Table Talk [pp. 636-638]

636APPLETONS' JO (JRNAL OF POPULAR [JUNE 4,
The lake, a portion of which is shown in our illustration, now has
a water surface of fifteen acres, but when completed it will contain
about fifty acres, and will be abundantly supplied with pleasure-boats
of all kinds. When we say that the park is over half finished, we
mean to say that over one-half of the labor necessary has been completed; but this labor has much, in fact most of it, been of a character
which does not show its results to the casual visitor, the purely ornamental being still almost untouched, and of a character which it will
probably take two years to develop. One of the finest views in the
park is that from the rustic shelter near the principal entrance.
The main entrance, which is reached by the Flatbush Avenue and
Atlantic Avenue cars, is a large circular space called the" Plaza,"
which is covered with Belgian pavement, and which contains a splendid fountain and a bronze statue of Abraham Lincoln. The plaza is made
really beautiful by three graceful artificial mounds covered with turf,
which serve to conceal the approaches and to break the fiat uniformity
of stone which would otherwise be presented. A similar plaza will be
prepared at the eastern entrance.
NORMAL SCHOOLS.
ORMAL schools in this country are of comparatively recent date.
The mode of conducting them is still a work of experimentwith some of us, at least. The experience of normal schbols in Europe is not in any great degree available,to us. We must determine
for ourselves the best method of conducting schools for training
teachers. That is our work-not to build up institutions to rival our
academies and colleges, but institutions to prepare teachers for the
common schools. This I regard as a work worthy of the ablest and
best-trained minds.
Our work is, to prepare men and women to become teachers. How
shall we teach our pupils to teach?
How did we, who are "deemed and taken" to be teachers, learn
to teach? Did we not all learn to teach by teaching, or by trying to
teach, just as we all learned to walk by walking, or by trying to walk?
At the outset, we followed the example of those who taught us. We
selected one or more of our teachers as a model or as models. We
did not servilely imitate them. Their example gave direction to our
course, which was perhaps subsequently modified, corrected, improved,
by our experience.
Teaching is an art. The teacher is an artist; he is a professor of
the finest of the fine arts-that of developing, directing, "giving form
and pressure" to the immortal mind. His mode of acquiring skill is
analogous to that of the painter. The painter selects his models,
not that he may copy them, but to aid him in developing his conceptions of excellence. He also catches something of the spirit of his
model-practises a kind of unconscious imitation, which is not at all
inconsistent with originality. In like manner, the teacher may catch
something of the spirit of his model, and practise an unconscious
imitation.
In the fine arts, or, rather, in the other fine arts, the importance
of models is fully admitted. No amount of instruction on the principles of an art, and no amount of effort under the guidance of those
principles, will supply the place of models. Principles themselves
can be taught most effectively by skilful exemplification.
The first thing that we need for the benefit of our pupils in normal schools is good teachers-model teachers. The very best educational talent should be secured. What we want is, not doctors of
divinity and of law and of philosophy, and mistresses of arts and devices, but men and women who know how to teach.
In the next place, we should teach our pupils thee branches which
they will be called to teach-reading, spelling, arithmetic, geography,
penmanship, the English language. Other branches should be added;
but I think these should be taught in the normal school. Two objects
will be gained by this:
1. The pupils will be acquainted with the studies they will be called
to teach.
2. In the process of being properly taught, they will learn to
teach; they will, at least, be made familiar with good models. This
I regard as far more important than lectures on the art of teaching.
Some suppose that the normal school teaches the elementary
branches from an unfortunate necessity-the pupils come so imperfectly prepared that the normal school must turn aside from its proper
work, that of training its pupils in the science and art of teaching, to
drill them in studies with which they ought to be familiar before they
come.
From such I differ. I would teach the pupils these studies because
I regard it as one of the most efficient rmeans of teaching them to
teach. Let the pupil be taught by one who knows how to teach, and
he will be apt to go and do likewise. I grant that it is the province
of the normal school to teach the principles of the art of teachingthat is, so far as is practicable. It requires some degree of mental
discipline fully to understand what is meant by a principle, and its
relation to a rule deduced from it, and still more to understand a principle and deduce rules from it for one's self. We must adapt our
instructions to the capacities and mental condition of our pupils. It
may be easy for us to lay down principles systematically; but it may
not be so easy for our pupils to understand us. We should teach
principles so far as we can; but I apprehend that to pupils in the normal school they are best taught in connection with class-instruction,
as exemplified in the teaching received.
It may be said that, by requiring a higher degree of attainment as
the condition of admittance, the course could be elevated. That is
true. But is the object of a normal school to secure as elevated a
course as possible, or to use the means best adapted to make good
common-school teachers? If this be the object, then one of the
means should be thorough instruction in the studies they will be
called to teach.
With this instruction should be blended what is usually termed
normal instruction, or instruction in the art of teaching. When a
topic has been properly presented to the class, in a manner adapted
to the condition of the class, attention can be called to the proper
method of presenting it to minds in a different condition. The pupil
will thus get the idea that the best teaching is that best adapted to
the minds of those taught. You may give a lecture or course of lectures on the modes of teaching arithmetic, or you may blend that
instruction with the presentation of the successive topics of instruetion. The latter, I am inclined to think, will have a greater influence
on the practice of the pupils than the former.
Next comes practice in the Art of teaching. Hence there must be
a school for practice connected with the normal school. The pupils
should teach in this school, under the supervision of the heads of departments in the normal school. The teacher of mathematics in the
normal should supervise the teaching of mathematics in the school
for practice. The other teachers should supervise the teaching in
their respective departments. By this means individual instruction
can be given.
This practice should extend over a period of at least nine weeks,
and should, during that period, occupy the chief attention of the
pupil.
I would not have the course of study in a normal school limited to
the branches usually taught in common schools. Whatever can be
done during the period allotted to the course, in the way of instruction
and discipline in other studies, should be done. The more true culture one has, the better teacher he may become. The teacher influences by what he is, as well as by what he says; hence, the more culture
he possesses, the better.
Two inferences may be drawn from what has been said. The first
is, that all good teachers, whether in the common school, the academy,
or the college, are normal teachers-that is, are teachers of the art
of teaching. Normal schools have not a monopoly of the good
work.
The second is, that too much must not be expected from normal
schools. Those who conduct them should not attempt more than is
feasible. Sending one to a normal school will not of necessity make
a teacher of him any more than sending him to a musical conservatory
will of necessity make a musician of him. Not every one who has a
capacity to acquire knowledge has capacity to become a teacher. Only
a part of those who repair to the normal school will become teachers
worthy of the name.
TABLE-TALK.
T is singular that, in questions of wealth, the simplest laws of politi cal economy are rarely understood. We ceaselessly hear the
accumulation of riches deplored, when this accumulation is desired
for what are called purely selfish ends. "Some seek wealth," sap i a
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