The letter in the Nation on the teaching of pedagogy in our colleges, part of which we reprint in another column, deserves attention, as it deals with a subject of great and growing importance. Teaching as a profession is claiming a much broader field than ever before, and in the same proportion the need of a preparatory training is becoming more evident. Our high schools and academies are suffering much because many of their teachers, though college graduates, are utterly inexperienced, and must spend the first year or more in learning methods. This year of training may be a valuable one for the teacher, but its effect upon the pupils, as many can testify, is far from beneficial.
As in medicine, law, or any other profession, a thorough practical knowledge of the science of teaching can only be gained by actual experience, and the work of a course in pedagogy would necessarily be largely theoretical. A sound theoretical and philosophical knowledge of pedagogy could be gained, and the after experience would thereby be based upon correct principles. This is the line of work which a college could do and for such work Harvard is already well fitted. The proposition should receive the careful attention of the college authorities.
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