ROYAL SEMINARY FOR TEACHERS AT DRESDEN. THE Royal Seminary, or College for Teachers, at Dresden, was founded in 1785. and celebrated its 50th commemoration day on the 31st October, 1835. and at the end of 1842, it had educated and sent out above 655 teachers, who had pursued a four years course of study and practice, a course which Mr. Kay, a graduate of Oxford, pronounces much more liberal. than nine-tenths of the undergraduates of either Oxford or Cambridge, receive. In 1843, there was one thoroughly educated and trained teacher for every 588 inhabitants. In consequence of their thorough, liberal, and practical education, the common school teachers of Saxony, occupy a social position, which is not accorded to the profession in any other country. The number of students who attend the lectures and classes of the college, is limited to seventy; of these, sixty are lodged gratuitously in the institution; the remaining ten dwell with their parents or relations in the town. Twenty of the places in the college have been endowed by the government, and are therefore in its gift. The ablest of the candidates for admission are elected to them. The examination of candidates for admission to the college is held every Easter. As the life in the normal college costs little or nothing, the lodging and education, if not the whole expenses, being given gratuitously; and, as a young man, who distinguishes himself in the college is certain to be chosen by some school committee afterward as teacher, there are always plenty of candidates for admission from the middle and lower classes of society. All these are subjected to a rigorous examination; their acquirements, their character, and their past life, are most carefully scrutinized; and, from among them all the most promising are chosen for preparation for the teacher's profession. No candidate can be elected who is not healthy and strong, who has not a powerful and clear voice, or who is lame, shorts ghted, or deaf. Every one must be at least sixteen years old, and must present to the examiners a certificate of a medical man of freedom from all organic complaints, and of sound health. The course of education in this college, as in all the other colleges in Saxony, is of FOUR year's duration: no student can leave before the end of this time, and even then, he can not obtain admission into the ranks of the teachers, unless he can pass the prescribed examination for diplomas. The students are divided into three classes; each young man remains, during the first two years of his residence, in the third and second classes; but, during his third and fourth years' residence, he pursues his studies in the first class. The staff of professors and teachers in the college consist of, 1st. The Director, (Dr. Otto, in 1845.) 2nd. A Vice-Principal. 3rd. A Professor of Mathematics. 4th. A Professor of Music. 5th. Daily Teachers for Writing, Drawing, and Violin playing. The director gives, every week, fourteen, the vice-principal sixteen, the third professor seventeen, and the fourth professor twenty-three hours' instruction to the students. The following table will show what the subjects of instruction are in the college, and how the time of residence is divided between them. The students rise in summer at 5 o'clock, and in winter at 6 o'clock, in the morning: as soon as they are dressed, they meet in one of the class-rooms, where the director reads the morning prayers; their hours of study are from 7 to 12 A. M., and from 2 to 5 P. M. Connected with the college is a primary school for children of that district of the city, in which the college is situated: this school is under the direction of a regularly appointed and experienced teacher, and is attended by 105 children, who are divided into three classes, to each of which is assigned a separate class-room in one part of the college buildings. In these classes, a certain number of students from the college first practice teaching under the eye, and aided by the advice of the teacher. At the end of this long and careful preparation, they are called before the board of examiners. If the young man is a Protestant, his religious examination is conducted by the board of examiners themselves; but if he is a Romanist, a priest is joined to the board, and conducts the religious part of the examination. The examination last three days. แ 66 Scripture history. 2 to 4 66 P. M. Mathematics and the theory of music. The answers to the questions of the first day's examination are given in writing. On the second day the subjects are Catechising a class of village school children on some subject of elementary instruction. If the young candidate, who had been educated for FOUR years in a teachers' college, can not pass this examination so as to satisfy the examiners, he is obliged to continue his studies until he can do so. But if he passes the examination in a satisfactory manner, the examiners grant him a diploma, which is marked "excellent," "good," or "passable," according to the manner in which he acquitted himself in his examination. If the young candidate does not obtain a certificate marked "excellent," but only one marked "good," or "passable," he can not officiate as teacher, until he has spent two years in some school as assistant to an experienced teacher. At the end of this time, he is obliged again to present himself to the board of examiners, who examine him again in the most careful and searching manner. If he passes this examination, he receives another diploma marked excellent," "good." or "passable," according to his merit, and if he obtains a diploma marked "excellent" he is enrolled among the members of the teachers' profes sion, and is allowed to officiate either as a private tutor or as a village teacher. But if he can not obtain this diploma, he is obliged to continue to act as an assistant teacher until he can do so. Seminar Director Dr. Otto, the principal of the normal college, and a member of the board of examiners, assured me, that it was a common thing for candidates to be examined four or five times, before they succeeded in obtaining a teachers' diploma. When they have at last succeeded, they, as well as those, who obtained the diploma marked "excellent" in the first examination, are eligible as teachers. The school committee of the different parishes elect their own teachers. The only condition, to which this right is subjected, is, that they may not elect any person, who has not obtained a diploma of competence from the board of examiners. When a teacher dies or vacates his situation, the school committee is required by law to elect another within two months to fill his place. All candidates for the vacant office are examined in the presence of the school committee and of those inhabitants of the parish or town who desire to be present; and after the examination, the school committee proceed to elect the candidates whom they consider the best qualified to fill the vacant situation. But even after this examination before the parochial or municipal school authorities, the successful. candidate is generally obliged to present himself to another committee in Dresden, called the Landconsistorium, for examination, before he can finally be inducted into his hard-won office. Such is the great the seemingly exaggerated precautions, which are taken by the Saxon people to secure good and efficient teachers for the schools. If, at any of these different examinations, any thing is discovered against the moral or religious character of the candidate, he is immediately rejected. His moral as well as his religious character is carefully scrutinized before his reception into the Training College, and by each of the different bodies of examiners, before whom he is obliged afterward to appear. If his previous life can not bear this scrutiny, or if the principal or professors of his college can not bear testimony to his morality and to his religious demeanor during his residence, he is rejected, and is not permitted to enter the profession. It is easy to perceive how high a teacher, who has passed all these examinations and scrutinies, must stand in the estimation of his country and of those who surround him more immediately. As Dr. Otto said to me, "The great number of examinations, that a young man must pass through, before he can become a teacher, is important, not only in preventing any unworthy person ever being admitted into the teachers' profession, but also, and more especially, in raising the profession in the estimation of the public. The people have a great respect for men, who have, as they know, passed so many and such severe examinations. They attend with more attention and respect to their counsels and instruction." And certainly, until the teacher is respected by the people, his teaching will be productive of but little profit. To be a teacher in Germany is necessarily to be a man of learning and probity. None but such a person can be a teacher. Can we say the same in England? How many of our teachers are only uninstructed women, or poor uneducated artizans; or rude and unlettered pedagogues; or even immoral and low-minded men? How many have never been educated in any thing more than reading, writing, and a little ciphering? How many have never been into a teacher's college? How many have only been instructed in such a college for the ridiculously short period of six months? How many have never been educated at all? And yet over Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Denmark, Holland, and France, every teacher has been carefully trained for some twelve or fourteen years, in preparation for his duties; has passed at least two, generally three, and often four years, in a teachers' college, under the instruction of learned and high-minded men, conscious of the importance of their work; has passed with credit several severe examinations, and has only finally been received into the teachers' profession, after a most careful scrutiny into his character and accomplishments has given an assurance to his country of his fitness for the important duties of his profession. But strange and humiliating as is the contrast between the care, that is taken in Saxony and in England to prepare and elect efficient teachers for the village schools, the contrast between the situations of the teachers in the two countries, after election, is no less sad. In Saxony, as indeed throughout Germany, Switzerland, Holland, Denmark, and France, great pains are taken to make the teacher's rank in society, and his situation, worthy the acceptance of an educated man. The teacher is never left dependent upon uncertain charity. If his salary is sometimes small, it is at least fixed and certain. The minimum is fixed by goverment, and no parish or town-committee may offer less than this salary to its teacher. Moreover, the teacher is never degraded into being his own tax-gatherer. The parish or town is obliged to arrange with the teacher, before his appointment, how much he shall receive, when he shall receive it, and how he shall receive it. The committee is obliged to collect the funds necessary for cleansing, warming, repairing, and furnishing the school-buildings, and for paying the teachers. If they neglect to pay the teacher regularly, he can always appeal to the county magistrates, who oblige the parochial or town-committee to perform its duty. When a teacher has become too old, or too weak to perform all his accustomed duties in the school-room, the inspector of the district decides, whether he shall De dismissed with a pension; or, whether the committee shall engage an assistant teacher, to aid him in the school-room. The widows and children of deceased teachers are pensioned off in Saxony, in the same manner as in Prussia, and the funds for this purpose are raised by the same means. Another most important regulation is, that no person or persons in immediate personal connection with a teacher, shall have the power of dismissing him, after he is once elected. It must be evident to all, how much this is tending to lower the independence and respectability of the teachers of England. A private patron, a clergyman, or a committee of parishioners has the power in almost every case, in our country, of dismissing a teacher. How often this has been done merely on account of some personal pique, or because the teacher would not submit to their crude notions of how a school ought to be managed; or from misrepresentation; or from mere village squabbles, I have no need to remind any of my readers. That such a dismissal is possible, every one will admit. How such a possibility must often damp a good and earnest teacher's energy, or undermine his honesty and destroy his usefulness, or at least lower his profession in the eyes of the people around him, is but too evident. But in Germany, no person in immediate connection with the teacher can dismiss him on any pretext whatsoever. His judges are distant, unprejudiced, and impartial persons. In Saxouy, after the parish has elected its teacher, it loses all direct power over him. The parochial minister or committee can inspect the school, when he or they please. Indeed, it is their duty to do so at stated times. They can advise the teacher and counsel him, but they can not directly interfere with him. He is supposed to understand, how to manage his school, better than any other person in his parish. If he did not, his long preparatory training would have been of little avail. If the clergyman, or any of the parishioners, have any cause of complaint to find with the teacher, and desire to have either dismissed or reprimanded, and obliged to change his plans of proceeding, a complaint must be made to the county educational magistrate, and by him, to the minister of education in Dresden, who, in Saxony, is the only person, who can dismiss a teacher. The county magistrate, on receiving the complaint, immediately sends an inspector to the spot, to inquire into the ground of complaint or dispute; and after having received his report, the complaint of the parish, and the defense of the teacher, sends them to the minister of education in Dresden. It remains with the minister alone to pronounce the final judgment. This impartial mode of proceeding tends to raise the teachers' profession in the eyes of the people. They see that the teachers are men, who are considered worthy of the protection and support of the government. But above all, it enables the teachers to act honestly and fearlessly, to follow out the plans they know to be the best, and to devote their whole energies and minds to their duties, without any embarrassing fears of offending employers or patrons, or of endangering their continuance in office. There are 2,925 teachers in Saxony, or one teacher to every 588 inhabitants; which is not large enough for the wants of the country. In Saxony, as throughout Germany, they will not make any use of monitors. As they will not avail themselves of the assistance of educated monitors in the more mechanical parts of school teaching, they have therefore been obliged to adopt the following expedient. The law ordains, that when there are more than sixty children in any parochial school, and the parish can not afford to support more than one teacher, the children shall be divided into two classes, when there are not more than 100, and into three classes, when not more than 150 in number; that when there are two classes, the teacher shall instruct one in the morning, and the other in the afternoon; that when there are three classes, he shall instruct each class for three hours daily at separate times; and that all the children not under instruction shall not attend the school, while either of the other classes is there. From inquiries made by Dr. Otto, of Dresden, it appears that 2,119 of the primary schools of Saxony receive the following salaries, independently of the lodgings, fuel, and garden, &c.: 607 receive not more than £30; 531 not more than £50; 543 not more than £71; 206 not more than £90; 78 not more than £95; 25 not more than £105; 12 not more than £120; 9 not more than £130; 7 not more than £138; 1 not more than £150. |