1. There must be a certain knowledge of the science that is general and preliminary. Those beginnings should consist of the main features of the permanently developed normal mind, the greatest stress to be placed upon those features that should have the largest bearing when applications are made to the years of infancy, childhood, and youth. This naturally places the most definite emphasis upon sense-training, memory, imagination, and reasoning as the chief features to be comprehended and identified.

Since these are constantly affected by the emotions and sentiments in their action, there must be a comprehension of these elements of the human mind as a key to the great diversity found in the human family when application is attempted.

2. These fundamental studies furnish a basis for individual investigation of personal cases of the normal type. The interpretation of concrete cases is a constant necessity, and the power to instruct and manage and govern and direct, as well as to assist and to influence, enlarges a person's usefulness in proportion as he can apply his knowledge to the unraveling of human nature.

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3. There is no such a person as an 'average child," and the normal-school student must know early that he is a scientific myth-suitable for books and discussions, as an ideal to be regarded in the making of courses of study, in planning a program of studies, etc.; but that it is necessary at last to adjust everything to suit the needs of the real normal individual, with all the many variations in which he appears never being repeated again, and adjustment and approximation never being completed or ended.

The following lines are therefore thought to be profitable and practicable in a normal school:

1. Analogically- the extensive - the training of the ability to institute comparisons and make classifications which will involve the variations and similarities that he constantly encounters in the investigations he must daily conduct in the carrying on of his work as a teacher.

2. Analogically-the intensive - as regards comparisons of a child's development and modification in his own career, such as are consequences of the results of advancing age, experience, and training. By this means a teacher is prepared to anticipate the changes that must occur, and welcome the need to adapt his management and instruction to the expanding human career in every direction that is occurring. This is necessary to make the teacher fully acceptable to the demands.

3. Genetically-as to recent and remote heredity, showing the good and bad conditions that give promise or that may indicate hindrance. Heredity is a factor, but not a permanent one, as latent conditions do not need to be developed, and can be retarded and dwarfed by proper care, culture, and management. Such a knowledge is not the acceptance of fatalism, but is a guide to the proper nurture and protection that will bless and save and sanctify.

Indications are interpretations of the possible and the probable, not of the necessary or the absolute.

The normal child is the rule, not the exception, but he is not the so-called average child. The phenomena that we commonly classify among the abnormal and the hereditarily unfit are generally types of the incomplete, of the immature, of the undeveloped, rather than of the irregular, the unfortunate, or the unfit.

The normal child is possessed of the moderateness of the mediocre, not the extravagance of extra brightness, of unusual ability to respond, of largeness of gifts and talents in acquirement. These much-lauded phenomena, ranked as greatest and best by the schools and the teachers, are evidences of abnormal status and prospects rather than of the best and most hopeful.

The exceptional, the eccentric, as well as the defective, must be recognized; but they are the few rather than the many, and school work deals with the normal and the ordinary, and it is for those that the studies of the normal school must prepare. Such a personality is not perfect, not complete, not trained, not good in judgment, not skilled in

anything, not effective in planning- as he is needing all that education and civilization can do for him and his career.

4. There should be a study of (1) normal inhibition; (2) movement; (3) imitation; (4) emotional life; (5) impressionability; (6) simple and complex action; etc., etc.

Attention should also be given to a full knowledge of the field opened for study in the applications of the gift of language. This has probably the largest field of actual usefulness to these ages and grades of teaching.

The development of the individual in speaking, writing, acting, etc., to convey his thoughts, and in the training necessary to attain the acquisition of these elements of power, is among the most important in pedagogy. Even a partial knowledge in these direc- ` tions will enable the teacher to avoid many mistakes, while a complete and careful knowledge of these fundamental elements will always guarantee efficiency and skill, if good judgment is used in adapting the teaching to the pupils.

It is very essential also to recognize the effect of the spirit of the school and the teacher upon the work of the pupils. The pupil is always subject to misunderstandings, misinterpretings, false conceptions, deceptive indications, teacher's accusations-all of which interfere with happiness, prosperity, and success. Fundamentals of happiness, the conditions that make such experience possible - as it comes from indirection - are among the essentials that cannot well be omitted, as the power to touch the emotions and the sentiments is a power that can be used for the greatest good or the greatest evil.

5. Each child is an individual problem - the sole edition of his kind, having his own province to fulfill, his own career to work out, his own message to give, his own service to humanity to perform. Hence his problems, his difficulties, and his perplexities are always to be considered and thoughtfully assisted toward a solution as far as the teacher's knowledge and experience can contribute.

Psychology and child study has limitations, and very definite ones at that. It is no substitute for judgment and common-sense. It is rather an assistant than a guide, even to common-sense. It will help one to interpret, but it is not an interpreter, as that is the teacher's own work.

Its greatest effectiveness is found in the vital side of affairs, not in the formal side. Life is not a classification, but a unity. The mind is not a lot of faculties working at variance, but in co-operation. Its study must not end in analysis, but in synthesis.

PRESIDENT ALBERT SALISBURY, State Normal School, Whitewater, Wis.-We teach one course orally and one in the text-book. We have tried nine different books, and then we have returned to some of them a second time and have again discarded. We are not able to recommend any particular book. We cannot find a place for child study except as a part of psychology. There seems to me something unwholesome about carry. ing this subject to the extent of sentimentality.

PRESIDENT LIVINGSTON C. LORD, Eastern Illinois Normal School, Charleston, Ill.— It seems to me that the study of psychology in the normal school should result in some culture, how much I do not know. If the normal school stands for the cultural side of psychology, it could get some grasp of that subject in the study of Shakespeare, Thackeray, George Eliot, Hawthorne. There is a knowledge of the mind which is valuable to the teacher, and this is something more than merely a knowledge of human nature which makes for a teacher's success. The knowledge of mind set forth by great writers is the knowledge to which I now refer as valuable. The mass of knowledge possessed by a student coming to me is greater than all I can add; the teacher does a great service by arranging for the student knowledge already in his possession.

The cultivation of the power of attention is important. Interest is the result of attention. Memory, including imagination, of course, ought to be given very high place. So many people talk about cultivating higher faculties, forgetting that the lower faculties must furnish the matter. A man cannot remember what he has not clearly sensed.

PRINCIPAL JAMES M. GREEN, State Normal School, Trenton, N. J.-The highest culture that I know about is the culture that comes from the mastery of subjects. When you talk to me about a cultured man, I want to see a man who knows his subject; if it is physics, I want him to know physics; if it is mathematics, I want him to know that. When it comes to the normal school, we must be practical. We are directly in contact with the taxpayers. We want to help the one who goes out into the schools. We want to send out teachers who can give a knowledge of these branches in the best and quickest way. The psychology we want is to help in that direction.

I have noticed. in my work as superintendent and as principal, certain very marked faults. There is the teaching of symbols that do not symbolize anything. I have seen college graduates in a primary grade trying sentences which convey no impression to the mind of the child similar to that in the mind of the teacher, and the teacher did not know how to test the child to see whether he was getting the idea. In other words, it seems to me that the art of making an impression must be studied.

that we do not do enough In the school referred to, a

Some years ago it was decided in a city in our region object-teaching. I think Oswego was working in that line. certain number of objects-blocks, etc.—were purchased, and the teacher was required for six months to teach from these, and pretty generally they became blockheads. There was no knowledge on the part of the teachers of the things to be symbolized. It seems to me that the normal teacher must know psychology to give force to symbols. I have known of certain schools that decided that the proper way to teach spelling was by writing; no oral teaching whatever. They made no test to see whether something was gained thru the ear.

Not a great while ago there came into our section of country the theory that we must teach the spiral system in arithmetic. We must select from the higher subjects what was simple, and teach it in the lower. The pupil would leave school before reaching the subject, and the spiral system was so worked out that not enough time was given you to make an impression that would endure. There were so many impressions made that none were deep enough to be lasting. It was not very long before very severe criticism came upon that school; the bankers and merchants knew that their boys could not work arithmetic. The banker's children had spent more time on arithmetic than the father ever had, but it was scattered.

I wish to close with this statement: that I think the psychology we are to study must show us the habit of the mind in learning. I do not ignore that physiological psychology which teaches us to know what it means to be tired, the study of a sort of phenomenon psychology. For the normal schools, in our field of labor, we must remember that we come in contact with the children of all classes, and we must teach that psychology which will most help the children.

JOHN A. H. KEITH, of Northern Illinois Normal School, De Kalb, Ill., was asked to state President Cook's point of view on this subject.-I am reluctant to attempt this, because I have not heard the discussion. The teacher who is to study psychology should get out of it the knowledge of the process. She should be prepared to give the children the conditions for learning. We believe that the teacher should learn how the child utilizes the things which he gets by his senses. She should get this from the child's point of view. The child-mind changes gradually from image-making to the more abstract proWe are making less rigorous use of terms, and there is less of division between some of the terms used in psychology. The making of definitions so exact is not true to the reality. One-fourth of our work centers around these two topics, attention and interest. We are also paying more attention than formerly to the agencies of the child's emotions. We believe that his interest depends on his attitude toward things. We pay considerable attention to the study of the genesis of the child's emotions in the formation of habit, also to how the child's experiences are shaped to form the self of the child,

cesses.

which is not a fixed but a changing personality. This is the important thing to be reached in the teaching process. It all centers around this principle-that the teacher should learn how the child-mind acts, rather than judge by the adult's consciousness.

TOPIC II: SHALL THE INSTRUCTION IN PSYCHOLOGY BE ORAL, OR SHALL A TEXT-BOOK BE USED?

DISCUSSION

GRANT KARR, superintendent of practice, State Normal School, Oswego, N. Y.— The question whether the text-book shall be used, or oral instruction, is a very large question, and what is applicable to other studies is applicable to psychology. It seems to me best to note briefly what method is. Method is usually considered simply a means of conveying knowledge. I do not believe in that notion of method. Mind is a thing that makes itself, and method is some sort of a procedure that takes into account this selfactivity. Otherwise the teacher must be a sort of divinity that creates. The teachers who hold the theory of total depravity, and who aim to put into the minds of children ideas that are not now there, must have some such theory of method. Method is simply an environment. A mechanic is not a person who creates natural forces, but one who environs natural forces; no person creates electricity; the farmer does not create the forces that grow the grain. All the process that the teacher goes thru with might well be called method. Taking that view of it, there are four or five different varieties of method. The first, most common and easiest, is the oral method; another is the method of presenting the book; another is that of experiment; another is that method of development which results from discussion. The text-book method is perhaps not the best method, and it cannot be used wholly and solely. The teacher has to know the individual. To present the book first is unduly hastening the matter. I do not think that the text-book, however good it may be, can ever replace the teacher. As a general thing, the book will be better than any outline that the teacher can construct. The author is usually a specialist. The person who teaches psychology must be a master of his subject; he is the one who is expected to interpret the subject.

There are decided advantages in using a text-book; the subject is well outlined; the book is gotten up in good form, is more easily read than notes, and is permanent. The book will shut up when you get tired of it. The disadvantages are those which pertain to books in general-the chance to memorize, so that the pupils may recite without having ideas. Again, they may get the idea that the whole subject of psychology is in a book, and only one book. If they read many books, they may get confused because of conflicting opinions.

To sum up: In the teaching of psychology both the text-book and the oral methods are valuable. To do without oral instruction does away with the teacher; correspondence instruction would be very unsatisfactory. Whether the oral instruction shall precede and the reading come after, depends on the teacher's view and his previous training. If he has a broad view, he can outline his course and put his work thru orally, and lead each student to make his own summary; but the student may get to think that writing notes is studying psychology. If they are to read books at all, they should know what conflicts they are to find.

I would, therefore, recommend that both the oral and the text-book methods be used, the text-book, as a general thing, to follow oral instruction.

THOMAS H. GENTLE, director of training school, State Normal School, Platteville, Wis. My work lies just between the children, on the one hand, and the teachers, on the

other. In many of our normal schools there are two courses in psychology—the elementary and the advanced. I think the advanced course has not much bearing on the work of the teacher in the training courses.

The instructor in elementary psychology would better select a few principles which he thinks of value, and use children to illustrate the principles. Let the students take notes of what is done. After two or three such recitations have been held, let the students meet the instructor and hold a discussion. More lessons may then be given, putting these principles into application. After thus bringing out the principles, let the pupils go to the library and read on method rather than on psychology. I do not mean to crowd out the text book; I think the teacher should have the text-book close to him. Teachers are likely to throw away psychological training, and fall back on tradition. If the student-teacher gets his psychological data from seeing it applied, he will see how his theory fits the pupils.

CONFERENCE B.-TRAINING TEACHERS

TOPIC: CRITICISM — WHAT SHALL IT BE?

INTRODUCTORY ADDRESS, JAMES E. RUSSELL, DEAN OF TEACHERS COLLEGE, COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY, NEW YORK

[AN ABSTRACT]

We take for granted this afternoon that teachers can be trained for their work. The problem before us is how best to assist the young teacher in acquiring the skill which makes for success in class instruction. Or, from another point of view, how shall the young teacher acquire those habits in class work which will leave him free to exert personal influence upon his pupils ?

Teaching is an art, and, like other arts, certain habits must be acquired in order to achieve the greatest success. Some light, it seems to me, can be had from the analogy of the ordinary workman. When an artisan is asked to make an object - for example, the columns in this room-we must supply him with material. In this instance the material is a hard wood. We must then give him the instruments which he requires and the means for carrying on his work-in this instance, tools for working in wood and a suitable workshop. We must then provide him with a plan, showing the elevation and giving the details required in the execution. If he is able to improve upon the plans given him, or to form his own plans in such a way as to meet our requirements and arouse our admiration, we no longer call the workman an artisan; he then becomes the artist.

It is possible, however, for a man to invent very elaborate plans, to have the best of tools and instruments, and to be provided with an abundance of choice material, and still be unable to do the work required. He must have skill in the use of tools which are adapted for work upon the material, if he would shape this material in conformity with the ends to be obtained. How does the workman acquire this skill? If we applied this analogy to the work of the teacher, the material which is supplied is the pupil, the means and instruments are the subjects of instruction and all the school equipment which are essential in education. The ends to be attained are suggested by the study of the history and philosophy of education, and by the requirements of modern life. The skill which is looked for in the teacher comes from experience in doing the work of the teacher.

The teacher who works blindly and who uses the means and instruments of instruction thoughtlessly, or who is incapable of giving a personal touch to all that he does, is an artisan, not an artist.

In the work of our normal schools we hope to make every student somewhat of an artist, but it should be borne in mind that artistic qualities are dependent upon clearness