The training of teachers in the United States of America — John Stuart Mill — John Shaqi
The training of teachers in the United States of America
John Stuart Mill · en
At Quincy, Massachusetts, there is a training class of thirty
students. The pupil teachers act as assistants in the schools,
receiving no compensation, except the guidance of experienced teachers,
and theoretical instruction from the superintendent. They usually teach
in several grades during the year, but those who show special aptitude
or wish to teach in any particular grade are allowed an alternative of
remaining in that grade. At the Coddington school, one of the training
schools for the Quincy Training Classes, I heard very good lessons
given in reading, phonics, number, English and geography. A reading
lesson, given to ten or twelve children about seven years old, was to
teach one new word, “Flag.” The class stood around the teacher at one
part of the wall slate. After carefully revising many of the words
learnt in previous lessons, the teacher drew a flag on the board. Then
she wrote the word as a whole, underneath the drawing. Then she told a
short story about a flag, wrote the word in different coloured chalks,
wrote sentences involving only known words and the new word “flag.”
When the children could read these sentences easily, they were made to
pick out the word “flag.” Some were allowed to erase the word, some
to write it again. Every possible device was used in the lesson to
associate the complete written expression with the spoken word and the
idea. At the end of twenty minutes, when the association was complete,
the new word “flag” was written among the list of known words, kept
constantly on the board, and the children were sent to their seats.
I noticed in all the reading lessons in which words and sentences
were taught as wholes, that clever teachers constantly used the device
of erasing the word or sentence to be taught. This, when skilfully
done, secures concentration of attention on each word, by allowing the
children only a limited time to note its general shape, before being
required to represent it on the board or slate. The constant erasure
and repeated re-writing of a word ensure repeated short acts of intense
attention on the part of the children, and so help greatly in the
learning of the new word. A lesson in “number” or arithmetic, given
to the same class, was devoted to problems in addition, subtraction,
multiplication and division of numbers below ten. Many devices were
used for interesting the class. The children were sent to work at
different parts of the wall slate, and were encouraged to contribute
problems for the class. The general use of the wall slate is seen to be
of great advantage, especially in such lessons as these. By means of
it, supervision of individual work is very easy, and corrections can be
made valuable to the whole class.