Philippine Normal School

Media

Part of The Philippine Craftsman

Title: Philippine Normal School
extracted text: PHILIPPINE NORMAL SCHOOL. By H. A. Bordneb. Superintendent, Philippine Normal School. The Philippine Normal School is maintained as a professional institution for the training of teachers to carry on the work of public education in these Islands. The central thought in the school is to inspire young people to enter the teaching profes sion with clear notions and accurate ideas of the various and numerous problems that confront the public school teacher. It is no longer considered true that any person may become a teacher nor is it deemed adequate that a teacher be proficient in subject matter only. Professional training must be added. Hence, even in the academic work of the school, the profes sional side is emphasized. Incidental instruction in methods is given in connection with the presentation of subject matter. Courses in pyschology are offered to throw light on the laws of mental growth, so that these may not be violated in the teaching of boys and girls. Courses in the history of education make the prospective teachers acquainted with the origin of educational ideals of the present day, afford them an introduc tion to the educators and teachers in times past, and give them a knowledge of former methods and systems of education. Courses in school management are designed to help teachers in organizing and conducting schools upon sound pedagogical prin ciples. Actual teaching in the training department under the guidance and criticism of special critic teachers gives the public schools a body of trained young men and women for entrance into the teaching profession. Every department in the school lends its assistance to the department of education in inspiring the students with the loftiest ideals of what the true teacher should be, and what sort of service should be rendered by suc cessful teachers. Side by side with the professional training there is carried on training in academic subjects. The newly prescribed courses of study make it possible for students to review the subjects of reading, grammar, arithmetic, geography, history, government, and physiology, laying special emphasis on the latest and the most approved methods of teaching these subjects. Academic training is also offered in the usual secondary subjects. The first aim of the school is to inspire the students with the professional spirit. It is of vital importance that the teacher 177 178 THE PHILIPPINE CRAFTSMAN should have a just appreciation of his work and that he should be imbued with the spirit of service. The student must consider his own spirit, purpose, manner and conduct, the acquisition of knowledge, and all school exercises from the point of view of the teacher. Through the professional study of the subjects of the public school curriculum, the students are taught how to present each subject in the teaching process. The school is made professional, not by the exclusion of these subjects from its cur riculum, but by the study of them from the standpoint of their pedagogical value. After the study of the various subjects in the curriculum, from an educational point of view, the students enter upon a Normal Hall accommodates 256 of the young women students. study of the development of the human mind and body to find the broader educational principles which underlie all true teach ing. Methods of teaching are determined by these principles, and it is the aim to train young men and young women in such a manner that they may be able to conduct rightly the education of pupils in the public schools. The school is housed in two three-story reenforced concrete buildings located on Taft Avenue, one of the principal thorough fares in the city of Manila. One of these is the normal school building proper and the other Normal Hall, which is generally conceded to be one of the most beautiful buildings in Manila, from an architectural standpoint. The recitation rooms are well lighted, large, and airy. The laboratories contain the necessary equipment required for elementary work in biology and physics. PHILIPPINE NORMAL SCHOOL 179 The domestic-science kitchen is abundantly provided with the necessary equipment to offer primary and advanced courses in cooking and housekeeping. The laboratories for sewing, em broidery, lace, hat making, basketry, and bamboo and rattan furniture all contain satisfactory equipment to permit the students to make themselves proficient along industrial lines. In the library there are available for students some of the best monthly magazines and the daily newspapers. Special effort is made to supply the best professional magazines of the United States. The number of books found in the library is not large but there are on hand a good supply of reference books, diction aries, and encyclopedias. During the present school year a great many books, of fiction have been added which makes the library a very busy part of the institution. Recently there were approved four new courses of study which are to be substituted for the two old courses of study formerly offered in the school. The newly prescribed course for domestic science requires four years for completion while the minimum entrance require ments for this course have been raised to the completion of the first year of the secondary course. All work in this course is made as practical as possible. Principles are taught through normal activities rather than abstractly. All formal training leads to exercises in which students actually go into the kitchen 180 THE PHILIPPINE CRAFTSMAN or the laboratory to demonstrate with their hands the principles they learned from the teacher or the book. This new four-year course in domestic science offers instruction in English, sewing, cooking, drawing, textiles, infant and invalid feeding, biology, dietetics, embroidery, lace making, physiology, hygiene, sanita tion, housekeeping, education, methods, and practice teaching. Successful completion of this course entitles the student to a diploma. The entrance requirements for the four-year industrial course are the same as those for the new four-year domestic-science course. It is the aim of this course to train and develop teachers for the many industrial courses offered in the primary and intermediate schools. Men students receive training in garden ing, hand weaving, basketry, hat making, coir mats, slipper making, and bamboo and rattan furniture. Women students specialize in sewing, embroidery, lace making, hand weaving and crochet. In addition to this industrial training the students in this course study English, biology, education, drawing, music, methods, and practice teaching, training which will fit graduates for both academic and industrial work but with special emphasis on industrial lines. The third one of the four-year courses has for its aim the training of teachers for purely academic instruction. This course gives opportunity to review the subjects taught in the primary and intermediate grades, permits students to complete practically all of the secondary subjects and in addition to this work the course ofTers instruction in such subjects as psychology, history of education, school management and methods. It also provides for the observation of teaching and two years of actual teaching in the training department under the guidance of skilled critic teachers. These three courses of study will provide teachers who pos-' sess the usual training obtainable in normal schools and in addition these courses will also furnish specially trained teach ers for domestic science, industrial work, and academic sub jects. Students who complete successfully all of the work of any one of the three courses mentioned above will be awarded a diploma which makes them eligible for appointment as Insular teachers. In addition to the three courses already mentioned there is offered a two-year course in physical education. It is the aim of this course to train young men and young women to take charge of the games and athletics which form an integral part of all regular work in the public schools and to train leaders to PHILIPPINE NORMAL SCHOOL 181 conduct successfully work in connection with the playground movement. The successful completion of the subjects of this course entitles the student to a certificate but does not make the graduate eligible for appointment as Insular teacher. Any account of the activities of this school would be incomplete unless it contained mention of the training department in which the teachers get actual experience in teaching under the direction of competent critics. The function of the training department is to afford a place and opportunity for preparing students in the technic of a teacher’s duties through practical experience in operating a school. This applies to the management of the schoolroom, the supervision of the play activities as well as to the recitation and the methods employed. This experience is necessary, not only to give students confidence and to develop latent powers, but also to uncover faults which are natural or which were acquired through imitating some former teacher. When students begin to teach they will do not as they are told but as they were done by in the earlier days of their pupilage; it is one of the functions of the training depart ment to eradicate these faults. The training school is the melt ing pot for all abstract ideas formed and developed in the classes of school management and methods. The department is manned by specially trained teachers fitted to pluck from the experimentation that which is good and worth while. It is the laboratory of the Normal School. Here new ideas orig inate and old ones are tested; and new theories are subjected to the severest examination before they are stamped with the mark of approval. This laboratory is kept at full capacity so that all graduates of the Normal School have from eight to ten months of actual classroom experience before they seek appoint ment as teachers. It is desired to make the work of this school so flexible and so practical that experienced teachers will find it profitable to ask for a year’s leave to be spent in the classrooms, shops, labor atories, and kitchen of the Philippine Normal School. The cooperation of division superintendents and school officials every where is earnestly desired. Superintendents would find it to their interest to encourage young men and young women to seek training in the Normal School because the most reasonable hope to equip the schools with the kind of teachers essential to high efficiency is to appoint as teachers such young men and young women as have had thorough professional training in the Philippine Normal School.
Date: 1916
Rights