Department of Education

“ Now, to meet the needs of the generations to come, we have established a Department of Education to express our national commitment to education, to promote equal educational opportunity, to assist local authorities in their efforts to improve our schools, and to administer Federal education programs more efficiently. ”

“ In the department of education they are also doing their share. Several of the young women are school teachers, one being on the teaching staff in one of the high schools, another a member of the Board of Examiners, a third, in the training school for teachers. ”

“ The next step was the expansion of the department of education into the Teachers College, or School of Education, as it is getting to be called, which is now recognized as a professional school of equal rank with the School of Law or the School of Medicine. An essential element of its equipment is a high school for observation and practise under expert supervision, just as an elementary practise school is an essential part of a well equipt normal school. ”

“ The chief office of the teacher, in controlling the pupils' process of learning, being to direct their self-activity in making a selection of ideas from their former knowledge which shall stand in vital connection with the problem, and lead finally to its solution, the question arises in what form the teacher is to conduct the process in order to obtain this desired result. Three different modes of directing the selecting activity of the student are recognized and more or less practised by teachers. ”

“ Every teacher is required to pass an examination prepared by the commissioner of education as a test of his or her qualifications, and the teacher is responsible to the educational department for the enforcement of the rules and the application of the methods of instruction that have received its indorsement. ”

“ The C pupil does his work in the class, but that is not enough for a B. The A pupil must fulfill even higher requirements. Each department is allowed to post, in addition to the general statements made for the whole school, special regulations which obtain for the work of that particular department. ”

“ The pedagogical department of a college, and too, a thoroly reputable college, may be, and usually is, merely one of the many departments of the institution, represented on its faculty by a single professor and offering but a limited range of professional work—a few courses in the history of education, principles of education, and "pedagogy," usually. A teachers college, on the other hand, has an organization and, sometimes, a financial status of its own. Its relationship to the institution as a whole is getting to be the same as that of the other professional schools. ”

“ A practising school, organized as a part of the University, and having as its principal one of the University Faculty, might, besides affording such a practising ground for secondary teachers, be the means of supplying tested facts to the teaching world in general, and would greatly help the University Department to fulfil its true function—that of stimulating teachers and unifying education in the State. ”

“ The Department of Science and Art acted as an agency in the development of secondary education upon the same lines as the Technical Instruction Acts, administering a parliamentary grant which was gradually extended with a view to encouraging literary studies as well as the scientific and mathematical subjects to the Grants of science and art department.promotion of which it was primarily directed. ”

“ Except for one course in English in the Freshman year, and one course in French or German for those who do not on entrance present both of these languages, no study is prescribed, but the student is compelled to select a certain number of courses in some one department or field of learning, and to distribute the remainder among other departments, the object being to secure a systematic education, based on the principle of knowing a little of everything and something well. ”

“ He had to assist in the department work all the afternoon, thus learning his duties practically, and being of real use to the government while still a school-boy. The teachers were older officials of the same department, under whose care and instruction the boys were placed, and the same teacher conducted the entire education of a young man, teaching him the first rudiments of writing, initiating him into the practical work of the department, and, even after the young man had become an official himself, remaining his counselor and friend. ”

“ Program Operations.—The Secretary shall ensure that the programs under this subpart are administered within the Department by a person who has recognized professional qualifications and experience in the field of the education of gifted and talented students and who shall— `` (1) administer and coordinate the programs authorized under this subpart; `` (2) serve as a focal point of national leadership and information on the educational needs of gifted and talented students and the availability of educational services and programs designed to meet such needs ”

“ The school life is a unit, into which each department fits and in which it works. The spelling lesson is covered in the classroom and set in type in the print shop. The grammar lesson consists in revising compositions with regulation proofreaders’ corrections. The art department designs clothes which are made in the sewing classes. The drawing room furnishes plans for the wood and iron work and designs for basketry and pottery. In the English classes, the problems of caning and weaving are written and discussed. The mathematical problems are problems of the school. ”

“ By this means there has been finally developed the modern school as a fully organized corporate institution devoted to educational work, and supported as an integral part of our civil or public obligations. ”

“ Other Educational Institutions.—Finally, many clubs, institutes, and societies attempt, in a more accidental way, to convey definite instruction, and therefore serve in a sense as educational institutions. ”

“ The Department also gave aid to the study of science in elementary education. As early as the fifties, grants were made to establish work in elementary science, art, and design, but the educational value was for more than forty years subordinated to practical applications. ”

“ In 1839 Parliament really took in hand the work of Education, and Inspectors of Schools were appointed, and the Education Department set up to look after the work of Education in the country. Much was left for private individuals to do ”

“ In view of the fact that such vast interests are involved,—the instruction of over twenty million pupils, requiring the service of more than half a million teachers, involving the expenditure of nearly three hundred million dollars per annum, and of vital interest to the whole population,—many educators believe that the bureau should be elevated to the dignity of a department of the government with a cabinet officer at its head. ”

“ Health must be acquired as well as thought of in abstract terms. The school methods of dealing with it require a rational combination of the work of the physical-training department with that of the school physician and the teacher. The movement is therefore one of those broad movements in education which require the introduction of new materials of instruction but also call for a general and constructive administrative policy which shall support instruction by opening the way for an enlargement of school work of a practical type. ”

“ During the second term of the freshman year papers are written on approved biographies, dealing in each case with the qualities, opportunities and education of the great one. These essays, read in class, form the basis for a compilation of the elements necessary for success in life.
The work of the sophomore year begins with the preparation of a class list of professions, semi-professions and trades,—a list which is checked with the permanent list kept by the department. ”

“ Schools have been brought into the smallest villages, and elementary education has been made free to all (1881) and compulsory between the ages of six and thirteen (1882) . To provide trained teachers, every department has been Normal schools. required to provide a normal school for teachers of each sex; and two higher normal schools, one for men and one for women, to train teachers for the departmental normal schools, have been opened by the state (1882) . 383 Higher primary and continuation schools. ”

“ The departments of the college today include language and literature, mathematics, education and psychology, fine and applied arts, social science and history, training school, health education, and music. ”

“ WORK OR PLAY
Saturday morning was come, and all the summer world was bright and fresh and brimming with life. There was a song in every heart; and if the heart was young the music issued at the lips. There was cheer in every face, and a spring in every step. The locust trees were in bloom, and the fragrance of the blossoms filled the air.
Tom appeared on the sidewalk with a bucket of whitewash and a long-handled brush. He surveyed the fence, and the gladness went out of nature, and a deep melancholy settled down upon his spirit. Thirty yards of board fence nine feet high! ”

“ It is scarcely a high estimate to have of history, to think that pupils of this age can grasp even the simpler lines of development in history without guidance from the teacher. Hence it is necessary for the attainment of good results, that many of the lessons should be taught orally before the pupils are asked to study their books. The aim of the teaching should be not merely the acquisition of facts, but the welding of them together in a sequence of cause and effect, and the pupils at this stage can scarcely be expected to do that for themselves. ”

“ To create and foster a liking for historical study. It is impossible, in the public school life of a child, which is usually ended at the age of twelve to fourteen years, to accomplish all that has been indicated above concerning the aims of history teaching. The most that can be done is to lay the foundation and give the pupil a desire to continue his reading after his school days are over. Serious blame rests on the teacher whose methods of teaching history, instead of attracting the child to the subject, give him a distaste for it. ”

“ Rise, hill and glen! rise, crag and wood! rise up on either hand,—
Again upon the Garry's banks, on Scottish soil we stand!
Again I see the tartans wave, again the trumpets ring;
Again I hear our leader's call: 'Upon them for the King!'
Stay'd we behind that glorious day for roaring flood or linn?
The soul of Græme is with us still,—now, brothers, will ye in?"
No stay,—no pause. With one accord, they grasp'd each other's
hand,
Then plunged into the angry flood, that bold and dauntless band. ”

“ Even the present content of the mind has its influence upon attention. The student on his way to school, if busy with his spelling lesson, is attracted to the words and letters on posters and signs. [255] If he is reviewing his botany, he notes especially the weeds along the walk; if carrying to his art teacher, with a feeling of pride, the finished landscape drawing, his attention goes out to the shade and colour of field and sky. That such a connection must exist between knowledge and attention is apparent from what has been already noted concerning the working of the law of apperception. ”

“ The Science of Education.—If the practice of teaching is an intelligent art, there must, in like manner, be found in its processes certain principles and methods which may be set forth in systematic form as a science of education, and applied by the educator in the art of teaching. Assuming the existence of a science of education, it is further evident that the student-teacher should make himself acquainted with its leading principles, and likewise learn to apply these principles in his practice of the art of [2] teaching. ”

“ The black locks were so thick,—nothing could be more tempting to a lad who had already tasted the forbidden pleasure of cutting the pony's mane. One delicious grinding snip, and then another and another, and the hinder locks fell heavily on the floor. Maggie stood cropped in a jagged, uneven manner, but with a sense of clearness and freedom, as if she had emerged from a wood into the open plain.
"Oh, Maggie," said Tom, jumping round her and slapping his knees as he laughed; "oh, my buttons, what a queer thing you look! Look at yourself in the glass." ”

“ To present history to the pupils in an interesting way, the oral method is the best. It is not necessary for the teacher to have a special gift for narration; any one who is really interested in the story to be told is able to tell it well enough to hold the attention of the class. In narration, mere fluency is not the chief requisite; it is more important that the pupils should feel the teacher's interest in the topic. ”

“ There are rivers whose currents, running red with the silt and mud of their soft alluvial shores, carry far into the ocean the record of their muddy progress; but this glorious river system, through its many lakes and various names, is ever the same crystal current, flowing pure from the fountain-head of Lake Superior. Great cities stud its shores; but they are powerless to dim the transparency of its waters. Steam-ships cover the broad bosom of its lakes and estuaries; but they change not the beauty of the water, no more than the fleets of the world mark the waves of the ocean. ”

“ THE USE OF PROBLEMS IN TEACHING HISTORY
The development, or problem, method is intended to get the pupils to do some independent thinking, instead of merely absorbing knowledge from the teacher. The plan is simply to set clearly before the pupils the conditions existing at a certain moment in the story so that they may see for themselves the difficulties that the people in the story had to overcome. ”