teacher in any one grade of our system of public schools to make himself skilful in teaching any other grade, whether it may be above or below the one he is appointed to teach. As the principle and method of teaching are the same for all grades of school exercises, and as we have found the different grades to be so related that the teacher of one grade must conduct his work with some reference to all other grades, every practice-school organized as a constituent part of a normal school should include in its system, classes pursuing all grades of elementary and scientific instruction. Trained under such a system the normal graduate will be able to take up his special work as one part of a whole whose unity must be preserved that the ends of elementary and scientific instruction may be attained.

The practice-school should be supplied with an ample collection of natural objects, so arranged that the young pupils in their observation of them as individuals, will be led to discover resemblances and differences which are the elements used in classification. They should be supplied with such simple illustrative apparatus as is necessary to use in reproducing the phenomena of objects and of forces in such forms as render systematic observation of them possible. They should be supplied also with well selected books for information on those subjects that are beyond the reach of observation, and for examples of the right construction and use of language.

In connection with the study of the science and art of teaching for knowledge, and the practice of teaching for skill, the normal school may direct attention to the philosophy of school organization, and school government. In teaching these topics of the course, plans of organization for school exercises, and of school government for controlling conduct, must all be derived from a knowledge of the principles of education, and of the ends to be secured by their application. The public school is a state institution, and therefore the administration of its external affairs must conform to the laws of the state. These laws must be known that they may be obeyed, and they must be obeyed that the estab lishment and support of the public common schools may be made possible, and the attendance upon them be made compulsory for all the people, and the education communicated in them be adapted to make men, fitted for private life and for good citizenship. A

brief study of the school laws of the state may follow the study of the professional courses of the normal school.

The last topic in the normal course is the History of Education. This topic should be taken last in the course, as the mind of the professional student is not prepared to comprehend either the nature or the value of educational systems and methods until he has become familiar with the principles of education and with the ends which the schools should produce. A knowledge of principles. and ends is necessary as a guide in the study of history for examples to follow.

There are evidently four steps in a preparation to teach in the public schools. The first consists in learning that which is to be taught, and in acquiring that development of mind of which the act of learning is the cause. This knowledge and discipline should be obtained in the elementary and secondary schools of the state, and in the college. The normal schools of the future should not be burdened as they have been in the past with work that belongs to the preparatory schools. The necessity for academical work in the normal schools has corrupted their courses of instruction and has deprived them of time and occasions for professional training.

The second step in a preparation to teach is taken in acquiring a knowledge of the science and art of teaching. This acquisition should be made in a thoroughly organized and equipped normal school during the first two or three years of attendance. If the preparatory studies have been fairly well mastered by the candidates for professional instruction, and if the candidates have acquired that maturity of mind which such scholarship implies, then they will be able on entering the normal school to take up at once and with facility a strictly professional course of study.

The third step in order should consist of a systematic application of the knowledge that has been acquired. This practice should be taken in a model or training school organized as nearly as possible like a public school, but conducted as an essential element of the normal school. Practice in the model schools if intelligently conducted, will enable the normal graduates to enter the public schools experienced teachers.

The fourth and last topic to be pursued in the normal course will direct attention to a careful review of what has been

passed over in the normal school, and to the history of the work of educational reformers, for a comparison of ancient with modern methods, and for examples that may be wisely imitated, or for a knowledge of that which may be wisely avoided. The teaching conducted in a normal school should consist in directing the learner in his study of the mind for the principles of education; and in his study of the objects and subjects of knowledge to be used for the occasions of education. Teaching by lectures in a normal school or by books may cultivate the passive powers of the normal student and train him to imitate, but it will generally fail in making him a leader in pedagogical work. Teachers trained by the absorbing process are apt to violate every principle of good teaching when they come before their classes, and they show their want of independent power in all their attempts to

use it.

The normal schools of the country are important educational institutions. They are the source from which our trained teachers are obtained. By deriving their methods of teaching from a knowledge of the laws of the mind they have made teaching a profession. They have made the public school popular with the masses. They have extended their reforming and progressive influences to the higher institutions of learning, modifying their courses of instruction and putting life into their methods of teaching.

In establishing the normal schools and in maintaining them at public expense, the state has signified its will that those who are to have charge of forming the habits and the character of its citizens shall have a training for the important service. The time has already passed with us when the education of the young for their places in life may be left to those who have no good reasons for what they do, or definite knowledge of what they have done. The time has come when the school authorities should require the teachers they employ to be able to pass a satisfactory examination, not only on the subjects they are to teach, but also on the science and art and history of teaching. To meet the demand of this progressive age, the normal schools must be thoroughly organized. They must be supplied with pupils full of inherited strength and beauty, and fully prepared to enter at once upon a professional course of studies. They must be taught by teachers

of sound learning in all that which pertains to the philosophy and art of teaching. The teachers must be provided with abundant means of teaching, and with sufficient time for the accomplish ment of their tasks, and then, confining themselves to their legitimate work, such as has been described, they may be expected to produce the most satisfactory results.

NOTES ON PRINCIPLES OF EDUCATION.

M. MACVICAR, LL.D., NEW YORK CITY.

III.

GENERAL PRINCIPLES.

18. An impartial and careful examination of the whole phenomena of life reveals clearly three great classes, viz.: Vegetal Life, Animal Life and Mind Life.

(a). The exact line which separates these three classes of life may be difficult to determine, yet, notwithstanding this, the fact of the existence of the three classes cannot, upon any sound principles of classification be rejected. It is, perhaps, well to note here, that there exists no more difficulty in determining the line of separation between mind life and animal life, than between animal life and vegetal life.

(b). Each one of these three classes of life has its own peculiar laws of growth or development, and hence each class is in a certain sense, alike susceptible of education. The fundamental problem therefore of education is the discovery and application of these laws; hence the careful study of biology and psychology is of first importance to the true educator.

19. Each individual life originates in a parent life, and derives from that parent life its inherent constitution.

(a). This proposition is now generally conceded by scientific authorities. Belief in spontaneous generation is a thing of the past.

(b). What life is in itself is still a disputed question. Two views commonly prevail upon the subject. It is maintained on the one hand that life is the product of physical forces, and on the other, that it is an independent and distinct entity or endowment. The latter is the view adopted in these notes.

(e). Adopting the latter view, it is maintained that the life is the organizing power which selects and disposes of the materials, physical and otherwise, which compose and perpetuate each organ of the body and faculty of the mind. It is maintained also, that the life alone determines the nature and extent of the possibilities inherent in both body and mind.

(d). The parent life bestows upon its offspring its own type of life and organism. This includes what may be called the natural or original type, and also such changes in life and organism as may have been acquired by the parent life. The acquired power or dexterity, for example, of some organ or faculty, as well as the original type, may be transmitted from parent to offspring.

20. Education, in a broad sense, may be defined as the process by which external conditions or appliances are made by the action of an agent the means of unfolding or developing symmetrically all the possibilities of a single life.

(a). The word education is commonly used in two senses. It is used as in this definition to denote a process, but it is also used to denote the result or product of the process. As a process a true and complete education means the course of training, instruction, and discipline through which a human being must pass to acquire the full and legitimate exercise of all the organs of the body, the full and legitimate exercise of all the powers of the mind, and so much systematized knowledge as will fit him to use, in an intelligent and efficient manner, the organs of his body and powers of his mind, in performing physical, intellectual, moral, and spiritual work. As a result or product, a true education means a symmetrically developed body and mind, possessed of power, right habits, pure and elevated tastes, and systematized knowledge.

(b). A true and complete education, in accordance with this definition, is a growth, a development, an evolution, (using the term evolution in a restricted sense) of all the possibilities which God has implanted in our nature; it is the unifying of these possibilities subordinating them all to the control of the will; it is, in short, the crystallization of all these possibilities into a pure and noble character. This result is the product of the joint action of inherent natural powers, and environments supplied by parents, teachers and other agencies.

(c). The process of education in whatever way it may be carried on involves three factors: namely, the teacher, the pupil, and