made concrete and practical and the planning of lessons has been well taught. The reviews and special methods in the common subjects should be of great assistance to the student and in the larger town it is perfectly feasible to so arrange the teaching practice in the different subjects that the student's teaching and his work in methods and review shall cover the same subjects at the same time. The special methods and review in reading in the above course, for instance, are given during the first nine weeks of school, and during this period, if the number of practice teachers is not larger than it should be, the practice work in reading should be arranged. Other reviews and practice work should be correlated in the same way. Assignments for teaching practice should be definite and this is difficult unless the work of the regular teacher is well planned, for the practice teacher should know almost from the beginning of her two weeks observation period just about what part of the subject she must teach in the two weeks during which she will have charge of the class. Rather complete lesson plans should be required and these should be presented to the regular classroom teacher at least one day before the lesson is to be taught. Then if the plan is not approved, the practice teacher has an opportunity to correct it. Quite a bit of influence upon the grade of the practice teacher should rest with the regular classroom teacher in whose room her work is done.

In my opinion three perecautions should always be observed in organizing practice teaching: the beginning of the work should always be preceded by a careful understanding with the regular teachers of the school system, the number of practice teachers should never be out of proportion to the number of classrooms in the city, and no student should be permitted to practice if his scholarship or personality is poor enough to decidedly unfit him for this work. My own opinion is that the number of practice teachers should not exceed half the number of classrooms in which their practice must be conducted. Where more students desire the course, a selection should be made, based upon scholarship, personality and earnestness of intention. In the larger high school, where enough students

interested in teaching are excluded in this way from the practice work to justify forming a class, the text books on methods given by the State Course of Study for the elementary teachers' training course can be taught to this group, enabling them to enter the examinations for certificates without the practice work. The selection of the students for practice constitutes a delicate problem, but providing practice for too many students or for those unfitted for the work, is an injustice to the pupils and teachers of the elementary schools, and in some cases has aroused discontent which has forced the teacher training work from the high school course. Quality and not quantity should be the purpose in graduating teachers from these courses.

Teachers' Institutes-Their Status In the United States with Special Reference to Oregon

By E. H. Hedrick, Principal High School, Monmouth.

"Teachers' Institute" is a term that has been used in a very broad sense in this country. It is applied to all sorts of teachers' meetings, associations and training schools, whatever the purpose, form of organization or the time for which they are held. Hence at the outset, it would seem wise to define or limit the term as it is to be used in this paper.

Prof. W. C. Ruediger, in the preparation of his excellent monograph on "Agencies for the Improvement of Teachers in Service," has very conveniently defined his terms as follows:

(1) Teachers' Institute: a gathering of teachers, generally held from 2 to 10 days annually, in the county as a unit, for instructional, inspirational and other purposes. Attendance on the part of the teachers is generally compulsory.

(2) Summer Training or Normal School is generally held annually from 3 to 8 weeks, often in the county as a unit, for the purpose of further training of teachers in subject matter and methods of teaching. There is much class room instruction and little of the lecture or inspirational work. Attendance, on the part of untrained teachers, is generally compulsory.

(3) Teachers' Associations may be held in any political division as a unit, or may be composed of teachers of like grade in one or more units. The organization is under the control of the teachers themselves; the attendance is voluntary. The objects are largely cultural and professional.

(4) Teachers' Meetings, like associations, may be held in any division as a unit. It is distinguished from the latter in that it is a short session (from one to two days) and does not necessarily have a pre-formed organization. Its purposes are organizational and inspirational.

Throughout this paper these terms will be used to indicate the forms of gatherings above described.

HISTORICAL.

The teachers' institute (if we may here use the term in its unrestricted sense) is of American origin. The first that we have any record of was held by Henry Barnard at Hartford in 1839. In October of that year, he assembled 26 young men teachers and formed them into a class. They were taught for six weeks by the class, lecture and observation methods. Dr. Barnard's purpose was, as he put it, to give the teachers a broader and more thorough knowledge of their subjects, and second, better methods of school instruction and government. Broadly speaking, the institute has been conducted along these lines ever since.

The name "Institute" was first applied by Supt. J. S. Denman of New York, to a summer school which he held for two weeks in 1843. From this time, they began to spread rapidly through the northern states, due to the same causes as brought the normal schools into being in this country-an insistence on the part of educators for better trained teachers.

These early institutes were similar in nature to our present summer normal or training schools, lasting from two to six weeks. Teachers were paid to attend; the instruction was of the class room type (generally and emphasis was laid upon instruction in subject matter and methods. There was little of the professional or inspirational work given. The course offered was adapted to the untrained elementary teacher's immediate needs.

Normal schools were just making their appearance. There were no trained teachers, and to meet these pioneer conditions the summer training school was improvised as a temporary makeshift. Undoubtedly, it has performed a valuable function and in some of the states which are most backward in facilities for the training of teachers, it is doing so today. But as normal schools have increased, it has steadily given way to the shorter and more professional type of institute.

PRESENT STATUS.

The summer training school, generally organized in the county as a unit, still exists in some of the middle western and

southern states. Colorado holds a summer training school of two weeks in each of the 13 districts of the state. Florida maintains three summer schools of eight weeks each; New Mexico and Oklahoma hold schools from two to four weeks each, while North Carolina and South Carolina provide for county training schools of two weeks. Kansas maintained fourweek summer schools until 1915. The last legislature in that state changed the institute law and the five-day institute will now become the type for that state.

A few other western and southern states hold institutes which are akin to both the summer training school and the institute proper. They hold for varying lengths of time and offer work that borders on the inspirational, social or professional type. Such states are: Tennessee, 5 to 10 days; Utah, 2 to 10 days; Montana and Nevada, 4 to 10 days; Kentucky, 5 to 10 days, and Idaho, 5 to 15 days.

Most of the other states hold institutes varying from 2 to 5 days. Their programs include inspirational work which is largely lecture; some social and cultural features are offered. Most all of them still teach methods of school instruction, but few offer test book or subject matter instruction.

Though New England was originally the home of the summer training school, it has almost entirely disappeared and the tendency is in the direction of the teachers' institute or association, which holds sessions from one to three days in length. Maine and Massachusetts provide for associations which are organized by the teachers themselves. Others of the north

eastern states have a more or less loosely organized type of institute with the attendance on the part of the teachers often not compulsory.

New York abandoned her highly centralized scheme of institute conduction in 1911. It is still under the direction of the Education Commission but is now more of a conference or meeting which the board can summon at such times and places as it thinks desirable.