experience as to the obstacles opposed to the progress of their school as a professional institution, claim that

"A more particular and very influential reason for this indifference of high-school graduates to the advantages of professional training, is that school authorities of fowns having high schools have not seen it to be worth their while to give any decided preference in their selection of teachers to normal school graduates, but have been content to take candidates immediately from the high school."

TABULATION 0.—“Beginners” and normal school graduates compared, as related to the number of different teachers taken as a common basis.

Per cent. Per cent. Per cent. Per cent. Per cent. Per cent. Per cent. Per cent.

a Does not include two city schools nor the Madawaska institute. The graduates of the Portland city school number 87 since its organization in 1878.

Does not include graduates of Manchester school, numbering 82 since organization in 1869. c This column does not include the graduates of the Welch training school of New Haven, numbering 121 since organization in 1869.

d Reorganization.

In considering the above table (O) the intelligence of the reader is immediately challenged by the word "graduate," which is the title of one of the two columns for each State. It will immediately occur to him that the normal course of two or three years, like courses of several years in other institutions, is subject to a diminishing process that leaves about half of the pupils who entered three years before to graduate. And from this he will be led to consider whether it is quite accurate to place the two columns of the table in juxtaposition, since the graduates do not represent the number having received some training for teaching.

To such doubts it may be replied that the conree of three years would not have been organized had it not been deemed essential for the preparation of the pupil for his vocation, and that any pupil possessing before entering the school a portion of the knowledge taught in it would infallibly possess what was taught in the first two years rather than the knowledge inculcated in the last and graduating year. Indeed, it is very obvious that more may be said against the column of graduates from the other side. All the graduates do not teach.

The increase in the percentage of graduates in the case of Maine and of Connecticut is to be ascribed more to the diminution in the number of different teachers employed than to any extra efforts to supply the vacancies that annually occur with trained persons; it being understood, of course, that the number of different persons employed as teachers is used as the divisor and the number of graduate as the dividend in obtaining the percentages of the table.

In England, where the vast majority of teachers are men, the "waste" in the teaching force is computed to be about 6 per cent.; if the beginners be taken as indicating the "waste" in the New England corps it will almost double and treble the annual loss in England. It is but too apparent how inadequate the present number of normal schools are to meet the demands-from a theoretical standpoint-upon them.

So important is the relation between the number of beginners and the number of graduates from the normal schools, that we present the matter in another form. In

1888 the normal schools, in response to an inquiry as to the whole number of their graduates, furnished this Bureau with the information which appears in part in the third column of the following table:

Thus it appears that for every one hundred graduates the normal schools had sent forth from their halls since they were opened to students down to 1888 there were during the five years 1884 to 1888 thirty beginners employed.

Speaking on the subject of the annual need of trained persons to teach the schools the superintendent of Maine observes in his 1877 report:

"The schools of Maine need to-day qualified trained teachers. This is the greatest want. There are 6,000 teachers in the schools of the State. The average time of service is four years. Fifteen hundred teachers are needed each year. More than 1,000 were employed for the first time last year. They were in part young girls from fourteen to seventeen, but with little knowledge of elementary studies; with absolutely no knowledge of the principles or methods of good teaching. Another part of the thousand were young men or boys in preparation for college or a profession, with some slight smattering of Latin, but with no real knowledge of the ele mentary studies and not the shadow of knowledge, of either the nature of the subjects on which they were supposed to work, or the proper methods of such work. A third class is composed of young men or boys, who unable to succeed in any other business have sought refuge from starvation in the schools. A few of the thousands are trained teachers, young men and young women, who with an appreciation of the responsibility and importance of the work have sought by reading, by study, in the professional school or elsewhere, to fit themselves for their work."

Dr. Sears, ex-superintendent of Massachusetts and ex-president of Brown University, in his twelfth report to the trustees of the Peabody Education fund speaks quite pointedly as to the necessity of professional training, saying:

"The objection has been made to normal schools, that knowledge is what the teacher needs, and that our literary institutions furnish it best. This is only half of what the teacher needs, and much the easier half. You will find twenty who have this qualification, where you find one who knows how to teach and govern. This assertion is made not from a theoretical point of view, but from experience and observation. I was for some years connected with the public schools of Massachusetts. School boards who had formerly employed college graduates, but more recently graduates of the State normal schools, could not be induced to appoint as a teacher a young man just from college, without a normal training. This is the more remarkable as the members of the board were themselves generally college graduates. It was found by trial that a knowledge of what is commonly taught in learned schools is not all that the teacher needs. He must know how to enter into the hidden recesses of the youthful mind, and from that point work outward and upward."

"The more I visit schools and observe their methods and results," says Ex-Superintendent Northrop, of Connecticut, while State agent of Massachusetts, "the stronger is my conviction of the necessity and usefulness of normal schools. My observations in the schools and among the people assure me that our Massachusetts normal schools have widely diffused better ideas of education and awakened increased popular interest in the cause of public instruction. They have greatly elevated the standard of qualification for teaching, both among teachers and in the popular estimate. The normal graduates as a general fact have shown greater thoroughness and skill in teaching, more system in arrangement of studies and in the programme of daily duties, more enthusiasm in their work and devotion to the profession." (As quoted by the State superintendent of Maine in 1867.)

"The good influence of the normal schools," says the Forty-seventh Massachusetts Report, in creating a correct public sentiment with reference to popular education, and to the administration of the schools in all their forms of work, can hardly be overestimated. The revival of the school spirit and the reform of our methods of school teaching both owe their origin to influences produced by the normal school. "Great pains have been taken to collect information concerning the success of

normal teachers. The returns prove what reason would predict, that there is the same difference between trained and untrained teachers as there is between the trained and untrained in all other occupations and professions."

DO THE GRADUATES TEACH?

The number of graduates from the normal schools falling so far short of the (theoretically speaking) demand for them we are brought to a difficult inquiry which has on several occasions caused legislative investigations, that is to say, Do the graduates teach?

Beginning with the year 1874 the forms of inquiry sent out by this Office contained the following requests: "Number of graduates for the year" and "Number of these teaching.

In Tabulation P we have compiled the answers made by the principals of State and city normal schools to these inquiries. We will not trouble the reader with the precautions taken to prevent error except so far as to assure him that, in the case of Maine for example, the 93 per cent. who engaged in teaching in 1874 are 93 per cent. of the persons who were in institutions which are represented in both columns. For suppose a school reports its graduates and neglects to report the number of them who engage in teaching, as frequently happens, the per cent. of persons teaching would then be 0. The absence of statistics for 1883 is caused by a change in the date of our report.

A word, however, as to the propriety of finding what per cent. the graduates are of the whole enrolment at the school. It may be said that the attendance from year to year of several schools of different kinds and sizes is not a constant quantity; and this being admitted it may be further claimed that the averages are meaningless. If, however, it be considered that the expression "65 per cent. enrolled as applied to a system of schools" is the usual way of telling that 35 per cent. of the school population were not enrolled it will be readily recognized that when we say in the table that 9 per cent. have graduated, we imply that 91 per cent. have not, presumably, finished their studies, and if in the next year only 6 per cent. graduate and the next 10 and so on, we may arrive at an approximately close idea of the per cent. that graduates by running the eye down the column.

Connecticut had one State normal school from 1850 to 1888. Confining our attention to the series of years embraced by the table we find that 22 per cent. of the enrolment of this school from 1874 to 1888 were graduated, according to the figures given in the State superintendent's report for 1883-89. Perhaps the best way to show that about a fifth of those who enter upon a course at a normal school remain to graduate, as Tabulation P seems to show, is to quote from the results of the very elaborate investigation prosecuted by President Gray of the St. Cloud Normal School, acting for the committee appointed by the National Educational Association, a report that has arrived too recently to enable its results to be used here except incidentally. The question asked of forty-nine normal schools, eight of which are city schools, was What per cent. of your students enrolled in the pedagogical course graduates?" "In eighteen [State] schools which seemed to have understood the question alike the answers average 20 per cent. In addition to these, city training schools give an average of 95 per cent., though in these schools the enrolment is sometimes as low as six pupils."

TABULATION P.-Ratio of graduates of New England normal schools to whole enrolment and the percentages of these graduates that engaged in teaching.

Per ct. Per ct. Per ct. Per ct. Per ct. Per ct. Per ct. Per ct. Per ct. Per ct. Per ct.

Per ct.

20

The figures of the table would appear to verify the claim that about 95 per cent. of the pupils who graduate teach, especially if it be remembered that the information was given by the principals of the schools represented in the table six or eight months after the day of graduation.

But how long do they teach? "In France," says the French education commission to the Centennial Exposition, "a person enters upon the career of teaching with the view of creating for himself a stable and permanent position. Those who abandon it before obtaining their retiring pension are the exception. It is altogether

different in the United States. The profession of teaching seems to be a sort of stopping place where the young woman waits for an establishment suited to her tastes, and the young man for a more lucrative position. For many young people, this transitory profession simply furnishes the means of continuing their studies. Few male teachers remain more than five years in the service; and if the lady teachers remain longer, it is not to be forgotten that marriage is usually the end of their desires, and that, once married, they almost always resign their positions."

"The whole number of graduates from the opening in 1871 to the present writing, December, 1878, is 201," says the superintendent of Rhode Island. "Upwards of 95 per cent. of these bave taught since graduation. One hundred and thirty of the number graduated are now teaching and have been teaching, many of them continuously, since their separation from the school on having completed their course. Though it has been the policy of Providence and Newport to employ as teachers the graduates of their respective high schools, and though vacancies occur in less porportion in cities than elsewhere, yet twenty graduates of this school have received permanent appointments in the city of Providence; six have received appointments in the schools of Newport; ten have taught or are now teaching in high schools, and eight have been employed as teachers in normal schools."

In New Hampshire it was found that "the students have the character of teachers before entering the school, that they continue to teach with increased interest in the work after leaving it, that the graduates have already returned to the State (third year of school's existence) one week of teaching to one and one-third weeks' instruction received in the school, and from their present address we are assured that the school has already sent nearly one hundred active and educated teachers into different parts of the State, and that at least 100 more students not graduated are occasionally thus employed within the limits of New Hampshire."

"About 95 per cent. of normal graduates teach after leaving the normal schools, and on the average about five years," says the secretary of the Massachusetts Board of Education. Over 90 per cent. teach in Massachusetts. These teachers scattered over the Commonwealth have done much towards introducing improved methods of teaching and towards recommending the public schools to public favor. The quality of primary teaching has rapidly improved during the last few years. There is now a growing inclination to place the best trained teachers over the primary schools. These things are largely due to the effect normal schools have produced through their graduates in leading superintendents and school committees to magnify the importance of primary instruction."

THE NON-GRADUATES.

The question as to what becomes of the pupils at the normal schools, that do not graduate is an important one in a double sense; for it may be asked, since they form by far the largest part of the attendance during a series of years, what return do they render the State by teaching in its schools, while, if they do engage in teaching, what is the value of their services for the advancement of the schools they teach, and, indirectly, for the advancement of the reputation of the normal schools from which they came.

As to the value of the performances in the public schools of the non-graduates to the reputation of the normal schools they have attended, several very plain statements are to be found in the State reports of the New England States, several of which are now reproduced,

In 1877 the board of trustees of the Rhode Island Normal School say: "In the interests both of the normal school and of the town schools of the State, the trustees would call attention to the fact that to have been for a time a pupil of the normal school is not necessarily to have received its diploma, or to have become qualified as a teacher. When school authorities are asked to engage the services of persons commending themselves on the ground of having been for a time a pupil of the normal school, but who have not received its diploma, it would be well to bear in mind that such a professiou may be, in fact, a confession of incompetency. • As a result of the severe winnowing process to which the school is subjected, preparatory to the We find that Ex-Superintendent Northrop has quoted this extract in his report for 1879, p. 58.

entrance of classes upon the senior year, a considerable number of pupils fail to complete the school course." In a report several years later the principal of the normal schools says that, while making a tour of the State, he found many of these non-graduates teaching in rural schools.

We find complaint made of the injury the poor work of the non-graduate was doing to the school both in Maine and Massachusetts. In the twenty-sixth annual report of the board of education of the latter State occurs the following:

The board desire to make two observations to school committees. First, to those whose duty it is to employ teachers for their schools. Not infrequently individuals present themselves claiming to be qualified for the business of teaching, and, to strengthen the claim, state that they have been members of a normal school. They are employed and miserably fail in their work. The truth in many cases is that the individuals may have been connected with a normal school for a brief period, and bave been found so unpromising as candidates for the vocation of teacher that they have been advised to break off their connection with the institution; or they may have left voluntarily after so brief a connection that the school has not had time to develop the capacity or fitness of the person for teaching. In either case the reputation of the school suffers. Judged by such results the normal school is condemned."

IV. PROFESSIONALITY.

We have now in turn inquired into (1) the social conditions of the people from whom the New England teacher comes, and who are the raison d'être of the wealth by which he is supported; (2) the conditions under which the New England teaching body as a professional corps labors as to change, sex, and pay; and (3) the annual demand for persons training for the business of teaching and the attempts made to meet that demand by the establishment of normal schools. We now enter upon the very delicate and immensely more difficult task of inquiring hurriedly as to the amount of information and mental training the New England teacher brings to his task.

In quoting from the reports of the New England superintendents, as we shall in the sequel, we incur one danger especially. Froude, in his Life of Carlyle, tells us that that idealist, though a severe critic of the poet Byron, was very apt to fall into a Carlylean mood when others less gifted than himself took the same liberty. The State superintendent may be perfectly unconcerned about his constituents knowing how things as they are differ from what they ought to be, but he may also be extremely unwilling that his statements be compared with statements made by others who have not his idea of what things ought to be.

If any section of this country can sustain with credit an examination of its school affairs that section is the one under review, and if in any section there has been less of that fatal optimism which, without making the worse appear the better reason, makes what is bad far less bad than it really is, that section is New England. If, then, in the following excerpts the reader should find statements which he has not seen in the reports of his own section he will be good enough not to draw a comparison until an investigation of his own geographical division of the country, carried on in the spirit of the New England superintendent, has convinced him that such a comparison will not turn out to be odious.

Against trusting the statements contained in the quotations it may be urged that the fury of propaganda not infrequently causes the writer to say "more than he really meant." To rectify this amiable weakness requires that qualitative analysis called "reading between the lines, "which it would be presumption in us to make. Any theory of an educational nature or any criticism of such a theory that a superintendent may favor the public with we might venture to criticise, but his statements as to facts connected with the administration of his system must indeed be facts for us.

LITERARY ATTAINMENTS OF THE TEACHING CORPS OF THE NEW ENGLAND STATES, AS GIVEN IN THE STATE REPORTS, 1865-85.

In the State report of Maine for 1875, the superintendent remarks that: "Public school teaching is not sufficiently attractive, nor, as a general thing, sufficiently rewarded, to induce the best talent to spend time and money in obtaining a professional training for the service. Indeed, that class of young people who are willing to become common school teachers are, as a rule, unable to provide for themselves such training. It is clear that the State supports its normal schools and its public schools for the accomplishment of the same ends.

"The normal schools of this, as the normal schools of other New England States, have a more direct effect upon the country schools than upon the schools of the cities. Having gained what they can from schools in their own vicinity, young men and women possessing physical vigor and mental force and courage, and intent upon teaching, find their way, often in spite of serious obstacles, to the normal schools Soon after graduation most of them find it for their advantage to teach near ED 89--22