DR. C. C. ROUNDS said that the doctrines laid down in Dean Russell's paper were revolutionary, but revolutionary in the right direction. The normal schools should not attempt to give higher education or to prepare teachers for secondary schools. Let the colleges and universities do that. Let the normal school return to the more modest duty of preparing teachers for primary and grammar grades. Of course, teachers for secondary schools need training; they also need more subject-matter than the normal schools are equipped to give. Why should the normal schools attempt to do more than they are able, or more than they were originally intended, to do? College professors also need pedagogic training. It is a fraud for men to attempt to do that for which they have had no preparation and training. The universities them selves must provide facilities for this training; must prepare as soon as possible to give us expert teachers for higher as well as for secondary institutions; the normal school could then keep to its own function of training teachers for the grades. PRINCIPAL H. B. FRISSELL thought the universities would soon come to this if there were a sufficient demand for it. We ought to insist on the highest training on the part of our teachers. If we do this, we shall get it. The training profession will always lag behind until we thus insist. PROFESSOR WALTER BALLOU JACOBS spoke, by request, concerning the pedagogic training given at Brown University. The pedagogic instruction in the university is supplemented by actual experience in teaching in the high schools and grammar schools of the city of Providence. In these practice classes the student-teachers teach under the supervision of teachers of experience. The damage to the pupils in the practice classes is practically nothing. Not one complaint has been received from parents to the effect that their children were suffering at the hands of the student-teachers. Professor Jacobs feels that the work done by the college students, when carefully supervised, is better in many instances than that done by other teachers. He believes that the place to train teachers for secondary schools is either in college or beyond the college. PRINCIPAL F. J. CHENEY claimed that in some normal schools the academic facilities afforded were so superior that it is perfectly legitimate to recommend normal graduates for secondary work. Some normal schools have better equipment in certain subjects (e. g., physics, chemistry, and biology) than many a college or university. This superior equipment is provided in order that the normal schools may prepare teachers for secondary schools. Colleges are not training teachers. What are secondary schools going to do for trained teachers if the normal schools do not supply the demand to the best of their ability? PRESIDENT CHARLES MCKENNY said that in his state the question has come up as to whether the college or the normal school should prepare teachers for the high schools. The sentiment has been growing that it is impossible for normal schools to furnish the kind of teachers that the better grade of high schools demand. The normal schools are therefore confronted with a serious problem: either to equip for preparing teachers for the high schools or cease to attempt it at all. What should they do? Secondary schools demand better teachers, yet the universities do not supply these. Wisconsin is making an attempt to solve this problem by forming, as it were, a joint partnership between the normal school and the university, whereby the university gives credit for the work done in the normal schools, and gives normal graduates a degree after two years of university work. Thus both ends are attained, to wit, scholarship and pedagogic training. PRESIDENT JOHN R. KIRK deplored the tendency to regard the lower grades as needing only inferior scholarship on the part of teachers. Superior scholarship is needed here as elsewhere, and normal schools should aim to give their graduates a high grade of scholarship, with the idea of sending them, not into the secondary schools to teach, but into the elementary schools. He believed that normal-school faculties should urge thei graduates to go into the lower grades. PRINCIPAL A. S. DOWNING strongly favored Dean Russell's position, and also commended very highly the remarks of Principal Kirk. He declared that the weak point in the normal schools of today is that they are employing normal graduates as teachers instead of college-bred instructors. Men and women trained in college will, when they become members of a normal-school faculty, lay stress on the great importance of the best scholarship and the best skill in teaching for the lower grades. DEAN RUSSELL, in summing up, said he was much gratified that the consensus of opinion had been strongest on his side of the argument. He admitted that normal schools had done some good service for secondary education, but he felt strongly that normal-school principals ought not to encourage their graduates to teach in secondary schools, but should insist on their making the best possible preparation, in academic as well as professional subjects, for teaching the elementary subjects in primary and grammar schools. DEPARTMENT OF MANUAL TRAINING SECRETARY'S MINUTES JOINT SESSION WITH DEPARTMENT OF ART EDUCATION.-Wednesday, JULY 10, 1901 The session was called to order in the First Congregational Church at 3 P. M., by the president of the department, Charles A. Bennett, of Peoria, Ill. The opening number on the program was a vocal solo-"Could I But Tell,” Klein— by Harold Jarvis, of Detroit. A paper on "Textile Arts as Constructive Work in Elementary Schools" was read by Miss Clara I. Mitchell, of the Chicago Institute. A paper on "Artistic Handicraft in Primary and Secondary Grades," by Miss Helen M. Maxwell, principal of the Corcoran School, Minneapolis, who was unable to be present, was read by Miss Bonnie E. Snow, president of the Department of Art Education, who added interesting explanatory statements and answered many questions. The paper was illustrated by a collection of objects made by students in the public schools of Minneapolis. A general discussion followed by Charles H. Keyes, Hartford, Conn.; Colonel Francis W. Parker, Chicago, Ill.; and C. R. Richards, Teachers College, New York. The president appointed the following committees: ON NOMINATIONS Charles H. Keyes, Hartford, Conn. Arthur D. Dean, Springfield, Mass. ON RESOLUTIONS William E. Roberts, Cleveland, O. Harris W. Moore, Hartford, Conn. At the close of this session a most enjoyable informal reception was given in the church parlors by the local committees on art education and manual training, the chairmen of which committees were, respectively, Miss Myra Jones, supervisor of drawing, and J. H. Trybom, supervisor of manual training. SECOND SESSION.-THURSDAY, JULY II President Bennett called the meeting to order at 3 P. M. Mr. W. E. Roberts, of Cleveland, chairman of Committee on Resolutions, read the following, which was adopted: Mr. President: Your committee offers the following resolutions: Resolved, That we, delegates to the annual meeting of the National Educational Association, express our appreciation of the effective efforts of the officers of the Department of Manual Training and the local committees for our instruction, comfort, and pleasure in providing an exceptional program; second, a sugges tive exhibit of educational work; and third, a delightful reception; and that our appreciation be made manifest by a vote of thanks. Further, as the joint meeting of the Manual Training and Art Departments has proved so instructive and significant, be it Resolved, That the officers of the Manual Training Department co-operate, if possible, with the officers of the Art Department, in arranging a similar meeting for the coming year. The committee: W. E. ROBERTS. Charles H. Keyes, of Hartford, Conn., chairman Committee on Nominations, reported the following nominations: For President-Charles H. Richards, Teachers College, New York city. For Vice-President-Charles F. Warner, Mechanic Arts High School, Springfield, Mass. For Secretary-J. H. Trybom, Detroit, Mich. A motion was made that the secretary be instructed to cast the ballot for the nominees, which was carried. The ballot was cast as ordered, and the nominees were declared elected as officers for the ensuing year. Principal Charles F. Warner of the Mechanic Arts High School, Springfield, Mass., was then introduced, and read a paper on the topic, "Education for the Trades in America: What Can Technical High Schools Do for It?" Following Mr. Warner, Mr. Virgil G. Curtis read a paper on the topic, "The Relation of Manual Training to Technical Education." The discussion was opened by Professor Charles R. Richards, of the Teachers College, New York city, who was followed by Professor Calvin M. Woodward, of St. Louis; Dr. Belfield, of Chicago; Superintendent Charles B. Gilbert, of Rochester, N. Y.; President J. L. Snyder of the Michigan Agricultural College; and Principal G. B. Morrison, of Kansas City. The discussion was closed by Mr. Warner. The department then adjourned sine die. FOSTER H. IRONS, Acting Secretary. PAPERS AND DISCUSSIONS TEXTILE ARTS AS CONSTRUCTIVE WORK IN ELEMEN TARY SCHOOLS MISS CLARA ISABEL MITCHELL, SCHOOL OF EDUCATION, UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO, CHICAGO, ILL. To present the subject of textile arts as constructive work I shall, with your permission, discuss constructive work generally, and its place in the curriculum, perhaps gaining by that means a clearer point of view from which to study the value of this particular activity. As the educational problem is now shaped, the most economical policy for a body of teachers to pursue is in the free and critical discussion of the course of study. The discussion of that question by this particular company is of vital importance, because upon the grade teachers, manual-training teachers, and art teachers rests the responsibility of the initial acts in reconstructing our course of study, The present course of study is, evidently, not adequate to the demands of the time. Our educational ideas are undergoing radical changes. Our course of study does not meet these changes. We need a course which acknowledges the claims of the new ideals and assists in their realization. The new educational ideal is changed from "school as preparation for the future" to "school as present community life." It insists that school is life; that it is the place where every child begins at once to realize himself according to his own innate capabilities. By community life we mean that state of society in which every individual member orders his conduct with reference to the good of the whole; the whole being so constituted as to necessitate the highest development of its members. As this state of society is the only means powerful or complete enough to set in motion all forces of individuals, it is evident that individual progress is only possible as community life exists, and that the good of one is identical with the advancement of all. Our schools, in fulfilling this large social aim, must give to children all-sided growth as the result of their service to the community. It must insure to them the development of all powers- physical, mental, and moral. As all education is thru self-activity, and human faculties develop thru use, the community which is to provide for all-sided growth of individuals must call into action all the forces of those individuals. Community life is made up of work and play; it depends upon these activities for its existence. The individual is developed thru his work and play. It is, therefore, the function of the course of study so to guide the school community as to engage all its members in educative work and play. Such work and play we call social occupations, and in their organization lies the problem of the course of study. Constructive work, manual training, industrial arts, drawing, painting, handwork of all kinds, form a large part of these social occupations of the school life. The question is as to their place and educative value. Psychology, as well as experience, proves them to be among the central interests of life, the strongest forces in the schoolroom, the most economical means to power and knowledge. Grouped together with other social occupations, they should be the center of the course of study, and about them should be ranged all the other subjects of the curriculum. The fitness of social occupations to stand as the central force in edu cation is proved by history. The social life of our great world is seen to consist in the interrelation and development of a few primary and fundamental activities. Cities, farms, mines, quarries, and water-ways are filled with men and women busy with the affairs of life— engaged in the work and play of the world. All this work and play is for the satisfaction of man's needs. His necessities, reduced to simplest terms, are companionship, shelter, clothing, and food. The needs of society today, complicated as they seem, arise from these few fundamental ones, and |