The profession of teaching has long been characterised by certain habitual convictions, which Spencer undertook to shake rudely, and even to deride. The first of these convictions is that all education, physical, intellectual, and moral, must be authoritative, and need take no account of the natural wishes, tendencies, and motives of the ignorant and undeveloped child. The second dominating conviction is that to teach means to tell, or show, children what they ought to see, believe, and utter. Expositions by the teacher and books are therefore the true means of education. The third and supreme conviction is that the method of education which produced the teacher himself and the contemporary or earlier scholars, authors, and publicists, must be the righteous and sufficient method. Its fruits demonstrate its soundness, and make it sacred. Herbert Spencer, in the essays included in the present volume, assaulted all three of these firm convictions. Accordingly, the ideas on education which he put forth more than fifty years ago have penetrated educational practice very slowly particularly in England; but they are now coming to prevail in most civilised countries, and they will prevail more and more. Through him, the thoughts on education of Comenius, Montaigne, Locke, Milton, Rousseau, Pestalozzi, and other noted writers on this neglected subject are at last winning their way into practice, with the modifications or adaptations which the immense gains of the human race in knowledge and power since the nineteenth century opened have shown to be wise.

Charles W. Eliot.

1910

Although the month is March and not November, it is never unseasonable to count up the blessings for which it is well to be thankful. In fact, from the standpoint of education, the spring is perhaps the appropriate time to perform this very pleasant function. As if still further to emphasize the fact that education, like civilization, is an artificial thing, we have reversed the operations of Mother Nature: we sow our seed in the fall and cultivate our crops during the winter and reap our harvests in the spring. I may be pardoned, therefore, for making the theme of my discussion a brief review of the elements of growth and victory for which the educator of to-day may justly be grateful, with, perhaps, a few suggestions of what the next few years may reasonably be expected to bring forth.

And this course is all the more necessary because, I believe, the teaching profession is unduly prone to pessimism. One might think at first glance that the contrary would be true. We are surrounded on every side by youth. Youth is the material with which we constantly deal. Youth is buoyant, hopeful, exuberant; and yet, with this material constantly surrounding us, we frequently find the task wearisome and apparently hopeless. The reason is not far to seek. Youth is not only buoyant, it is unsophisticated, it is inexperienced, in many important particulars it is crude. Some of its tastes must necessarily, in our judgment, hark back to the primitive, to the barbaric. Ours is continually the task to civilize, to sophisticate, to refine this raw material. But, unfortunately for us, the effort that we put forth does not always bring results that we can see and weigh and measure. The hopefulness of our material is overshadowed not infrequently by its crudeness. We take each generation as it comes to us. We strive to lift it to the plane that civilized society has reached. We do our best and pass it on, mindful of the many inadequacies, perhaps of the many failures, in our work. We turn to the new generation that takes its place. We hope for better materials, but we find no improvement.

Türk Eğitim Sistemi ve Okul Yönetimi

Editörler: Prof. Dr. Ayla OKTAY

Yazarlar: Prof. Dr. Ayla OKTAY, Prof. Dr. Hoşcan ENSARİ, Prof. Dr. Muhsin HESAPÇIOĞLU, Prof. Dr. Ozana URAL, Doç. Dr. Rengin ZEMBAT, Yrd. Doç. Dr. Münevver MERTOĞLU, Yrd. Doç. Dr. Necla TUZCUOĞLU, Yrd. Doç. Dr. Oya RAMAZAN, Yrd. Doç. Dr. Semai TUZCUOĞLU, Dr. Aydın BALYER, Uzm Derya SARI, Araş. Gör. Elif SARICAN ESMER, Araş. Gör. Selma DÜNDAR

Bir öğretmen için eğitim sisteminin yapısını bilmek, meslekî çalışmalarını gerçekleştirirken son derece önemlidir. Öğretmenin başarısı, alan ve meslek bilgisinin yanında sistem içindeki çeşitli görev ve sorumluluklar ve öğretmen olarak alacağı rollerle çok yakından ilgilidir. Sistemin nasıl işlediğinin bilinmesi, öğretmenlerin özlük hakları açısından da önemlidir. Çağdaş insanın tanımında yer alan, hak ve sorumluluklarını bilen insan tanımı, öğretmenlik mesleği için özellikle üzerinde durulması gereken bir durumdur. Türk Eğitim Sistemi ve Okul Yönetimi dersi öğretmenlik programlarına bu amaçlarla konmuştur.

Burada istenen, mesleğe yeni başlayan öğretmenlere eğitim sisteminin yapısı ve okuldaki işleyişle ilgili temel bilgi ve beceriyi meslek öncesi hazırlık aşamasında vermektir. Böylece mesleğe yeni başlayan genç öğretmenler sistemin kendilerinden beklentilerini başarı ile yerine getirebileceklerdir. Alanın uzmanları ve özellikle okul sistemi içinde görev yapan öğretmen/yöneticilerden de yararlanılarak hazırlanan bu kitap, eğitimin tarihsel ve düşünsel temellerinin yanında, eğitim sistemi ve okul yönetimiyle ilgili olduğunu düşündüğümüz yöneticilerin psikolojik özellikleri, eğitimde aktüel konular gibi pek çok konuyu içermektedir. Böylece öğretmen adaylarının kafasında oluşabilecek pek çok sorunun cevabı verilmeye çalışılmıştır.