The Year Book

Salem State University Digital Commons at Salem State University All Yearbooks Yearbooks 1933 The Year Book Salem Teachers College Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.salemstate.edu/all_yearbooks Recommended Citation Salem Teachers College, "The Year Book" (1933). All Yearbooks. 24. https://digitalcommons.salemstate.edu/all_yearbooks/24 This Book is brought to you for free and open access by the Yearbooks at Digital Commons at Salem State University. It has been accepted for inclusion in All Yearbooks by an authorized administrator of Digital Commons at Salem State University. Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2014 https://archive.org/details/salemstatenormal1933sale GTfje Cla&$ of 1933 ^BeotcateS tfje ©car Pook to Jflorence Barnes Cruttenben, ^l.iH. 8 toisc anb rigorous instructor, an autfjorttp on social science, an unprcjubtceb anb ueen=sigtjteb stubent of fjuman relations Dr. J. Asbury Pitman, President "A great soul will be strong to live as well as to think." The Tear "Book 1933 §3>o\w Smpressions of Curopean ^>cljooIs By J. Asbury Pitman The following impressions are based upon observations in a large number of schools in ten different countries, during a period of six months ending in December, 1932. The list of institutions visited includes a wide range from the nurserv school and kindergarten through the university, although particular attention was given to a study of teacher training and of progressive schools. There was also ample op- portunity to observe various kinds of public and private schools, both elementary and secondarv, and work in manv specialized fields, particularly in commercial and other forms of vocational education. An American engaged in the professional training of teachers is immediately impressed by numerous evidences of age and tradition. In general, a large proportion of the school buildings in the countries visited are relatively old—some of them centuries old—and provided with furnishings and equipment which are altogether inferior to those found in the average American school. For example, single adjustable chairs and desks were found in only two of all the buildings inspected. Of course there are notable exceptions to this generalization in certain countries and in several of the cities in other countries. With the exception of real progressive schools and school systems, the attitude toward discipline is distinctly traditional and in many instances it reflects the spirit of militarism. This is particularly true in numerous schools in which even little children are taught by rehabilitated war veterans, who often have had no professional preparation. The almost universal separation of the sexes, from the nursery school through the university, is another expression of mediaeval influences which have been per- petuated through the centuries, although very often boys and girls in the public schools receive their education under the same roof but not in the same classes. Always with the exception of the progressive schools, the curriculum itself is much more traditional than in America. In the secondarv schools, the time-honored classical subjects are everywhere in evidence; general courses are discredited; and there are few comprehensive high schools in which vocational subjects are taught. This work is usually left to highly specialized schools, manv of which are rendering conspicuous service. For example, there are the vocational schools in Munich, founded by Dr. George Kirchensteiner, and similar schools in Vienna. Advanced commercial education receives more attention in most European countries than in America. Apparently the secondary schools are not doing as good work in this field as our own, but the higher commercial schools are conspicuous both in the number and in the quality of their work. In Italy, Austria, and Germany, in particular, art and music are much more prominent in the curriculum of the elementary and the secondary school, and of 6 1933 s. r. c. course in the professional schools for teachers, than in America. Not only are teachers trained in these subjects, but also artists and musicians. In the Pedagogical Seminary in Kiel, Germany, which is an institution no larger than our own, included in the equipment are eight church organs, large and small, and twenty-eight studios each of which contains a piano. The training of musicians, particularly church organists, is a specialized line of work in this school. With the exception of these vocational schools, the methods employed in many of the public schools can hardly be regarded as modern. Text-book work and the question and answer method are much in evidence, even in schools taught by graduates of professional schools for teachers. Very generally educational institutions have a much smaller membership than in American. This is true of even the large universities in England, Scotland, and in some of the countries of continental Europe, although some of the universities in Austria and Germany are striking exceptions to this rule. Oxford University com- prises twenty-seven distinct colleges while Cambridge has seventeen. Many of the colleges in these two universities have a membership of not more than two hundred or three hundred and none has more than five hundred or six hundred students enrolled. The departments of education in most universities, even the largest, usually contain less than one thousand students and in a majority of cases there are not more than two hundred students enrolled. What is true of the size of university departments of education, with few exceptions, is equally true of normal schools and teachers colleges. The largest, among all of those visited, is the Jordan Hill Training College connected with the University of Glasgow, which has a membership of less than one thousand students. The distinct advantage of small groups of students with the resulting close personal relationship with the faculty was apparent everywhere. It should be said that in this college and in the Pedagogical Seminary at Kiel, which is nearly as large, the work compares favorably with the best to be found in America. Both in the British Isles and on the Continent, particularly in the secondary schools, the teachers are graduates of universities, with bachelors' degrees which may be earned in three years, who have been trained for their profession in a single year of intensive work either in a university school of education or a teachers college. Here they are taught largely by the lecture method and they are also given an op- portunity for a limited amount of observation and practice often with little close or constructive supervision. In many of the countries visited, provision is made for professional courses of two years only but frequently definite preparatory work has its beginning in the ninth year of school and is continued increasingly through the secondary school course. However, in the most progressive countries, systematic courses of three and four years above the level of the secondary school have been thoroughly established. In institutions maintaining courses four years in length, students are apparently much better prepared for teaching, even in the secondary school, than if they are 7 The Yea?" "Book 1933 graduates of the university and post graduates of a single year in a professional school. In most of these professional schools there is comparatively little work in specialized fields. It seems to be the current belief that a teacher of the commercial subjects is best prepared if he is a graduate of a university, with a limited amount of technical training in a private commercial school and with a background of business experience. Similarly in other vocational schools, teachers are usually chosen because they have been successful apprentices in their respective fields of work and have had a con- siderable amount of experience. The assumption seems to be that there is no need of professional training if one, in any way, has acquired a knowledge of subject matter and some measure of technique, through experience. In comparatively recent years, numerous progressive schools have sprung up because of a strong reaction from the old, traditional system of education. Among the schools of this type visited were the Montessori School in Rome, the Decroly School in Brussels, the International School and the Rousseau Institute at Geneva, Bedales at Petersfield, England, and a system of seventeen progressive schools, re- cently organized under the supervision of the government, within the school svstem in Prague. These progressive schools represent extreme types ranging from those that allow almost absolute individual freedom and with little attempt to secure continuitv of work to schools which strongly encourage the exercise of individual initiative but which have a very definite and progressive plan and purpose. It is interesting to note that in many of these progressive schools modern Ameri- can methods have been appropriated, sometimes long after thev have gone out of general use here, and applied and perfected in such a way as to raise the general level of educational method in the schools in which they are employed. The Dalton plan is in quite general use in progressive schools, and the socialized recitation and the project method of teaching are often found. In the city normal school in Brussels A Normal School Rtader written by the Director is used as a basic text. In parallel columns printed in French and in English, American methods and educational movements are described at length and are employed in practice in both the Normal School and the Training School. With the exception of the International School and the Rousseau Institute at Geneva and isolated schools here and there which reflect the individual teacher's attitude, there was no evidence of systematic courses of instruction calculated to promote a better international understanding. A system of the exchange of teachers of the social studies is unlikely to become an important factor in promoting international good will, because of language barriers.

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