School official

“ Though the Superintendents as such, have necessarily speaking, no teaching to do, still they ought particularly to secure the progress of every pupil in what may be called the essential studies, such as reading, writing, and spelling. For this purpose they either see that their pupils are going on successfully in classes in school, in these branches, or they may attend to them in the Section, provided that they never allow such instruction to interfere with their more appropriate and important duties. ”

“ 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. ”

“ It is difficult to find any common link between the university professor, the head master of a great public school, an instructor in physical training, and a kindergarten teacher. It is not easy to bring together the head master of a preparatory school, working in complete independence, and the head master of a public elementary school, dealing with pupils of about the same age as those in the preparatory school, but controlled and directed by an elected public authority under the general supervision of the Board of Education. ”

“ Your Committee believes that in many systems of elementary schools there is injury done by too much formality in ascertaining whether the pupils of a given class have completed the work up to a given arbitrarily fixed point, and are ready to take up the next apportionment of the work. In the early days of city school systems, when the office of superintendent was first created, it was thought necessary to divide up the graded course of study into years of work, and to hold stated annual examinations to ascertain how many pupils could be promoted to the next grade or year’s work. ”

“ I put it up to you,” the speaker shouted above the noise. “Has a bunch of teachers, or even the principal or superintendent, a right to meddle with us, to say who we shall have for presidents of our classes or of the whole student body, if this thing of having a school president goes?”
“Yes! Yes!” “They have!” “They ought to!” came from different quarters.
“I’d like to know why,” the Kid blustered.
“When students of this school, your own candidate even, follows girls and women on stilts—” “Sis” Jones began.
“Girls on stilts!” ”

“ For the pupil, organization means a degree of flexibility and individual instruction extraordinary for a public school. Except in the lowest grades, the pupils are classified by subjects as well as by grades, so that practically college methods obtain. Each pupil has 102his own schedule or program, just as the college student has. The executive principal corresponds to the college registrar in supervising these individual records. The pupil is promoted by subjects and not by grades, and may be promoted or demoted at any time by the supervisor of instruction, acting with the teacher. ”

“ The Act also preserves "the authority of the school, its agents or employees, to maintain order and discipline on school premises, to protect the well-being of students and faculty, and to assure that attendance of students at meetings is voluntary." ”

“ He should know every scholar, so that he can check them off without asking the teacher the name, and should have a quick, vigilant eye, not only for his own duties, but, also, in order to communicate valuable suggestions respecting the school to the superintendent. ”

“ That the school authorities have the right and the duty to screen the officials, teachers, and employees as to their fitness to maintain the integrity of the schools as a part of ordered society, cannot be doubted. ”

“ The managers of the school shall carry out any directions of the local education authority as to the secular instruction to be given in the school, including any directions with respect to the number and educational qualifications of the teachers to be employed for such instruction, and for the dismissal of any teacher on educational grounds, and if the managers fail to carry out any such direction the local education authority shall, in addition to their other powers, have the power themselves to carry out the direction in question as if they were the managers ”

“ The educational policy of the schools, the program, and methods should be looked out for by experts who are free from the details of administration. These supervising educators should not be appointed for districts but for subjects, and should move their offices from time185 to time from one school to another, so that they may really keep in touch with all the work in their subject, and so that no one school will be overstrong in one subject. ”

“ District Grammar Schools.—The Commissioners made several recommendations for the improvement of the schools, viz:—1. Uniformity in the system applicable to all the schools. 2. Examination of teacher, so as to test his qualification for the office of teaching. 3. Assistant in each school where there are 30 pupils. 4. School-house built on a uniform plan. 5. Admission of a certain number of free pupils. 6. Quarterly reports from each school and systematic inspection of them. ”

“ To ensure compliance with the rules, a field supervisor and a program coordinator, who are full-time public school employees, make unannounced visits to each teacher's classroom at least once a month. ”

“ The appointment of a Director of Public Instruction, the actual operations of inspection, the Establishment of a Normal School under a competent and zealous Principal, are among the facts serving to assure the native mind that Government is in earnest in the matter of public education. ”

“ By sending better teachers into the public schools, you will effectually aid in the removal of this difficulty. The Normal School is, then, no substitute for the high school, academy, or college. Nor do we ask for any sympathy or aid which properly belongs to those institutions. ”

“ The High-School is part of the educational department of our city, and is under the supervision of the Board of Education. We believe it should be fully recognized that neither the name of the High-School nor any of its interests should be used for any purpose whatever without the sanction of the supervising board. ”

“ In this capacity he was also ex officio the superintendent of common schools, and rendered valuable services to his state in perfecting and expanding the free public school system, and in establishing state normal schools. ”

“ General.—Under the provisions of the law of 1899 the general administration of educational affairs is committed to a board of education consisting of a president, appointed by the crown, lord president of the council, the principal secretaries of state, the first commissioner of the treasury, and the chancellor of the exchequer—not less than five nor more than fifteen members. By means of a sufficient number of royal inspectors who are trained educators, whose duty it is to visit the schools and report thereon, the board of education is able to reach every school in the kingdom. ”

“ In order to supply the need of a more thorough preparation, a preparatory department has been maintained in many colleges. The present aim and tendency of our educational system is to introduce the pupil from the high school to the rank of Freshman in college. ”

“ If the teacher really teaches, and faithfully watches the mental growth of her pupils through the work of one or more years, she alone is the best judge of their fitness to do the work of the next grade. The examinations of a superintendent should be to ascertain whether the principals under his charge have the requisite ability and knowledge to organize, teach, and supervise a large school. The examinations of the principal should test the teaching power of his teachers. And, lastly, the teachers should test by examinations the mental growth of their pupils. ”

“ It is the duty of the principal often to visit the primary schools—select from their most promising pupils, those qualified to enter the high school—form them into classes by daily recitations in his own room, (in which employment he was engaged when we entered,) and then pass them over to the teacher of the school they are prepared to enter. ”

“ For three months preparations should be made, the superintendent and teachers should consult, a committee should consider every case, and the changes should be made deliberately and systematically. On one Sunday in the year pupils should be promoted from department to department, and classes should be advanced from grade to grade in the several departments. The basis of promotion should be age, knowledge, and general maturity of character, and the authorities of the school should decide just how much weight should be given to each requirement. ”

“ 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 school has rules to govern it, that the pupil may be guided, directed, and protected in the pursuit of knowledge. Schools can not work without order, and there can be no order without government. The members of the school desire that good order be maintained, for they know their success depends upon it; so that school, government, like all other good government, exists by the consent and for the good of the governed.
OFFICERS.--The school, like all other governments, has its officers. ”

“ The superintendent elect has been a teacher elsewhere, and he is to be a teacher here also. His work will not, in all particulars, correspond with the work that he has left; yet the principles of government and education are in substance the same. The head of a school always occupies a position of influence; the characters of the children and youth confided to him are in a great degree subject to his control. Here the teacher is neither aided nor impeded by the usual home influences. This institution is at once a home and a school ”

“ Students will be appointed to the Normal Schools by the Superintendent, upon the recommendation of superintendents and school commissioners. These officers will be relied upon to properly represent to possible candidates the needs of the public schools for well-qualified teachers, and the necessity of professional and technical training on the part of all who intend to teach. No students can be admitted who have not already acquired a substantial elementary education. ”

“ He should be wise to discern, select, and adjust proper teachers to their places, classify and arrange the scholars, and in these things he should not be overborne in his judgment. He is usually chosen by the teachers annually, and will do well to take them for his counsellors, and often consult them, collectively and individually; for while he is the superintendent, the head of the school, and as such a cheerful obedience should be tendered to him by all, yet, [41] he is not the sovereign. ”

“ The training of teachers is cared for through the departments of Education in the universities, the eight provincial normal schools, and a model school in each county. The teachers for secondary institutions are prepared at the universities, the normal schools grant a life certificate to teach in the elementary schools, while the model schools afford fourteen weeks of training for country teachers. The buildings, equipment, courses, and instruction of the high, elementary, Inspectors. and model schools are each reported upon by inspectors of assured scholarship and experience. ”

“ To secure the proper instruction in all these branches, the division of labor, adopted in colleges, is pursued. Each teacher has distinct branches as her department, for which she is responsible, and in which she is independent. One teacher performs the duties of a governess, in maintaining rules, and attending to the habits and manners of the pupils. By this method, the teachers have sufficient time, both to prepare themselves, and to impart instruction and illustration in the class-room. In this Institution it is made a direct object of effort to cure defects of character and habits. ”

“ Education.—The public school system is administered by a state superintendent of public instruction, a state board of education, regents or trustees of higher institutions of learning, a superintendent of the common schools and a board of education in each county, and a board of directors in each school district. ”

“ The board must accordingly appoint teachers and a superintendent. These latter are selected because they have training and technical qualifications which the community needs in the schools. The technical officers have in an important sense an independent place in the educational system. It will be remembered that the teacher was the first one to whom the community delegated responsibility for the schools. Not infrequently the community finds its board of representative citizens on one side of a school issue and its technical officers on the other side. ”

“ The following resolutions were adopted by the Board in connection with the organisation of the proposed school:—" (1.) One of the masters shall hold the appointment of Rector or Principal, and shall have the general oversight of all the classes within the institution, and shall be responsible for the good government, efficiency, and success of the same; but each master, as far as possible shall have the charge of a distinct department of instruction. ”

“ The school administration is vested in a single head, the superintendent of schools, who is appointed by the board of education of three members. In charge of each school-building is an executive principal, whose duties are concerned with program-making, with supervision of the pupil’s schedules, with the general maintenance of order and discipline, and ordinary administrative work. ”