USA > Indiana > A history of education in Indiana > Part 33
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others, equally efficient, perhaps, were all more or less iden- tified with the movement in Indiana, of which the institutes and associations of 1850 and 1860 were a part. It was a notable band, and, with other teachers from our own and neighboring States, did courageous battle for truth and right in the name of the public school.
In 1855 Superintendent Mills had said that the State was "not prepared for special appropriations for either normal schools or teachers' institutes"; but the year following, and for successive years, the State Association, and the Superin- tendent of Public Instruction and educators generally, with few exceptions, demanded in all public ways State recogni- tion and State aid for teachers' institutes. As noted above, these came in the law of 1865.
The act provided that, "in order to the encouragement of teachers' institutes," the county school examiner of each county should be entitled to draw from the County Treas- ury not less than $35 nor more than $50 in each year for the purpose of defraying the expenses of such institute for his teachers. During the session of the institute, which must continue for at least five days, schools must be closed. Within nine months fifty-eight counties had held such meet- ings. More than 3,500 teachers were reported as attending, and the sessions more helpful and producing better and larger results in proportion to their cost than any other agency in the system. Prof. Hoss mentions as the legiti- mate results, either direct or indirect, of the movement, better modes of teaching, larger and clearer views of the work to be done, an increased love for and devotion to that work, the awakening of an aspiration for higher attainments and greater usefulness, the organization of teachers' associations and libraries, and the circulation and reading of profession- al literature, the working up of an educational sentiment in the community, and a preparation of the way for a State normal school. In the official report for 1865-'66 Prof. Hoss included an admirable circular of instructions to ex- aminers upon the preparation for and the organization and
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management of these institutes. In most counties, while the results mentioned were professional, the work was chiefly academic. It was meant primarily to give sound instruction in the common-school branches in a skillful way as a guide to teachers. Indeed, for many years this remained the pre- vailing character of the institutes for the State. About one fourth of the counties for that first year maintained advanced and theory classes. And within five years the superintend- ent was able to say, and doubtless with reason, that few instrumentalities had "done more to improve the methods of instruction in our common schools than the county insti- tutes." In ten years the attendance had increased from an average of thirty-eight to each county to one hundred and twenty-five, at a cost aggregating more than $600, one fourth of which came from the teachers. Now ninety per cent of the teachers attend, the legal requirements and the State support remaining essentially the same as twenty-five years ago. For their support the State appropriates about $4,500 annually, the remainder of their cost-about $4,000-being borne by teachers.
So great had been the service, and so marked the improve- ment in these bodies, that steps were taken in the Centennial year to unify and systematize their work.
The county superintendents in their gatherings began to discuss the faults and misconception in the management of institutes, and the right method of conducting them. When shall they be held? Who shall manage them? How shall programmes be constructed? Who shall be employed as in- structors? What is a legitimate institute exercise? How may sociability be promoted? How may evening sessions, model classes, and recitations be employed? At their annual convention, May, 1876, they appointed a special committee for this purpose. A plan was matured, including an insti- tute director, a corps of instructors, and State control of the sessions; but it failed of execution. In 1879 it was under- taken again, but too late for the institute season. The year following, however, by request of the convention, the State
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Board undertook the task of preparing an outline, or manual of suggestion to county superintendents and instructors in the management of institutes. The course recommended covered two years, and included for 1881 lessons in lan- guage, arithmetic, physiology and hygiene, writing, reading, school government, spelling, moral instruction, and music. The following year, besides arithmetic and reading, con- tinued with a new analysis, topics were offered in grammar, drawing, geography, pedagogics, United States history, and civil government. In all of these, the nature of the subject- matter, the principles involved in its teaching, its pedagogi- cal value, and relations to other parts of the course, became not only worthy of consideration, but of primary import- ance.
In these instructions the chief object of an institute was held to be "to impart a knowledge of the principles and methods of teaching and school management." The insti- tute should aim to provide professional training. "The schools must be depended upon to teach the several branches of study ; the institute must show how to teach these branches. The school teaches pupils to divide one fraction by another; the institute shows teachers how to teach the division of fractions. Institute instruction should unfold the vital guiding principles of the teacher's art, and it should present and illustrate those methods which embody these principles in actual practice. Academic instruction should have a small place in an institute."
A similar syllabus of topics was prepared for each of the three years 1883, 1884, and 1885; the last by a committee of county superintendents; the others under the direction of the State Department.
The general effect of the use of the outlines was to unify the work throughout most counties, to increase relatively the amount of professional work, to improve the quality of educational discussion, correcting false doctrine, rationaliz- ing the conceptions of education and the school, and direct- ing the study and thought of teachers into more fruitful
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lines. Where intelligently used, they seem to have been only helpful.
In the mean time the State Reading Circle had been or- ganized, and for the two years 1884 and 1885 its aims and organization and means were made the subject of fruitful discussion in the institute. Relatively more attention was given to the theory of education, the laws of mind as to learning and growth, and the conditions of best teaching. In a few counties institutes were becoming agencies for the training of teachers, and not simply schools for knowledge or discipline.
For the four years from 1886 to 1889, both inclusive, no out- lines were prepared. The five years' course already marked out was made the basis of work in most counties. This was well, perhaps, inasmuch as within five or six years from the inauguration of the movement to systematize the work the great body of teachers had changed. The younger mem- bers of the class were, in general, more benefited by the fresh discussion of the former topics; and teachers of expe- rience had opportunity to work out a truer content for the familiar forms of knowledge. Indeed, these were years of great advancement and professional growth. The institute was working out its more specific function and justifying its claim to a larger and more important place in the public system. For the institute season of 1890, at the request of the county superintendents, there was prepared by a special committee a new set of outlines setting forth the purposes of the County Institute and presenting syllabi in educational psychology, moral instruction and training, the history of education, the science of education, the general idea of method, and an exemplification of this idea of method in - each of the common branches.
That the institute should not be allowed to take the place of the more formal and extended training of the Normal School requires no emphasis; that it may be made an effi- cient supplement of the school for hundreds of teachers the experience of Indiana has abundantly proved. The ele-
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mentary instruction in the public schools owes much of its efficiency to the timely and intelligent discussion and em- phasis of professional preparation in the county institutes. The exercises may sometimes be pedantic, often dogmatic, occasionally irrelevant; they are known to be in places in- sipid or even puerile, notwithstanding which it is believed that their final influence in the State has been greatly to the upbuilding of truer educational standards, the establishment of sounder views, and the adoption of more rational instru- ments of culture.
In this connection there should be mentioned also the Institute Instructors' Association. Such an enterprise had been discussed by the State Board in 1878. But it was not organized until December, 1887, when it held its first meeting in connection with the State Teachers' Association, in Indian- apolis. Papers were read by W. W. Parsons, on Educa- tional Science as it should be presented in County Institutes ; by Arnold Tompkins, on The Rational Presentation of Meth- ods; and by Mrs. Eudora Hailmann, on Kindergarten In- struction as Applicable to Primary Work in the Country Schools. Its second meeting was held in June, 1888, in con- nection with the county superintendents' convention, at which were presented papers upon History Work in County Institutes, by W. H. Mace; The Use of the Outline in Teach- ing United States History, Geography, and Civil Govern- ment, by Howard Sandison; and Primary Language In- struction for Teachers, by Miss Nebraska Cropsy.
Annual meetings have been held since, and there is apparent an improved general sentiment as to the funda- mentals of institute instruction. Altogether the County In- stitute constitutes a most helpful means among the agencies for the training of teachers.
6. Township Institutes.
County institutes, either voluntary or required, had been more or less common in the State for twenty years before the first Township Institute. The latter was made both pos-
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UNDER THE NEW CONSTITUTION, 1851-'91.
sible and necessary through the conditions worked out by the former. Local associations could be profitably sustained only in the midst of a developed and substantial professional spirit and common interests. Occasional voluntary meet- ings were held in the better counties by the examiners in the later '60's; but not until 1873 was any effort made to bring about a general movement among the township teach- ers. In that year an act, which has done so much for the schools of Indiana, provided that "at least one Saturday in each month, during which the public schools may be in progress, shall be devoted to township institutes or model schools for the improvement of teachers, and two Saturdays may be so appropriated at the discretion of the township trustee of any township. Such institute shall be presided over by a teacher or other person designated by the trustee of the township. The township trustee shall specify in a written contract with each teacher that such teacher shall attend the full session of each institute contemplated herein, or forfeit one day's wages for every day's absence therefrom, unless such absence shall be occasioned by sickness."
The law remained substantially the same for sixteen years. From four thousand to five thousand institutes were held annually, or an average of fifty to the county. For ten years their management was left, under the law, to the personal judgment and interest of the one thousand trustees of the State. Along with opportunities for good, there was much trifling and shirking. The work was often unrelated, rarely professional, and frequently uninteresting. Discus- sions lagged or wandered, being almost without direction. They lacked a well-defined purpose and vigorous adminis- tration.
To improve the institute, and at the suggestion of the con- vention of county superintendents in June, 1884, Superin- tendent Holcomb and a committee of his selection prepared for the township institutes an outline of lessons after the same general plan as that employed for the county insti- tutes. The topics were set off into six lessons for six ses-
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sions of the institute; and were made to include, besides the Reading Circle work, which was to be given one hour at each meeting, reading, language, geography, arithmetic, writing, United States history, orthography, grammar, civil government, school hygiene, the recitation, object lessons, school government, school recreations, examinations, and graduation from district schools.
Similar schedules of work for township institutes have been prepared in subsequent years, and have fully justified their use. As in the more general county organization, the chief object of the Township Institute is held to be profes- sional culture and training. "Its greatest aim is to impart a knowledge of the principles and methods of teaching and school management." In recent years a large part of the time has been given to the work of the Reading Circle. Every year less academic work is introduced. The history and theory of education and school systems, and the prac- tice of teaching, its right principles and conditions, are held to be the most fruitful and helpful topics.
By the Legislature of 1889 the law concerning township institutes was so amended as to provide that "for each day's attendance at such institute each teacher shall receive the same wages as for one day's teaching; provided, that no teacher shall receive such wages unless he or she shall at- tend the full session of such institute and perform the duty or duties assigned." The trustee or some one of his appoint- ing is held responsible for conducting the institute.
This interest and the importance of a wise management of the township system, including the institutes, points toward the necessity for some closer supervision of local schools, the appointment of principals, or the making of the trusteeship a professional office. In a number of counties the need has led to the appointment of township principals. It is believed, however, that the local institute has not yet been brought to its most efficient service.
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UNDER THE NEW CONSTITUTION, 1851-'91.
7. The Teachers' Reading Circle.
Among the agencies for the improvement of the teacher in Indiana must not be omitted the Reading Circle. It is a very natural instrument forced into the system because of the necessities of the teaching class.
Comparatively few teachers have had a formal training for their work. The social, financial, and other conditions are not such as to encourage the hope that, for many years to come, the majority of teachers will have this preparation. Public sentiment, perhaps, is not such yet as to justify its immediate requirement. Nevertheless, the urgent need of the schools for the best direction, or at least for better, sug- gested that some means might be devised for carrying on the improvement of teachers in connection with their work. To this end are established and supported institutes of the township and the county; associations, voluntary and com- pulsory; and particularly the movements to encourage pri- vate study.
As compared with the association, the institute is a school. The work of the latter is far more specific and has a meas- urable value. Its results may be required and anticipated. The institute was a step forward. But at best its service has been partial and disconnected. Its treatment is topical, not logical. Meetings are few, and the work of each more or less independent. The leadership is often uncertain and of questionable value. For teachers there is needed not only the most thoroughly professional, but the most severe con- tinuous training that comes from close personal studies or following daily the thought of a master. To have thought or read for a year in the light of a single idea or group of ideas, by which one's reflections are unified and knit, as an integral part, into one's life, means an advance in culture, both professional and liberal, that can come from no dis- connected studies.
Imperfect as is the Reading Circle beside the more defi- nite and systematic training of professional schools, its serv-
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THE TRAINING OF TEACHERS.
ice clearly appears upon the side of more accurate thinking, clearer and deeper insights into professional questions, hab- its of study, and confidence in individual effort.
To the end that such training might be available to teachers who were prevented in any way from attending a normal school, and to continue and supplement the work of those who had enjoyed such training, it was believed that a course of reading that should be chiefly professional, cover but one or a few lines, extend through the year, and appeal to the maturest tastes and experience of the readers, would be effective.
A Reading Circle having this object in view was organized in the summer of 1884 under the direction of the State Teachers' Association at its meeting in the previous Decem- ber. It is therefore a creature of that body, and has really no legal character. Its organization includes a central board of directors, a manager in each county-the County Super- intendent-and the Township Institute. The board com- prises ten members, the State Superintendent and his chief clerk being members by virtue of their office. The latter has generally been secretary of the board. This close con- nection with the State Department has been throughout an element of strength to the circle. Through this office is carried on, therefore, all official correspondence. The ques- tions upon the theory of education used in the examination of teachers throughout the State are based, as they have been since 1886, upon the professional work of the Reading Circle course. The board's certificates of Reading Circle work are honored both by county superintendents and the State Board of Education, and are accepted in lieu of exami- nation upon the science of teaching, either for local or State license. The secretary is paid a nominal salary for his extra services. Other members receive their expenses only.
Two directors are chosen annually by the State Teachers' Association, each for a term of four years. The board ar- ranges a course of reading to cover a school year, selects and contracts for the books to be used, publishes instructions and
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UNDER THE NEW CONSTITUTION, 1851-'91.
bibliographical references for readers, preserves a record of membership, conducts an annual examination, and is the final authority in all questions of management. The actual reading, the prosecution of prescribed studies, is, of course, individual; but for several years, indeed, theoretically, from the beginning, the township institutes have been used as the occasions for periodical discussion of the subjects worked over. This has rendered a double service to the system. It has vitalized the institute, and has made the course of read- ing at the same time more effective.
Between the members and local circles on the one side and the central board on the other, the active agent-upon whom depends, more than upon any one person or body of men besides, the success of the organization-is the County Superintendent. His interest and earnestness and discre- tion, his generous acceptance of the responsibility, and his general acquaintance with and direction of the teachers' reading and professional thinking, are only equaled by the encouraging success of the movement.
The organization in each county is dependent upon the County Superintendent. The enlisting of an interest, the enrollment of members, receiving books from publishers and distributing to readers, making reports to the central office concerning membership, examinations, etc .- all this belongs to the county manager. For the first two years funds for meeting the expenses of the circle were raised by a membership fee of twenty-five cents. Since 1886 arrange- ments have been made with the publishers of adopted books to pay to the board the usual dealer's discount on all books sold. This constitutes the sole revenue from which expenses are met. The plan has worked out admirably for all par- ties-most of all, perhaps, for the members.
The following books have been included in the course prescribed for the eight years, and in the order named: Brook's Mental Science and Mental Culture; Barnes's Gen- eral History; Parker's Notes of Talks on Teaching; Smith's English Literature; Hewett's Pedagogy; Hailmann's Lect-
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THE TRAINING OF TEACHERS.
ures on Education; Green's Short History of the English People; Watts's On the Improvement of the Mind; Hale's Lights of Two Centuries; Sully's Teachers' Hand-book of Psychology ; Compayré's History of Pedagogy ; Hawthorne's Marble Faun; Carlyle's Heroes and Hero Worship; Com- payré's Lectures on Pedagogy ; Steele's Popular Zoology ; Wood's How to study Plants; Boone's Education in the United States; Page's Theory and Practice of Teaching; Hawthorne's American Literature.
Ten of the nineteen books may fairly be called profes- sional; the others, being of a general character, include his- tory, literature, and science. The matter aggregates about seven thousand pages, or something more than one hundred pages for each of the seven months set apart in each year for this work. The average expense per year for each teacher, including the fees for the first two years, has been about $2.25.
The membership of the circle has grown steadily from the beginning, numbering approximately 9,000 in 1890-'91 as against 1,600 in 1884-'85. Its patronage has been larger in the townships, though several of the cities have in whole or part made the books prescribed the basis of their teachers' meeting discussion and studies. Neither the younger and inexperienced teachers, nor the older and more scholarly ones, who together constitute a minimum of the teaching class, have found its service so helpful as the large body of growing, studious, ambitious, earnest middle-class teachers, to whom the organization has been at once normal school, teacher, and academy. It is not too much to say that the quality of teaching in Indiana schools has been measurably improved in eight years, and greatly through the influence of the Teachers' Reading Circle.
The following-named persons have been members of the board since its organization: George P. Brown, John C. McPherson, Harvey B. Hill, Joseph J. Mills, Richard G. Boone, Hubert M. Skinner, Joseph Carhart, Mrs. Emma Mont McRae, Mrs. Mattie Curl Dennis, Lewis H. Jones. Cal-
27
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UNDER THE NEW CONSTITUTION, 1851'-91.
vin Moon, A. N. Crecraft, D. M. Geeting, Arnold Tomp- kins, Miss Adelaide Baylor, John W. Holcomb, Harvey M. La Follette, Hervey D. Vories, William H. Elson, and J. A. Woodburn.
CHAPTER XXXI. DENOMINATIONAL COLLEGES AND ACADEMIES.
1. Collegiate Schools.
IN a study of the development of education in Indiana few chapters are more attractive to the historian and more discouraging to the educator than the rise and development of sectarian schools, and particularly the denominational institutions for higher learning. Interesting to the his- torian, in that the great multiplication of schools, denomi- national and private, suggests a prevalent interest in educa- tion, which was in the last generation a very natural out- growth of the existing conditions; but not altogether en- couraging to the educator, as showing a wasteful division of forces and efforts and evident internal dissensions and the exalting of ways and means over results, which finds no recognition from thoughtful men in any other profession or business, and must be particularly deprecated in education. The advantages exhibited in other institutions in the mass- ing of forces and the intelligent co-operation of parts, why should not the most important interest of all-education- also show?
This relation of the Church as an educational agent to the state and the family, other similar agents, was, in the ear- lier years far more than now, a fruitful source of divided control in education, the occasion of weakling schools, de- pendent control, apologetic teaching, and pretentious plans. It has given Indiana almost a score of colleges or would-be colleges, all of whose students could at any time have been as well taught by one half of their combined faculties, and
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DENOMINATIONAL COLLEGES AND ACADEMIES.
whose aggregate endowment prior to 1870 yielded less than $100,000 annual income.
In none of the schools was tuition free, and to most of them, State and denominational alike, support came through a process of pulpit appeals on the one side, or legislative lobbying on the other. One half of what was given through stress, if given in common and economically administered, would have generously endowed all the needed institutions. This pinched support made any vigorous administration im- possible, and what might otherwise have been a college was forced to be content with a little superior training, and a good deal of that which was at best only secondary. Col- leges in name, not a few were high schools only in fact.
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