3. "First, the college teacher of agronomy or animal husbandry The secondary teacher must have some knowledge in the fundamentals of all departments. He cannot be a specialist in soils, in dairying, or pomology, but must be prepared to teach the elements of any phase which local conditions might demand. The failure of many teacher can be traced 'to over specialization. To meet this difficulty, à number of colleges require students preparing to teach to select work in all departments. Unfortunately this does not solve the problem. Hart (2) has pointed out the tendency of superficiality in this plan and as a remedy proposes that the student should select one branch for more intensive study. But the danger of superficiality is not the only objection; in most colleges students would obtain a very incomplete view of agriculture by selecting only one course in each department, for courses are so highly specialized that each course will give a specialized knowledge of a very small part of the field covered by the department. This brings us to the third question. Shall special content courses be arranged for teachers. Works 2) holds that it would be better for all agricultural students if the college would devote more attention to 1, Storm. Courses for preparing agricultural teachers. p.33 2, Hart. What shall be required in the course of study for teachers of secondary agriculture. p.13-4. 3, ibid. p.21 4 a fundamental course and pleads for survey courses in the thetic elementary course as the basis for the additional Dean Russel (2) claims that: "Relative to acquisition of subject matter, ***, this work Butterfield (3) is of the same opinion. Storm (4) does not think He however admits that much would be gained if the water were sqeezed out of some Science In general the training in science in courses for teachers is the same as in the general courses and it is generally satisfactory. For Both the teacher and the general sciences student it is important that the work in the different have the agricultural point of view. Again, Storm has expressed in a nutshell the principle to be followed: 1, Bricker. Courses for preparing agricultural teachers. p.37 2, Ruddell. The opportunity and responsibility for the preparation of teachers of agriculture. p.7. 3 Butterfield. (Training teachers) by agricultural colleges in special courses. p.8, 10-11. 4, Storm. op. cit. p.33 X. Professional Training. There is no serious disagreement regarding the general and technical training in a course for agricultural teachers; there is a most radical difference of opinion regarding the professional training. Altho the number of educators who would omit pedagogy entirely is slowly becoming smaller, professional training is by far the biggest problem in the training of teachers, a problem which is very serious because some who have provided for extensive work in education have come to be dissatisfied with it. Differences in the amount and kind of professional training may be largely explained by differences in methods of providing it. As it has been shown, colleges provide for the professional training in three different ways: a, in classes of general education; b, in specially established courses in education; c, in both the regular classes of education and special classes in agricultural education. The first method is used by colleges connected with a university having a department of education engaged in training teachers in general; the second method by separate agricultural colleges which have established a department of agricultural education; the third method method by colleges affiliated with a department of education but supplementing the general work by courses offered by a donartment of agricultural education. Here the professional training la divided between two departments. There the professional training is entirely in the hands of the department of education, the professional work |