A survey of the educational system of the Philippine islands by the Board of educational survey, created under acts 3162 and 3196 of the Philippine Legislature.

TEACHER TRAINING

413

the system where such instructions are supplied and adherence to them
required, thoroughly uncongenial if not intolerable.
Nor can supervision, however elaborate its machinery and however
satisfactory the personnel charged with its administration, compensate
in any large degree for deficient training on the part of teachers. To
bring supervision to its maximum of efficiency is so enormously expensive
as to be impracticable. In connection with detailed instructions to
teachers it tends to degenerate into an inspectorial checking of the degree
to which instructions are being followed. Under the same situation
administration develops into a mechanical organization to be entrusted
to the care of high priced clerks whose horizon is limited by establishing
procedure, and whose interest is centered on the preservation of the
machine and of their position of advantage therein. Initiative on the
part of the school staff, because it is likely to disturb the smooth running
of the mechanism, is discouraged. Suggestion of change is interpreted
as disloyalty to the system and those whose interest in educational
results overshadows their concern for the preservation of the established
order are driven from the service. In its last stages the supervision
which first degenerated into inspection falls a step lower and becomes
espionage. The school system which neglects teacher training has set
its course on this downward path.
The situation in the Philippines, because of the language problem,
makes teacher selection and training especially essential. If English
is to continue as the language of instruction, and however great the
difficulties which this program presents, the alternative seems to present
even greater, teachers must be prepared to teach English and in English
more effectively than they are now prepared to do. They must receive
a preparation to which the general high-school course contributes practically nothing and the normal course, as now organized, but little more.
Few Filipino teachers are now adequately prepared to teach in English.
The success of the system depends upon their being made so. This
can be done only through effective training, training which is specially
directed toward making the English which the teacher must use in the
classroom correct and adequate.
If the language of instruction should become other than English, the
magnitude of the problem would be undiminished. The necessity for
teacher training would remain as great. Only the content of the normalschool curriculum would be affected by the new situation.
How MUCH TRAINING MAY FEASIBLY BE REQUIRED.-It is useless
to establish training requirements for teachers and to set up the machinery for giving such training, if the community is unable to pay the