CITY TRAINING SCHOOLS IN INDIANA.

INDIANAPOLIS, INDIANA.

THE Training School of Indianapolis was organized March 1st, 1867, and placed under the charge of Miss Amanda F. Funnell, a graduate of the Oswego Training School, and a former teacher in that school. The design of this school is to give to those who have already completed the academic course of study, an opportunity to pursue a thorough course of training in the principles and methods of oral instruction, and in the science of education and the art of teaching and governing schools.

The school was established with especial reference to meeting the demand for teachers in the schools of Indianapolis, and to furnish these schools with a supply of trained teachers. The Training School is supported from the public funds, as the other city public schools, and is under the supervision of the city superintendent of schools. The qualifications required for the admission of students are, good sound health, good moral character, and a good knowledge of the common English branches of study. The school has two departments, one of instruction, and one of observation and practice. In the former, the course includes the study of methods of teaching, reading, spelling, number, form, size, place, color; lessons on animals, plants, and objects; inventive drawing, language and geography. In connection with the study of methods, lessons are taken in mental philosophy, school economy, zoology and botany. In the department of observation and practice, there are seven rooms, including the four primary and the two intermediate grades of the city schools, and a model school. These rooms are under the charge of three efficient and experienced critics and a model teacher. Each teacher employed as critic has the supervision of two rooms in which the members of the Training Department practice. The seventh room is intended for observation only, and is under the permanent instruction of the model teacher. The class of pupil-teachers is formed into two divisions, each division passing one-half of the time in each department. The time required for the course is one year.

The number of pupils is limited to twelve.

FORT WAYNE, INDIANA.

The Fort Wayne Training School was organized in August, 1867, having for its object the training of young ladies to take positions as teachers in the city schools. The instructors appointed were Miss Mary H. Swan, Teacher of Methods, and Miss Mary L. Hamilton, Critic; both graduates of the Oswego Training School, and both experienced teachers. The school occupies one room for the teacher of methods, and five

school or practicing rooms, in each of which are forty-eight children. Ten young ladies, most of whom were graduates of the Fort Wayne High School, entered the first term. The students are divided into two sections, one of which is in charge of the teacher of methods in the morning, while the other is teaching in the practicing rooms under direction of the critic. The sections change places in the afternoon.

The teacher of methods gives lessons and lectures on the science of teaching, methods of teaching, number, primary arithmetic, place or geography, reading and language lessons, color, form and objects. An effort is made to present each subject objectively. Small classes of children are brought into the training room, and the teacher of methods gives an illustrative or model lesson on some one of the subjects under discussion, or calls upon some one of the pupil-teachers to give one, while the others are required to criticise the method and manner of giving it. The pupil-teachers are also required to write out model lessons, stating the subject matter of the lesson, the various points to be made, the questions they would ask to bring out these points, also the probable answers of the children, &c.

The work of the critic-teacher is indicated by the name. She goes about from room to room in the department of practice and criticises the work of the pupil-teachers, offers suggestions and gives illustrative lesShe has the general charge and oversight of the practicing rooms. The teachers of the Training School also render valuable aid to the city Superintendent of schools, by giving model lessons to the primary-teachers in the Teachers' Institute, which is held weekly.

sons.

The Superintendent of the public schools of Fort Wayne, James H. Smart, Esq., in speaking of this school, says:

The results of the work, so far, are very gratifying.

I. It is economical, five regular school-rooms being taken care of for less money than any other five rooms in the city.

II. The methods of instruction are an improvement over the old methods. We think that these rooms will, at present, compare quite favorably with any other rooms in the city.

III. We are training up a class of home teachers who, being acquainted with our system, can take new schools as they are established and teach them with a certainty of success.

EVANSVILLE, INDIANA.

The Training School at Evansville was established by the Board of Education of the city in 1867. Its primary object is the training and preparation of teachers for the public schools of Evansville, but it is believed that its influence will extend not only to the schools of the city, but to all places where the teachers graduating from this school shall be employed. It was fully organized by the appointment of Miss Abbie A. Locke as Principal, and opened Sept. 9th, 1867.

The general course of study is similar to that adopted at Indianapolis and Fort Wayne. It includes mental philosophy, methods of teaching the ordinary school studies, philosophy of education, school government, and those branches necessary to "the cultivation of the students as teachers and members of a social and accountable race."

CITY TRAINING SCHOOL

AT NEW HAVEN, CONN.

THE Training School of New Haven originated in the effort of the Superintendent of Schools, Ariel Parish, Esq., to give to young persons who were candidates for the position of teacher, an opportunity to observe for a time the methods of teaching and discipline in daily practice in the city public schools. During the first year of the experiment, the candidates had little opportunity to teach, but the advantages derived from the process of observation were such as fully to warrant the adoption of other measures more valuable and efficient.

The opening of a new school in 1867 afforded a favorable opportunity to provide actual instruction for young teachers, and to carry out the proposed plan without additional expense to the district. The school was placed under an accomplished teacher, formerly from the State Normal School at New Britain, and four rooms were placed under her charge. The aims and purposes of this school can be learned from the following statement of the Superintendent :

:

This school has been organized on its present basis,

1. To avoid the necessity of employing, in responsible positions, young persons entirely destitute of preparation and experience, with no means of improvement, except by crude experiments on the children in their teaching and government, without any one to aid or guide them. It is believed that the instruction and practice of a single term here will better fit them for their duties as teachers, than a year's experience in the ordinary mode of guess-work teaching.

2. To save beginners from failure-disastrous to their reputation as teachers, and a very serious loss to the District in the demoralization of the school.

3. To furnish them practice in teaching while learning how to perform the duties required, under the supervision of a competent teacher, who shall be able to correct their errors, point out their defects, give advice, and render all needful assistance. Under her instruction they learn how to organize a school, to classify the pupils, and so order the daily exercises as to secure a complete sys. tematic performance of all duties pertaining to the school.

4. Especial care is taken to present the best methods of elementary instruction, in all the branches taught, by daily practice; also, to indicate sources of information in educational publications by which the experience of others may be called into requisition.

5. Special attention is given to that most difficult of all duties, school government. While the order and discipline of the room is left in the hands of the teacher, the Principal is always ready, in cases of emergency, to advise and render assistance. The dispositions of the children, their temperaments and habits, their probable home treatment, are made prominent subjects of study; also the best method of encouraging the pupils to a cheerful observance of all requirements. Judicious modes of punishment are carefully sought for, to meet all necessary cases where other measures fail.

6. This school comprises the first four grades, properly the primary depart

ment, of the school system, and the young teachers are confined to these in their practice; yet the instruction they receive involves general principles which are applicable to all the higher grades, and with good judgment in their application, experience will in due time enable them to take charge of higher rooms, according to their qualifications.

7. Among the gratifying results of the experiment, thus far, are the thoroughness of the instruction and the progress of the children in their studies. These are due, first, to the efficiency of the Principal, who is never satisfied with partial success, whose watchful care suffers no pupil to be neglected; and second, to the earnest desire of the young teacher to perform her work successfully, knowing that she can have no better passport to promotion. Parents who witness from time to time the exercises of the classes and the general movements of the school, can not but feel satisfied with what is done for their children.

8. In view of the results, on the whole, in providing competent teachers from the pupils as they complete their studies in our schools; in the excellent instruction the children receive; and in the economy of the arrangement, costing, as it does, less expenditure of money than would be required to conduct the school in the ordinary way, I commend this enterprise to the attention of the Board, as one of the most influential elements we possess in strengthening and perfecting the whole system of our public schools.

CITY TRAINING SCHOOLS,

SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA.

I. STATE NORMAL TRAINING SCHOOL.

THE first Training School for teachers in the public schools of San Francisco was organized, September, 1865, in the lower rooms of the building occupied by the State Normal School. Such was the popularity of the school, that additional class-rooms became necessary, and a separate building was provided by the city, in 1867, capable of accommodating two hundred and seventy-five pupils. The Superintendent of Schools in San Francisco gives the following account of this school in his Report for the year ending October 15, 1867:—

The management of the school is intrusted to one Principal, Mrs. C. H. Stout, and two assistant teachers, who are all appointed by the City Board of Education.

As its title implies, the school is designed primarily for the training of Normal School students in the art of teaching. These are deputized to teach, each for one week at a time, and twice during the term, one of the six training classes. Before assuming charge of a class, the pupil teacher is required to spend a week in special preparation for her work. This she does usually by studying the course of study prescribed for the class, by inspecting the methods of teaching pursued by other teachers already plying their task, and by receiving the suggestions of the Principal in regard to the details of school management. For each of the six grades in the school there is provided a programme of recitations, which vary in length from ten to thirty minutes. The subject of each lesson in oral instruction is assigned by the Principal, and of this lesson an abstract must be prepared by the pupil teacher and be presented to the Principal for criticism, before the same be given to the class.

The subject of each lesson, the date of the recitation, and the name of the teacher conducting it, are recorded by the Principal in a book provided for this purpose.

At the close of the week the Normal pupil makes out a report of the methods of teaching she has employed, and of the number and nature of the class exercises she has conducted, accompanying her report with such remarks pertinent to teaching as she may desire to make. To this report the principal attaches her record of credits assigned to the teacher for her performance in the Training School. The aggregate of these credits forms one-third of the maximum or standard required for graduation in the State Normal School. The Principal and her two assistants, besides exercising a constant supervision of the work and directing the unskillful efforts of the pupil teacher, themselves illustrate the principles of pedagogy by an actual application in teaching.

The fear once expressed that the primary pupils of the school would suffer from the frequent change of teachers, all of whom were to be regarded as untried and inexperienced in teaching, has proved to be groundless. Whilst there is no doubt that an incalculable advantage has accrued from this school of practice to the Normal School, it must be admitted that no disadvantage has been entailed, whilst securing this benefit, upon the children who depend upon this school for the rudiments of knowledge. In proof of this assertion, it may