoint and harmony to the curriculum of the musician. In so far as the arts 
of painting and music are concerned, the classroom where theory is taught is an ad- 
junct to the studio where the chief work of training is concentrated; in so far as the 
art of teaching is concerned, the classroom in psychology is but an adjunct to the labo- 
ratory school where participation in the actual task of teaching may give to the novice 
something akin to the deft touch of the experienced teacher* 

PSYCHOLOGY NECESSARY TO A SOUND VIEW OF EDUCATION 

It is unfortunate that educational theory, of which psychology is a part, has suf- 
fered quite undeserved condemnation merely because of its inadequacy for prescribing 
technique. There has been a very general failure to recognize that the study of theory 
exercises an important function that is quite independent of its influence upon the art 
of teaching. While the young teacher will depend largely upon imitation and practice 
to master the technique of his art, and while the normal school in consequence must 
first of all provide abundant opportunities for the successful mastery of technique 
in this empirical fashion, it should not be forgotten that the teacher should be some- 



PROFESSIONAL COURSES : PSYCHOLOGY 181 

thing more than a craftsman. If the ideals of democracy are to be reflected in the edu- 
cational system, the teachers themselves must be charged with some measure of re- 
sponsibility for constructing, evaluating, and criticising general educational proposals 
and programs; they must know the relation of education to other social forces; 
they must know what functions education has to discharge, what institutions and 
agencies are available, and under what limitations these institutions and agencies do 
their work. The process of teaching is, of course, the primary concern of every teacher, 
but education comprehends far more than this, and the teacher is a minister of edu- 
cation. 

The capacity thus to share with one^s colleagues the responsibility of determining 
educational policies may bear no discoverable relation to one's actual skill as a teacher. 
It is, indeed, quite possible that a training limited to the skill aspects of teaching may 
produce a type of classroom efficiency marvelously well adapted to an educational sys- 
tem that is organized on the factory plan, a system in which the thinking, the plan- 
ning, and the responsible direction are centralized in a single official, or in a group of 
officials, standing over the classroom teachers much as the boss in a factory stands over 
the workers. This situation is not unlike that in which American education is involved 
to-day and such a situation should not continue. The teachers themselves should 
have a very large part in determining the educational policies of the country, and with 
the mature, well-trained, and relatively permanent teaching staff which we hope will 
shortly replace the present immature, untrained, and short-lived body of teachers, we 
may look forward hopefully to the realization of the democratic ideal. Not all can be 
leaders, but in an effective democracy all must be intelligent interpreters and critics. 

TWOFOLD REQUIREMENT FUOM PSYCHOLOGY 

We conclude, then, that the study of psychology in the teacher's curriculum has to 
fulfil two fairly distinct functions: (1) it must provide a basis for explaining and 
interpreting successful teaching practices as well as principles from which to derive 
new and better practices; and () it must furnish a wdrking theory of the mental life 
as a basis for understanding the larger problems of education, many of which are only 
remotely connected with teaching. 1 For the latter purpose psychology is only one of 

1 The failure to recognize this twofold function of the study of psychology is doubtless responsible in large part for 
the conflicting: views regarding the actual value of this subject in the professional preparation of teachers. 

On the one hand, there is the type of evidence that is represented by the report of the Wisconsin normal school 
survey (1914), summarizing data gathered from replies by training-school principals and critic teachers to the ques- 
tion, "Whether psychology and pedagogy as taught in the normal department helped students in their teaching in 
the training school.** Unfortunately for our purposes, psychology and pedagogy were not separated in this ques- 
tion; consequently the proportion of the criticisms to be charged against psychology is difficult to determine. From 
individual replies published in the report, however, it would seem that the courses in pedagogy are somewhat 
less severely criticised than the courses in psychology. Of the sixty persons replying to the question 

18.3% state that psychology and pedagogy help the students in their practice teaching; 
66.6% state that these subjects do not help or that the help is slight; 
15.1% state that they are unable to judge. 

The detailed criticisms that are reproduced in the report emphasize particularly 
(a) The academic nature of psychology and pedagogy as these subjects are commonly taught in the normal 

schools; 
(6) The immaturity of the students at the time when these courses are taken ; 



182 ORGANIZATION OF CURRICULA 

several subjects of study, each of which should contribute its quota of principles, hypo- 
theses, and points of view to a general theory of education. A substantial groundwork 
in biology is doubtless as important in this regard as psychology, while the claims of 
economics, sociology, and the history of education should not be overlooked. 

Altho these two functions of psychology are distinct, they can be fulfilled in part by 
the same courses. In one-year and two-year curricula, the first function is the more 
important, for while the teacher must be something more than a craftsman, he must 
be a craftsman first. Indeed, if he is to work in the schools for only a limited period, 
his contributions to constructive educational policies will necessarily be very slight. 
The shorter curricula, then, may well afford to emphasize the kind of psychology that 
bears most directly upon the art of teaching. Furthermore, the courses in systematic 
psychology will mean much more to the student if he has approached them gradually 
thru a study of the concrete facts illustrated in the processes of teaching and learning. 
These courses may well be reserved, then, for the later stages of the longer curricula, 
where they will be taken by students who are presumably looking upon the work of 
teaching as a permanent career. 

PROPOSED ORGANIZATION OF COURSES IN PSYCHOLOGY 

Consistently with this view, the following organization of the work in psychology 
is suggested : 

I. In all professional curricula on the collegiate level there should be an introduc- 
tory course preceded or paralleled by a course in biology, and closely related to the 
student's participation in the work of teaching. This course should furnish a bird's-eye 
view of the teacher's task, and, like the first professional course proposed for the rural 
certificate curriculum, 1 might well be termed an "Introduction to Teaching" rather 
than an introduction to psychology. Aside from an initial effort to define in simple and 
concrete terms the problem of teaching, it would be largely psychological in its charac- 
ter, very concrete and "practical" in its content, and concerned with such topics as in- 
stincts, habits, the laws of learning, the technique of study, and the significance of in- 
dividual differences topics that have a definite application to classroom teaching. 
Something regarding the mental characteristics of children at successive levels of 
growth and development should also be included. The purpose of the course should be 
not to cover the ground intensively, but rather to do what the name implies provide 
an introduction. It should furnish a point of view and a terminology for later work. 2 

(c) The wide gulf between theory and practice; 

(d) The lack of constant or frequent use in psychology classes of the material for illustration and demonstra- 
tion that the training- school affords. 

On the other hand, the questionnaire submitted to graduates of the Missouri normal schools regarding the pro- 
fessional courses that had proved of largest value to them in their actual work as teacher gave the third place to 
psychology in a group of nine subjects. (See page 442.) It should also be noted that J. L. Meriam's study Nor- 
mal School Education and Efficiency (New York, 1906), revealed a higher correlation between class standing in 
psychology and success in teaching than between success in teaching and class standing in any other normal school 
course except practice teaching. 
1 See page 174. 
a There is abundant evidence that the traditional coarse in general psychology is not needed as a basis for a course 



PROFESSIONAL COURSES : PSYCHOLOGY 183 

. This introductory treatment should be amplified in all of the courses that follow. 
In other words, every course in the normal school should be in an important sense 
a course in psychology. The abundance of opportunities for realizing this aim will 
be referred to in the following sections. It is sufficient here to point out that there is 
no better place to teach the important facts regarding individual differences than 
in the courses on school management and the technique of teaching ; nowhere may the 
characteristics of the child's mind in its successive stages of growth be more clearly 
illustrated than in connection with the work in reading and arithmetic; while the 
principles of habit formation and the laws of learning may be applied and exem- 
plified in every subject and every class. 

3. Finally, the student will come to the systematic courses, which should be designed 
to bring together in a comprehensive and orderly manner the detailed facts with 
which by this time an intimate acquaintance will have been gained. This treatment 
should be attempted even in the shorter curricula to the extent of gathering together 
the important precepts and principles that relate to the art of teaching. In the longer 
curricula, however, it should have the wider aim of leaving with the student a fairly 
definite body of educational doctrine to prepare him for the *kind of constructive 
thinking referred to above. 

The general principle of curriculum organization here proposed will be emphasized 
in discussing other subjects as well as psychology. In essence, it involves the integra- 
tion of all of the work of the normal school into one consistent whole. A true curric- 
ulum is more than a mere aggregation of courses, it is an organization dominated 
by a unitary purpose. If this principle is to be worked out effectively, each instructor 
must necessarily be familiar with the work of the other instructors. There must be 
frequent conferences upon the ever-recurring problem of making each element in 
the curriculum not only each course, but each topic in each course contribute 
its maximum of influence toward the effective working of the whole. The careful, 
periodic adjustment of the various parts of the educational organism is just as neces- 
sary as the careful, periodic adjustment of a watch or of any other finely organized 
structure. It makes for a maximum of efficiency and a minimum of waste. Applied 
to the particular departments under discussion, it would not only prevent needless 
duplications and repetitions of the same materials in different courses, but it would 
ensure them when needed. There would be an end to the student's complaint that 
what he has been taught in one course is retaught in another as tho it were being 

that deals primarily with the psychological interpretation of the art of 'teaching. A committee of the American 
Psychological Association, of which Professor G. M. Whipple was chairman, reported in 1910 that educational psy- 
chology did not need this general basis. ("Teaching of Psychology in Normal Schools," Psycholoffical Monograph, 
vol. xii, No. 51, 1910.) In the departments of education in several universities introductory courses in educational 
psychology are offered without a prerequisite in general psychology, and are completed successfully by students 
who have not had courses of the latter type. For example, Teachers College, Columbia University, after some years 
of requiring general psychology as a prerequisite, now offers the following course : "Educational Psychology. . . . 
This course gives a general treatment of the elements of educational psychology. It is designed to meet the needs 
of graduate students who have had little or no previous training in psychology ."(Announcements, 1916-17, page 45.) 
Harvard University, the University of Missouri, and the University of Illinois also offer courses in educational psy- 
chology without requiring general psychology. 



184 ORGANIZATION OF CURRICULA 

presented for the first time. There would be an end also of the too well-founded criti- 
cism that the courses in theory have no influence upon practice are not even reflected 
in the practical courses offered in the same school. 



(2) HISTORY OF EDUCATION 

COURSES OFFERED IN MISSOURI SCHOOLS 

A course in the history of education is prescribed for the two-year curricula in 
both of the city training schools and in all of the state normal schools except Cape 
Grirardeau. The amount of work required varies, however, from thirty class periods 
at Kansas City to sixty at Kirks ville and Springfield, eighty at Harris Teachers Col- 
lege, and one hundred twenty at Warrensburg and Mary ville. The character of the 
prescribed work also varies. At Kirksville only the first term is required in the two- 
year curricula, altho a second term is demanded for the three-year and four-year 
curricula. The first term's work covers the long period from the earliest times to the 
eighteenth century; consequently the student who remains for only two years has a 
fairly comprehensive course in the history of education during the ancient, mediaeval, 
and early modern periods, but nothing of the very important developments of the past 
two centuries. Much more reasonable is the practice at Springfield, where the history 
of elementary education (a one-term course) is required for the two-year curricula, 
while in the longer curricula one additional term covering the general field is pre- 
scribed. At the Harris Teachers College the course covers the general field, but the 
greatest emphasis is laid upon the modern period. 1 

FUNCTION OF HISTORY OF EDUCATION IN THE PROFESSIONAL PREPARATION OF TEACHERS 
In spite of the wealth of material available for these courses in the history of 
education, the value of the study in curricula for the preparation of teachers has 
been more frequently and more seriously questioned than has the value of any other 
strictly professional course. The Missouri teachers who were asked to rank the pro- 
fessional subjects in the order of their influence upon the actual work of teaching 
almost invariably placed the history of education very low in the scale, and in the 
combined rankings it is not only found at the foot of the list, but the margin that 
separates it from the other courses is so wide as to indicate a very general skepticism 
as to its worth. 2 Similar doubts as to the importance of the study in affecting the 
student's later practice are forcibly expressed in a symposium 3 on the professional 

1 In the general courses, Monroe's Textbook in the History of Education is listed as the basic text except at Kirks- 
ville, where the work is apparently based upon the instructor's syllabus. No report on the history of education was 
received from the Kansas City Training- School. Extensive collateral readings are required in all of the schools 
the supplementary books most frequently mentioned in the instructors' outlines are: Graves's History of Educa- 
tion; Laurie's Pre-Christian Education: Monroe's Source-Book,- the textbooks of Kemp, Compayre, and Davidson; 
Quick's Educational Reformers; the "Great Educators" series ; Painter's Pedagogical Essays ; and, as source mate- 
rials, the Smile, Spencer's Education, and Pcstalozzi's Leonard and Gertrude. 2 See page 442. 
s Yearbook. Society of College Teachers of Education, 1912. Judd and Parker (.Bulletin No. 12> United States Bureau 
of Education, 1916) also speak strongly against the requirement of the history of education in the two-year curricula. 



PROFESSIONAL COURSES : HISTORY OF EDUCATION 185 

subjects prepared for one of the meetings of the Society of College Teachers of 
Education. 

On the other hand, when eighty school superintendents, high school principals, 
and college teachers of education were asked to rank eighteen different professional 
courses ordinarily offered in university departments of education in the order of their 
value in the training of high school teachers, the combined ratings gave the history 
of education a respectable place. 1 And it is undoubtedly true that the courses in the 
history of education have a much better status among members of college faculties 
than have any other courses given by the departments of education. 

It is probable that these differences of opinion are due in part to the failure to recog- 
nize, as in the case of psychology, that the value of a subject in a prospective teach- 
er's curriculum is not to be measured entirely by the influence of this subject upon 
the technique of teaching. The direct influence of the history of education would, 
indeed, be less than that of psychology, but its indirect influence may be far from 
negligible and its contributions to what we have termed the"professional intelligence" 
of the teacher are of obvious importance. The instructors in this subject, indeed, lay 
a large emphasis upon this last-named factor. The function of the study is frankly 
" interpretative;" its essential outcomes are to be expressed not in increased skill, 
but in such terms as "interpretative backgrounds," "points of view," "appreciative 
attitudes," and the like. 2 

It would indeed be unfortunate if the demand for the immediately "practical" 
should blind one to the importance of ensuring the attitudes and points of view that 
only historical study can furnish. Nevertheless, in spite of the fact that many of 
those opposed to the history of education condemn it simply because it seems to lack 
immediate utility, there is a serious question as to whether the present organiza- 
tion of the subject in typical normal school courses furnishes the most practicable 
means of attaining these desired results. A painstaking examination of the courses 

1 See H. A. Holllster: Courses in Education Best Adapted to the Needs of High School Teachers and Sigh School 
Principals, in School and Home Education,, xxvi ; 8, 216 (April, 1917). The various courses were found to stand in the 
following order: Educational psychology ; technique of teaching-; teaching: of special subjects; principles of second- 
ary education; theory of teaching; principles of education (general course); history of education (general); edu- 
cational sociology; history of education in the United States ; educational measurements; the psychology of sub- 
jects; high school curricula; philosophy of education; genetic psychology; high school administration ; supervision 
of instruction ; the curricula of the schools (general); practice teaching; industrial education; educational classics ; 
school supervision; educational administration (general) ; foreign school systems. This ranking represents the courses 
as they were rated for the training of high school teachers ; the ranking for the training of principals was somewhat 
different. It should be noted, of course, that in either case the situation is not quite comparable with that which 
is involved in considering the history of education as a part of two-year curricula for elementary teaching. 

2 The following statements are quoted from the answers given by instructors in the history of education to the ques- 
tion, "What is the specific aim of the course?" 

"A more intelligent grasp of educational problems. Wider conceptions of the teacher's work. The present under- 
stood through the past." 

"To give the student an understanding of our present educational theory and practice through a study of its 
development and evolution." 

*'To give the student the proper historical setting for all educational theory and practice." 
"To interpret and evaluate present educational problems in the light of past school experience.* 
"To give a deeper appreciation and better understanding of our present educational situation when viewed trom 
an historical standpoint.' 1 

"To acquaint the elementary teacher with the special significance and importance of elementary education as 
revealed in the history of that institution. To make intelligent a great many of the current educational practices. 



186 ORGANIZATION OF CURRICULA 

given and of the work done in the classes offers convincing evidence that the courses 
in the general history of education are not suited to students of the junior college 
level; they are distinctly senior college or university courses, presupposing a matur- 
ity of mind, a breadth of outlook, and a historical and philosophical background 
that it would be hopeless to expect in a student just out of the high school or with 
but a year's collegiate work, 1 As an advanced study, forming the climax of a three- 
year or four-year curriculum, the history of education can be made, and doubtless 
frequently is made, to realize its rich possibilities. As an elementary study, under- 
taken early in the period of professional training, or as a part of the brief and con- 
gested one-year and two-year programs, its justification is certainly debatable. It is 
possible that, in a two-year curriculum, a summarizing course which will treat the 
principles of education genetically may have a legitimate place. This possibility will 
be referred to in the following section. 

SUGGESTED REARRANGEMENT OF HISTORY OF EDUCATION 

The real need, however, is that the principle to which reference was made in the 
discussion of psychology should be applied likewise to the history of education. There 
would be a distinct advantage in making each teacher of the specific courses in meth- 
ods, school management, and the principles of teaching responsible for the historical 
aspects of his subject. The significance of the modern methods of teaching reading, 
for example, is much more keenly appreciated by the student if he knows something 
of the older methods of teaching reading, and the appropriate point, indeed the only 
effective point, at which to give the student this historical perspective upon the read- 
ing problem is in the specific course that deals with primary reading. Again, the 
courses in arithmetic and in the teaching of arithmetic offer innumerable occasions 
for illuminating present practices thru references to the development, both of arith- 
metic itself and of the methods of teaching it to children. The modern conceptions 
of geography and history as component parts of the elementary program faithfully 
reflect the fundamental doctrines of the important modern educational reformers 
from Pestalozzi, Froebel, Herbart, and Herbert Spencer to contemporary leaders like 
John Dewey; in presenting these conceptions as they recur in the specific courses in 
geography and history, there is the best possible opportunity to give the student an 
initial acquaintance with the philosophy on which they rest. The study of school 
management and the technique of teaching is probably best approached by the same 
genetic method ; the apparently trivial details of classroom routine, for example, take 
on a new meaning when their development is traced from the old days of individual 
instruction, thru the innovations of the Jesuits and the Christian Brethren and the 

1 The classes in the history of education in the Missouri normal schools in the spring of 1915 were made up predom- 
inantly of second-year students; in no case was a pupil of secondary grade registered, and in only one class out of 
eight reporting was the registration predominantly of first-year students. At the Harris Teachers College, the work 
in the history of education is given in the last semester of the two-year curriculum*, at the Kansas City Training 
School, the course is given in the last ten weeks of the second year. 



PROFESSIONAL COURSES : GENERAL METHOD 187 

contributions of the Bell- Lancaster schools, to the modern system of classroom organ- 
ization; the discussion of school discipline forms a most effective setting for significant 
references to the historical development of individualism in education, and some 
of the important ideas of such reformers as Rousseau, Froebel, and Spencer can here 
be introduced as growing out of concrete problems. It is a sound psychology that 
associates the earlier stages of an institution or of an educational practice with the 
treatment that most completely reveals its modern significance. The "practical" 
courses not only afford the natural opportunities for this; they are urgently in need 
of the illumination and enforcement that comes from skilfully laid historical per- 
spectives. Moreover, most topics gain enormously in weight and dignity when so 
treated. The handling of educational concepts as growths demanding development 
in accurate and disciplined thinking on the part of the student is an essential charac- 
teristic of instruction that may properly be considered to be of collegiate quality. 
The treatment proposed is a most effective propaedeutic for the systematic courses. 
The principles of curriculum construction that were emphasized in the discussion of 
psychology have a most important application here. The systematic work in the 
history of educational theories, like the systematic courses in psychology, fulfils its 
proper function in preparing the teacher not for technical duties of the classroom 
but for constructive thinking regarding general educational problems. The place of 
this work in the shorter curricula, therefore, is less important than in the longer cur- 
ricula, not only because the students are not so well prepared for it, but because it 
will be of large service only to those who remain long enough in the profession to 
have a share in determining educational policies. 



(3) GENEEAL METHOD AND PRINCIPLES OF TEACHING 

The term "general method" has an interesting history . In American normal schools 
from 1870 to 1890, instruction in the technique of teaching was based upon such 
books as White's Pedagogy and Fitch's Art of Teaching. These are in the main sim- 
ple compilations of the rules that long experience in classroom work has established. 
They were most serviceable books in their day, and the general type of handbook that 
they represent is still useful as a guide to young and inexperienced teachers. Such 
books, however, are essentially empirical in their character, for while they sometimes 
attempt to justify the practices that they recommend upon the basis of general 
principles, the latter are usually little more than palpable truisms. Courses based 
upon such materials are far from satisfactory in classes above the secondary level. 

The development of "general method" constituted in American pedagogy the first 
significant step away firom this rule-of- thumb procedure and toward the development 
of a consistent and unified theory of teaching. A "general" method of teaching, ob- 
viously, is a method that may be applied to any given teaching task; it is a proced- 
ure of universal validity. The Herbartians believed that they had found this in the 



188 ORGANIZATION OF CURRICULA 

five "formal steps," each with its distinctive purpose and all cooperating toward the 
consummation of the teaching process as they conceived it, namely., the development 
in the mind of the learner of a general truth. It was this procedure, derived from Her- 
bart's analysis of the development of ideas and elaborated by his followers, especially 
Ziller and Rein, that constituted the "general method" introduced into American 
normal schools and university departments of education during the decade following 
1890. 1 The movement to extend normal school curricula beyond the secondary level 
already well under way at this time and the rapid growth of departments of 
education in the colleges and universities had led to a demand for something more 
clearly consistent with collegiate standards than the older books on pedagogy repre- 
sented. The Herbartian theory of teaching promised at first to meet this demand. 

Modern developments in psychology, particularly as influenced by the theory of 
evolution and by the experimental method, also began at about this time to affect 
the professional courses in the normal schools and colleges. The cult of "child study," 
which assumed the evolutionary point of view, tended to shift the emphasis in pro- 
fessional training from the subject-matter, where the Herbartian doctrines placed 
it, to the child and to the development of his body as well as of his mind. At the 
same time the experimentalist in psychology displayed a profound contempt for 
the "armchair" speculation that had preceded the day of the psychological labo- 
ratory, even discrediting the work of so keen and competent a philosopher as Her- 
bart. Meanwhile, the assumption that the procedure crystallized in the five " formal 
steps " of Herbart constituted a method applicable to all teaching situations could 
not long be sustained even philosophically. While the theory worked admirably in 
certain types of school exercises, there were other lessons, known empirically to be 
essential to the progress of children, that could not be fitted into these forms. "Gen- 
eral method," then, while a notable advance over the kind of pedagogy that had 
preceded it, came upon the stage just a little too late to be long influential. 

The Herbartian sway lasted in Missouri until about 1905, and still persists in 
some of the schools in the name of the course, "general method.'' 1 But the content 
of this course has been greatly modified, and the term "principles of teaching, " a 
much more appropriate designation, has largely replaced the older name. In this trans- 
formation, the influence of modern psychology was first most strongly felt, and the sci- 
entific attitude assumed by psychology caused a return to something like the empiri- 
cal treatment characteristic of the older books on pedagogy. The attempt was made, 
however, to justify successful practice by reference to accepted psychological prin- 
ciples, and in some cases to derive new precepts of practice from more general prin- 
ciples. A little later the influence of John Dewey began to be felt in the courses in 
principles of teaching, especially in the emphasis placed upon teaching thru "prob- 

1 The leaders in the Herbartian movement in America were Charles De Garmo, who published his Essentials of 
Method in 1890, and Charles A. McMurry and Frank M. McMurry, the former of whom, issued a General Method in 
189S, and both of whom published as joint authors in 1898, The Method of the Recitation, by far the most influential 
book that the Herbartian movement produced in America. 



PROFESSIONAL COURSES : GENERAL METHOD 189 

lems" and "projects," and in the importance attached to the "socializing" features 
of both subject-matter and methods of teaching. Indeed, the emphasis now being 
given to the "problem" method suggests that the present tendency is again toward 
an a-priori theory of practice. 

PRESENT STATUS OF "GENERAL METHOD" 

Whatever may be its name, the course in principles of teaching, as offered in Mis- 
souri, is now a combination of general educational theory and the technique of teach- 
ing. A study of "lesson types" is almost always a feature of the course, and this is com- 
monly accompanied by the preparation of lesson plans. In this sense, especially, the 
course becomes an introduction to practice teaching, and is usually listed as a pre- 
requisite. Aside from the treatment of lesson types, the courses vary widely in content 
according to the particular theory of education subscribed to by the instructor. 

In spite of their nebulous character, the courses in general method and the prin- 
ciples of teaching seem to meet a real need. The teachers of Missouri who rated the 
professional subjects in the order of their importance place these courses second, giv- 
ing the first place to courses in "special methods." 1 It is impossible to determine from 
the replies whether the theoretical or the practical phases of the courses are adjudged 
to be of the greater value, but in view of the fact that the special- methods courses 
are rated highest, one may infer that the opportunity to study the actual technique of 
teaching is the important contribution of the courses in principles of teaching. The 
Harris Teachers College does not offer a course in general method, but the principles 
that underlie all of the detailed work of the first three semesters are gathered into a 
comprehensive summarizing course in the principles of education in the final semester. 

MOST ADVANTAGEOUS POSITION OF THE COUESE 

The arrangement of the courses at the Harris Teachers College suggests again the 
advantage of postponing the systematic discussion of educational theory until well 
toward the end of the curriculum. If this is done, the course in principles of teaching 
may be made definitely to concern itself with the technique of teaching. This does 
not mean that the course should exclude educational theory, or that it should return 
to the status of the old-time, rule-of-thumb "pedagogy ;"" it means rather that theory 
should emerge from the study of actual practice and not be imposed as a set of fun- 
damental principles from which valid precepts of practice can be deductively derived; 
it means that the student should from the outset be placed in a position where he will 
be stimulated to think out for himself the reasons for the success or failure of this or 
that practice. Such thinking will necessarily be crude and unsatisfactory at the begin- 
ning, and here lies the opportunity of the instructor to guide the student in the con- 
struction of adequate educational standards. 

The proposal here, as in connection with the courses in psychology and the history 
1 See summary on page 442. 



190 ORGANIZATION OF CURRICULA 

of education, is simply to apply to the professional preparation of teachers the induc- 
tive procedure which educational theory itself has long endorsed, and which has been 
applied with most notable success in other types of professional education, particu- 
larly in law and in medicine. It is true that legal education in the United States 
offers unique opportunities to follow an inductive method, for the common law, as 
Professor Redlich so clearly points out, 1 "is case-law and nothing else than case-law;" 
whatever general principles it involves have come out of actual decisions of the courts 
in trying individual cases, and the most effective way for the law student to gain a 
comprehension of these principles is to analyze and compare actual cases. It is prob- 
able, indeed, that many of these principles defy actual formulation in words; thru 
a rigid analysis of concrete cases the student seems gradually to come to the point 
where he "feels" without formulating the standard upon which this or that issue may 
be decided. 

The situation in respect to the actual work of classroom teaching is, in many re- 
spects, analogous to this. No one has as yet definitely formulated a body of doctrine 
which can be given to a young teacher with the hope that, thru its application, he 
will be able to solve all of his problems successfully. The fact that the preliminary 
study of educational theory has often either no influence upon later practice or an 
unfortunate influence has been pointed out again and again. This is not so much an 
indictment of theory as an indication that the theory has come at the wrong time, 
has been approached in the wrong way, and has been directed, so to speak, toward 
the wrong end. 



(4) SCHOOL MANAGEMENT, CLASS MANAGEMENT, AND SCHOOL ECONOMY 

Under one name or another a course in school management is required in the two- 
year curricula of all of the Missouri normal schools except Kirksville, and a course 
combining school management and the theory of education is required in the fourth 
or last semester of the two-year curriculum at the Harris Teachers College. In the 
normal schools, the course is commonly covered in a twelve weeks term, five hours a 
week. It is partially differentiated from the course in principles of teaching by laying 
the chief emphasis upon the problems of classroom technique, including routine, pro- 
gram-making, grading and classification, and discipline. The essentials of school 
hygiene are also as a rule included in the course, and whatever explicit instruction 
the student receives in professional ethics is likely to be given here. 

As compared with the courses in the principles and technique of teaching, the in- 
struction in school management is likely to reflect the conditions of successful prac- 
tice rather than to develop an ideal procedure from a preliminary study of theory. 
Most of the rules and precepts of management, indeed, simply formulate the conclu- 
sions that generations of teachers have drawn from their experience in organizing 

1 Bulletin Number Mght, Carnegie Foundation, New York, 1914, page 85. 



PROFESSIONAL COURSES : SCHOOL MANAGEMENT 191 

schools and managing children, altho modern textbooks usually present these rules 
and precepts with some attempt to justify them theoretically. Fundamental questions 
of educational theory, however, are very seldom encountered except in the treatment 
of discipline, and even here the emphasis is largely upon the specific methods and 
devices by means of which order and control may be established and maintained. 

RELATION TO OTHEB SUBJECTS 

In its relation to the general scheme of curriculum organization which has been dis- 
cussed in the preceding sections, the course in school management raises some inter- 
esting questions. In the first place, is the distinction between management and teach- 
ing a valid distinction? Would it be possible or advisable to combine the materials 
of the two courses into a single unified treatment? Does not this very practice of treat- 
ing the technique of teaching and the technique of management in separate courses 
leave with the student an impression that his later work will be of two distinct types 
rather than the conviction that good teaching always involves good management? In 
the second place, granting the importance to the young teacher of gaining a famil- 
iarity with the approved procedure in organizing and managing a school or a class- 
room, would it not be well to bring discussion of this procedure into the closest pos- 
sible connection with the classroom situations and problems to which it pertains? In 
other words, should not the course in school management parallel the work in observa- 
tion and practice teaching and concern itself largely with the problems that actual 
classroom teaching involves, utilizing these as texts for the presentation and discus- 
sion of methods and devices? 

As regards the first group of questions, the advantage of conceiving the act of 
teaching as a single process is obvious. On the other hand, there is this justification 
for separating the problems of management from those of teaching: the former 
should be considered always as subordinate to the latter in the sense that routine, 
order, the daily program, and other phases of management exist only for the purpose 
of making real teaching possible. If this conception of the function of school man- 
agement is kept continually before the students, there will be little danger of over- 
emphasizing the significance of the materials of the course, or of considering them as 
representing anything more than the technical prerequisites of good teaching. Excel- 
lent teaching may in itself solve som<i of the problems of management, particularly 
those concerned % with discipline, but the best teaching cannot compensate for unhy- 
gienic classroom conditions, for a badly arranged daily program, or for wasteful and 
inefficient routine. A separate treatment, however, does not necessarily mean a sepa- 
rate course. Where a full semester is available, it is doubtless excellent practice to 
combine the materials in a single course. 

In respect to the second group of questions, there is every reason to believe that 
both school management and the technique of teaching will be taught most effec- 
tively if they accompany practice teaching. There are difficulties to be overcome in 



192 ORGANIZATION OF CURRICULA 

carrying out this plan. The student who takes charge of a practice class is in a some- 
what different situation from one who studies technical processes by undertaking 
actual work in a shop, a laboratory, or an office, for the blunders of the latter are not 
nearly so costly as are those of the amateur teacher. It is obvious that the danger of 
initial mistakes in practice teaching must be reduced to a minimum, and consequently 
some instruction in the technique both of teaching and of management must be given 
prior to the period of actual practice. It should be feasible to provide this prelimi- 
nary instruction during the study of classroom work in the term or semester before 
practice teaching is undertaken. The sys hematic courses in management and the tech- 
nique of teaching could then parallel practice, the various topics being correlated as 
far as possible with the problems that emerge in the student's own attempts to or- 
ganize, manage, and teach. 

(5) OBSERVATION, PARTICIPATION, AND PRACTICE TEACHING 

The training school constitutes the characteristic laboratory equipment of a 
normal school or teachers college, and the courses in observation, participation, and 
practice teaching should be looked upon as the central and critical elements in each 
of the curricula. An examination of these courses as they are actually administered 
in the Missouri normal schools leads one to the conviction that, fundamental as the 
work is asserted to be, its theoretical values are seldom realized in practice. It is not 
too much to say, indeed, that the training department is the weakest part of the 
structure, and the same thing is probably true in many, if not in most, of the state 
normal schools in this country. 

(a) SIZE OF THE TRAINING SCHOOL AS RELATED TO NORMAL SCHOOL ENROLMENT 

One reason for unsatisfactory conditions in training schools, both in Missouri and 
in the country at large, is to be found in the small number of pupils commonly avail- 
able for training purposes. Unlike the city training school, the state normal school 
has usually no legal connection with the local elementary and high schools. As a 
consequence, it cannot commandeer a sufficient number of pupils to provide adequate 
practice facilities, and its training school must be built up by the adoption of mea- 
sures that are likely to give it a pupil body that is both limited in numbers and un- 
representative of normal social conditions. In some cases it becomes a select school 
with a * Awaiting list;"" or it may go to the opposite extreme and become a dumping- 
ground for difficult pupils that local schools are glad to be rid of. The enrolment is 
likely to be small and the practice classes so attenuated in numbers as to aiford little 
opportunity for the necessary instruction of the student-teacher. 



PROFESSIONAL COURSES : PRACTICE TEACHING 198 

CONTROL OF LOCAL SCHOOL FACILITIES INDISPENSABLE 

It is unfortunate that normal schools should ever be located in towns so small as 
to preclude an abundance of what may be termed the "laboratory" or "clinical"" ma* 
terial of a teacher-training program, namely, elementary and secondary pupils. 
Where schools have been thus located, their only salvation lies In an arrangement 
whereby all of the local public schools may be available for training-school purposes 
under the direct control of the training department of the normal school. Even where 
a good sized independent training school is possible, it is extremely desirable for the 
local school system to be related to the normal school in such a manner as to afford 
opportunity for extensive observation, participation, and practice under wholly nor- 
mal conditions. In larger towns and cities, the training school may well be a ward 
or district school of the public school system. Care must be taken in organizing a 
training school under this plan, and infinite tact must characterize its administration. 
There is no doubt, however, that a town, especially a small town, is under great and 
constant obligations to a state normal school located within its limits. Nor is there 
doubt that a well-managed normal school, with its expert knowledge and its thor- 
ough supervision, would almost invariably give such a town a better school or school 
system than the town could provide for itself. There is every reason, therefore, why 
an arrangement so vital to the school should be required of the community as a con- 
dition of retaining the school. 

This appropriation of local school facilities for training-school purposes has pro- 
ceeded apace during the past few years in various parts of the country, and where 
soundly organized has proved successful. Generally speaking, the policies of the school 
that is used for training purposes must be determined by the normal school author- 
ities; a plan of dual control thru which responsibility and authority are divided be- 
tween the local superintendent or school board on the one hand and the normal 
school on the other hand is very hard to administer* Where difficulty is found in 
winning support for the plan in a community, some financial inducement, such as 
the payment of teachers by the normal school, must be resorted to. Even in case of 
a state school the character of the situation is of such delicacy that it would probably 
be wise to guarantee the community such facilities as it would not purchase for itself, 
in return for complete educational control of its schools. 

MINIMAL STANDARDS OF PRACTICE FACILITIES 

Whatever its arrangements, a normal school should not attempt to attract stu- 
dents out of proportion to its laboratory facilities. It becomes important, then, to 
agree upon certain minimal standards which will indicate the enrolment that a train- 
ing school should have if the normal school is to do the work that it proposes. It is 
in connection with practice teaching, rather than with observation and participation, 
that the need for a sufficient number of pupils is most imperative; consequently the 
size of the "practice class" may be taken as the unit from which to work in construct- 



194 ORGANIZATION OF CURRICULA 

ing a minimal standard. In the provisional curricula for teacher- training institutions 
which were distributed by the Foundation 1 in 1917 for criticisms and suggestions, 
the minimal size of the practice class was assumed to be twelve pupils. The replies 
from the critics of these curricula indicated a general conviction that this minimum 
was too low. The questionnaire investigation of training-school organization made by 
A. M. Santee 2 in 1917 showed the median size of the practice class in seventy state 
normal schools to be between fourteen and sixteen pupils. In view of these facts, it is 
probable that the unit should number at least fifteen pupils in the sense that the 
training school should be able to provide sections of at least this size for all of the 
students who are assigned to practice teaching during any one term. This does not 
mean that the teaching of smaller sections is not sometimes both desirable and profit- 
able. In what has been referred to as " participation," it is often well to have a stu- 
dent conduct an exercise with four, five, or six pupils, or even with a single individ- 
ual. Practice teaching, however, should be done under conditions measurably sim- 
ilar to those of public school organization, and while fifteen pupils would be a much 
smaller group than the average public school class, the number is sufficient to present 
most of the problems of control, organization, and group teaching with which the 
student-teacher should become familiar. For the beginning teacher a class of this size 
is to be preferred either to the very large or to the very small group, altho before 
completing the coarse each student should have some experience in managing a large 
class of thirty to forty pupils. 

The total number of pupils needed in the training school is, obviously, not to be de- 
termined simply by multiplying the number of pupils in the unit practice class by the 
number of student- teachers. In the first place, the student in all likelihood will not 
teach during the entire day, consequently one section of pupils will provide practice 
for more than one student- teacher. The amount of practice teaching required varies 
widely among the different normal schools. In somewhat more than one-half of the 
seventy state normal schools already referred to, a full year of teaching is required, 
but, in most cases, only one period each day is given to this work. In other schools 
the teaching is concentrated within shorter periods, but a longer time is required 
each day. In computing the needed enrolment of the training school, therefore, this 
variable must be determined in each case. A second factor can for our purposes be 
reduced to a constant. While in nearly one-half of all training schools all of the 
actual teaching is done by student-teachers, this practice is open to grave criti- 
cism. It may be kid down as a fundamental rule of training-school organization that 
certainly not more than three-fourths of the work of any training-school pupil 
should be under the direction of practice teachers, and the limitation of this propor- 
tion to one-half would be much better. By taking into account all of these factors, 

1 Curricula Designed for the Professional Preparation of Teachers for American Public Schools, Carnegie Foun- 
dation, 1917. 

2 The Organization and Administration of Practice Teaching in State Normal Schools, A. M. Santee. See School 
and Home Education, September, 1917. 



PROFESSIONAL COURSES : PRACTICE TEACHING 195 

it would be a relatively simple matter to determine the smallest number of pupils 
that must be in attendance upon the training school if the requirements laid down 
by the normal school for the courses in practice teaching are to be met. Adding fif- 
teen per cent to allow for the relation between enrolment and attendance, and an- 
other fifteen per cent as a margin to ensure sections of at least fifteen pupils, simple 
formulae may be constructed involving these factors and proportions thus: 



if three- fourths of the teaching is to be done by student- teachers ; or 



if one-half of the teaching is to be done by student-teachers. 
In both of these formulae: 
n = minimal training-school enrolment. 
s = number of students to whom practice-teaching privileges must be available 

each year. 
c = number of recitation units during which each student will be in charge of 

a section each week. 
<m = proportion of total year during which practice teaching is required of each 

student. 

t = approximate number of recitation units in the training school each week. 
(Under ordinary conditions this may be considered as thirty, or six periods 
each day for five days.) 

It is interesting to apply these formulae to the Missouri normal schools, 1 but in 
so doing one should remember that the requirements for practice teaching in all of 
the schools are unusually low, and that consequently the enrolment in the training 
schools, while quite inadequate even to these low requirements, would be hopelessly 
deficient if practice teaching were required in all curricula, as it should be, or if the 

Enrolment in Training School Actual 

Institution if Minimal Standards Enrolment in 

had been met Training School 
a b 

. Kirksville 315 215 145 s 

Warrensburg 945 630 325 

Cape Glrardeau 434 289 161 

Springfield 456 304 245 

Maryville 216 144 104 



a If one-half of the teaching were done by student-teachers. 

b If three-fourths of the teaching* were done by student-teachers. 

1 In making these calculations, the number of students in the graduating classes (1916) in curricula that include 
stated requirements in practice teaching and the time requirements for practice teaching as stated in the catalogue 
of the school were used as bases of the computation. The enrolments of the training schools were reported by the 
directors of the training departments in the fall of 1917. In taking the number of students who graduate as an index 
of the number for whom practice teaching must have been provided, the error, of course, is in favor of the school, 
for in all probability fewer students graduate each year (from the curricula requiring practice teaching) than are 
enrolled in practice-teaching courses during that year. 

2 Enrolment for winter term, 1918-19. No report for 1917. 



196 



ORGANIZATION OF CURRICULA 



present requirements were appropriately increased in the curricula in which practice 
teaching now finds a place. 

The important point is that all of these institutions are limited in their laboratory 
facilities to independent practice schools. On the other hand, the city training schools 
and such state normal schools as have taken over the control of local schools are gen- 
erally able to provide laboratory facilities in abundance. Harris Teachers College has 
under its immediate control, for example, the Wyman School, a typical elementary 
school enrolling over one thousand pupils. This school, which adjoins the college 
building, is used exclusively for purposes of observation and demonstration, the 
actual practice teaching being done in selected elementary schools in various parts 
of the city. In general the facilities for observation and practice in the city training 
schools are in startling contrast to the facilities in the Missouri normal schools, none 
of which has made the cooperative arrangement referred to above. The very large 
differences that may exist are illustrated in the following table: 



STATE NORMAL SCHOOLS CONTROLLING- 
ONE OR MORE LOCAL PUBLIC SCHOOLS 
School 



Gunnison, Col. 1 
Harrisonburg, Va. a 
Westfield, Mass. 1 
Dillon, Mont. 55 
De Kalb, 111. 3 
Keene, N. H. 1 



Colle- 
giate 
Enrol- 
ment 


Pupils 
Avail- 
able 


Batio 
Students 
to 
Pupils 


178 


246 


1:1.4 


289 


1000 


1 : 3.5 


i6r 


500 


1:3 


242 


600 


1:2.5 


405 


648 


1:1.6 


170 


1300 


1:7.6 



STATE NORMAL SCHOOLS LIMITED TO 
INDEPENDENT PRACTICE SCHOOLS 

School 



KirksviUe, Mo. 3 
Warrensburg, Mo. 3 
Cape Girardeau, Mo. 8 
Springfield, Mo. 3 
Maryville, Mo. 3 
Valley City, N. D. 1 
Whitewater, Wis. 3 



Colle- 


Pupils 


Ratio 


ffiate 


Avail- 


Student* 


Enrol- 


able 


to 


ment 




Pupils 


530 


145 


1 : 0.27 


514* 


325 


1:0.63 


432 


161 


1 : 0.37 


607 


245 


1:0.40 


200 


104 


1 : 0.52 


327 


259 


1:0.79 


374 


211 


1 : 0.56 



The above table gives simply the gross proportions between the actual number 
of students enrolled in the various schools and the number of pupils available for 
observation and practice teaching. While this is not a sound basis for determining 
whether the laboratory facilities of any one school are adequate, it constitutes a fair 
method of contrasting the situation in the two types of schools under discussion. 

The table plainly suggests the very great advantage of securing control of the local 
public schools for observation and practice teaching. What this would mean for the 
four Missouri normal schools that are located in relatively small communities is indi- 
cated by the following table: 



1 Catalogue, 1918. 
3 Catalogue," 1917. 

3 The enrolments for the Missouri normal schools are taken from the table given in the report of the State Super- 
intendent of Public Instruction for 1916, except that in the case of Cape Girardeau, which apparently failed to re- 
port for 1915-16, the figures are for the preceding year. In each case, the enrolment as given includes those students 
who were registered from September to May. This excludes the large enrolment in the summer quarter. 



PROFESSIONAL COURSES : PRACTICE TEACHING 197 

School Total Training Public ScJiool Ratio of Students 

Collegiate School Enrolment to Pupils Possible if 

Students Enrolment of Normal School controlled 

Community Local Schools 

Kirksville 530 145 1502 1:2.8 

Warrenstmrg 514 335 1007 1 : 2.0 

Cape Girardeau 432 161 2035 1:4.7 

Maryville 200 104 1027 1:5.1 

With such laboratory facilities as this arrangement would provide, the normal 
schools of Missouri would be in a position to do their work in a manner befitting 
its importance to the state. Certainly no town or city should be the seat of a state 
normal school unless it is willing to turn over to the state institution either all of 
its local schools or a sufficient number to provide ample facilities for demonstration, 
participation, practice teaching, and experimental education. It will almost certainly 
profit thereby both educationally and financially, and for the normal school the 
arrangement is indispensable. If Kirksville or Warrensburg, for example, had full 
use of the local public schools, its laboratory equipment would even then be none too 
extensive for the work that it is already under obligation to do. 1 

(&) HOUSING AND EQUIPMENT OF TRAINING DEPARTMENTS 

A second reason for the general inadequacy of the courses in observation and prac- 
tice teaching may be found in the subordinate position that the training school has 
often been forced to assume in its relationships with other normal school departments. 
This subordination is noticeably revealed in the neglect in many cases to provide for 
the training school quarters and equipment that are at all comparable either with the 
quarters and equipment provided for the normal school classes, or with what the better 
school systems provide for their elementary schools. 

In Missouri the situation in this respect varies among the different schools. At 
Kirksville, a "model" rural school building on the campus houses the twenty or thirty 
rural school pupils who are brought in from the surrounding country, but the prac- 
tice school proper is quartered in one of the main buildings, partly in small inside 
rooms and in a dark basement. Warrensburg had provided a separate training-school 
building as early as 1908, and since the fire of 1915 has rebuilt and improved it. Cape 
Girardeau has had a separate building for the training school since 1908. It is con- 
structed of stone and externally compares well with the main normal school build- 
ing; its interior arrangements, however, are not well adapted to its purpose, nor is 
the equipment relatively as good as that of the main building, where spacious "soci- 
ety" rooms are idle most of the time. At Springfield a small and quite inadequate 
building, the "Greenwood School," just off the campus, provides accommodations for 
about two hundred pupils representing Grades III to VIII inclusive, while Grades I, 
II, IX, and X are located in the basement of the main building; this basement, how- 

1 In tlie Province of Ontario, the municipalities in which institutions for the professional preparation of teachers 
are located* freely grive over their elementary and secondary schools for observation and practice purposes. 



198 ORGANIZATION OF CURRICULA 

ever, is high and light, and the situation is better than at Kirksville. At Maryville 
the training school occupies commodious and comfortable quarters on the first floor 
of the main building. 

The conditions at Kirksville are deplorable, and furnish a most uninspiring example 
to prospective teachers. When the school was visited in the spring of 1915, the first 
two grades were discovered in the basement of the main building in rooms thoroughly 
unsuited to the uses to which they were put. One would assume that, if adequate 
quarters could not be furnished to all, the smallest and most helpless children would 
have first attention; and one would also assume that, if either normal school students 
or training-school pupils must find quarters in the basement, it would be the former 
rather than the latter, for not only are the former the more mature, but as their daily 
programs are the more varied, there is much more movement from room to room, and 
the actual time spent in the classroom each day is appreciably shorter. Furthermore, 
prospective teachers could have no better object lesson than the assignment of the 
best quarters available to the use of the training school. These considerations do not 
seem to have appealed to the Kirksville authorities. Not only was the location of the 
training-school rooms unfortunate; the furniture in these rooms was in a bad condi- 
tion. The desks were hacked and cut, and while some of the desks and seats were 
adjustable, the adjustments had either been made carelessly or neglected altogether; 
some desk tops stood at a sharp angle. 

BAD CONDITIONS EASILY REMEDIED 

In practically all of the training schools the hygienic conditions of the classrooms 
left much to be desired. Faulty lighting, 1 while not universal among the schools, was 
met with frequently; the posture of the pupils was noticeably bad in every school 
except one; poor blackboards were found all too commonly. If there is any single, 
simple thing that the normal school can do in the preparation of teachers, it is to 
acquaint its students with hygienic standards, impel them to form habits that will 
enable them to look after these matters automatically, and develop in them a sensi- 
tiveness to unhygienic conditions that will detect at once defects so easily remedied 
as those just mentioned. There may be some excuse for a normal school that fails to 
train all of its students adequately to apply every principle of teaching; there can be 
no excuse for failure to look after fundamental duties, especially when they demand 
but a minimum of thought and depend on simple habits that any one may acquire 
if only example and a little drill are added to brief instructions. 

The housing and equipment of the training schools, as has been suggested, are 
primarily significant to the present discussion because they reveal a characteristic 
status of the training department that is fatal to its efficiency. In too many normal 
schools throughout the country, the training school is in the "basement," and the 

1 Especially lighting from the right hand or from two sides without carein providing shades to prevent cross shadows. 



PROFESSIONAL COURSES : PRACTICE TEACHING 199 

phrases, "going down for practice," "the people downstairs," and the like, have much 
more than a localized vogue, as well as much more than a literal implication. 

(c) RELATION BETWEEN THE TRAINING SCHOOL AND OTHER NORMAL SCHOOL DEPART- 
MENTS 

By far the most significant weakness of the courses in observation, participation, 
and practice teaching is the general lack of a satisfactory correlation of all of the work 
of the normal school with the training school. Not only does the training school as a 
rule occupy a subordinate position in the normal school organization instead of being 
the pivotal point and focus of all departments, but the work of the training school 
seems in many, if not most, cases to be detached, to lack a fundamental relation to 
what is taught and learned in the classrooms "upstairs."" It is no unusual thing for 
the normal school student to complain that the theory that has been taught to him 
in the courses in psychology, principles of teaching, and special methods (to say 
nothing of the purely "academic"" courses) has no perceptible connection with the 
work of the training school. This is sometimes due, no doubt, to the fact that the 
"theory" is impracticable, and that those responsible for the practice teaching know 
it, and in consequence will have no commerce with it; but it is oftener due merely 
to a complete mechanical separation of the training department both from the de- 
partment of educational theory and from the academic departments, a separation 
which results in the total ignorance of each party regarding what the other is teach- 
ing or practising, if not, indeed, in actual opposition or open friction. 

LACK OF COOPERATION IN MISSOURI SCHOOLS 

A striking example of this lack of cooperation between the training department 
and the rest of the school was revealed in the situation that existed in the school at 
Warrensburg at the time of the visits made in connection with the present study. A 
serious and long-standing cleavage in the faculty as a whole had thrown the training 
department and the department of education into opposing camps. Partly because of 
this unfortunate condition and partly because the traditions of the normal school had 
not granted a central position to the training department, the work of this depart- 
ment was completely "a thing apart," bearing no discoverable relation to the other 
activities of the institution. Out of fifteen teachers of academic subjects, only one re- 
ported that he had assumed any responsibility whatsoever for work in the training 
school, and out of eighteen teachers who were asked to express an opinion on the effec- 
tiveness of the practice teaching, ten reported unfavorably, seven did not answer the 
enquiry, and only one had a favorable opinion. 1 

1 Some of the replies to the questions regarding the practice teaching are illuminating: 

"I am not directly responsible for the supervision of practice teaching in the subjects I teach. I do not share indi- 
rectly in such supervision. If there is any working harmony between the department of ... and the training school, 
it is incidental or accidental so far as I know or believe." 

"Practice teaching under present conditions is markedly inefficient, due partly to frequent changes or shifting 
Of practice teachers, partly to conflicts of methods and ideals of supervisors and other teachers . The supervisors 



200 ORGANIZATION OF CURRICULA 

A sharp contrast to the condition at Warrensburg was found at Kirksville. Here 
the members of the academic departments had been encouraged to cooperate with 
the training school, with the result that six out of nineteen academic teachers reported 
a direct responsibility for the supervision of practice teaching, while six more reported 
an indirect responsibility which seemed to indicate at least an intelligent interest. 
With this spirit of cooperation, the responses of the academic teachers naturally re- 
veal a much more sympathetic attitude toward the work of the school, fourteen report- 
ing favorably, seven unfavorably, and six not replying. It is interesting to note that 
while the academic teachers of Kirksville were much more inclined to judge the prac- 
tice work favorably than were the academic teachers of Warrensburg, the practice 
school at Kirksville was judged by the four representatives of the present study to 
be inferior to the practice school at Warrensburg, and the tests made in both prac- 
tice schools 1 showed the same result. The psychological effect -of making a person 
responsible in some measure for activities that he would otherwise be disposed to 
criticise may be seen in this contrast. If it be argued that there is a danger in this, 
it may likewise be urged that hearty cooperation, while tending to gloss over some 
defects, can much more easily be turned toward progress than can divided and mutu- 
ally repellent interests with their jealousies and misunderstandings. 

At Kirksville, however, a commendable interest in the training school on the part 
of the academic staff is somewhat offset by an anomalous lack of cooperation between 
the training department and the department of education. The head of the latter de- 
partment, who himself teaches practically all of the classes in educational theory, has 
no official means of knowing how his theories work in practice, nor has the director of 
the practice school an official relationship to the work in theory. The most obvious 
defect of the organization at Kirksville, and the one that is doubtless chiefly responsi- 
ble for the weakness of the training school as a school, lies in the lack of something 
that is just as important as cooperation ; namely, a centralization of administrative 
authority. This is theoretically provided for in the office of "Supervisor of Practice 
Schools," which has been assumed by the president in addition to his other duties. In 
so far as could be determined, however, this officer fails to direct and coordinate the 
work of the supervisors, and the principal of the practice school, who is a director of 
training only by courtesy, has no authority for the purpose. Each individual super- 
visor is essentially a law unto himself, making his own course of study for the different 

of ... practice teaching and the members of the faculty in ... should be in close cooperation, or the training school 
. . . should be under the supervision of the . . . department." 

"I have nothing to do with the practice teaching:. It sometimes happens that the methods in the training school 
and those presented in my own classes are very different.' 1 

" I am not permitted to do any such supervisory work. Of course I could visit as an outsider. I know there is no 
relation between [my subject] in the normal school and in the training school. I should like to attempt to relate 
the two but was told such is in no way my work." 

"My view really is that the training school is the laboratory of the normal school. I should like to work out many 
things there. An entire readjustment of the relation of the training school and our normal work is, I think, vitally 
necessary, if we ever reach efficiency." 

"... closer correlation and more unity between methods of academic departments and those of training-school 
supervisors would be of some advantage," 
1 See pages 443ff. 



PROFESSIONAL COURSES : PRACTICE TEACHING 

grades, and determining Ms own standards of progress both for the student- teachers 
under his control and for the pupils in their classes. Cooperation of academic depart- 
ments in the work of the training school is indispensable to the best work, but to turn 
each department of the training school over bodily to the corresponding academic 
department which goes its own separate way is not cooperation but dismemberment. 
Kirksville and Warrensburg represent two undesirable extremes; the other schools 
will fall somewhere between the two as far as the organization of the training-school 
work is concerned* At Cape Girardeau, the head of the training department gives cer- 
tain of the courses in theory, but he is not responsible for all of the theoretical work. 
The academic departments apparently have little interest in the training school. At 
Springfield, the head of the training department is also head of the department of 
education, including psychology, and in this way a praiseworthy coordination of the 
courses in theory and practice is ensured. The relations with the academic depart- 
ments are also much more intelligent and cordial than at Cape Girardeau and War- 
rensburg, Teachers of academic subjects, some occasionally and others frequently, 
teach school classes to illustrate their courses in special methods; this is particularly 
true of the teachers who have charge of the methods courses in arithmetic and geog- 
raphy. So far as could be learned, however, this cooperation is informal. At Mary- 
ville, too, the department of education and the training school are under a single 
head, but there is no official relation between these departments and the academic 
departments, and the teachers of the academic subjects are apparently unconcerned 
as to the work of the training school. 

DIFFICULTIES OF COOPERATION 

There are many difficulties in the way of effecting a thoroughly unitary organiza- 
tion of normal school work. Subject-matter specialists find it hard to see the ele- 
mentary and secondary programs as wholes, for their own subjects naturally loom 
large in every view that they take; furthermore, they often lack the personal equip- 
ment and the specialized training that should characterize a good critic. As has al- 
ready been said of the curricula of the normal schools, a curriculum framed for a 
practice school by a committee of subject-matter specialists is almost certain to be a 
compromise among the different claimants for time and precedence rather than a well- 
articulated structure in which the needs of the pupils for a balanced and unified pro- 
gram of instruction are the sole criteria for the selection and arrangement of mate- 
rials. A second difficulty lies in the practical impossibility of administering a practice 
school on the committee plan. Here centralized authority, balanced by centralized 
responsibility, is a sww qua non of efficiency. 

ORGANIZED COOPERATION 

The desired interlinking of all normal school departments with the training school 
is certainly not to be realized by turning over the practice teaching to the control 



ORGANIZATION OF CURRICULA 

either of the general normal school faculty or of a committee representing the vari- 
ous academic departments. The training school must be under the direct control and 
supervision of an expert administrator fitted by experience and by specialized train- 
ing for this type of work, and this director or superintendent must have under his 
immediate charge a corps of carefully selected and specifically trained critics or super- 
visors. The supervisory staff should include many, if not most, of the members of 
the so-called academic departments, and the entire group should form what might 
be termed a training-school "cabinet." This body should legislate upon all matters 
concerning the organization of the training-school curriculum and questions of edu- 
cational policy; the superintendent or director, as the officer in whom administrative 
responsibility is lodged, should have authority to make decisions upon all matters of 
administration, with the provision that any other member of the cabinet may appeal 
from his decisions to a higher administrative authority. 

A plan of this sort would ensure (1) the administrative autonomy of the practice 
school under a single responsible head, and () the responsible cooperation of all 
academic departments and all members of the critic staff in the organization of the 
school, the construction of the curriculum, and the oversight of the student-teachers. 
The chief difficulty in carrying out this plan under present conditions is serious but 
not insurmountable. It would require that appointments to all important positions 
in the academic departments be limited to persons who are qualified by personality, 
experience, and training to participate in the responsibilities that it is proposed to 
delegate to the members of the practice school cabinet. It would mean, in other words, 
that there would be but a very subordinate place in the normal school organization, 
or none at all, for the teacher who is merely a specialist in his subject-matter. The 
requirement of the special abilities needed for intelligent cooperation is after all 
nothing but the characteristic differentia of a professional school for teachers, and 
should be faced as frankly as similar restrictions are faced in all other genuinely pro- 
fessional institutions. 

Needless to say, the relationship between the department of education and the 
training department should be particularly close and intimate, and to this end it is 
advisable, we believe, to combine the headship of the department of education and 
the directorship of the training department in one and the same person. The other 
members of the staff in education should also have definite responsibilities in the ad- 
ministration and supervision of the training school to the end that every class in edu- 
cational theory may be in charge of a teacher who is in daily touch with the actual 
problems of teaching and management in an elementary or a secondary school. 

(d) THE APPRENTICE SYSTEM AS BELATED TO THE UNIFICATION OF COURSES 

In so far as the coordination of all courses is concerned, the Harris Teachers College 
stands in sharp contrast with even the best of the state normal schools. Each instructor 



PROFESSIONAL COURSES : PRACTICE TEACHING 203 

apparently works with a perfect knowledge of what the other instructors are doing, 1 
and all instructors make a large use of the facilities which the Wyman School offers 
for observation and demonstration. The actual work of practice teaching, however, 
is conducted on the apprentice plan, the principal of the school to which the cadet, 
is sent being chiefly responsible for the work, altho his supervision is supplemented by 
that of the regular supervisors of the school system. Thus a dualism quite analogous 
to that existing in the state normal schools is brought into existence at a most crit- 
ical point. The characteristics of the system may be summarized as follows: 

DEFECTS AND ADVANTAGES OF THE SYSTEM AT ST. Louis 

1. The teachers who have conducted the courses in theory and observation are in no 
position to ensure the success of their students or of their theories in practice. Indeed, 
the principal in charge of a cadet may be out of sympathy with the ideals of the col- 
lege, and the student may be quite unable to carry out in practice the principles taught 
there. In at least two of the elementary schools visited in 1915 and 1916, a situation 
of this sort was apparent. 

2. The amount and especially the quality of the supervision that the student-teacher 
receives under this system are extremely variable. In many cases the actual supervision 
of the practice is delegated to the classroom teachers in whose rooms the cadets chance 
to be working. Altho selected for their merit, very few of these teachers are skilled in 
the difficult work of training beginners, and while in some cases, no doubt, the results 
are excellent, this fortunate outcome must be looked upon as more or less accidental. 

3. Nor are the principals themselves always competent for the task of directing 
the beginner. Like the teachers, they vary widely, both as to their ideals of what con- 
stitutes good teaching and as to their ability to point out defects and suggest reme- 
dies. Altho in many cases, as one might infer, they do most creditable work, the ap- 
prentice must run a chance of assignment to a principal who, however good he may 
be from other points of view, is not a good supervisor of beginning teachers. 

It may be urged that these disadvantages, even if they are admitted, do not con- 
stitute a serious indictment of the apprentice system, for after leaving the training 
school the young teacher will in any case run chances of working under incompetent 
supervision. This contention overlooks the fact that teachers who have been well 
started in the development of an effective technique will to that extent be safeguarded 
against the dangers of this incompetence. If it be granted that the supervision of be- 
ginners is a difficult task, requiring both exceptional native qualities and specialized 
training, it should follow that the initial practice teaching may best be undertaken 
under the immediate and responsible supervision of well-equipped critics who give the 
bulk of their time and energy to this task. 

1 When Harris Teachers College was visited, the entire facility was in the midst of a careful review of the curricu- 
lum, topic by topic in each course. This is a periodic occurrence, and is undertaken less for the purpose of revision 
than to guarantee a perfect mutual understanding on the part of each instructor as to just what his contribution 
is to be and with what order and emphasis it should be made to take its place in the complete scheme. 



204 ORGANIZATION OF CURRICULA 

The apprentice system as carried out in St. Louis has an advantage in that the free- 
dom, granted to the principals in directing the work of the cadets has led to the devis- 
ing of various methods of conducting their training. The following account reported 
from one school suggests the plan that is generally followed : 

At the beginning of the term, the cadet is sent to the first grade, and studies the 
organization of the school as the pupils come from the kindergarten. A week or 
two is devoted to this work, and at the end of this period the teaching is begun. 
The cadet teaches one-half of the time. The program is so constructed as to af- 
ford an opportunity to teach every subject in all grades, altho the progress from 
grade to grade is not necessarily consecutive. Every Friday morning the prin- 
cipal has a conference with the cadet, discussing the work chiefly from the point 
of view of method and sequence. Occasionally the cadet takes a room for a half- 
day, carrying all of the work during the session. This is invariably preceded by 
a conference with the classroom teacher in which the work is gone over care- 
fully. On such occasions, the principal gives the cadet thoroughgoing supervision 
and criticism. During the last two weeks of the semester, the cadet has charge 
of rooms for the entire day. Lesson plans are prepared for all lessons until the 
principal is satisfied of the cadet's ability to plan work well; these plans are sub- 
mitted sometimes to the classroom teacher and sometimes to the principal. 

While the practice teaching observed in the school from which this plan is quoted 
was excellent, the teaching in other schools was noticeably defective, and in some 
cases there was apparently no attempt to correct the defects. Particularly significant 
was the deficiency in classroom technique of some of the beginners a phase of teach- 
ing-skill which expert supervision can quickly influence. 

SUGGESTED IMPROVEMENTS 

As a result of observations in St. Louis, one is disposed to conclude provisionally 
that the apprentice system as the sole method of organizing student-teaching is not 
satisfactory, and that intensive training in a well-organized and expertly supervised 
practice school will ensure with greater certainty the formation of good teaching 
habits. If, on the other hand, the supervision of principals and classroom teachers 
could be supplemented and directed by expert critics from the college, the marked 
advantages of the apprentice system might be preserved and many, if not most, of its 
weaknesses might be eliminated. The ideal solution of the problem would provide pre- 
liminary participation and responsible practice in a school attached directly to the 
college, followed by apprentice work in selected schools under the joint supervision of 
the regular principals and of the supervisory staff at the college. 

From the point of view of progress in the professional preparation of teachers it is 
particularly fortunate that the apprentice system has been given so thorough a trial 
in St. Louis. Certainly if this system could succeed anywhere, it would succeed in 
a well -articulated city system where the principals represent in general a high type of 
professional ability, where they have time and incentive for organizing the super- 
vision of practice teachers, and where the uniformity of curriculum and textbooks 



PROFESSIONAL COURSES : PRACTICE TEACHING 205 

makes possible a very specific and intensive mastery of subject-matter by the pro- 
spective teacher. If the purely apprenticeship or "cadet" system falls short under 
these favorable conditions, it could hardly be expected to succeed if attempted on a 
large scale in normal schools not officially connected with the public schools to which 
their cadets are sent, and where it would be impossible in the curriculum to forecast 
so faithfully the varying elementary programs of many towns. Even in such schools, 
however, there would be a large advantage in the double arrangement just suggested, 
the provision of preliminary practice facilities in direct connection with the normal 
school itself and a supplementary period of apprenticeship under the joint supervi- 
sion of the normal school critic staff and the superintendents, principals, and class- 
room teachers of cooperating systems. 

Notwithstanding these strictures upon the apprentice system as worked out in St. 
Louis, it is the conviction of the observers that the work of the Harris Teachers Col- 
lege, including its admirable system of extension courses for graduates, represents a 
highly efficient type of teacher- training, and deserves to stand in many ways as a 
model for normal schools and teachers colleges throughout the country. 

(e) SPIRIT AND MORALE OF THE PRACTICE SCHOOLS 

A serious handicap to the efficiency of a practice school is the difficulty of ensuring 
on the part of the pupils a proper attitude toward the work of the school. Pupils 
are not always inclined to take the student-teacher seriously, and this means that the 
work which the student- teacher represents is not taken seriously. The problem is not 
insoluble, for some practice schools are characterized by a most commendable spirit of 
industry and cooperation. Among the state normal schools of Missouri, for example, 
Springfield furnishes a striking illustration of efficiency in training-school organi- 
zation from this point of view. But in some of the other institutions, conditions in 
the practice school at the time when the visits were made were little short of des- 
perate. The following excerpts from the visitors' notes will indicate types of difficulty 
in administering practice teaching that are by no means limited to the Missouri 
schools : 

GRADE III. A section of eleven pupils in nature study. The violet is being studied. 
The pupils are inattentive and disorderly. The student-teacher corrects a boy for 
whispering, and he responds by "making a face," meantime continuing with, his 
whispering. The pupils are especially disorderly while the teacher is writing upon 
the blackboard. They whisper, talk, and tickle one another. There is no interest 
in the work of the class, A supervisor enters, and the class at once becomes at- 
tentive and orderly. 

GRADE VI. A class in arithmetic. Blackboard work is in progress when the ob- 
server enters. At the close of the period another student-teacher takes charge 
of one-half of the class. There is some confusion in making the change. The 
new teacher is besieged by six or seven pupils, each clamoring to have his ques- 
tion answered first, and all talking in high voices. 



206 ORGANIZATION OF CURRICULA 

Teacher: " Every one take their seats." 

A lesson in history is begun; the assignment for the next day 9 s work is given 

Teacher: "For to-morrow, take the Dutch revolt against Spain." 
Pupil (roughly) : "Take what? " 
Teacher: "The next chapter." 

There is a great deal of noise and confusion, and little attention to the work 
in hand. The pupils open and close the desk-tops needlessly, noisily, and re- 
peatedly; they play listlessly but noisily with pencils, and ink-well covers. When 
called upon they stand to recite, but rise lazily and slouch over their desks 
when half erect. One boy comes sauntering into the room, hands in pockets, ten 
minutes after the exercise begins. The pupils interrupt the recitation with irre- 
sponsible and sometimes "funny" questions. The student-teacher calls for better 
order, and for a time there is a slight improvement. The section includes five 
boys and sixteen girls ; there are also in the room two normal school students 
who have apparently been assigned to "observe" the work 
GRADE VIII. Physiology. The section includes six girls and eight boys. The class 
shows little spirit for the work. The pupils tend to recite without thinking, and 
give other evidences of irresponsibility. There is much shuffling of feet and mum- 
bling in undertones. One girl tries to take a pencil from a neighbor's hands; the 
two then smirk and giggle. Some of the pupils attempt to create merriment by 
making either crudely humorous or semi-impudent statements. There is a good 
deal of "horse-play" among the boys such as slapping on the back, followed 
by exaggerated expressions of pain on the part of the one struck. The lesson deals 
with the problem of good health, and seems well adapted to the needs and attain- 
ment of the pupils but they will have none of it. The bell rings and the teacher 
hastily gives the assignment: "For to-morrow, self-control and cigarettes." 
GKADE I. A section is having a word drill (with cards) under the direction of 
a practice teacher. The pupils are inattentive and disorderly. The work is appar- 
rently too easy. 

GRAPE V. A practice teacher has charge of a section of thirteen boys in hand- 
work. The making of a blotter holder is the project. The teacher is giving direc- 
tions to individual pupils; the remaining pupils are generally idle but not at 
first disorderly. It seems that the scissors are not ready and a pupil is sent for 
them. The order relaxes as the work proceeds. The teacher requests the pupils 
not to "speak out," but the request is unheeded, and the teacher answers the 
questions just as willingly when the pupils do " speak out." 
GBADE IX. Algebra under a practice teacher (a young man). The attention is 
good at the outset, but the pupils rapidly become listless and inattentive as the 
work proceeds. They mumble in speaking and lean inertly against the desks 
when standing for recitation. 

GBADE IV. Thirteen boys and one girl form a language section in charge of a 
practice teacher. The pupils are very disorderly, and not infrequently impudent. 
As the observer enters, one pupil is scrambling on the floor, having apparently 
been pushed from his seat by a neighbor, altho the impulse of the push was 
quite likely supplemented by the boy himself. There is much confused talking. 



PROFESSIONAL COURSES : PRACTICE TEACHING 207 

One pupil tells another to "shut up." The teacher pleads, "Boys, you must be 
still;" but no results follow from this admonition. 

GRADE V. A language lesson. Discussion of the work of the undertaker. The 
class is disorderly, the pupils interrupting the teacher and one another on the 
slightest pretext. The teacher's admonitions are not effective. 

GRADE V. A geography lesson on Montgomery and Birmingham, Alabama. Pupils 
chime in freely 3 speaking very loudly. Turmoil finally results. The teacher checks 
the irresponsible "guessing" of the pupils, but the class still remains somewhat 
turbulent. 

It would be unjust to infer that all of the practice teaching involves these unfor- 
tunate conditions. One may always find at least a few practice teachers who thru 
native charm or good luck or both have managed to create many of the conditions 
that make for effective school work. But too frequently the practice school is an un- 
ruly school in so far as the practice classes themselves are concerned. In Springfield, 
on the contrary, and undoubtedly in certain other normal schools scattered through- 
out the country, the practice school is so organized and administered that practically 
all student- teachers are able from the outset to work with the full confidence that 
the attitude of the pupils will be positive rather than negative. A subtle spirit of 
cooperation and good will has been made to characterize the pupil-body as a whole. 
This is a contrast that demands further examination. 

REASONS FOR Low MORALE 

Back of the unfortunate condition described there usually lurks a definite and 
plausible theory of preparing teachers. Modern educational doctrines, it is urged, de- 
mand that the teacher "hold" his pupils thru interest and activity rather than thru 
force or the show of authority. To prepare teachers to maintain order thru interest 
and personal leadership, the conditions of the practice class, it is argued, must involve 
a similar demand. As a matter of fact, a consistent effort to carry out this theory will 
lead inevitably to the kind of school and the kind of work pictured in the above note- 
book extracts. The more unfortunate tendencies of the policy may be summarized as 
follows : 

1. The pupils are quick to take advantage of the fact that the student-teacher has 
no effective authority. This leads not only to slack work on their part, but also to 
cumulative experiments in disorder to determine how far lapses from the stated rules 
may be carried. 

2. The teacher, recognizing the conditions but lacking personal authority to check 
them, is unwilling to appeal for aid to the superintendent or supervisor because of 
the belief that to do this will be a confession of inability to master the situation. 
His tendency, then, is to hide or overlook the inattention and mischief of the pupils, 
trusting that the supervisors will not find out how unfortunate lie conditions really 
are? a policy in which lie is often abetted by the pupils themselves, who assume 



208 ORGANIZATION OF CURRICULA 

a righteous and industrious attitude while the supervisor is present, only to drop it 
when his back is turned. 

3. Under these circumstances the student-teacher is almost certain to become self- 
conscious and diffident and at this very critical initial point the loss of self-confi- 
dence is a most serious matter. Altho expected to hold the attention of his pupils thru 
masterly teaching, he finds himself so overwhelmed by disciplinary troubles which the 
ineffective means at his disposal cannot dissolve that the first condition of masterly 
teaching a genuine rapport between teacher and pupil is never firmly established. 

4. The policy in question encourages loose and inefficient supervision. Pupils may 
misbehave, but their misbehavior is part of the "situation" that the student- teacher 
"must learn to master:" it need not trouble the supervisor as one of his individual 
responsibilities. The student-teacher, lacking real authority, cannot indulge in pun- 
ishments that might be complained of by pupils and parents. The school may conse- 
quently become thoroughly degenerate, while the superintendent or principal finds 
a safe refuge in his theory that the student- teachers must be thrown upon their own 
resources, and that to give them effective aid in the treatment of disciplinary problems 
will be to rob them of the most important educative experiences that their training 
can provide. This does not mean that all disorderly practice schools are in charge of 
lazy and inefficient supervisors, but simply that the theory of the policy stated above 
is too convenient not to be embraced and proclaimed by a person who is willing and 
anxious to shift disagreeable responsibilities and avoid irritating issues. 

LAISSEZ-FAIRE POLICY A MISTAKE 

The policy itself, we think, is a mistaken one. It is extremely doubtful whether the 
best results in the training of teachers can be obtained when the beginner is con- 
fronted with a situation, all of the problems of which must be solved at once. Far 
better is it to let him concentrate upon one problem, the problem of instruction, 
ensuring thru other means an effective attitude upon the part of the pupils. It 
should not be inferred that the student-teacher is simply to instruct the class, while 
a critic teacher or supervisor stands by to preserve order; the object is rather the 
creation among the pupils of a good "school spirit ^ that will be favorable toward the 
work of the student- teacher. As has been suggested, this is not an impossible con- 
dition to fulfil. A competent principal can develop such a spirit within two or three 
years' time even with a group of pupils who have been pretty thoroughly spoiled 
under a loose and ineffective regime. The welfare of the pupils of a practice school 
should be the primary consideration in determining the policy to be adopted in ad- 
ministering practice teaching, and certainly a policy that permits children to do 
poor work term after term is most detrimental to their welfare. Furthermore, it can 
hardly be expected that a school conducted on the laissez-faire principle will appeal 
strongly to the community when the question arises of giving the normal school con- 
trol of the local school system. Where this policy prevails now the citizens are fully 



PROFESSIONAL COURSES : PRACTICE TEACHING 209 

aware that their own schools are preferable, and no training school should demand 
control unless it is fully conscious of its ability to conduct practically a better school 
or school system than would otherwise exist. 

The most unfortunate results of a procedure which prevents the development of 
a wholesome morale in a training school are the low standards of order and attainment 
that the young teacher is likely to have firmly fixed by the experiences of practice 
teaching. If the training school in effect accepts wilful disorder and scamped work upon 
the part of pupils as matters of course, the student-teacher is more than likely to enter 
the service with a similar tendency. It becomes natural for him, in judging his own 
work and its results, to use a standard that falls far short both of the actual abilities 
of the pupils and of the reasonable demands of the community. Not a few teachers who 
might easily stimulate their pupils to larger achievement fail to do so because they 
have no adequate conception of the possibilities ; their pupils do as well as the pupils 
in the training schools that the teacher has so recently left, or perhaps somewhat bet- 
ter. 1 The spirit and morale of their schools, while leaving much to be desired, is prob- 
ably no worse than the spirit and morale of the practice classes. Surely (such a teacher 
may argue) if the great state school can do no better, I should not be expected to 
surpass its standard. 

Where normal school graduates go into well-supervised schools, the pressure of 
criticism is likely to bring about a speedy reconstruction of ideas, a process which 
often does much to destroy the teacher's confidence in his Alma Mater, and a process 
the necessity for which has caused some normal schools to fall very low in the estima- 
tion of superintendents and principals who have had to make over their products. The 
graduate who teaches in a school that is poorly supervised, or entirely unsupervised, 
will miss even this corrective, and will almost inevitably perpetuate the low standards 
that the practice classes have set. 

TRAINING SCHOOL TESTS SHOW Low STANDARDS 

The level to which practice classes may fall is clearly indicated in the results of 
the tests that were conducted in the Missouri training schools in the spring and fall 
of 1916. 2 In practically all of the tests for which well-established norms are avail- 
able, 3 the results in most of the training schools are poor. There are notable excep- 
tions ; Cape Girardeau and Springfield generally do better than the remaining schools ; 
single grades in each of the schools make very creditable records in certain of the tests; 
and the standing of all of the schools in the reading tests is good. The superiority 

*A young teacher whose practice work at the state normal school had been very discouraging to her declared 
that in her first school after leaving the normal school there were no pupils as dull or intractable as those with 
whom she had been given practice worlc. It was found that this latter group, a small one recruited from the mis- 
fits of the city schools, actually contained a large proportion of sub-normal children. The effect of this condition 
upon an inexperienced teacher, especially if combined with the policy of "soft" discipline, may be imagined. 
3 See pages 443 ff. 

3 It is true that these standards represent in the main the achievements of pupils in city school systems j but should 
not the state normal school aim to secure in its training schools at least the attainment of the average city school ? 



210 ORGANIZATION OF CURRICULA 

in reading cannot, however, be considered as counterbalancing the inferiority in the 
remaining subjects. In practically all of the training schools, the primary departments 
are decidedly better than the intermediate and upper grade departments. The funda- 
mental work in reading in consequence is quite generally well done. The practice 
teacher in the primary grades also has an advantage over the practice teacher in the 
upper grades, for the younger children do not draw the distinction between practice 
teachers and "regular 15 teachers that their more sophisticated brothers and sisters in 
the upper grades are prone to make. Morale is a less serious problem, and the dele- 
terious influence of poor morale upon the attainments of the pupils will be less 
noticeable. 

There was little question in the minds of those engaged in the present study that 
the low morale of the practice classes was in large part responsible for the poor re- 
sults. There is, indeed, a close correlation between the ranking of the training schools 
as determined by the combined judgment of the three observers who in 1915 examined 
them and the ranking as determined by the tests applied in 1916 ; in the case of only 
one of the schools (Cape Girardeau) was there a noticeable discrepancy between these 
two rankings. An observer will almost inevitably judge a school primarily upon the 
basis of its spirit as revealed in the evidences of industry, whole-souled effort, and 
thoroughgoing cooperation among pupils and between pupils and teachers; conse- 
quently a direct correlation between observers' ratings and the rank-order determined 
by objective tests is likely to mean a direct correlation between morale on the one 
hand and good results in school work on the other hand. 

It is, of course, not impossible to secure good objective results when the spirit of 
the school leaves much to be desired. In the opinion of the observers, for example, 
the training school at Cape Girardeau was inferior to that at Springfield in this 
respect, and yet the results of the tests were decidedly better in the former school. 
The explanation is to be found, we believe, (1) in the organization of the training de- 
partment at Cape Girardeau, which provided a system of supervision especially watch- 
ful of objective results, and (2) in the emphasis that has been given to the standard 
tests both in the training school and in the classes in theory. 

The situation thus revealed raises an important question that has not as yet been 
satisfactorily answered in the discussions of educational standards; namely, How far 
may accomplishment as measured by the standard tests be taken as a true index of 
a school's efficiency? It is clear that measured performance cannot constitute the only 
criterion of worth; at least until the scales and tests cover a much larger proportion 
of the desirable results of education than do those now available. Objective mea- 
sures, then, must be supplemented by the judgment of observers whose training and 
experience have made them sensitive to conditions that objective tests cannot yet de- 
tect. When both measures point in the same direction, an element of strength attaches 
to the verdict that could not be secured thru the operation of either factor alone. 



PROFESSIONAL COURSES : PRACTICE TEACHING 

(f) COURSES IN OBSEEVATION AS PREREQUISITE TO PRACTICE TEACHING 

Exercises in a observation" are commonly listed among the courses prescribed for 
the training of teachers. The requirements vary, however, both in nature and in amount 
in different schools. Among the Missouri institutions, Kirksville, Cape Girardeau, and 
Maryville make no stated requirements in observation; while much emphasis is given 
to this work in the Harris Teachers College and in the Springfield State Normal 
School. Warrensburg stands about midway between the two extremes, requiring work 
in observation but not giving it unusual attention. 

So many criticisms have been made of the impractical and perfunctory exercises 
often attempted under the name of observation that successful experience with this 
work deserves close study. If a preliminary, concrete study of the actual procedure or 
technique of an art is needed anywhere, it is needed in the preparation of teachers; to 
send a normal school student to responsible practice teaching before he has had an 
opportunity to observe and study good teaching is unjust to the student, to say 
nothing of the pupils; it is like forcing the surgeon's instruments into the hands of 
the medical student who has never witnessed an operation. It will be well, then, to 
describe somewhat fully the way in which observation is organized, especially in the 
schools where particular emphasis is placed upon it. 

LESSONS FOE DEMONSTRATION AT ST. Louis 

Adjacent to themain building of the Harris Teachers College is the Wyman School, 
a typical elementary school of the St. Louis system, comprising a kindergarten and 
Grades I-VIII inclusive. The building is a large, modern structure, well suited to the 
needs of a school for observation or demonstration, and is connected by a covered way 
with the main college building. This school is used exclusively for purposes of demon- 
stration. There is no independent course in observation, but every course offered by 
the college may be illustrated by lessons presented in the Wyman School; and partly 
perhaps because the college has no direct control of practice teaching, a very large use 
is made of these exceptional facilities for observation. The school enrolls over one 
thousand pupils, and the work is organized on St. Louis's well-known quarterly plan, 
which means in a large school that classes not more than ten weeks apart in progress 
will be available for observation at all times. This makes it possible to illustrate al- 
most any point that may come up. The general practice is for the instructor in the 
college to arrange with the principal of the Wyman School and with one of the class- 
room teachers to have a lesson of the desired type given at a certain time. During 
the regular period for the meeting of -the college class, the students go over and spend 
from twenty to thirty minutes in observing the lesson. They then return to the col- 
lege classroom, where the results are discussed. 

The conspicuous features of the work in observation at the Harris Teachers Col- 
lege are (1) its close articulation with the subject-matter and methods courses, and 
(2) its very careful organization. One visiting these classes gains the impression that 



212 ORGANIZATION OF CURRICULA 

the work is considered by all concerned to be distinctly important. There is nothing 
perfunctory or formal about it. The Wyman School is in a very real sense the edu- 
cational laboratory of the college. 

COURSES IN OBSERVATION AT THE SPRINGFIELD NORMAL SCHOOL 

At Springfield a separate course in observation covering a full term, five hours each 
week, is a prerequisite to practice teaching. It follows the introductory course in 
psychology and a twelve weeks course in school management. The classes in observa- 
tion are differentiated with reference to the grade of teaching for which the student is 
preparing. 1 The course carries the same credit as do other courses meeting five times 
each week. In addition to the actual exercises in observation and discussion, each stu- 
dent is expected to do reference reading and to make out lesson plans; occasionally, 
too, a student is called upon to teach a class under the direction of the supervisor in 
charge of the class; all work in observation is under the direction of members of the 
training-school staff. 

Observation courses at Springfield are conceived as a connecting link between the- 
ory and practice, and hold a detached and independent place instead of being woven 
into the fabric of the courses in subject-matter and educational theory. This is prob- 
ably the only type of work in observation that can be profitably developed in a nor- 
mal school with limited laboratory facilities. In a school like Springfield most of the 
available pupils must be reserved as material for practice teaching, and a large school 
for demonstration in which any instructor may arrange at any time for class exercises 
that will illustrate his work is out of the question under the present organization* 
Exercises in observation are in consequence limited to specific courses in charge of 
members of the training-school staff who are in a position to make the best use of 
the available classes. In general, whatever work the selected class is doing when the 
observers make their visit must serve as the basis of study and discussion. That even 
under these limitations the work may be made to yield good returns, the experience 
at Springfield seems abundantly to testify. Compared with the work at the Harris 
Teachers College, it has serious shortcomings, but it is vastly better than no contact 
whatsoever with the training school, and constitutes a distinct advance over the 
perfunctory exercises in observation that are not infrequently found in state normal 
and city training schools. 

DEMONSTRATION TEACHING AT WARRENSBITRG 

Theoretically, the arrangement for work in observation at Warrensburg is the same 
as at Springfield, a twelve weeks course preceding practice teaching and providing 
a bridge from the courses in theory. Practically, however, the work did not seem to 

1 Those looking forward to primary work observe for four weeks in Grades I and II, for four weeks in Grades HI 
and IV, and for four weeks in Grades V and VI; those expecting to do upper grade work follow the same general 
plan except that they begin with Grade III and end with Grade VIII ; those preparing for rural school teaching 
observe in each of the eight grades. 



PROFESSIONAL COURSES : PRACTICE TEACHING 13 

be so effectively organized and administered as at Springfield. This was doubtless 
due in part to the unfortunate conditions as to housing that confronted the War- 
rensburg training school at the time the visits were made. As at Springfield, the 
work is in charge of the training-school staff and consists primarily of lessons for de- 
monstration given by the supervisors and the superintendent, and followed by class 
discussions. 

(g) SUPERVISION OF PEACTICE TEACHING 

From the standpoint both of the pupils' progress in the practice school and of the 
student- teacher's growth in skill, the amount and quality of supervision are matters 
of prime consideration. Along with adequate schools for demonstration and practice, 
an institution for the training of teachers needs a staff of well-trained supervisors 
and critics and a carefully organized system of directing the work of its students in 
training. 

(i) THE SUPEBVISOKY STAFF 

RATIO OF SUPERVISORS TO STUDENT-TEACHEKS 

Several attempts have been made to establish a minimal standard for the ratio of 
supervisors to the number of students in practice-teaching courses. 1 

STATUS AND EQUIPMENT OF SUPERVISORS AND CRITIC TEACHERS 

The importance of their work demands that supervisors and critieteachers rank with 
other normal school teachers both as to salary and professional status. This means that 
the qualifications demanded of appointees to supervisory and critic positions should 
be comparable in every way to the qualifications demanded of teachers of academic 
and professional subjects. They might well, indeed, be superior. It is in the relatively 
low status accorded to the supervisors and critics in comparison with the teachers of 
academic subjects that the normal schools as a group have made one of their most 
serious mistakes. In the study of practice teaching already referred to, 2 it was found 
that the median average salary of critic teachers in forty-six state normal schools was 
$1036, while the median average salary of academic teachers in thirty-six schools was 

1 Whether a normal school has an adequate supervisory staff can usually be determined, however, only by an ex- 
amination of the system of practice teaching and the system of supervision in each particular case. The extent to 
which academic instructors participate in the work of supervision as well as the ""teaching: load " of all supervisors 
must be taken into account With this understanding the equivalent of one fall-time supervisor to every eight stu- 
dent-teachers may well be accepted as a desirable standard. Judd and Parker, for example, suggest 1 : 8 as the low- 
est possible admissible ratio, and Kelly, writing in 19i5, reports for sixty-eight state normal schools a median ratio of 
1 : 14. Santee, in his study of practice teaching in seventy state normal schools, asked each school to state the small- 
est number of student-teachers in charge of a single supervisor and the largest number of student-teachers in charge 
of a single supervisor ; the median in the former instance was six, with a range from one to forty ; the median in the 
latter instance was fourteen, with a range from two to fifty. (C. H. Judd and S. C. Parker: Problems involved in 
Standardizing Normal Schools. United States Bureau of Education, Bulletin No. 12, 1916 t page 89. F. J. Kelly : What 
Training School Facilities are provided in State Normal Schools, in Educational Administration and Supervision, 
vol. i, pp. 591 ff. A. M. Santee: The Organization and Administration of Practice Teaching in StateNormal Softools, 
in School and Home Education, September, 1917, pages 8 ff.) 

2 A. M. Santee: op. dt. 



ORGANIZATION OF CURRICULA 

$1488. In the Missouri schools the salary differences are not so noticeable, 1 but the 
differences in training are striking; while ninety-three per cent of the teachers of 
academic subjects have had the equivalent of four years' collegiate education, only 
twenty-seven per cent of the supervisors have so extensive a background for their 

work. 

As a matter of general policy in normal school administration, the larger the recog- 
nition and the more attractive the rewards given to the expert whose class work is to 
be the model for the normal school student to emulate, the more clearly will the school 
emphasize its function as an institution for preparing teachers. The teacher who, in 
addition to possessing a thorough and appropriate education, can teach and manage 
a class expertly well, and can successfully show others how to do it, should be placed 
well above the teacher of academic and professional classes who lacks this power. 
Such ability is the very heart and soul of professional training, and to refuse to recog- 
nize it is to Ignore the very object for which the normal school exists. 

(u) METHODS OF SUPERVISION 

Before proceeding to a discussion of the practices in Missouri, it seems desirable 
to indicate briefly the forms of supervision that appear to have justified themselves 
in successful experience. In the better normal schools, efforts to ensure the growth of 
the student-teacher take a variety of forms. Lesson plans are required, and these must 
be approved by the supervisor before the lessons are taught. The practice classes are 
visited, and the work of the student-teacher is inspected and criticised. Sometimes 
the visiting supervisor leaves with the teacher a written criticism; at other times the 
two meet for a personal conference; and occasionally a supervisor will take the class 
and show the teacher just how a topic is to be treated or a difficulty overcome. Super- 
visors not only meet students individually for conferences regarding work done or in 
prospect, but they also meet groups of student-teachers who are engaged in similar 
work, while all of the student-teachers may be brought together at periodic intervals 
for a general conference on the work of the school as a whole. Nor are the conferences 
limited to those in which the student-teachers participate. In good normal schools 
all of the supervisors meet at least fortnightly and usually once each week to compare 
notes, to discuss this or that teacher's points of weakness and strength, and to agree 
upon methods of solving the double problem of developing the student-teacher and 
conserving the welfare of the practice classes. In some normal schools, too, much is 
made of the "critique 3 * or exhibition lesson given by a student-teacher in the pres- 
ence of his supervisors and of his fellow students, and criticised later by the group. 

The organization of a machinery of supervision thru the routine of which adequate 
attention will be given to the work of each student obviously involves the danger 

1 Thirty-one women supervisors receive an average salary of $1386, while forty-eight women teachers of academic 
subjects receive an average salary of $1353 ; taking men and women together, the supervisor's average salary is $1368, 
while the average salary of all academic teachers is $1569. 



PROFESSIONAL COURSES : PRACTICE TEACHING 215 

lest routine become an end in itself. It is essential that the system be sufficiently 
elastic to prevent its hardening into a mere mechanism, and so thoroughly charged 
with meaning that neither supervisor nor student-teacher will ever lose sight of the 
purpose of any detail. It is also essential that its routine be so well established as to 
leave no chances open for the repetition of serious blunders, or for the continuance 
of conditions that are inimical to the welfare of the pupils. Some of the more im- 
portant elements in this organization will be briefly noted. 

Lesson Plans. The welfare of both teacher and pupils demands a careful planning 
of each lesson, and the criticism of each plan by a supervisor before the lesson is pre- 
sented. In no other way can the supervisor be assured that the subject-matter of the 
lesson has been properly organized, and that the materials which the student- teacher 
proposes to present contain no errors. That this requirement has its dangers no one 
will deny; as one director of training explained: "We are afraid that the lesson 
plan will get in the teacher's way when he goes before his class." Certainly there is 
a risk that two important elements in successful teaching spontaneity and enthu- 
siasm may be impaired by the process. On the other hand, while the danger must 
be recognized, there can be no doubt of the necessity for incurring it. The testimony 
of good teachers everywhere is to the effect that a painstaking preliminary working 
over of materials will not only not destroy one's spontaneity in teaching, but rather, 
because of the sense of mastery that results, will free one to do superior work. Confi- 
dence that is thus made intelligent breeds a sort of driving power beside which the 
enthusiasm springing from one's first uncritical interest is exceedingly superficial. The 
skilful supervisor, in watching the work of the young teacher, can quickly detect 
whether the life has gone out of it because of too close attention to the prepared 
outline, and this is the time for suggestions as to the proper place of the lesson plan. 

Whether lesson plans should be required daily or weekly or by terms or by large 
topics or in any combination of these units is not so important a matter provided 
that some routine of effective preparation is recognized and practised. 1 The greatest 
care upon the part of the supervisor, however, is essential to prevent the daily plan- 
ning from becoming merely perfunctory. Probably the best practice is to provide a 
stated period each day when supervisor and teacher may meet for a conference on the 
lesson to be taught, and when the teacher may go over with the supervisor each step 
in the proposed exercise. While these may take more time than is involved in merely 
reading "the lesson plans and returning them with corrections and suggestions, the ex- 
penditure is a good investment, for the actual viva voce consideration of the problems 
will do more than anything else to prevent them from losing their interest. The time 
taken by the conferences may be reduced as the student's skill increases. 

Practices and policies regarding lesson planning show considerable variation among 
the Missouri normal schools. At Kirksville there is no uniform system; a few of the 

1 Lesson planning may well be graded, requiring at the outset daily plans covering small units, and progressing 
thru definite stages to the plan that covers a relatively large unit of subject-matter t tlie teaching of which will 
occupy several recitation periods. 



816 ORGANIZATION OF CURRICULA 

supervisors require plans in advance, but most of them, it seems, allow "plans" to 
be worked out and presented after the lesson has been taught! As a review by the 
student- teacher of what he has attempted to do in each lesson, the latter practice 
may have considerable value; as a substitute for preliminary planning, it cannot be 
considered satisfactory. Nor did the actual practice teaching observed in Kirksville 
justify in any way the failure to establish an effective routine of lesson planning. It 
was clear in some cases that the student-teachers did not take their work seriously, 
a condition that the requirement of lesson plans certainly tends to correct; and the 
general tone and spirit of the practice school work indicated a looseness of standards 
which must go inevitably with lack of system. 

At Warrensburg, each student-teacher prepares daily the plan for the next day^s 
teaching. This plan is placed in the supervisor's hands before the close of the day, 
and is returned on the following day, just before the time at which the lesson is to 
be given, unless the student calls for it earlier, as he is privileged to do. This prac- 
tice ensures the preparation of a plan by the student, but it does not ensure a confer- 
ence with the supervisor, or, indeed, a review of the plan in time to make needed 
corrections. 

At Cape Girardeau, an effort is made to prevent the lesson planning from becoming 
mechanical by discouraging plans of a too formal type. Brief, simple statements of 
what the student- teacher proposes to do are required in advance, usually covering 
three or four lessons. In the later stages of practice teaching, the requirement as to 
plans may be, and, we take it, usually is still further relaxed. 

At Springfield, lesson plans are required of each student-teacher, sometimes a week, 
sometimes two days, in advance of the day upon which the lesson is to be presented. 

At Maryville, daily plans are required in each case, and whenever the student- 
teacher is following the problem method, which is heavily emphasized in this school, 
an additional plan must be presented covering a unit of work. The plans must be 
examined and returned by the supervisor before the teaching hour. Once each week 
the superintendent of the training school inspects all plans. 

Inspection of Class WorJc, The class work of the student-teacher must be frequently 
observed if mistakes are to be nipped in the bud. This again involves a serious danger 
lest the teacher become self-conscious, losing thereby both spontaneity and confidence. 
It is by his success in counteracting this danger that the wisdom of the supervisor is 
best measured; the test of the skilful supervisor is the ability to inspire his charges 
with a confidence in his own fairness and sympathy that will make his presence in the 
classroom welcomed rather than dreaded. In any case, the need of such visitation is 
paramount, and one of the best results of practice teaching upon the student-teacher 
is to accustom him from the outset to do his work free from embarrassment in the pres- 
ence of other adults. To deal with immature minds in a manner that commands the 
admiration of one's equals is the constant distinction of the professional teacher. 

Provision should be made for the visitation of each student-teacher at least once 



PROFESSIONAL COURSES : PRACTICE TEACHING 217 

every day. The visits need not be always for the full lesson period, altho sitting thru 
a lesson forms the best basis for constructive criticism, and should occur at least once 
each week, and oftener at the outset of the student's work. Generally speaking, this 
intensive supervision is the function of the subject-matter supervisor, who in every 
case should be either a member of the corresponding academic department of the 
normal school, or in close touch with it. The grade supervisors or critic teachers, the 
principal of the training school, and the director of the training department should 
share in supervision, assuming responsibility especially for safeguarding the interests 
of the pupils; for this purpose the shorter visits will often be sufficient 

The general impression of the observers was that the student-teachers in the Mis- 
souri normal schools were not visited frequently enough by their supervisors. In the 
course of many visits to practice classes it was rarely that a supervisor was either 
found in the room or seen to enter during the period of the visit. An exception should 
be noted in favor of the primary departments. In practically all of the institutions, 
the practice teaching in the lower grades seemed to be much more carefully and 
closely supervised than the teaching in the intermediate and upper grades. Particu- 
larly commendable in this respect were the primary departments at Kirksville, War- 
rensburg, and Maryville. At Springfield, the supervision of all of the grades appeared 
much more effective than in any of the other schools. 

Conferences. Stated provisions for conferences are important features of a system 
of supervision, but these may be overdone also. For improving practice teaching, the 
stated but informal conference between the supervisor and the individual student- 
teacher should have the greatest emphasis* Next to this in importance is the "general" 
conference of the principal or director in which all of the student-teachers and super- 
visors are brought together chiefly for the purpose of developing an effective esprit 
de corps. Here the needs and policies of the school as a school for children rather than 
as a laboratory for teachers should be the centre of attention, and the conference 
should become analogous to the "teachers' meetings" held by the capable superin- 
tendent of a public school system. The feeling upon the part of each student that he 
holds to the practice school the same responsible relationship as he will later hold to 
the school in which he serves for pay, often stimulates the kind of effort that makes 
for rapid growth; to kindle this feeling of responsibility is a prime function of the 
head of the training school, and it is thru the general conference that he may most 
directly promote this end. Conferences of this sort should not be held too often, for 
they are essentially " inspirational" in character; perhaps once a fortnight is sufficient. 
Group conferences of primary teachers, intermediate grade teachers, and upper grade 
teachers, and conferences of teachers of English, arithmetic, history, and other sub- 
jects are important. In some schools, however, the number of interests demanding 
conferences is so large that the student-teachers are overwhelmed with these engage- 
ments, and time and energy which they could more profitably give to intensive prepa- 
ration for their teaching are exhausted. Certainly a policy that would consider group 



218 ORGANIZATION OF CURRICULA 

conferences as an acceptable substitute for intensive classroom supervision coupled 
with individual conferences would be most unfortunate. 

The conferences of supervisors regarding the work of the student- teachers and the 
condition of the school as a whole, on the other hand, are of the very greatest impor- 
tance. All supervisors who oversee the work of the same teachers should meet together 
at least once each week, under the chairmanship of the director, to coordinate the 
different agencies of supervision; and meetings of all of the supervisors, constituting 
what has been referred to above as the "training-school cabinet," should be held at 
least once each fortnight to consider the work of all student-teachers and the general 
condition of the school. 

The requirements for conferences in the Missouri normal schools are in brief as 
follows : At Kirksville, the chief emphasis is laid upon the individual conference, for 
which there is apparently no stated time. General conferences, according to the prin- 
cipal of the training school, are not held, and group conferences are held only occa- 
sionally. At Cape Girardeau, the primary supervisors confer with the student-teachers 
two or three times each week. These conferences are chiefly individual, altho an occa- 
sional group conference is held. The superintendent of the training school holds a 
general conference with the student-teachers once a week; the supervisors generally 
attend this conference; the discussions are commonly confined to school management 
and organization, and to the phases of teaching that affect particularly the "personal 
equation." During the first part of the year the superintendent meets all of the super- 
visors each week in conference. 

The conferences at Springfield seem to be much more elaborately organized. Each 
supervisor meets almost daily with each student-teacher under his supervision, and at 
least once each week he also meets his group. A general conference is held every fort- 
night. At each of the group conferences a member of the cognate academic depart- 
ment is commonly present; at the general conference it is customary to have some 
one not connected with the school address the student- teachers. There are no stated 
and regular meetings of the supervisory staff, but the superintendent confers daily 
with the various supervisors as individuals. 

At Maryville, also, the conference plays an important part in the supervision of 
practice teaching. Each day the supervisors have two individual conferences with the 
student-teachers, one before the lesson for the criticism of plans, and one after the 
lesson for a discussion of the actual work done. The director of the training depart- 
ment meets all of the student-teachers four times each week. Regular assignments 
for reading are made, and recitations and examinations are demanded. Class man- 
agement, the technique of teaching, discipline, the administration of the small school, 
the state course of study, and similar topics were parts of the program of this gen- 
eral conference during the term when the school was visited. This practice goes far 
beyond the ground proposed in the preceding pages for the general conference, and 
really becomes equivalent to the course in the technique of teaching and manage- 



PROFESSIONAL COURSES : PRACTICE TEACHING 219 

ment that was proposed in an earlier section. 1 In addition to these four weekly con- 
ferences, the principal of the school meets all of the student-teachers and supervisors 
once each week in a teachers' meeting at which the general policies of the school are 
discussed. 

Testing Results. The supervision of teaching whether practice teaching or "reg- 
ular" teaching cannot proceed effectively unless an intelligent effort is made to 
check the results of the teacher's work as measured by the growth of pupils. It is in 
terms of such growth that the outcomes of teaching must ultimately be evaluated, 
and the young teacher should be accustomed from the outset to think of his work 
as measured finally by this standard. The teacher, like the novice in other arts, grows 
most rapidly under the stimulus of responsibility, and the responsibility for securing 
definite results cannot be impressed too early or reiterated too often. 

The efforts to improve practice teaching, then, are not to be limited to the criti- 
cisms and suggestions which the supervisor makes to the student after his visits to 
the practice class. Indispensable as they are, these cannot tell the whole story. They 
are concerned primarily with immediate classroom happenings, with discipline, 
questioning, illustration, the stimulation of thought, the accuracy of the information 
imparted, and the like. All of these are means to an end, and the end, obviously, is the 
pupil's growth. An exclusive emphasis upon the means will tend to prevent a proper 
perspective upon the problem as a whole, will tend to exaggerate means into a simu- 
lacrum of ends. In all effective supervision of teaching, therefore, the efforts of the 
supervisor must be supplemented by objective tests that will determine the growth 
that the pupils have made under the teacher's direction. 

Program of Studies. Teaching cannot be tested or evaluated in terms of the pupil's 
growth unless the direction and nature of the desired growth have been previously 
determined. There must be a definite program of attainments, so to speak, which 
shall be both a guide to a teacher's efforts and a standard against which to measure 
his achievements. This program of attainments is usually called a "course of study;" 
but since a well-articulated program is commonly made up of coordinated courses 
of study, it may be better designated as a "curriculum." Whatever it may be called, 
this program is an indispensable part of every school, and the practice school is no 
exception. 

Two questions arise as to the program of studies in a practice school: (1) Who 
should be responsible for its construction? and (2) How closely should it resemble 
the programs usually found in the schools in which the graduates of the normal 
school may be expected to teach? One's answer to either of these questions will de- 
pend largely upon the attitude that one takes toward a much more fundamental ques- 
tion of policy in the organization and administration of institutions for the prepa- 
ration of teachers, namely, In how far should such institutions assume the responsi- 
bility for initiating and promoting departures from existing educational practices? 

1 See page 190.' 



ORGANIZATION OF CURRICULA 

The significance of this fundamental question may be made clearer by reference to 
two types of teacher-training schools, each of which is represented among the Missouri 
institutions. The program of studies in the Wyman School of Harris Teachers College 
is determined in no way by the college itself. It is the standard and uniform "city 
course of study, 55 adopted by the board of education upon the recommendation of the 
superintendent. The program of studies that guides the cadets in their apprentice 
work is this same course of study. In sharp contrast with the Harris Teachers College 
in this respect stands the elementary school of the University of Missouri, which is 
frankly an experimental school, altho used to some extent for both observation and 
practice. The course of study at this school represents a practical attempt to trans- 
form the whole system of elementary schooling, and is as unlike that of the average 
elementary school as could well be conceived. 

The state normal schools, generally speaking, fall between these two extremes. 
Springfield more closely resembles the Harris Teachers College in that the first eight 
grades of the training school follow the state course of study, and consequently em- 
body the type of elementary school work which the graduate of the normal school 
will do when he enters actual service. The policy at Kirksville, on the other hand, 
more closely resembles that of the university elementary school, in that little or no 
emphasis seems to be placed on the coordination of the practice school program either 
with the state course of study or with the elementary programs found in the neigh- 
boring district. Indeed, at the time of the visits made to Kirksville, the practice school 
was without a printed "course of study," and there was no evidence even of a sylla- 
bus in manuscript. Each supervisor, it seems, prepared his own course. At Cape Gir- 
ardeau no use is made of the state course of study, buta fairly typical elementary 
program is published in the annual catalogue, and the statement of the aims of the 
training school includes the following: " To conduct an elementary and high school 
according to the principles known to be sound through the experience and research of 
leading educators." This seems to indicate that the school is not intended to be ex- 
perimental in its purposes, altho the superintendent stated to one of the visitors that 
the course of study in the training school is "always in the making." At Maryville, 
the state course of study is not used. The program for the training school had Jbeen 
prepared apparently by the training-school staff, and represented radical departures 
from the elementary programs in common use in the district. 

SHOULD THE PRACTICE SCHOOL EXPERIMENT WITH THE CURRICULUM? 

From tibe point of view of the initial efficiency of the normal school graduate when 
tie enters actual service, the policy which fits the training-school program of studies 
as closely as possible to that of the public schools is clearly to be preferred. From the 
point of view of promoting educational progress, it is equally clear that this policy may 
have an unfortunate tendency to perpetuate the status quo. The question, therefore, 
as to the responsibility of the normal schools for the improvement of the program 



PROFESSIONAL COURSES : PRACTICE TEACHING 

of studies in elementary schools in addition to imparting skill to prospective teachers 
in these schools becomes one of fundamental significance. 

The question is a perplexing one. From all that can be observed, it is safe to say 
that the leadership of the normal schools in effecting marked changes in the elemen- 
tary program of studies has been practically negligible except in one or two notable 
instances. Many practice schools have made radical departures that apparently have 
had not the slightest influence upon the public schools to which they have sent their 
graduates as teachers. A plausible explanation of this condition lies in the fact that 
the tenure of the average elementary teacher, even if he be a normal school graduate, 
is so brief that the curriculum policies represented by the training departments have 
little opportunity to find lodgment in the public schools; programs of study in towns 
and cities are not usually revised at the instance of young and inexperienced teachers. 
These facts constitute an argument against the assumption by the normal school of 
responsibility for this phase of educational progress, especially when, as seems to be 
the case, it is inconsistent with ensuring the highest possible efficiency of its gradu- 
ates in the local schools. Again, it cannot.be denied that many instances of "progres- 
sive" policies in constructing training-school curricula are based either upon an un- 
reflecting acceptance of spectacular proposals, or upon a superficial acquaintance with 
really desirable reform programs resulting in their misinterpretation and distortion. 
In either case, the practice school becomes in effect a "freak 5 " 1 school, the vagaries of 
which are the laughing-stock of competent superintendents, who may, nevertheless, 
be willing to take the more capable graduates with the expectation that they can 
readily be readjusted to another system. 

Many of these difficulties will, of course, be overcome and the underlying evils cor- 
rected with the stabilizing of educational theory. But even under better conditions, 
it would seem inadvisable for the normal school to attempt* thru its practice school, 
both to train teachers how to teach and to demonstrate to the public schools inno- 
vations in the subject-matter of instruction. For experimentation in education and 
for the demonstration of every well-matured proposal, there should be abundant op- 
portunity, and normal schools that are adequately supported should be encouraged to 
assume an important leadership in that type of educational progress which is repre- 
sented by curriculum reform. But this phase of their work should not be confused 
with their primary duty of training inexperienced practitioners. A normal school 
may well have its experimental school with its staff of trained experimenters; but 
the practice school should not be an experimental school, in part because the decision 
regarding the value or worthlessness of this or that innovation should not depend 
upon what student-teachers can do with it, and in part because the student-teacher 
can be made most efficient for Ms proximate duties when he deals with the same kind 
of materials that he is likely to deal with in his actual teaching service. The prac- 
tice school, in short, in so far as its curriculum is concerned, should represent the 
best approved conditions. This does not mean that it should limit itself to the stand- 



ORGANIZATION OF CURRICULA 

ards of the median or average public school of its district; it means rather that it 
should not reflect a type of educational material that the graduates in all probability 
will never be called upon to teach, and readjustments from which in their first teach- 
ing will inevitably cause confusion and inefficiency. This, of course, should not pre- 
clude an open-minded attitude upon the part of student- teachers toward new depar- 
tures; certainly it should not exclude the trial by them of various methods of teach- 
ing; " experimentation * of the latter sort should be encouraged. There is, of course, 
a vast difference between testing various methods of presenting subject-matter and 
attempting to test widely varying types of such material. 

For a state normal school like Springfield to use in its training school the state 
course of study is a most excellent policy. In some states, however, the central depart- 
ments of education do not publish official syllabi for the elementary schools, and in 
other states the published outlines are adapted particularly to rural school conditions. 
Often a curriculum must be constructed independently, and even when an outline pre- 
pared by an outside authority is used, it will probably be well to modify it to some 
extent to meet the legitimately peculiar needs of a practice school Some authority 
in the normal school, therefore, should be responsible for the training-school curricu- 
lum, and this responsibility may best be lodged in the training-school cabinet, com- 
posed, as has been suggested, of the critic teachers and supervisors including repre- 
sentatives of academic departments, acting under the chairmanship of the director of 
training. 

(h) CONCENTRATED versus DISTRIBUTED PRACTICE TEACHING 

In a majority of the state normal schools of the United States, the work in practice 
teaching is "distributed" in the sense that the student teaches for one period each day, 
carrying other normal school courses at the same time, all of the work, including the 
practice teaching, usually constituting a full program. In other words, the student's 
energies during the period of practice teaching are distributed among a number of 
stated engagements and activities of which the actual work in teaching is only one. 
In a respectable minority of schools the practice teaching is "concentrated" in the 
sense that, during the term, semester, or year devoted to this work, it constitutes the 
sole or at least the chief business of the student. 

There are advantages and disadvantages in each type of organization. Other things 
being equal, the "distributed" practice teaching permits the extension of practice 
over a longer period of time, an arrangement that is thought to be favorable in view 
of the fact that in the acquisition of skill a wide distribution of learning periods 
generally brings better results than their concentration. This has been experimentally 
demonstrated for certain types of skill, and authorities in educational psychology have 
not hesitated to generalize these particular instances into a principle that is favor- 
able to distributed learning in all fields where skill is the desired outcome. It is hardly 
likely, however, that the psychology of learning has been a potent factor in the es- 



PROFESSIONAL COURSES : PRACTICE TEACHING 

tablishment of the system of distributed practice; the major reason for its endorse- 
ment has been its administrative convenience. Distributed practice permits the stu- 
dent's programs to be arranged with the course in practice teaching upon the same 
basis as the other normal school courses; and when a considerable proportion of the 
teaching in the training school must be done by student-teachers, the system gives 
a better opportunity to ensure a sufficient number of teachers at all times during the 
year. Moreover, for similar reasons, an elective system, with its emphasis on academic 
subjects in preparation for the university or out of consideration for men students, 
finds the distributed system preferable to one that places practice in the high light 
of a full term's concentrated attention. 

On the other hand, distributed practice involves a very serious danger either that 
the preparation for the daily teaching will be neglected because of the claims of other 
courses, or that the legitimate demands of other courses will be neglected because of 
the pressure to do good work in teaching; as thus administered, practice is but one of 
four or more not necessarily related obligations, whereas it should be the focus of all 
the candidate's earlier preparation and the absorbing centre of all his present in- 
terests. In short, the theoretical advantages of distributed learning may, in the case 
of practice teaching, be more than offset by the obvious disadvantages of divided 
attention. Skill should certainly be one of the results of the work in practice teach- 
ing, but it is not the only outcome desired; insight into child nature, mastery of 
subject-matter taught, sensitiveness to unhygienic conditions and to symptoms of dis- 
order all of these and many other factors are sought in addition to specific habits. 
The performance for an hour each day of a single, isolated unit of classroom work is 
qualitatively a totally different experience from that involved in concentrating one's 
full energy and attention on the life of a class for a whole day or a half day, and 
having every additional exercise planned with a view to the illumination of that one 
intensive study. It cannot be doubted that many students who now slip thru with 
a fair average for all subjects by the distributed plan, would fail ignominionsly if 
required, as they should be, to stake everything on their performance in this search- 
ing and selective test* 

In mastering telegraphy, typewriting, and the other arts from which the experi- 
mental conclusions concerning the value of distributed learning have been mainly 
derived, it is the habit side which is important; one practising typewriting does not 
have to prepare laboriously for each practice period, and the factor of distraction 
thru the pressure of other duties scarcely affects the development of desirable habits 
as it does in teaching; nor does the practice of typewriting involve anything akin to 
the mastery of subject-matter and the understanding of child nature that teaching 
involves. In teaching children, a habit that is of any value must be accompanied by 
insights that may be had only by saturation, as it were, in the experience itself when 
directed and explained by those to whom such insights are real. Perhaps the chief 
indictment of the system of distributed practice is its effect upon the pupils of the 



ORGANIZATION OF CURRICULA 

practice classes. Their interests alone would seem to demand that the work of teach- 
ing be the primary interest of the student-teacher to the ends (1) that he may make 
the best possible preparation for each day's work, and (2) that the distraction of the 
practice classes thru the frequent changes of teachers during the day be reduced to 
a minimum. 

Among the Missouri institutions., the concentrated system of practice teaching 
finds a place only in the Harris Teachers College, where, as has been pointed out, the 
student spends his third half year as an apprentice in an elementary school, giving 
all of his time and energy to this work. The practice teaching in the state normal 
schools is everywhere upon the distributed basis, 1 and this is doubtless one expla- 
nation of the generally unsatisfactory character of the practice teaching in most of 
them. 

(i) MOST FAVORABLE POSITION OF PRACTICE TEACHING IN THE CURRICULUM 

Practice teaching is usually placed in the last year, semester, or term of the stu- 
dent's residence at the normal school. In St. Louis, as has been pointed out, the third 
semester of the two-year curriculum is given over to apprentice teaching, leaving the 
fourth semester for the courses in history and theory of education. This plan, while 
most commendable from the point of view of accepted educational principles, is quite 
unusual in normal schools and city training schools. Those in charge of the work are 
naturally reluctant to commit the pupils of the training school to the care of student- 
teachers before the latter have had the advantage of all of the academic and profes- 
sional instruction that it is possible to give. With the development of three-year and 
four-year curricula it would be thoroughly practicable to arrange the courses in such 
a way that a final term or semester could be devoted to a type of work designed to 
summarize and interpret the results of the preceding courses in the light of fun- 
damental principles. The large advantage of this arrangement lies in the fact that 
the student's work is rounded out; he is left with a body of theory that aims to or- 
ganize and systematize the details that have gone before, and also to provide a back- 
ground for later growth. 

It would be a mistake, however, to limit the student's active contact with the train- 
ing school to the period of his responsible practice teaching. As soon as possible after 
his residence at the normal school begins, he should be introduced to the actual prob- 
lems of teaching, partly, as we have suggested, thru systematic observation closely 
correlated with subject-matter courses, and even more intimately thru the type of 
training-school work that has been called "participation." This may sometimes in- 

1 The following excerpt from one of the many reports from normal school teachers gives a clear picture of the sit- 
uation from within: 

"Concentrated practice teaching was the theory in the school here to some extent even when yon were making 
the survey; it had fuller sweep a year or two earlier. It was administratively impossible with the wide elective 
privileges accorded to students. Further, adequate supervision could not be provided with the funds available, 
and many of the candidates for diplomas were hardly capable of making adequate preparation for an entire day 
of teaching work. Scattered through a rather wide list of electives their failures were less apparent, tho doubtless 
not less real.'* 



COURSES IN SPECIFIC METHODS 

elude, as in the plan developed at the University of Wisconsin, taking a place as a 
pupil in one of the classes, preparing the lessons, and being ready at any time either 
to " recite" as a pupil or to exchange places with the regular teacher. Participation 
of this sort will generally be limited to the more advanced training-school classes. 
Besides this, there should be a period of active service as a helper or assistant to the 
regular teacher, especially in matters concerning class routine, coaching individual 
pupils, preparing materials, accompanying classes upon excursions, and arranging for 
dramatic festivals, together with some measure of responsible oversight of recess and 
play periods in connection with active participation in the smaller children's plays 
and games, or in the older pupils' athletic contests. 

The aim of this active participation in the work of the training school would be 
twofold: first, to keep the student from the outset in the closest possible touch with 
the problems that he will have later to face as a teacher; and, secondly, to prepare 
him gradually for the more exacting responsibilities of the practice class. 

Work of this sort has not been highly organized in any of the normal schools or 
city training schools of Missouri, nor indeed is it at all common in the normal schools 
of the country at large. Its value is so obvious, nevertheless, and the results of intro- 
ducing it wherever it has been carefully organized have been so favorable, that the 
general plan may be heartily commended. The most serious difficulties in the way of 
such procedure are to be found in the meagre laboratory equipment of most of the 
normal schools. This is an additional reason for insisting that every normal school 
should have under its control a sufficient number of the local public schools to en- 
sure adequate facilities for all varieties of practical work. 

c. COLLEGIATE COURSES IN SPECIFIC METHODS OF TEACHING 

The term "special methods" has been used in American normal schools by way of 
contrast with "general method" to designate courses that deal either with the actual 
technique of presenting different subjects, or with the specialized problems involved 
in teaching pupils at different levels of advancement. Thus we find, on the one hand, 
methods courses in arithmetic, grammar, geography, English, and similar subjects, 
and, on the other hand, courses in primary methods, intermediate grade methods, 
high school methods, and the like. Not infrequently the specialization has reference 
both to tibe subject-matter and to the level upon which it is to be taught; for exam- 
ple, methods of teaching reading in the primary grades, or methods of teaching his- 
tory in the high school. In some schools, too, a distinction is made between "methods' 1 
courses and "courses in the teaching of 1 " this or that subject, the former term refer- 
ring to elementary school subjects, the latter to high school subjects. 

In theory these courses in specific methods of teaching are usually conceived as 
involving an explicit application of the principles developed in the more general 
courses, particularly psychology, "general method," and the principles of teaching, 



ORGANIZATION OF CURRICULA 

an expression of the same belief in the validity of a strictly deductive procedure that 
has hitherto characterized in general the construction of curricula for the prepara- 
tion of teachers. In practice, however, the "special methods" courses have tended to be 
quite empirical. Sometimes they are simply subject-matter reviews, with a few sug- 
gestions from the instructor as to approved or disapproved methods of presenting this 
or that topic to elementary classes; 1 sometimes they touch but lightly the content 
of the subject, and lay their chief emphasis upon the principles of classroom technique, 
especially in connection with such problems as the recitation, questioning, teaching 
pupils how to study, and the like; 2 and still another type of course treats not only the 
actual teaching of the subject, but also its historical development and its place in the 
general scheme of education. 3 

The normal school graduates who were asked to rate the professional courses of 
the normal school in the order of their value in teaching placed the courses in spe- 
cial methods first of all, and university graduates gave special methods courses the 
same preference. 4 In view of the variations in these courses, it is impossible to de- 
termine from the replies to the questionnaire just what type of work in the study of 
specific methods of teaching is of most worth, but one may hazard the opinion that 
the courses that emphasize careful study of the subject-matter to be taught and the 
best methods of presenting it to elementary pupils are those that have the largest 
practical value. This would be particularly true where the normal schools have failed 
to provide courses in these subjects in their advanced curricula, for in such cases ac- 
quaintance with the actual content of one's future teaching is limited to these courses 
in special methods. 



1 The following outline, for example, was submitted for a course (of collegiate grade) in the teaching of English in 
elementary schools: Themes, 10 in all: Description, 2; Narration, 2; Exposition, 4; Argumentation, 2. Prepared 
recitations: Description; Exposition; Argumentation; Diction: Unequivocalness, Precision, Familiarity, Logical 
conformity. Functionality, Idiomatic usage, Repetition, Tone, Vigor, Beauty. 

2 While there are in the normal schools a few instances of special methods courses that overlap the general courses 
in school management and the technique of teaching, the most pronounced instance was found in one of the teach- 
ers' courses in the University of Missouri where, among other topics, the-followmg were given a large emphasis: 

1. The importance of well-organized classroom work. 2. The recitation, its character and aim; problem viewpoint. 
3. The study of the new lesson and its importance; teaching. 4. The assignments; home work and school work; 
reading. 5. Attention, interest, and good order in the class. 6. Special problems connected with classroom work. 

On the day when the class was visited, the instructor spent most of the hour in dictating directions for students' 
observation of high school work. Twenty-three specific rules for observation were stated, no one of which had espe- 
cial reference to the teaching of the subject, but all of which were concerned with general problems of classroom 
technique. 

In a class on the teaching of history in one of the normal schools, the instructor's lecture followed the subjoined 
outline: 1. Supervised study. 2. Home study: (a) Have a regular place for study. (6) Have a regular time for study, 
(c) Use the will power In holding the mind and hand to the lesson. 3. Rules for getting a lesson. (Six rules were 
dictated, no one of which had especial reference to history.) 4. What to do in supervised study. (Five suggestions 
were dictated, one of which had a direct reference to history.) 5. Test of supervised study in history. 

3 A good example of a course of this type is furnished by the following outline (a twelve weeks course in special 
methods in history, offered in one of the normal schools): 1. Aim of history. 2. Historical material. 3. History in 
German, French, English, and American schools. 4. The teacher's qualifications. 5. The organization of facts. 6. Meth- 
ods of teaching. 7. The course of study. 8. Observation lessons in all of the grades given from time to time as needed 
in the course of the work under Topic 7. 9. Several lessons on the teaching of civics as presented by Bourne, the 
Committee of Eight, Hinsdale, Hill, and the Committee on Social Studies of the Commission on the Reorganization 
of Secondary Education. 10. Special reports. 

* See page 442. 



COURSES IN SPECIFIC METHODS 

GOOD SPECIAL METHOD A FUNCTION OF SUBJECT-MATTER COURSES 

If the position taken in the preceding sections of this report is valid, the normal 
schools of Missouri should give a much larger place than they do at present, not to 
detached courses in "special methods," but rather to subject-matter courses that will 
deal in a thorough manner with the materials that the normal school students will 
later teach. A comprehensive course in arithmetic, or in upper grade literature, or in 
intermediate grade geography a course adapted to the capacities and attainments 
of collegiate students should furnish, from the point of view both of subject-mat- 
ter and of method, an adequate, if not an ideal, equipment for teaching the subject. 
According to this plan, subject-matter courses when thus thoroughly "professional- 
ized," may well constitute the basis of each curriculum for the preparation of teachers, 
and the illogical abstraction of "method*" from the subject-matter to which it per- 
tains may in this way be largely eliminated. This does not mean that subject-mat- 
ter courses should be limited to the materials that will appear in the later teaching- 
programs of the student, but the first care should be that such materials are amply 
provided for. If curricula are specialized as was suggested in an earlier section, 1 the 
subject-matter can be covered very minutely and yet with fulness; and interpreta- 
tions can be added that will ensure courses of exceptional value to the teacher. 

"CURRICULUM" COURSES 

There is one type of " special methods" course, however, for which there will still 
remain a place. While " methods in arithmetic," "methods in grammar," "methods 
in geography," and similar titles should in time disappear from the catalogues of the 
normal school, replaced largely by "arithmetic," "grammar," "geography," and so 
forth, there should be courses that will definitely aim to coordinate all of the mate- 
rials proposed for each specialized field. In most normal schools one now finds courses 
in "primary methods," and occasionally courses in "intermediate grade methods," 
" junior high school methods," " methods of high school teaching," and " rural school 
methods," each intended to unify in some measure the different types of work at- 
tempted on these various levels. Such courses represent the nearest approach to " special 
methods" courses that would be needed if the entire curriculum were professionalized. 
With subject-matter courses organized as their appropriate method of exposition re- 
quires, these other courses would become essentially studies in the adaptation and 
sequence of this properly organized subject-matter to a particular age or condition 
of childhood curriculum courses, as it were, within the individual subjects them- 
selves. Under the plan of differentiation proposed in an earlier section, l each of these 
curriculum courses would be in one sense the central course, the keystone, of a specific 
curriculum. 



1 See pages 148 ff. 



ORGANIZATION OF CURRICULA 

d COURSES IN ACADEMIC SUBJECTS 

The normal schools of Missouri were designated in an earlier section as of the 
"academic" type. From whatever point of view they are examined, one cannot fail to 
be impressed by the very slight difference in apparent aim between the work done 
in the normal schools and the work done in non-professional schools and colleges of 
similar grade. This policy is commonly justified on the ground that these academic 
subjects, while apparently the same, are taught in a way that differentiates them from 
corresponding courses in institutions of general education by revealing clearly their 
intimate relationships to the more elementary subject-matter and to the problems of 
teaching in the lower schools. The present section will examine very briefly the valid- 
ity of this argument, especially in so far as it rests upon the assumption that the aca- 
demic courses are clearly differentiated upon a professional basis. 

(I) ENGLISH AND PUBLIC SPEAKING 

The most striking feature of the normal schools' offerings in English 1 is their 
number and variety. In three of the schools, the English courses alone could engage 
a student's entire time for more than two years. Indeed, if we include the few sec- 
ondary courses, they actually contemplate a larger amount of work in this subject 
than is offered by the University of Missouri. 2 

AMOUNT AND VARIETY EXCESSIVE FOB SOUND CURRICULA 

One may infer from the list of courses that collegiate work in English is designed 
primarily to prepare high school teachers of this subject. But it is reasonable to ask 
whether this professional objective could not be attained much more effectively by 
making specific curriculum requirements. 3 No prospective teacher of English can take 
all of the courses offered in any one of the three schools even during a three-year 
or four-year attendance. It would seem both feasible and economical, therefore, to 
reach an agreement as to what a teacher of English most needs in the way of academic 
equipment in the subject rather than to overburden the program with elective courses, 
some of which are certainly of less value than others for the purpose in view. The 
limitations of the teaching staff would also dictate a restriction of the offerings* The 
"load" upon the four or five instructors in the English department of each of the 
normal schools is much heavier than appears, for some of the courses are necessarily 
repeated two, three, or even four times each year. 

If any advantage inheres in the policy of preparing high school teachers in the 
normal schools, this advantage can be best expressed in the provision of real cur- 
ricula directed toward definite teaching-objectives. The colleges and the universities 

1 See page 406. 

2 The total annual offerings of the English department in the University of Missouri aggregate ninety-one semester 
hours. This includes, as in the normal schools, the courses in public speaking. 

8 Variety might be justified by many different curricula were not students with widely varying objectives regis- 
tered for the same courses. 



ACADEMIC COURSES : ENGLISH 

do not supply such curricula. The universities, particularly,, find the elective system 
administratively expedient largely because selections can be made from the various 
offerings to meet more or less satisfactorily any one of a number of objectives. The 
English department, for example, must teach English to the prospective lawyer^ the 
prospective journalist, the prospective engineer, and the prospective physician (to 
name but a few of the vocations that its students will enter) as well as to prospec- 
tive teachers. From the point of view of educational efficiency, it could do each job 
better if courses could be organized that would be specifically directed toward each 
calling, but this is not generally feasible in such institutions. 1 The situation in the 
normal school is quite different. It is preparing for one profession, or at most for 
related subdivisions of one profession. It has the strategic advantage of being able 
to concentrate upon its problem or upon its limited number of related problems. In 
Missouri, the normal schools have not risen to this opportunity. Tho avowedly under- 
taking to prepare high school teachers, these schools are satisfied to imitate the prac- 
tices and policies of the colleges and universities, practices and policies that, in 
so far as the training of high school teachers is concerned, certainly constitute a mis- 
guided leadership. 

PROFESSIONAL CHARACTER NEGLIGIBLE 

The contention that these academic courses are appreciably modified in the normal 
schools to meet a professional need is not borne out by the best available testimony, 
the testimony, namely, of the instructors themselves. On the question blanks sub- 
mitted to the instructors in the normal schools in connection with the present study, 
this request appeared: 

"Point out definitely the nature and extent of the pedagogical element in the 
course; that is, just what and how much you do in the course that you would not 
do if the students were not intending to teach. State, if possible, the relative 
proportion of time devoted to pedagogical as compared with academic work." 

In a small minority of reports there are suggestions of differentiations with refer- 
ence to the professional purpose. A very few of these are definite and indicate that 
the instructor has deliberately organized his work with the needs of prospective teach- 
ers in view. For example: 

"Considerable attention is given informally to the problems of teaching read- 
ing and elementary public speaking in rural schools and the grades. The entire 
method of the class is planned for helpfulness in teaching similar work to more 
elementary students." (Course in Oral English and American Literature.) 

The following replies, however, are typical of the attitude of three-fourths of the 
teachers of English and American literature: 

"The course is chiefly academic. Possibly more attention is given to the selection 

1 Altho in some universities, the engineering colleges have insisted on specialized courses for their students in such 
subjects as English and mathematics. 



230 ORGANIZATION OF CURRICULA 

and grouping of material than would be given ordinarily. In other respects it 
does not differ in method from the courses usually planned for students who 
have no intention of teaching." (Course on American Poets.) 

"I should probably do the same kind of work, the ability of the students being 
the same, were I teaching in any other kind of an institution." (Course in Shake- 
speare.) 

"To cover the ground, the course must be mainly academic. Time is lacking for 
more than minor mention of the methods and suitableness of teaching and sub- 
ject-matter respectively. But there is a required course taken by these students, 
the teaching of literature, that covers the pedagogical side of the question." 
(Course in American Literature.) 

" Pedagogy in this course is incidental only so far as proper methods are 
employed by the teacher is pedagogy exemplified with occasional reference to 
why a certain method of development was employed and wherein further ampli- 
fication would be necessary with younger pupils." (Course in Literature offered to 
candidates for Rural Certificate.) 

"Only incidental work of a pedagogical nature." (Course in English Drama.) 

"No special pedagogical work. The aim is to present a method of literary study 
and a knowledge of the period covered." (Course in Wordsworth.) 

"The only direct pedagogical element is the discussion of suitable modern liter- 
ature to introduce into the school course, the library, etc." (Course in Recent and 
Contemporary Literature.) 

"The course is almost entirely academic. Of course, the feeling that most of 
the class will be teachers modifies the nature of the instruction to some extent." 
(Course in English Literature.) 

The reports from teachers of composition and rhetoric are of the same negative 
tenor, "Course entirely academic;" "Pedagogical element incidental;" and so 
forth. But again, in a small minority of the cases, one comes across suggestions of 
a definite sort, as the following: 

" I seek to secure the habit of ascertaining the cause of all errors and the reason 
of all effectiveness in composition or speech. I seek also to emphasize funda- 
mental principles in terms so simple and clear that they can readily be trans- 
ferred to very elementary composition instruction." 

An opinion that is probably more general among teachers of academic subjects 
than the statements in their replies indicate is frankly expressed by an instructor 
in English composition; the italics are ours : 

"/ can hardly be so foolish as to spend apart of my time giving the training and 
part showing- how to give it to others. I expect that the students who expect to 
teach composition will make careful note of the methods and practices of this 
course. I do give the students considerable training in grading each others' 
themes, but that ought to be done in any theme course, and is done in most 
university courses in composition." 



ACADEMIC COURSES : ENGLISH 231 

How SHOULD CONTENT COURSES BE PROFESSIONALIZED? 

There is, undoubtedly, a firm conviction on the part of many teachers that sub- 
ject-matter and methods must be separated, the latter following the former in every 
case. According to this point of view, an attempt to do the two things at once is to 
incur the risk of divided attention with the probability that neither will be done well. 
This is, of course, a danger to be avoided. It is probable, however, that those who 
take this view have an exaggerated idea of what "method" is. Mastery of method in 
a given material is after all little more than a clear consciousness of the way in which 
the material shapes itself most advantageously to the learner. There should be, there- 
fore, no question of teaching subject-matter and methods simultaneously as diverse 
objects of attention; it is rather a matter of utilizing the actual experience of the 
student in learning in order to throw light upon his later problem of teaching. Cer- 
tain pedagogical problems may well be relegated to methods courses, or preferably 
to what were referred to in the preceding section as " curriculum" courses, but the 
large problem of organizing the subject-matter for teaching and of indicating the 
points at which the teacher's emphasis must fall can in general be solved nowhere 
so well as in the subject-matter course itself. Whether it be a "review" or a "new 
view," the student's experiences in learning or relearning will form the best concrete 
basis for an understanding of the special "pedagogy" of the subject. While these 
experiences are fresh, they should be studied and discussed to the end that they may 
be registered in the student's mind and be subject to recall when he himself essays 
the teacher's task. Thus his whole education sensitizes him to the learning process; it 
is not too much to say that the skilful teacher is one who can recall most clearly the 
successive steps of his own mastery and thru these reconstruct in imagination the 
situation which the pupil is facing. The teacher who cannot do this is the teacher who 
is likely to leave out essential stages in instruction and then to charge up his fail- 
ure against the stupidity of his pupils. It is just this power of recall and of self- 
analysis in fresh learning that explains the humility and sympathy of the learning 
teacher as contrasted with the mental snobbery of the teacher who does not insist 
that he himself from time to time attack strange and difficult material To be sure, 
his own experiences with subjects that cause his students difficulties gradually fade 
unless thoroughly studied and rationalized at the time, but the all-essential attitude 
of the learner must be maintained if he would really teach. 

The instructors in reading and public speaking seem to detect and use the oppor- 
tunities for this type of training much more frequently than do the teachers of com- 
position and literature. We find, for example, these interesting illustrations in their 
replies: 

"Students are called on for comment and criticism of the work of others. 
The standards of criticism are discussed. The psychological foundation of oral 
interpretation is discussed and illustrations given by the teacher. This is applied 
in the later work of the class: when an error is made, some member of the class 



ORGANIZATION OF CURRICULA 

is given the opportunity to try to get the right interpretation; by means of 
question and suggestion giving the right mental stimulus to the reader. About 
one-fourth of the term is given definitely to the pedagogical element in the 
work. More pedagogical work is done incidentally; that is, attention is called 
to method pursued in obtaining a certain interpretation; this is done in pass- 
ing." (Course in Expression.) 

"Questions for debate are chosen to meet the needs of high school teachers. How 
to organize societies in debate, how to judge results, how to criticise all are 
discussed." 5 * (Course in Debating.) 

"All the burden of criticism is thrown upon the members of the class as soon 
as adequate standards of criticism can be set up. By this means the students are 
taughttomake discriminatingbut tactful judgments about reading and speaking. 
"The material for reading in the projects which each is required to under- 
take, is taken from those bits of school literature which have been or are likely 
to prove difficult to handle. 

"The reasons for successful and unsuccessful attempts in reading and speak- 
ing in the public schools are probed in great detail. 

"The class is notified early in the course that any move made by the in- 
structor in the conduct of the recitation or in the arrangement of the material 
will be cheerfully explained on request. 

"About one-fourth of my time in class is spent upon the strictly pedagogical 
aspects of the subject."" (Course in Elementary Reading and Speaking.) 

The fact that the courses in public speaking have been so clearly and definitely 
adapted to the professional purpose of the normal schools in comparison with the 
courses in rhetoric, composition, and literature is perhaps to be explained by their 
relatively recent development as collegiate subjects. Their adjustment to specific pur- 
poses is not so likely to be impeded by the traditions that naturally cluster about & 
subject that has been organized and taught for a relatively long time. in the field 
of " general n education. 1 

() AN T CIENX LANGUAGES 

Courses in the ancient languages, and especially in Latin, form a substantial pro- 
portion of the total offerings at each of the normal schools, altho the actual enrolment 
of collegiate students in these courses is so small as to be almost negligible. 2 Cape 
Girardeau provides ninety-one and one-third semester hours of Latin and Greek and 
three secondary units of Latin certainly an ambitious program for the single in- 
structor assigned to this work. These are approximately equal to the offerings in 
Latin and Greek at the University of Missouri, where a teaching staff equivalent to 
at least four full-time instructors is provided. 

It is clear that very few of these courses actually are or can be given during any 

1 This is not to say that these "academic " traditions are always to be deplored. In curricula of the general or lib- 
eral type, the plan of organization which is based upon the organic development of a body of knowledge will doubt- 
less furnish the best pattern for the organization of the teaching. The danger lest the work become detached and 
formal may be corrected by the present tendency, even in these general courses, to employ the "problem " method. 

2 See page 406. 



ACADEMIC COURSES : ANCIENT LANGUAGES 233 

one year, and yet nothing appears in the catalogue to indicate this fact, a policy 
of catalogue construction that is the legitimate, or perhaps illegitimate, child of 
the elective system. It is the custom at certain universities to announce in advance 
courses that constitute an organic sequence thru several years. The normal schools 
have no such excuse ; the courses have no reference to work actually under way, and 
are apparently published for the sake of appearances only. 1 

Another interesting fact is revealed by a comparative examination of the offer- 
ings of the schools. Out of twenty-six different collegiate courses in Latin offered 
by the five normal schools, only three (Cicero, Vergil, and the teachers' course) are 
found in all of the schools. Twelve different courses, aggregating more than fifty- 
five semester hours of credit, are found only once in the list, and seventeen different 
courses, aggregating eighty-six semester hours of credit, are found in fewer than 
three of the schools. The conclusion seems justified that, even in so old and well- 
standardized a subject as Latin, there is considerable difference of opinion as to what 
the qualifications of the secondary teacher should be. It is scarcely possible that all 
of the courses finding a place upon this list are of equal value in the preparation 
of students who are planning to teach Latin in the high schools. 

Upon the part of the instructors in the classical languages a spirit of genuine de- 
votion to the cause of Latin education was noted in each of the schools. This is due 
in part, of course, to the necessity that the classicists have faced of defending their 
studies against criticism. The following extract from the outline of one of the in- 
structors is typical of the attitude : 

"It is a part of this course to show that Latin has its place in Education. 

To show the student that Latin trains along the lines of observing:, reasoning, 

recording and expressing. So much stress is placed upon this that it is hoped the 

student will carry away an attitude which will tend to make him use this subject 

as a medium for the advancement of the essentials named.* 7 

But this keen enthusiasm for education in Latin upon the part of the instructors 
is not peculiar to the normal schools, nor are its expressions here essentially different 
from what one hears in the classical departments of the liberal colleges and univer- 
sities. Whatever may be the ultimate solution of the Latin problem, the normal 
schools that prepare high school teachers have a unique opportunity which cannot 
be adequately met merely by reiterating the traditional affirmations of the value 
of classical study. The only way in which Latin can escape the stigma of a "dead" 
language is for it to show life. This is fundamentally a teaching problem, and it is 
here that the normal schools have their golden opportunity. There are exceEent Latin 

1 In one of the schools visited in the spring of 1915, twenty-seven collegiate courses in ancient languages were listed 
in the catalogue, and by a curious coincidence just twenty-seven students of collegiate grade were enrolled m the 
department When the instructor was asked why so many courses were offered, he replied ; 'The Board gauges 
a man by the class enrolments ; hence instructors offer a large number of courses." By another curious coincidence, 
this instructor during the term in question taugh t twenty-seven hours each week. In the following year, the aver- 

asses in the classics was approximately twenty-one students, omded 



s nsrucor ur - . 

age enrolment in all of the collegiate classes in the classics was approximately twenty-one students, omded 
among three classes. The class enrolments varied from three to sixteen with an average of seven. The instructor 
carried in addition two units (ten hours a week) of secondary work. 



ORGANIZATION OF CURRICULA 

teachers in the Missouri normal schools who could do much to pass on to their stu- 
dents not only a subject which they have made vital in their own instruction but the 
art of making it vital. Every course must be in a very real sense a teacher's course, 
If the preparation of high school teachers of Latin could be assigned to a single 
school; if then the instructor could concentrate upon six or eight fundamental 
courses with the aforesaid aim, undistracted by the presence in his classes of students 
who are taking Latin for purposes other than teaching, and unworried by demands 
for "numbers/* he could conceivably do more to ensure the permanence of his subject 
in the nation's culture than the heated arguments of the controversialist have so far 
accomplished. 1 

(8) MODEEN FOREIGN LANGUAGES 

In the total number of courses offered in modern foreign languages, the variations 
among the five schools are not significant. 2 Kirksville, however, concentrates its ener- 
gies upon one language, while Warretisburg and Springfield provide instruction in 
two, and Cape Girardeau in three. 

The instructors' reports indicate that few If any of the courses are taken exclu- 
sively by prospective teachers of foreign languages. In most cases, indeed, the enrol- 
ment is far from homogeneous. It is consequently not to be expected that the instruc- 
tion will reveal a clear adaptation to a professional purpose. With one exception, the 
instructors report that the courses are conducted substantially as they would be in 
any institution of similar grade. The exception is interesting in the light that it 
throws on the kind of differentiation that is both possible and profitable: 

"I usually have students visiting the course who have had several years of 
German, but intend to teach s so various points are emphasized for their benefit 
that is: they are told that such points should be emphasized; it becomes a 
conscious process; while these points are emphasized or drilled just as much 
without their presence, the student is less conscious of the same process." (Class 
in First-^year German.) 

The fact that advanced students who are preparing to teach the subject attend 
this beginners' class without credit for the sake of receiving this essentially profes- 
sional instruction in the rudiments of the language is in itself testimony to the need 
and value of courses of this type covering the fundamental subject-matter from the 
point of view of the teacher. It is possible that, in the languages, visiting beginners' 
classes of high school grade would be preferable for this purpose to enrolment in col- 
legiate classes of the "review" type; but even in this case, there would be a distinct 
advantage in having the visiting students actually registered in the class, under some- 

1 What might be done, and one of the obstacles which prevents its being done more generally, will be clear from 
the following report: 

;* Not much of the pedagogical element is included, tout some. Whatever is stressed is pointed out and the learner 
is made to know and feel the reason for this stress. Difficulties of Latin peculiar to Cicero are dwelt upon and 
the method of mastering them constantly held up to the class. But as many take Latin who will probably not 
teach, pedagogy is not made prominent." (Course in Cicero's Orations.') 
* See page 407. 



ACADEMIC COURSES : HISTORY 235 

thing akin to the "participation" plan already referred to; that is, they should be 
responsible for preparing each lesson and should be ready to "recite" as regular pupils. 
In the advanced classes, too, there should be innumerable opportunities for the 
kind of professional work that has been emphasized in the preceding discussions, 
that is, analysis of the students' own experiences in learning as a means for laying 
bare the principles, precepts, and ideals of teaching. In so far as the observations 
made in connection with the present study furnish a basis for judgment, it should 
be said that the teaching of the modern languages in the normal schools is excep- 
tionally well adapted to serve as a model of what expert and highly efficient teaching 
in this field should do. It remains only to make its potential value dynamic by sys- 
tematically bringing to the students' consciousness the details of artistry that con- 
stitute so important a part of its excellence. Judging from the instructors' reports,, 
these details are now left in the background for the student to detect and profit by 
if he can. But the very essence of artistry in teaching, as in other fields, lies in the fact 
that the elements which make it up are hard to detect. One looking upon a fine bit of 
teaching is likely to be impressed by its apparent simplicity, and to conclude that 
after all any one could do as well, just as one is likely to gain a similar impression 
from observing the finest acting or listening to good public speaking. Like the seri- 
ous student of any art, the prospective teacher who is working with a real master 
must get something more than the total effect of the masterly teaching : he must see 
the elements that make up this total effect, and understand something of the part 
that each plays. The best time to do this, we believe, is immediately after he has 
himself gone thru with the very learning experience which it was the master's purpose 
to bring about. 

(4) HISTORY AND GOVERNMENT 

What was said in the section that treated of the courses in English composition 
and literature will hold in the main for the normal school courses in history. The 
variations in the amount of work offered, among the different schools, are somewhat 
wider than in the case of English. 1 Kirksville provides collegiate courses in history, 
government, and economics to the extent of one hundred semester hours, and in ad- 
dition offers secondary courses aggregating two and two- thirds units, equivalent in 
the demands upon the teaching staff to at least twenty semester hours. In history 
Kirksville offers more work than the University of Missouri. 2 The offerings in the 
other normal schools, however, are significantly fewer, Springfield providing for only 
thirty-seven and one-half semester hours with two and one-third units of secondary 
courses. 

Again, the question is not whether a normal school is to be criticised for offer- 

1 See pages 407, 408. 

2 The history offerings at the University of Missouri in 1911-18 totaled 60 semester hours; at Kirfcsrille, subtracting 
the 30 'semester hours in government, economics, and sociology, the history offerings on the collegiate level amount 
to 70 hours. 



236 ORGANIZATION OF CURRICULA 

ing more work in a certain subject than is offered by a university; it is conceivable 
that this may be justified. The question is rather whether the work that is offered 
is designed to meet the particular professional need for which the normal school 
exists. The outlines submitted in history reveal in fewer cases than those in English 
any attempts to professionalize the work. Even in the reports on American history, 
the replies indicate that there is no significant modification of the courses from the 
academic type. The comment most frequently made is that nothing is attempted in 
a pedagogical way beyond making the teaching as good as possible in order that it 
may serve as a model; in three or four instances the instructors state that develop- 
mental methods of teaching are emphasized much more than would be the case were 
the students not preparing to teach. Two illustrations will typify the character of 
nine-tenths of the responses : 

" Formal pedagogy is little thought of. I have never really thought of consider- 
ing the pedagogical and academic work as separate in this course. But I am try- 
ing to teach teachers or prospective teachers. I do not believe, however, that I 
would change the course a great deal if none of the people were to be teachers. 
Of course if none were to be teachers, I would bother very little with special 
reports on how to teach the subject in the high school." (Course in American 
Constitutional History.} 

" The pedagogical element consists mostly in the teacher's methods and exam- 
ple. The course is more or less a 'model course. 5 " 

It does not seem to be realized that however much or little a student may learn by 
" unconscious imitation," nine-tenths of the value of a "model course" in subject- 
matter, as in the training school, is lost on a prospective teacher unless the distinc- 
tive elements that make it a "model"" are explicitly pointed out at the time. In his 
attempts to do this many a normal school teacher might discover serious defects in 
his teaching as measured by the results in individual cases, and it would not be unfair 
to require him, as a model-maker, to measure his success by the extent to which he 
could justify his procedure to his young critics. Such is precisely the problem of the 
clinical operator. 

The courses in civics and government are not essentially different from the courses 
in history in this respect, with the exception of two or three courses that emphasize 
community civics, where an explicit attempt is made to illustrate the use of local 
materials. In describing one of the courses offered in the history of Missouri the 
instructor also emphasized his efforts to acquaint students with the possibilities of 
utilizing the immediate environment. 

(5) MATHEMATICS 

Collegiate courses in mathematics in the normal schools are relatively less nu- 
merous than those in English and history, and in no school do they aggregate in 
semester hours one-half of the corresponding offerings at the University of Missouri. 



ACADEMIC COURSES : MATHEMATICS 

Doubtless one reason for this lies in the fact that the preparation of the high school 
teacher of mathematics is much mqp e definitely standardized than is the preparation 
of the English or history teacher. It is generally assumed that, as a basis for teach- 
ing secondary mathematics, one should have had collegiate courses in solid geometry, 
trigonometry, college algebra, analytical geometry, and the calculus ; and the appear- 
ance of these subjects upon the programs of normal schools that aim to prepare high 
school teachers is to be expected. For good measure, two schools add the theory of 
equations, four schools surveying, and two schools astronomy. 1 

It is open to question whether the courses in surveying and the theory of equa- 
tions might not better be replaced with a composite course, somewhat similar in 
scope to the "industrial mathematics" offered at Warrensburg, 2 but requiring as 
prerequisites trigonometry, solid geometry, and perhaps analytical geometry and 
the calculus, rather than being open to any high school graduate as is the Warrens- 
burg course. In other words, would it not be well, upon the advanced training pro- 
vided by the collegiate courses, to organize a distinct course in applied mathematics 
that would enable the prospective high school teacher very richly to supplement the 
secondary courses that lie is planning to teach? This could well include such infor- 
mation regarding surveying as would be most useful to a high school teacher who, 
after all, is not planning to give a technical training to embryo civil engineers, but 
rather to utilize his knowledge of measurements as a basis for vivifying elementary 
algebra and geometry. It could also include some reference to navigation, aviation, 
machine construction, and other arts, the technical details of which are beyond the 
high school pupil, but certain insights into which he may easily gain in connection 
with his courses in elementary algebra and geometry. The normal school student who 
is looking forward to high school teaching in mathematics could advantageously 
take this "applied 59 course after he has had the collegiate courses named, partic- 
ularly in view of the fact that the accepted standards for preparing a high school 
teacher of mathematics require him to take these collegiate courses in any case if he 
wishes to qualify himself for the better positions. 

It would seem, too, that for purposes of preparing the high school teacher, it 
would be possible to reduce college algebra, analytical geometry, and the calculus 
each to four semester hours in place of the five or six that most of the schools offer. 
This with other possible reductions would make it feasible to offer and require one 
or more courses dealing with the actual content of algebra and geometry as taught 
in the high schools, courses that would be " professionalized 5 "* in the same thorough- 
going manner that has been described in connection with collegiate courses in the 
elementary subjects. This, again, is a step that the normal schools of Missouri might 
profitably take toward constructing real professional curricula for secondary teachers. 

It is hardly necessary to quote in detail from the instructors' outlines the state- 
ments that reveal as plainly as in the courses previously discussed the almost total 

1 See page 408. 2 See Catalogue* 1917-18, page 80. 



238 ORGANIZATION OF CURRICULA 

absence of any clear adaptation of the work to a professional purpose. In an old 
and highly standardized subject like mathematics this is perhaps little to be won- 
dered at, and yet the demands that mathematical study makes upon even the keen- 
est native intelligence are so great that the experience of learning in this field could 
be made of very great service in gaining an insight into the problems of teaching. 
One of the instructors has at least glimpsed the possibilities in connection with the 
study of the calculus, pointing out that the experiences of the students in master- 
ing the process of integration may serve as an object-lesson for them in connection 
with teaching the more elementary branches. But much more typical of the general 
attitude of the mathematics instructors toward the general problem are the follow- 
ing statements : 

"I insist upon knowing* the subject. Those who expect to teach it will be able 
to develop their own methods of doing so." 1 ' 

" As this is not a pedagogical subject no direct attention is given to the peda- 
gogical side of the subject." 

The normal schools have long reproached the " reactionary colleges and universi- 
ties" for this attitude and deplored it; how comes it here? 

(6) PHYSICS AKD CHEMISTRY 

The collegiate offerings in physics and chemistry in the three schools that empha- 
size most strongly the preparation of high school teachers seem on the whole to be 
well selected. 1 There is evidence, however, that the instructors are overloaded with 
work, and this evidence was borne out by conferences with instructors at the time of 
the visits to the schools. One instructor, for example, found it necessary to be in 
classroom or laboratory from half-past seven in the morning until half-past five in 
the evening, and to give his evenings and Saturdays very largely to the correction 
of notebooks and reports. This instructor teaches during forty-eight weeks of the 
year. The collegiate work in his subject (chemistry) is designed to prepare teachers 
of the subject in high schools, and to give the essential basis in chemistry for special 
teachers and supervisors of the household arts. Only five high schools in the district 
served by this normal school, outside of one large city, offer courses in chemistry, 
and it is quite unlikely that the demand for teachers of household arts in the dis- 
trict will require more than four or five supervisors annually for many years to come. 
A situation of this sort illustrates the marked unwisdom of a policy that permits 
five normal schools of the state as well as the state university to attempt the prepa- 
ration of practically all types of high school teachers and special supervisors. 2 

The instructors 1 reports suggest that the work in the physical sciences is rather 
more distinctly pointed toward the teaching problem than is the case in the depart- 
ments heretofore discussed, altho the pedagogical element is usually fastened on to 

1 See page 408. 2 See page 260. 



ACADEMIC COURSES : BIOLOGY 239 

the academic instruction rather than woven into it. The presence in the same classes 
of students with different objectives is undoubtedly a handicap to a thoroughgoing 
professional treatment, as is indicated by the following comments taken from the 
course outlines: 

"In the course in general chemistry, we cannot confine ourselves to the inter- 
ests of any one group. Where the student is preparing to teach chemistry, we 
advise with him as to the type, kind, etc., of materials needed, I also try to keep 
such students in touch with the best literature on physical science teaching. 
(Course in General Chemistry.} 

"No attention paid to this [the pedagogical element]." (Course in Organic Chem- 
istry ^ in which were enrolled at the time the report was given, prospective teach- 
ers of chemistry, general science, household science, agriculture, and mathe- 
matics.) 

Occasionally, the typical university point of view crops out in the instructed 
comments; for example: 

".Difficulties met with in high school work and laboratory methods and manage- 
ment are discussed incidentally, but our main effort is an attempt to present and 
thoroughly acquaint the student with the fundamental principles of physics. 
We work on the assumption that the student will be able to work out the details 
for himself if the principles are understood." (Course in College Physics.) 

(7) BOTANY, ZOOLOGY, PHYSIOLOGY, HYGIENE, AND SANITATION 

Whether from the point of view of preparing teachers of the biological sciences 
in the high school, and teachers of physiology, nature study, and general science in 
the elementary school and junior high school, or from the point of view of laying an 
adequate foundation in biological knowledge for the study of psychology, sociology, 
and educational theory, the offerings and equipment of the Missouri normal schools 
are notably defective. 1 At the time that the present study was made, Kirksville offered 
no biological courses of collegiate character except five semester hours of bacteri- 
ology and one tennis work in physiology. Apparently the course in bacteriology may 
be taken by students who have had no prerequisite biological work. The other schools 
afford much better balanced biological programs, altho the offerings are less numerous 
than in the physical sciences, except at Springfield, where the two groups are equal. 

The neglect of the biological sciences is the more difficult to understand in view 
of the liberal offerings in chemistry provided by four of the schools. The biological 
sciences appear in the high school programs somewhat more friequently than chemis- 
try, and they have a more intimate relation -than chemistry to the nature study and 
geography of the elementary school, to physiology and hygiene, and to the general 
or elementary science that is coming to find a place in junior high school programs. 
From every point of view, then, it would seem that the biological sciences should 
be the last to be neglected by the normal schools. 

1 See page 408. 



240 ORGANIZATION OF CURRICULA 

At Kirksviile seven and one-half hours of physiology, sanitation, and hygiene 
are offered, but no work in these subjects is required for any of the collegiate de- 
grees or diplomas, Warrensburg offers five hours of hygiene, but this is apparently 
not required. Maryville requires for all of the collegiate diplomas a course in " Home 
Economics and Sanitation." Springfield also requires two and one-half semester 
hours in sanitation. Cape Girardeau has no offerings in this field. 

If the biological courses are taught differently in the normal schools than they 
are in institutions of general education, there is nothing in the reports of the instruc- 
tors to show it. In spite of the almost innumerable points at which a knowledge of 
biology could be made to enrich and vivify instruction in many of the subjects taught 
in the elementary and secondary schools, the actual organization of these courses in 
the normal schools follows very closely the academic or "pure science" model. The 
courses in hygiene and sanitation reveal somewhat more definitely the dominance of 
a professional aim, altho even here the adaptation is slight. 

(8) GEOGRAPHY AND GEOLOGY 

In view of the emphasis given by the normal schools to the preparation of high school 
teachers, the meagreness of the offerings in geography causes no surprise. 1 Most of the 
collegiate work is in physiography, and here Kirksviile and Maryville offer a suffi- 
cient amount of work to equip a student to teach physiography as a minor subject 
in the high school. The course at Springfield is reported by the instructor to be 
planned definitely as " a basis for geography teachers," only a few of whom expect to 
teach physiography in the high school; in other words, the course is organized pri- 
marily for prospective elementary teachers. In the remaining schools, too, it is evi- 
dent that the work in physiography is more definitely professionalized than are the 
science courses previously discussed. At the same time, the absence of courses in gen- 
eral geography and the fact that none of the schools requires a course in this subject 
in any of the collegiate curricula point again to the neglect by these schools of the 
type of subject-matter that the elementary teacher most needs. 

(9) AGRICULTURE 

The normal schools 5 offerings in agriculture on the collegiate level are relatively 
numerous at Kirksviile, forty-five semester hours in the aggregate, in addition 
to one secondary unit. 3 In two of the other schools, also, a substantial number of 
courses are offered. It would undoubtedly be in the interests both of efficiency and 
economy to limit the preparation of high school teachers of agriculture to one or at 
most two of the normal schools and the College of Agriculture at the university. At 
the present time two institutions, each offering a good curriculum for such teachers, 
could amply meet the demands of the state. The provision of elementary courses in 

1 See page 408. 2 See page 409. 



ACADEMIC COURSES : AGRICULTURE 

agriculture for rural school teachers should, obviously, be made in all institutions 
preparing students for this service. 

The attitude of the teachers of agriculture toward the professional problem as re- 
vealed on their outlines is interesting in that it is, in many cases, a distinct exception 
to the general rule that instructors in the "newer" subjects take much more interest 
in teaching as an art than do instructors in the "traditional*" subjects. Some of the 
comments on the outlines are indeed illuminating; they are reproduced verbatim et 
literatim as presented : 

" The students in this course are usually loaded with educational pedagogy at 
time of taking this course. They need information on the Gospel of agriculture. 
How to meet the patrons of their communities in his own environments, that is, 
the teacher of agriculture, first of all should know a good animal, good type of 
plant, a well-prepared seed bed, and the like. [How the architect of this sen- 
tence won his diploma merits a special investigation.] 

" The work should be definite, not just the study of corn as an assignment, 
but make definite assignment, as Seed Selection, Storing seed corn, corn har- 
vesting machinery. All the Practicums which is the major part of the course 
emphasize I Object II Procedure III Results IV Questions and V Con- 
clusions." (Course in Crop Production.) 

66 1 have give no attention to the pedagogical side of the work more than to point 
out the oportunities that the rural teacher has as a leader in the social activities 
of his district." (Course in Rural Economics.) 

"I teach as I was taught in an agricultural college. The ability to do rather than 
to teach is the thing stressed. 

"I teach as though every student was going to start a garden of his own im- 
mediately. 

" Owing to the limited amount of time available little attention is given to the 
pedagogical side of the subject. The book is followed rather closely. When the 
opportunity presents itself methods of teaching are given*" (Course in Elemen- 
tary Agriculture.) 

The above excerpts are fairly characteristic of seven out of the eight instructors 
in agriculture who submitted reports in 1915. The eighth, however, has really seen 
and appreciated the problem of professionalizing his work : 

" . . . the whole trend of "the course is influenced by the fact that students are 
to be teachers of the subject. I give a very few lessons which are specifically ped- 
agogy of the subject. However, I doubt if there are any lessons given that do 
not have some of this element in it. I will give here just a few of the topics 
which are taken up 'in the course of events.' 4 Why agriculture should be taught 
in schools,' 'How to use the surrounding farms for illustrative materials,' * Types 
of school gardens for the country and what a school garden is supposed to 
do,' 6 Apparatus desirable for a country school,' * What a rural teacher can do 
to make the rural boy and girl realize the necessity of selecting good germi- 
nal seed,' 'How to teach conservation of soil fertility.' Only the first topic has 
a formal place in the course. All of the others are taken up incidentally when 



ORGANIZATION OF CURRICULA 

the class is on the topics in question. I also ask quite a number of questions in 
this form : What questions would you ask a farmer if one whom you did not 
know well should ask you the question 'Would it pay me to plow my soil 
deep?" I do not think that I would ask so many questions in this form if my 
students were not to be teachers." (Course in General Agriculture.) 

(10) FINE ARTS 

The variation among the five normal schools in the courses offered in music, draw- 
ing, painting, and similar subjects is striking, 1 and again suggests the importance of 
designating certain single institutions as training schools for special types of teachers. 2 

As in most of the "special" subjects, the courses in graphic art show a commend- 
able adaptation to the professional needs of the students, in that emphasis is com- 
monly laid upon the types of work and materials that are available for art instruction 
in the elementary and secondary schools. The elective system, however, leads to a 
mixture of students that cannot fail to handicap the most effective teaching of the 
subject for professional purposes. Thus in the spring of 1915, a course in advanced 
drawing at Warrensburg enrolled prospective kindergartners, primary teachers, in- 
termediate and upper grade teachers, high school teachers of English, history, math- 
ematics, and foreign languages, and art supervisors; a course in free-hand drawing 
at Kirksville enrolled prospective kindergarten and primary teachers, intermediate 
and upper grade teachers, and art supervisors ; a course at Cape Girardeau in design 
as applied to basketry enrolled prospective teachers of the kindergarten and all ele- 
mentary grades, high school teachers of English and history, and supervisors of art, 
music, and manual training. If the training of special art teachers and supervisors 
were limited to one of the schools, the number of offerings in the other schools could 
be reduced, as has been suggested, and the energies of the instructors could then be 
devoted to the basic courses, differentiated in respect to the type of work (primary, 
intermediate, upper grade) which the various groups of students have in view. Brief, 
undifferentiated courses in art appreciation and the history of art should also find 
a place in all of the longer curricula. 

In music it would be advantageous to limit the advanced courses in harmony, couu- 
terpoint, instrumentation, and orchestration to one school for the preparation of 
supervisors and special teachers. In the schools not giving such advanced curricula 
there should be a carefully constructed program in music adapted to the needs of 
elementary and high school teachers. Doubtless there will need to be some differen- 
tiation in this program, the primary and kindergarten teacher, for example, should 
have a type of instruction that the upper grade and high school teachers will not 
require. 

In addition to this basic work, which should be required of all, individual lessons 
in voice, piano, violin, and perhaps other instruments should be available without 

1 See page 409. 2 See pagre 262. 



ACADEMIC COURSES : COMMERCIAL SUBJECTS 

fee to all students who can profit by such instruction. This policy is clearly in har- 
mony with the professional purpose of the normal school, and has been carried into 
effect at Kirks ville with excellent results. If the unusual interest in music that has been 
developed there could be awakened in all normal schools, it would be greatly to the 
advantage of the public schools throughout the state. The policy of paying for musical 
instruction in the normal schools by giving teachers of music the privilege of taking 
private pupils should be abandoned. 

Perhaps more generally than in other subjects do the teachers of music in the nor- 
mal schools utilize the learning experiences of their students as a basis for ensur- 
ing pedagogical skill, and this seems to be true of the courses in appreciation as well 
as of the courses in technique, where the application of this principle is probably a 
simpler matter. The following reports reveal some of the possibilities that have been 
recognized and utilized: 

"Practically all pedagogy (applied). If the student can't sing himself he must 
instruct some one of the class as to just how he wants the work sung. He must 
analyze and explain the poem. In fact he is teaching instead of reciting." (Course 
in Vocal Forms.) 

"Pedagogy enters in this to a considerable extent. In fact the course must be 
pedagogical as its main purpose is to give the student the ability to create a 
taste for music thru being able to teach the higher forms and make them under- 
stood by the average listener. Secondarily no one will orchestrate a work well 
who does not understand form. As an illustration : The student is placed at the 
piano to play by hand or by mechanism a Chopin Nocturne. He must first 
explain the 'form,' not to the teacher but to the class, as a lecturer. He must 
then play it, bringing out the melody, set proper tempo, etc. In fact he must do 
exactly as he would in trying to make a group of boys and girls or men and 
women understand and appreciate the work. In orchestral forms he must take 
a baton and direct some of the simpler symphonies, using the school orches- 
tra as an experimental body. Every director is necessarily a teacher. Here is an 
excellent opportunity to discover whether or no the student has the ability to 
impart his knowledge to others. [And incidentally to find out if he has any 
knowledge to impart.]" (Course in Instrumental Form.) 

(11) COMMERCIAL SUBJECTS 

There is a demand for teachers of commercial subjects in the high schools of Mis- 
souri, and one of the normal schools should be well equipped to meet it. At the present 
time, four of the schools Kirksville, Warrensburg, Cape Girardeau, and Mary ville 
are each attempting to train commercial teachers, 1 with the result that "the work 
is not well done in any of them. Many students enroll in the commercial courses who 
do not intend to teach the subjects. In one of the schools, for example, seventeen stu- 
dents were enrolled in four courses in stenography and typewriting; of these, eight 
definitely stated on the class census slips that they did not intend to teach at all, and 

1 See pares 409, 410. 



ORGANIZATION OF CURRICULA 

of the remaining nine, only one acknowledged an ambition to become a commercial 
teacher. In the spring term of 1915, one hundred seven students were enrolled in the 
commercial courses at Cape Girardeau, apparently a normal enrolment for the de- 
partment. The instructor stated in conference that " about three or four" teachers 
of commercial subjects were among the graduates of the last graduating class. It is 
clear, then, that the courses are attended by many students who are not preparing 
to teach the subjects, and without doubt by a goodly number who are not prepar- 
ing to teach at all. The presence in the commercial classes of these students, some of 
whom are very young, is a misuse of the normal school, and cannot fail to handicap 
the instructors in their efforts to prepare commercial teachers. 

At Kirksville, two instructors are employed for commercial subjects, but at the 
other schools the courses in bookkeeping, shorthand, and typewriting are taught by 
a single teacher, and this teacher not infrequently has other duties- thrust upon 
him. At Cape Girardeau, for example, in the spring of 1915, the instructor had charge 
of all of the accounting for two dormitories, collecting all board bills, paying for 
all services and supplies, and ordering supplies and equipment. He did much of his 
ordering in August and September, and was therefore deprived of a vacation. All of 
the bookkeeping and correspondence he did without assistance, except for the type- 
writing that he could delegate to his classes for practice purposes. His hours at school 
were from half-past seven in the morning until five in the evening, and most of his 
clerical work was necessarily done at night. 

Under the circumstances, there is naturally little effort in the various schools to 
professionalize the commercial courses with reference to the teaching problem. One 
instructor, when asked to point out the pedagogical elements in a course in type- 
writing, replied : " The effect of the will and mind upon the action of the fingers in 
the operation of the machine" whatever this may mean. Another report states that 
about one-tenth of the time in a course in bookkeeping is spent in discussing " how 
to present various phases of the subject, etc., especially the theoretical with the prac- 
tical." The majority of the reports, however, are either silent as to the pedagogical 
problem, or state that the courses are organized essentially as they would be were the 
students not planning to teach. In general, the work did not show marked deviations 
from what one might find in the commercial classes of a small high school or in a 
business college. 

Penmanship appears among the offerings of the commercial department in three 
of the schools, but it is noteworthy that in only two of the schools (Springfield and 
Maryville) is there a definite requirement in penmanship in the one-year and two- 
year collegiate curricula. It would seem incumbent upon every normal school to re- 
quire instruction and drill in penmanship and in blackboard writing until each stu- 
dent has attained to a satisfactory standard as measured by one of the handwriting 
scales. 



ACADEMIC COURSES : HOME ECONOMICS 

MANUAL OR INDUSTRIAL ARTS 

Instructors in the manual and industrial arts in the Missouri normal schools have 
usually to supervise practice teaching in these subjects as well as to teach the normal 
school students. In every school, therefore, the burden upon these departments is 
unusually heavy. 1 Under these conditions, the attempt of any of the schools to pre- 
pare special supervisors of manual training without much better staffs and equipment 
than are now provided is greatly to be deplored. Four of the schools, however, are 
making this attempt, and in at least three of these the type of handwork in which 
every teacher in the elementary and rural schools should have some training is being 
seriously neglected. Springfield, Cape Girardeau, and Maryville make a definite re- 
quirement in the manual and industrial arts for students enrolled in the one-year 
and two-year collegiate curricula. At Springfield the energies of the department are 
given to these non-specializing students, and the preparation of special teachers and 
supervisors is not undertaken. 

In the two schools that emphasize the training of special teachers and supervisors, 
the classes are not limited to students looking forward to this work; one instructor re- 
ports explicitly that students are encouraged to take the work for purposes other than 
teaching. Even where a requirement of manual arts is made, any one of a number of 
elective courses may be taken to meet the requirement. In other words, except in the 
case of primary handwork, there seems to have been no specific effort to construct a 
course that will give the student, who is not planning to specialize in this field, just the 
kind of training that will help him most in his work as a grade or rural school teacher. 
The instructor in charge of the department at Springfield is the only one who reports 
that he makes a special effort to adjust his courses in woodworking to this group. 

(13) HOME ECONOMICS 

The situation in respect to home economics is somewhat similar to that in the in- 
dustrial arts. 2 Relatively few special teachers and supervisors of the subject are re- 
quired; at least, the demand is not sufficient to justify each of the schools in offering 
a large number of courses for the training of these special teachers. Women who will 
teach in the rural schools, on the other hand, will find it advantageous to know some- 
thing of sewing, nursing, and foods and cooking. Neither of these groups seemed to 
constitute a majority of those who were enrolled during the spring of 1915 in the 
courses in home economics. One-fourth of one hundred twenty-one registrants re- 
porting stated that they did not intend to teach at all; twenty-nine per cent said 
that they were planning either to teach high school subjects other than home eco- 
nomics or to take graded school appointments; slightly smaller than the latter group 
was that which comprised the students distinctly preparing for special home eco- 

1 See page 410. In one of the schools in the spring term of 1915, the instructor in manual arts spent six periods a day 
with normal school and high school classes, and one period a day with training-school pupils. He also reported that 
he was teaching two classes in geography. 

2 See page 410. 



246 ORGANIZATION OF CURRICULA 

nomics teaching and supervision; while only one-eighth of the total number reported 
that they were looking toward rural school service. 

It may be safely inferred, then, that more than one-half of the students enrolled 
in home economics courses during the term referred to were not taking the work for 
teaching purposes. At one of the schools (Springfield) the head of the department 
said ? in response to a question upon this point, that the majority of the students were 
taking the courses "for the work," altho "some are preparing to teach the sub- 
ject." At another school, the instructor in sewing reported "a good deal of pressure 
to make the classes large," with the result that some of her classes enrolled elemen- 
tary school pupils, normal school students of collegiate grade, and married women 
from the community, all working together. It would seem most desirable to provide 
separate classes for those who are undertaking certain elementary courses for non-pro- 
fessional purposes, and both to restrict the advanced classes to intending specialists 
and to organize the work of these courses with explicit reference to their professional 
purpose. Certainly one of the schools would be sufficient, with the university, to meet 
the demand for specialists* The remaining schools could then limit their courses, staff, 
and equipment to the numbers and amount needed to give elementary instruction 
to the normal school students who wish to carry this work as an extra study, and to 
provide whatever supervision may be needed in the training schools. 



LIBRARY ECONOMY 

Kirks ville requires a full term (five hours a week) of library economy in all of the 
collegiate curricula. When this course was visited in the spring term of 1915, the 
work was quite technical in its nature, involving familiarity with the methods of 
cataloguing, and including training in the preparation of catalogue cards. In the 
later announcements of courses (1917), the work seems to have been so modified that 
the technical features are covered during the first two weeks and the remainder of 
the term is given to the study of children's literature. 

In the other schools, instruction in the use of the library is commonly provided 
for more or less incidentally, 1 often during some of the periods set apart for gen- 
eral assemblies. There can be little doubt that the work is important enough to merit 
a separate course that may well be a constant in all curricula and given soon after 
the student enters the school. The equivalent of one hour a week for a term should 
be sufficient for this purpose. Students who are planning to teach English or history 
in high schools may be expected to take a more extended course which will prepare 
them not only to make intelligent assignments for the library work of their pupils, 
but also to take charge of a small high school library, or to act as assistants to the 
librarian in a larger school. 

Kirksville and Cape Girardeau offer more extended courses which suggest that 
they have in mind the need of some equipment in library technique upon the part 

1 See page 410. 



QUALITY OF TEACHING 

of certain high school teachers. The seven and one-half hours offered by Kirksville 
(a full year's work) seem excessive for the purpose; the four hours provided by 
Cape Girardeau will probably prove to be as much time as a teacher whose chief 
work is in English or history can afford to give to library technique, 

(15) PHYSICAL TRAINING* 

Work in physical training is not required at Kirksville, altho an abundance of 
elective opportunities are offered. At Cape Girardeau, all one-year and two-year col- 
legiate curricula must be accompanied throughout by "physical practice/' and for this 
required work no credit is granted. At Warrensburg, " all students are required to 
take physical training three hours a week during half as many terms as they are en- 
rolled and in attendance," a requirement that must be rather hard to "check." At 
Springfield, a term's course in physical training is required for the one-year and two- 
year curricula. At Maryville, the requirement is two and one-half semester hours. 

In view of the basic significance of physical welfare to the state and nation, a 
larger emphasis on physical training in the normal schools is most urgent. Physical 
exercises, involving either formal work or active participation in plays and games, 
should be a part of each student's daily program. The policy of satisfying require- 
ments by concentrating physical exercise into a ternr's course seems hardly consistent 
with the twofold purpose of this important work: (1) the preservation of health and 
the formation of effective health habits and ideals upon the part of the student, and 
() the preparation of every prospective teacher to participate in some measure in the 
recreational activities of his pupils. 



C. THE QUALITY OF NOBMAL SCHOOL TEACHING AS AN ELEMENT IN THE CUBRICULUM 

It is not the purpose of this section to attempt an evaluation of the teaching in the 
normal schools from the point of view of its specific efficiency in imparting knowledge 
and skill to students. To yield satisfactory conclusions, such aprocedure would involve 
not only an elaborate program of tests and examinations, but also a comparison of 
the results with norms and standards that are not as yet available in the field of higher 
and professional education. The aim in the present discussion is rather to determine, 
if possible, the extent to which the actual class work of these schools serves the stu- 
dent as an object lesson in the art of teaching. In the preceding sections, each sub- 
ject of the curriculum has been examined from the point of view of its relation to 
the professional purpose of the school; it is from this same point of view that the 
teaching will be discussed. In other words, quite aside from the content of instruc- 
tion, the teaching itself may be looked upon as an essential, possibly the essential, part 
of the professional curriculum. 

1 See page 410. 



ELEMENTS IN THE CURRICULUM 

THE NORMAL SCHOOL INSTRUCTOR PRIMARILY A TEACHEE 

The policies of normal school administration have naturally favored the selection 
of teachers of marked ability. In the earlier days 3 these teachers were often recruited 
from among those who had achieved unusual recognition in the schools of the sur- 
rounding territory. More recently the demand for higher qualifications in scholarship 
has shifted the source of supply to the coUeges and universities, but the appointees 
almost invariably have had a period of successful experience in elementary or high 
schools preceding their graduate study. Occasionally the graduate student who looks 
to productive scholarship rather than to teaching for his real career accepts a normal 
school appointment perhaps because the coveted opportunity to enter university 
work is not presented; but if such a person remains in the professional school, the 
pressure of the heavy program of teaching and the general absence of sympathy for 
the point of view of pure research usually combine either to transform or to repress 
his earlier ambitions. The typical normal school instructor is first of all a teacher, and 
in Missouri he is not infrequently a teacher of exceptional talent and aptitude for 
his work. 

CHARACTERISTICS OF NORMAL SCHOOL TEACHING 

From the point of view of general classroom procedure, the teaching with which 
the students of the normal school come into contact represents the kind that they 
will be expected to do in their later work, especially if they teach in the upper grades 
or in the high school. The "lecture method," against which so many criticisms of col- 
lege teaching have been leveled, is little in evidence even in the normal schools of the 
collegiate type. In fact, the infrequency of the lecture and the prevalence of the class 
recitation and discussion constitute the most noticeable distinction between these 
schools and the liberal-arts colleges. 

The quality of the teaching, however, is far from uniform. Excellent teaching and 
poor teaching may be found in each of the normal schools and training schools. There 
is some variation as to departments : in the visits made with the present study in view, 
the best teaching was found most frequently in the classes in history, German, Latin, 
English, and mathematics. Poor teaching seemed to be most prevalent in agriculture, 
the^physical and biological sciences, and education (including psychology), altho in 
each of these departments instances of really superior work were not infrequently 
observed. The relatively poor showing made by the instructors in professional subjects 
may be explained in part by the still unsatisfactory organization of the materials in- 
cluded in these courses, but it is much more readily accounted for by the fact that 
the normal schools have selected a less highly educated and less well-trained group of 
teachers for the professional courses than for the academic courses. 1 The teachers of 
agriculture and the natural sciences, while on the whole as well educated as are the 
teachers of language and history, do not seem to represent as high a level of native 



1 See page 283. 



QUALITY OF TEACHING 249 

ability, due perhaps to competition from other fields for technically trained men. It 
should also be recognized that agriculture is not yet well organized for teaching pur- 
poses, and that the teaching of the physical and biological sciences is regarded not 
only in normal schools but in colleges generally as less satisfactory than the teaching 
of mathematics and the humanities. 

The varying excellence of the teachings however. Is not to be explained entirely 
by these departmental differences, for the greatest contrasts will be found side by side 
in the same department. The unevenness of teaching in the normal schools may be 
traced directly to the same causes that operate widely with like result in colleges and 
secondary schools. Practically all such institutions compare very unfavorably in this re- 
spect with well-supervised elementary schools where, altho the teachers are commonly 
less mature and always less well educated, the uniformity of really superior teaching is 
often remarkable. The difference is due both to the better professional training of the 
elementary teacher and to the factor of critical supervision that forms a potent stim- 
ulus to the acquisition and maintenance of a high level of teaching skill. Not only are 
the teachers of the secondary and higher institution largely untrained in the tech- 
nique of teaching, but the stimulus of supervision is completely lacking. The tra- 
ditions of higher education are violently opposed to classroom visitation and criti- 
cism. The notion that one who has mastered one's subject-matter is thereby qualified 
to teach it leads apparently to the absurd corollary that one who is not an expert in 
the subject is disqualified from criticising the teaching. 1 The large high schools in 
which the teachers are almost exclusively subject-matter specialists bred to the uni- 
versity point of view have reflected the same prejudice against supervision. In many 
of the normal schools the same general attitude prevails, altho very greatly tempered 
by the professional character of the work. Presidents and principals, too, are not infre- 
quently loath to assume the responsibilities of classroom supervision, in part because 
they do not wish to offend their teachers or to seem unduly to interfere with their free- 
dom, in part from lack of time and opportunity, and in part, also, because of the gen- 
eral feeling that one who lias been appointed to a normal school instructorship must 
be ipso facto a superior teacher, whose need for direction and advice has passed with 
his apprentice days. 

TEACHING SHOULD BE EXEMPLARY 

It would, indeed, be unfortunate if normal school instructors were to be subjected 
to petty, narrow-minded, faultfinding criticism. On the other hand, there is need for 
ensuring a much higher level of classroom efficiency than is now to be found in these 
schools. The initial skill of the teachers who are sent out from the normal school will 

1 This attitude is well illustrated by the following extract from the report of the Wisconsin normal school^ survey 
(1914); the words are those of an instructor reporting upon the amount and kind of classroom supervision given by 
the president of the school : 

" . . . How much real supervision can a president do regarding the work of a department in which the man in 
charge has specialized in his subjects in college and has spent three to four years in further postgraduate study? 
The president can only at best have a general knowledge of the work." (Page 129.) 



250 ELEMENTS IN THE CURHICULUM 

depend in no small measure upon the teaching to which they have themselves been sub- 
jected. It is true that the demonstrations of good class work in the laboratory school 
are intended to furnish such models., but the actual teaching in the normal school 
classes is of even greater significance. The instruction in these classes should be in- 
telligent and spirited, and this, generally speaking, it is in the Missouri normal 
schools. But it should be more than this : technically it should be as nearly perfect as 
it can be made. Fortunately or unfortunately, it is the externals of teaching that the 
student will most frequently tend to imitate; the stronger and more vital the teach- 
ing, the greater the likelihood that these externals will be reproduced. Even the idio- 
syncrasies and mannerisms of an effective teacher are more likely to be perpetuated 
in the initial teaching of his students than are his enthusiasm and the spirit of his 
instruction. If the technique is bad, then, even tho for the immediate purposes its ills 
are more than counterbalanced by its vigor, enthusiasm, and inspirational force, the 
effect upon the prospective teacher is unfortunate. 

Because good teaching is a matter primarily of knowledge and enthusiasm, it is not 
to be inferred that its external character its form as contrasted with its deeper pur- 
pose i s of but superficial significance. "Good form" in teaching bears the same rela- 
tionship to efficient teaching that good form in writing bears to efficient writing. 
Knowledge and enthusiasm are essential in either case, else the teaching or the writ- 
ing will be empty or dead, or both. Substance and vitality are of course to be chosen 
in preference to form alone, if all three cannot be had; but to assume, as many clitics 
of " pedagogy 55 have assumed, that one who chooses substance and vitality must avoid 
good form and vice versa, is as absurd as to assume that good English can be spoken 
only by those who have nothing to say, or that vigorous English is always crude 
English. 

The analogy may well be pushed further. Just as the ability to use language in good 
form depends largely upon the measure in which good form has characterized the lan- 
guage that one has most frequently listened to and most frequently read, so the abil- 
ity to teach effectively and with distinction will depend upon the measure in which 
good form has characterized the teaching to which one has been accustomed. 

There can be no doubt that the normal schools should set a higher premium than 
they now do upon classroom teaching that is unimpeachable from the point of view of 
technique. The emphasis that normal schools formerly laid upon this factor was doubt- 
less misplaced, not because technique was then or is now unimportant, but because 
suci. emphasis lacked balance. It was based on the assumption that form was an end 
in itself, and it was certainly accompanied by a tendency to belittle the content with 
which it dealt. But that time has passed; under the sting of criticism from the col- 
leges and the universities, the normal schools of to-day are not infrequently quite as 
insistent upon the priority of "scholarship" and quite as impatient with the assump- 
tions of "mere method 1 ' as are their academic critics, forgetting that this view, too, 
is narrow and dogmatic in its own way. The form of teaching, after all, is an impor- 



QUALITY OF TEACHING 

tant and usually an Indispensable factor In the efficiency of teaching, and the artist's 
attitude which, far from neglecting form, seeks to master it and to make It render 
the largest possible service, is as important in teaching as It is in painting, sculpture, 
architecture, writing, and acting. 

THE ELEMENTS OF GOOD TEACHING 

The technical elements in the art of teaching maybe grouped into two classes, which 
may be termed for convenience (1) the external elements of skill and (2) the elements 
of insight and resourcefulness. The former are by far the simpler, and under proper 
guidance may be acquired by any teacher. They can be most easily identified in a 
negative way by such common classroom errors as repeating answers, limiting recita- 
tions to responsive members of the class, being satisfied with "concert" responses, call- 
ing on students before stating the question to be answered or the topic to be discussed, 
failing to speak distinctly, to write clearly, to establish a systematic and habitual 
method of caring for routine matters, to make definite assignments, and to ensure 
throughout the recitation the active effort of all members of the class. Few recitations 
are free from all of these defects, and In the normal school classes observed in Mis- 
souri, they were certainly less frequently noticed than they would have been in a 
high school or a college. They were, however, much more prevalent than one would 
expect in institutions devoted expressly to teaching as a fine art, and much more 
prevalent than in the classrooms of a well-supervised system of graded elementary 
schools. 1 

We are speaking here of defects in classroom technique that would seldom occur 
if good habits had been firmly established early in the teacher's career. The reason 
that they are so generally characteristic even of otherwise superior teachers is not 
that these teachers are ignorant of the few simple rules that summarize good class- 
room procedure, but rather that, in the absence of supervision, they have been too 
little impressed with their responsibility for developing habits of good form in teach- 
ing. When one remembers what a wide difference there is between merely understand- 
ing the requirements of good usage in spoken language and the habitual recognition 

J The following extract from a verbatim report of a lesson in ancient history illustrates in an exaggerated form some 
of these defects: 

Teacher: The Achaean civilization extends down to when? 

Student: 1500 to 1200. 

Teacher: 1200; right. What man appears before the close of this period? 

Student: Homer. 

Teacher: What did the Achaeans bring to Greece? 

Student: Iron. 

Teacher: Iron; that's right. 

The instructor spends a few minutes in discussing the significance of the introduction of iron; presently 

Teacher: Then we come to what people? 

Student: Dorians. 

Teacher: Dorians; yes. What part of Greece was settled by the Dorians? 

Student: Peloponnesus. 

Teacher: Peloponnesus; yes. What was the main town? 

Student (after some delay): Athens. 

Teacher: Athens ; no. 

Student: Sparta. 

Teacher: Sparta ; yes. 



ELEMENTS IN THE CURRICULUM 

of these requirements in one's own speech, it is readily perceived why intelligent and 
informed teachers often break the simplest rules of their art. Where the pressure of 
responsibility is absent, the transformation of principles and precepts into well-estab- 
lished habits is almost certain to be slow or to halt completely. 

The second group of elements comprising the art of teaching the elements of 
insight and resourcefulness are obviously more important than the external ele- 
ments of skill Reference is here made to such factors as aptness and readiness in 
illustration; clearness and lucidity in explanation and exposition; a keen sensitiveness 
to evidences of misunderstanding and misinterpretation upon the part of pupils and 
students; dexterity and alertness in devising problems and framing questions that 
will focus the attention of the class upon just the right points; a sense of humor that 
will relieve tense or wearisome situations; the intellectual attitude that requires of 
itself a reasoned support of each point presented; quickness to detect inattention and 
lack of aggressive effort upon the part of pupils and students; a sense of proportion 
that ensures the emphasis of salient topics, and distinguishes between the fundamental 
and the accessory. These and similar qualities or abilities play an all-important role in 
successful teaching; they are the finer, less obvious factors in "good form;" and they 
differ from the elements of skill in that they depend upon intelligent adaptation rather 
than upon habituated processes. They mean not only the possession of resources in the 
way of knowledge, not only an understanding of child nature or of the capacities and 
interests of adolescents, but also readiness in summoning resources, initiative in adapt- 
ing them to rapidly changing situations, and a kind of rapport with one's class that 
strikes very much deeper than a mere understanding of its capacities and limitations. 

All good teachers certainly are "born" teachers in the sense that their native 
endowment permits the development of these and similar abilities. Their success pre- 
supposes a certain native "talent" for teaching, just as success in any of the fine arts 
presupposes certain native talents. It is fair to assume that innate talent for teach- 
ing, taken in this sense, is much more widely distributed than is talent for music or 
for painting, so broad and comprehensive is the field of teaching and so signifi- 
cant to human evolution has been the guidance of the immature. Of the importance 
of native talent there can be no doubt. In the training of teachers there has been 
a tendency to go to one extreme or the other: either the native character of teaching 
talent has been exalted to the extent of assuming that training is useless, or the sig- 
nificance of native talent has been denied to the point of asserting that the art of 
teaching is merely a matter of understanding and applying certain precepts and prin- 
ciples. The rational view that really successful teaching must rest upon a foundation 
of native talent, but that these gifts can be immeasurably improved by training, has 
been slow to develop. As a result, one finds "born" teachers even in the normal schools 
quite unconscious of the refinements that are possible in their art. Just as the "born" 
painter or musician, entirely without training, may do work that shows real but crude 
ability, so the "born 11 teacher, likewise untrained, may teach with undeniable success, 



QUALITY OF TEACHING 

but also crudely which is to say more or less wastefully, and falling far short of a 
maximum of effectiveness. 

Because of the lack of technical criticism already noted, it is not surprising that 
the normal school teachers as a group are stronger in those elements of their art that 
depend upon insight and resourcefulness than they are in what we have termed the 
elements of skill. But these defects in technique should be remedied, in order that 
the students may live constantly in an atmosphere of "good form" in teaching. Fur- 
thermore,, the virtues of insight and resourcefulness, by as much as they are more 
difficult of analysis, should be made the objects of the students' conscious attention 
and study. The teacher himself is the laboratory for the demonstration of these qual- 
ities; they are less likely to be imitated than are the more external factors of good 
form, and unless they are made explicit to the student, the school fails to utilize 
resources of very large value that are immediately at hand. 

UTILIZING- GOOD MODELS 

There are two means within the reach of every normal school by which this end 
may be sought. In the first place, instructors who know and appreciate each other's 
work can do much by calling the students" attention to the successful qualities of 
other teachers. For example, one teacher is especially skilful in utilizing the devel- 
opmental or Socratic method of teaching. Ordinarily the students will like his work, 
but they do not always know why. To get them to study it professionally to watch 
the lesson evolve under the master's direction; to note the purpose in the asking of 
this, that, or the other question; to see why this illustration is adduced, why that 
suggestion was not followed up, why this rather than the other topic was elaborated 
will mean that the students appreciation will be keener and his appropriation more 
intelligent. There are innumerable opportunities in the work of every instructor thus 
to throw into relief the high points in Ms colleagues' teaching provided that he 
knows it well. A systematic interchange of visits 1 among instructors could be made 
gradually to lead to this result, and to render the added service of promoting the 
general integration of all of the school's activities by securing a more intimate mutual 
understanding among all members of the staff. 

A second method of making the students conscious of the finer points in the art 
of teaching as exemplified by their instructors is to adopt the plan, reported by one 
of the Missouri normal school teachers, of making it natural and customary for the 
students at the close of the hour to ask for the justification of any step taken by the 
teacher in conducting the class. The careful use of a brief period at the close of the 
class exercise for the express purpose of discussing the technique of the lesson would, 
we believe, exert a helpful influence upon aU concerned. 

1 Such visits have been repeatedly recommended and urged by normal school presidents, but the only way in which 
to ensure them is to make them a part of the stated duties of the instructor, with time freely granted for the pur- 
pose. In a school of forty or fifty instructors it should not be impossible for each one to see the classwork of each of 
the others at least once a year. 



ELEMENTS IN THE CURRICULUM 

The discussion of insight and resourcefulness as elements of the teacher's art has 
so far been concerned with the means by which these qualities, as exemplified in the 
work of the normal school teachers, could be made objects of study and imitation 
by normal school students. There is another problem associated with these factors 
that merits consideration. An instructor who has an unusual measure of native talent 
for teaching often fails to grow, and the problem of ensuring his progressive develop- 
ment must be a matter of concern to those responsible for normal school efficiency. 
Not every teacher can attain old age still doing his work with all of the enthusiasm 
of youth expressed in a consummate art which the years have ripened and matured. 
Such growth is undoubtedly subject to natural limitations which vary widely among 
individuals. The problem is to ensure that each individual shall approach as closely 
as possible to the maximum of his capacity, and there is no doubt that the conditions 
of work in many normal schools to-day are unfavorable to such continued growth. 
Some of these conditions are discussed elsewhere in this report, 1 but there are certain 
suggestions that are particularly pertinent here. , 

STIMULATING GOOD TEACHING- 

In the first place, steady and continued growth in power to teach is not to be ex- 
pected in the absence of recognition and appreciation of one's work. Under pres- 
ent conditions it is the rare exception that expertness in the very art for which the 
normal school stands earns an adequate recognition and reward. There is, indeed, 
no system by which unusually effective teaching may be recognized and rewarded. 
Where the elective system prevails, the popularity of the teacher with his students 
and his ability to attract large numbers to his courses constitute one means of meas- 
uring his efficiency, but it may be a most deceptive measure in that it constantly 
tempts the teacher into policies and practices that succeed not because they mean 
expert teaching but because they employ the seductive arts of flattery or the tempt- 
ing bait of low standards. 

In the second place, progressive development in the higher qualifications for in- 
struction cannot be expected from teachers whose hours of stated classroom duties 
are so long as quite to preclude the preparation necessary for first-class work. When 
a teacher must teach five periods a day for five days in the week and for forty-eight 
weeks in the year, his only hope of survival lies in the most careful husbanding of 
his own energy. The hours are neither long nor arduous for one who teaches by rou- 
tine, who puts just as little of himself into his work as is consistent with keeping his 
class from drowsiness or disorder, and who limits his daily preparation to a cursory 
glance over the advance lesson to make certain that there are no points at which 
he can be caught. Such a teacher may carry twenty-five or even thirty-five hours of 
class work each week throughout forty-eight weeks of the year, and live to a vigorous 

1 See pages 276 ff. 



QUALITY OF TEACHING S55 

old age, but he will not grow perceptibly during all these years, unless it be in his 
ability to do his work on a minimal expenditure of effort. 

Fortunately for the normal school, this type of teacher is in the minority in its 
classrooms. Most of the men and women in the Missouri schools give themselves with- 
out reserve to their work. Many of them take the true artist's view, that whatever 
one attempts to do must be done just as well as it can be done. Each recitation hour 
saps the energy of such teachers and the close of the day finds them limp and ex- 
hausted. There is neither time nor strength for the preparation that they should give 
to the work of the next day, not preparation in the narrow sense of reviewing one's 
subject-matter for the next assignment, but preparation in the broader sense of search- 
ing diligently for new light, of reorganizing and replanning the structure of one's 
teaching, of working out new problems and providing illustrations that will appeal 
to the class in part, at least, because they are fresh and interesting to the teacher 
himself. This preparation, too, should not encroach upon a reasonable margin of 
leisure, when the teacher may turn Ms mind away from his work, and seek the diver- 
sion of entirely different activities, or when, if he still remains close to his daily task, 
he may at least have opportunities to occupy himself with its constructive phases, 
making, perhaps, an occasional contribution to its literature. The kind of growth that 
the normal schools should stimulate in their teachers cannot be attained upon the 
basis of the grueling programs that most normal schools demand at the present time. 

SOME FORM OF EDUCATIONAL CRITICISM DESIRABLE 

Granted both a more reasonable teaching program and a spirit of cooperation upon 
the part of the teacher that will make an interchange of visits possible and profitable, 
there is still need in the normal school for something akin to classroom supervision 
altho it could hardly be called by this name, since it would be in method and spirit 
something quite different from the supervision commonly practised in the elementary 
school. Actual supervision and inspection in the narrower sense might, indeed, some- 
times be justified in connection with the work of the younger instructors, but the 
very qualities that we hope will come to characterize the mature teacher enthu- 
siasm and capacity for continued growth presuppose the attitude of the master 
rather than the attitude of the apprentice, and the self-respect that is inconsistent 
with the feeling of subservience when one is made conscious of having a "superior," 
actual or assumed, constantly prying into the details of one"*s work. 

AH "EDUCATIONAL ADVISER" 

What is needed, then, is not the "inspector" or "supervisor," but a colleague for 
critical tho friendly counsel; the term "educational adviser" expresses the desired re- 
lationship. Such a person should not be looked upon by the instructors as a superior. 
It would be his duty to study the work of the school and to call the instructors into 
conference for the general discussion of educational problems; individual criticism 



256 ELEMENTS IN THE CURRICULUM 

should probably be given only on the invitation of the teacher himself. Where au- 
thority is needed to carry thru some desirable reform in the work of the school, it 
should be gained by faculty action, and where personal discipline is necessary, the 
administrative authority of the school should assume the duty. 

It is clear, then, that the functions that we have in mind for the adviser cannot 
often be successfully discharged by the president of the school. The president is neces- 
sarily in a position of administrative authority and responsibility, and it would be 
difficult for him or for the teacher to forget this fact in the essentially cooperative 
work contemplated in this proposal. Nor is it in any way derogatory to the normal 
school presidents of to-day to say that they have not generally been selected with 
reference to their expertness in teaching or their ability to advise helpfully with re- 
gard to classroom problems. Other things have been significant in determining the 
qualifications of a normal school president ability to administer the financial affairs 
of the school, to meet legislators and win support for appropriations, to make ad- 
dresses and otherwise represent the school acceptably before the public. All of these 
qualities are important, but they do not always go with the ability to undertake the 
delicate task of helping a group of specialized and highly sensitive teachers in the 
intimate problems of their daily work. 

The right type of person could render an important service in this position of edu- 
cational adviser. He could bring to each instructor the pertinent contributions that 
his colleagues were making in the solution of similar problems, acting as a sort of 
clearing house for teaching experience. He could direct the interchange of visits sug- 
gested in a preceding paragraph. He could arrange for conferences and discussions 
upon the various phases of teaching. Further than this, he could do much to ensure a 
thoroughgoing coordination of all of the courses with a view to the professional goal. 
It would be an important part of his business to envisage the training process as a 
whole, and to make certain that each unit was fulfilling its function in the work of the 
organism. To this end, he should know what account the graduates of the school are 
giving of their training, and a part of his time each year should be spent in this fol- 
low-up work. To expect each of the instructors to visit the schools where their gradu- 
ates are teaching is out of the question, but the educational adviser could visit sys- 
tematically and bring back to the instructors detailed reports of the points at which 
the training had been defective. 

The success of the function above described would depend upon the wisdom, tact, 
and sympathetic attitude of the person engaged. Superior workers in every form of 
achievement know well the value of candid, intelligent criticism of their productions. 
The better work they do, the more they appreciate the judgment of keen observers 
who may perhaps be less competent than they in the particular field, but who for the 
time being see more elements bearing on the situation than can he who is absorbed in 
his production. Add to the qualification of general fitness a professional familiarity 
with education as a whole, a tested experience, drawn from many subjects and types 



QUALITY OP TEACHING- S57 

of activity, of how knowledge and habits best get into students* minds, and our critic 
becomes an invaluable asset to the school. Sincere teachers crave such help, and an 
acute and well-informed student of education, possessing- the personal gift of winning 
confidence, would speedily make himself indispensable as an adviser in a group even 
of the best trained minds. 

OTHER SOLUTIONS 

If it is impracticable to secure the services of such an adviser, much could probably 
be done by joint action. A small committee, comprising perhaps three of the strongest 
and preferably the older teachers, could be chosen in rotation by the faculty itself to 
undertake this work. This plan would have the advantage of ensuring from the out- 
set the cooperation of the teachers in the enterprise, and if the teaching programs of 
the members of the committee could be reduced in proportion to the time spent in 
visitation and consultation, good results would doubtless follow from an adoption of 
the plan. 

Another possible solution of the problem has been attempted in a few of the normal 
schools. The director of the training department is delegated by the president to su- 
pervise the instruction of the normal school teachers. This plan will doubtless work 
satisfactorily under certain conditions, but as a general procedure it has obvious 
defects. The director of the training department is likely to have more than enough 
to do in looking after the work of the practice teachers in the training school. Even 
if he can spare the time for classroom visitation, the advisability of placing the su- 
pervision of the instructors and that of the student- teachers in the same hand is 
seriously to be questioned. 

The general provisions for self-scrutiny suggested in the preceding paragraphs 
should not preclude similar activity within departments. Members of the English staff, 
for example, should constitute a committee for the coordination of all English courses. 
The tendency of the individual instructor to get into a rut in his teaching can be suc- 
cessfully counteracted in no more certain way than by subjecting his material to at 
least an annual overhauling under the critical eyes of his colleagues. Normal schools 
generally are weak in departmental organization ; the principle of departmental re- 
sponsibility which means so much to the initiative and efficiency of the individual 
teacher should be much more clearly recognized. With the provisions for the general 
supervision and coordination of the class work which have been suggested above, the 
dangers that might otherwise inhere In too large a measure of departmental auton- 
omy may be greatly reduced. 



258 SELECTION AND DISTRIBUTION OF CURRICULA 

D. SELECTION AND DISTRIBUTION OF CURRICULA 

1. The Present Situation 

The object of sound administration of a curriculum for the preparation of teach- 
ers, as for any other professional purpose, is to put as many individuals as are needed 
in possession of the best available information and skill suited to their purpose with 
the smallest reasonable outlay of time and money. Granted an adequate staff and 
equipment, and such a selection of courses as shall furnish the "available informa- 
tion and skill," the problem is reduced to the creation of such an operating program 
as shall utilize staff and equipment most completely to meet the known numerical 
requirements of the schools of the state. 

RELATIVE USE MADE OF COLLEGIATE INSTRUCTORS 

There is no doubt that the teaching staffs of the various schools are at present 
worked quite beyond an advisable limit, considering the quality of service they are 
expected to perform. This appears plainly in the overburdening of teachers with 
classes, as set forth in another section. 1 Another phase of the situation, and one merit- 
ing equal attention, is the extent to which the work of teachers is being utilized. Cer- 
tain inferences on this point may be drawn from an inspection of class membership. 2 

The proportion of all collegiate classes in which the membership falls below ten 
during the regular session in the year cited is thirty-six per cent. Only four depart- 
ments show a membership of ten or more in two-thirds of their classes. Ten per cent 
of all collegiate classes have from one to four members. Whatever the cause of this, 
it is obvious that the schools are at present utilizing far less than half of their avail- 
able teaching resources. Thirty is a standard maximum for collegiate classes, where 
recitation and discussion methods are followed, as is the case in the great majority 
of normal school classes. Laboratory groups may be half this number; lecture sections 
need of course be limited only by the size of the room and the number of windows 
and ventilators. To spend the efforts of expert teachers on changing groups of five, 
eight, or even twelve students is plainly a waste of great seriousness which should be 
avoided if possible. The appropriations for preparing teachers are too pitifully small 
as it is, to justify indulgence in any unnecessary expenditure. 

CAUSES OF WASTE : DUPLICATION OF CLASSES 

The reasons for the present conditions are entirely clear. They are mainly three. 
In the first place, courses are duplicated from term to term to meet what are deemed 
to be the exigencies of normal school attendance. Faithful to early tradition, the 
schools have been unwilling to shape their work either for all or for any exclusive 
portion of their students in such a way as to require regular and continuous attend- 
ance. In its desire for a large enrolment each school has catered to the immediate con- 

1 See pag-e 108. 3 See pages 486, 437. 



PRESENT SITUATION 259 

venience of the student, tho there are probably few students who could not arrange 
with careful management to do continuous work, even if at longer intervals. 1 A care- 
ful examination of the offerings of the schools for 191516 shows that, in the regular 
session alone, a total of ninety-six, or twelve per cent of all the collegiate classes con- 
ducted in that session, apparently duplicated other courses, and could have been 
consolidated with similar classes in other terms of the regular session without thereby 
creating sections too large for convenient handling. The actual money saving effected 
thereby would have amounted to nearly ten thousand dollars. The schools vary con- 
siderably among themselves in the extent of this practice; Cape Girardeau has elimi- 
nated it almost entirely. 

Concrete illustrations are as follows: Kirks ville gives a course in "Farm Machinery 1 ' 
to five students in the fall, and again to fourteen in the winter term; "Plant Physi- 
ology" to nine in the fall, and again to six in the winter at an extra cost of $145; 
"Photography" to eight in the fall, two in the winter, and eight in the spring an 
unnecessary outlay of $S40. Warrensburg provides the " History of Mathematics" for 
four students in the fall, and again in the spring for nine at an extra cost of SI 50; 
"Principles of Criticism" for seven students, and later for five at the same figure; 
"Poultry Raising" for nine, ten, and eleven students, respectively, at a cost of SST 
instead of $109 for thirty students at one time. 

The illustrations above are drawn from collegiate classes only, since these are the 
smallest and therefore most expensive. Secondary classes are repeated to a still greater 
extent, but with less financial loss, as the classes are generally full. The bad effect in 
these cases is the less striking one of arbitrary, incoherent election. Even students 
continuously in attendance, instead of taking the course when it would logically do 
them the greatest service as an organic development of their curriculum, wait until 
it comes around at a convenient hour, or until certain friends take it, or until it may 
be given by a certain teacher a form of "adjustment to the individual" that is 
of questionable value, 

AN EXTRAVAGANT ELECTIVE SYSTEM 

The second reason for multiplying small classes inheres in the unwarranted inter- 
pretation of the whole elective system as applied to the training of teachers, and 
the notion that being a college, even a teachers college, involves the same varied and 
comprehensive educational bill of fare that colleges usually present (too often only in 
their catalogues). The merits of this question have been fully set forth and discussed 
in another section, where the normal school offerings in each department have been 
shown. 2 The summary of the collegiate offerings there given furnishes the best of evi- 
dence in the present argument. 

It will be apparent that in the effort to conduct so varied a program the schools 
cannot escape the conditions indicated above. At many points the proposals are 

1 See pages 301 ff. * See pages 228 ff. For summary, see table, page 411. 



260 SELECTION AND DISTRIBUTION OF CURRICULA 

manifestly absurd, as where Cape Girardeau records ninety-one semester hours of 
ancient languages to be given by one instructor; such impossible pretensions are 
inexcusable and go far to discredit the academic good faith of the institution mak- 
ing them. Even considering only what the schools are actually able to offer, all would 
have to combine in one institution to make such an elaborated scheme economically 
workable, and such an institution exists already in the state university. For the lat- 
ter, there is reason in an extended program which involves many small classes, for it 
is the one central feeder for a great variety of professions and educational demands; 
but the normal school has a single, straightforward aim, and out of a dozen courses 
needs but the one course best fitted for its purpose. Moreover, when courses multiply in 
such luxuriance, the real good of the student is bound to suffer. A prospective teacher 
of high school history could profitably take perhaps thirty hours of history in a four 
years course. The history he must have includes elementary courses required also of 
those not intending to teach history. If he receives in thirty hours the best possible 
preparation for teaching high school history, there is certainly every reason for giv- 
ing each student with the same destination as good a preparation. To focus the nor- 
mal school teacher's attention on this the intensive appropriateness of his curricu- 
lum for his students' future work is to 'serve the student and the public; it is also 
to use the teacher most economically, for all courses apply then equally to all stu- 
dents following the same curriculum. From the point of view of sound professional 
education as well as of financial economy, there can hardly be a rational defence for 
the existing elective system of the normal school except as the school proposes to 
weaken its distinctly teacher-training function and become a "general" college. 1 

LACK OF INTERCOLLEGIATE DIFFERENTIATION 

The third factor that operates to make an economical administration of the cur- 
riculum impossible is yet more fundamental than either of the two preceding. The 
genius that has presided over the development of the Missouri training agencies 
has apparently ignored the far-reaching benefit that would accrue to the state thru 
having the institutions of one section serve the people in another; not to speak of the 
money saving to be effected thereby. Each school is now as self-contained as tho there 
were no other similar institution within the state, and with independent boards, 
strong local feeling, and no real interest in the problem on the part of some intelli- 
gent central authority, the case could scarcely be otherwise. 

Here is the situation. Rural and graded elementary school teachers of all types are 
needed in fairly constant numbers in all parts of the state. These it is, of course, the 

1 The institution at Cape Girardeau has avowedly taken just this step. It is a principle of the school that there is 
no fixed minimum for class membership ; that the teachers will do everything for a single student who desires a 
course. We find, therefore, cases like the following:: A twelve weeks class in Caesar, two students, at an expense of 
$42 each ; in Ethics, two students, $35 each ; in Analytic Geometry, two students, $36 each; in Bacteriology, two stu- 
dents, $64 each ; in Spanish, one student, 5$68 ; while students in classes of reasonable size are receiving: their instruc- 
tion from one of the best-paid teachers in the school for $5 or $6 per term. It is noticeable, however, that these smallest 
classes, usually the most advanced, do not in general receive the best-paid instruction ; that is too expensive even 
for Cape Girardeau, 



PRESENT SITUATION 861 

primary duty of each normal school,, so far as possible, to supply. As shown elsewhere, 
however, the public schools annually draw large numbers of high school teachers of 
various subjects, some directly from the elementary grades below them, 1 some from the 
normal schools, some from the university, and some from outside the state. As more 
and more specific training has been made available and necessary for these various 
specialized types of secondary instructor, it has been tacitly assumed by the normal 
schools and admitted by the state that each institution was to expand its facilities for 
all the types of training that any other institution offered. This has been a matter not 
of demonstrated need, but strictly of sectional pride; it was felt to be unfair for one 
institution to present more, or more varied, courses than another. Thus special equip- 
ment has been acquired by all the schools for collegiate work in the industrial arts, 
in fine arts, in household arts, and particularly in agriculture. When once these de- 
partments have been installed, the way is open for their development to any extent 
for which funds can be secured from the legislature, unless a fixed policy of joint 
administration is determined upon. 

Against any considerable development of these and certain other departments, 
however, the economic situation has erected an effective barrier. Students in any num- 
bers hesitate to undertake long training for positions as agricultural supervisors, for 
example, when there may be fewer than half a dozen such openings in the state each 
year; and for the same reason schools scarcely feel at liberty to urge students into 
such courses, unless, indeed, as has here and there occurred, they forsake their exclu- 
sive purpose of teacher-training and, in order to enlarge the department, throw ii open 
to all who for any reason desire to study agriculture. It is safe to say that after the 
elementary courses, which may be desirable for all teachers, have been provided, there 
is not in all Missouri a demand more than sufficient to exhaust the product of one 
good normal school in these various branches ; to maintain five at the present expense 
is extravagant and leads to the conditions already noted few students, small classes, 
many omitted courses, partly utilized teachers, and, in general, nerveless and fleshless 
departments. 

CONCENTRATION OF ADVANCED CURRICULA IN LATIN 

For example, teachers of Latin and Greek could be trained far better and certainly 
at much less expense if the advanced work in those subjects were given only at Spring- 
field, where it is at present best developed. When this department was visited at Kirks- 
ville, two classes were found reproducing rural school conditions in that the two stu- 
dents in one class recited while the one student in the other was at the blackboard; then 
they turned about. At Maryville, of two students enrolled in a Cicero class one had 
dropped out; in the Vergil class a single student was preparing to go to the university. 
At Cape Girardeau, a class of eight in beginning Greek had been collected. It was said 
to be the first Greek class in six years. The next year it had disappeared entirely 

1 This source is now nearly closed, owing to rulings of the state department requiring specific preparation. 



SELECTION AND DISTRIBUTION OF CURRICULA 

and no Greek whatever was taught, with the result that this first year's work was 
probably almost a total waste of time to these eight students in so far as their training 
at Cape Girardeau as teachers of Greek was concerned. 

The total cost of all collegiate 1 instruction in Latin and Greek for 1915-16 in the 
five schools was $8514. The instructors received an average of $1676 each ; two hun- 
dred forty-six collegiate grades were recorded in forty classes averaging six students 
each. 2 The college work given covered three years at four schools and one-third of a 
year at the fifth, Mary ville. Had this work been concentrated in a well-organized three- 
year college curriculum at one school, it could have been done in nine classes averaging 
twenty-seven students each, and would have required, in the three terms of the reg- 
ular session, but one teacher working at a weekly maximum of fifteen hours, instead 
of six teachers working twenty, twenty-five, and thirty hours as at present. This 
teacher could have been paid $8500 instead of $1676, and could have had the summer 
free. Or the same work could have been done in eighteen classes of fourteen students 
each, covering the four terms of the year as now; this would have required the time 
of one instructor teaching fifteen hours weekly and half the time of another, and they 
could have been paid at the rate of $2368 per year. 3 In either case the total result 
would have been far better aside from the improvement in classes, hours, and salaries. 
A department of this kind would have no apologies to make to any college or uni- 
versity; it would be a going concern commanding the respect of superintendents 
everywhere. 

CONCENTRATION OF ALL HIGH SCHOOL CURRICULA 

The situation with respect to Latin applies in some degree to practically all high 
school subjects. Every teacher needs some history, but a specialist's curriculum in his- 
tory need not be provided at each of the five schools* Besides, but few normal-trained 
teachers in the state teach high school history alone, and that usually after years of 
experience and promotion. 4 Schools that prepare high school teachers of history must, 
therefore, count on giving preparation in at least two subjects to each candidate. Were 
the schools to pool their resources and each accept certain subjects or combinations 
of subjects for special emphasis, the need would be well and amply met. On this basis 
we would have schools A and B preparing all types of elementary teachers and also 
offering fall curricula for high school teachers of history, English, and possibly of 
modern languages; while school A might offer in addition an advanced curriculum in 

1 Kirksville, Warrensburg, and Maryville rate (1915) as collegiate all instruction in Latin beyond the second year- 
Cape Girardeau and Springfield include the third year as secondary work. The latter rating has been followed here. 

2 Kirksville, 9 classes, averaging: 5 students; Warrensburg, 9 classes, averaging' 6M students; Cape Girardeau, 11 
classes, averaging- 7 students ; Springfield, 10 classes, averaging 5j students (omitting two summer teachers' classes 
of 36 and 38 students) ; and Maryville, 1 class with 6 students. 

s Under present (1916) conditions of teaching load (twenty-five hours) and salary ($1676), such consolidations would 
have saved the state over two thousand dollars in the year in this department alone. 

* In the inexperienced group of 1915 (159 out of a total including over ninety per cent of all existing positions in the 
state at large), only seven of those who taught but one subject came from the normal schools : three women taught 
English, two household arts, and two men taught mathematics. 



PRESENT SITUATION $62 

fine arts and music, and school B similar opportunities in Latin and commercial sub- 
jects. Schools C and D 5 on the other hand, would give all of the necessary beginning 
courses needed for their groups of teachers, but would confine their advanced curricula 
to mathematics and science, with a special curriculum in C for agriculture and in D 
for household arts. School E could be assigned special curricula in physical training 
and in other subjects as they developed. In this way any student would find at some 
normal school in the state, or at the university, a curriculum in any desired subject 
that could not well be improved upon elsewhere, instead of five impoverished cen- 
tres vainly struggling with a weak dilution of everything. More travel might indeed 
be necessary for some students who were sure of what they wished to study. For the 
majority, however, the program at any one school would present sufficient variety to 
allow for personal adjustment on the part of those who might attend from the local 
community. 

ADVANTAGES OF DIFFERENTIATION 

This principle of differentiated effort is the only practicable remedy for the situa- 
tion confronting the Missouri schools, and would long since have been applied had 
an active central board or single educational authority been in charge to resist local 
pressure and enforce a wise coordination. The results accomplished elsewhere, in Mas- 
sachusetts, in Wisconsin, and in New York, for example, have been notably success- 
ful and worthy of imitation. There is no reason why the normal schools, because they 
serve small towns and small schools, should serve them in a small manner. The ser- 
vice they render should be respected and acceptable in St. Louis, Kansas City, or any- 
where else. If a candidate can take but a two-year curriculum, he should be assured 
of obtaining the best as far as he goes. This is plainly impossible now. The very size 
of their avowed program confuses the schools. With insufficient demand, insufficient 
students, insufficient funds, and insufficient staff to conduct all departments well, they 
are bewildered as to what they shall do, lest to develop fully any particular field may 
be construed as relinquishing their claim to develop all others with equal success. To 
keep up an appearance of expansion, a school is tempted to injure its basic courses; 
one school during two recent years sacrificed funds that should have been used for 
sorely needed books, to build a greenhouse! All have experiment farms, but fine tho 
it is to have them, they serve little organic purpose in the school because the division 
of agricultural training among the five schools and the university will not justify or 
permit of the proper development of the facilities at any one point. Country life con- 
ferences in the fall and short courses (not in teaching) for farmers' boys in the winter 
have been inaugurated in connection with such equipment ; both produce a genial 
glow in the community, but have actually little to do with preparing the type of 
teachers that these schools send out. 

These three causes duplicated courses du-e to unregulated attendance, parallel 
courses needlessly multiplied out of deference to the elective idea, and specialized 



SELECTION AND DISTRIBUTION OF CURRICULA 

courses taken by a few students only but kept going for the sake of presenting an 
unbroken front to students and competitors are chiefly responsible for the weak- 
ness of the present administrative system as it concerns the curricula. They are the 
natural results of efforts on the part of vigorous and aggressive schools, without 
losing touch with their public, to embark on all forms of varied modern training 
for the teaching profession, and to do so independently because neither the tradition 
nor, until recently, the absolute need for cooperation has existed. The ambitions to 
this end are praiseworthy in the highest degree, but in their present form or in any 
conceivable form which present conditions would permit, the efforts to work them 
out must inevitably be disappointing or disastrous. 

EFFECT OF THE PRESENT POLICIES UPON THE BASIC WO&K OF THE INSTITUTIONS 

The effect of the present policy in lowering standards and wasting money has 
been made clear in the case of the advanced courses, but the policy is one that cuts both 
ways. Funds with which to expand the curricula at the top must often be taken 
from courses at the bottom, and to see that this has been done, one has only to note 
the size of classes at the large end of the scale. 1 It has been stated that for the usual 
discussion class in the normal school, thirty members is a maximum consistent with 
good teaching. During the regular winter session of 1915-16, twelve per cent (fifteen 
per cent at Springfield) of the classes in collegiate work exceeded this figure, but the 
proportion rose in summer to thirty-six per cent (forty-six per cent at Kirksville). 
These excesses are chiefly, of course, in the elementary classes of the first collegiate 
year where students fresh from high school are receiving their first professional train- 
ing. The following teachers' programs from three schools illustrate the conditions : 

SPBINGFIEUD CAPE GIRARDEAU KIRKSVTLLE 

cr,7,^-f Number of <?,>>*+ Number of o*>' * Number of 

Subject Students Subject students Subject Students 

Psychology 54 Psychology 70 Psychology 71 

Psychology 44 Psychology 54 Psychology 31 

Educational Psychology 33 Psychology 68 Educational Psychology 37 

Educational Psychology 32 Psychology 47 History of Education 77 

Educational Psychology 39 Child Study 46 History of Education 45 

Sociology 16 

Average Class 36 Average Class 57 Average Class 52 

To term the work done in these large groups "collegiate"" may not at first appear 
to be a misnomer, except in so far as overburdened teachers are concerned. 2 Some col- 
leges using the lecture, test, and examination method have equally large classes with- 
out seriously ill effect. This method is, however, expressly disclaimed at the normal 
schools; these are "recitation "classes in every case, as classes at this stage of prof es- 

1 See page 4S6. 

2 The instructor at Cape Girardeau did his work in fifteen hours per week ; but the other two taught, one twenty-five 
and one thirty hours. 



CURRICULA NEEDED IN MISSOURI 265 

sional training should clearly be. To expect any teacher to conduct on this plan and 
without assistance five classes daily, numbering as many students as these do, and that 
in a period of excessive heat, is to expect the impossible. The work attempted by 
these three men, if properly handled, would have required the full time of six in- 
structors, even allowing slightly over eighteen hours of work per week, as a conces- 
sion in view of the numerous repetitions involved. The obligation to furnish com- 
petent instruction to this extent should have been met, or else the applications 
should have been refused. Good administration means this. Instead of creating a staff 
suitable for the work actually in hand, however, the expansion of collegiate elec- 
tives as a first consideration has absorbed all of the money that could possibly be 
extracted. 

The same situation appears among the secondary classes with, if possible, still worse 
excuse. Students less mature than their collegiate colleagues, with weaker initiative 
and less adaptability to the difficulties of the large class, have actually done their work 
in the normal schools under conditions that a good high school would not tolerate, 
Sixty in a grammar class and forty-nine in rhetoric at Cape G-irardeau; fifty -six in 
American history, fifty -two in physiography at \Varrensburg; rural school methods 
for eighty at Kirksville from a teacher with five daily classes averaging fifty-six each; 
seventy-two in rural teaching at Mary vi lie, one of the teacher's four daily classes ; 
these are monstrosities of which no good institution should be guilty. Between their 
small classes in the regular session and their large classes in the summer session the 
schools waver between illogical and hurtful extremes that argue a desire to exploit 
their respective opportunities rather than to hold consistently to good educational 
principles. 

2. Number and Kind of Curricula needed in Missouri 

The selection and management of professional curricula cannot proceed intelli- 
gently without a fairly exact knowledge of the dimensions of the problem to be 
solved. With proper organization, accurate reports from every teaching position in 
the state can easily be secured by a state department and worked up year by year 
into a clear picture of what the agencies for the preparation of teachers have before 
them. This is more difficult for an outside agency asking for unwonted reports that 
represent at best only a cross section of the state at a single moment. The returns 
filed with the Foundation are so extensive, however, that they admit of an approx- 
imation to the actual conditions sufficiently close to serve at least the purposes of 
illustration. They are briefly summarized here not for their absolute value, but to 
indicate in outline the information which, in much more complete form, should be 
constantly before the central authority having the preparation of the state's teach- 
ers in charge. 



66 SELECTION AND DISTRIBUTION OF CURRICULA 

TEACHERS IN RURAL SCHOOLS 

So far as can be discovered, there were In 1914-15 in Missouri ten thousand five 
hundred fifteen 1 teaching positions in one-room schools or in rooms containing more 
than three grades of children. Of different white teachers holding these positions in 
the spring or fall of 1915, replies were secured from eight thousand two hundred sev- 
enty-seven, and on their replies the following statements are based. 2 

Thirty-six per cent of the teachers were in positions held by them the previous year; 
forty per cent were teachers with experience in at least one other school, who were 
new to their positions that year; and twenty-four per cent were wholly inexperienced, 
Hence, if this group is typical, about twenty-four hundred new teachers are needed 
annually in Missouri to supply the rural schools alone. 

The present deficiency in training is best seen in a brief analysis of this inexpe- 
rienced group. It is represented by eleven hundred fifty-two teachers, or twenty- 
four per cent of those replying on the institute blank. 3 Leaving out those who failed 
to state their training, 4 only seventeen per cent report any work of a collegiate charac- 
ter in addition to a secondary course usually a year or less in some normal school; 
all the rest are a secondary product exclusively. Nearly three-fifths come from high 
schools where twenty-four per cent received less than four years of instruction. 5 
Thirteen per cent received a part, and nine per cent all, of what secondary training 
they may have had, in normal schools. Four per cent had no training above the ele- 
mentary school. 

Another distribution of essentially the same facts appears in the array of certifi- 
cates under which this annual army of recruits goes forth. The dependence placed by 
the state on its third grade county certificate, recently made available for eight years 
instead of four, 6 is shown in the fact that nearly half forty-seven per cent of 
the new rural teachers have nothing else. Twenty per cent hold the second grade 
county certificate, while but two per cent hold the first grade county or any form of 
state certificate. Eighteen per cent hold the high school training-class license, and 
from normal schools seven per cent hold the rural certificate and five per cent the 
thirty-hour certificate; one per cent hold a diploma. 

With liberal allowance for schooling from all sources, it is clear that a large ma- 
jority of this great number who undertake for the first time to teach schools in the 
rural communities of Missouri are unfit to be entrusted with such a task even ac- 
cording to present low standards of qualification. 



1 This number includes about five per cent estimated to be positions for teachers of more than three grades in graded 
schools, inasmuch as five per cent of the 8277 replies were of this character. Of "country" schools, as understood 
by the state department, there seem to have been 9990. 

2 See note 3, page 361. The statements in this section follow the second group of returns. 

3 See note 3, page 361. 
* Two per cent. 

5 About one-third of these attended only one year or less. 
c See page 305, note. 



CURRICULA NEEDED IN MISSOURI 267 

TEACHERS IN GRADED ELEMENTARY SCHOOLS 

Elementary teachers in graded schools have been considered in three groups : those 
in St. Louis, those in Kansas City, and those in the state at large. The total n am- 
bers of white elementary teachers in these groups are 1789 ? 779, and 3650, x respec- 
tively. The corresponding proportion of response to enquiries was eighty-seven -per 
cent, ninety-five per cent, and sixty-four per cent. 

The number of teachers reporting themselves as new to their work in St. Louis and 
Kansas City is, for no apparent reason, extraordinarily small, two and three per 
cent. This proportion does not conform to the facts, and may be due to the incli- 
nation of freshly appointed teachers to regard their earlier apprenticeship in these 
systems as equivalent to experience. In the remainder of the state the proportion of 
change is nearly one-third, as compared with almost two-thirds in the rural group, 
altho but twelve per cent are fresh accessions and still fewer, nine per cent, are wholly 
inexperienced. If these proportions are typical, the average teaching life of a teacher 
in the graded schools of Missouri is about eleven years, and the state at large, outside 
of St. Louis and Kansas City, requires for annual replacement about three hundred 
thirty freshly prepared teachers. It is possible that voluntary replies, such as these 
were, represent most largely the experienced teachers. The uncertainty of interpre- 
tation at such an important point as this shows the necessity of requiring a complete 
inventory of teaching personnel if the problem of supply is to be handled intelli- 
gently. 

While it is now the exception for St. Louis and Kansas City to employ new teachers 
without two or more years of collegiate preparation, the remainder of the state is 
satisfied that half of its new teachers should come directly from secondary study, that 
one-sixth of them should have taken but a partial high school course, and that only 
one-fourth of them should have as much as two years of professional training. The 
great majority of new workers pass first into the intermediate grades and are then 
presumably " promoted" in either direction. Fifty- six per cent of those outside of 
the two large cities are obliged to teach more than one grade. 

TEACHERS IN HIGH SCHOOLS 

Among the classified high school teachers of the state, 2 ninety-two per cent in all 
and a still larger proportion of teachers in first class schools responded to the en- 
quiries made of them ; at St. Louis ninety-six per cent, and at Kansas City ninety- 
eight per cent replied. This group of instructors is therefore well represented. 

The proportion of change in the group is astonishing. Omitting the two largest 
cities, nearly half forty- six out of every hundred teachers in classified high schools 
were new to their positions in 1915. Twenty-one of these forty-six were experienced 
teachers from other schools, in most cases within the state; twenty-five, however, were 

1 In the state at large principals are included among the teachers, as they chiefly are such. 

2 Including principals. 



268 SELECTION AND DISTRIBUTION OF CURRICULA 

new : ten of them resuming teaching after an interruption, perhaps for study, and 
fifteen being wholly untried. The two great cities admit but a negligible proportion of 
inexperienced teachers into their high schools: St. Louis, one per cent; Kansas City, 
three per cent. Consequently in so far as teachers for these systems are drawn from 
within the state, they must get their experience in the smaller centres. If fifteen per 
cent of the total number of positions is the total number of new teachers required, 
these would number in 1914-15 about one hundred seventy-five. 

The present preparation of this inexperienced group, as shown in the records of 
one hundred fifty -nine teachers reporting from classified high schools, is all but three 
per cent in advance of secondary work. Nine-tenths have had more than one year of 
collegiate work; two-thirds of them have had over two years; and fifty-five per cent 
have had four years or more. Slightly over one-third ever attended a normal school. 

As to subjects taught on first appointment, one-fourth of the number were at work 
in a single field; with five exceptions these were in first class schools. Forty-six per 
cent taught a combination of two subjects, and the remainder taught three or, in 
three cases, four subjects. For men, science stands first in frequency, followed by math- 
ematics, commercial subjects, manual training, and drawing; for women, English is 
far in advance, with household arts, commercial subjects, mathematics, history, sci- 
ence, and Latin following in the order named. No other subject was taught exclu- 
sively by more than one of these new teachers. Leading combinations of two or more 
subjects are combinations of the above, with the addition of agriculture and history 
for men and German for women. 

HOW SHALL THIS NEED BE MET? 

To sum up the situation thus briefly reviewed and to suggest adjustments of the 
existing facilities to meet it is an undertaking that can be attempted only in broadest 
outline in view of the meagre information at hand; it is properly a matter for close 
and continuous study based upon the accumulation of accurate figures covering sev- 
eral years. These do not exist in Missouri at present, hence the element of annual 
increase or decrease in the number of new teachers required has necessarily been dis- 
regarded, altho it is the essential variable to be reckoned with in the administration 
of a permanent policy. With appropriate data it can be forecast very accurately. 

The crying need of the state is plainly among its rural schools. Twenty-four 
hundred new teachers are required annually. In 191516, one hundred three training 
classes in high schools graduated seven hundred seventy-four teachers, of whom per- 
haps two-thirds, or five hundred eleven, went into rural schools. 1 Judging from the 
group of teachers new in 1915, the normal schools may be depended on to reach 
twenty-two per cent, or five hundred twenty-eight, with some sort of secondary train- 
ing, while the normal schools and colleges give some collegiate work to over four 

1 The State Report for the preceding: year, 1915, page 91, gives 65 per cent as the proportion of the graduates in 1915 
who taught in rural schools; no quotation appears in the Report for 1916. 



CURRICULA NEEDED IN MISSOURI 269 

hundred more, tho little of all this training is at present suited to the needs of the 
rural teacher. These three groups together make a total of fourteen hundred thirty- 
nine teachers in contact with some professional training centre. Nine hundred sixty- 
one are left for whom provision must be made. To treble the number BOW graduated 
from the training classes would supply these. Certainly an average of fifteen usable 
teachers from each of one hundred training classes is no very difficult achievement 
if undertaken seriously. 

The general direction that provision for these teachers must take seems plain. 
The personal interests of those who desire to maintain a cheap and handy employ- 
ment for their daughters at the expense of the welfare of the whole population, 
should give way. The rural districts can have what they wish, but are damaging 
their own future by their short-sighted refusal to legislate wisely on the matter of 
certificates. The state superintendent should be given power to abolish the third 
grade certificate except in counties where in his judgment the training facilities are 
inadequate for a better grade of teacher. The membership in training classes should 
be increased from an average of eight to an average of from fifteen to twenty by in- 
creasing salaries and by the refusal of a rural school license to any new teacher not 
possessed of a training-class certificate, or its equivalent from a normal school. Train- 
ing-class certificates should, of course, be limited strictly to rural schools, thereby 
making the whole class annually available for this service. 

To increase the size of training classes is but a temporary expedient, however. Mis- 
souri should at once foresee the time when aH rural teachers shall be prepared at com- 
petent institutions and be ensured as good a preparation as that given a teacher in 
a city school. The normal schools will eventually be obliged to take over this work, 
and they can do it if they have the support of suitable legislation. Secondary stu- 
dents should presently be turned back to the high school, thus sacrificing the twenty- 
two per cent who have been teaching on the strength of this wholly Insufficient prepa- 
ration. To make up for these, students who complete but one collegiate year should 
be licensed to teach in rural schools only, and the courses required for all such licenses 
should be concentrated on the problems of rural school teaching. The training should 
be distinctly better than that which is possible in a high school training class, and 
graduates should be granted better certificates and should command larger salaries. 
The schools should do their utmost to make these one-year curricula attractive. 
Courses not leading to rural school work should be found only in longer curricula, 
and students taking these should receive a certificate to teach only on their com- 
pletion. 

The median salary of all rural teachers who have attended a normal school is fifty 
dollars per month, as compared with forty-five dollars in the group as a whole; twenty- 
seven per cent receive over fifty dollars. To secure an adequate number of teachers at 
the new standard and under present conditions, a rising minimum salary established 
by law must keep pace with the increasing requirements. To suggest what these 



270 SELECTION AND DISTRIBUTION OF CURRICULA 

minima should be is not easy, and involves a hazardous compromise with a much 
exaggerated "practical situation." It may be said, however, that Missouri would meet, 
fairly and none too quickly, the most important obligation of any sort now facing 
her, if within three years every teacher in a rural school were receiving at least one 
thousand dollars, and within five years at least fifteen hundred dollars a year. For a 
wealthy state like Missouri this increase is insignificant when compared with the vital 
importance of what it will purchase. 

The new teachers needed annually in graded elementary schools outside of St. 
Louis and Kansas City numbered three hundred thirty, according to the estimate 
derived above. This would require sixty-six two-year graduates annually from each 
of the five normal schools a number certainly well within the facilities of these 
schools to provide, assuming that the economic and legislative situation were such as 
to supply them with students. There must be sufficient salary inducement to attract 
students and a regulation that will hold them to their curricula. As suggested else- 
where, centres of more than five thousand inhabitants should not be permitted to 
employ new teachers having less than two years of professional preparation, and as 
soon as possible the same rule should be made universal. With a regulated qualifi- 
cation the salaries would necessarily rise with the demand, and the supply would soon 
follow. 

The group beginning work in classified high schools was found to number about 
one hundred seventy-five. Of these the university, either alone or with the help of 
other colleges, prepared thirty-six per cent, and could easily prepare many more 
were the positions in Missouri high schools sufficiently attractive financially to allow 
it. Fourteen per cent came from other academic institutions within the state 9 and a 
somewhat larger number came from without. A second thirty-five per cent had at- 
tended the state normal schools; often in addition to other institutions. Divided 
among five schools, this latter number gives twelve to each, which again subdivided 
among the many different departments at each school reduces the present scheme 
to an absurdity. 1 As pointed out earlier in this section, the only rational treatment 
of this situation is to differentiate the work done by the various schools and build 
up good curricula for training high school teachers at single schools only instead of 
scattering the efforts among six. 

In dealing as above with the inexperienced group of elementary and secondary 
teachers, it should not be overlooked that these are but a part of the present prob- 
lem of the normal schools. The schools have continually and properly sought to tempt 
teachers in service to return and improve their preparation. Assuming that all of the 
experienced "reentrants" among the accessions of 1915 to the elementary group had 
been in normal schools, this would raise their responsibility from three hundred thirty 
to four hundred thirty-eight. Similarly, by adding the experienced reentrants, the 

1 Altho reports were received from more unclassified schools than were listed by the state department, only seven 
new teachers were discovered, five of them prepared by normal schools ; ten were experienced "reentrants," mak- 
ing a total accession group of seventeen. 



CURRICULA NEEDED IN MISSOURI 271 

total of the secondary group would rise from one hundred seventy-five to two hun- 
dred ninety-one, of which the normal school's proportion would be thirty-five per 
cent or one hundred two, about twenty to each school. These increases leave the sit- 
uation wholly unchanged. The normal schools may always be called upon, especially 
in vacation sessions, to provide advanced instruction for experienced students who 
have already completed their basic preparation. Such subsidiary activities, however, 
altho important, should not be permitted to interfere with the development of system- 
atic curricula for the sufficient initial training of students entering the profession. 
This is at present the fundamental duty of these institutions. 



VIII 
OPERATION OF THE NORMAL SCHOOLS 

THE following chapter is devoted, except for occasional references, exclusively to the 
state normal schools. It should not be inferred from this that the city training schools 
have no problems of administration that merit discussion. The fact is, however, that 
the training school of the type of Harris Teachers College at St. Louis either never 
encounters such problems as the independent state school has to meet, or else has 
already achieved a working solution of them. This is due to the very nature of its 
situation. Such a school has originated out of specific needs, precisely measured and 
understood; it operates in full view of the conditions that are constantly pressing, 
and relentlessly testing its success or failure; it is a constituent part of the organ- 
ization that it serves, hence its aims are concrete and direct, lost motion and waste- 
ful projects are eliminated, personal vagaries are corrected, and its apparatus is ad- 
justed to a relatively high tension of smooth and profitable performance. 

The state schools are not yet so fortunate. They were established in response to 
urgent but vaguely defined demands assuming promiscuous forms ; themselves located 
in small, often remote, communities, they are at a distance from most of the schools 
that they are expected to benefit, and have infrequent communication with the teach- 
ers they prepare or with their supervisors ; as they are independent and formally irre- 
sponsible, no one effectually criticises or calls them to account; the way is therefore 
open to what is frequently erratic and capricious development, heedless of the clear 
necessities of the field ; and ambiguous aims and a relaxed procedure are difficult to 
avoid. As is shown elsewhere, 1 weaknesses such as these are inevitable under present 
conditions, but can be readily overcome by better organization an organization 
whereby the public schools of the state and the institutions that provide them with 
teachers may be brought into successful and economical working relations not unlike 
those that prevail in a good city system, while preserving the many advantages of a 
freer and more wholesome environment. 

A. PRESIDENT AND STAFF 

The administration of each normal school is vested in an officer, called a president, 
who is elected by the board of regents of that school for a period usually of two 
years at the meeting following the biennial reorganization, when the two newly ap- 
pointed members of the board take their seats. This officer in turn nominates instruc- 
tors and assistants for election by the board for one year (two years at Cape Girar- 
deau). The teachers are loosely grouped into "departments;" such departments as 
are sufficiently large have some informally recognized head, but except in a few minor 
matters, each individual takes his official directions solely from the president. 

1 See Chapter IV. 



THE PRESIDENT 

1. The President 

In respect to his powers and duties the president appears to represent the tradi- 
tions of the earlier secondary academy or small private college rather than the mod- 
ern higher institution of size corresponding to the normal school. Except at War- 
rensburg, and very recently at Kirksville, his domination is absolute. In the matter 
of appointment, promotion, and dismissal of instructors he is subject to the will of 
his board; but in regulating the minutest internal affairs he is supreme. From the 
prices at which a student's used textbooks shall be redeemed to the courses of study 
and general educational policy of the school, he is sole arbiter. He consults his faculty 
on many matters, but is never bound by their action, if indeed any action results from 
their deliberation. He establishes the value of credentials and allowances of advanced 
standing, determines and referees resident credit, makes and revises students" 1 pro- 
grams ; he looks after the advertising and financial interests of the institution, deals 
with the board of regents, and labors with the legislature. In short, the normal school 
president is the school; remove him and the school has no policy; convert him and at 
once all that is publicly vocal in the institution changes front. He speaks invariably 
with an impressive collective "we,"" but he signifies almost exclusively himself. 

MODERN CONCEPTION OF A PRESIDENT'S DUTIES 

It is true, of course, that most collegiate institutions in America are the outgrowth 
of a somewhat similar theory regarding the function and responsibility of the pres- 
ident. By progressive, if tacit, delegations of power, however, and by a more and more 
complete enlistment of faculty cooperation, the first class college long since passed 
the level on which it is apparently still possible for a normal school to operate. Not 
to speak of the trivial items easily handed over to a responsible janitor or assistant, 
all routine contact with the individual student, such as registration and classification, 
the checking of credentials, the qualification of students for graduation, and so forth, 
has found its way into the hands of registrars, faculty officers, or committees who thru 
continued experience quickly become expert in a single aspect of administration. 

Two fundamental considerations justify this arrangement. As educational institu- 
tions have become larger and more complex, the mass of intersecting relations has 
made it imperative that the guiding mind be set free for close, detached study of the 
principles that govern all this and other institutional procedure; that time be pro- 
vided for abundant outside observation, comparison, and reflection ; and that he be 
so lifted above detail as to serve steadily, without waste or hurry, his main function 
to be the inspiring power and illuminating interpreter behind the whole organ- 
ization. Another reason has been no less potent. A skilful and sincere administrator 
operates thru principles, and removes himself as far as possible from personal inter- 
ference with the concrete case. He constantly seeks to refine and correct the principles 
in the interests of justice and the purpose involved, but he devises the system that 
requires him to turn his own son over to a faculty committee for impartial treatment 



274 OPERATION OF THE NORMAL SCHOOLS 

rather than risk the chance or charge of favoritism in personal relations with students. 
He stands for something that may not be thus endangered, and the fact that petty 
difficulties of students may be authoritatively threshed out with subordinates who 
have usually greater technical skill and far less occasion for partisanship adds greatly 
to Ms own influence in larger matters. 

The curriculum with its related problems is another field that is no longer the 
closed preserve of the modern college president. While the several departments are 
allowed great latitude as to the character of the courses that they offer, the curricu- 
lum as a whole, the relation of its parts, the allowable combinations of subjects and se- 
quence, are matters that are determined after prolonged and thorough faculty discus- 
sion, usually after the prior efforts of a select committee; and the action of the faculty 
in the matter is final. Naturally, the influence of the president in all this is impor- 
tant, and should be so, for the study of such problems is his special business; but a 
good faculty contains judgment equal or superior to his on almost any single point, 
and it is considered the height of administrative unwisdom to risk arbitrary action 
in matters that should come thru cooperative conclusion, even tho they come thus 
more slowly. 

FUNCTION OF THE PRESIDENT IN THE MISSOURI NORMAL SCHOOLS 

The Missouri normal schools, with certain exceptions, 1 are an interesting study in 
the respects just noted. Administrative perspective is largely lacking; all powers, great 
and small, radiate directly from the presidents. In one, the president runs the book- 
store, revises the registration of every student, and superintends directly the outlay 
of each penny; in another, the president registers every student in so far as this is 
physically possible. In the summer enrolment he is obliged to ask assistance. He has 
recently arranged for aid in checking up each student's record for graduation, but 
passes finally on each himself, often reversing or modifying the conclusions of his 
assistant. Tho the state has installed an adequate accounting system in each school, 
and provided a man to run it, this president keeps a detailed account of his own as 
before. The institution registers over two thousand students each year and has an 
annual budget of $80,000. At a third school the credit records of all graduates for 
the decade or more that the enquirers studied were laboriously worked out in the 
handwriting of the head of the institution. Administration of this type can have but 
one result : the guiding officials impress one as constantly immersed in endless affairs 
of surprising littleness; the schools seem truncated, lacking clear, fresh, and compre- 
hensive thinking at the top. 

The curriculum is originated and developed in the same way except at Warrens- 

1 At Warrensburg, the whole matter of registration, credentials, and graduation has for many years been in charge 
of committees and a competent dean clothed with the necessary authority. At Kirksville, just as this study was 
begun in 1914, the administration of credentials and graduation credit was assumed, on request of the students, 
by a committee elected by the faculty. At Cape Girardeau, the head of the school, tho less burdened with the cler- 
ical task than elsewhere, retains all the authority. 



THE PRESIDENT ' 75 

burg. Most matters of importance are doubtless discussed in the teachers' meetings, 
but the proposals of the president prevail or are withheld. At Mary ville and Spring- 
field these meetings leave no trace, not even minutes, the proceedings being of the 
high school type "inspiration" or instructions. Since 1914 the Kirksville staff has 
preserved minutes, as is done also at Cape Girardeau, but the teachers have no im- 
portant power in either school. At Warrensburg, on the contrary, faculty participa- 
tion in the determination of the curriculum and credits has existed for more than 
a decade, and with rare exceptions faculty decisions have been final. A careful record 
is a matter of course. 

EFFECTS OF THE PRESIDENT'S PREROGATIVE ON THE SCHOOL 

The consequences of the situation just described are important. The headship of 
a normal school is an almost unlimited personal challenge. Each incumbent desires to 
succeed. Under present conditions the measure of success is chiefly the size and promi- 
nence of the institution ; there exists no audit or accounting of the factors governing 
its inner worth, no check whatsoever on the part of an outside agency in the interest 
of the state. In the struggle for success, therefore, where every tool is available, it lies 
solely with a leader's vision and conscience whether he will promote his institution 
on principles rigorously justifiable educationally, or whether he will manipulate each 
lever to serve immediate ends ; whether he will have the insight to achieve solid growth, 
or will seek merely to "swell 1 "' 

The temptation is unfair and well-nigh irresistible. Here, for example, is a new in- 
stitution set to make its way in a well-disposed community; it needs friends, active 
influences to bring in students. What could be more to the point than to gather in 
promising teachers of the region, give them a few courses, and send them out glowing 
with unearned and unexpected degrees to boom the school? Their only credential is 
that the president thought they "deserved" it. Such a proposal, if put before a self- 
respecting faculty, would undoubtedly be rejected. One reads with comparative ap- 
preciation the first report of the first president at another school; "None of these 
[students] were sufficiently advanced to enter a graduating class, but a few of them 
are now successfully teaching, while the most of them are still pursuing their studies." 1 
Unwarranted use of the presidential prerogative has run like a yellow strand thru the 
otherwise largely admirable service of some of these men. Appears an attractive ap- 
plicant a person mentally or physically plausible who will advertise the school 
and mere "requirements'" are suddenly dissolved in order to fit his situation, credit is 
meted out to serve his need, and one more indebted influence is attached to the adminis- 
tration; while some docile girl may weep long on her successive returns after intervals 
of teaching, at the steadily harder bargain that is driven with her in the interests of 
"higher standards."" The apparently well-substantiated charge of calculated favor- 
itism pursued some of these gentlemen even from their otherwise loyal supporters. 

1 State Report, 1874, page 60. 



76 OPERATION OF THE NORMAL SCHOOLS 

So likewise with the curriculum. An ambitious president has it in his power to in- 
flate his two-year program to a four-year curriculum solely on paper, and to publish 
it widely in his bulletins. To substantiate the offering, he accepts credits from local 
college graduates who, for the sake of some professional courses of sophomore grade, 
will consent to be decorated with an additional A.B. degree. These brilliant examples 
infect other local products until by dint of much persuasion, " teaching scholarships,"" 
summer faculty appointments, and other devices, a "four-year class" is achieved. 
Whatever the merits of a four-year curriculum in the given school may eventually 
prove to be, nothing could be clearer than that such a group of students is marshaled 
at the outset not for their own good, for they would be far better off elsewhere, 
but solely to create prestige. 

PERSONAL PREROGATIVE SHOULD BE LIMITED 

It is sufficiently obvious that the growth of an important educational institution, 
on which a state is relying for a just recognition and satisfaction of its needs for ade- 
quately prepared teachers, should not depend upon the action of one man, whose mo- 
tive may range from a prophetic insight to sheer self-seeking caprice. If the school 
must be wholly autonomous, and if it is to have a faculty worthy of being an instru- 
ment of higher education at all, then let the older and more experienced members of 
the faculty be made jointly responsible with the president for the gradual and sane 
educational development of the whole. Let at least the internal affairs of the school 
be conducted on the basis of complete publicity by disinterested subordinate assist- 
ants and in accordance with principles thoroughly discussed, understood, and ap- 
proved by all. 

But in a state where six institutions share the aforesaid trust, each doing similar 
work, often for the same territory, the principle of institutional autonomy is wrong. 
In the heads of these six institutions the state possesses a group of informed and 
experienced men whose joint action, taken after long and thorough consideration of 
all phases of a problem, would undoubtedly be much superior to the isolated judg- 
ment of any one of them. To such a group the state could assign the education of 
its teachers with more assurance certainly than it may now properly feel. The faculties 
should not be ignored in this. Deliberations in the several schools, either by way of 
initiative or on reference from a central board of presidents, would furnish a guar- 
antee that necessary reforms would not long fail of proposal, and that all proposals 
would receive mature study. 

3. The Staff 

The personnel of the normal school staff has already been described; 1 it remains to 

set forth the relations of its members to the working organization of the institutions. 

From what has just been said regarding the powers of the president it will be 

1 See page 99. 



THE STAFF 77 

clear that the term "staff" is used advisedly; the instructors in the Missouri normal 
schools, as at present conducted, do not properly constitute a "faculty." Their rela- 
tions to the administration are the same as in the average high school or in private, 
proprietary institutions. They are hired for a specific, limited purpose, and tho they 
are expected to cooperate in a general way for the good of the institution, and do 
so, they are under the immediate and complete direction of the head of the insti- 
tution. Appointment is not in any sense an admission into a select and homogeneous 
group of scholars jointly responsible for a high educational enterprise. The terms 
"professor," "associate professor," and so forth, do indeed appear in certain of the 
catalogues, implying a genuine ranking of the teachers, but they are meaningless ex- 
cept as arbitrary distinctions indicating a possible difference in salary, and are attached 
in imitation of the collegiate practice. One president made a great point of the "de- 
mocracy " of his " faculty" meetings in that all instructors were admitted on an equal 
footing an equality rather without significance inasmuch as, apart from certain 
details recently wrung from an unwilling administration, the "faculty " had no power. 
It should not be inferred that such a group is passive: on the contrary, the amount 
of group and committee action is large, but it is always under the personal direction 
of the president and concerns merely the course of minor school affairs. 1 

LARGE DEPARTMENTAL INITIATIVE 

In the conduct of his own department, on the other hand, the individual instructor 
has been allowed large freedom of initiative. The duties of examining candidates for 
admission and of validating claims for advanced standing were regularly referred to the 
departments involved, until certification was introduced. As these claims were constant 
with the short-term student body, each teacher assumed a two-fold responsibility: one 
for the instruction that he gave, and another for the character of the students that he 
admitted to his classes. Controlling thus the granting of credit in his own field, and 
lacking serious supervision from above, he achieved a considerable autonomy of action. 
As long as the course of study remained fixed, and students came to the teacher in 
normal distribution among the departments, this worked well. Each teacher reflected 
fairly, with but little variation in standards, the general level of the school as a whole. 

EFFECTS OF THE ELECTIVE SYSTEM ON THE TEACHES, 

The development of the elective system changed this. As worked out in Missouri 
this scheme of curriculum organization makes the student the measure of the teacher 
in a sense difficult to justify. Instead of a group of students working systematically 
thru an orderly plan of training to a definite goal with minds on the content of their 
subjects, the instructor faces a class composed of individuals who have selected him 
out of several possible choices that would advance them equally toward their diploma, 

1 As has been previously noted, the teaching body at Warrensburg appears to have larger powers in some respects 
than is the case in the other institutions. 



78 OPERATION OF THE NORMAL SCHOOLS 

He knows that In many cases it is solely his reputation with previous classes that has 
brought them there; he knows that unless that reputation is maintained, that unless 
his course can be given a savor of modernity surpassing those of his competitors 9 or 
unless some other tangible inducement can be offered, his numbers will ebb away to 
the bare list of those whom circumstances compel to elect his work. The immediate 
pressure of this fate is felt thru its effect on the purse. Not that one's salary will be 
reduced or his resignation requested, unless the condition continues. But just as an 
increase in total enrolment is expected to weigh heavily with the legislators in increas- 
ing the biennial appropriations, so it is claimed that the size of individual depart- 
ments operates directly with the boards of regents in halting or advancing the in- 
dividual salaries in the schools. Not only one^s salary but one's assistants, equipment, 
class accommodations, and indirectly one's prestige depend on the same factor. This 
general charge was repeated so often in practically all of the schools, and with such 
forceful detail, that a visitor could not but be impressed. The lay members of the 
boards have naturally little else to go by once they discard a president's judgment as 
sole criterion, and under certain conditions even a president may be partial to a teacher 
who can attract and hold large numbers. 

In such a situation each teacher is faced, as is the president in his larger problem, 
by a struggle with his conscience as to what is educationally sincere and honest. Many 
teachers have undoubtedly kept their professional standards high. 1 But in case one is 
not particular, the first move is to get as much of one's work as possible "required," or 
if the work is of a nature to make that impossible, it is important to see that as little 
of other teachers' work as possible is so protected. If faculty discussion and votes will 
bring this about, a formidable contest may occur periodically, each member lining 
up in as mechanical a fashion as in any political machine, while the interests of the 
student in the point at issue disappear completely. 2 If courses cannot be got on the 
"required" list, strategy must be used to make them appeal directly. The first step 
to this end is to admit every one without prerequisite. In the announcements for 1914 
15, when this study was begun, genuine prerequisites for any but mathematical and 
language courses scarcely existed. A member of what is perhaps the strongest depart- 
ment of history in all the schools was asked : " Does your department offer any course 
in the four-year college curriculum to which you would not admit a 'good husky 
lad 9 who is mature and well along in his secondary work?" He replied with a decided 

1 One head of an important department, one of the best trained and most skilful teachers in the state, was found to 
be leaving because her work had no outlook. She had insisted rigorously on the sequence of elementary and advanced 
courses with students who came to her, whereas other departments admitted them haphazard; her advanced classes 
were therefore always comparatively small and her position seemed permanently restricted as to recognition and 
salary. 

2 This situation was attested by experiences of members. of the enquiry staff at faculty meetings in two schools. In 
one it was a question of the " outs " reducing the work required in the departments of the " ins " English and Edu- 
cationon the ground that the elective departments thus had too little "show.*' There was considerable feeling 1 , 
and the votes of the two sides were delivered in a wholly cut-and-dried manner. In the other case the aged and re- 
spected head of the Latin department arose, and with tears declared that other teachers had been discouraging: elec- 
tion in his department, that it was neither fair nor honorable. Certain disclaimers followed. In neither case was there 
the remotest reference to the real issue the actual or probable needs of the student. 



THE STAFF 279 

negative. Not only are courses themselves thus leveled, but parts of courses, which 
according to any, theory of good teaching should be taken in sequence, are thrown 
open to free election whenever it may suit the convenience of the student. Thus 
second or third term English, history, physics, chemistry, geography, and agriculture 
may find half of the class consisting not merely of students who have had the pre- 
ceding work in an earlier year, but of complete novices ; or a first term class may 
contain several who have already had the second or third term. Another device is 
to keep repeating term after term courses that should properly be given but once 
during the year; this makes the offering of a department seem large, even tho classes 
are small, and gathers in a few extra students, who otherwise might not attend. 

It will be readily understood that under such conditions an instructor is not likely 
to be too discriminating in his treatment of students. Reinforcing his desire for a large 
department is the very laudable wish to help belated boys and girls who have had few 
advantages, or to assist others who " must get thru " because of lack of funds or in order 
to take a certain desirable position. These considerations are, of course, the only ones 
that ever become public. Hence arises the temptation to allow credit for merely nomi- 
nal work : a student claims to have done this or that under the direction of the rural 
school teacher in his vicinity, and without real examination is allowed credit, particu- 
larly after reading an extra book or two, or writing a "paper;" written work done for 
another course or in another school, and already credited there, may occasionally be 
allowed to count; when but one or two register in a class, whole courses may be credited 
on the basis of work done chiefly in private and with every possibility of excessive 
credit. Where each item of credit is important in making up the main account, it is not 
surprising that a student goes where he can get it most easily, and the teacher who is 
most liberal becomes perforce the popular choice. The declaration : "It is easy enough 
to save time here ifyou know how to pick your work "became a familiar confidence from 
students prone to think of the course of study as more or less of a bargain counter. 

There is no way of telling precisely how widespread such practices are. They cer- 
tainly exist to an extent sufficient to provoke the deploring criticism of such teachers 
as are accustomed to better standards, and it is evident that the present elective sys- 
tem, together with administrative laxity in matters of credentials and examinations, 
gives them every opportunity and encouragement. Furthermore this competitive at- 
titude leads naturally to jealousy of any agency set up to deal quickly and efficiently 
with student needs. Where a registration committee exists, its members are suspected 
by their colleagues of guiding students so far as possible into their own elective 
courses; where the president controls the registration, the possibility of such jealousy 
arising is a strong deterrent from effecting a rational distribution of duties. At Kirks- 
ville the system of student advisers was opposed by some teachers lest their depart- 
ments suffer. As a compromise it was provided that the new student choose Ms own 
adviser out of a wholly strange staff, and that relations begin after registration; that 
is, after the student's chief need was over! 



280 OPERATION OF THE NORMAL SCHOOLS 

PBESENT TENURE OP POSITION UNJUST 

As has been said, the normal school instructor is appointed by the board of regents 
for one or two years on the nomination of the president. This term of tenure, as well 
as that of the presidents, is stipulated in the law, and is probably due to the fact 
that the board itself is reorganized with each biennial renewal of two of its mem- 
berships. As a principle of institutional management it is fundamentally bad, its only 
alleged justification being that it is the easiest method of completely cleaning the 
slate for a fresh start. Inasmuch as there are no conceivable circumstances when such 
a process is necessary or wise, the effect of the arrangement is to turn the service of 
excellent public officers into a series of staccato spurts punctuated with threats, "Good 
behavior " is, of course, the actual term of office in most cases, and it should be so ex- 
pressed. To inform an undesirable instructor that he will no longer be needed, and to 
show him why, requires only more intelligent courage than to refuse him a renomi- 
nation. The trouble incurred in a few cases is a small price to pay for the establish- 
ment of the successful teachers in a position of security that cannot fail to result 
in substantially better work. Few teachers whose positions are subject to annual 
revision will plan the growth of their departments with enthusiasm for a large and dis- 
tant purpose. The public that wipes out the list each year and reappoints as a favor 
instead of as a right must rather expect that teachers, as well as presidents, will, if 
possible, do the immediately spectacular thing to catch the eye and ensure the next 
election. Growth thus becomes a matter of short, feverish, and often conflicting efforts 
for recognition instead of a wholesome, harmonious development of the school. 

Missouri normal school teachers are elected in May. This is the practice in many 
educational institutions, but more from force of habit than because of any special 
advantage. President Baldwin of Kirksville pointed out as early as 1875 1 that such 
elections should occur in December, when the necessary data, at least in so far as old 
teachers are concerned, are as available as they are at the very end of the school year. 
There is every reason to adopt this suggestion. If teachers must be elected annually, 
they should be definitely assured of their positions at the earliest possible moment. It 
is a wholly unnecessary injustice to hold academic folk who are dependent upon sea- 
sonal appointment, in suspense until their chances for employment elsewhere are gone 
or greatly reduced. To ensure a good choice, new teachers must be engaged whenever 
they can be secured; granted a competent president, the only rational policy is that 
of colleges of good grade, namely, to make the president's selection equivalent to an 
appointment. 

A further reason for appointments early in the year applies especially to conditions 
as they now exist. Elections of the major portion of the staff, if occurring in January 
or February, would be confirmed by relatively experienced boards in all cases. Under 
the present arrangement, whenever board appointments are made for a purpose, that 

1 State Report, 1875, page 46. 



THE STAFF 281 

is, to oust a president or certain objectionable teachers, the newly reorganized board 9 
meeting first in March or April, with usually two, and possibly three or four, new 
members, feels compelled to take hold and overturn things at once. Were they obliged 
to wait until the following school year, the intervening contact with the school and 
its personnel, as well as with public opinion, would certainly result in added discre- 
tion for meeting the supposed crisis, and abrupt upheavals, which have been the bane 
of some state-controlled institutions, would be less likely to occur. 1 

LEAVES OF ABSENCE FOIL STUDY OK EXPERIENCE 

Leaves of absence for study may be taken by teachers practically at any time de- 
sired, if the necessary arrangements can be made for handling the absentee's courses. 
The boards are uniformly generous in holding open his position, but he is under no 
obligation to return unless he wishes. At Springfield the further step has been taken 
of supporting for three months, in return for each three years of service, a teacher 
who is absent for study. The apparent excellence of this plan is marred, however, 
by the fact that such a teacher's absence is usually at the expense of his colleagues, 
who are asked to assume his courses, no substitute being secured. One naturally 
objects to profiting on these terms, which are a palpable injustice to all concerned. 
That every teacher should make adequate provision for regular periods of uninter- 
rupted study, or of travel and observation, as the case may require, will some time 
be as definitely demanded as is now a considerable initial training. It is a matter of 
ensuring sufficient high reservoirs of power to make the daily flow spontaneous and 
forceful. It is not likely, however, that under present conditions, provision for this 
can be expected solely from the teacher. The same arguments that are urged in favor 
of contributions for retiring allowances apply here with double force, for the present 
vitality of the school is directly involved. It would not be unreasonable to expect each 
teacher to put aside annually a given amount of his salary for use in a periodically 
recurring year of study, the school contributing the major share of the expense and 
releasing him at as frequent periods as the nature of the arrangement would justify. 

Another similar obligation of the school toward its teachers is to secure an inti- 
mate, oft-renewed familiarity with the conditions of teaching, particularly in the dis- 
trict or region served by the institution. This need is two-fold. To be successful guides, 
teachers must have fresh conceptions of the conditions in which their students are 
to work. These can be obtained by frequent visits among the schools, and by talks 
with returned graduates. In each of two successive years Maryville has conducted a 
complete canvass of its district, sending its teachers from school to school to study 
the situation of each teacher and to ascertain peculiar needs and problems. This in 
some form should be a constant feature of every normal schoofs annual program. But 

1 The removal of the president at Warrensburg- in 1915 is a case in point (see page 47). The new board fell on its prey 
at its first meeting, when the new members had had no opportunity whatever to become familiar with the real sit- 
uation for themselves. It is at least doubtful whether affairs would have taken the same course after nine months 1 
acquaintance. 



282 OPERATION OF THE NORMAL SCHOOLS 

the greater need is different. Most normal school teachers have had some experience in 
teaching elementary or high school classes before doing normal school work. As the lat- 
ter duties fill the horizon this experience fades rapidly into a dim background; subjects 
and methods of approach change, and a teacher ten years out of elementary teaching 
may easily be a complete stranger in a rural or graded school. The problems have be- 
come theoretical and academic, and have lost their grim and vital aspects. To prepare 
successful teachers, a normal school should not permit this. Each instructor should be 
able to convince the student that he can feel the problem vividly, and that he under- 
stands how to teach children now. Much valuable experience for this purpose could be 
acquired in the local practice school, but this is rarely done except by professional 
supervisors. At best it is a hothouse reproduction of the real school; usually better, 
certainly not the same. A supplementary plan, which every normal school could adopt 
to a greater or less extent, would give each teacher a frequent turn of a week or more 
in a neighboring school giving some instruction himself, studying the other teachers to 
observe how well the normal school was doing its work, noting needed modifications, 
and in general establishing direct and stimulating relations with the school. From 
not a few schools it would be entirely worth while to bring in exchange a first class 
teacher to the normal school for a similar period to discuss practical problems with 
young students there. An interchange of this sort would keep schools and training 
college together in close sympathy, and would make a fossilized faculty impossible. 

ADMINISTRATIVE USE OF PROFESSIONAL TRAINING 

An account of the general training of the instructors in the Missouri normal schools 
has already been given. 1 It is important, however, to note how the directors of these 
schools utilize the training of their teachers from an administrative point of view. 
The questions as to which departments deserve the best trained teachers, which de- 
partments shall carry the highest salaries, what distinction as to training and salary 
shall be maintained between collegiate and secondary teachers, what use shall be made 
of student-teachers, and finally what modifications in standard, if any, shall be allowed 
for summer instructors all of these are considerations for which the administrative 
officer must find a practical solution. 

DEPARTMENTAL DISTRIBUTION OF TRAINING 

So far as amount of basic training is concerned, the academic groups are not sharply 
distinguished one from another. 2 Of sixteen teachers of mathematics, two had a two- 
year diploma only, and one had none. Agriculture, history, and science have fared 
a little better: of thirty-nine teachers in these subjects, only one held a two-year 
diploma, and but one was without a diploma. If the institutions where the training was 
secured be considered, the teachers of foreign languages stand highest, with eighty- 
two per cent of their number from first class schools ; household arts, history, and agri- 

1 See page 99. 2 See page 421. 



THE STAFF 283 

culture are also relatively high. Foreign language teachers lead also in amount of 
advanced study. 

It is the relation of professional to academic subjects that possesses the chief sig- 
nificance. Only three-fifths of the teachers who deal with the special subjects peculiar 
to the normal schools have a training of four years or more, while ninety-three per 
cent of the so-called "academic" teachers have collegiate degrees, forty-one per cent 
having graduate degrees as compared with nineteen per cent in the professional 
group. The disparity is still considerable even when the supervisors are separated from 
the regular teachers of education, but no rational view of teacher- training will ac- 
knowledge the justice of such a separation ; instructors charged with the supervision 
and criticism of students in their first actual teaching experience should be no less 
thoroughly prepared than the best in the school In the quality of their training, 
furthermore, the instructors in education are noticeably behind their academic col- 
leagues, having one-fourth fewer degrees from high grade institutions, 

To a critical judgment it would appear that if contrast must exist, these relations 
should be exactly reversed, altho there is no reason why every teacher should not Tbe 
required to possess or obtain an adequate training. It may be asserted that the super- 
visors and those similarly selected have the equivalent of a standard training in their 
field ; that they are chosen for practical experience and skill, and that a degree would 
mean little or nothing in their cases. That this is the theory is evident, on the whole, 
by reference to the salaries paid the two groups. 1 The average salary paid to women 
supervisors is not greatly below the average for women in all academic subjects, and 
the average for men teaching education is second from the top. The status of the edu- 
cation department^ therefore, tho far from foremost, is apparently intended to be 
about the same financially as that of the others. This being the case, the policy pursued 
in relation to the training required seems a mistake. The fact that they are "prac- 
tical" chiefly is a dangerous recommendation for teachers in this department of all 
others. Practical experience is wholly indispensable, but in a field that is only just 
seeking to make good its prerogatives, a field whose workers should, by sheer weight 
of ability, dominate the schools they serve, a thorough general education is of coordi- 
nate importance. Throughout the country, speeches, writings, and classroom perform- 
ances of a slovenly and almost illiterate character have been perpetrated in the name 
of "education" by persons indebted only to "practical experience." Crude "surveys" 
and "experiments" are submitted as scientific contributions. These offerings not only 
seriously injure the cause of specific training among educated people, but they are 
worse than useless in their immediate effects. Better for every purpose the intelligent 
reactions of a liberally educated mind innocent of "methods 55 than the undisciplined 
"professionalism' 5 that comes from half-educated instructors. Missouri appears to have 
less than its share of such lapses among its professional corps, but the tables should be 
completely turned in the other direction. 

1 See pages 285, 424. 



284 OPERATION OF THE NORMAL SCHOOLS 

Before leaving the general topic of departmental training it may not be out of 
place to indicate certain facts as to experience and tenure. Just half of the academic 
teachers have taught in normal schools for more than five years. Among teachers of 
education only two-fifths, and among the supervisors but one-fourth, have had so much 
experience; one may conclude, therefore, that instruction given by the professional 
staff is on the whole less maturely developed than that in academic departments. 
In looking thru the early catalogues one is impressed with the number of teachers 
of education who appear to have been drawn directly from superintendencies with- 
out special training in education. In the present corps of fifteen men teachers seven 
were of this sort, while seven had supplemented their administrative experience with 
special training; only one had had no administrative experience. 

DEPARTMENTAL DISTRIBUTION OF SALARIES 

A table in the Appendix 1 presents an array of departmental salaries, the details of 
which will be of interest chiefly to the individual schools. All instructors are included 
who received an annual salary of $800 or more. In so far as salary can measure the 
quality of instruction, the table may be considered as a scale of the values attached 
by the school authorities to the work of the respective departments. 

At Kirksville it appears that professional instruction draws, pn the average, one 
hundred dollars less than academ ic instruction; at Warrensburg the difference is over 
two hundred dollars, while at Cape Girardeau it is but seventy dollars. Springfield, on 
the contrary, pays its professional department about one hundred dollars more than 
the others, and Mary ville shows a similar tho smaller balance. The second would ap- 
pear to be the truer policy, provided the difference represents an actual balance in 
weight of ability. As already indicated above, it is impossible to have a first class 
training school for teachers when the professional department is of relatively inferior 
calibre; and the salary account usually measures this with fair accuracy. 

The relative value assigned to the various departments by the normal schools as 
a group appears best when the average salaries are arranged serially as shown by the 
table on page 85. This table makes clear the remarkable fact that financially the 
teaching of pure science is given the highest rating in Missouri normal schools; while if 
the different scale of payment for men and women be taken into account, the Latin (!) 
teachers are the best paid of the men, and share first place with teachers of math- 
ematics among the women. The average salary of instructors in education stands fifth 
in a series of eleven groups, and if the supervisors were included, it would stand sixth 
($1505). The cost of critic supervisors by themselves is next to the lowest, and even 
among the women rises only to the middle of the series. It is true, to be sure, that the 
courses in education draw upon many departments, as well as upon the supervising 
staff, but these courses are the distinguishing characteristic of the institution and 
should obviously be given by the best instructors obtainable, who will, in general, be 

1 See page 424. 



THE STAFF 



85 



RELATIVE IMPORTANCE OF DEPARTMENTS AS EXPRESSED IN THE 
ORDER OF AVERAGE SALARIES 



Men 


Women \ Both Men and Women 


NumbeTs of 


Av. Sal 


Av. Sal ) 


j Av. Sal. 


Men Women 


Ancient Languages $1868 


Ancient Languages $1420 


Science $1735 


17 


Education 1773 


Mathematics 1490 


Ancient Languages 1676 


4 3 


Science 1735 


Modern Languages 1400 


Agriculture 1644 


11 


Mathematics 1711 


Education 1341 


Mathematics 1635 


20 7 


Special Subjects 1711 


English 1336 


Education 1573 


22 19 


English 1657 


Supervision 1335 


Government, History, 




Agriculture 1644 


Government, History, 


and Geography 1542 


29 8 


Government, History, 


and Geography 1335 


Modern Languages 1483 


3 4 


and Geography 1599 


Household Arts 1301 


English 1464 


14 21 


Modern Languages 1593 


Special Subjects 1197 


Special Subjects 1425 


20 25 






Supervision 1368 


1 31 






Household Arts 1301 


11 


Extreme Variation $275 


$223 


$434 



those most highly paid. If the best-paid teachers are unable to give these courses, some- 
thing is wrong, and the school where this is true is not what it purports to be. It is 
certainly far from being a mere coincidence that in the school at Springfield, where 
the relations of the education department appeared to every member of the enquiry 
staff to have been most satisfactorily worked out, the professional group should be re- 
ceiving more, on the average, than the academic group, even tho the maximum sala- 
ries were surpassed in other schools. 

SECONDARY versus COLLEGIATE INSTRUCTORS 

In spite of the wide field of instruction ranging, in all five Missouri normal schools, 
from the first year of high school to the fourth year of college work, the distinction 
between secondary and collegiate instructors has not been drawn, 1 There is indeed a 
consistent difference in average salary as the college work increases. But the number 
of teachers doing college work alone is so small, except at Kirksville, that a signifi- 
cant contrast could be found only between the group having chiefly college work and 
the group having chiefly secondary work, Here the average salary of those men having 
more than one-half of their work in college classes is about four dollars more than the 
average salary of those most of whose work was in secondary classes ; and about the 
same thing is true of the women. As marking a distinction between a secondary and 
a collegiate grade of work, such a difference is hardly important. The average salary 
of the ten women doing some secondary work is thirteen dollars more than that of the 
two women doing college work only. 

Much the same situation appears if the comparison be made from the standpoint 
of training. For example, inspect the secondary and collegiate student term-grades 

1 See pagre 425. 



286 OPEEATION OF THE NORMAL SCHOOLS 

reported by the thirty-two men and nine women who hold masters 1 degrees or higher, 
from institutions of the first class, or a similar distribution of classes taught by them 
in the school year ending with August, 1916. 1 These groups of best prepared teachers 
are, it seems, finding from twenty-eight to forty-five per cent of their classes In the 
secondary field, and the total grades reported follow closely the same figures. 

From the point of view of good administration the above facts are as conclusive as 
any that could be cited in determining the character of the work done in these schools. 
Teachers that are continually and largely busy with the secondary phases of instruc- 
tion, especially when their programs call for twenty or twenty-five class sessions per 
week 5 are in the very nature of the case unfitted for what all collegiate experience 
requires of college teachers. They are undoubtedly much above the average of high 
school teachers; they are quite as certainly below the standard of the collegiate insti- 
tutions with all the years of which they now claim to compete. 2 In respect to teaching 
ability, their training, their environment, and the very fact that they deal so constantly 
with elementary situations probably do and certainly should enable them to out- 
rank the younger college teachers. But to expect that with their present mixed and 
overloaded programs they should be qualified to conduct advanced instruction suited 
to the junior and senior college years would be absurd. Any one familiar with the real 
situation knows that with several exceptions they are not so qualified, and that the 
four-year collegiate curricula have been built up out of a multiplicity of beginners' 
courses. Conditions cannot be good until the collegiate instructors are such in train- 
ing, program, salary, and performance. As recommended in another section, if length- 
ened curricula are to be offered, or even if first class work is to be done in the one and 
two year curricula, the teachers who have been appropriately trained should be re- 
lieved of secondary work and placed in their proper fields, while those who are essen- 
tially secondary teachers should discontinue collegiate instruction. 

PABT-TIME AND STUDENT ASSISTANTS 

The policy pursued with reference to part-time or student assistants giving instruc- 
tion during the regular session is fairly consistent in all of the schools except at Kirks- 
ville. At Cape Girardeau no such assistant was employed in I9I5-I6; the author- 
ities of the school are definitely opposed to the practice. At Warrensburg three were 
used, one for one term to teach a class in secondary geometry; one for the year as a 
supervisor; and one in industrial arts. At Springfield there was none. At Maryville 

1 See page 425. 

2 The schools^ from the early catalogues down, have made a great point of the fact that their high school students, 
and even the * suh-normal " pupils, have had the advantage of the " best teachers " in the school. This has no doubt 
been very fine, hut it appears to have completely escaped attention that the instruction of college students at the 
other end of the ladder must necessarily be correspondingly impaired. The other point urged in favor of the present 
policy is that advanced teachers should " keep in touch" with elementary and secondary instruction. This is not 
to be disputed. It is one thing:, however, for such a teacher to take a genuine elementary or secondary class daily, 
weekly, or occasionally, for demonstration or practice ; this is indispensable for every effective instructor of teach- 
ers. It is obviously a wholly different thing- for " college " teachers to be loaded down with nondescript secondary 
classes, the like of which exists nowhere else, and which serve no purpose of illustration to students or of prac- 
tice for the teacher himself. 



THE STAFF S87 

one woman taught two classes in secondary mathematics, and one gave an hour a day 
as assistant in domestic art. 

Kirksville has for many years followed a different plan. Juniors or seniors in the 
four-year college curriculum have been employed for small fees in one or two classes 
each throughout the year. In the regular session of 191516 there were nine men and 
six women, making in all fifteen such teachers, who received from $10 to $50 per 
month for their services, eight drawing $25 per month or less. Four were in the depart- 
ment of manual arts, and four taught music ; the remaining seven were given classes 
in Latin, history, German, agriculture, photography, commercial subjects, and school 
management. Except for one who taught beginning Latin and another who taught 
rural school management, all conducted classes attended by college students. During 
the year these fifteen student-teachers reported three hundred eighty- two student 
grades in college subjects, three hundred thirty -eight grades in subjects open to both 
college and secondary students (manual arts, music, and so forth), and three hundred 
fifteen grades of secondary students. It is clear that the major work of these teachers 
was with college students. 

The ground on which the employment of student assistants may be justified is 
chiefly that such employment furnishes needed financial aid for students wishing to 
continue their studies ; and the supposition is that the advanced studies they desire 
to pursue are of a nature to warrant their attendance, while the work for which they 
are paid is presumed to be of service. The apparent advantages to the school inciden- 
tal to such an arrangement are important, as many a small college yearning for stu- 
dents has discovered. They are two-fold : first, the services of such instructors cost 
but little. The aggregate weekly class hours per quarter handled by the fifteen teachers 
at Kirksville numbered three hundred, or the equivalent of nearly four teachers work- 
ing to the Kirksville standard of twenty periods per week for the full eleven months. 
At the Kirksville average of $1591 for academic instructors these should have been 
paid $6364, whereas they received less than that by $71 not far from the salary of 
two full-time teachers. Such saving enables the school to relieve regular instructors 
for a larger offering higher up in the curriculum, where these same part-time teachers 
become the students, thus realizing the second and more important object of the plan. 
fivery institution desirous of enlarging its scope, whether it be a four-year college seek- 
ing to add graduate work, or a two-year school seeking to develop collegiate status^ 
has difficulty in attracting and retaining voluntary advanced students when its fac- 
ulty and material facilities remain practically unchanged. Recourse must therefore be 
had to other means, one of which is to subsidise capable graduates to take the first 
and second year courses they have not as yet had, together with what advanced work 
can be laid out by a teacher freed by their help in lower classes. This nucleus attracts 
others. Such "pressure"" for these courses is presently discovered as to require more 
teachers, and the four-year program is shortly in full swing. 

Two objections make against the wisdom of a policy of this sort. There is every 



288 OPERATION OF THE NORMAL SCHOOLS 

probability, in the first place, that longer attendance at the school for further study 
is not in the best interests of these teacher-students. They have finished their course, 
and should now be directed where genuine advanced courses are available under in- 
structors who have had advanced training for that purpose. 1 A certain type of student 
has to be protected against himself in this respect. His inclination is to remain in 
familiar surroundings, to his eventual detriment. The school should here consult the 
ultimate interests of its graduates in their preparation for public service. The second 
consideration is still more obvious. The use of partly trained and inexperienced teach- 
ers in lower classes as a lever with which to lift the school is plainly opposed to the 
real interests of the major portion of the student body, who for years to come will be 
found in these lower grades in which the main function of the institution centres. 
First class teaching of these students should be guaranteed at all costs and at every 
point. The school's contact with the great mass of them is brief at best; for hundreds 
it is but a single year. What shall be said, then, of a policy that introduces student- 
teaching at this point in order that the beneficiaries may be induced to remain for 
a junior and senior year, while the regular instructors are relieved from the service 
of the elementary teacher in order to lengthen the curriculum for the sake of the 
few who are preparing for high school and administrative positions? 2 The lengths to 
which the expense of this elaboration at the top without corresponding financial 
support may drive the administrator are illustrated at Kirksville in the department 
of manual arts, where for a prolonged period a student-teacher on corresponding 
salary was given full charge, and while thus in charge received credit toward his de- 
gree for " practice teaching," notwithstanding the fact that no one was in a position 
to supervise his efforts save the head of the institution. 3 This use of advanced degrees 
to pay for instruction is effective in creating " degree classes," as the experience at 
Kirksville shows, but it is not education. 

INSTRUCTORS IN THE SUMMER SESSION 

The problem of securing instructors for the summer session is a critical administra- 
tive concern. The question is not so much one of finding people who will teach. The 
colleges and universities are generally closed, and both their advanced students and 
their teachers are available; superintendents of schools find a lull in their work and 
can often be had, while graduate teachers who work during the winter in the schools 
come flocking back. The main problem is to find teachers of requisite experience who 

1 This is not to be construed as meaning: that three and four year curricula should not be offered. As explained else- 
where, the point is that such curricula should be offered only by fully qualified teachers to students fully prepared 
to take them. 

2 The school in question has been pronounced in its condemnation of inadequate training for elementary teachers. 
To quote its Bulletin of December, 1910, page 9: " It is due to artificially created conditions, largely to arbitrary uni- 
versity domination, that the abnormal and wasteful discrimination has been made whereby advanced scholarship 
is required for high school teachers and poor scholarship or none at all for elementary teachers." It is difficult to 
see wherein its own practice is essentially different. 

3 This lack of adequate supervision of student-teachers is a serious defect in the Kirksville scheme. The situation 
is irregularly handled ; some are apparently given careful attention, while others are neglected, often teaching at 
an hour when their superiors are busy, thus missing them altogether. 



THE STAFF 289 

have sufficient training in education to fit into such an environment and maintain 
the integrity of a schooFs standards. Attendance increases eighty-two per cent, the 
median age of students rises from twenty in the regular session to twenty-two among 
those attending only in the summer. With these older students, who are usually ex- 
perienced teachers, collegiate subjects are in greater demand than before. At the same 
time, a large portion of the summer attendance is made up of seekers for "approved 
grades," which can be written in on their certificates in lieu of examination. Many at- 
tend only in the summer ; many more get their first experience at the normal school 
in this session. 1 It is, therefore, peculiarly the school's duty to see that each student 
finds what he needs in the best form in which it can be provided. 

TRAINING OF SUMMER INSTRUCTORS 

In the summer of 1916 the normal schools increased their staffs temporarily by the 
employment of fifty men and thirty-one women. 2 Three-quarters of them were natives 
of Missouri, and more than four-fifths had their secondary training in Missouri. The 
median age both of men and women in all the schools together was twenty-nine; at 
Warrensburg it was twenty-six, and at Mary ville thirty-seven. 

The policies adopted by different schools appear markedly divergent. 3 One school 
employed college graduates except for one who had attended college without gradu- 
ating; seven of the ten were from first class institutions, and three held advanced de- 
grees. Four had had normal school training also, three of them locally. Another school 
secured teachers more than half of whom had only normal school training, and of 
those who had college or university experience, only half had taken degrees, while 
none possessed an advanced degree. Only about half of the entire number at this 
latter school had four-year diplomas of any sort. Nineteen of the twenty-seven had 
been trained at the school itself. 

The professional experience of these summer school teachers ranges from none at 
all to twenty-six years; the medians run as follows: Kirksville, four; Warrensburg, 
six; Cape Girardeau and Springfield, seven; and Mary ville, ten years. Mary ville ap- 
pears to have used her well-trained special instructors chiefly for secondary students. 
Springfield employs high school teachers, but uses them largely for the secondary 
classes, for which they are presumably fitted. Earksville, on the contrary, turns many 
collegiate students over to teachers drawn from secondary positions. 4 

It is of interest in the above connection to observe to what extent the subjects 
taught in the normal summer school correlate with the teacher's work during the year, 

1 Thirty-nine per cent of the year's enrolment in all the schools in 1913-14 attended a normal school for the first 
time in a summer session. This is nearly as many as begin in the fall forty -two per cent 

2 Thirteen others were employed from whom the facts of training could not be obtained : Warrensburg 1 , seven ; 
Springfield, four ; and Maryville, two. 

3 See page 426. 

4 Forty-two per cent of the collegiate student grades (762) reported by the special summer session instructors at 
Kirksville were reported by high school teachers or undergraduate students. At Warrensburg: the proportion was 
twenty-nine per cent, at Cape Girardeau twenty-five per cent, at Springfield ten per cent, and at Maryviile twelve 
per cent. 



290 OPERATION OF THE NORMAL SCHOOLS 

tho absence of such a correlation is not necessarily a proof of lack of preparation in the 
subject taught in summer. Correlation either wholly or in large part appears in from 
forty to eighty per cent of the cases in the various schools. Lack of such correlation 
is evident when a superintendent of schools who regularly teaches American history 
is assigned to "General Method" and "History of Education;" when another who 
teaches high school commercial branches in the winter teaches history in the summer; 
when a teacher of high school physics conducts a collegiate class in stock-judging. 
Any single case of this sort of shifting may be wholly explicable and proper; but a 
large amount of it makes one suspect the continued vitality of the ancient normal 
school doctrine that "a normal school professor can teach anything." 

HOURS AND SALARIES OF SUMMER INSTRUCTORS 

The schools vary considerably in the extent to which they use their summer teach- 
ers, as well as in the salaries they pay them. 1 To contrast extremes again, one insti- 
tution asks its summer instructors for full programs in eleven out of twelve cases, 
another has one-third doing full work, nearly two-fifths having but one class each, 
and two-thirds having either one or two classes only. The secret of this is, of course, 
that the teachers in the latter school are largely those who have enrolled for courses 
"of their own, hoping in many cases ultimately to secure degrees. 2 Of the two schools 
quoted above, one pays none of its instructors less than four dollars and pays only two 
of them less than five dollars per weekly hour; whereas the other pays over one-half of 
its extra teachers less than three dollars, and only about one-fifth receive five dollars 
or more. 

CONTRASTING POLICIES OF SUMMER SESSION ADMINISTRATION 

The facts presented above disclose two well-defined policies of summer school 
administration, expressed with consistent contrast in the two schools to which allu- 
sion has been made. The school at Mary ville provided its increased summer attend- 
ance with experienced teachers of mature age, trained in good institutions and em- 
ployed at respectable figures, to give their full time instructing in fields in which they 
were regularly engaged. This provision was made, too, not only for college students 
but for pupils of secondary grade. Assuming that as good judgment was used in selec- 
tion as was shown in fixing conditions of employment, the students at Maryville in 
the summer of 1916 had unquestionably superior advantages; it is apparent that the 
school authorities had nothing in view except the excellence of the instruction that 
could be furnished. At Kirksville, on the other hand, such teachers were engaged as 
would themselves register for advanced courses. Of the twenty-seven, eighteen worked 
on part time and as many (fifteen men and three women) were enrolled in courses. 
Fewer than half had had four years of higher schooling from any source. As they were 

1 See page 427, 

2 Those of whom this is true are noted in the table, page 427. 



THE STAFF 91 

mostly part-time instructors, their number was abnormally large, thus swelling the 
"faculty" list, while their presence as students helped to fill out the upper classes that 
would eventually take degrees, thus heavily emphasizing the senior college idea. Altho 
themselves but juniors or seniors, the undergraduate members of this group of teachers 
turned in one hundred thirty-six freshmen or sophomore grades in such subjects as 
"Teaching of English," "Electricity," "Food Preparation," and so forth. At Mary- 
ville, while two-fifths had attended a normal school, and a third of the group had at- 
tended Maryville, none had had normal school training only; at Kirksville well over 
half had had only normal training, and had received it all at Kirksville, while over 
two-thirds had attended there. At Maryville the professional experience (median 
years, ten), like the age (median years, thirty-seven), is high, and the salaries paid 
are sufficient to ensure a relatively good personnel; at Kirksville a median of four 
years' experience, including, of course, all kinds of teaching, means that the experi- 
ence in higher instruction is in most cases nil, while the salaries are cut down be- 
cause the opportunity can be made attractive by giving credit toward a degree. 

On the whole, the situation at Maryville impresses one as a sincere attempt to solve 
the educational problem for its students in their interests; the administration at 
Kirksville, on the other hand, leaves the impression of constant and skilful manipu- 
lation not in the real interests of the students, but to build up on a limited budget 
the kind of institution that this particular school long since set out at all costs to 
become. Strategy for this purpose finds unusual scope in the summer session. It is flat- 
tering for a young teacher or superintendent within measurable distance of his degree 
to be asked to give instruction where he has just been or still is a student. It is attrac- 
tive even to the normal school graduate who now ranks as an alumnus to be recalled 
thus early to his alma mater. By giving each a class or two only, these favors can be 
multiplied, and by passing them out with discernment, one can reward faithful sup- 
porters, win the interest of those who are wavering, or even invade hostile territory. 
Some superintendents, when so attached, bring with them to the school a whole train 
of their admiring teachers and students. Thus the plan increases the attendance, 
relieves the regular teachers, reenforces the upper classes and the degree list, popu- 
larizes the school, cuts down the expense, and keeps the influential teachers of the 
region at the school and away from the university or other higher institutions where 
they ought now to be all obviously good business, tho again unfortunately not 
education. 

Whatever may be true of a college, the summer session of a professional school., 
altho subordinate to such a school's main function, is a responsibility that can neither 
be exploited nor neglected. It is a general observation of all professional schools, 
thoroughly substantiated by theory, that practitioners of some experience, coming for 
study at intervals in their practice, work with greater insight and profit than do com- 
plete novices. The latter are working up their initial speed, as it were, while the former 
are simply increasing their momentum. Among teachers the economic situation makes 



OPERATION OF THE NORMAL SCHOOLS 

it necessary to provide the best possible opportunities for study during the summer. 
It is not primarily for the sake of the teachers, but for the schools in which they will 
teach, that the summer school facilities should be as fine in quality and as well organ- 
ized as it is possible to make them. Haphazard experiments can no more be risked dur- 
ing the summer than at any other time in the year. The natural difficulty of giving 
each of the many new applicants what he needs is great enough without in addition 
sacrificing the quality, 

It should be borne in mind, furthermore, that the attendance at the summer ses- 
sion has been greatly stimulated by the pressure brought to bear upon seekers of cer- 
tificates to get their "approved grades" at the normal schools instead of by examina- 
tion, and that on the strength of these enormous summer enrolments in the secondary 
and junior collegiate fields the normal schools have been steadily demanding increased 
aid from the state. To a candid observer it may fairly seem like a misappropriation 
of such funds when by an administrative trick the instruction of those in whose inter- 
est the aid Is granted, Is cheapened, and the funds are diverted to a purpose which, 
however gratifying to the administration, is certainly much less important to the 
state. If senior college instruction is given, It must certainly be given by amply trained 
and otherwise qualified teachers. If, however, such advanced instruction can be pro- 
vided only at the cost of reducing the quality of the instruction given to the lower 
classes below the level of that in a first class city high school, then a sincere institu- 
tion will have nothing to do with it. 



B. THE STUDENT BODY: SIGNIFICANT FEATURES IN SELECTION, ORGANIZATION, AND 

ADMINISTRATIVE TREATMENT 

1. Men as Normal School Students 

Shortly after the establishment of the Missouri normal schools, three-fifths of the 
students were men; at present, two-thirds are women. Among the students In the reg- 
ular session the men doing secondary work number thirty-eight per cent or nearly 
two-fifths, while of the collegiate attendance a little over one-fourth are men. In the 
summer session the proportion of collegiate men drops to one-fifth. 1 

MOTIVES IN MALE ATTENDANCE 

Light is thrown on the character of this male attendance by a consideration of the 
motive by which it is actuated. Four-fifths of the men attending the schools, 2 when they 
were visited, reported their intentions as to teaching, and of these seventy-eight per 
cent stated that they had no intention of teaching permanently, altho seventy-five 
per cent said they expected to do some teaching. Of the women one-half stated that 
they did not intend to teach permanently. This fact should occasion no surprise, inas- 

1 This is for the summer-only group ; of the entire summer attendance the collegiate men constituted 22.8 per cent. 
* Information secured at Kirksville, Warrensburg, and Maryville only. See page 434. 



MEN AS NORMAL SCHOOL STUDENTS S93 

much as the tenure of women teachers is traditionally terminated by marriage, which 
is normally expected by the majority both of men and women. For this reason possibly 
the proportion is about the same among collegiate and secondary women. But that 
nearly eighty per cent of all the men students replying, and a still larger proportion of 
the secondary group, should admit that, altho attending a school supported by the 
state for the purpose of training teachers, they expected to make teaching but a tem- 
porary stage on the way to a permanent occupation, is certainly a situation of great 
significance. 

REACTION OF MALE ATTENDANCE ON THE INSTITUTION 

It cannot be said, of course, that it is any worse to prepare men than it is to pre- 
pare women for temporary positions as teachers; the chances are that the men will 
have as long a tenure as do a large number of the women. The importance of the fact 
lies not in the brief tenure of the men trained, but in the reaction that their pres- 
ence entails upon the institution itself. Women may be prepared as specifically as 
possible for their work, precisely because it is their principal vocational outlook ; in 
general, except in large urban centres, educated women either teach or many, and 
even in the latter case their training for teaching is still of value, tho perhaps not so 
valuable as some other form of training might have been. A man, however, who has 
definitely pledged himself to medicine, law, or business, and thinks of teaching solely 
as a potboiler, or one who is merely convinced of his discontent with teaching and 
is open to conviction as to what is better worth doing either of these is attracted 
by the normal school as the cheapest form of credit-granting institution^ with the 
advantage of its sponsorship for the needed teaching position thrown in. To this 
class of student a prescribed curriculum, enforced prerequisites, and above all re- 
quired courses dealing thoroughly with teaching are objectionable; while the "prov- 
ing up" system, where each is credited liberally "on his merits" without too much 
examination, the plan of free election, and a minimum of required "pedagogy" are 
just the thing. Work that will not count as credit in college or university must be 
avoided, and all courses must be as "academic" as possible. These well-known pre- 
ferences of men students tally fairly well with the policies of the Missouri normal 
schools, and one has only to visit the schools, read their literature, and talk with 
their officers, to realize that a cardinal principle of their operation has been to retain 
men at all hazards. 

Ostensibly the reason for the efforts to attract men to the institutions is to "retain 
men in the profession," a laudable purpose, but one that receives an unexpected twist 
in its working out. It is the elementary schools primarily that have lost men teachers; 
high schools in Missouri employ men in over one-third of their teaching positions, and 
the principals and superintendents are very generally men. When, therefore, the normal 
schools appeal for facilities whereby they may "retain men in the profession," what 
they really mean to say is that they should be enabled to prepare men for high school 



OPERATION OF THE NORMAL SCHOOLS 

and administrative positions two aims that are, of course, quite unlike that which 
governs the bulk of their effort, and require different curricula and equipment. This 
latent purpose is shown clearly in the type of school chosen by those who "intend 
to teach immediately on leaving this school," as the question ran. 1 Thirty-four per 
cent even of those men who have not yet finished their own high school studies have 
their eye on high school or administrative positions, while over four-fifths of the men 
in the normal school proper expect such work, tho it be only as a temporary employ- 
ment. The actual records of the graduates show the same result. 

It is the unavoidable conclusion from all the evidence that a desire on the part of 
the normal schools to retain their men has been not only a leading factor in develop- 
ing such methods and policies as should make it easy for men to enter and profitable 
for them to remain, but also that it has been primarily responsible for the change of 
emphasis from the elementary to the high school teacher. The latter required nor- 
mally four years of college work, an expansion that would afford ample opportunity, 
on a free elective basis, for enough academic work to hold the average man who had 
once enrolled. 2 At the same time, the accepted preparation of a high school teacher 
was everywhere loose enough professionally to enable a man to ignore the teaching 
courses to a very considerable extent. The outcome of this development was the 
"college" idea, pure and simple, for advanced students. With this once established 
for the sake of the men, women naturally availed themselves of it, aided therein by 
the encouragement of the school authorities, until to-day, of the group of collegi- 
ate normal school women, forty-five per cent avow themselves as prospective high 
school teachers, together with eighteen percent of the women still doing secondary 
work. 3 

This policy may have had some effect. Kirksville, the school that has followed the 
plan most vigorously, has kept a proportion of collegiate men as high as thirty-two 
per cent; 4 and Cape Girardeau, a school that has also laid great stress on it, even offer- 
ing curricula wholly free from professional flavor, has retained still more, having 
thirty-three per cent. Warrensburg, Springfield, and Maryville, on the other hand, 
schools that until recently concerned themselves very specifically with the elementary 

1 See page 434. 

2 A question put to the students at all schools furnishes unexpected light at this point. " What have you found to 
be the most valuable feature of this school for your purpose?" was a question taken advantage of by many students 
to express preference for various departments. Forty per cent of the college men declared for the "academic work" 
as compared with thirteen per cent of the college women. Of the latter, fully one-half voted for "professional work" 
as the most valuable feature. 

3 A memorandum from the sixty-hour (i.e. two-year) class of 1915 at Kirksville, prepared by the class, contains a state- 
ment as to "Character of positions sought for next year,** as follows: "Superin tendencies, 6; principalships, 4; his- 
tory teachers, 7 ; English teachers, 7; mathematics teachers, 6 ; music teachers, 6 ; Latin teachers, 2 ; science teachers. 
2; agriculture teachers, 2; manual arts teachers, 2 ; domestic science teachers, 2; physical education teachers, 1; com- 
merce teachers, 1 ; bookkeeping teachers, 1 ; elementary school teacher, 1; primary teachers, 1; primary supervisor, 
1; undecided, 3." The elementary school comes poorly off with two in a group all of whom have barely sufficient 
training to meet standard requirements for elementary school work. 

4 The outcome of this emphasis at Kirksville is even more noticeable in the product of the school. While preparing 
one-fifth of the rural teachers trained at normal schools, and less than one-sixth of the teachers in graded elemen- 
tary schools so trained, Kirksville is credited with twenty-seven per cent of the first class high school group (see 
page 439) and over forty per cent of the superintendents in first class systems who attended normal schools (see 
page 378). The latter were all men. 



PROBLEM OF THE SECONDARY STUDENT 295 

problem even tho many of their graduates became high school teachers, show a pro- 
portion of collegiate men students of twenty-five, twenty-six, and twenty-two per 
cent respectively. All things considered, it seems quite probable that if prescribed 
curricula prepared solely for the purpose of training efficient teachers for various 
fields of service, secondary included, and definitely committing a candidate to that 
service, should be introduced in the Missouri normal schools, the numbers of men in 
attendance would be very greatly reduced by the disappearance of those who were 
using the schools merely for personal advancement. This has been the case In other 
schools that have had the courage to prefer a high standard of professional training 
to the weak popularity of a nondescript college. The bonajide male candidates that 
remained could then be given, In selected schools, differentiated curricula suitable for 
their work in high school instruction or in school administration. 



%. Problem of the Secondary Student 

A second problem in the selection of students confronts the normal school in the 
question of its attitude toward students of secondary grade. This is a question that 
depends partly on the normal school's conception of its function as an educational 
Institution, and partly on the general policy of the state as expressed in its legisla- 
tion relating to teachers' 5 certificates and Its appropriations for purposes of training. 
From the Institutional point of view the problem is difficult because of its radical 
nature. For thirty years the normal schools were almost wholly secondary institutions 
in so far as any current generic term can be applied to them. Since 1900 they have 
grown steadily and firmly Into professional institutions of collegiate character. The 
question now is what to do with the remnants of past practice. Familiar association 
and administrative habit cling to the past, while freedom and progress require ad- 
justment to the present and future. A complete abandonment of secondary work In 
normal schools will come in time; should It be brought about at once? 

CHARACTERISTICS OF THE EXTREME AGE GROUPS 

There are in all the schools over two thousand secondary students in the regular 
sessions, and seventeen hundred more in the summer. Twenty-five hundred are women, 
and over a thousand are men. What are their distinguishing traits ? Inasmuch as a 
wide range of age Is the essential feature of the problem that they present, it is best 
for the sake of clearness to Ignore the Intermediate ages of nineteen and twenty, which 
represent a natural transition between the extremes, and to compare the younger 
group directly with the older. 1 About fifteen hundred are twenty-one years of age or 
more enough by themselves to fill two large high schools. They number one-third 

1 Distinction in nationality is scarcely perceptible. The question of town or country breeding is also negligible ; 
the older group has eight per cent more men from the country. Parental income exhibits the expected tendency : 
from nearly seven hundred answers, it is clear that the older and more retarded students are from less well-to-do 
homes. 



OPERATION OF THE NORMAL SCHOOLS 

of the secondary students in the regular session and over half of the " summer-only'"* 
attendance. Four-fifths of them attend In the spring or summer quarters when their 
schools are closed. On the other hand, nearly half of the secondary students attend- 
ing the regular session are but eighteen years old or less , while in the summer group 
fewer than one-quarter are so young. The proportion of boys under nineteen is over 
one-third in the fall, winter, and spring, but falls to one-sixth in the summer. It is 
evident from this that the secondary students of the regular session are predomi- 
nantly of secondary school age, while the over-age students of secondary grade attend 
the normal schools chiefly in their interims of teaching. 

GrEOGRAPHICAX, DISTRIBUTION 

The first unmistakable evidence of divergence between these older and younger 
students appears in the relative distance from which they come to school. Only one- 
fifth of the older group is local to the county, while nearly half of the younger group 
comes from the same county ; three-fifths of the older students come from beyond the 
adjacent counties, while but one-third of the young students are so derived. At Spring- 
field only nine per cent of the over-age men are local, while at Kirksville over one- 
third are so ; but the younger group is more restricted locally than the older in each of 
the five schools, altho to a less degree in the summer than during the regular session. 
This independence with regard to locality on the part of the older secondary students 
is of importance in arriving at a solution of their needs ; it is evident, as one would 
expect, that they constitute a self-determined group, are less influenced than younger 
students by local suggestion, and would probably go anywhere in the state for their 
training almost as readily as they seek the normal school in their own district. 

PREVIOUS SCHOOLING 

More of the older secondary men students than of the younger have attended rural 
schools, but the women show almost no difference. The record of high school attend- 
ance is hardly what one would expect. In the total attendance at the regular session 
of 191 3 14, forty-seven per cent of the younger students as compared with twenty-six 
per cent of the older had never attended high school elsewhere (women, fifty-four per 
cent to twenty-two per cent). But among students attending only in the summer the 
condition is reversed, and fifty-nine per cent of the over-age students as compared with 
nineteen per cent of the younger students had never been at high school elsewhere. In 
general these figures cast some doubt upon the supposedly essential service of the nor- 
mal school to the older student who was presumed to be without other school priv- 
ileges, and indicate that it has been recruiting heavily among such boys and girls as 
should properly be in high school. 



PROBLEM OF THE SECONDARY STUDENT 2>97 

OPPORTUNITIES FOR HIGH SCHOOL ATTENDANCE 

In order to determine further the relation of the normal school student to the high 
school situation, the students at each normal school when It was visited were asked 
whether there had been a three or four year high school within convenient reach of 
their homes. According to their replies the age group under nineteen, which formed 
forty-five per cent of all the secondary students, had four-year high schools accessi- 
ble in over half of the cases; about three-fifths, if three-year high schools be included. 
In the decade after 1906 the number of classified high schools in Missouri increased 
from two hundred thirty-one to five hundred thirty-five considerably more than 
double ; and the number of first class high schools had increased over two hundred 
seventy-five per cent, rising from sixty-three to two hundred thirty-six. 1 In 1918 but 
eleven of the one hundred fourteen counties in the state lacked a standard four-year 
high school, and four of these had standard three-year high schools ; two only were 
without a recognized two-year high school. In eighty-four of these counties, in one 
hundred two schools, the state had established training centres for rural school teach- 
ers; such opportunities are therefore well distributed. 

TEACHING EXPERIENCE 

Experience data should, of course, show that more of the older than of the younger 
students have taught. They show this ; but they show also that an astonishingly large 
number (thirty-eight per cent) of the older secondary men have thus far had no con- 
nection with a school as teachers. Altho at Springfield only one-sixth of the older 
men have had no teaching experience, at Kirksville the proportion is three-fifths. 
What have these mature individuals been doing ? Are they belated farmers' boys using 
the normal schools now to get a general education? Remembering that ninety per 
cent of all the secondary men at Kirksville declared that they had no intention of 
teaching permanently, this seems to be a reasonable conclusion. 

QUALITY OF THE OLDER SECONDARY STUDENT 

A further item possibly throws some light on the quality of the over-age student. 
Large claims have been based upon the maturity of the students who frequent the 
normal school, particularly as a justification for shortening the secondary course, 
" doing three terms 1 work in two," and so forth. Cases occur of active, self-educated 
students completing in a few months the formal requirements that usually consume 
years, and the inference is that maturity is of itself the enabling factor. If true, this 
ought apparently to show in the number of programs with excess hours permitted 
to older secondary students because of superior ability. With important exceptions, 
this advantage, where it exists, is surprisingly small. Analysis of the secondary pro- 
grams in the regular session of 1 913-14 shows that fourteen per cent of the term 

1 State Report, 1916, page 68. 



298 OPERATION OF THE NORMAL SCHOOLS 

programs taken by the younger group consisted of twenty-five weekly periods or 
more, while but fifteen per cent of the programs taken by the older students were as 
heavy. Among the men alone the younger students have actually a slight advantage. 
At Kirksville, Warrensburg, and Maryville the proportion permitted to take excess 
hours is so small two or three per cent that the figures signify little. At Cape 
Girardeau, however, where the restrictions that hedge excessive student programs at 
the other schools had not been applied, fifty-nine per cent of the over-age men take 
twenty-five hours or more, as compared with sixty-seven per cent among the men 
under nineteen. Among the women the balance is reversed, but the difference is small. 
At Springfield eleven per cent of the older take twenty-five hours or more as against 
nine per cent of the younger. In the summer session, however, a number of capable, 
ambitious, and experienced teachers appear and take all the credit available; hence 
the older students outdo the younger by several points on programs of twenty-five 
hours or more Cape Girardeau : twenty-five to fourteen per cent; Springfield : twelve 
to four per cent. These facts, if typical, may warrant the conclusion that the older sec- 
ondary students in the regular session are on the whole a duller group, possibly some- 
what parasitic on the school in their efforts to get a better job, and probably worthy 
of less attention than has heretofore been given them. Studies of student performance 
at both Columbia and Harvard Universities would make this inference appear reason- 
able. 1 The summer session, on the contrary, deals with a mature but selected group 
of workers stimulated by a sharper vocational motive. 

TREATMENT OF THE YOUNG SECONDARY STUDENT 

The wide differences in age among secondary students seem to offer ample justi- 
fication for distinguishing treatment. Regarding the younger group, there can be no 
difference of reasonable opinion : students of this early age should at once be returned 
to the high schools nearest their homes, and be required to finish the course there 
before coming to the normal school. 2 A high school senior twenty years of age is not 
hopelessly out of place, tho he be two years behind the schedule, Taking the second- 
ary enrolment of 1913-14 as a basis, and including half of those who are nineteen or 
twenty, we would have about forty-five per cent or, roughly, seventeen hundred stu- 
dents to be returned to high schools an increase of only five per cent in the total 
attendance at first class high schools in that year. Slightly over two thousand students 
would remain to be otherwise provided for. 

The course here suggested is advisable first of all for the sake of its effect upon the 
normal school in eliminating an element of immaturity that under modern conditions 

1 Recent information gathered by the Director of Admissions at Columbia shows clearly that the younger students 
do the better work, the grade diminishing 1 steadily and consistently with increased age. The same results appeared 
at Harvard with the additional discovery of decreased liability to college censure among young students. 

2 In the case of students Hying at a distance from high schools, it is recognized that such a measure could not fairly 
be undertaken without statutory provision for free tuition, to be paid by the county, in the high school most accessi- 
ble. This step, however, is long overdue in Missouri from every educational and democratic point of view. 



PROBLEM OF THE SECONDARY STUDENT 99 

has no place there, and that at present seriously diverts the energy and attention of 
both teachers and students from the one professional aim of the institution. The most 
obvious way to emphasize the collegiate and professional character of the institution 
is to turn over all secondary work to its own natural agents, the high schools, or if 
necessary to a third agency, as indicated below. In the second place it is cheaper to 
educate students of this grade in the schools that are intended for them. It is both 
absolutely cheaper in money, and it would be a relief to the state, since the expense of 
such secondary instruction would be borne locally either by the county or by the dis- 
trict. Local institutions are already fully organized, but are usually small, and these 
students could be distributed among them with relatively slight increase in cost while 
the saving at the normal schools would be considerable. 

A further consideration is fundamental. The secondary schools of Missouri have an 
educational right to the support and recognition that such a policy would supply. In 
going over the state, the enquiry staff found numerous cases of complaint on the 
part of high school officers that the normal schools repeatedly drew oif their students, 
either altogether or shortly before graduation, by enabling them to take a heavier 
program or to combine college and high school work and thus eventually to save 
time. This telescoping procedure has been a normal school practice of long standing, 
and is part of the tendency to over-speeding that has been the chief cause for friction 
with the state department and other crediting agencies. It is but justice to the sec- 
ondary school in its effort to provide a deliberate and thorough education, to require 
the sanction of its graduation before admitting one of its students, and the weaker 
the school, the greater the reason for sustaining its claims if its work is to be recog- 
nized at all. Each high school can easily provide examinations whereby capable stu- 
dents may hasten their work; it should not be made a victim of a process that demor- 
alizes its senior class in the interests of another institution. 

It may be objected that for some students the physical difficulty of attending dis- 
tant high schools is too serious to be considered. This is certainly a habit of thought 
rather than a matter of fact. Many high schools both in Missouri and in other states 
have considerable colonies of students drawn in for the week from the neighboring 
country. The high school at Ava, in Douglas County, Missouri, is an excellent ex- 
ample of an isolated but thoroughly modern school serving the whole surrounding 
region in this manner. With its teacher-training class it constitutes a miniature normal 
school for the district, and renders a service that could be duplicated at will in any 
similar locality. So long as secondary students are allowed to teach at all, they should 
be prepared at these distributed training centres, where good student material is avail- 
able from which a selection can be made, thus in turn strengthening the high school 
itself for its local purpose. 1 

1 The problem of housing and supervising: young" students in a high school town need be no more difficult than at the 
present normal schools. Only one of the latter has even partial dormitory arrangements, the students everywhere oc- 
cupying rooms secured in the several neighborhoods. Segregation of boys and girls and approval of rooming houses 



300 OPERATION OF THE NORMAL SCHOOLS 

SPECIAL NEEDS OF THE OLDER SECONDARY STUDENT 

On the other hand, would-be students who have reached the age of nineteen with- 
out attending a secondary school, or who may have attended for a year or two and 
then have taught for a series of years, constitute a different problem altogether. For 
such people the ordinary high school does not make suitable provision : its student 
body is too youthful for comfortable association, and its processes, if not unnecessarily 
slow, are unsuited to the older group; furthermore the presence of much older and 
more experienced minds of low attainment reacts harmfully upon younger students. 
For such belated, tho often capable and worthy individuals, the middle western nor- 
mal school has, from its beginning, been a haven of refuge. The completeness with 
which large numbers of these candidates have disappeared and been assimilated within 
its frequently enormous bulk is the clearest testimony to its formlessness. Instead of 
preparing selected material in the best possible way for a fixed purpose, it has been 
intent upon giving each individual, for his own sake, a vocational opportunity to 
fill any teaching niche that might offer, regardless of whether he took one term or a 
dozen to prepare for it; and it has utilized for this purpose, usually in good faith, the 
various time-saving devices elsewhere described. Under rural and pioneer conditions 
this was a necessary and welcome service, but as social requirements have become defi- 
nite and specialized, the emphasis in professional matters has inevitably changed from 
the mere welfare of the individual to the quality of the service that he is prepared 
to render the community; he is selected, trained, tested, and inspected, not to ensure 
him a successful career as a breadwinner, but to guarantee his proper performance for 
the sake of others, and professional institutions should be most insistent in upholding 
this view. In so far as the selection of material has been concerned, conditions have 
been improving rapidly in Missouri, particularly since 1914 ; collegiate students are 
much more carefully separated than formerly from those who lack complete entrance 
qualifications. It remains to provide in some adequate manner for the large number 
of mature students, usually already teachers of some experience, who have not satis- 
fied these requirements. 

A STATE HIGH SCHOOL 

An essential feature of a provision for this purpose should be its distinctness of 
organization; a school for such people should stand as separate and apart from the 
normal schools as from the regular high schools; it should have a completely separate 
staff, separate buildings, and, if possible, a separate location ; it should be in session 
the year round; it should be as free to adapt itself to its peculiar function as is any 
other state institution, and should aim to provide for mature secondary students pre- 
paring not only for normal schools but for the university, as well as supplying high 
school opportunities for any adult students who may not wish to continue their edu- 

is usually required by the schools, but at Springfield, a city of forty thousand population, not even this is demanded. 
A good high school administration could easily develop a system of control at least equally satisfactory. 



ORGANIZATION OF ATTENDANCE 301 

cation beyond that point. Such institutions would be nothing other than state high 
schools taking their warrant from the analogy of the state university. These could be 
easily organized, for the present, in connection with certain of the normal schools, by 
effecting a rigid separation, as regards staff, program, and attendance, between the 
students in the normal school proper and all secondary students over twenty years of 
age, no younger applicants being admitted unless clearly unsuited to high school 
membership. It is probable that the demand for such institutions would diminish 1 
considerably as higher requirements for teachers' certificates were made universal by 
law throughout the state. They might then be reduced in number, possibly to one, 
having a central location and accessible from all directions. A plan of this kind would 
furnish a practicable and congenial arrangement whereby older and retarded students 
could recover their handicap to the best advantage, and whereby really valuable and 
ambitious minds could be saved to the state without prejudice to a sound organization 
of the normal schools. 

3. Organization of Attendance' 21 
THE PROBLEM OF NORMAL SCHOOL ATTENDANCE 

The historical circumstances out of which the present problem of attendance at 
the Missouri normal schools has arisen have already been described. 3 It will be re- 
membered that the schools were started at a time when formal training for teaching 
was all but completely lacking in the state, and that they were kept alive, often by 
desperate effort, for a public largely, apathetic or openly hostile. Their leaders were 
quasi-missionaries. Their aims were two-fold: they sought, on the one hand, to at- 
tract and interest boys and girls in education, and on the other, to justify their own 
existence before a critical legislature that could be impressed chiefly by size. They 
were independent, autonomous organizations actuated by a generous rivalry. Given 

1 The actual as well as relative number of secondary students at the schools is apparently diminishing with great 
rapidity. Springfield reports (Catalogue, 1917-18) 864 secondary students out of 1797 or 48 per cent as compared with 
1207 or 63 per cent in 1913-14. Kirksville gives her proportions in 1916-17 as 20 per cent, which would be about 337 
(Catalogue, 1917, page 18) as compared with 805 or 54 per cent in 1913-14, but it is not clear how this figure was reached. 
When the records of this school were studied, it was found to be im possible to ascertain the real classification of large 
numbers of students. To the question as to how the report required by the state superintendent was compiled, the 
reply was given that the numbers were "estimated by the membership in various representative classes or in other 
ways." It is noteworthy that these reports from Kirksville are uniformly in round numbers^When it is recalled that 
this school has frequently made up its secondary units in connection with attendance on " college " classes, it will 
be seen that the chancefor error in this method of reckoning is high. The figures used in this study were arrived at 
by an examination of each student's program an obviously unsatisfactory method, but the only one available in 
the absence of a definite classification based upon the amount and character of secondary work completed. 

2 Development of the Calendar. From the establishment of the First District Normal School at Kirksville, in 1871, 
until 1904, all of the schools observed a thirty-eight or forty-week, two-semester calendar, with each semester sub- 
divided into two terms. Meanwhile the summer session appeared. Started at Warrensburg in 1894 as a private 
undertaking of the faculty, it was formally taken over by the regents in 1900. Summer sessions were inaugurated at 
Kirksville in 1890 and at Cape Girardeau in 1897. Springfield and Maryviile opened their careers with summer ses- 
sions in 1906. These special sessions of the school, at first but six weeks in length, quickly became popular as an 
effective substitute for the earlier form of teachers* "institute" an improvised three or four week normal centre 
conducted for the training of teachers in service. The superiority of the summer session for that purpose finally 
became so apparent that in 1904 the calendar was altered from a semester to a term basis, and the summer session 
was included as the fourth twelve-week term of the regular school year. It has gradually shrunk to a ten-week 
term, at first with compensating work on Saturdays and later without this equivalent Credit is, however, main- 
tained at the fall amount. 

8 See pages 36-41. 



302 OPERATION OF THE NORMAL SCHOOLS 

such premises,, a certain type of organization follows almost of necessity. Every ap- 
plicant must be admitted at any time without inconvenience or disadvantage to him- 
self ; it must be possible, in turn, for a student to drop out at any point, likewise 
without disadvantage to himself, except for the actual loss of time while absent. 
Such a policy is clearly most gratifying to the student, and to his parents and his 
friends in the community; 1 it gains support for the schools, and is the policy best cal- 
culated to increase attendance. 

EDUCATIONAL EFFECTS OF THE PRESENT SYSTEM 

Educationally this policy has certain very definite implications. It makes a curricu- 
lum organized for a purpose and followed in sequence impossible; or at least it places 
a very high premium upon an indiscriminate or loosely grouped elective system for 
the sake of ease in administration. The larger the number of short, interchangeable 
units, the more easily can programs be made up and irregular students accommo- 
dated. The consequent results are bad. Ten new students report for the second term 
of a history, literature, or science sequence. If fairly treated, and certainly if they 
constitute a majority of the class, they must have the general aims and setting of the 
course repeated; instructions about study, reading, or gathering material must be 
gone over a second time, and the new students must be broken into possibly new habits 
of work while the others mark time. Worst of all, the earlier course is of no assistance 
to the later course in the minds of the newcomers, and if these are to progress with- 
out it, those who have taken the earlier work must lose what is rightfully theirs. The 
teacher must forego allusion to earlier comment, situation, or example. To handle 
the year's work as a whole is like discussing a play with an audience half of which 
has missed the first two acts. All thought of the larger development and coherence of 
the material is therefore dropped, and the work of the course resolves itself solely 
into what can be seen within the limits of that particular ten or twelve week term, as 
tho teacher and student had never met before. The class is always starting again and 
never accumulates the real momentum which is the chief result of prolonged coop- 
eration by teacher and class. 

Aside from this impoverishing effect on instruction, the system is wasteful. Classes 
are repeated from term to term for small groups that in an organized curriculum 
would have but one place for that subject, and that in a sequence in which it in- 
terpreted its predecessor and prepared the way for work to come. Further, such a vari- 
ety of subjects being available, it is easy for students to form the habit of dropping 
one subject for another thru sheer caprice convenience of program, presence of 
friends, popular teachers, and so forth even tho they do not leave the school. On the 
other hand, it not infrequently happens that when the two or three parts of a sub- 
ject are given during the same term by this system, a student will enroll in both or all. 

1 "We have students entering- at almost all seasons, and we undertake to adapt ourselves to the necessities of the 
communities which we serve," KirlcsviUe Catalogue, 1903, page 26i 



ORGANIZATION OF ATTENDANCE 303 

A student commencing English, history may be introduced by three separate begin- 
nings at one time. Indirectly the procedure cheapens the whole institution. It virtually 
begs the student to "drop in at any time," and such an opportunity does not command 
respect. Any student appreciates more keenly the organization that requires an ad- 
justment on his part, even to the point of some sacrifice, if it is plainly to his larger 
interest. A person who attends a college or university willingly adapts himself to the 
prerequisites and sequences that are demanded, even in a general course, and tradi- 
tionally takes the full curriculum or at least an unbroken year ; his experiences repre- 
sent a coherent development. The graduate of this type of normal school, on the con- 
trary, thinks of his work not in large, significant wholes, but in unrelated fragments 
heaped up at last to the proper height. Such normal schools can hardly object to 
being advertised by their one- term students when their curricula are but a medley 
of one-term courses to be picked up, dropped, or intermingled at will. 1 

There is but one favorable thing that may be said of this organization for the tran- 
sient student. It supplies a hand-to-mouth education for the student who must lead 
a hand-to-mouth existence. Under pioneer conditions such students are many, and 
are too precious to ignore. But the time comes when the demand for teachers with 
thorough preparation outweighs every other concern, and then these erstwhile bene- 
ficiaries should be provided for otherwise, while the normal school moves ahead on 
its proper path. 

The Missouri normal schools are acute sufferers from the system described above. 
About half of the teachers conducting sequences of two or more terms 2 (seventy- 
seven) still report appreciable changes in the membership of classes at the end of 
each term. 3 They very generally condemn this practice, tho a few have evidently be- 
come so used to it as to see no disadvantage, and two actually commend it. Typical 
criticisms are: " Class held back/' "Prevents consecutive work," "Harder for stu- 
dent/' "Much ground retraced/' "Student fails, or succeeds at expense of teacher/' 
" Confusion, waste, duplication of work," "Destroys interest, lowers standards," "Per- 
fect pandemonium/ 5 " New students a drag; no continuity." One teacher considers it 
a bore to have "absolute constant membership"! At some schools a considerable 
change occurs even in the middle of the term; especially in the spring when teachers 
come in after the close of their schools. Cape Girardeau teachers note this in eleven 
cases, and a class in Ancient History was visited there to which had just been added 
eight students wholly ignorant of the first six weeks' work. 4 At Warrensburg and 

1 The normal school- catalogues contain so many warnings against the Imposition of the pseudo-normal student (that 
is one of brief attendance) that the danger of misrepresentation must have been considerable. With a curriculum 
nothing: but arope of sand, however, it is hard to see how this can well be avoided. The school's only protection is an 
organized and continuous course- before a license to teach can be had. 

2 The reason more sequences are not reported is the best of evidence of the conditions described. AtMaryville, for 
example, these prevail to such an extent that true sequences in courses from term to term are no longer attempted. 
8 " Elementary Education, twenty-six entered, ten withdrew." " Algebra I, IT and in, less than 5 per cent continued 
thru ; 50-75 per cent new each term." " Rhetoric and American Literature drops 27 per cent end of first term and adds 
18 per cent; English Literature drops 35 per cent and adds 31 per cent." These are typical reports. 

* These were applicants for "approved grades." They were admitted to a beginning class six weeks ahead of them, 
and at the same time and in the same subject to an advanced class six weeks ahead of them. At the en d of the quarter 



304 OPERATION OF THE NORMAL SCHOOLS 

Mary ville this apparently does not happen. At all of the schools individual students 
appear to be admitted to classes at almost any time. " Students enter anywhere from 
first day to first eight weeks," says one primary English teacher 9 and she proceeds to 
state how she fills up the time until the class is collected. 

CHANGES IN STFDENT BODY FROM TEEM TO TERM 

About one-eighth of the students leave after the fall quarter and are replaced by 
a new sixth. After the winter term more than one- fourth leave and two-fifths enter 
or reenter. From spring to summer one-half remain, while one hundred thirty per 
cent more come in. This shift is much more pronounced among the secondary stu- 
dents than among the collegiate students, especially after the winter term. The latter 
have already developed considerable stability of attendance. Omitting the "spring 
only" and "spring and summer" collegiate students, inasmuch as they are chiefly 
teachers who come in after their short-term schools have closed, there remain one 
thousand two hundred sixty-nine collegiate attendants at the regular fall, winter, 
and spring sessions, and of these three-fourths are found staying thru either three* 
or all four quarters. These figures are for the total enrolment of 1913-14. Approx- 
imately the same result appears in a study of the attendance at four schools 1 when 
visited in 1915. A group was made up which comprised all those who had attended 
three terms or more in the collegiate department. These numbered four hundred sev- 
enty-three, and seven-tenths of them had made at least three terms of their collegiate 
work consecutive. 2 This is most encouraging in view of the proposal for a fixed and 
regular session. Add to these such stud