Графични страници
PDF файл
ePub

In examining the material for the year we have found several statements as to the institutions at which the members of the teaching force received their education, and as it is in line with our remarks we insert them:

Of the 3,995 teachers of Vermont 3,092 report the character of the institution in which they passed "the last year of their preparation for teaching" which the State superintendent classifies thus

[blocks in formation]

The school committee of Johnston, R. I., give a list of the schools at which their teachers have been educated, as follows:

[merged small][ocr errors][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small]

It has been their aim, the Johnston committee say, to secure, as far as possible, teachers from the State Normal School.

At Newport, R. I., of the fifteen or sixteen teachers employed during the year but five or six have had professional training.

BEGINNERS.

We have now arrived at the last topic of the discussion upon which we have entered. Perhaps, in view of the foregoing statistics, it is not too bold to say that between ten and twenty per cent. of the teaching corps of the country are at least tinctured with professional ideas, and we come to consider how many more of such or their betters are required annually.

During the last year the Connecticut State Normal School graduated sixty-two pupils, all of whom are teaching. These, says the State superintendent, have supplied one-sixth of the beginners for the year in the State. It follows, then, that the beginners number about 372 in Connecticut; that, is about 6 per cent. of the teaching force.

The State superintendent of New Jersey gives statistics of the "number who have been teaching one year or less." As his report ends August 31, it is evident that the " year or less must have begun in the fall of the preceding year or at some subsequent date, provided the experience was continuous, which under the circumstances we unhesitatingly assume. The 431 teachers of this class are therefore beginners; the whole number reporting length of service was 3,919 (about 100 less than the whole number employed); that is. 11 per cent. were beginners. In Michigan during 1887, 14 per cent. of the teaching force had been licensed without previous experience in teaching. In Pennsylvania the number who have had no previous experience" as teachers was 3,112, exclusive of Philadelphia; that is, about 15 per cent. of the teachers in county and district schools.

The State superintendent of West Virginia gives it as his opinion that one-fourth of the teaching force of his State has to be renewed annually, and the city superintendent of Minneapolis, in urging the establishment of a city normal school, calls attention to the

lesser permanency of service there than in eastern cities. In Iowa, about thirty in every hundred teachers were beginners (3,946 totally without experience, 3,671 less than a year's).

Investigations of this kind, even when as unpretentious as this, seem a waste if not leading to some positive conclusion, and when such a conclusion is avowedly stated as a conjecture from insuficient facts rather than as a fact, it would appear better to avoid "pusillanimously passing it by," as Mr. Spencer says in his book on education. Under such circumstances, it appears to us that there is a demand for as many professionally trained teachers as the normal schools have put permanently in the field, from the standpoint of the present, during the fifty years of their existence.1

PUBLIC NORMAL SCHOOLS.

Attendance.-By the summary, given below, of the statistics of Table 32, 32,314 pupils are shown to be in 133 schools; these are not all under training as teachers, however. In "teachers' training classes" were enrolled 17,319 pupils, distributed among 112 schools. Rejecting from the total attendance (32,314) at these schools the number attending the schools not reporting teachers' training classes or pupils attending them, we find that of the 26,113 attending schools where the training course for teachers exists, 17,316 are in that course and 8,797 are not. How far the 8,800 are "model school," practise school," or "training school" pupils, we can not positively say, but it is our belief that the request that scholars to be practised on and pupils below high-school grade be kept distinct, has been complied with, and that the full statistics of Table 32 show it. To state the matter in a less precise way, one-third of the pupils attending normal schools are not reported in teachers' training classes.

66

It must be borne in mind that we are now speaking of the so-called public normals, a class founded on the very obvious feature of receiving aid from public funds to the amount of five hundred dollars or more, and that this has caused schools to be included that perhaps make the statistics on their face give some confirmation of the general statements as to the non-professional character of this class of schools.

Considering the total enrolment in the schools, we find 69 per cent. of it composed of females; considering the enrolment in the teachers' training course, we find a slight increase of the disproportion, the percentage of females being 70. Though it is quite true that all the schools are not represented, it will be remembered that we are given a proportion, and that if it be of value it will hold with but slight variation though all the non-reporting schools were represented.

Instructors.-The instructors, 1,189 in all, are also unevenly divided between the sexes, but the disproportion is not so great, being 42 to 58 in the hundred in favor of women. This inequality does not appear confined to any particular section of the country; but it is uniform and large in the New England and Middle States, including the neighboring States of Ohio and Maryland.

As compared with the statistics of the preceding year, there is an apparent gain of a thousand in the total number of pupils enrolled, and a slight decrease in the number of instructors.

It is interesting to compare this conclusion with that arrived at by Mr. S. H. White, principal of the city normal school of Peoria, Ill., as given in his paper, read before the American Normal Association in 1870. This writer, in the course of his remarks, says:

[ocr errors]

"According to the report of the State superintendent of common schools of Pennsylvania 30 per cent. of the teachers of that State are new to the work each year. The opinion of other State superintendents have been asked upon this point. So far as they have been expressed they are that from 10 to 50 per cent, of the teachers in their respective States are annually supplied from those who have had no experience. It is probably safe to say that, taking all sections of the country into consideration, this number would be about 40 per cent."

[ocr errors]

TABLE 29.-Teachers and Pupils in Public Normal Schools (Summary of Similar Columns of
Table 32).

Instructors.

Pupils in School.

Pupils in Training Class.

[merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][ocr errors][merged small][ocr errors][ocr errors][merged small][ocr errors][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][ocr errors][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][subsumed][subsumed][ocr errors][ocr errors][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][ocr errors][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][ocr errors][merged small][merged small][ocr errors][ocr errors][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][ocr errors][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][subsumed][ocr errors][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][subsumed][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][subsumed][merged small][merged small][merged small][subsumed][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][subsumed][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][subsumed][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][subsumed][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][subsumed][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][subsumed][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][subsumed][merged small][merged small][merged small][subsumed][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][subsumed][merged small][merged small][merged small][ocr errors][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][subsumed][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][subsumed][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][subsumed][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][ocr errors][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][ocr errors][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][ocr errors][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small]

Graduates from these schools have been spoken of above.

For the year under review

they number 4,381, an increase of 825 over the preceding year, as far as reported.
sections the number is distributed as follows:

By

[blocks in formation]

Permanent funds and income.—The inquiry as to permanent funds and the interest derived therefrom has produced but meagre results. In some cases it appears that the question was not understood in the usual way. In ten instances a fund has been reported, in two of these, however, merely as so much land. As far as reported, these funds amount to $1,858,204, $1,642,562 of which are reported by the States of the northern Mississippi Valley and $1,300,000 of this by the State of Wisconsin. The income derived from these funds is about $50,000.

Tuition. The charge for tuition to persons preparing to teach, and promising to teach in the State after graduation, is nothing. Exceptions to this statement appear in Table 32, but they are only apparent. In the first place, the charge of ten dollars or less is almost always in the form of an incidental fee, and in this way also is the twenty dollars charged at the Missouri schools to be accounted for. At the Southern Illinois Normal University students pledging themselves to teach in the State are instructed free of charge for tuition, and at the Virginia Normal and Collegiate Institute fifty State students are instructed under similar conditions. At the Vermont school each town is entitled to one scholarship or more, each scholarship paying one tuition of $24. Pennsylvania, which appears most to contradict the statement, has a rather unique way of giving free instruction, which obtains in this way: To a student over seventeen signing a declaration that he intends to teach in the common schools of the State fifty cents a week (half the charge for tuition) is given, and to each student who shall graduate and sign an agreement to teach in the common schools of the State two full years, fifty dollars. Thus, during a session of forty weeks, though the charge for tuition is forty dollars, the student is paid twenty dollars by the State, and this deficit is more than offset by the fifty he receives at the end of two years' study. The charge to non-resident normal students and to others need not detain us, and we will proceed to consider the

Average annual cost of board and lodging.-The usual averaging process will not avail here. We must use other means, and that which has been adopted is the grouping of the amounts falling within a maximum and a minimum limit. The limits adopted are these: Instances where the annual cost is $75 or under down to $50, where it is $100 or under to $75, $125 or under, $150 or under, $175 or under, etc. In eleven cases the annual cost of board and lodging is reported at amounts varying with the school, from $50 to $75; in fourteen cases the cost varies with the several institutions from $80 to $100; in twenty-six cases it varies from $100 to $125; in twenty-three cases from $130 to $150; in six cases from $155 to $175, and in eight cases from $189 to $200.

As the cost when $100 or under to $75 is with an exception almost the higher amount, the $75 to $100 group may be combined with that containing the cases falling within $100 and $126, and the new group thus formed will constitute 46 per cent. of amounts reported. Combining this group with that containing amounts of $150 and under down to $125, it appears that nearly three-fourths of the answers to the inquiry as to the average annual cost of board and lodging fall about or between $100 and $150.

Receipts. The total receipts of the schools classed as public normal are $1,671,761,1 several city schools not reporting. Of this very nearly $200,000 were derived from the incidental fees, pupils not entitled to free tuition, and the amount-more than half of the whole-derived from tuition charges at the Pennsylvania schools, of whose peculiar manner of financial procedure in the way of State aid of pupils we have spoken above. The amount received during the year from public funds was $1,240,197 and from "other sources" $96,431. The discrepancy of $135,000 between the sum of these several amounts and the sum total received has been occasioned by the failure in some cases to answer the inquiry as to aid from "other sources." In cases where it has been answered, however, it is doubtful whether tuition fees or benefactions received have not been given. These items, however, though of interest, are of little importance. In a table of public normal schools the aid from the public is the main feature.

Between the amount received from the public funds for the present year and that granted in the preceding there is a difference of about $100,000, when the schools not reporting in both years have been excluded. In Pennsylvania there has been an increase of $30,000. In Dakota and Michigan there have been decreases, respectively, of $40,000 and $60,000.

But this is not the proper way to compare these statistics. Periods greater than one year must be taken to ascertain the drift of educational things. We will on this occasion go back for five years when the appropriation was $1,071,520; but as this included an extraordinary appropriation of $120,000 for the Virginia Normal and Collegiate Institute, which reports this year, as it has ever since 1883-84, an appropriation of $20,000, we find ourselves warranted in throwing out from the sum appropriated then the overplus of $100,000. Thus reduced the sum appropriated for 1883-84 is $971,520, leaving a gain in the five years interval of $269,000.

1 Not including $15,000 of schools reporting last year but not this.

[merged small][merged small][ocr errors][ocr errors][ocr errors][merged small][ocr errors]

TABLE 30.-Aid from Public Funds and Other Sources (Summary of Similar Columns of

Table 32).

[ocr errors][merged small]

California..
Connecticut
Dakota
Florida
Illinois
Indiana..
Iowa...
Kansas
Kentucky
Louisiana.............

Maine

Maryland.........
Massachusetts

Michigan...
Minnesota.
Mississippi
Missouri.
Nebraska.
New Hampshire...
New Jersey-
New York.
North Carolina.
Ohio
Oregon
Pennsylvania
Rhode Island....
South Carolina...

lopted is the po The lime g $50), where cate In eleven cases 2 with the shad

tations from $

e cases from $1

Tennessee........

Texas...
Verrnont..
Virginia
West Virginia.
Wisconsin

Most the thera the cres 45 per cent i of $1.50 and unde e inquiry as to and $2 Dormal are were derval nount-mar

chools of whe

we bare ge 240,137 and 1of these serez

in some cases

has been a

red have you bee

[ocr errors]

be present re

00, when we s

here has been

respective d

Periods

We will

30: but the

rmal and the ppropriates

opriated the

But this

Total....

in such course.

[merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][ocr errors][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][ocr errors][merged small][merged small][ocr errors][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small]

STATISTICS OF PRIVATE NORMAL SCHOOLS.

In examining the summary of the statistics of public normal schools we found that 66 per cent. of the enrolment of schools reporting students in a teachers' training course were Applying the same methods here we find that 50 per cent. of the enrolbut reporting in a somewhat different form very large enrolment in "normal classes" for but repein such a course. Should the statistics of two schools neither reporting this year 1886-87-be excluded from the divisor and dividend used in obtaining this percentage, it appears that about 31 per cent. of the total attendance of the private normal schools of the pupils in private norrnal schools are under training as teachers.

reporting a teachers' training course are pursuing such course.

In brief, about one-third

There is another feature, the male element preponderates both in the teaching corps
and the attendance, and wit hout exception as far as the totals indicate.

sippi Valley, thirty of them, including that in West Virginia, being situated in this area.
These institutions seem raore numerous in the States of the Central and Upper Missis-
In the Southern States the re are nine, in California one, in Pennsylvania one.
dents below the high school grade there are eighteen hundred and eighty-six, the soxes
being about equally represented.

Of stu

« ПредишнаНапред »