Full text: Proceedings of the International Congress of Education of the World's Columbian Exposition, Chicago, July 25-28, 1893

Ee 
f 
8 
7 
Qn 
ud 
 Q 
Q 
"3 
SO 
)f 
\/ 
Al 
1b 
n 
ig 
(l= 
n 
as 
41 
'mportant as bringing together the commercial products of the nations of 
‘he world and exhibiting them. From all of this we can learn that in 
>ducating the people of all nationalities we are bringing about that happy 
ime when our swords shall be beaten into plowshares. 
We have in the province which I have the honor to represent about nine 
‘housand teachers, and about half a million school children in a population 
say twice the size of the city of Chicago. We are not ambitious to excel 
this great city in point of population, but we are anxious to excel it, if 
possible, in educational matters. The first feature of our system is that 
we are educationally a unit, from the kindergarten to the university. 
The Department of Education determines what shall be the course in the 
kindergarten, what shall be the course of study in the elementary schools, 
and what shall be the course in the public high-schools, and, practically, 
what shall be the course in the provincial university. The child who 
ripens in the kindergarten goes to the elementary school, and from that 
there is a uniform examination held all over the province to determine 
when that child is fit to enter the high-school, without which examination 
he cannot enter it. There the department determines when he is fit to 
enter the university, and, except in a limited degree, without that 
authority he is not admitted into the university. We believe that this 
system is a saving of time, money, and educational force. 
We separated, a few years ago, the professional from the non-profes- 
sional training-school for teachers. Formerly our normal schools did both. 
Latterly the training of our teachers has been relegated to our high- 
schools with very satisfactory results. We believe that has added to the 
sfficiency of the high-schools, to their usefulness, to their importance. We 
selieve that the liberal training of the teachers has not suffered in the 
least because that work has been relegated to the high-schools, because all 
our high principals are graduates of a university. We hold in check their 
training, and having that in hand we are not afraid to trust the non-pro- 
fessional training of our teachers. Besides, the professional training of 
our teachers begins with the kindergarten; that is a two years’ course. 
No teacher can teach in a kindergarten without that training ; therefore 
the kindergarten system stands side by side with the public schools and 
the university. (Applause.) 
In our elementary schools we have two courses of training. Firstly, 
we have in the Province fifty-eight of what we call model schools, where 
seachers for four months receive instruction in methods. From there the 
teacher is sent on probation for a period of three years, under the control 
and observation of our inspectors, who are supposed to assist the young 
seacher in perfecting himself for the important duties of his profession. 
When such teachers have taught one year, if the work is approved by the 
inspector, the teacher is admitted to the provincial normal school, where 
he receives additional instruction, such as is given in your own normal
	        
Waiting...

Note to user

Dear user,

In response to current developments in the web technology used by the Goobi viewer, the software no longer supports your browser.

Please use one of the following browsers to display this page correctly.

Thank you.