The new Resident Editor of the Teacher has but little to say to its readers by way of introduction. In place of making promises, he prefers to be judged hereafter by his work. He does not propose to signalize his accession to office by any startling changes or violent revolution in editorial management: he has no brandnew theories or patent royal roads to bring to his readers' notice. He proposes, with the help of his colleagues, to conduct the magazine on substantially the same plan that has brought it to its present prosperous condition, with only those changes of arrangement as regards the responsibilities of editing which were mentioned in the last number, and which, it is hoped, without depriving the Teacher of any good feature it already possesses, will tend to bring more system and unity into its management. Such changes as shall be made in its character will all be made in one direction, and will have for their sole object the promotion of its practical efficiency. On many educational topics the editor has his own. very decided opinions, which, on all proper occasions, he will hold himself ready to express; but, mindful that the Teacher is not his organ, but that of the Association, he does not propose to make it the vehicle for the dissemination of any peculiar set of views, but always to couduct it with a single eye to the interests of the great body of teachers, by providing as great a variety as possible of good reading, and by keeping its pages open to the full and free discussion of all interesting educational topics. But he must, at the same time, remind his readers that he cannot, in any true sense, make the Teacher their organ without their own hearty co-operation. The best service it can perform is to be a medium of communication between all the many workers in the same great field. It cannot perform that function so long as teachers and other friends of education either have nothing to communicate, or are unwilling to take the trouble required. Writing on such a subject as education, to be of any value, must be the result of practical experience, must be based on careful observation of realities. We do not want mere closet theorizing, nor do we need mere vague gencralities as to the utility of education, or any other point about which all are sufficiently agreed. What we do want, and what we must have, if the art of education is ever to make progress, is the careful record of observation and experiment, and the disseminating of their results. A thousand questions of detail stand waiting for such observations. In the editor's view, a thousand errors of theory or practice remain to be corrected by such experiments; and the making and recording of them, the comparing of opinions, and the judging of results, is a work in which every teacher can engage, and a service which he or she owes to fellow-laborers in the same work. The editor hopes, therefore, that neither indolence nor any false modesty will prevent his fellow-teachers from communicating to him everything they may consider valuable or useful. If they have made a successful experiment in teaching, let them give the result; if they have made a failure, let us have that likewise, for failure is often more instructive than success. If they see an error that needs correction, or an abuse that calls for reformation, let them make the case heard through the pages of the Teacher. If they have devised a good method of teaching, or constructed a good lesson not in the books, let them communicate it for the benefit of others. Above all, let us have the result of observations on the minds of children, for nothing is more instructive. The art of teaching depends, more than upon anything else, upon the teacher's power of understanding the mental condition of his pupils; and in the present defective state of psychology, nothing is more needed than a body of observed facts on which to base a true theory of mental development. For want of this the most unsuitable studies are often given to children, and faculties are addressed, in some of our ordinary methods of teaching, almost before they have come into existence in the child's mind. The true order of studies-the relative educational value of different studies, the proportion in which they should enter into the school course, the right course of study for each kind of school, and the relations of different grades of schools to each other, the many questions relating to methods of discipline, to the length of school hours, to physical exercise, to methods of teaching; a crowd of such subjects will occur to every mind, on which information needs to be gathered and opinions need to be harmonized; while in the details of every separate study there is always help to be given by the best informed and ablest instructors. But it is not only from professional teachers that the editor hopes to receive assistance. Every parent is or should be, ex officio, a teacher, and the subject is one that commends itself to all. The editor will be glad to hope that he may receive assistance such as will make the magazine valuable and useful to parents and to the general reader as well as to the professional teacher. It is with unfeigned diffidence that he undertakes the task. It is one that might well employ all the time and talents of a far abler conductor, while he can only give such labor as his other avocations will allow. Whatever a deep interest in the cause, not a little experience in teaching, and a good deal of study of the subject, can contribute, he will cheerfully give; but he would not have undertaken the task unless he had relied on the coöperation, not only of the friends who have pledged themselves to aid him, but of all his friends and readers. CAMBRIDGE, Dec. 15, 1865. |