Learning to Be a Schoolmaster

by Thomas R. Cole

The first teachers’ meeting that I ever conducted was held about a library table where we could all look at one another and get the feeling of fellowship. A few definite points that the teachers needed to know on the first day of school were prepared and everything else was left for subsequent meetings. It was my business to help the teachers get started and lighten a part of their regular work, rather than to add to their burden things unnecessary at that time.

One of the best talks I ever heard delivered by a superintendent was given to the new teachers a few years ago at the opening of the school year. He gave the teachers a hearty and sincere welcome and told them nothing about what their duties were to be. He advised them to say but little at first about what they had done at their former places, but urged them to “listen and to learn our ways and then, with that knowledge in mind, to help by suggestions to make our schools better.” How very differently is such a welcome received by teachers from that given by a superintendent who feels that he must place before the teachers, at the first meeting, an outline in detail of what is expected throughout the year!

The latter plan was unfortunately followed by a superintendent of my acquaintance. He went to his new position in ample time to get the school conditions well in hand and everything boded well for his future. His first teachers’ meeting, however, ruined his chances of succeeding in that place. As one teacher reported, “He talked about everything in the educational catalog that had nothing to do with the opening weeks of school, and the teachers left the meeting with an adverse opinion concerning him that he was unable to change.” The meetings he held throughout the year were of the same rambling type. The result was that he failed to secure the cooperation of his teachers and was asked to resign at the close of the year. This is an example of one who knew much—talked much—but gave little assistance of any constructive value to his teachers.

As a superintendent I always found it profitable, after the school year was well started, to hold sectional meetings for teachers of the lower grades, intermediate grades, grammar grades, and high school. Each section met every two weeks about a table and took up definite topics of the teachers’ own choosing. The result was that our course of study and the methods of work were constantly being improved and the teachers were causing the improvement. A general meeting for all the teachers was held from time to time when a good speaker could be secured or when I wished to present a phase of school work that should be understood by all.

During the past year a series of meetings of the English teachers in one of our high schools demonstrated what can be accomplished if the topics for discussion are of a concrete nature.

The teaching of the English classics has been somewhat varied in plan and the results accomplished have not always been satisfactory. The English teachers realized this and suggested that we make the classics the subject of professional study for the year. The classics selected were: Lady of the Lake, Ivanhoe, Old Testament Stories, Silas Marner, Idylls of the King, Birds and Bees, Clive and Hastings, and Emerson’s Essays.

A teacher was chosen to discuss each of the classics according to the following outline:

1. Spend thirty minutes in explaining the methods used and the results expected in the teaching of the classic.

2. Provide a written outline which gives the main points a teacher should keep in mind in teaching the classic, copies of the outline to be provided for distribution at the time of the meeting.

3. Be prepared to make a typical assignment of a lesson in teaching the classic.