Democratic Sentinel, Volume 4, Number 10, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 16 April 1880 — Educational Departanent. [ARTICLE]

Educational Departanent.

Edited by D. B. NowELfl, Co. Superintendent. The Model School. One of the leading faults of most normal schools is the lack of illustration in the . art of teaching. The primary object of a normal or teachers training school is to train the young and inexperienced teachers for the actual duties of the school room. Many attempts have been made with very suks to teach the theories of teaching by lectures, by forming classes of teachers who are to act the role of children, and by “experience” meetings of teachers. The first of these fails in its object because the theories advanced by a lecturer may not be applicable to all schools or successful in the hands of all teachers. The second plan fails because the average teacher cannot successfully play the part of a child. His imitations are either too intel, lectual or too dull. The last plan fails because “out of school,” the teacher is too ranch inclined to theorize and build castles in the air. Frequently in discussing a point the teacher becomes more strongly convinced that he is right and others wrong. No immediate means of proof being at hand, the question is frequently discussed until those who have had experience in teaching will be thoroughly convinced of the truth and utility of a method which in the beginning he regarded and treated as simply a venture. He is thus compelled in order to defend his first position to wax warm in the defense of a false doctrine, and perhaps in addition to that, some young teacher may believe it, carry it into the school room, practice it, and fail. The only remedy I can see for this is to institute a model school of children in connection with the normal school, where young teachers may sae the results of methods, compare them, pick out the best method and practice it. This would leave no room for indulging in wild theories devoid of proof and injurious to the teacher.

E. R. PIERCE.