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tions, that makes the work of the examiner not only irksome and extremely burdensome, but at the same time necessarily unsatisfactory both to himself and the person thus examined. Much of this would be avoided by the suggested limit.

4. The elimination of the provisional certificate after the third issue would bring into the public schools a larger number of trained and schooled teachers. Under the natural law of the survival of the fittest, weak and incompetent teachers would disappear, experienced and progressive teachers would be sought for, specially trained though inexperienced teachers would readily find a place in the school-room, all would be paid better salaries, because as a class capable of better service, and the whole system stimulated towards the higher ideal of the great leaders in common school work.

Possible Objection to the Three-Year Limit. -It may be well to anticipate here a few of the objections which will likely be urged against the adoption of a rule or the enact. ment of a law limiting the provisional certificate as suggested.

1. Would not such a course greatly deplete the ranks of available teachers in the rural districts? Let us see. The sixty-six counties, apart from the cities, employed in 1901, 9,326 teachers holding provisional certificates, and 9,841 teachers holding higher-grade certificates, normal school and college diplomas. Of the provisional class, 2,892, or nearly one-third, had no previous experience. A three-year limit for the provisional certificate could, therefore, affect only a certain proportion of 6,434 teachers who have taught at least one year. How many of these have taught more than three years we have no accurate means of knowing; but it is safe to assume that less than one-third of the number, or not over 10 per cent. of the whole number of teachers employed in Pennsylvania outside of the cities, hold provisional certificates more than three successive terms. In the cities the proportion of provisional certificates held is less than 18 per cent. of the whole number of teachers employed, and presumably held largely by those who are not yet eligible to the higher credentials. The possible loss of ten per cent. of the teachers who in three years have not been able or have not cared to rise above the provisional class would not be a serious loss in any county; a loss, moreover, that would be more than covered by the stronger and more progressive teachers who would thus be assured a place in the ranks of real students and wide-awake instructors.

2. Would it not crowd out worthy and deserving teachers who are limited in scholastic attainments, but naturally strong and forceful as teachers? This is the old argument that the good scholar is not always the best teacher. There may be, and doubt. less are, scholarly people who can't teach successfully, and there are also teachers so

naturally adapted to the work that they are fairly successful even with very limited scholastic attainments. The former class should retire or be retired because of a lack of teaching power, which in many cases no scholastic or professional training may overcome. They are failures as teachers notwithstanding their scholarship, and have no claim to recognition by the profession or in a public service which affects the dearest interests of the whole people. The natural or born teacher can be only partially successful with incomplete preparation. An unschooled successful teacher is a phantom of the imagination or the product of superficial judgment. Knowledge is king in the school-room, and the true teacher always and everywhere bows in submissive obedience to his order of Know first and then teach. The superintendent, moreover, should always shape his examinations so as to discover and duly recognize teaching talent in the candidate for a certificate. Here again the examiner is given the widest possible latitude in the exercise of his discretion, and if he fails to find, encourage, and keep the best teachers in his schools, the fault is not in the system under which he works, but in his bungling application of its generous provisions.

Related Questions Involved in the Discus sion. In the discussion of the simple and direct question submitted, I have purposely confined myself to the one issue. It is evident, however, that our whole system of licensing teachers is closely related to this discussion. If the provisional certificate is to be limited to three issues, what about the professional certificate? Does it still hold a necessary place in our system? or should it not be entirely dispensed with, and the teacher who has passed through the probationary experience be at once placed upon the list of competent teachers with a permanent certificate, after a thorough test of scholarship by a competent authority, and the approval of successful work in teaching by an official board and superintendent? Both these and many other questions are left for more extended discussion at some other time and place. I have simply answered the one question asked by the committee and have briefly given my reasons for the position taken. Here let it rest.

Prof. W. A. Beer, of Clarion county, read the following paper on substantially the same question

HOW OFTEN SHOULD THE PROVISIONAL CERTIFICATE BE GRANTED TO THE

SAME PERSON?

If I were the law-making power of the State, I would say that after June 1, A. D. 1910, no applicant for license to teach in the public schools of the State should, under any conditions, receive a one-year license more than three times.

It is not my purpose to discuss in detail the provisional certificate. It has been a powerful agent in the school cause, but it seems to have served its purpose as an evidence of its holder having sufficient knowledge to teach school. It is still a potent power in the hands of a fearless and rightminded superintendent to protect the ranks from immorality.

The one reason why the holders of provisional certificates should be a decreasing number in our teaching force, is that this document has come to be, in a large measure, an evidence of failure to advance professionally. When a teacher has taught three years under a one-year license, there should be sufficient teaching-power developed to warrant a higher grade of license, or else the teacher who has tried three years should quit the profession and engage in some other occupation.

During my service as county superintendent I was impressed with the inability of the average township auditor to make a clear statement of the business of his district. I made some inquiry into township business because I had my own share of trouble with the accounts sent in by the respective school boards, and, in summing up, I found that collectors, treasurers, road supervisors, overseers of the poor, and school directors were all short on this one phase of education. These facts led me to make other observations and reach other conclu

sions, and it is with considerable trepidation that I now observe that with all our boasted progress in school matters the general education of our people is not commensurate with our advantages-probably I should say with our possibilities.

My opinion is, that the failure to show a condition of general education within the reasonable expectations of the friends of the free school system is, in a great measure, chargeable to the teachers; but the Pennsylvania district school teacher is the result of the system, and if there be failure on the part of the teaching force, the failure should be charged to the teacher only as a factor in the process.

The grade of certificate carried by a teacher is not always evidence of the grade of work that can be done by said teacher, but it is generally true that the better the grade of the paper the better the grade of the work. A person who begins to teach school, and keeps on teaching for ten or more years, and is satisfied to work year after year under a one-year license, usually lacks the professional spirit, and his or her library contains very few books on the profession.

It is a matter of fact, that those countries to which we look for the best in school work very much outrank us in the professional power of the rank and file of the teaching force. In our county we have a State Normal school, possibly as good as any in the State. If I have not been wrong in my figures, the highest percentage of the

teachers of Clarion county which have been Normal graduates in any one term in the history of the county is 22.6 per cent. In 1899 only 34.4 per cent. of all the teachers in the county held certificates above the provisional grade; in 1900 the percentage was 34.8 per cent., and in 1901 it fell to 33 per cent. It seems discouraging that in a county where a State Normal is located so low a percentage of Normal graduates should be employed. Other counties having Normal schools within their territory show equally as low a percentage, while some counties which have no Normal school fall very low in the list. I do not have data, but it is safe to say that the percentage of Normal graduates for the State would not be greater than of the county mentioned. This does not appeal to school people as very encouraging, but when it is known that in all New England, with all her Normal schools and her great activity in Normal school work, only 30 per cent. of her teachers are Normal graduates, one is inclined to be encouraged with the situation in Pennsylvania; but again, when it is known that the number of Normal graduates employed in the schools of Japan is a fraction over 30 per cent. of the whole number, we pause. Further, 97 per cent. of the public school teachers of France are Normal graduates; all of the teachers in the public schools of Switzerland are Normal graduates, and all in Germany. Sweden shows an equally encouraging rate. I have examined the course of study pursued in Japan, and from what I have read of Japanese teachers I am inclined to believe that the course and the teaching in Pennsylvania is not very far in advance of Japan. The criticism has been made that the practice work in the Swiss schools is defective and that the age of the graduates is a very low average, but an analysis and comparison of these two phases of the work there and here do not give our State much, if any, advantage. Germany has much in her favor in this matter; and it is noted by Dr. Harris that since the battle of Valmy there has been very much of an increase in the democratic spirit in the schools of Germany. And France! Who that is interested in education has not his eye on France? Goethe observed that this people awakened Germany in that day to the necessity of universal education; and France to-day sustains a Normal school for men and a Normal school for women in every department, except that two departments do not have Normal schools for women, but combine with another department for the training of their female teachers; thus France sustains eighty-seven Normals for men and eighty-five for women. The marvelous industrial and agricultural activity of France is closely related to her school system. In France it seems that the time is rapidly approaching when "in France everybody is for France."

I merely make these references for the

purpose of calling attention to the conditions here in Pennsylvania.

We have thirteen well-equipped State Normal schools. The course of study is such that a graduate of our State Normals is generally better equipped professionally remember, I do not say scholastically-than the graduates of colleges. The time set for the closing up of the indefinite provisional certificate in the opening sentence of this paper is eight years hence. It takes legislative bodies a long time to do the right thing, and the right thing is usually brought into the statutes by some crank of an extremist. I wish I were such a character. It may be possible that I could earn that distinction by saying that the whole school system of Pennsylvania should be remodeled. It is a very grave question if our boasted local control is not a hindrance to educational progress.

During the school year ending June 3, 1901, the State of Pennsylvania spent $22,813.395.14 for school purposes; of this amount $5,000,000 were contributed out of the State treasury. Twenty-two millions of dollars is a splendid sum; it is more than half the entire amount France pays to teach five times as many pupils as we have in Pennsylvania.

But the Normal school, in the countries to which I refer, is a part of the school system just as the kindergarten is, and the university and the special schools. I think that the ideal school system for Pennsylvania should begin with the kindergarten and end with the university, and that the high school, and the Normal school, and the trade school should be a part of a theoretically perfect articulated system in which the relation between the kindergarten and the elementary school, and between the elementary school and the high school, and between the high school and the university, as well as between the high school and the Normal school, should be well defined and well-sustained. This would not mean a monopoly of education, but would leave a large place to be filled by colleges and other special schools.

The Normal School in such a system would be a teachers' school, and Pennsylvania could add to the plan a Superior Normal school in which to teach teachers to teach in the Primary Normal school. France maintains two such Superior Normal schools. The Normal school should not be an academic or a preparatory school, as our State Normal schools are now compelled to be. The high school is a pressing need. The consolidation of the rural school and the transportation of pupils to central graded schools is the most rational solution yet offered for that phase of our work; and if the legislature will be wise enough to amend the centralization law so that boroughs of six or a less number of schools may consolidate with surrounding or adjoining townships, a long step will be taken toward a desired end.

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I would make teaching in Pennsylvania a profession. As soon as an applicant has entered upon the teaching of his first school he should be a part of the machinery of government to do the business of the State. This teacher should be held to be a probationer in the ranks for three years-three years whether the license be a provisional certificate or a Normal certificate. I would not object to a junior class grade certificate being recognized as a license to teach when properly endorsed by the county superintendent. I would designate the provisional certificates as "first provisional," "second provisional," and "third provisional," and if the holder of a junior class certificate had previously taught two years, I would see no harm in making said certificate a "third provisional;" but the essential point in view is, that after the probationer has entered upon the teacher's work he shall be an employee of the State, through the district if need be, and that the State shall send him to the Normal school free of all expense for a period of three months imme. diately following the close of his term of school. Having the "second provisional' follow the first term of teaching and the "third provisional" to follow the second term of teaching, I would think the term for attendance at the Normal should be increased for "second provisionals" to fourteen weeks, and for third provisionals to sixteen weeks. If a probationer, after three years of trial, shall fail to develop teaching power sufficient to justify his retention in the profession, or if he should prove immoral, he should be dropped from the roll. After three years as probationer the teacher should be placed in the Normal school and graduated free of expense; and the State should reserve the right to annul the Normal certificate if the holder should become intemperate or immoral or criminal. As the law is in Pennsylvania to day, a condemned criminal may hold on to his Normal diploma-a life license to teach the children of this State. The license from the Normal school should be good during life or good behavior, and no harm would come to the profession if these conditions were the law of the State.

I am aware that these suggestions will meet with objection. I am not so anxious that they be accepted as I am that they shall be discussed and that the State may take her rightful place educationally among the educational commonwealths of the world. If I were a young man and had a chance to take a salary of $20 a month and

twelve weeks in the Normal school free, or to take $30 a month and take my chances in the world, I would prefer the $20 a month. The State could do all that I have suggested and more, and be money ahead, to say nothing of the increased power through her schools, for the end in view would be that every teacher in the State, except as hereafter stated, would be either the holder of a State Normal diploma or a State student pursuing professional studies that place him in the ranks with the possibility of getting such a license. College diplomas should be life licenses only when the professional work of the Normal school has been added to the college course.

The trouble in Pennsylvania with our Normal schools is that some of them at least are not State schools, but private business enterprises, owned and manipulated by a few stockholders for their individual profit and advantage, political and otherwise. Another trouble is, that when a new building is necessary a special bill must go before the Legislature and be enacted into a law, with all the infamy attaching to it that can be found in the secret places annexed to the Pennsylvania Legislature. It is common knowledge that the stock of some of the Normal schools of Pennsylvania is held by two or three persons who make and unmake trustees, appoint and dismiss principals and teachers, traffic in appropriations, and do such other things as unscrupulous men find it necessary to do.

The ideal State Normal School should be absolutely a State institution, and no stockholder should in any manner control the appointment of the officials to be the trustees of said schools. I believe the most rational plan would be to have the State Superintendent name twice as many school directors from the respective Normal school districts as the law allows for the government of the school of that district, and every elector should vote for one-third of the number necessary. This election should determine the trusteeship for a period of four years. The details would have to be set forth in the statute.

I am thinking of the Normal school as the one great factor in the licensing of teachers, and to that end I would have those schools divested of every possibility of being anything but a State institution. I am aware that what I suggest is radical, but certain diseases require heroic treatment, and we have come to that place where Pennsylvania public schools need radical

treatment.

Finally, the State pays five and a half millions yearly for the public schools. The local authorities pay more than three times that much yearly. Yet there are districts in Pennsylvania that do not levy a single mill -not the fraction of a mill-for school purposes, but they maintain their schools on the appropriation and the $1 per capita. Very many districts in the State levy less

than three mills school tax. Do you think these people fully appreciate the value of the public school? Or do they think they pay full price for what they get? If it be necessary to divert a portion of the State appropriation to aid the teachers' schools, it will be found economy in the end to make such a diversion.

An educated people is a powerful people. A people cannot be educated without professionally trained teachers. Pennsylvania must make a radical departure or she cannot have a majority of her teachers professionally trained. Pennsylvania cannot hope to be a powerful State morally and culturally unless she make some radical changes in her school system. The provisional certificate may be a necessity as above conditioned, but with schools for teachers rightly controlled this certificate would have no place in our school economy.

Supt. Hopper, of Luzerne, asked to be excused from his appointment to discuss the "provisional" question, which was agreed to.

THANKS TO PITTSBURG.

Dr. Noss moved a special vote of thanks to the educational people of Pittsburg for the splendid provision for our entertainthe history of the Association. The ment, which has been unprecedented in Superintendent, the Central Board, the press, the local committee, all have done everything in their power. The other two Superintendents have also done a great deal, especially in securing the record-breaking enrollment.

Dr. McCaskey, in seconding the motion, said he had attended all three meetings in Pittsburg-the first in 1855, then in 1873, and the present. Of those who attended the important meeting held here in 1855 there seems to be almost no one left. One can scarcely realize the transformation that has taken place here in this interval of forty-seven years. He had attended the meetings almost continuously from the beginning, and the enrollment, the royal welcome and entertainment this year surpass all previous experience of the Association.

The motion was adopted unanimously, and the President, on behalf of the Association, expressed our appreciation and extended our thanks to those mentioned in the resolution.

AUDITORS' REPORT.

The Auditing Committee made the following report of the receipts and expenses of last year, finding the Treas

urer's accounts correct:

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J. K. Gotwals, expenses Dept. of Supt.,
The Village Record, stationery
Annie F. Hollingshead, postage and
labor

New Era Printing Co., Constitutions.
Wickersham Printing Co., By-Laws
Jacob B. Esser, 2000 tickets.

Wm. M. Kaufman, 5 days clerking
W. C. Jacobs, expenses

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W. W. Champion, printing, etc..
Susan C. Lodge, printing and postage,
R. B. Teitrick, expenses Ex. Com..
Addison L. Jones, expenses Ex. Com.,
John S. Stahr, expenses Ex. Com.
J. P. McCaskey, Secretary's salary
R. T. Adams, expenses Ex. Com.
J. D. Pyott, salary and expenses, in-
cluding assistants for Conferences.
Printing and mailing programs, etc.
J. Geo. Becht, printing and postage,
Jno. A. M. Passmore, printing, clerk
and janitor

David S. Keck, shortage on 30 tickets,
David S. Keck, expenses

J. P. McCaskey, expressage

J. Monroe Willard, Janitor's services, James E. Watson, expenses.

C. S. Bradford, operating lantern David S. Keck, Treasurer's salary Wickersham Printing Co., 2500 reports, Henry H. Goddard, expenses.

Balance on hand. .

NECROLOGY.

$337 26

100 00 1,997 00

$2,434 26

$24 60 39 00

19 50

12 00

3 00

6 00

5 00

392

2 00

2 09

12 00

11 76 14 98 25 00 5 70

83 51 110 96 359

34 00

15 00

31 30

I 10

25 00 65 00

12 00 25 00 550 00 3 60 $1146 61 1287 65

Miss Elizabeth Lloyd reported from the Committee on Necrology. She had written to all the Superintendents, but received few replies, and there may be deceased members who should be mentioned in this report of whom the committee has no knowledge. They report eight deaths among our membership during the past year, as follows:

SAMUEL B. HUEY was one of the best known citizens of Philadelphia, moving in the highest social circles. He was an able lawyer and a prominent member of the Union League. He was President of the Board of Education from January 1st, 1878, until his death, and was an earnest and efficient school officer.

WATSON CORNELL was Supervising Principal of the James Logan School, in Philadelphia, and ranked among the foremost of his colleagues. He was devoted to his work, and his fatal illness is said to be directly attributable to his keen sense of duty. He was born near Richboro, Bucks county, in 1846. He graduated from Millersville Normal School in 1868; taught first in Clearfield county, coming to Philadelphia in 1870 to take the principalship

of the Point Breeze school; in 1879 he organized the grammar school at 12th and Federal; in 1881 he was transferred to 16th and Wharton; in 1885 became Supervising Principal there, and in 1889 took the same position in the Logan School. He gave much attention to music, was for 18 years precentor at North Tenth Street Presbyterian church, and for the last twelve years of his life had charge of the music of the Fourth U. P. church. In 1897, after four years of study, Dr. Cornell received from the University of Pennsylvania the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. He had been an active member of the National Educational Association for 14 years, and in former years was a frequent attendant at the meetings of the Pennsylvania State Teachers' Association. He was a member of the Educational Club and Teachers' Institute, and a Director of the Teachers' Beneficial Association of Philadel phia. The sympathy and affection of his friends was evidenced by the beautiful flowers daily sent to his room at the hospital by teachers and children during his last illness. The most beautiful and admirable side of his nature was shown in his family and social relations; he was loved by all who knew him. We extend our hearty sympathy to his widow, who was his beloved and sympathetic co-laborer.

MARGARET A. ROGERS, MARY E. MAREMBECK and E. LOUISE GRANT, were all teachers in the public schools of Philadelphia.

ISAAC SLATER GEIST was born in Lancaster county in 1832. He was a graduate of the Millersville State Normal School, and later was for four years Professor of Natural Sciences at that institution. For twenty-five years he was Principal of the Marietta High School. Soon after he resigned this position in 1888, he was elected school director, and from that time until his death he missed but one meeting of the School Board. He was identified with many of the business enterprises of his community. He was a Director of the Marietta Manufacturing Company, President of the Marietta and Lancaster Turnpike Company for many years, and a Director and President of the Home Building and Loan Asseciation. He was also a stockholder in various industries. In 1886 he purchased the Marietta Times, which he edited and published until March, 1901. He was one of the most regular attendants of this Association, seldom being absent from its meetings. By his death the public schools have lost a staunch friend, who was ever ready even to the extent of neglecting his own interests, to do any and every thing to further the cause of education.

SAMUEL J. CRAIGHEAD was educated at Elder's Ridge Academy, in Indiana county, and was graduated at Washington and Jefferson College. He was elected Superintendent of the schools of Indiana county in 1878, and served for six years. In 1877 he became a member of the legislature of Pennsylvania.

ALFRED BRAshear MilleR, for forty years President of Waynesburg College, was connected with this instituiion from its founding to his death, a period of more than fifty years. From 1851 to his graduation in 1853, he was student and tutor, from 1853 to 1859, Professor of Mathematics; from 1859 to 1899, President;

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