INTRODUCTION. THE subject of education is each year assuming growing prominence. It cannot be justly charged that the Eastern, Middle, and Western States of the American Union have been indifferent to the claims of their citizens to enjoy opportunities of instruction and enlightenment. Nearly all of them have made generous provisions for primary and intermediate instruction, and in some have been elaborated complete systems of education from lowest to highest. Nor has the question of Training Schools for teachers been neglected. Good general education presupposes good schools, and good schools presupposes good teachers; hence that State which fails to provide for good teachers exhibits a plain lack of practical wisdom. These Normal or Training Schools have been subjected to severe criticism, both as to the scope and character of their work, as well as the products which they have yielded to the State. Many able. thinkers have believed that the nature and province of the instruction in these State schools was not sufficiently definitive to warrant their independent existence and exceptional support; that the Common Schools, Academies, and Seminaries of the State were doing essentially all which was accomplished by the expensive machinery of Normal Schools; that the conception of the use and design of Teachers' Training Schools, as entertained by those who had inaugurated and managed them, was essentially erroneous; that they had failed to elevate teaching to the dignity, honor, and emoluments of a profession; that a large fraction of those who had been thus educated chiefly at the public expense had not rendered to the State adequate remuneration in superior service and skilled labor. Doubtless some of the writing and speaking on this subject has been hypercritical; since the difficulties of the educational problem have not been sufficiently appreciated, and the amount and quality of the hard work done by those who have had charge of these Training Schools have not been properly recognized. Nevertheless, that the expectations of the best friends of education have not been fully satisfied must be frankly acknowledged. Too much time and energy have been consumed in the mere preliminaries to strictly Training Schools. The requirements for admission have been too low. The three great departments of Psychology, History of Pedagogics, and Methodology and Training, which should occupy by far the largest portion of the course of study, have been in too many instances but meagrely examined, and in most of these schools the historical examination has scarcely been touched upon at all. We, therefore, welcome the present work of Dr. Hoose as a promise that a better day for Normal School Training is dawning. It shows that at least one Chief in these Schools is fully awake to the necessity of careful and exact thinking on one of the few subjects of study which legitimately belong to Training Schools. The importance of the branch of education here treated can hardly be over-emphasized. Lack of clearness here brings obscurity and partial failure into the whole career of the teacher. He may, by long experimentation with mind, correct some mistakes; but unless the principle which underlies Method is fully understood in the outset, it is difficult to compute the mischief which may ensue. The work which is here presented professes to reveal and discuss this principle. As stated in his preface, during the ten years of his supervision of one of the largest Training Schools of New York, the author has been continually studying, and yearly developing this subject before the classes which have been under his tuition. Like most valuable products it has, therefore, been a growth from the experience and close observation of an eminently practical teacher. This should greatly enhance its value. In the directness, brevity, and pertinence of statement and illustration, the author seems to have the wants of his classes ever distinctly before him. dently he is no recluse thinker, but a busy man among busy men and women who need his help, and whom he wants to help. Evi |