Craftsmanship in Teaching   By: William C. (William Chandler) Bagley (1874-1946)

by

WILLIAM CHANDLER BAGLEY

Author Of "The Educative Process," "Classroom Management," "Educational Values," Etc.

New York The MacMillan Company 1912 All rights reserved Copyright, 1911, by the MacMillan Company. Set up and electrotyped. Published April, 1911. Reprinted June, October, 1911; May, 1912. Norwood Press J.S. Cushing Co. Berwick & Smith Co. Norwood, Mass., U.S.A.

TO MY PARENTS

PREFACE

The following papers are published chiefly because they treat in a concrete and personal manner some of the principles which the writer has developed in two previously published books, The Educative Process and Classroom Management , and in a forthcoming volume, Educational Values . It is hoped that the more informal discussions presented in the following pages will, in some slight measure, supplement the theoretical and systematic treatment which necessarily characterizes the other books. In this connection, it should be stated that the materials of the first paper here presented were drawn upon in writing Chapter XVIII of Classroom Management , and that the second paper simply states in a different form the conclusions reached in Chapter I of The Educative Process .

The writer is indebted to his colleague, Professor L.F. Anderson, for many criticisms and suggestions and to Miss Bernice Harrison for invaluable aid in editing the papers for publication. But his heaviest debt, here as elsewhere, is to his wife, to whose encouraging sympathy and inspiration whatever may be valuable in this or in his other books must be largely attributed.

URBANA, ILLINOIS, March 1, 1911

CONTENTS

CHAPTER PAGE

I. CRAFTSMANSHIP IN TEACHING 1

II. OPTIMISM IN TEACHING 23

III. HOW MAY WE PROMOTE THE EFFICIENCY OF THE TEACHING FORCE? 43

IV. THE TEST OF EFFICIENCY IN SUPERVISION 63

V. THE SUPERVISOR AND THE TEACHER 77

VI. EDUCATION AND UTILITY 96

VII. THE SCIENTIFIC SPIRIT IN EDUCATION 123

VIII. THE POSSIBILITY OF TRAINING CHILDREN TO STUDY 144

IX. A PLEA FOR THE DEFINITE IN EDUCATION 164

X. SCIENCE AS RELATED TO THE TEACHING OF LITERATURE 191

XI. THE NEW ATTITUDE TOWARD DRILL 204

XII. THE IDEAL TEACHER 229

CRAFTSMANSHIP IN TEACHING

~I~

CRAFTSMANSHIP IN TEACHING[1]

I

"In the laboratory of life, each newcomer repeats the old experiments, and laughs and weeps for himself. We will be explorers, though all the highways have their guideposts and every bypath is mapped. Helen of Troy will not deter us, nor the wounds of Cæsar frighten, nor the voice of the king crying 'Vanity!' from his throne dismay. What wonder that the stars that once sang for joy are dumb and the constellations go down in silence." ARTHUR SHERBURNE HARDY: The Wind of Destiny .