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well, but too often without the general education and training necessary, to render the best service.

When the commercial branches began to be introduced in the high schools, these schools naturally attracted many of the better class of teachers from the private schools; but there has always been a scarcity of well-qualified teachers.

This fairly places before us the conditions with which we now have to contend. There are some six hundred thousand pupils in the United States in attendance at the public and private schools who are receiving instruction in the commercial branches. Over one-half of these are in the private schools. The private schools employ some five to seven thousand teachers, and in the public schools about an equal number teach one or more of the commercial branches. Thus, we have from ten to fourteen thousand men and women now teaching who, with few exceptions, were not trained as commercial teachers, and who, upon the basis of qualifications necessary in other departments of teaching, must be classed as poorly prepared. Most of these men. and women are matured and settled in life. It is impossible for them, even if they so desired, to pursue a regular course of study and training in residence at school. The most they can do is to improve themselves incidentally in connection with their regular employment in such ways as opportunity offers.

What can be done to help these people? That they require help and that it is necessary that something should be done for them, or that they should do something for themselves, if the standards of attainment for our commercial teachers are to be raised, is beyond question. Other agencies and means will take care of the coming generations of teachers, but what shall we do for those now teaching who will continue with us until they shall cease their labors?

The very first obstacle to overcome is the lack of interest on the part of these teachers themselves. Very few of us are willing to admit that there is room for our improvement as teachers. Again, it is human nature to become lazy once we are settled in a position which does not seem to require any special effort to retain. Teachers will not improve themselves until they find. that it is necessary for them to do so in order to hold their positions or to advance to better ones.

The first step, therefore, is to create a demand for better commercial teachers and it rests with their employers, the owners of private schools, and the members of boards of education to create it. The demand created (and to some extent it is already here), how shall teachers proceed to improve themselves without giving up their positions, without any serious interference with their domestic arrangements, and at a cost that will come within their reach?

My assigned topic suggests four ways: summer schools, correspondence courses, teachers' associations, and professional journals. Of the four, the first two are by far the most important. Summer schools, conducted in desirable localities where living expenses are low, provide not only the opportunity for good work in courses of study that may be designed to meet the special

requirements of teachers now employed, but they will also provide pleasant outings and summer vacations for the teachers and their families.

The correspondence method of instruction is no longer an experiment and it has been demonstrated that such instruction may be very successfully continued thru an entire course of study. There is no reason why a correspondence course in connection with a summer school, might not be provided that would fully meet the requirements of the situation.

Passing for a moment outside of the limits I have fixed for my remarks, I will say that this was one of the reasons for the organization of the American Commercial Schools Institution. It has for one of its purposes the maintaining of a four-years' course of training for commercial teachers, which may be pursued entirely at home without the loss of a single day from the schoolroom, and without burdensome requirements of time and application. It is intended that this course shall be continued and supplemented in annual summer schools where the teacher may devote from six to eight weeks in residence attendance upon the classes, quizzes, and examinations in the various groups which constitute the course.

It is not my purpose to enter into this course of study at all, further than to say that it has already been inaugurated and successfully carried out with a few students, largely to test its practicability and possibilities. But little active work is being done in that course at this time. I refer to it only to show that to this extent the machinery for the carrying on of work in the summer schools and thru correspondence courses is now in readiness.

But the trustees of the American Institution have discovered that this four-year graduate course of study does not meet the requirements of the ordinary commercial teacher already at work. With few exceptions, he is not willing to consider a graduate course which, in some instances, might require from six to eight years to complete, even if he is offered the inducements of a degree and a great improvement in his prospects. A different attitude could hardly be expected from those who have arrived at middle age or have passed beyond the thirty-year mark. Something not so formidable must be provided for them if it is to be considered.

It should not be difficult to arrange courses extending thru two or three sessions of a summer school, with some supplementary correspondence work for which an appropriate certificate might be issued that would be acceptable to many of these teachers. I am convinced that it will be thru some such arrangement as this that any substantial improvement in the abilities of teachers now employed will be brought about, if it is brought about at all.

I have endeavored thus to briefly open up the whole question that is to be covered in the work of the Committee on Commercial Teachers, and I have intended in my remarks to set the matter before you so that you might intelligently understand the general purpose and plan of our program, as well as the discussions and criticisms which will doubtless follow in the various meetings of this department until the final report of this Committee is

made. The better preparation of commercial teachers is a vital question, and I hope it will receive your very earnest consideration.

PRESENT STANDARDS OF COMMERCIAL INSTRUCTION

JAMES FERGUSON, DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE, MISSION HIGH SCHOOL,

SAN FRANCISCO

To fit a pupil in the shortest possible time to earn a living was the first standard set up in commercial instruction. "Learning for learning's sake” did not enter into the consideration at all. Boys and girls were prepared for positions in the business world and they filled these positions to the satisfaction of their employers. The general public recognized the value of the work and made a greater demand for it. But it was not universally realized that teachers were required who were peculiarly adapted to meeting a practical problem in a practical way. Anyone was considered fit by the uninitiated. to be a commercial teacher. Now it is realized that this task is worthy of the best efforts of the best teachers in our country. Institutions which prepare boys and girls to make an honest living are recognized as worthy of praise, and the founders of this system of education are no longer called upon to offer apologies.

The universities were the most skeptical regarding the merits of commercial instruction. But they are beginning to recognize its merits, not only in the method of instruction but also in the subject-matter. Already it is being placed upon an equality with Latin and Greek as entrance subjects, as in the case of Stanford University. To my mind this is one of the greatest steps in advance that has been made in education in the past decade. It means that we are becoming more strongly committed to the American ideal in education, that any training which adds to a man's efficiency as an economic factor in society is worthy of a place in our educational system. While our English friends hold to the idea that education is for those who do not have to work, and in reality is a passport into the leisure class, we are becoming more and more committed to the principle that education should better fit a man to work, and places upon him the responsibility to do something useful for society.

This enlarged recognition will undoubtedly make commercial work more comprehensive. It will show the need of a broader foundation for the students of commerce, and, by making possible more thoro work, will result in qualifying a larger number of boys and girls for the higher positions in the business world.

But what is the goal toward which we ought now to aim in commercial instruction? Someone has said that men should be so educated that they will enjoy their leisure hours. Very true. But the task which is pressing upon the majority is how to get the leisure hours. They are completely absorbed in the problem of making a living. Our aim ought to be to help make more efficient members of society, and to do this we must first be sure that we are

going to prepare young men and women to do some useful thing. It may sound well to say that it is more important to make men than to make breadwinners, but the statement is dangerously fallacious in its inferences. The making of men includes the making of breadwinners, and learning to make a living will help to develop manhood. The two are inseparably linked together. An inefficient breadwinner is not an ideal man no matter what his other attainments may be. The highest type of manhood is among those who received this broader training and are putting it to practical use-the men who make two blades of grass grow where there was but one before, in contrast with those who are satisfied to eat up the single blades that they may chance to find.

Now this does not mean that we must exclude from the curriculum everything but the trades and arts. On the contrary, it means that we shall give a boy the opportunity to be educated in heart and in mind as well as in hand so that he may be a good citizen and be able to contribute to the welfare of society. His interest may demand science, and foreign languages, and art, and commerce, as a necessary part of his training. And he should be given them, not simply because they have been for a long time or for a short time a part of the school curriculum, but because they meet the needs of the individual pupil. With this preparation he will be a man and a breadwinner, with leisure hours and intelligence to enjoy them.

Sometimes we find that the interests of subjects are placed above the interests of the pupil. This should never be done. There is but one unpardonable sin in the educational world-unpardonable both by God and manwasting the time of a boy or girl in school. This is done when pupils are made to study subjects that are not suited to their individual needs, tho it may also be done by giving poor instruction in the subjects suited to him. The boy who has been neglected during his early years must go thru life at a great disadvantage, handicapped in the race. He has been sinned against, and there is no pardon for the offender. Let the standard be "efficiency for the child," not in a narrow sense but in the broadest sense possible, without regard to whether our cherished educational traditions shall live or die. "Education for education's sake" must give place to the more comprehensive motto, "education for the child's sake." And this should go forth as cry with such volume from this Los Angeles meeting that it will be heard to echo from every schoolhouse in our country.

AVAILABLE MEANS AND ADDITIONAL MEANS REQUIRED
FOR THE PREPARATION OF COMMERCIAL TEACHERS
H. B. BROWN, PRESIDENT OF VALPARAISO UNIVERSITY, VALPARAISO, IND.
The subject under discussion, is one that is thoroly up to date.
It has been but a few years since there was any discussion upon this

subject, and but recently the department of business education has become a factor of the National Educational Association. So that when we look for the "available means" for preparing teachers to take charge of schools of commerce, or to give instruction in the same, the horizon is quite limited indeed.

It has not been long since the going away from home to school was the equivalent of bidding farewell forever to commercial pursuits, to farm and trades. Nothing but some one of the professions was in view. The false notion was entertained that by means of an education, and that followed by one of the professions, the young man would become prominent in the affairs. of the world and wealth would flow into his hands. To such an extent did this idea prevail that no little of the encouragement given by parents to children to attend school was that they might make a living without working so hard; and no sacrifice was too great on the part of parents that children might complete a course of study.

Young people being thus educated without any of the responsibilty of providing funds, necessarily came out of school feeling that they could secure a competency without work. Thus the very purpose of the parent and the school was thwarted. This principle prevailed to such an extent that the changing conditions in the various departments of life were overlooked.

The commercial world outgrew the preparation that had been made for it and when people were at last roused to its magnitude the question of how to meet the conditions was of such proportion that few had the courage to undertake it. Business departments sprang up on every hand and did much toward alleviating the pressing demands. The difficulty to be overcome was in educating young people to understand that commercial work, or work on the farm, or in the shop, is equally honorable with that of the so-called professions.

But great emergencies develop ability, and after many years the commercial departments grew into elementary schools of commerce. These continued to expand until now there are many great institutions of commerce which have as a fundamental part of their work the training of young people so that they may be able to meet the changed conditions of the commercial world. While as yet the number of these schools is not great, there are enough to establish beyond question their absolute need. The government has done much to encourage these by establishing a Department of Commerce at Washington. This affords one of the best "available means" for studying the conditions to be met by schools of commerce. Then there are the advantages of the great business concerns in our large cities; of transportation by land and sea; of commerce, national and international; of combinations of labor and combinations of money, etc. In addition to these are the excellent schools of commerce that are established in our public schools. These have done much toward meeting the demand for a higher training in commercial work. Add to these the departments of commerce in some of our universities, and there is much to encourage those who have for years been struggling to meet the needs of young people.

The Wharton School, founded in 1881, associated

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