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The University Journal
V ' . U .
fOL. I .
WASHINGTON, D. C., JANUARY 15-2, 1904.
No. 5.
1
The Teaching oi Pedagogy.
U
y
L
ew is
B. M
oo re
. P
h
. D.,
Dean o f Teachers' College.
The impetus to the study of Pedagogy, or the Science
and Art of Education, was given us by Germany, where
teaching has been a distinct profession since the close of
j,
the Napoleonic wars. In 1707 Professor Francke, of
Halle, established a Teachers’ Seminary as an outgrowth
of several years’ trial in the training of teachers. Under
Francke’s influence more than a thousand public schools
were organized by Frederick William I. and placed under
teachers especially trained for their work.
Frederick
the Great followed the policy of securing trained teachers
for elementary schools, and ordered that only persons
who had been professionally trained in a teachers’ sem
inary should be eligible for appointment as teachers in el
ementary schools supported by the Crown.
Frederick the Great died in 17S6, leaving unfinished
many plans for the improvement of the teaching profes
sion ; but his spirit passed on to his successors, and ev
ery decade lias seen some improvement in the German
educational system, some new requirement for those who
would enter upon the teaching profession.
With these
requirements have come fitting rewards, increased emol
uinents and influence, till now we find in Germany the
best equipped and most exclusive body of teachers in
the world, each of whom is a highly honored member of
the civil service.
The example of establishing pedagogical chairs and
teachers’ seminaries in German universities which has
given to Germanv such an incomparable teaching body,
has been followed by other countries. Since 1876 the
••Bell chairs of the Theory, History and Art of Educa
lion’’ have exisited in the Universities of St. Andrews
and Edinburgh.
More recently our own country has yielded to the
growing demand for professionally trained teachers, and
have established chairs and departments of pedagogy
and practice schools in connection with colleges and uni
versities.
In 1873 Iowa University organized the first perma
nent chair of pedagogy in connection with the chair ofgen
m l philosophy.
In 1879 the University of Michigan organized a de
partment of the “ Science and Art of teaching.’’
In 1896 the U. S. Commissioner of Education report
ed 192 colleges and universities having pedagogical
courses in ’94-’9S. Of these twenty-seven were main
taining organized departments of pedagogy or teachers’
colleges.
In report of 1901 the total number of universities
with teachers’ tabling courses is 371. These schools,
colleges and universities are confirming the belief of
modern educational thought and practice, that education
al methods are based upon profound philosophy, the care
ful study of which is essential to one who chooses to fol
low the art ot teaching. It is now generally admitted that
a college graduate, though far superior in his attainments
to a high school or normal shod graduate, is as unfitted
for teaching as for practice of law or medicine without pro.
fessional training.
The progressive colleges are recognizing this, and pro
vide pedagogical training for undergraduates. The Teach
ers' College of Columbia University, the College of Edu
cation at Chicago University, the School of Pedagogy of
New York University, School of Education of University
of Wisconsin, and the pedagogical departments of Har
vard, University of Pennsylvania, Cornell, Syracuse,
Clark, and many of the Western Universities are recogni
tion of the fact early embodied in the German education
al system, that teaching, like all other professions, re
quires special training.
Along with the duties of research and teaching, it
is a function of a university to provide society with
teachers.
Until recently the university has left this
work to the normal schools whose curricula were already
too much crowded with academic work which ordinarily
lowers the standard as well as the usefulness of such a
school. It will always be necessary doubtles to offer ac
ademic work in professional schools, but even in this ne
cessity the professional spirit and method should be
maintained. The difference between professional study
and academic study has been well expressed by the
Committee of Fifteen: “ Professional study differs wide
ly from academic study. In the one science is studied
in its relation to the studying mind; in the other in refer
ence to its principles and applications. The aim of one
kind of study is power to apply; of the other, power to
present. The tendency of one is to bring the learner
into sympathy with the natural world, of the other with
the child world.
*
*
*
He
who learns that he may know and he who learns that he
may teach are studying in quite different mental atti
tudes. One works for a knowledge of subject matter ;
the other that his knowledge may have due organization,
that he may bring to consciousness the apperceiving
ideas by means of which matter and method may be
suitably conjoined.’ ’ -
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