III. TRAINING CLASSES IN THE HIGH SCHOOLS

Both Kansas and Nebraska have done very remarkable work in the development of high school training classes as a means for securing a supply of trained teachers for the rural schools of the state. The following report of the then State Inspector gives a very clear idea as to the work and results of such classes. The correlation of the industrial work with that of training teachers is a marked point of merit in the Kansas plan. In connection with the new county schools of agriculture this plan for teacher training promises much for the future for the rural schools.

1. Normal and Industrial Training in High Schools [Report of Kansas State Inspector. From the 18th Bien. Rept. Supt. Publ. Inst. Kas., 1911-1912, pp. 23-32.]

Hon. E. T. Fairchild, State Superintendent of Public Instruction, Topeka, Kan.:

DEAR SIR-In the line of my duty, I beg to submit the following report of normal and industrial training in high schools for the biennium 1911-'13. For the sake of comparison, I have also deemed it advisable briefly to review the history of normal work in Kansas high schools from its inception.

Since 1886 there have been a few high schools in the state authorized to offer normal-training courses and to grant graduates from such courses a two-year county teacher's certificate; but these schools never exceeded twenty-three in number, were widely scattered, and benefited only their own immediate localities.

Realizing the need for better schools, particularly better rural schools, and recognizing that the first requisite for better schools is better trained teachers, the Kansas Educational Commission of 1908 recommended the enactment of a law providing for a normal-training course in at least one high school in practically every county in the state. In pursuance of this recommendation the legislature passed the normal-training act, which became operative May 29, 1909. By the provisions of this act, the State Board of Education was empowered to prescribe regulations under which accredited high schools might offer a course in normal training for prospective teachers. To further the work $50,000

per year were appropriated for the biennium. This money was to be used only for the payment of additional teaching force, and was to be apportioned by the State Board of Education to deserving schools in such a way as best to serve the school interests of the entire state, provided that the amount apportioned to any one county was in no case to exceed one thousand dollars. The law further provided that to be eligible to participate in the fund a school must have at least ten students each semester in regular attendance upon the normal-training course. At the completion of their course these students should be given an examination by the State Board of Education, and upon passing such examination should receive a normal-training teacher's certificate, good in the public schools of any county in the state for a period of two years, and to be indefinitely renewable for two years at a time upon conditions fixed by the Board. Accredited academies might receive all the privileges and benefits of the act except that of state aid.

The more important regulations as first prescribed by the State Board of Education for the conduct of normal-training classes

were:

The distinctively normal-training work should be given only in the senior year of a four years' high-school course, and only seniors or postgraduates should be permitted to take it. This work was to consist of one-half year in psychology, one-half year in methods and management, a year in American history and a review of arithmetic, geography, grammar and reading. A pedagogical reference library consisting of not fewer than thirty volumes was to be provided by each school. All teachers teaching normaltraining classes were required to be graduates of accredited colleges or state normal schools, to have had at least two years' teaching experience, and to be approved for the work in question by the state superintendent of public instruction. Observation visits were made a regular part of the normal-training course, and these visits were to be made once a week, or at least often enough so that the class should make at least one visit to each grade in which each subject was taught.

As will be observed, the normal-training work was originally confined to the senior year. This was done in order that existing high-school courses might be disturbed as little as possible. But a year's experience with the work as first outlined, together with the popular demand for its extension, led the State Board to provide that, beginning with the school year 1911-'12, one-half year of hygienic physiology, one-half year of civics and one-half year of psychology should be required of all normal-training students

in the junior year, together with sufficient other work from any regular high-school course to make the necessary four units; and that after that date the work in the senior year should consist of a year of American history, a year of physics, one-half year of methods and management, and a review of one-half year in arithmetic and of twelve weeks each in geography, grammar and reading, the reviews to be presented with special reference to methods of teaching. With the exception of this extension of time, the provisions and regulations as first adopted are still in effect and have proved eminently satisfactory.

For the year 1909-'10 the normal-training course was instituted in 110 high schools and academies; of the 105 counties in the state, every one in which there was a school able and willing to meet the requirements was represented in the list 78 in all. In these schools 721 seniors and postgraduates completed the normaltraining work and took the prescribed examination. Of this number 615 were successful and received the state-wide renewable normal-training teacher's certificate.

For the year 1910-'11, 125 schools, representing 80 counties, were approved in accordance with the provisions of the normaltraining act. In these schools 946 seniors and postgraduates completed the course and wrote upon the examination; of this number 704 were successful.

During the year 1911-'12 the normal-training course was offered, according to the regulations, in 160 schools, representing 90 counties. In these schools 1256 applicants took the examination, and of these 1125 secured certificates.

For the year 1912-'13, 189 high schools and academies located in 92 different counties of the state are offering the normal-training work, and have an enrollment in the normal-training classes of more than 2500 junior, senior and postgraduate students.

That the normal-training movement is rapidly accomplishing the purpose for which it was instituted and is furnishing better prepared teachers in increasing numbers for our common schools is clearly demonstrated by the following figures: Your biennial report for 1910-'11 shows that there were then 7873 teachers employed in the rural schools of the state. Of this number but 197 had a normal-school training or its equivalent; 2379 were high-school graduates, and 1639 had attended high school one year or more, while 3658 had only such training as could be obtained in the common schools. Elsewhere in this volume it is shown that there are now 7842 rural teachers employed in the state. Of this number 238 are graduates of colleges or normal schools, 2980 are high-school graduates and 1654 have attended

high school one year or more, leaving but 2970 with only a commonschool training.

Indeed, the normal-training act, in conjunction with the recent legislation requiring a graduated increase in the preparation for teaching, means that within a decade no teacher will be teaching, even in the rural schools of Kansas, who has not had at least a full four years' high school course, including specific work in normal training.

Graduates of the state normal schools are almost always able to secure grade- and high-school positions, and consequently rarely go into the country schools, nor would the establishment of additional state normal schools greatly improve conditions in this respect, because students would not feel that they could go to the expense of leaving home and taking a four years' course in order to prepare themselves to become country teachers. But the fact that under the normal-training act they can get a year's professional training in the local high-school course, and at the end of it secure a state-wide certificate good indefinitely if successfully used, is serving at once to induce more young people to enter high school with the intention of becoming teachers and to hold more of those entering school until the course is completed.

Moreover, this new course has given the high school itself a higher place in the esteem of the people, because it serves in part to meet their demand for curricula that are more practical; for even before there was any attempt at special preparation for the work, substantially 40 per cent of all our high-school graduates went immediately to teaching.

Again, the introduction of the normal-training course has had a most salutary effect upon the entire school life of the communities concerned. It is the common observation of superintendents that the interest in school work is stimulated by the very immediate and definite end which the normal-training young people have in view, and that this feeling reaches and influences students not taking the normal work. The study of psychology, methods and management gives a new view to school problems and school responsibilities, and this awakening has had a marked effect on the attitude of the whole school toward matters of discipline and administration. Then, too, the observation work has not only greatly benefited the prospective teachers but by reacting upon the work of the teachers visited has also resulted in infusing new life and energy into the work of the grades. In view of all these things, therefore, I believe that the legislature could not spend the state's money more wisely than by adding at least $5000 a year to the appropriation for normal-training in high schools for the

next biennium, to the end that additional schools might be approved.

Actuated by the growing demand for industrial work in our schools, and influenced by the success of the normal-training movement, the legislature of 1911 appropriated $25,000 per year for the biennium to encourage the introduction of courses in agriculture and home economics in schools already recognized under the normal-training act. The terms of the appropriation provided that schools approved for the normal-training course might also receive $250 each for offering courses in agriculture and home economics, under such regulations as the State Board of Education might prescribe, provided that no school should receive the benefits of the act unless it had at least ten pupils enrolled in the industrial courses each semester. In conformity with this legislation, the State Board of Education adopted the following regulations:

1. The amount of work in agriculture required shall be one year; agriculture being defined as follows: A study of soils, and farm, garden and orchard crops; or a study of soils, farm, garden and orchard crops and animal husbandry. Laboratory work shall require two double periods per week.

2. The amount of household economics required shall be one year, and may consist of a year of cooking, or a year of cooking and sewing combined. In the event cooking and sewing are combined, three days out of the week shall be devoted to cooking and two days to sewing, laboratory work requiring double periods.

3. The ten pledgers to the industrial work required by law may be divided in any proportion between agriculture and household economics, but classes in both subjects must be maintained to entitle a school to the state aid.

4. Teachers in either of these courses must satisfy the State Board of Education of their fitness to teach the subjects, and the approval of the State Superintendent of Public Instruction shall be required in every case. General-science teachers may be approved to teach the agriculture if their preparation seems sufficient; but a year's special training for the work in some recognized industrial school is the minimum requirement for teachers of household economics.

For 1911-'12, 90 high schools qualified under the industrialtraining act and enrolled 3031 students in their classes in agriculture and home economics. For 1912-'13, 96 schools have been approved and are offering these very popular and practical subjects to more than 3500 pupils.

From my visits to the approved schools, I am able to say that the work has on the whole been done in a highly satisfactory manner.