to use this material when he gets it. If cramming means only hasty and crude work, we shall condemn it, and I believe an examiner will detect it. If cramming, however, means simply the ability to go to the sources of information, select the proper materials, and prepare thoroly to meet the test of a certain situation, the power to cram is a power that everyone should wish for, and no one more so than the teacher, who should prepare for his lessons every day of his life.

Again, it is impossible, if we mean by "cram" hasty and crude study, to cram for many of the subjects in a good examination. Many of the lists of questions are tests of the power to do things. If one prepares for examination in mathematics, in the sciences, and in many other subjects, he must do something besides hasty and crude work; he must have made long and continuous effort along definite lines, and in the doing of this he must have acquired power that is valuable to one in whatever business he may be. I think, then, that "we should clear our minds of cant," as Carlyle would say, and stop and ask ourselves the question as to what we mean when we talk about "cramming" for examination.

There is much to be said for the use of oral examinations to supplement the written ones. An oral examination will permit one to probe deeper along certain lines of power or knowledge that the applicant seems to possess than a written examination. In a written examination we have to aim at things in a more general sort of way. In an oral examination we can adapt our questions to a particular preparation, a particular power, of the individual, and we can sometimes come much nearer in getting a clear judgment of him than we can in a written examination. But the oral examination must necessarily be discontinuous and fragmentary. If there is any unity and sequence in an examination, it will be because it is put there by the teacher. One who reads the dialogs of Plato will readily see that whatever of unity or sequence is given in an argument is given, not by the person questioned, but by the questioner, Socrates. If you wish to test one's grasp of a whole subject, the written examination will serve you better than the oral examination.

Conceding the value of examinations as a means of selection, it is still true that the results are chiefly negative, and selection based upon an examination never entirely proves fitness for a piece of work, and, in many cases, examinations will even fail to demonstrate the unfitness of the applicant. Teachers should never be fully and finally admitted into a system of schools as a result of an examination. Some trial must be given them before they are assigned to permanent positions, some test of their ability to do (as well as their ability to talk about doing) must be made, if we hope to keep the unfit from our schools.

In Chicago we have two classes of elementary teachers, i. e., those who enter from the normal school after a two-years' course, and experienced teachers who come in from the outside as a result of an examination. In both

cases teachers are compelled to demonstrate their fitness during a probationary period of four months. In both cases the certificates given them are good for one year only, the superintendent having the power of refusing to renew them. Only after two renewals are teachers in Chicago given permanent certificates. We have come to the conclusion that, while examinations are a necessity as a means of protection against imposition, the examination must be supplemented by actual test in the schoolroom.

DISCUSSION

W. W. STETSON, state superintendent of public instruction, Augusta, Me.- I trust I am saying nothing unconventional when I remark that the paper presented by Superintendent Cooley impresses me as one of unusual merit. I realize that I am saying nothing startling when I observe that I agree with the facts stated and the gospel preached. I must be excused, however, from attempting to discuss this question from the Chicago altitude or the vantage ground of Illinois, but instead I must be content to consider it from the Maine standpoint.

There are four items which, it seems to me, we may consider as settled: (1) We cannot gain much information as to a teacher's fitness to be licensed by asking her questions she cannot answer. (2) We ought not to forgive ourselves if we indulge in that form of idiocy which asks for details no intelligent teacher should be expected to know. (3) The candidate has a right to a fair chance to tell what she knows. (4) What she has done and what she can do should be considered in granting a certificate, and these items should be placed to her credit, in definite form, on her certificate.

The following plan has been used in Maine during the past five years. Its success has more than vindicated its usefulness. That its fairness has appealed to the teachers of the state is proved by the fact that nearly one-fourth of the members of the profession have applied for certificates, and that more than one-sixth of our teachers have been licensed under this system. The plan may be briefly outlined as follows:

A preliminary examination blank is sent to each candidate, upon which she makes a record of her name, age, post-office address; the schools she has attended, with the time she was a member of each; the schools she has taught, with the time she had charge of each; the official positions she has held, with the term of office of each; the subjects in which she has received special training; the branches she prefers to teach; the titles of at least five books she has read on history, science, literature, and pedagogy; the names of the magazines and professional papers she reads regularly; the names of the educational associations of which she is an active member; and the names of five persons who are not related to her by blood, or connected with her by marriage, or associated with her in business, and who have a knowledge of her schoolroom work, and are capable of giving an estimate of the same.

The candidate may be asked to give an abstract of one of the books she has read, and a judgment of its merits, together with a brief biography of its author. She also may be required to give such a description of some one of the magazines or papers included in her list as will indicate the intelligence and regularity with which it is read.

If it is evident from the preliminary examination that a teacher has limited her reading to trashy literature, this evidence of unfitness must be overcome before the department will issue a certificate. The teacher may not have read all the latest books on pedagogy, but she is forgiven if she has read the chapter on "Old Domsie” in Beside the Bonnie Brier Bush, has caught the spirit embalmed in The Evolution of Dodd, and has learned to sympathize with Sentimental Tommy. She is even told to go her way and sin some more-along these lines.

Slips containing the following explanations and questions are sent to three or five persons named by the candidate as references:

M.

STATE OF MAINE: EDUCATIONAL DEPARTMENT.

.of.....

has referred to you as one not related to her by blood or marriage, nor associated with her in business, and as having personal knowledge of her character and worth as a teacher. Will you please fill the annexed blank, using one or more of the following words in giving answers to all subjects of inquiry except the last, namely, "Excellent," "Good," "Fair," "Poor," Very Poor "?

If your answers are favorable, your name will be placed upon the back of the state certificate for which the person named is applicant; if unfavorable, your name will not be used, and your answers will be held strictly confidential. For the benefit of the candidate this return should be made at once.

W. W. STETSON,

State Superintendent of Public Schools,

ESTIMATE OF CANDIDATE'S FITNESS

(1) Moral character? (2) Success in gaining co-operation of pupils and parents? (3) Tact in directing and controlling pupils? (4) Interest in work? (5) Energy? (6) Enthusiasm? (7) Skill in instructing? (8) Pover in stimulating pupils to do their best? (9) Influence over pupils out of school? (10) Efforts for self-improvement? (11) Extent of general reading? (12) Manners as influencing those of pupils? (13) Capacity for work? (14) For what kind of school would you recommend the candidate?

Signed.....

P. O....

The candidate does not know which three of the five references are interviewed. The replies received are averaged and recorded on the face of the certificate in a column numbered 1, and a record is also made of the preliminary examination on the back of the certificate. This document, when properly filled out, gives a complete pedagogical history of the person holding the same, together with the estimates of three competent judges who know personally of the holder and her work. It also includes a license to teach in primary, grammar, common schools, or public schools, and is valid for one, three, or five years, or for life.

On a day previously announced, the candidates assemble at convenient centers, and written examinations in the several studies are given. These papers are returned to the department and are ranked, and the credits are entered upon the certificate in the column numbered 2.

It will be seen that three items are taken into consideration in licensing a teacher: first, her personal and professional record; second, the testimony furnished by three competent persons as to her ability and her success in the schoolroom; third, her scholastic attainments as manifest in her written examinations.

The following advantages are claimed for this system of issuing certificates: first, it is just to the candidate; second, it reveals to the applicant, in tangible form, her merits and defects; third, it gives full credit for ability, scholarship, experience, effort, and skill; fourth, it furnishes school officials with a reliable statement of the quality and power of the person applying for a position.

MISS MARGARET A. HALEY, of Chicago.—I should like to ask Superintendent Stetson if he can get teachers with all the accomplishments he has mentioned for $38 per month. SUPERINTENDENT STETSON.-Many are giving their time and their best knowledge and culture for a sum so small that they are unwilling to reveal it.

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MISS HALEY. Do the graduates of Smith and Wellesley Colleges support themselves on the small sum mentioned?

SUPERINTENDENT STETSON.-These persons are native-born, Simon-pure maniacs, and are waiting for an opportunity to marry men with money enough to support them and supply them with the necessary amount of money to carry on their work.

SUPERINTENDENT F. LOUIS SOLDAN, of St. Louis.- Examination of principals and teachers brings to light other important points aside from determining the academic proficiency in the studies he or she is expected to teach. Examinations aid the superintendent and examining committee in determining traits of character and the moral proficiency of the candidate. These traits of character may not always be determined directly, but indirectly. It is sometimes true that the teacher who receives the highest per cent. on an examination is the weakest teacher, but this is the exception, not the rule. It is not generally true that those teachers who pass the best examinations are among the strongest teachers. Under our rules for examining teachers, we hold an oral examination as well as a written. The oral examination always follows the written. We use the oral examination to find out what a teacher really knows about the subject, and thru this medium, by a careful method of questioning, we are enabled to discover something concerning the teacher's personality and power. For instance, the teacher is asked to read a certain selection and encouraged to talk about it. He is asked what his favorite book is, and he is given a chance to tell what he knows about the book. We find it an easy matter to have the resident teachers of our own cities or state take the examination before election to positions in our schools, but it is often impracticable to ask those who live a long way from St. Louis to come and take the examination in advance. The trip is expensive, and we cannot guarantee them a position in advance of the examination. For these reasons our board of education has adopted the plan of permitting principals and supervising teachers to come into our schools, after looking them up, and occupy positions upon probation. This gives us an opportunity to gain a knowledge of their practical work and special fitness for the work to which they have been assigned. If at the close of the intervals of probation their work is satisfactory, they are allowed to take an examination and certificates are issued to them.

SUPERINTENDENT CHARLES R. SKINNER, of New York.- How does your plan for examining inexperienced teachers differ from that of examining experienced teachers?

SUPERINTENDENT SOLDAN.- Inexperienced teachers are not permitted to enter the schools upon probation without an examination, while experienced teachers are.

SUPERINTENDENT L. E. WOLFE, Kansas City, Kan.- Is it really worth a teacher's time and efforts to cram for an examination? I think that examinations should be so set that they will parallel the necessary preparation. Appoint a committee upon examination to prepare a set of questions that will test a teacher's skill on what she will be required to teach. The questions usually prepared in reading are not at all a test of the teacher's ability to teach reading. This same criticism is more or less applicable to many other branches upon which teachers are examined for certificates to teach in our city schools.

SUPERINTENDEnt J. F. Keating, Pueblo, Colo., asked Superintendent Soldan why he required a teacher to take an examination after she gave evidence of her fitness as a teacher.

SUPERINTENDENT SOLDAN.- Real scholastic ability goes beyond the ordinary requirements of a schoolroom. A teacher should be broader than the text book and the mere outline of work she is expected to present to her pupils.

SUPERINTENDEnt Greenwood, Kansas City, Mo.— I should place the names of teachers and principals resident in the city who have given evidence of careful preparation and skill for the work on the approved list.

SUPERINTENDENT JAMES A. FOSHAY, Los Angeles, Cal., asked Superintendent Soldan for what time he appointed principals without examination.

SUPERINTENDENT SOLDAN.-For the remainder of the year at the close of which an examination will be given him. If he is not prepared on all the subjects in the usual list, substitution of studies of equal value is often permitted.

SUPERINTENDENT C. G. PEARSE, Omaha, Neb.- Examination of teachers should be held to protect those whose duty it is to employ them.

DR. E. E. WHITE, Cincinnati, O.—We have not yet discovered the best method of examining teachers. So long as we make no discrimination between the beginner and the experienced teacher, so long will the profession be unrecognized and unformed. A qualification in one state is not usually indorsed in another. The profession of teaching ought to recognize permanent qualifications for the work. A certain degree of preparation and certain tests that may be made from time to time should be allowed to take the place of any future examinations. Our custom is to continue to examine teachers too long.

THE PRACTICAL APPLICATION OF ALL LEARNING TO BETTER LIVING

DAVID L. KIEHLE, PROFESSOR OF PEDAGOGY, UNIVERSITY OF MINNESOTA, MINNEAPOLIS, MINN.

Life is the supreme treasure of humanity. Whatever it contains, whether much or little, it is still the most desirable of all things. “All that a man hath will he give for his life." Even when reduced to mere animal existence, it is still his precious treasure. And the history of the human race may be comprehended in the single aim, to make life more worth living, to enlarge the content of the ideal, and accordingly to appropriate or utilize man's environment to this end.

Education, as the handmaid of civilization, may be comprehensively defined as a preparation for living. It has never been dissociated from this dominant idea of life, and therefore has always, in some sense, been practical. The form which education has assumed at various times has likewise been determined by the form which these two ideals have assumed, namely, (1) who are entitled to a living, interpreted in its highest meaning? and (2) in what does living consist?

In general, we may say that the governing class those who represent the institution in its governmental and social capacity - have claimed for themselves the right to represent in themselves the highest ideal of living. This they have claimed in its honors and comforts. They have not only excluded all others from the privileges they have enjoyed, but they have made all others contribute to their living by every necessary sacrifice of comfort, of convenience, and even of life itself. Education has therefore always been for the recognized dominant class, who have alone been given the opportunity to prepare for living. We shall find in our study of education that, with the expansion of this idea of the dominant class, the forms of education have changed to include the new classification, and also a change in method to prepare for corresponding life.