Gifford, W. J.

English

James Madison University

72 THE VIRGINIA TEACHER [Vol. IS, NO. 4 The loyalty of the American people today is not to Mr. Roosevelt as a man—and he would not have it so— but rather to the idea of the admin- istration of our national social, eco- nomic, and political life for the good of the many rather than of the few. In college living the emphasis is clearly not upon a loyalty to any in- dividual or any class of individuals, but to the entire college group. 3. Emphasis upon the ability to follow rather than to lead. Too much emphasis is laid per- haps upon leadership and training for leadership. Good leaders are found only among those who have learned to follow faithfully and in- telligently. Student government in stressing the distribution of respon- sibility to every individual, in stress- ing individual contribution to the general good, in recognizing follow- ship as more important than leader- ship is indeed placing emphasis in such a manner as to develop a highly co-operative society. In the effective working of student gov- ernment, there must be two attitudes of mind always among those who live by it: enthusiasm, which is necessary in all group activities, and persistence, which lasts after the early warmth of enthusiasm has passed away. The speaker has the assurance that these two virtues will be well balanced in your program. It is hoped that this search for values may again call your attention to the oppor- tunity which is yours, to live comfortably in your college life, to develop your per- sonality in serving your group, to live nobly according to the Golden Rule, to prepare yourself for a larger citizenship, and to build something of the best of yourself into the fabric and tradition of your college for other generations of students yet to come. L. Wilson Jarman TEACHER EDUCATION AND THE NEW VIRGINIA CURRICULUM Careful selection of candidates for teaching, a minimum four-year course leading to certification, a yeaEs interne- ship, and individualised in-service edu- cation will insure to Virginia adequate- ly prepared teachers of the New Cur- riculum. ON the time line of history, the fifty years since the opening of the school now known as the Farmville State Teachers College represent but the merest fraction. In service rendered, this institution and its three sister colleges pre- sent a record in teacher education of in- estimable value. That nearly one-half of the white teachers now teaching in the Vir- ginia schools are former students and grad- uates of the four teachers colleges shows that the foundations were laid solidly by those who built the institution which now celebrates its semi-centennial. Quantity of product, however, is not as significant a measure of an institution's merit as are its flexibility and growth in the face of changing conditions. The scope of this paper forbids the developing of the history of the teachers' colleges, but one may be pardoned perhaps for pointing out that even in the last half of this fifty-year period the four schools have grown from institutions having a large number of pupils of high school grade and educating their students chiefly in two-year or less than two-year curricula, until today their stu- dent bodies number as many taking four- year curricula as two-year curricula. Our Virginia teachers' colleges have justified their recent elevation to the college level and have individually from time to time in- This paper was contributed to a symposium on teacher education, which was one feature of the fiftieth anniversary celebration of the State Teachers College at Farmville on March 10, 1934. April, 1934] THE VIRGINIA TEACHER 73 augurated curricular reforms that predict an even finer future of service to the state and nation. It is peculiarly significant, therefore, that, shortly after the present economic and so- cial crisis in America broke, the State Board of Education in Virginia under Dr. Hall's leadership entered upon a thorough curric- ulum revision program. We are now in the third year of that program in which materials are being tried out by a group of teachers scattered throughout the state. There is abundant evidence that this cur- riculum program is one of the most for- ward-looking in the United States and that many eyes are being focused upon Virginia. Those who believe that in all educational work the teacher is the central factor in pupil growth have recognized from the out- set that this new program means definite changes in the teacher education program in Virginia, not in the creation of new in- stitutions, but in such matters as the fol- lowing : 1. The selection of candidates for teach- ing 2. The organization of curricula for the education of teachers 3. The certification of teachers 4. The in-service education of teachers Fortunately for us in Virginia, some very important materials will be available soon. The National Survey of the Education of Teachers, sponsored by the United States Office of Education with Federal aid, will be published soon, and some of its major conclusions and recommendations are al- ready available. The National Society of College Teachers of Education has planned a yearbook to be published by December, 1934, which will take up the recommenda- tions of the National Survey and try to prevent their becoming a dead letter in the office at Washington. In the preparation of this yearbook, there will be enlisted un- der the direction of Dr. Thomas Alexander some of the best leaders in teacher educa- tion in various types of institutions. A central purpose of this yearbook will be to develop a body of principles, flexible enough to allow for wide variation in practice, but so well grounded in our modern demo- cratic philosophy of education that they will be immediately helpful in state and local programs of teacher education. The present paper is a discussion of an article1 by Dr. Hall, Superintendent of Pub- lic Instruction in Virginia, in which he analyzes the needs of reorganization of teacher education in Virginia. It has been prepared in no spirit of rebuttal of his theses but rather as an elaboration of them in view of the recommendation of the Nat- ional Survey of the Education of Teachers. 1. The Selection of Candidates for Teach- ing Studies made in the last three or four years have given evidence that, from a shortage of teachers in 1920, we went to a surplus by 1930. The surplus differs greatly in different states, being relatively low in Virginia where not more than one out of five of those completing their work in the teachers' colleges in the past two years have been without employment. The National Survey of the Education of Teachers will probably propose that these questions of supply and demand must be settled by the individual states, although in some respects they are regional problems. For instance, Maryland, North Carolina, West Virginia, and Virginia are constantly using a great many teachers educated by each other. However, the major problem in our in- stitutions for the education of teachers is rather this: that graduates of accredited high schools who offer themselves for ad- mission are received without selective tests. Under the present system of budget making in Virginia, whereby enrolment is basically ^ee Virginia Journal of Education, February 1934, pp. 221-224. 74 THE VIRGINIA TEACHER [Vol. IS. NO. 4 the determining factor in the allotment of State funds to higher institutions, a pre- mium is necessarily placed upon keeping up a large student population. One of the first steps therefore in making selective ad- mission possible will be a more adequate basis of financing the work of teacher edu- cation. In his article, Dr. Hall has outlined var- ious means by which selection may be had and has recommended that several factors, such as scholastic standing in high school, ability to pass certain tests, traits of per- sonality, and so forth, should all be taken into account. In addition to this, however, it may be necessary to consider the advisa- bility of a rather coarser sieve to be applied at entrance upon teacher education, with a finer sieve to be applied through compre- hensive examinations at the end of the sophomore year, since some students make a great deal of growth in the first two years in college, while others show during that time that they have less promise than would normally have been expected. In either case, the State Board of Education, to- gether with heads of all institutions which are educating teachers—for we now know that approximately fifty per cent of the teachers of America are educated in liberal arts colleges—will need to take into con- sideration the problem of whether a certain quota shall be assigned institution by insti- tition for a given period of years. Prob- ably such action may not prove desirable or necessary, especially if our teachers' col- leges are allowed in time to develop other types of courses in addition to those which educate teachers. This certainly is one of the moot questions involved in controlling supply and demand in the teaching profes- sion. 2. The Organization of Curricula for the Education of Teachers In a paper2 presented before the Virginia Education Association in 1932, the author 2See Virginia Teacher, March, 1933, pp. 45-48. took the position that the best means of keeping down an undesirable oversupply of teachers would be to require not less than four years of education for all new appli- cants for certification to teach in Virginia schools by the year 1938 or 1940. This conclusion was based upon a study of teacher supply and demand in a number of other states as well as Virginia. In the meantime, a few forward-looking states have taken this step. In Virginia the num- ber of students taking the four-year cur- ricula is greatly on the increase, so that the possibility of this step in Virginia seems greater than it did a year or so ago. As one studies the new curriculum, the most evi- dent conclusion of all is that no student can be given the breadth of subject-matter back- ground and the adequate education in pro- fessional materials in less time. In passing, the hope may be expressed that the time is not far distant when qualitative standards may supplant the more purely quantitative ones now in use. Looking forward to this step as assured either by slow evolution or by a definite reg- ulation of the State Board of Education, we have begun in our teachers' colleges in Virginia to consolidate the numerous short courses and develop a more unified treat- ment of problems, particularly in the pro- fessional field. For example, we think at Harrisonburg that in the four-year curric- ula the professional materials shall consist of a year in applied psychology at the sophomore level, a year in either secondary or elementary education at the junior level, to be followed by student teaching with per- haps a term or semester's work in the phil- osophy of education at the senior level. This is in sharp contrast to the two Bach- man reports3 on the education and certifi- cation of secondary and elementary teachers in which the continuation of many short un- related courses has been encouraged. 3F. P. Bachman, "Training and Certification of High School Teachers" and "Education and Certification of Elementary Teachers" pub- lished by George Peabody College for Teachers. April, 1934] THE VIRGINIA TEACHER 75 However, as pointed out by some of our own students at Harrisonburg, we have yet to make a determined effort at the integra- tion of academic subjects in college to pre- pare students for the teaching of the inte- grated materials in the elementary and secondary schools. Probably we shall have to give up what Dr. Evenden has called "majoritis"—a practice we adopted from the liberal arts colleges, permitting students to pile up a large number of courses in a given department, or perhaps in two de- partments. Now we discover that the high school teacher of English language and lit- erature, of social studies, and of physical and biological science, must be relatively well-informed in the other two fields, if she is to co-operate intelligently in realizing the objectives of the new curriculum. For such a conception of teacher education, there has been very little trail-blazing. Such a step can not come by regulation, but rather through conferences and co-operative think- ing and planning.- These conferences will need to be local, regional, and state-wide, and will in part necessarily be sponsored by the Curriculum Revision Commission of the State Board of Education. It will with- out doubt aid in the more rigorous selec- tion of prospective teachers in our higher institutions, teachers who have caught the vision of the integrated curriculum. 3. Certification of Teachers The above discussion has already indi- cated the author's conviction that the re- duction of certificates should go on until there remains but one certificate of pro- ficiency to teach, similar to the one badge of entrance into the professions of law, medicine, and the ministry. This certifi- cate could be the present Collegiate Profes- sional Certificate. It may be that in addi- tion to selective standards for entrance there will need to be some selection at grad- uation time, so that certification will follow only upon completing a curriculum with a certain qualitative standard. A step in this direction is indicated in the 1934 "Regula- tions Governing the Certification of Teach- ers in Virginia" in which a new standard is proposed, namely, that a teacher present a record of "fair (C) in academic and pro- fessional courses pursued in preparation for teaching." Some step will also need to be taken to guarantee that where there is a surplus of teachers, the graduates most ade- quately prepared should secure appointment, not those with the most political affiliations. This looks somewhat difficult, but there is some precedent to be found in recent regu- lations of other states. Just as the State of Virginia was about to follow the procedure of her neighbors and stiffen the requirements in different fields of work, such as English and history, it now appears that in order to teach the integrated program students should be en- couraged to take a wider range of subjects. If well prepared and capable, they should therefore be certificated to teach in a fairly wide range of grades and fields. No doubt the step taken in the 1934 "Regulations Governing the Certification of Teachers in Virginia" whereby those trained for high school teaching may not teach below the sixth and seventh grades may be desirable. However, such a regulation should be put to rigorous tests and observation, records being kept over a period of years to see whether or not such a plan is best. It would appear that the renewal of cer- tificate should be based upon a wide range of activities which indicate the professional growth of the teacher, such that any piece of constructive work that a teacher has done under adequately equipped supervisors may be counted for renewal. On the other hand, there should be a provision made for the elimination of teach- ers who are not keeping up professionally. "Once in, always in" should not characterize the teaching force in the future as much as it has in the past. This discussion would not be complete if it did not call attention again to a principle 76 THE VIRGINIA TEACHER [Vol. IS, NO. 4 enunciated in the Virginia Education Sur vey of 1918, namely, that teacher certifica- tion should depend upon a year of interne- ship or cadetship in the field after gradua- tion4. This principle would make teaching comparable with medicine; it is now gener- ally accepted and widely recommended. It cannot be inaugurated in Virginia until a well-trained, adequate, state-wide supervis- ory force is employed. Such internes should receive for the first year only a partial sal- ary, and should at the end of the year re- ceive full certification provided they prove worthy. 4, The In-Service Education of Teachers At the present time the in-service educa- tion of teachers varies greatly according to the proximity of institutions for the educa- tion of teachers, according to the attitude of the division superintendent of schools, and according to the vigor with which institu- tions promote in certain areas their exten- sion and correspondence courses. In the future, as rapidly as possible, in-service ed- ucation should be built around the individ- ual needs of teachers and the current state- wide educational program. Moreover, for the next few years it should probably center in initiating, carrying on, and developing the new elementary and secondary curricula. One ventures to say at the present time that the great majority of courses taken by teachers in service have relatively little beat- ing upon the one central problem mention- ed above. Moreover, the institutions for the education of teachers will need in the future definite financial support to permit them to follow up their graduates in the field. A beginning has been made in Vir- ginia in home economics, and apparently it has been a very successful and forward step. 4E. E. Windes, "The Need for a Period of In- terneship following Graduation from a Teacher Training Institution." The Virginia Teacher, March 1933, pp. 49-51. Summary I have tried to point out in this brief statement first of all that Virginia teachers colleges in their rapid growth have shown a degree of flexibility that bodes well for the present situation. In discussing Dr. Hall's paper on "Teacher Training in Vir- ginia in Relation to the New Curriculum, 1 have emphasized the necessity of ade- quate selection of teachers, of a revision of certification looking to a single certificate the Collegiate Professional, based upon four years of education plus a year or two of interneship—and, lastly, of a more adequate and individualized in-service education. With a teaching force of assured mental competence, of improved quality of educa- tion, and of unbroken professional growth, the new elementary and secondary Virginia curricula promise continuous improvement. W. J. Gifford I have come reluctantly to the conclusion that the Federal government must take an active part in public education. No one can watch the progress of education in this country without being convinced that the Federal government must equalize oppor- tunity among the States. 1 have never heard any argument advanced which can justify condemning one child to illiteracy because he was born in one part of the country, whereas another born in another part may at public expense proceed from the nursery school to the highest scholarly degrees. I believe there must be a Secretary of Education in the Cabinet. I see no other way in which the government can be made aware of education. — Robert Maynard H ut chins. A just perception of one's surroundings and of one's own career form the first step towards a literature that shall be great m scope.—Ford Madox Ford, in It IVas the Nightingale. 

Teacher Education and the New Virginia Curriculum

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Teacher Education and the New Virginia Curriculum

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