LETTER OF TRANSMITTAL. DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR, SIR: Agencies for the improvement of teachers in service are needed primarily for three reasons: (1) Because many teachers enter the profession relatively untrained and therefore need to be trained in service, if at all; (2) because complete training is impossible before active service begins, for the reason that the necessary basis for it in experience is not at hand; and (3) because teaching is a progressive calling, in which one who does not continually make efforts to go forward will soon lag behind and become relatively inefficient. The public is deeply interested in such provisions as will keep the teaching force of the public schools keyed up to its highest efficiency. With these considerations in view, I have the honor to present herewith a monograph by Prof. Ruediger on Agencies for the improvement of teachers in service, and to recommend that it be published as one of the numbers for the current year of the bulletin of the Bureau of Education. ELMER ELLSWORTH BROWN, Very respectfully, The SECRETARY OF THE INTERIOR. Commissioner. 5 AGENCIES FOR THE IMPROVEMENT OF TEACHERS IN SERVICE. [Abbreviations used in the text: A. R. = Annual Report. S. L. School Laws. S. R. State Superintendent's Report. N. E. A. Proceedings, National Education Association.] OFFICIAL TEACHERS' GATHERINGS. In discussing agencies for the improvement of teachers in service, one's mind naturally turns first to those periodical meetings of teachers, such as institutes, that are established by law. The data pertaining to meetings of this nature that have been collected are summarized in Table I. These were gathered primarily from State and Territorial school laws, but this source was liberally supplemented by State educational reports, by institute and summer-school bulletins, and by correspondence with State school officers. This monograph is intended to present what is actually being done, and not merely to give an outline of the legal provisions. The word "institute" has not a very definite meaning in educational literature. It is a blanket word that is applied indiscriminately to any officially established gathering of teachers. Because of this fact, these gatherings have been divided, so far as possible, into classes according to their nature, regardless of the names used in the laws to designate them. On this basis three classes have been made, as follows: (1) Teachers' institutes; (2) summer normal or summer training schools; and (3) teachers' meetings. Perhaps a fourth class-teachers' associations-should have been added, but the legally established gathering in only one State-Maineapproaches the nature of the customary teachers' association. The word "association" is used also in the laws of Kentucky and Missouri, but the meetings to which it is applied are classified more logically under one of the other heads. The criteria that distinguish institutes, summer normal schools, teachers' meetings, and teachers' associations will be brought out more and more as this discussion proceeds. But for the present it may be said that one essential characteristic of a teachers' association is that it is voluntary and that the other three classes of gatherings may usually be distinguished by the functions they are trying to perform. |