CHAPTER XXII.

THE STATE NORMAL SCHOOLS OF THE UNITED STATES.

By ELIPHALET ORAM LYTE,

Principal First Pennsylvania State Normal School, Millersville, Pa.

PREFATORY NOTE.

In the preparation of this article on the State normal schools of the United States, at the request of the Commissioner of Education, I have consulted Henry Barnard's Journal of Education, Horace Mann's Reports, the Reports of the Commissioner of Education of the United States issued by Dr. W. T. Harris, the volumes of Proceedings of the National Educational Association, and especially the report on normal schools in the volume of Proceedings of the Los Angeles meeting of that body, Nicholas Murray Butler's Education in the United States, and numerous State reports, catalogues, etc. In particular I have made free use (and sometimes literal use also) of Dr. J. P. Gordy's Rise and Growth of the Normal School Idea in the United States, and Secretary M. A. Newell's Contributions to the History of Normal Schools in the United States.

I trust that this general acknowledgment of the sources from which I have derived much of the information here presented will be accepted in lieu of quotation marks and special references, which it was difficult in many cases to insert in the revision of the typewritten copy made largely from dictation.

It is to be regretted that the necessary limitations placed upon an article of this kind prevent the full treatment that the subject demands. What is here given is intended to be typical of similar facts that could be multiplied many times. As a rule, only typical and salient facts were selected from the wealth of material within the reach of the careful student of the normal school systems of the country. The public normal schools of the United States are the leading agencies employed in the preparation of teachers for the public schools. Their history is in a large degree the history of public education.

MILLERSVILLE, PA., May 4, 1904.

E. O. LYTE.

CONTENTS.

I. Introductory-A normal school defined-Relation to State.

II. Origin of normal schools in the United States-Article in Massachusetts Magazine-Denison Olmsted at Yale College-The movement in Pennsylvania-First city training school in Philadelphia-Prof. Samuel R. Hall, New Hampshire-Rev. James C. Carter, Massachusetts-Dr. Philip Lindsley, Tennessee-Governor Clinton, New York-Governor Lincoln, Massachusetts-Rochester, N. Y.-Washington College, Pennsylvania-Rev. Charles Brooks, Massachusetts-Thomas M. Burrowes, Pennsylvania.

III. The first normal school-Founded at Lexington, Mass.-Governor Edward Everett marks out courses of study-Normal schools at Barre and Bridgewater-Courses of study— Established by public and private funds--First normal school in New York-First normal school in Pennsylvania-First normal schools in other States.

IV. General object-Courses of study-Function of the normal school.

V. Examinations and certificates-Difference in different States-Reciprocity.

VI. Schools of practice-Different names-Observation and practice-Time devoted to practice teaching-Practice work at Worcester, Mass.-Los Angeles-Cedar Falls-Value of practice work, Colonel Parker.

VII. Typical courses of study: New England normal schools-Bridgewater, Mass. Middle States normal schools-Normal College at Albany-Oswego-Millersville-New Jersey State Normal School. Middle West State normal schools-Classes of students-Dekalb, Ill.-Ypsilanti, Mich.-Colorado State Normal School. Southern States normal schoolsTwo classes of schools-Normal schools for white students, Alabama State Normal Col lege; Peabody Normal College-Normal schools for colored students, Baltimore-Montgomery, Ala.-Hampton Normal and Agricultural Institute-Tuskegee Normal and Industrial Institute. Pacific coast normal schools-Supply of teachers-Los Angeles, Cal. VIII. Control of State normal schools-General control-California - Colorado-Illinois-Kansas- -Maryland-Massachusetts - Minnesota - Missouri-Nebraska-New Jersey-New York-Pennsylvania Rhode Island-South Dakota-Wisconsin.

IX. Maintenance of State normal schools-Free tuition-Normal-school fund of Wisconsin. X. City training schools.

XI. Private normai schools.

INTRODUCTORY.

The problem of elementary education is one of the most important problems with which a free people must deal. The most important factor in this problem is the teacher. The schools designed to prepare teachers for the elementary schools of the State present questions of vital interest to all thoughtful citizens. This chapter endeavors to put into convenient form a few of the most important facts concerning the origin and present condition of the schools designated by the laws of the different States of the Union to prepare teachers for the public schools.

A normal school is a school established for the academic and professional preparation of teachers. It is a technical school, differing from academies and colleges in its objects and methods of work. The objects of the academy and college are general culture and the acquisition of knowledge; the object of the normal school is to impart culture, discipline, skill, and learning to its students for a specific and technical purpose, viz, that of fitting them to teach others. The academy and college aim to teach their students the various branches of knowl edge; the normal school aims to teach its students not only the branches of knowledge, but also the processes by which the learning mind acquires knowledge and the resultant of these processes. These objects and aims distinguish normal schools from other institutions of learning and determine the courses of study in them and the methods by which the studies must be taught.

The relation of the normal school to the State is close. The State must educate the children within its borders. It must therefore establish and maintain a system of public education. The most important factor of this system is the teacher. The teacher must be educated in institutions provided by the State and under State control, if his work is to be properly done. It is consequently both a duty and a necessity for the State to found and support State normal schools. These views, which are accepted almost universally throughout the civilized world, show that the function of the normal school is peculiar, and that its responsibili ties are greater than those of other educational institutions.

ORIGIN OF NORMAL SCHOOLS IN THE UNITED STATES.

An American educator, probably Elisha Ticknor, recommended in an article in the Massachusetts Magazine for June, 1789, that a system of schools should be established to train teachers. The writer said:

There should be a public grammar school established in each county of the State, in which should be taught English grammar, Latin, Greek, rhetoric, geog raphy, mathematics, etc., in order to fit young gentlemen for college and school keeping. At the head of this county school I would place an able preceptor, who should superintend the whole instruction of the youth committed to his care, and

who, together with a board of overseers, should annually examine young gentlemen designed for schoolmasters in reading, writing, arithmetic, and English grammar, and if they are found qualified for the office of school keeping and able to teach these branches with ease and propriety to recommend them for this purpose. No man ought to be suffered to superintend ever so small a school except he has been first examined by a body of men of this character and authorized for this purpose. And I am sure it is no vanity in me to think that were our petty grammar schools annihilated and one established in each county as a substitute, instead of our common schools, kept by a set of ignoramuses, who obtrude themselves upon the people a few months at a time, without the requisite abilities or qualifications, we should have a worthy class of teachers, regularly introduced and examined, and should soon see the happy effects resulting from this noble plan.

In 1816 Denison Olmsted delivered an oration at the commencement exercises at Yale College, in the course of which he said:

I was hence led to the idea of a "seminary for schoolmasters," to be established at the expense of the State, where the instruction, at least, should be gratuitous. It was to be under the direction of a principal and an assistant, the principal to be a man of liberal education, of a high order of talent, and an experienced and successful teacher. The assistant was to be well versed in the English branches of education at least. The course of study was to occupy from one to two years, and candidates were to be admitted only after an approved examination. The pupils were to study and recite whatever they were themselves afterwards to teach, partly for the purpose of acquiring a more perfect knowledge of these subjects, and partly of learning from the methods adopted by the principal, the best modes of teaching. It was supposed that but a small portion of time would be required to be spent upon the simple rudiments, but that the greater part might be devoted to English grammar, geography, arithmetic, algebra, geometry, and such works as Blair's Rhetoric, studies adapted to improve the taste and make correct and accomplished writers. Ample instructions also were to be given by the principal on the organization and government of a school.

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But forty years before the article above quoted was published in the Massachusetts Magazine a school was established in Philadelphia, one of whose objects was the education of young men to be teachers. Pennsylvania is believed to have been the first of the States of the Union to inaugurate the work of preparing teachers. The University of Pennsylvania, which began as an academy in 1749. was designed partly as a school for teachers. Benjamin Franklin, the chief among its founders, in addressing the common council of the city of Philadelphia for aid in its behalf, states that as the country is suffering greatly for want of competent schoolmasters, the proposed academy will be able to furnish a supply of such as are of good morals and known character" and can teach children reading, writing, arithmetic, and the grammar of their mother tongue." The Westtown Boarding School, established by the Society of Friends in 1799, made a report in 1824, announcing that among the many advantages which it was contemplated would accrue from an institution of this description, several of both sexes have so profited by the course of studies and the mode of instruction thus derived as to be qualified for teachers of schools in many parts of the country.” The Moravian School, established in 1807 at Nazareth Hall, Bethlehem, Pa., had "a special department for the preparation of teachers, in which young men received such instruction as qualified them either to teach in schools established at home or to open and conduct schools in the missionary field.”

Dr. Benjamin Rush, in an address to the legislature of Pennsylvania in 1786, favored the establishment of a system of free schools, of one university at Philadelphia, and of three colleges-one at Carlisle, one at Lancaster, and one at Pittsburg-and added, "The university will in time furnish masters for the colleges, and the colleges will furnish masters for the free schools." In all these there seems to be an intention to make scholars who might or might not afterwards become teachers; but there is no intimation that more than scholarship was needed.

ED 1903-70

In 1838 the trustees of Lafayette College erected a building for a model school, placed a distinguished Scotch educator at the head of it, and established a teachers' course. But the people were not as yet educated up to this point, and the project failed. The city of Philadelphia has the credit of establishing the first city training school in this country. In 1818 a school for the education of teachers, technically known as a model school, was established in Philadelphia in accordance with an act of the State legislature. This institution was a kind of State normal school, for by legislative enactment the board of control was authorized to establish a school to qualify teachers for the sectional schools and for schools in other parts of the State." The name "model" was imported from England, where it was used to designate a school in which young persons could observe and practice the art of teaching. The Philadelphia model school was a necessary adjunct of the Lancasterian system which prevailed in that city until 1836, and in a modified form until 1848.

Prof. Samuel R. Hall, of New Hampshire, minister, writer, and teacher, took charge of a church at Concord, N. H., and in 1823 opened what he called a teachers' school. This private school was opened chiefly for persons preparing to teach. A number of children, however, were received and these children became members of a model and practice school. While conducting this school, Mr. Hall delivered a series of addresses, which some of his friends urged him to publish. He complied with their wishes, and a book entitled "Lectures on School Keeping" appeared in 1829. Two editions of the work were soon exhausted, and the superintendent of common schools in the State of New York ordered an edition of 10,00 copies for distribution to all the school districts of that State. About the same time the committee on education in the State of Kentucky recommended that every teacher in the State be supplied with a copy of this work at the public expense.

Probably the Rev. James C. Carter, of Massachusetts, did more than any other one man toward the starting of permanent normal schools. He has been called the "father of normal schools." The Rev. Mr. Carter was a graduate of Harvard College. To him "more than to any other one person belongs the credit of having first directed the attention of the leading minds of Massachusetts to the necessity of the immediate and thorough improvement in the system of free or public schools and of having clearly pointed out the most direct and thorough mode of procuring this improvement by providing for the training of competent teachers for these schools." In 1824 he published "Essays on Popular Education," and later presented an elaborate plan for the education of teachers. Mr. Carter was a member of the Massachusetts 'egislature and was for some time the chairman of the education committee. While a member of the legislature he prepared a bill providing for the State board of education, and to him more than to any other man is probably due the passage of the Massachusetts normal school act of 1838. But much had also been done by others to prepare the way for this action. In 1825 Rev. Thomas H. Gallaudet published a series of essays on "A Plan of a Seminary for the Education of the Instructors of our Youth," which attracted considerable attention throughout New England. In the same year a school principal of Germantown, Pa., by the name of Walter R. Johnson, published a pamphlet entitled "Observations on the Improvement of Seminaries of Learning in the United States; with Suggestions for its Accomplishment." The principal suggestion made by him for the improvement of schools was the establishment of schools for teachers. In the same year Dr. Philip Lindsley, in an address which he delivered on assuming the presidency of Cumberland College, Nashville, Tenn., advocated a teachers' seminary, urging that a teacher needs training for his work as imperatively as the lawyer and physician. The next year he pleaded for seminaries for teachers before the legislature of Tennessee. In the same year, also, the