102 INTERNATIONAL CONGRESS OF EDUCATION. 
each day, the remainder of the day being spent in continuing his or her 
intellectual exercises at a pupil-teacher center conducted on the lines 
of a high-class school. The pupil-teacher is not allowed to begin the exer- 
cise of teaching during the first two years of apprenticeship. * 
It is acknowledged that there are certain portions of many school les- 
sons which after the first year of observation the pupil-teacher is quite 
competent to undertake—as, for example, the hearing of reading, the 
working of examples in arithmetic, the supervision of a writing-lesson, 
and the correction of exercises in geography, grammar, history, and 
elementary science. In this way the pupil-teachers gradually acquire 
skill in the management of children, and facility in the methods which 
their adult superiors adopt in the presentation of knowledge. They thus 
acquire a valuable store both of experimental knowledge and of practi- 
sal skill. They understand as yet but little of the theory of education and 
nothing of the psychological principles. Their work is mainly directed 
by a close imitation of their teacher’s pattern. It consists almost entirely 
of the empiric application of observed rules. But it is none the less 
valuable within the above-mentioned limits. At the same time they are 
zaining a skill in the teaching art which, unless acquired at a compara- 
sively early stage, rarely develops into the highest style of teaching ability. 
Their intellectual progress is tested by a government examination at 
the end of each year, and the entrance to a training-college is made 
dependent upon passing the Queen’s scholarship examination at the end 
»f the fourth year. Only two attempts at this examination are allowed. 
After the second failure the pupil is barred from further progress in the 
profession. 
In this way the training-colleges are provided with material which has 
been carefully prepared in the region both of intellectual ability and of 
professional skill. During the two years’ residence in a training-college 
she student continues his intellectual training alongside of special direc- 
jon in the higher professional knowledge of his calling. 1 may leave 
che carriculum of intellectual study by simply remarking that at the end 
of his course the teacher who passes the second year’s certificate exami- 
nation in the first class is credited (by those who have the opportunity of 
comparison) with having knowledge equal to that of an ordinary pass 
degree at either Oxford or Cambridge University. 
The methods by which the student in a training-college is prepared for 
the professional part of his career, whilst in the college, are as follows : 
During the first year of training he is required to make a complete study 
of the principles of education so far as these are evidenced in the best 
methods of teaching the ordinary subjects of school instruction. Further- 
#* This is the practice of the London School Board. It should be understood that this is not the rule 
of the government department. The department desires that the pupil-teacher have as much time as 
possible for observation and private study.