Part 7 (2/2)
The fact was, I saw that the gentle to read _me_, as well as thehih to be very minute and specific in e, while the questions about mathematics were propounded just like those about half a dozen other points; that is, with no special stress or eh to draw from the Professor a clear and distinct expression of opinion
_Boy No 5_ was perhaps the most critical case of all, yet the one ood, in all his studies He stood head in alood that his character became or that marked all his performances His moral were like his mental traits He was indeed our model boy In two years he had not had one demerit mark He was on all sides rounded and cooodness was sorowing up with a self-satisfied, pharisaical spirit
Thus far, however, I have not naarded as the critical one, and which had led me to select him as one of the subjects for examination Model boys are to be found in all schools But this boy had a power of reticence which was to me a continual study, and it was this feature in his character that I wanted to bring out in the exa sly about him His conduct was open and aboveboard What he did was patent to all But what he thought, or how he felt, no one knew Not Grant himself could ated, Joseph obeyed it to the letter But whether it was agreeable or disagreeable to him, no teacher could ever find out Nor was his obedience of that tame, passive sort which comes from indifference and lack of spirit We all knew hi passions But his power of self-restraint was equal to his power of reticence He had, indeed, in a very ree, qualities which you look for only in those who have had a long schooling in the stern realities of life, and which you find rarely even then He was as self-poised as a man of fifty, with not a particle of that easy ie
None of the gentleman's perforned to this boy, and all theof the boy's self-continence and reserve ritten upon his face and eneral ter sort of disposition--not being really worse than his co so 'If he got into more scrapes than the others [Joseph was never in a scrape in his life], it wasinherently bad in hiet into a scrape, he had no faculty for concealing it His organ of secretiveness was unusually small The boys would hardly admit him to a partnershi+p in their plans of mischief, so sure was he inadvertently to let the cat out of the bag,' etc, etc
_Boy No 6_ was the weakest boy, mentally, that we had in school He was barely able to take care of himself Some of his mistakes and blunders were so ridiculous, that they were handed down a the traditionary jokes of the school, and I am afraid even at this day to repeat thenized If the manipulator had had the craniuers, he could not have drawn a s to intellectual greatness of the highest order Finding that he washearers, the Professor continued to pile up qualities and powers, until the scene becaravity
The examinations occupied an hour, and Idown, as nearly as I could, the exact expressions used by the operator The report which I have now given of it is as nearly literal as it is safe to h, and was about to leave, he asked me privately to tell hi to say anything disagreeable, I evaded the question to the best of eneralities, but indicating sufficiently that it was not agreeable to be more explicit He pressed me, however, to tell him candidly and explicitly whether he had succeeded, and how far I then told him frankly that he had failed point-blank in every case ”Ah,” said he, ”you are skeptical” ”No, sir,” said I, ”skepticiser any doubts on the subject _My skepticism is entirely removed!_”
XXIV
NORMAL SCHOOLS
The tereneral adoption has led to much confusion of ideas The word ”Normal,” from the Latin _norma_, a rule or pattern to work by, does not differ essentially fro of the word, would be a pattern school, an institution which could be held up for irade But thisWhen we mean a school to be copied or imitated, we call it a Model School Here the na It is very different e speak of a Normal School To the uninitiated, the ter at all; or, if your hearer is a man of letters, it conveys to him an idea which you have at once to explain away You have to tell him, in effect, that a Normal School is not a Nor else, which the word does not in the least describe
What then do wewhich we have called by this unfortunate name?
A Normal School is a seminary for the professional education of teachers It is an institution in which those ish to become teachers learn how to do their work; in which they learn, not reading, but how to teach reading; not penraraphy, but how to teach geography; not arithmetic, but how to teach arithmetic The idea which lies at the basis of such an institute, is that knowing a thing, and knowing how to teach that thing to others, are distinguishable and very different facts The knowledge of the subjects to be taught, ive to the Teachers' Sereatly to be desired that the subjects thee, should be first learned elsewhere, before entering the Teachers' School This latter would then have to do only with its own special function, that of showing its matriculants how to use theseUnfortunately, we have not yet ress in popular education as to be able to separate these two functions to the extent that is desirable Many of those who attend a Teachers' Senorant of the coe They have consequently first to study these branches in the Normal School, as they would study them in any other school That is, they have first to learn the facts as e, and then to study the art and science of teaching these facts to others Instead of co with their brick and mortar ready prepared, that they may be instructed in the use of the trowel and the plumb-line, they have to make their brick and mix their mortar after they enter the institution This is undoubtedly a drawback and a misfortune But it cannot be helped at present All we can do is to define clearly the true idea of the Teachers' School, and then to work towards it as fast and as far as we can
A Normal School is essentially unlike any other school It has been compared indeed to those professional schools which are for the study of law, divinity, , and so forth The Normal School, it is true, is like these schools in one respect It is established with reference to the wants of a particular profession It is a professional school But those schools have for their main object the communication of some particular branch of science They teach law, divinity,They aiineers, not teachers of these branches
The Professor in the Law School aims, not to make Professors of law, but lawyers The medical Professor aims, not to make medical lecturers, but practitioners To render these institutions analogous to the Teachers'
Seineering, and so forth, and then sit at the feet of their Gamaliels to be initiated into the secrets of the Professorial chair, that they may in turn become Professors of those branches to classes of their own Nor would such a plan, if it were possible, be altogether without its value
It surely needs no dehest depart e is needed in order to teach An understanding of how to co it, are as necessary in teaching theology, es, infinitesi the alphabet If there are bunglers, who know not how to go to work to teach a child its letters, or to open its young mind and heart to the reception of truth, whose school-roo mind and heart are in a state, either of perpetual torpor, or of perpetual nightues in the men of ponderous erudition that sometimes fill the Professor's chair? Have we no exa, of men very eminent in scientific attainments, who have not in themselves the first ele ie e, attracting to it all eyes, but whose intellectual treasures, for all the practical wants of the students, are of no more use, than are the swathed and buried mummies in the pyramid of Cheops!
A Teachers' Seminary, if it were complete, would include in its curriculue, so far as it is taught by schools Our teachers of ic, of law and of e of the branches which they are to teach, and for this knowledge they do not need a Teachers' See Besides being men of erudition, they need to be teachers, no less than the humbler members of the profession, who have only to teach the alphabet and the h or low, so that is common to them all--an art and a skill which is different froe of the subjects; which is not necessarily learned in learning the subjects; which requires special, superadded gifts, and distinct study and training There is, according to reat a lack of this special skill in the higher se, as in the lower seminaries Were it possible to have a Normal School, not which should undertake to teach the entire encyclopaedia of the sciences, but which, li the art and e Professors, and even Divinity, Law, and Medical Professors,--e in those venerable institutions asin the common schools Of course, no such scheme is possible; certainly, none such is contemplated But I am very sure I shall not be considered calumnious, when I express the conviction, that there are learned and ereat benefit in an occasional visit to a good Normal School, or even to the class-room of a teacher trained in a Normal School I certainly have seen, in the very lowest depart, which, for a wise and intelligent co power upon the intellect and conscience, would co I have ever seen in a College or University
I come back, then, to the point from which I set out, namely, that a Normal School, or Teachers' Seminary, differs essentially froe and skill that are needed alike in all schools To make the point a little plainer, let me restate, hat clearness I can, some of the elementary truths and facts which lie at the foundation of the whole subject Though toover a beaten track, it ard to known and ad them occasionally afresh to the mind
As it has been already said, aperfectly, and yet not be able to teach it Of course, a man cannot teach what he does not know He e But the e does not make one a teacher, any more than the possession of powder and shot makes him a ler The most learned men are often unfortunately the verywhat they know
Nor is this incapacity confined to those versed in book knowledge It is coe Let ive an example The fact about to be stated, was co in Philadelphia, at that ti banks The fact occurred in his own personal experience He was, at the tied in the cloth trade His faculties of mind and body, and particularly his sense of touch, had been so trained in this business, that in going rapidly over an invoice of cloth, as his eye and hand passed in quick succession from piece to piece, in the most miscellaneous assortree of precision, and a certainty of knowledge, hardly credible A single glance of the eye, a single touch, transient as thought, gave the result His own knowledge of the subject, in short, was perfect, and it was rapidly winning hier and less experienced member of the craft, whom he wished to befriend, by what process he arrived at his judgment, in other words, to teach what he knew, he found hihts had never run in that direction ”Oh!”