The herbarium is not much used, but in autumn each child and student brings a specimen of one tree or plant. All the specimens are kept and are used for the study of seeds during the winter. Twigs are brought into the school-room and made to grow in water, seeds are grown in shavings, and plants of all kinds are watched during the year.
The work in geology is a special feature of the practising school. Courses of work have been adapted by the head of department to the lowest grades of the grammar school—viz., to children about nine years old. The work is closely connected with the geography teaching, and children are encouraged to collect specimens of different kinds of building stone they see, or to bring any other specimens of rock or minerals. Trays of quartz, felspar and mica are provided for each child, for beginning practical work in geology. After examination of these minerals, granite is studied, and afterwards gneiss, as leading the way to the general history of rocks. Slag structures are given for examination, as specimens to illustrate the effects of heat. Artificial geodes and lavas are also studied, when connecting the history of rocks with their structure. Students who are preparing to become specialist teachers in geology have special work with the children. They prepare lessons under the guidance of the teacher—submitting written notes of the subject matter, but talking over with their head of department the proposed methods of dealing with the facts. They have also special laboratory work, in constructing simple apparatus, and making maps, charts and drawings.
The physiology lesson I heard was given to a high school class, by the director of the department of physiology. It was a revision lesson, conducted with the special object of making the class discover the general position of Man in the Animal Kingdom. The particular features I noticed about the lesson were:—
(i.) No technical terms were used in description, if the required meaning could be expressed in ordinary language.
(ii.) Any difficulty as regards animal structure which arose during the process of classification was settled by actual reference to the museum specimen at hand. The doubt as to whether a fish might be said to have a brain was settled by inspection of a haddock’s brain, brought from the museum.
(iii.) Great care was exercised by the teacher in order to prevent hasty or incorrect inferences being drawn.
(iv.) There was constant reference to text-books. The pupils had been taught to use a reference library.
It is evident to those who have watched the movement of the training of secondary teachers in the Eastern States that the Teachers’ College of New York has done a work peculiarly its own. It was organized on the present lines, to combat the idea, even still existent to some extent, that college graduation equips for successful teaching. It has done this, not by emphasizing the value of professional training in itself, apart from its connection with scholastic equipment, but by insisting that the secondary teacher can only be fully prepared for his work when careful scholastic preparation is supplemented by a consideration of principles and methods of teaching, and by actual class work. Much of the successful work of the Teachers’ College is probably due to the thorough preparation required before beginning work, and to the maturity of the students who take the courses. With such material, and under such conditions, it is possible to make training thorough and very valuable. This is especially so in an institution, such as this, which can extend its interests, and broaden its outlook, by alliance with a University like Columbia, securing by this means the philosophical as well as the practical standpoint.
The School of Pedagogy of the University of the City of New York, established to give opportunities of higher training to graduates of colleges or of Normal Schools, differs fundamentally from other departments of Universities already considered, in only offering its pedagogical degrees to those persons who can show evidence of three or four years’ successful teaching experience. This is a necessary qualification for admittance to the junior or senior pedagogical course of the University. A student who has a college degree, and who is credited with a sufficient number of attendances during two years’ membership of the senior class, becomes “Doctor of Pedagogy,” after passing an examination on five prescribed courses of work, and presenting a satisfactory thesis on some educational subject. Students of the junior class are required to pass an examination in four subjects, and to attend the required number of lectures during one year, in order to obtain the degree of “Master of Pedagogy.” The courses studied are:—
(i.) History of Education from Socrates to the present time (lectures and Seminar).