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.

420 EDUCATIONAL SURVEY OF THE PHILIPPINES

While the limitations of this report do not allow a detailed recitation
of the splendid service which the Philippine Normal School, the provincial normal schools, and the high-school normal courses have done
and are doing, the Survey Commission is unwilling to omit a brief word
of appreciation of that service. Under most unfavorable conditions of
small financial support and low prestige, and working with unselected
teachers and unselected pupils, these schools have nevertheless done a
notable service. Their graduates by the efficiency of their service have
abundantly proved the worth of teacher training.
It is precisely because of the excellence of what is being done that it
seems worth while to insist upon the feasibility of an extended program
of teacher training, upon a refinement of that program, and upon the
creation of a situation favorable to its prosecution.
LIMITATIONS OF NORMAL-SCHOOL PROGRAM.-The schools as they
exist are seriously handicapped because (1) the curriculum is not well
designed for its purpose; (2) because the teaching staff has not been
selected, particularly the American portion, on account of special aptitude for the work; (3) because the selection of pupils has been a
negative selection, the less able, not the better students of secondary
grade finding their way into the normal schools; (4) because opportunities for observation, demonstration teaching, and practice teaching are
altogether inadequate in the case of practically every school; and (5)
because inadequate financial support has been given to normal schools,
and funds made available have sometimes been unwisely used.
THE CURRICULUM.-The curriculum has been too little professionalized, too much influenced by considerations of college credit, and by
the make-up of the general high-school course. There has not been an
eye single to the one and sole purpose of the normal school-the preparation of elementary teachers-nor careful evaluation of the curriculum and of the content of courses in terms of their demonstrable value in
accomplishing this one purpose.
On the other hand, in the introduction of professional courses the fact
that teaching is primarily an art to be learned by practice, by apprenticeship, has sometimes been forgotten. For students on a secondary
level general theory should hold a secondary place as a preparation for
teaching. The professional aspects of the curriculum have been carried
over from the practice in American normal schools which are on a collegiate level. To some extent they have even been borrowed from
university graduate schools of education. Theory that gives understanding of methods is essential; but theory divorced from practice cannot be
given profitably to secondary students.
There has been no differentiation of curricula to give specific training for teachers of primary schools and for departmental teachers in the