LB UC-NI The Universities and the Training of Teachers A LECTURE DELIVERED IN THE HALL OF QUEEN'S COLLEGE ON OCTOBER 22, 1919 BY F. J. R. HENDY, M.A. OF LINCOLN COLLEGE DIRECTOR OF TRAINING IN THE UNIVERSITY OF OXFORD OXFORD AT THE CLARENDON PRESS LONDON EDINBURGH GLASGOW NEW YORK TORONTO MELBOURNE CAPE TOWN BOMBAY OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS HUMPHREY MILFORD The Universities and the "Training of Teachers AN INAUGURAL LECTURE DELIVERED IN THE HALL OF QUEEN'S COLLEGE ON OCTOBER 22, 1919 BY F. J. R. HENDY, M.A. OF LINCOLN COLLEGE DIRECTOR OF TRAINING IN THE UNIVERSITY OF OXFORD OXFORD AT THE CLARENDON PRESS 1920 OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS LONDON EDINBURGH GLASGOW NEW YORK TORONTO MELBOURNE CAPE TOWN BOMBAY HUMPHREY MILFORD PUBLISHER TO THE UNIVERSITY THE UNIVERSITIES AND THE TRAINING OF TEACHERS I WANT in this lecture to indicate, so far as is possible at this early stage, the meaning and intention of the changes recently effected in the organization of the Training Depart- ment of the University, and to make clear that they are the outcome of a new policy to meet a new situation. The Act of 1918 makes a very heavy demand upon the resources of the country for the education and training of the thousands of new teachers it will require. The Universi- ties alone can meet this need, and I shall try to sketch in outline the measures which will enable us in Oxford to do our part, and at the same time to show what is involved in any thorough system of training of University standard. It is a truism to say that the Act of 1918 marks a revolu- tion in the public education of this country. It marks the final disappearance of the ideas which have dominated public education for more than a century, and the triumph of the newer ideas which have been gaining strength during the last generation, especially since the Act of 1902. It means the transformation of the national schools from a Primary into a Secondary system ; and it means, however imperfectly, in one form or another Secondary education for all. Let me remind you of the main provisions of the Act. It insists upon attendance at an Elementary school to the age of .14 for all who have not already been transferred to another type of school, and it allows compulsion to the age of 15 at the discretion of the Local Education Authority. After the Elementary school it compels either full time attendance at a Secondary school to the age of 16 or part time attendance in a Continuation school to the age of 18. 428222 4 -V Tke Universities and the The system of public education in the past has been mainly a Primary system because the mass of the pupils educated in the schools have been young children whose education ceased at latest at 14, often at 13, or even earlier. But in the future the great majority will be children above the Primary age whose education will not cease till they are on the verge of manhood or womanhood. Within the compass of the word ' Secondary ' there will of course be considerable variation in the character of the instruction given, and there will be many types of school. There will be the ' Senior ' Elementary school, confining itself to the higher standards and taking children from n to 14 ; the ' Central ' school, educating its pupils, like the Secondary school, up to 15 or 16, but with a distinctly technical bias, and linking itself with the Elementary school more definitely than does the Secondary school pure and simple. Then there will be the regular Secondary school, containing children of any age from n to 18 or 19 ; and finally there will be the Continuation school for those who choose the alternative of part time education from 14 to 18. With the other varieties of schools we are all familiar, and the training of teachers for them offers little difficulty ; but Continuation schools will be a new type, and will call for a new type of teacher. Their pupils will be at the same time school children and independent wage earners ; compared with the pupils of an ordinary Secondary school they will be almost men and women of the world. With such material ordinary school methods and teaching or teachers of the ordinary academic type will be wholly ineffective. The new problem will call not merely for well educated and well trained teachers, but for men and women of rare quality and character. Of this, fortunately, the Board of Education is well aware, and it is looking to the Universities to produce what is required. You will pardon me if I dwell for a moment upon this subject, partly on account of its importance, partly because the Board of Education has issued a rather remarkable memorandum with regard to it. The memo- Training of Teachers 5 randum, after explaining the aims of the schools and the qualities desired in the teachers, lays down that from the Universities two things are asked : first, the academic education, and secondly, the professional training which all teachers must possess. ' The academic teachers ', they say, ' ought as a rule to be graduates/ ' The instruction, how- ever modest in its standard, must be given out of an ample store of knowledge, while a well-devised course of professional training will give the technical equipment in the special problems of adolescence and of pedagogic method.' And they accept the principle that ' the professional training of teachers should itself be the function of the Universities, and part of their post graduation work/ ' But ', they go on to say, ' in planning their training course the Universities must come out into the market-place and realize the essential need for introducing their teacher students into something of the industrial and commercial environment in which their lives will be spent/ ' The teachers of the people must know how the people do their work : they must know the habits of their homes, and what kind of recreation they prefer in their moments of leisure/ The memorandum goes on to suggest University Settle- ments, boys' clubs, and juvenile employment committees as doors to this kind of knowledge. ' Some such experience as life in a Settlement furnishes, and, if possible, also some period of occupation under, or observation of, the actual conditions in a factory or office, should be an integral part of their training course, and should be looked upon as no less important than practice in class teaching, impor- tant as this is, or the more theoretical study of pedagogic science and method/ The Board is prepared to con- sider any scheme which the Universities may put forward for establishing such a course, and to provide suitable grants. How great the demand will be for teachers in Continuation schools it is impossible at present to forecast, since it is impossible to say how many children will choose the alter- native of part time education between 14 and 18. But 6 The Universities and the however that may be, such an appeal as is now being made to us cannot be ignored. That the general principles laid down by the Board are just, cannot, I think, be denied. We shall all agree ' that the instruction, however modest in its standard, must be given out of an ample store of knowledge ', and that the teachers will require something more than an academic and technical training. We shall also, I think, acknowledge the Board's wisdom when it confines itself to general principles and looks to the Universities to initiate and devise. The first condition of high efficiency in any educational scheme is, I am sure, that it shall be the creation of those who are to work it. The new Act will make calls upon us in many ways ; but perhaps the most pressing need of all is to provide the teachers for this new and promising field of educational energy. We ought, I think, to address ourselves to the task without delay. But the Continuation school is not the whole of the problem. There will, in the future, be many types of Secondary school, by whatever name they may be called, and for all of these teachers must be educated and trained. It may be hoped that with the inauguration of the new regime, the old misleading parliamentary distinction between Elementary and Secondary may disappear, and that we may see a new grouping of schools on a genuinely educational basis, into Primary, educating to the age of 10 or n, and Secondary, educating beyond that age. Incidentally it may be suggested that the Primary schools will probably be staffed almost exclusively by women. It is clear that there will, in the immediate future, be a very largely increased demand for trained Secondary teachers, both men and women, while for men teachers in Primary schools the demand is likely to cease altogether. The immediate problems are, how to get and how to train the teachers for the new work, and, what is the duty of the Universities in the matter. The first part of the problem, how a sufficient number of qualified and able men and women are to be attracted to the work, does not concern us here ; it depends upon conditions Training of Teachers 7 over which we have no control. I will say but one thing in passing. Though salaries are important, it is by no mean a question of salaries alone. The necessary supply of teachers will never be obtained till those who control education realize how much more is involved if teaching is to be made a liberal profession which will attract on its merits a sufficient number of able men and women. The other part of the problem, the education and profes- sional training of the teachers, does very specially concern us. It is impossible that the new developments should produce the results desired unless the Universities set them- selves to produce the teachers. That the education of teachers is a task for which the Universities are peculiarly fitted few will contest. No other institutions could do the work so well, if they could do it at all. Nowhere could we find conditions so well suited to counteract by anticipation the narrowing influences of a teacher's life as in the Universities, where learning and research are pursued for their own sake ; where any tendency to narrow specialism is counteracted by the simultaneous study of every important branch ; where students congre- gate of every kind and class, destined for every variety of career ; and where this universality of type finds a parallel in a many-sided social life. It may not be irrelevant to suggest that in making this task of educating teachers their own the Universities are merely returning to their original function of producing masters, men qualified to teach the arts they have studied. The Universities are of course as much concerned with the academic as with the professional training of the teacher, and the calls upon them are likely to increase as the old type of special Training College tends to disappear. That it must disappear seems inevitable as the national system is gradually converted from an Elementary to a Secondary basis, and as the demand increases for a University degree as the lowest standard of qualification for the recognized teacher. The Board, as I have already said, has adopted this view for teachers in Continuation schools ; and it is now part of the 8 The Universities and the educational policy of such bodies as, among others, the Trades Union Congress, the National Association of Federated Em- ployers, the National Union of Teachers, and the Council of Principals of Training Colleges. It is surely a significant fact that the National Union of Teachers, a body the majority of whom are not graduates and who have perhaps been inclined to look with something like jealousy upon academic pretensions, should demand University training for all. And it is not less significant that the same policy should have been adopted by the authorities of the Elementary Training Colleges. These, while realizing that a universal four years course for all is at present impracticable, are demanding the immediate lengthening of the course from two years to three, in order to facilitate the taking of degrees and as a step to a universal four years' course. For children of Primary age, between 5 and 10 or n, something like the present two years' course will no doubt be sufficient ; but for teachers of all older pupils we shall agree that a University course is the lowest standard that could be accepted. But before this not very ambitious ideal can be realized there are many difficulties to be surmounted ; and some of these it rests with the Universities themselves to remove. My special business is, of course, the professional, not the academic, side of a teacher's education ; but the academic side cannot be wholly passed over, because, though indirectly, it is inseparably connected with training. The majority of the students who look to any University for training will be its own graduates, and if we do not meet the academic needs of teachers, they will not come to us either for training or for degrees. The two things hang together. The taking of degrees by teachers has been retarded in the past, because the Regulations for the ordinary degrees of most Universities ignore the special requirements of schools ; the degree courses are not suitable for many students who intend to become teachers. From the point of view of the schools and it is of course solely from this point of view that I presume to criticize the defect of Oxford is that its degrees are so highly specialized, while Training of Teachers 9 only a small part of the teaching of even the most advanced Secondary schools calls for the services of teachers who are specialists in a single subject. For perhaps three-fourths of the work of Secondary schools the most useful type of master is the man who can take all but the highest work in two or even three kindred subjects. Such combinations as, for instance, Modern History and Geography, or one of these with English or a foreign lan- guage ; or English with one or even two foreign languages ; or Mathematics with one or more branches of Science, are greatly in demand ; and these combinations imply, I venture to think, a better type of teacher and a better educated man than the inferior specialist, who too often has merely added to his general ignorance a failure in his special subject. A good supply of the more versatile type of teachers would have this great advantage among others, that it would tend to arrest the lamentable disappearance of the Form system from the Secondary schools. The development of specialism in the last thirty years has gradually brought about the organization of teaching in schools by subjects rather than by Forms, with the result that no teacher sees very much of any one pupil, and the valuable influence of the Form master in a boy's life is gradually being eliminated. The Board of Education in the document just quoted lays great stress upon this point. ' The usefulness of the general teachers ', it says, ' will be greatly increased if they prove to be versatile/ ' If it (the time at disposal) is divided up among a number of teachers, there is the considerable danger that the personal relation between pupil and taught may too often fail to emerge. Yet this relation is after all the essence of the educational process/ If the University is to meet the needs of the schools of the future it must make a serious attempt to meet this difficulty, to provide a course which will suit the man of serious intellectual interests and of real intellectual capacity, who has yet no strongly marked special bent. The objection to a general course must always be the danger of superficiality, lest the student may never get 2328 B io The Universities and the down in any subject to the foundations of learning. The danger might perhaps be avoided if the division were made, so to speak, vertical rather than horizontal; if, instead of going half way in two or three Honours subjects, the student were to go the whole way in a section of each. Even a small amount of original research in History or Natural Science is enough to show the student what learning means, the universal basis upon which knowledge rests ; and the experience gained in one sphere is readily applied in others. The teacher trained on these lines will be no sciolist. That the professional as well as the academic education of teachers should be carried on in the Universities seems equally clear. The same general considerations apply. It is essentially post graduation work. The theoretical side of it demands teaching of University standard. The only possible alternative is to assign training to Colleges devoted ex- clusively to the purpose. But such specialized institutions inevitably develop an atmosphere which influences both students and teachers in just the direction which it is most important to avoid. It is vital that, during the crucial years of their education and training, teachers should breathe the ampler aether of a great society. That professional training is a necessary part of a teacher's equipment is a proposition which hardly requires argument in these days : not because all are convinced, but because the controversy has reached a stage when few of the uncon- vinced care openly to avow their unbelief. I do not propose to argue the question except by implication. The essential things in training correspond with and exhibit the main reasons why it is necessary. Yet the whole question bristles with difficulties ; and if these are not, indeed, insoluble, it cannot be said that their solution is yet assured. Perhaps the greatest of these diffi- culties is the general apathy which prevails, especially in the Secondary schools. Few educational questions have had so disheartening a history as that of professional training in the last thirty or forty years. Training 'of Teachers n Twenty years ago the subject seemed to have emerged from the stage of indifference or ridicule, and had reached the stage of dangerous and delusive unanimity. There was no body of Secondary teachers which was not ready to pass unanimous resolutions in favour of training : none which showed any desire to put its declared principles into practice. Then came the first Register ; and it seemed likely that within a few years professional training would be added to the qualifications of the great majority of Secondary teachers. But with the withdrawal of the Register all interest in the subject seemed to disappear ; the number of students in the training schools fell off, and even resolutions upon the subject became rare. We have now a new Register ; but hitherto, partly, no doubt, owing to the abnormal circum- stances, it has had little effect in giving impetus to the work of training. We are involved in a vicious circle. English school- masters, like other Englishmen, are practical men ; they demand results before they will believe. But it is difficult to show results while the demand is so small. No large numbers of students are likely to offer themselves for training while the schools do not demand trained teachers : nor without large numbers of students is it possible to pro- vide schools of training adequately equipped and staffed. Another very formidable obstacle is the difficulty of finding adequate opportunities for practical work in the schools. Teaching is primarily an art, only secondarily a science ; and the mastery of an art can only be attained by practice. The training of a teacher centres round and is conditioned by the facilities which are at disposal for practice under skilled and critical supervision ; and practice of this kind is impossible unless the schools of every type are freely open for the purpose. Not the least important part of training can be carried on only in the schools and by the schools themselves. It is impossible for any training school, how- ever efficient, to produce of itself an accomplished teacher ; that is a^result which only time and experience can give. We shall have to ask of the schools something more than the 12 The Universities and the limited opportunities for practice and illustration during the year of training which are now, none too lavishly, afforded. These are in themselves insufficient, and the conditions too artificial to give the results desired. We shall have to ask the schools to take our recruits at the end of their training course, and to help us to see them through the period of probation or apprenticeship which is an essential part of every thorough system of training. No doubt this is asking a good deal : it means that in a large number of schools there must be members of the staff willing to act as deputy- or assistant-masters of training ; to spend time upon super- vising young teachers, to take responsibility jointly with the Training College for pronouncing finally upon their efficiency. It would be easy to make suggestions and not impossible to devise a workable scheme. But my only object here is to emphasize the fact that there can be no efficient system of training unless the schools will come into partnership : unless they realize the part they must play in the creation and the working of a system which is essential to their own efficiency. They must themselves take an active part in the training of their own teachers. In the Elementary schools this has always been recog- nized. They do actually play a considerable part in the training of their own recruits, whether as pupil teachers or as students in a Training College. The schools are at disposal for practice, and their staffs include large numbers of men and women able and willing to act as the coadjutors of the regular masters of training. It is essential that some such system should be established in the new Secondary schools, in fact in every type of school. Every efficient teacher owes a debt, not merely to his immediate pupils but to the system under which he works. Every teacher who is a master of his art should be encouraged, nay gently compelled, to take novices as his pupils. Few who have attempted the work have not felt its fascination ; with careful organization it need not hamper, indeed it can hardly fail to increase the efficiency of, the ordinary routine. The natural outcome of such a system would be what I feel sure we should soon see, Training of Teachers 13 a number of schools taking up the work with enthusiasm and devoting themselves wholly to it. It has always been a dream of mine to see one of the great public schools wholly devoted to training. I mention these points merely to illustrate the fact that the work of training is in many ways subject to conditions over which we have no control. We need the co-operation of others, who for many reasons, some of them, it must be confessed, of no inconsiderable strength, show little eagerness to co-operate. We can only hope that, as the scheme adumbrated by the new bill takes shape, ample provision will be made to meet this need, that the training of the teacher of the future will be an integral part of the new scheme. Over the rest of the Secondary sphere, which is less amenable to influence, we can only hope to prevail by persistent suasion and appeal. It remains to consider what we can do by ourselves with the resources under our own control. In the Department for Secondary Training and the con- ditions do not greatly differ on the Elementary side we have our students for an academic year ; for nine months, that is, of which at least forty days must, it is found in practice, be spent by each individual student in teaching away from Oxford. During this part of his course the student's training is mainly in other hands than ours. Of the rest as much as three days in each week are spent in teaching or observing in such schools as are available in Oxford, and in other practical work. The remainder of the time is at disposal for lectures and essay writing, for less formal methods of instruction, and for reading for the final examination. Upon what subjects are we to concentrate in the brief time at disposal for academic instruction ? I base myself entirely upon practical needs. What are the things most useful for a teacher to know and to have studied before he enters upon the responsibilities of a teacher's life ? First among these essentials I place Technique. The school- master must be master of his trade ; he must know how to 14 The Universities and the teach. The art of teaching is not different from all the other arts, v In teaching, as in the other arts, it is possible to advance only by reflecting upon experience ; by analysing the work of the past, by discerning true principles and right applica- tions. The discoveries and improvements of one generation must be passed on systematically to the next ; it will not do to leave every man to make his own. To most people this technical side of training presents itself as practically the whole, and is summed up in the word ' method '. Thus the old-fashioned name for a master of training is Master of Method. What do we mean by method ? Simply that in the past certain ways or methods of teaching have been found by experience to be good and others bad. The result of some has been knowledge, the capacity and the desire to attain it. The result of others has been the negation of these things. Upon analysis it is found that good and successful methods correspond with certain general principles ; that they are methods which induce the mind of the learner to work in ways natural to it, to travel along lines which he already actually, though unconsciously, follows in his daily life. These principles once ascertained it is easy to apply them in fresh directions, to develop new methods or new applications of the old ; and these new applications, when sufficiently tested by practice, become part of the body of pedagogic knowledge which is the Science of Education Much of the unpopularity of training and of the disbelief in its efficiency is connected, I believe, with this word ' method ', and the wrong ideas which attach to it. The study of method is supposed to make a man teach in a pedantic artificial manner, the outcome of theory and a priori reasoning rather than of experience and common sense ; and it must be confessed that the danger is not altogether imaginary. You may often find young teachers teaching badly, and conscious of it, yet persisting in doing ill. And the excuse is, ' Oh ! but I was using the " inductive " method or the "comparative " or the " heuristic " method ', or some other Training of Teachers 15 of the methods upon which pedagogy delights to bestow names as outlandish as its own ; ' and it is part of the method ', they say, ' to teach in this way '. This is, of course, the pedantry which besets all learning. It is the vice of a dull pedantic mind to be the slave, not the master of the knowledge it has acquired. Sometimes, if rarely, it must again be confessed, the fault is the direct result of bad training. This sort of teaching was the besetting sin of the old Master of Method, though it was usually counteracted by great practical efficiency. But nearly always, I am sure, bad teaching of this kind is the fault not of the training master but of the pupil. What- ever training can accomplish it will not make men other than as their mothers bore them. The born pedant will no more than the leopard change his spots. I doubt whether training ever intensifies, and I am sure it often mitigates and minimizes this dismal human failing. Good training in method tends to make a man master of all methods and servant of none. The great object of the study of method is, that the teacher may have all methods at his command, like a skilled workman who knows the use of all tools, who can select from his armoury those which he needs for the task of the moment, and who can at the same time invent and modify as unforeseen needs arise. These remarks apply equally to general method (if it is permissible to speak of such a thing), to those broad lines of teaching which are found fruitful in every subject, and to the special methods of teaching particular subjects. Incidentally I may venture to express the hope that amidst the wealth of teaching power which this University commands, we shall find many who will be willing to lend us their valuable aid in teaching the method of the special subject they profess. The same general considerations suggest the study of the History of Education, which is closely connected with that of method. Most reformers in the past as in the present have been people who have discovered a new truth, or a new aspect of an old one, and have devised fresh methods to diffuse the 1 6 The Universities and the new light. To appreciate the merits and limitations of any method it is necessary to observe how it arose, out of what needs, under what circumstances and difficulties, and the relative success or failure with which it was attended. It is only in this way that educational experience can be properly sifted and appraised, and that a science of education can be formed. In this way we learn to understand the long line of reformers from Comenius and Mulcaster and Pesta- lozzi and Froebel to Arnold and Butler of Shrewsbury and Thring in the last century : and, later still, such a startling manifestation as the Gary system, or that latest application of an ancient truth, the method of Dr. Montessori. There is a third element which cannot be excluded from these Elementary studies which lie at the root of a sound technique, and to which I am at a loss to give a name. I am reluctant to mention the word ' Psychology ' ; I know the controversies which raged round it in my own day : and I am told the hatchet is not yet buried. Whether what is taught under the name of Psychology to-day in Oxford and elsewhere is truth or falsehood ; whether there is or can be such a science ; whether, if there is such a science, Psychology is its proper name, are questions far beyond my ken. I must leave them to those who love to dispute ' what songs the Sirens sang, what name Achilles assumed when he hid himself among women '. I base myself upon practice and experience. I am sure that for any teacher the most difficult and at the same time the most essential thing is to know what is going on in the minds of his pupils, to understand the ways in which they actually work and in which alone it is possible for them to work. It is possible to teach cheerfully for many weeks with exuberant energy and enthusiasm and skill of a kind and yet to get in the end a result which in terms of mental growth or real knowledge is precisely nil. In spite of the progress which recent years have seen teaching is still one of the most backward of the arts. In every type of school there is still abundance of teaching which can be likened only to throwing various substances at a blank wall or tabula rasa, in the hope that some of it will stick ; teaching Training of Teachers 17 which assumes that memory is the only faculty of mind. No teacher, any more than any other artificer, can practice his art unless he understands the material he works in ; other- wise he is like a potter who should attempt to mould marble as if it were clay. In some form or other, under whatever name, teachers must study mind, and especially the nascent immature mind during the years of its development. That is really all we mean when we say we must have Psychology as a part of Training. The individual teacher can do much by patient observation and careful inference. Every lesson he gives, every hour he passes with his pupils, gives a revela- tion of the pupil's side of the matter, gives the teacher fresh data. Like a good general he is always on the alert to find out what is happening on the other side of the hill. What one individual can do can be done by many, and from the multitude ot such data it is possible to build up something not unwortny 01 tne name 01 a science whatever it may be called. At least the germ of such a science does exist, and if fresh results are rare and slow in coming, yet unquestion- ably new and valuable data are being accumulated, of which the fruit will appear in time. In spite of the great difficulties inherent in experiments of which the mind is the corpus vile ; in spite of the diffi- culty of obtaining precise and accurate results ; in spite of the apparent triviality of some of the results obtained, experimental psychology does give us real insight into the minds of our pupils. Like all research, this sort of work often seems very much in the air : a thousand experiments must be performed before the one is lighted upon which gives illuminating results, and, as is well known, the most valuable results are often those which are come upon by accident. The aim of such a course as has so far been sketched is effective class teaching. But class teaching is by no means the whole duty of the schoolmaster. There is, for instance, the large question of his ethical influence, which I can only mention in passing. It is the pride of English schools that their aim is character and not merely intelligence ; and if 2328 C 1 8 The Universities and the by ' character ' they mean the development of the whole capacity of their pupils, including the intelligence, the aim is justified. Consciously or unconsciously every teacher in his class room is exerting an influence not merely upon the intelligence but upon the whole character of his pupils. Even in the great Public boarding schools, where the Tutor or House master plays so large a part, the Form master is often the strongest influence in a boy's life, in spite of the fact that no boy is with him for long, and that his influence is therefore not continuous. In that very interesting feature of Eton life, the ' Tutor ' and the ' Pupil Room ', we have this disability removed ; and the boy's intellectual life, like his general welfare, is in the hands of the same man through- out his career. Most Etonians would, I think, say that the Tutor has been at least as great an influence in their lives as the House master. In view of this general influence which he cannot help exerting, the teacher must aim at something more than the mere technique of teaching ; he must be master of many other things. Again, schoolmasters need to be taught to think about ends as well as means ; to think logically about education in its widest scope and aim ; to ask themselves what education means, what is the relation of the education of the schools to the other great educative forces : how its aims are modified by the constant changes in social values and ideals, how the work of the individual teacher is affected by the great organizations of which in these days he almost invariably finds himself a part. Much educational waste is due to unskilful and unin- structed work ; much more to the lavish expenditure of power upon objects that are wrongly conceived. As a Public School master once said, ' My colleagues are much more ready to spend ten hours a day in teaching, in setting and correcting exercises, than to spend ten minutes in asking themselves whether they are teaching the right things in the right way.' The whole question of curriculum, for instance, is a question of ends, and depends ultimately upon the aim we have in view, ethical as well as intellectual ; and the Training of Teachers 19 same is largely true of method. Too often to the school- master, education means little but the routine of the school in which he happens to be working. The man in the street is often wiser than the expert. His crude, unabashed, importunate questionings are often the very touchstone of criticism. ' What is the use of it ? ' he persistently cries ; and he is perfectly right. It is the most pertinent of all questions. Our education is all wrong if it cannot be justified in the eyes of the ordinary intelligent unbiassed layman. We ought to know what we mean when we say we are educating ; what it all comes to, what we are aiming at and why. Perhaps for Englishmen to be compelled to think seriously and logically about these greater matters is more important even than instruction in technique. After all, an English- man rarely fails completely in practice ; he is saved by his capacity for muddling through one of the greatest gifts Nature ever bestows on man or race. Moreover, when ends are clearly grasped the question of means is already half solved. Precisely in what form this wider, more philosophical instruction should be conveyed, is a more difficult question. It might be approached historically, in the form of a critical review of the ends of education, as defined by eminent thinkers past and present : or speculatively, as an inquiry into the essential nature of education. Either method would lead naturally to a comparison of the divine '15ea with some of its principal embodiments in the past, and with existing systems : and on this basis a sound criticism and a reasoned policy might gradually be built up. In all these matters we are of course liable to be led on to highly controversial ground. Speculation and retrospect have little value unless the outcome is progress and reform : and educational progress is indissolubly bound up with many social and political questions. From such controversy the teacher qua teacher must rigidly abstain. His office transcends the region of opinion. His function is to clarify ideas, to define issues, to give the 2O The Universities and the materials for judgements and the capacity to form wise ones rather than judgements themselves ; to prevent, not so much wrong as irrelevant judgements, wide of the issue. The whole object of this part of our teaching would be to enable the teacher of the future to discern the true issue for education amidst the confused jumble of discordant cries which so often masquerade under the name. In this way we may hope gradually to create a body of experts worthy of the name, to whom the nation may look with confidence for information and advice. The case for this branch of the training course receives, I think, strong confirmation if we reflect upon the educa- tional situation of to-day. Since the Act of 1902 there has been an enormous expan- sion of education on the administrative side, on the side of organization. There is now an education office in every County and large Borough. Every local office has its Director of Education, its hierarchy of committees and sub-commit- tees, its little army of officials : and many of them have their own Inspectors. Education has become a practical question in the local politics of every area, and every Councillor an educational authority. Several large Authori- ties have their own Training Colleges, created, managed, and controlled by themselves, completely isolated and cut off from all other educational life. All this manifold activity on the administrative side is now about to be enormously increased by the requirements of the Act of 1918. There will be hundreds of new schools, new education officers, new committees, new inspectors. The activity of every Local Education Authority will be more than doubled, and there will be a corresponding expansion at head-quarters as well. All this is, of course, necessary. No one who realizes what national education stands for can do otherwise than rejoice. For good education good administration is as necessary as good teaching, and to dismiss all that side of the work as red tape would, of course, be absurd. The country owes an enormous debt for their splendid work to a multitude of men and women on the administrative side, to Inspectors and Training of Teachers 21 Directors, to the army of devoted enthusiasts who give their abilities so lavishly to the harmless necessary work of Committees and Boards. Nor again is it for a moment to be suggested that these able men and women have any other object in view but educational efficiency. These things are not denied. On the contrary it is this very efficiency, the enthusiasm displayed in this administrative side of the work which con- stitutes its danger. The sinister aspect of the matter is that in all this manifold and expansive activity the teacher has played so small a part . There has been nocorresponding expan- sion on the professional, the teaching side, to counterbalance this overwhelming administrative development. It seems to be assumed that all that is necessary is to create a machine and education will follow. Yet without the teacher the most elaborate organization can accomplish nothing : it exists only to bring him into contact with his pupils under the most favourable conditions. What these conditions are and how they may best be realized are surely questions on which his judgement might be of some value ; yet he has rarely been consulted, he has had little part in building up the system of which he is to be the heart and core. He is regarded merely as the hand which operates the finished machine. This ignoring of the teacher is deplorable for many reasons. It is an injustice to the men and women of a very able profession. Nor is it likely to have a good effect upon the supply of teachers or to raise the status of the profession, as we all desire to see it raised. But there is a stronger reason than any of these. To relieve the teacher of all responsibility except for the routine of his work is to remove at once the strongest stimulus to efficiency and its strongest guarantee. In the past it is no exaggeration to say that the teacher has in this country been himself the creator of the system he has worked. From the Elementary school, on the one hand, and from the times of Bell and Lancaster, who created popular education out of nothing simply by impro- vising teachers and setting them to work, to the great Public Schools and to the times of Arnold, Butler of Shrewsbury, 22 The Universities and the and Thring, who may be said to have created the modern Public school, English education has been a spontaneous growth, the outcome of the energy and enthusiasm of teachers. The State has stepped in merely to regulate, or to develop and complete, work already begun. But until the present generation it has not attempted to create. In the past a teacher has felt a responsibility, absolute and com- plete, for the success or failure of the institution and system under which he worked, and in which he implicitly believed. This consciousness, as a stimulus to fine and devoted work, nothing can, I am sure, replace. To relieve the teacher of it is to aim a deadly blow at efficiency. This is the great defect of the system which has been growing up since 1902. The teacher is in danger of sinking more and more into the position of a subordinate official, hired to carry out regulations. Real responsibility is felt to rest with the administrative authorities : with the Education Committee and its officials, with the Board of Education and its Inspectors. To the teacher a kind of responsibility does, indeed, remain ; but it is a responsibility of the wrong kind, the feeling of having to please a master, to comply with an endless system of meticulous regulations, a responsibility which paralyses rather than inspires. It is true that a teacher may and often does, by permission though not by right, enjoy a considerable measure of freedom, and that through advisory committees or through representatives upon the Education Authorities teachers do often exercise an appreciable influence. But this is not enough. The burden of the complaint against the adminis- trative powers is, not that they do not sometimes permit, but that they do not encourage nay, compel the sort of freedom which is the correlative of real responsibility. The only effectual remedy is a complete change of attitude on the part of the administrative authorities towards the Schoolmaster. They must take him frankly into partner- ship : must learn to look to him, as to an expert, for initiative, for the thinking out as well as for the execution of plans. Training of Teachers 23 Means must be found of associating the teacher with the constructive side of administrative work at every stage in such a way as to make him feel that he is working for ends which are his own, which are the product of his own thought, the outcome of his own convictions. The temptation is strong to linger over this great and vital question : but I am concerned with it only as it affects Training : and the connexion is clear. The professional education of the teacher must include the acquisition of the knowledge and the capacity necessary for dealing with great fundamental questions of ends as well as means. A high standard of public education cannot be attained by perfecting administrative machinery, but only by perfecting the efficiency of the teacher. And the teacher must prepare himself for this work as for the first of his duties. For many years I have felt with increasing conviction that this is the most important aspect of Training. It must aim at producing something more than efficient class teachers ; it must send out men and women who will be real experts. And the greater aim will usually include the less : the more clearly a man grasps the ends of education the less tolerant is he likely to be of inefficiency, whether in himself or in others, in the arts by which alone these ends can be secured. The teacher has a right in any case to be heard : if the views he expresses are those of an instructed and enlightened expert, he has the right to expect that they will not, except for the gravest reasons, be ignored. It ought, I am convinced, to be an integral part of the curriculum of every school of professional training, certainly of every school for which a University makes itself respon- sible, to give this wider instruction. Unless every teacher possesses at least some knowledge of these things and the habit of thinking logically about them, and unless he has the right to utter and press his views, education in this country must inevitably become little more than a highly organized department of public business. In conclusion, I should perhaps say a few words about our 24 The Universities and the programme, about the way in which we propose to apply the principles laid down. You will not expect me in the first few days of office to be ready with a detailed scheme ; nor, if I were, would it be proper for me to lay it before you now. But I may, I think, without indiscretion indicate the main lines of the new organization, dictated as I believe they must be by the situation with which we have to deal. We have already in this University two organizations for dealing with the training of teachers. Both are recognized and both receive grants from the Board of Education, the one as a College for the training of Secondary, the other oi Elementary teachers. But, as I have already suggested, the word Elementary is misleading, and no longer corresponds with the facts. In the so-called Elementary schools much Secondary education is given. The men trained in our Elementary Department are at liberty to teach in either Elementary or Secondary schools as they please, and have actually in the past left the University more often to teach in the latter than the former. In future, whether the word Elementary is retained or not, the public educational system of the country, the care of which must always be the main preoccupation of the Education Department, will be mainly a Secondary, not a Primary system. We have, then, in our Elementary or Four Year course an organization capable of doing, and which has actually done in the past, work which does not differ essentially from that which is called for by the new situation : and this in spite of being hampered to some extent by being obliged to conform to the regulations laid down for the training of teachers in Elementary schools. We know that the Board is favourably inclined, and no difficulty is anticipated in converting this part of our organi- zation into a school of training expressly designed and thoroughly adapted to the new work. If the Four Year course will require alteration, it is mainly because it is still formally a course for teachers in the Elementary schools. The work of the Secondary side requires adaptation for a different reason. If this school of Training of Teachers 25 training has done in the past, as I am sure it has, work of unique importance and value, it has been partly because for Secondary teachers, training has hitherto been a volun- tary thing : and, amidst the general most unfortunate apathy, many of those who have come to the Oxford school have been men and women who have felt an exceptional interest in education as a subject of study, apart from any need of training for practical purposes. The school has therefore trained, besides many excellent teachers, a number of men and women who have come to it as a preparation for other branches of educational work, who have afterwards become inspectors or administrators, or Principals of Colleges and Schools abroad ; many, too, who have become thinkers and pioneers in education, and who have devoted themselves to thinking out the problems upon the solution of which progress in education depends. I need not dwell upon the importance of such work as this ; of the increased need for it which the future must bring. And this is a need which, as it seems to me, the Oxford Secondary Department is, as at present constituted, singu- larly well fitted to supply. To the great majority of the students who we hope will come to us in large numbers for training as teachers, we shall try to give a simple practical course, with just so much of the Theory and History of Education as is necessary for the maximum of practical efficiency, and with so much of general enlightenment and illumination as can be insinuated into the interstices of their practical training. But we shall, I hope, also continue to train, as in the past, a select few who will ask for more than this, for that deeper study of fundamentals which none who aspire to lead in education can afford to be without. We must, I am sure, preserve, and I hope that with increased numbers and greater resources we shall be able to extend, this side, too, of the work. We want, for every reason, large numbers of students, but we want also the gifted few. The University cannot afford to turn from its doors any who come to it for guidance and light. We have already in the examination for the Diploma an 2328 D 26 The Universities and the examination well suited to the more advanced students. Whether it is retained precisely in its present form or not, circumstances would seem to point to a double examination in the future, corresponding with the familiar distinction between Pass and Honours and with the double task we have to fulfil. There are many other points I should like to discuss, but it is impossible to go into greater detail now. The working out of a practicable scheme must obviously be the work of time and its final shape does not depend upon ourselves alone. It is not, however, generally known how much we are in a position to do within the limits of our present organization. The official title of one of our Colleges is ' The Oxford University Elementary Day Training College '. Nothing could be more misleading. I have already explained the ^appropriateness of the word ' elementary '. The word ' day ' is not less open to objection, since the majority of the students are resident members of the different Colleges of the University. It would be much more accurate to call it simply what it is, ' The Four Year course '. I may say in passing that the Delegacy has now decided to admit women to this course, and that it is still open to women students to enter their names for the session now beginning. The conditions of the Four Year course are these. It consists of two parts ; the first comprising the first three years, during which the student is required to devote himself like other students to the ordinary academic work for his degree ; and the second consisting of the fourth year, which must be entirely devoted to training. During the whole of this course, not merely during the fourth year of training but during the three years of academic work, every student may obtain from the Board a very sub- stantial annual grant, including the whole amount of his tuition fees and a generous contribution towards his main- tenance. In return, students must pledge themselves to complete the course laid down ; and, after completion, to teach, if a man, for seven out of the ten ; if a woman, for Training of Teachers 27 five out of the eight years immediately succeeding the com- pletion of the course, in a school or other institution approved by the Board. If the pledge is not fulfilled the money must be repaid unless it is remitted at the discretion of the Board. The pledge is in practice interpreted by no means in the spirit of Shylock : any substantial reason brings total or partial re- mission, and repayment is by convenient instalments. The term ' approved school ' is interpreted in the same liberal spirit. It covers teaching even in some types of colleges and means little more than that the student must show that he has done useful work worthy of his qualifications, and of the public money which has been expended upon him. I cannot help thinking that if these generous terms were more widely known, a very much larger number of students would avail themselves of them. There must be a large number of students, men and women, who look forward to a teaching career, and there seems no reason why the majority of these should hesitate to give a pledge which coincides with their actual intentions. A student need not begin the course in his first year ; he may join it at the beginning of any year, second, third, or fourth. May I conclude with a brief appeal for the sympathy and assistance of all in the University who have the interests of education at heart ? The Bill of last year is a very big measure indeed : when we reflect upon what it means for England and what England means for the World it may be doubted whether any of the amazing upheavals of which the last few years have been so prolific will in its ultimate and permanent effects prove a bigger event. The country has done its part in providing the money, the organization, the statutory powers. It now looks to the Universities to do the rest. Perhaps it is not mere fancy to believe that to Oxford there is a special appeal. Only those, perhaps, who have lived all their lives away from Oxford can fully realize how magical is the name she bears. Men look to her, in spite of occasional disappointments, as they rarely look elsewhere for guidance, inspiration, leadership. The Uni- 28 The Universities and the Training of Teachers versity has a hundred channels through which it will respond to the call. If I venture to plead for the particular Depart- ment for which I am responsible, it is because it is the channel through which will naturally be made the chief contribution of the University towards making effective the great measure of 1918. Printed in England at the Oxford University Press EDUCATION EDUCATIONAL REFORM. Speeches by the Right Hon. H. A. L. FISHER. With a Summary of the Education Bill of 1918. Pp. xvi + 102. is. net. Contents : Education Estimates, April 19, 1917 ; Education Bill, August 10, 1917 Manchester, Liverpool, Bradford, September, October, November, 1917 ; Lancashir Teachers' Association, September 29, 1917. Training College Association, January 8, 1918 ; with an appendix of the Summary of Provisions of the Education Bill of 1918. EDUCATION TO-DAY AND TO-MORROW. Addresses bi P. E. MATHESON. 1917. Pp. 140. 2s. 6d. net. " Few current educational writings have such a deep spring of idealism and intere in their relation to daily school life as these addresses. They represent the bes thought on education that was available immediately before the war, and are of peculiar interest as showing the real forces that lay behind the reform movement." Tir, Educational Supplement. THE EARLY EDUCATION OF CHILDREN. By LAURA L, PLAISTED. With a chapter on the Medical Responsibilities of School Teachers, bj A. L. ORMEROD. Second edition. Fourth impression, 1918. Crown 8vo (7^x5" pp. xiv + 398, with twelve plates and thirty-two illustrations in the text. 6s. net. "A more helpful guide to all engaged in the education of children could not desired. The exposition of principles given is admirably lucid, and every methc recommended has stood the test of practical work. ... A book that has alreadj secured the unequivocal approval of the teaching profession/' Aberdeen Daily Journal HANDWORK and its Place in Early Education. By LAURA PLAISTED. 1913. Cr. 8vo (7 1 x 5}-), pp. xiv + 328, with two hundred illustrations, ss.net "An interesting volume with many helpful suggestions." Times. "This book is very rich in suggestions, and is sure to be of the greatest help. "- Educational Times, "A very good book . . . interesting, well-written and suggestive." Educational Net HANDWORK AND SOCIAL HISTORY. Scenes from earl' and mediaeval history to be reproduced by children. By E. STEVINSON. Crown 8vo (7^x5^), pp. 112, with ninety-five illustrations. 35. net. " We have enjoyed reading it from cover to cover. The short but very clear descri{ tion of how our forebears lived is excellent ; and lucky indeed are the children wl have the good fortune to be taught by the Author." Oxford Magazine. THE RUDIMENTS OF CRITICISM. By E. A. GREENING LA] BORN. Crown 8vo, pp. 192, with a supplement of children's verses and essays, selected questions. 35. 6d. net. " A valuable book for teachers, showing how children may be taught to appreciat poetry and verbal melody. If the views expounded were taken to heart by teacher there might be fewer superfluous poets in the next generation, but an enormously largt body of intelligent readers of poetry. . . ." Athenaeum. LANGUAGE TEACHING: Theory and Practice, with sped* reference to French and German. By E. C. KITSON. 1918. Crown 8vo (7^ x 5^ pp. xiv+ 186. 43. net. " A carefully-reasoned study of the principles which underlie language and of tl best methods of applying such principles in the teaching of modern language. . . . Tl book contains much useful information, is always suggestive and original, and should on the bookshelf of every teacher of modern languages." Scottish Educational Jourt THE TEACHING OF HISTORY. By E. H. JARVIS. 191! Crown 8vo (7^x5]-), pp. 240. 43. 6d. net. "The subject is one of the first importance and is here dealt with in detail." Times "The book as a whole deserves the careful consideration of teachers. It is illuminatinj and helpful." School World. LESSONS IN ENGLISH HISTORY. By H.W. CARTER. i 9 r Pp. 208, with sixty-seven maps, plans, and illustrations, bibliography, extracts fro* contemporary writers and chronological chart. 35. 6d. net. Sixty-eight outlines upon which the teacher can construct lessons for a two year course for middle forms, or, by selections, a year's course for junior forms. Makers Syracuse, N Y. TAT. JAI. 21. 1801 tj^^i^ffi- fflttl 42022 14 DAY USE HETURN TO DESK FROM WHICH BORROWED LOAN DEPT. This book is due on the last date stamped below, or on the date to which renewed. Renewed books are subject to immediate recall. REC'D LC 18 195t 'V 2 8 1997