A teacher service program for extracurricular activities in secondary schools

Abstract

The two fundamental criteria to be satisfied in deciding on a teacher service program for extra-curricular activities are: First, are the activities and the outcomes of the program in harmony with the best thought and practice of modem education; and, secondly, are the great groups of secondary school teachers in service required now to perform certain extra-curricular duties for which they should receive some training before entering service? If the answer to these two queries is in the affirmative, as I feel they are, then the third question logically is, what are higher institutions engaged in the training of teachers doing to meet this obligation? The time limits of this paper forbid a discussion of the first question. Consequently I am assuming that the underlying philosophy and major social, moral, and educational outcomes of the extra-curricular program are sound and in keeping with the best thought in modern education. My second query is: Are the great groups of teachers now in service being called upon to perform certain extra-curricular duties for which they should have received some specific training before or after entering service? To answer this question I am going to the investigations, studies, and researches in the field for my answer. Again, time will only admit a few of the more important ones. Are teachers required to perform certain extra-curricular duties as a part of their regular assignment? Barr1 found as a result of the replies received from the presidents of teachers colleges, forty-one of the forty-two considered the training for the direction of extra-curricular activities important. One of these replies stated, Not less than ninety per cent of our graduates upon beginning teaching are asked to direct one or more extra-curricular activities of the kind listed in your classifications. In fact, such activities are so largely a part of the regular plan of school organization in this state that practically every alert teacher not only has opportunity for such direction but is likely to find her promotion more or less directly dependent upon her leadership in at least some limited phase of such activities.' Charters2 and Waples concluded that-A careful analysis of the Commonwealth Teacher Training Study shows that the so-called extra-curricular