ORIGINAL INVESTIGATION IN NORMAL SCHOOLS.

FREDERICK E. BOLTON, PH.D., PROFESSOR OF PSYCHOLOGY AND PEDAGOGY, STATE NORMAL SCHOOL, MILWAUKEE, WIS.

WITH

(Concluded.)

ITH reference to the subject-matter, I would say that I believe it lies within the province of normal school teachers to make contributions to the selection and arrangement of materials for instruction. Unearthing sources in history and discovering new laws in physics and chemistry do not lie within their province, but very properly and necessarily the pedagogical selection and arrangement of the material should be undertaken by normal school teachers. Though they may not have time to write entire text-books on their subjects, they ought to collaborate with university men in the compilation of their books. University men naturally make contributions to the subject-matter solely from the standpoint of the logical and scientific development of the subject, and take little or no account of pedagogical considerations. Collaboration would be reciprocally benefited, for both are engaged in teaching, and good teaching must ever regard both the scientific and the pedagogic aspect of the subjects. Neither can be slighted and have the best results follow. As a matter of fact most text-books are written by the specialists, with reference to the subject, or by practical school men, which have given us curious mixtures of the so-called practical and the semblance of method. The book written by the practical teacher of limited scholarship too often exhibits the mere skeletons of subjects, and these badly out of proportion. Witness some of the histories that our children. have been obliged to study: beautifully skeletonized, but so devoid of that which makes the life of historical study,—the facts and details themselves-they are so dry that they can but serve as fossils to remind the future generations of the afflictions of the past. So book making should not be in the hands of the empiricist. To wholly divorce teaching from scholarship and consider technique alone is narrowing in the extreme.

Some of our text-books are also still written by the literary hack, who is ready to compile a dictionary, annotate a classical text, or write an algebra as the occasion offers. On such stuff

as these pan-geniuses ground out many pupils of past generations have been fed, and unfortunately some of the same pabulum is still on the market. The teachings of such books have furnished no inspiration toward scholarship, and in some cases, especially in history, the teachings have been absolutely pernicious. Undoubtedly the type of text-books on history which reigned supreme for a generation or more was responsible for the intense dislike for history which was almost universal among children. More than that, very undesirable and almost ineradicable national prejudices and animosities have been enkindled and perpetuated by these injudicious writers-not historians, but mongers of tales which have become distorted through their own unbridled fancy.*

Although highly desirable that normal school teachers should be instrumental in the arrangement of books both for the normal schools and for the lower schools, yet they have done very little in this direction. In considering this matter I have examined the books used in the normal schools, and find scarcely a book that has been written by a normal school teacher. A few exceptions of course are known; for example, the very important work of Professor Shutts on Geometry, Parker's Talks on Pedagogics, Milne's algebras and geometries, Seeley's History of Education, Taylor's Study of the Child, Kirkpatrick's Inductive Psychology, the McMurrys' books on methodology, Boyer's Principles and Methods, Putnam's Pedagogics, Hewett's Psychology and Pedagogy, Miss Mead's work on English, Miss Mooney's studies in Rhetoric, Rettger's Physiology, and a few others occasionally find their way into the normal schools. But the list is soon exhausted. In a given school only a very few of the above list or of others written by normal school teachers ever find their way into the school as regular texts. In the Milwaukee school out of one hundred and twenty-eight books listed as texts and frequently used references, only seven were written by normal school teachers. Only four of these are really used as texts. Turning to elementary and high school books the case is little different. Scarcely a book of any influence in shaping the teaching and written by a normal school man is to be found in the lower schools. Again, here we find exceptions.

*See Educational Review, Jan., 1900.

We could all name John W. Cook's arithmetics, Milne's series of mathematics and a few others, but the list would be even shorter than the one of those in use in the normal schools. Even the high school teachers are shaping the methods of teaching and the arrangement of subject-matter much more than we are. We seem to think that our teaching and the notebooks our students carry away with them will shape thought sufficiently. But do not be deceived. The text-books in use in the schools not presided over by experts do more to shape the methods, the arrangement and selection of material than any didactics the students get in their training course. This leads me to emphasize the necessity of publication. Nothing will serve to shape and crystallize thinking so much as printer's ink. The advertiser believes this; otherwise whole pages of the newspapers would not be devoted to advertising alone, and the remainder of the sheet full of disguised hooks; otherwise whole tons of booklets and circulars would not be thrown so indiscriminately about the streets. They know the print will catch the eyes of the multitudes and the dollars of a goodly proportion. The politicians believe in the efficiency of printer's ink, also. Otherwise newspapers would not be maintained as political organs nor campaign literature by the million dollars' worth scattered broadcast through the land. They know that the expressions of the few, crystallized by printer's ink, will become the beliefs of the many. Indeed, it is true that "A drop of ink may make a million think!"

As an illustration of the increased power a doctrine may assume when published over that which it has when merely orally transmitted, I may instance Superintendent Harvey's "lesson plan" based upon the doctrine of apperception. This method he, in collaboration with Professor Patzer, had worked out very definitely, and it had gone into operation in one school; it had been re-echoed throughout the State teachers' institutes by institute conductors. But as soon as he crystallized his thought by publication, his ideas were definitely seized upon and their influence increased a hundred-fold in a short space of time.

To illustrate how men and schools become known through publication, everyone can instantly tell who the McMurrys are, who De Garmo, Van Liew, John W. Cook, Harlow Russell,

Jackman and Francis W. Parker are; everyone knows also for what they stand, and also a great deal about the respective schools in which these men have worked. They are known through their publications. Other men,-other schools doing equally good work, but unheralded by books and writings— have become known only locally. Moreover their influence has been only local. The writings of the former reach larger audiences than their voices could possibly command. Printing, that great agent which differentiates modern civilization from Middle Age methods, should be used to spread the influence of the normal schools. The college man who makes no use of printer's ink is exerting only a tithe of his legitimate influence. I know of two brothers, both college professors, and probably of equal abilities, but whose influences have been of widely differing degrees. The one has been a most devoted teacher, spending his entire time in the classroom of a small college. His entire energies have been spent in trying to mold and shape the lives of the youth who have come to his classroom. I have lived all my life within a hundred miles of his college, yet until a few days ago I never knew of his existence. Someone who knew him intimately, recognizing his superior abilities, induced him to enter upon a broader field of work, and the world began to hear his name, The name of the brother is known to almost every boy of high school age throughout the country. Indirectly his labors have influenced, in certain directions, many thousands of lives. I cannot but feel that if a part of the time of the other, so conscientiously devoted to the class room, had been expended in some form of constructive work, that his local influence would have been not one whit decreased, rather increased, and the aggregate value of his services to mankind would have been vastly multiplied. If one has light it should not be hid under a bushel!

Talmage and Moody without printer's ink would have been comparatively unknown. As it is, it is said that more people have read Talmage within the past decade than have read the Bible itself. His doctrines and tenets are known in every village and hamlet of the English-speaking world.

Suppose that the reports of the Committees of Ten, Twelve, Fifteen and Seven had never been published? The spirit of

them would have suffered great perversion by oral communication, their influence would have been largely local, and would soon have almost entirely evaporated. As it is they have been the most important leavening agencies in our educational organization that have been known in all our history.

It seems to me that if we consider that the normal schools are maintained in the interests of the public schools of the State, that it is but a fair proposition to maintain that the normal schools ought to extend their influence in every legitimate manner possible. One way is by direct class-room teaching; another by institute work. These are basal, but I believe that influence would be much extended and good points thoroughly clinched by a judicious use of printer's ink. Every good teacher finds it necessary to depart radically from the text-books. In such cases it would be of advantage to have carefully digested and well formulated thoughts to substitute. These might be indicated in syllabi, outlines of lectures with carefully worded definitions, reading references, etc. The advantage will be manifold. It would, in the first place, serve to clarify and enlarge the teacher's thoughts by necessitating careful and exhaustive thinking. Secondly, it would crystallize his ideas so that they might reach in a definite form an enlarged circle of students. Furthermore the syllabi would be of great aid to students in reviewing, and would save much needless note taking. Other advantages might be named, but they are so obvious to everyone that an enumeration is rendered unnecessary. I can merely enumerate other lines than collaboration in text-book making that ought to be attempted by normal school teachers. These other lines indicate the meeting place of theory and of subject-matter. These might properly include considerations of general method, methods in special subjects, ethical and culture values of special subjects, social and economic aspects of education, educational values, relation of parents and teachers, the teacher as a social factor, hygienic conditions of buildings, hygiene of instruction, educational values, courses of study, etc. One of the most definite examples of investigation of methodology that has been carried out in normal schools is that of Superintendent Harvey's "lesson plan," begun by him when President of the Milwaukee Normal, and now being elaborated by Professor Patzer of the same school.