Certificating of Teachers - HERMAN S. PIATT.. Arithmetic in the Common Schools - W. W. STETSON, A Thought for Seven Days - MARGARET W. SUTHERLAND. Money-Lust STANLEY LAWRENCE. Chancellor's "Our Schools"... Editorials Educational News Traveling Libraries Teachers' Institutes The School and the Master.. Resolutions of Superintendents' Round Table.. 8 12 15 17 24 25 28 39 39 40 43 Resolutions Adopted by the State Association of School Examiners.. 44 A series prepared in consultation with Albert Bushnell Essentials in Ancient History . . $1.50 From the earliest records to Charlemagne. By ARTHUR M. Essentials in Mediæval and Modern History 1.50 From Charlemagne to the present day. By SAMUEL B. HARD- Essentials in English History . From the earliest records to the present day. By ALBERT PERRY 1.50 Essentials in American History From the discovery to the present day. By ALBERT BUSHNELL American Book Company PUBLISHERS . 1.50 CLEVELAND PUBLIC LIBRARY The longer on this earth we live, And weigh the various qualities of men, The more we feel the high, stern featured beauty Steadfast and still, nor paid with mortal praise, For life's ungarlanded expense, There are always two things that the certificating authorities would like to know in regard to every candidate first, they would like to know if she has an adequate knowledge of the subjects she is likely to be called upon to teach; and second, they would like to know if she has the teaching ability to successfully conduct a school. Originally the law made no effort to ascertain anything but the first, the assumption apparently being that anybody can teach anything that he knows. Latterly some legal provision has been made for determining teaching ability. To localize the discussion, the Ohio law attempts to meet the first desideratum by declaring that the examiners shall certify, in the case of elementary teachers, that "he or she is qualified to teach orthography, reading, writing, arithmetic, English grammar, and composition, history of the United States including civil government, physiology including narcotics, and literature." It attempts to meet the second desideratum by adding "and that he or she possesses an adequate knowl edge of the theory and practice of teaching." Let us see how far this examination furnishes the information desired by the examiners. The successful teacher needs to know the subjects she may be called upon to teach. That goes without saying. And this includes all the subjects of the curriculum, because the beginner has no business specializing as to grade until she has taught several years. But there are other things she should know. She should have some measure of that general culture, which is the common heritage of intelligent people, and this knowledge is quite as important for real teaching as the former. I know of no better means of reaching an estimate of a candidate's requirements in both these lines than an examination at the hands of a competent examiner. I believe an oral examination would be far preferable to a written one, but under present conditions this is practically impossible. I believe that criticism should be directed not so much against the examination itself, as against the character of the examination as at present conducted. Discussion of the question generally seems to assume that the present form and manner of conducting such tests are the only ones possible. The most casual inspection of current examination questions, from whatever source, will show that they are fully 90 per cent. sheer tests of memory. |