£30 
INTERNATIONAL CONGRESS OF EDUCATION. 
HOW NORMAL SCHOOL WORK DIFFERS FROM THE WORK 
IN SECONDARY AND IN HIGHER EDUCATION. 
BY DR. MALCOM MACVICAR, SUPERINTENDENT FREEDMAN’S SCHOOL OF 
THE BAPTISTS HOME MISSIONARY SOCIETY, BROOKLYN, N. Y. 
Truk normal school work should be special in its nature. The ultimate end to be 
secured should be the development of such possibilities of the pupil’s being as have special 
value to a true educator, and the equipping or furnishing of the pupil in such a manner 
as will enable him to perform effectively every line of work pertaining to teaching and 
school organization and management. The work in secondary and higher education, on 
-he other hand, is general in its nature. The ultimate end, in this case, is the symmet- 
rical development of all of the legitimate possibilities of the pupil’s being, and, in the 
sourse of doing this, the equipping or furnishing of the pupil in such a manner as will 
snable him to use these possibilities effectively in his life-work. 
Again, true normal school work should differ from the work in secondary and in higher 
»ducation, not in the way in which the work is performed, but in the special ends to ke 
accomplished. In secondary education, for example, those special ends are chiefly, (a) the 
development of the moral and reascning powers; (b) the acquisition of right habits of 
serforming mental work; and (¢) the acquisition of such knowledge as will prepare the 
pupil thoroughly for independent effort in his life-work, or in pursuing an advanced or 
aollegiate course of study. On the other hand, in normal school work the special ends 
;0 be realized are chiefly the following : (a) The acquisition of a definite knowledge of 
the natural laws of physical and mental development ; (b) the acquisition of a practical 
knowledge of the coriditions or means through the usc of which these natural laws of 
development operate ; and (¢) the acquisition of such special power or personal qualities 
and habits as are essential to doing effective work in teaching and managing. 
As implied in what has already been said, normal school work should be of such a 
rature as to accomplish, in the best way, three special ends. The first is to give to the 
aormal pupil a clear and definite knowledge of the natural laws of physical and mental 
development. } 
To this end the normal course must provide the right conditions or means for care- 
ful physiological and psychological study. The best writers on these subjects must be 
carefully consulted. Running parallel with this, the pupil should be required to make 
a careful study of the laws of physical and mental development as manifested in living 
specimens, in the infant, the child, the youth, and the man. This latter work should 
be conducted in such a manner as to afford the right opportunity for the careful study 
of these specimens under the various changes and conditions through which they pass 
in the process of development. This must, therefore. include the study of home as 
well as of school life. 
Again, running parallel with the studies just suggested there should be a course 
winder the head of self-study, based upon a careful retrospective analysis of the mental 
processes by which results were reached by the pupil, in the subjects completed in the 
primary and secondary schools. This work should be performed in connection with a 
careful review of representative subjects, selected from the primary and secondary 
sourse. The principal object, however, of such a review should be to cause the pupil 
to revive vividly and to study with great care the mental processes through which he 
passed in gaining a knowledge of such subjects. Too much stress cannot be placed 
upon this kind of work in the training of teachers. Indeed, the readiness and clear- 
aess with which a pupil can retrace his own mental processes and struggles in master-