the people; very well, we should get as close to the people and to as many of them as possible, and I think it is an error for the superintendent to want to be free from approach or suggestion by the people.

There is a movement now in the development of civic life to make the heads of departments practically free from control. "Responsibility of the heads of departments is the cry, and it has been helped along by writers whose opinions harmonize with those of Mr. Bryce. Upon this principle, there are school superintendents who wish to be autocrats. The movement, however, is a mere eddy in the great development of government in this country, as well as all over the world, which is making for greater dependence upon the whole mass of the people. We have started out in this country to realize the democratic ideal; we believe that on the whole and in the long run, despite errors that can doubtless be shown, it is better to put the direction of affairs into the control of all the people. So far the results are fairly satisfactory. City government is not a failure; the people are going to exert more direct power, rather than less, and we ought to bend our work and influence in accordance with that tendency. This ought to be a matter of conscience with us. It goes far deeper than mere policy. Abraham Lincoln said that the nation could not long endure half slave and haif free, so it would not long endure half moving toward democratic ways and half toward autocratic ways. Growth is sure to be along democratic lines. Even the president, burdened with a load of cares without precedent in history, finds it a benefit to take time to meet all the people. It is not mere policy; there is a strange, spiritual influence; the president gains strength from feeling that he is "in touch" with the mass of the people.

The superintendent of schools, in his own field, needs that same support. If he is a leader of men, then the more he meets them, the more surely and successfully he will lead. The more he meets the people and knows them, the better superintendent he will be.

The teachers' association may contribute to mutual acquaintance, helpfulness, stimu lation, inspiration among the teachers. It encourages initiative. It is better for us always to do things for ourselves, even badly, rather than to have things done for us. The planning and carrying on of general teachers' meetings may be done largely by the teachers' association. There is no danger that the superintendent will not have influence in shaping affairs. The teachers' association should have sections or committees engaged in special lines of work: a particular committee to read and advise as to the policy of the public library; a committee on reading, or other subjects; a committee to report on educational progress.

Above and beyond this I think there is a future for the teachers' association, which at present we can only dream, tho some things done or attempted at Chicago, at my neighbor city of Springfield, and elsewhere may give a hint. If our medical association issues a declaration upon some question of public policy that is within its sphere, that declaration is received with great respect. Why should not the teachers' association in like manner exercise leadership and be the recognized authority upon any question that has to do with public education? Why should not its advice be sought and accepted as sure to be courageous, high-minded, wise, the best guidance to be had?

The grade meeting has its peculiar place and usefulness. It is here, in a small meeting, that the superintendent can come close to the individual needs of his teachers. The grade meeting is the place for discussion rather than for lecture or exhortation. Every teacher, tho of briefest experience, should be encouraged to give her views, and the part taken by the teacher, whether of discussion or of exemplification of class work, ought to be at least as prominent as the part taken by the superintendent. Here is the place to go into details of class work, impossible in the general meetings. Here is the place, too, for the superintendent to show his teachers how to be students. Many of our teachers do not know how to study. They are not in the track of the best ideas. They do not know the great currents of thought nor the best books. Ideas are in the air, like Hertzian

waves; the teacher should have the means to get their impulse. In the grade meetings the superintendent has a good chance to lead the minds of his teachers into the danger zone, where they are liable to be struck by new ideas.

Pay-rolls and financial statements: In a little city, where one man must do everything, with but little clerical help, clear and economical methods of arranging the office routine are important. I have a city of less than fifty thousand people, and no assistant superintendent. It is necessary that the committee should be kept fully informed, especially on financial matters.

Here is my plan for a pay-roll: The name of each teacher and substitute is written once, for the year. There is a space for every school day. A call comes in for a substitute. A clerk turns to the substitute list; sees who is available; writes the school opposite the name, in the space for that date; sends the substitute; then, in the corresponding space opposite the teacher's name, sets down the name of the substitute. At the end of the month, here are the days all accounted for, and the amount is set down in this space. My principals send a report, but I do not find that report free from errors. At the end of the month the total expense in each ledger account is carried forward into an account of monthly totals. From that it is copied upon a sheet like this: (1) appropriation for each account; (2) expenditure to date; (3) balance to date; (4) bills and orders; (5) fixed charges to end of fiscal year; (6) appoint balance.

This account goes to the board meeting. Some expenditure is contemplated-perhaps new kindergartens to be established. The question always is: "Have we the money?" Here is the positive answer. We have such a balance in sight for the end of the fiscal year. Here is a definite, positive thing that the average school-committee man can understand. He does not know much about pedagogy, but he knows a definite statement of business. And the superintendent who can prove that his estimate comes out just right has gained power and respect which he can use elsewhere.

C. ROUND TABLE OF NORMAL SCHOOLS AND TRAINING TEACHERS

CONFERENCE A.-NORMAL SCHOOLS

TOPIC I: WHAT ASPECTS OF PSYCHOLOGY AND CHILD STUDY ARE SUITABLE SUBJECTS FOR INSTRUCTION IN NORMAL SCHOOLS?

DISCUSSION

PROFESSOR DANIEL PUTNAM, State Normal College, Ypsilanti, Mich. The necessity for brevity must be my apology for the dogmatic style of this paper.

It is assumed that all agree that the normal school is a special and professional school, having a specific and definite purpose, the preparation of teachers, mainly, for grades of schools below the high school. While broad general culture is very desirable in teachers for such schools, as indeed for all schools, it is not the function of the ordinary normal school to provide the means for such culture. If this becomes its chief aim, its existence cannot be justified. The nature and extent of its courses of study and instruction must be determined by the purpose of the institution. Studies and portions of studies may be included in the curriculum of the normal school for any one of three

reasons:

1. Studies which its students are expecting to teach. The instruction in such studies

will be, to a large extent, in the way of reviews, with direct reference to methods of teaching.

2. Some studies which the students may not expect to teach, but a knowledge of which will be of great service in the presentation, explanation, and illustration of the branches which they do teach. Of this kind are algebra for its aid in teaching arithmetic, rhetoric and literature for their help in teaching language and grammar, and English history for its service in teaching United States history. Other examples will readily occur. Instruction in these branches will, in most cases, be reviews with a definite professional end in view. Incidentally such studies tend toward extending the general knowledge and culture of students.

3. Studies a knowledge of which gives the intending teacher a thoro insight into his own nature, into the natures of his pupils, into the nature of the processes of learning, and of the correlative processes of teaching, and most of all into the springs of human conduct, and into the forces, motives, and influences which are most potent in molding and fashioning human character, and in giving right direction to human activities; in other words, the forces and influences most effective in the production of such men and women as are needed in the community for the uplifting of society and of humanity generally.

Among the studies of this third class are psychology, ethics, and æsthetics. Psychology is the only one with which we are now directly concerned; and the inquiry is: What aspects of this study should be presented and especially emphasized in the normal school?

The obvious answer must be: Those aspects best adapted to aid in securing the objects just spoken of. This general answer of course settles nothing. It remains to find a more definite reply by determining, if possible, what are these aspects. In respect to this evidently considerable differences of opinion exist among normal-school men, if one may judge from the varying courses found in normal-school catalogs and yearbooks. It is expected that this paper will present the views of the writer without apology or begging pardon. The same liberty is freely accorded to those holding different opinions. Time permits only the statement of conclusions without the grounds upon which they are based, or the processes which have led to them.

1. All intelligent study of psychology must of necessity begin with the study of self. The intending teacher must, first of all, become consciously acquainted with the various activities of his own mind; with the occasions and conditions of their normal manifestation. In a final analysis, the personal consciousness must be the arbiter upon all questions of internal psychic action, and the authoritative interpreter of all outward manifestations supposed to involve psychic elements or to result from psychic forces. The mind of the normal, sane, intelligent, and fairly developed man is, for the student and for us all, the typical, ideal mind, the criterion or standard by which the powers, activities, and manifestations of all other minds, whether human, super-human, semi-human, or animal, are examined, compared, measured, and estimated. The activities of other minds may be greater or less than our own, but only so far as they can be compared with our own, thru either similarity or contrast, is it possible for us to comprehend or understand them. This fact determines the point of departure and the general method to be pursued in the study of children. If the child is altogether unlike the adult, a different being in kind, it will be a waste of time and energy to attempt to study him. The same may be said of the study of animals, if psychic manifestations in them are in their nature wholly unlike our own.

This aspect of psychology should be especially emphasized in the normal school to prepare its students for intelligent and fruitful study of human nature in the schoolroom and in the community, and for the study of comparative psychology. So far the discussion has been of a general character. It will be necessary to make it more specific and definite.

2. In order to know himself the student must have a fairly thoro knowledge of his physical organism and of the relation of this to what we call mind. Hence we have that aspect of psychology named physiological. This bears to psychology proper a relation similar to that of the vestibule to the temple, or of the gateways and doors to the park and the house. When a new aspect of an old science is discovered and presented, it usually for a time commands and absorbs attention. It seems to many students and to some others "to be the whole thing," if one may borrow a phrase bordering on "slang." This has happened in the case of psychology. The recent tendency has been to give an undue share of time and attention to the doors and the vestibule. An illustration of this tendency has been described in an article in a recent number of the Forum.

Physiological psychology and its near relative, experimental psychology, have properly large room in the laboratories of universities and other higher institutions, but only a limited place in the ordinary normal school. It is to be assumed that the students of a normal school have a tolerable acquaintance with the structure of the brain and the nervous system, and with their functions in general. Some additional instruction may appropriately be given on their special functions in connection with sensation and perception, with experiments requiring but little apparatus, and in most cases no apparatus at all.

3. That aspect of psychology which treats of the powers and processes of thinking should receive a large share of time and attention. Apperception, so-called, belongs to this aspect. The processes embraced under this term are among the most important of the mental activities, and are, at the same time, very easily and readily understood, provided they are not obscured and mystified by learned explanations and awe-inspiring

terms.

The processes involved in the exercise of judgment and in reaching valid conclusions by the processes of reasoning should be so taught, in a simple and elementary way, that teachers will not impose upon themselves or upon their pupils, or be imposed upon by specious or unsound arguments. The ability to think, and to think correctly and readily, and to express one's thoughts and conclusions clearly and convincingly, is of the highest importance to every instructor. A course in psychology which does not, at least, aim to develop and cultivate this power has small claim to respect.

4. Another aspect of psychology which should have a comparatively large place in the normal school is that which includes the emotions and the sentiments, especially those sentiments which are essential elements in the highest and noblest types of human character. The ethical sentiments are also properly embraced in this group, unless the study of ethics has a separate place in the school curriculum. An extended study of ethical theories is not of great value to the teacher in the common schools and is out of place in the normal school, but practical ethics from a common-sense point of view should receive a good share of attention, either separately or in connection with psychology.

The power of a teacher to build character upon a solid basis, and to give right direction to the activities of those under his charge, to make of them good men and women, depends upon his skill in exciting the best emotions and allaying the bad ones, in bringing into activity the highest and purest sentiments in place of lower and baser ones, and in leading his pupils to act habitually in harmony with the promptings of the best elements of their natures.

5. One other aspect of psychology should receive special attention that aspect which treats of the self-determining power of man, and of the supreme importance of this power in the practical work of educating and elevating human beings. The psychology which in effect eliminates the power of self-determination from the human soul and reduces the will to the rank of one of its functions, voluntary attention, upturns the real foundation upon which true character must be built, and takes away the strongest incentive to effort for the improvement of the individual and of society as a whole. Extended study and discussion of theories concerning "fate and free will," or "determinism and liberty,"

are altogether inappropriate in an ordinary normal school, whatever they may be elsewhere. Immature minds generally, and mature minds frequently, are confused by such discussions, and left in a condition of unstable equilibrium. They are unfitted to a large degree for giving instruction upon questions of duty and responsibility. Wherever the logic of the book or the inductions of so-called science may appear to lead, there is no question as to the direction in which consciousness, human experience, and the logic of commonsense impel us. They all affirm human responsibility, and consequently some good measure of liberty of choice and self-determination. It is this aspect of what may be termed the psychology of common-sense and experience which needs to be taught and emphasized in the normal school. There is very nearly a crying demand for such teaching, and it should have a place in proportion to its importance.

No one questions the influence of heredity or the power of environment; but the children need to be taught that they possess power which, if resolutely employed, will enable them to overcome, to a large degree at least, the influences of inherited characteristics, and to resist the forces of environment. Besides this, teachers have need to comprehend the truth that they will not develop men and women with abiding characters of moral worth and sterling integrity, characters which will withstand the " storm and stress" of real everyday life, by any process of veneering thru the influence of improved surroundings. These are of value and will be greatly helpful. But true, permanent character must have its roots within, in the power of choice, in self-determination, in conscious personal effort. The child must feel that he can do something toward his own elevation and improvement, and that consequently he ought to do something. The psychology that fails to do this has no rightful place in a school, one of whose primary functions is the development and upbuilding of character.

Dr. W. B. Carpenter wrote, some years ago: "To myself it seems as if nothing was wanting, either in my own self-consciousness or in what I know of the conscious experiences of other men, to establish the existence of the 'self-determining power' for which I contend. I cannot conceive of any kind of evidence of its existence more cogent than that which I already possess. And feeling assured that the sources of my belief in it lie deep down in the nature of every normally constituted human being, I cannot anticipate the time when that belief will be eliminated from the thought of mankind when the words 'right,' 'duty,' 'responsibility,' 'choice,' 'self-control,' and the like will cease to have the meaning we at present attach to them; and when we shall treat each other as automatons who cannot help doing whatever our 'heredity' and 'environment' necessitate."

President Homer H. Seerley, State Normal School, Cedar Falls, Ia.--Everything taught in a normal school should be definitely and decidedly helpful. There is no time for studies whose provinces and results are not clear and certain. Psychology has such a place and does perform the right service for the teacher, as it gives him the knowledge that enables him to grow in power and efficiency as he extends his tests and ideas thru his experience in the schoolroom.

Psychology may be studied for itself alone, without any relation to vocation or utility, the same as any other science or art; but in a normal school its province is limited to such phases and investigations as will give the key to a successful career as a teacher of children and youth. Such limitation upon the province of the study excludes at once many parts that are interesting and even instructive, because they have no real bearing upon the business of teaching children and youth.

The teacher of psychology in a normal school has plenty to do when he limits his work to the fields of thought and investigation that have a bearing upon educational work. He has no time at all to spend on the obscure, the peculiar, or the eccentric, as there is plenty of the common, the definite, and the real to employ all the time and attention of his classes and to meet their largest needs.