ject-matter. The investigation of this subjective method, this activity of the self necessary to make its own any one of the facts of the subject, is within the real province of method. For example, the activity that produces the various facts in the subject of botany is the objective method in botany, and is within the realm of scholarship.

The scope of the facts determined is also in the realm of scholarship; as are likewise the divisions, the subdivisions, and the distinctions and unities of the particulars. But the nature of the activity that the mind performs in mastering any one of these facts, and the relative value of the divisions, and subdivisions, and facts because of the nature of this mental activity-these things are in the real province of method.

When method, working in its own real province, has determined the essential nature of this conscious activity put forth by the inquir ing mind in mastering a fact of the subject, it is able to make two important inferences. These inferences belong also to the real province of method, and the examination of the things inferred falls likewise within that province. What are the things to be inferred from the nature of the mind's activity in mastering a fact of a given subject? The first is the effect produced upon the mind by thinking this fact, by identifying itself with it. This effect appears, first, as a definite mental swing-a certain habitude of mind which the given subject alone is fitted to establish. For example, in language the definite mental swing begins with the conceiving of an object. The mind may first seize the object in sense-perception, memory, or imagination; but it ends by conceiving it, by generalizing it. The next movement in this definite mental swing is the forming of a purpose to express the object to another. Thereupon, the mind conceives or images the expression, and then contemplates the harmony, the correspondence, between the object to be expressed and the expression. No subject other than language is fitted to establish just this habitude, just this mental process. This may be termed the language act. There is also the historical act. In such an act the mind first conceives the disposition, the mental condition of the people. This is succeeded by the consideration of the event or object produced by this condition of the minds of the people. In the third place, the mind becomes aware of the new disposition, of the new mental state, belonging to the people as produced by this event. In the historical act, then, any event-as, for example, the Civil War-appears as the result of a certain state of mind in the people, and as an active cause producing a succeeding result in their minds. To conceive a certain state of the public mind, to apprehend this taking shape in some event or statute, to seize the new state of the public mind as an effect of this

event or statute, is the peculiar mental swing in the subject of history. This central effect, this essential process belonging to every subject, is one of the effects to be studied. The determination of the exact nature of this effect in relation to any given subject belongs to the real province of method.

In addition to this, under the head of effect, is to be noted the emotional response. In history there arises an interest in the state of the public mind, in the event to be produced thereby, and in the reflex influence of this event. Just the nature of this, the various opportunities that life affords for its play and its value, compared with the knowledge of specific gravity and other ideas and emotions-the discussion of all such things belongs under the real province of method. It would pertain to the real province of method to determine the main and the subordinate emotions to be awakened by the study of Dickens' "Hard Times," by the study of "Evangeline," by the perusal in Dante's "Divine Comedy" of the lines setting forth the condition of the angry and the sullen. The occasions in life affording opportunity for the exercise of these feelings, and the relative value of such mental states compared with a knowledge of cube root, with a knowledge of the surface of the United States, etc., would belong under the realm of method.

A third thing to be noted under effect is the volitional development-the tendency to a prompt and decisive choice, and to persistence in that choice. It would belong to the real province of method to determine just what tendencies toward choice and toward perseverance in a given course would be awakened and stimulated by a study of the condition of the inhabitants in the vestibule to the Inferno; by a study of Tito, shown in George Eliot's "Romola," as an example of fixation of character; by a study of David's action as exhibited in Browning's "Saul;" by a study of Taylor's persistence in the Mexican War, and Grant's in the Civil War. The real province of method would claim as its own the determination of the various occasions in life that would call for prompt choosing and persistence, and the weighing of the value of such mental traits along with those arising from the study of book-keeping, compound numbers, etc.

Method, then, takes unto itself the examination and valuation of the entire realm of effects produced upon the self in its mastery of the facts of any subject. Herein is seen the value to the teacher arising from a study of such subjects as æsthetics, ethics, logic, psychol

ogy, and philosophy.

A second thing to be inferred from the subjective method in any subject that is, from the main mental process in mastering a subject-the second thing to be inferred from this is the relative educational value of the subject; its value as a subject compared with

other subjects; the relative value of the divisions and subdivisions under the subject; the relative value of the different individuals of the subject. The consideration of all these things pertains to the real province of method.

There is a third thing to be inferred from the main mental process employed in mastering a given subject. This is the means, the devices, the instrumentalities appropriate to the direction and stimulation of this main mental process-appropriate to the awakening and fixing of the mental effects naturally belonging to the subject. This includes a consideration of the teacher himself; of the range of his scholarship, of his disposition, of the trend of his sympathies, of the harmony of his character, of his industry, of his quickness of insight, of his ability as a questioner, of his spirit as an inquirer, and of the relation of all these qualities to the stimulating and directing of the mental process in the learner. Under this third head would be included, not only the determining of the devices but also the deciding of the order of their employment and the grounds therefor. Under the real province of method would be included all these things.

It seems, therefore, that to every branch of study belongs an objective method, or the activity which creates the individuals of the subject-matter, a scope or range of the subject-matter determined therefrom, and various divisions, subdivisions, and attributes of distinction and unity in the particulars likewise determined therefrom; and a subjective method, viz., the mental activity involved in mastering any fact of the subject-matter, together with the effects, relative value, and instrumentalities to be inferred therefrom.

The real province of scholarship includes all that pertains to the objective method and its inferences; and the real province of method includes all found in the subjective method and the inferences essentially involved therein.

ORGANIZATION OF TRAINING SCHOOLS AND PRACTICE TEACHING.

BY MISS KATE D. STOUT, TRENTON, N. J.

In speaking of the financial difficulties of our country, President Cleveland made this remark, "It is not a theory but a condition which confronts us." So it is with the young teacher when first he enters upon the duties of the schoolroom. For the time being, the theory of teaching, mastered to a degree by his previous training, retires to a place in the background of his thoughts, and the art of

teaching and of managing rushes to the foreground and commands. his undivided attention. However correct his knowledge of the child's mind, however clear his understanding of the principles of teaching, he is a failure in the schoolroom if he cannot secure and hold the attention of his pupils and make clear the difficult problem of the lesson. In recognition of this fact-that is, that teaching is not only a science but an art-a system for the training of teachers has come to include some definite means of learning the art, under competent and sympathetic supervision, which shall spare the teacher much wasted time and energy and save his pupils from many of the evils attending undirected experimentation. This means we know as the practice school. Here the teacher-in-training may exhibit his power to make use of principles learned in his psychology and method classes, and test his skill in controlling and directing pupils by actually teaching-under guidance careful of his success and watchful of the interests of his pupils.

The organization of the practice school has taken three general forms: First, there is the school which is wholly under normal authority. The course of study is laid out by the principal of the normal school, and the methods used in teaching are subject to his supervision. This form is often known as the model school. Second, there is the school in which the normal and city divide the authority. The course of study is planned by the city, though some liberty of variation is allowed for the sake of experiment, and the expense of the school is shared by the normal authorities, in return for which the normal students enjoy the privilege of observation and practice. Third, there is the school which is independent of normal authority. The course of study followed and the methods employed are of city origin, and the normal students practice as assistants to the city teachers.

Doubtless much may be said in favor of each of these forms of the practice school. The circumstances of every normal school are different from those of every other, and time is an important element demanding consideration; hence, the difficulty in attaining the ideal in the organization of practice schools. In this discussion, however, I may be allowed to favor a system which has been found to be practical under our own conditions. It includes training under both the first and third forms of organization; that is, first, a course of practice in the model school entirely under normal supervision; and, second, a period of a month or six weeks' practice in the city schools which are independent of normal supervision.

The practice school which is under normal supervision seems to be the field for beginning teaching under the most favorable circumstances. Here the pupil-teacher finds that harmony of theory

and practice which is so essential to his clear understanding. When the school is located near to the normal school another feature conducive to the success of the young teacher is found in his familiarity with some of the pupils. He has watched them with interest on the play-ground, in the halls, and in the classroom, and daily has recorded some observation for use in the psychology class. And again, he has frequently seen them in classes, when called by his his method-teacher to observe some concrete illustration of theoretical instruction. Under these favorable conditions, the pupil-teacher is more likely to succeed in his new and, at the best, difficult undertaking than if he were plunged at once into these difficulties under strange authority and among strange children. His training is practical, for his classes are of average size, such as he will meet in a school of his own, and the lessons he teaches are of such a nature as can be adapted to his own classes in a district or city school.

The chief objections which have been raised to this type of prac tice teaching are, first, that the perfect harmony between the theory of the normal school and the practice of the training school causes the children to respond with unnatural readiness to the pupil-teacher's efforts, and so he is apt to make the method, not the child, the center of his teaching; and, second, that the organization of the school gives too little room for the development of the governing power.

Those who have had anything to do with the training of teachers in such a practice school no doubt will agree that these objections contain some truth. But I believe that the advantages more than balance the disadvantages at the beginning stage of teaching. However, the power to meet unforeseen difficulty in teaching and skill in management are elements of success too important to be slighted. As Mr. Russell has said, substantially, scope in teaching is desirable as well as precision, and ability to control is a necessity. Hence the advisability of supplementing the practice in the model school by teaching under conditions which shall still further develop the pupil-teacher in the directions above referred to. In our own experience, we have found these conditions in the city schools independent of normal authority. Here the pupil-teacher acts as an assistant to the regular teacher. Fortified by his model school practice, he is ready to adapt himself to the differing personalities of the schoolroom and the variation in the course of study and methods, and he is generally a success.

Having thus reviewed the general organization of the practice school, it will be my purpose to speak of the supervision of practice teaching there. Here again, as with the general organization, the varying conditions of normal schools have occasioned a variety