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DISTRICT SCHOOL JOURNAL.

ALBANY, AUGUST, 1844.

NORMAL SCHOOLS.

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important and so prominent a feature of the system, that it has given its name to all this class of institutions. The term normal school, as now used, comprehends indeed, this model appendage," but more especially, it indicates a Iseminary where pupils are taught, theoreticalExtracts from the Report of the committee of the ly and practically, the art of communicating Assembly of this State, on colleges, academies knowledge, and of governing a school; where, and common schools, of which the Hon. Mr. in short, are acquired the rules of practice and HULBURD was chairman, in regard to the dis- the principles of guidance and direction in the vatribution of the Literature Fund, and the esta-rious departments of common school education. blishment of a Normal School.

WE commence these extracts, with regret that we are compelled to omit a single paragraph, of this searching and satisfactory examination of the claims of these institutions upon the public confidence.

After an interesting notice of the Prussian system, which we hope in some future number to publish, the report continues :

It was after a critical examination of this system and its results, that Gen. Dix officially said: "The Prussian system is generally acknowledged to be unrivalled in the extent of the provision which it makes for the education of the people; the efficiency with which it is administered, and the perfection which it has carried into the various departments of instruction. The Prussian system is said to have been extremely defective down to the commencement of the present century, though it had been long in existence. No material advances were attained until teachers seminaries had been established, and a new class of

who several years ago, was commissioned by the state of Ohio to examine the Prussian Schools, expresses some of his conclusions in the following propositions:

"1. The interest of popular education in each state demands the establishment of a Normal

Passing over, however, for the present, Mr. Hulburd's faithful history of the origin and increase of the literature fund, and the legislation which controlled its distribution; his vindication of the Academies from the charge of being aristocratic institutions, exclusive in their character and inaccessible to the poor; his clear exposition of the principles on which the com-instructors had been trained up." Prof. Stowe, mon school and literature fund have been distributed; his interesting and convincing examination of the rise, progress and influence of the teachers' departments, and of the admissions of successive State Superintendents, "that" in the language of Gov. Marcy, some further provision ought to be made by the legislature, to satisfy the public wants in this respect;" or according to Gen. Dix, "that it would perhaps be advisable to create separate seminaries for the preparation of teachers"-passing over all of this admirable preliminary examination of past legislation, we present our readers with a part of the discussion of the nature and importance of Normal Schools, intending to continue its publication in the following numbers of the Journal.

School, that is, a Teachers' Seminary and Model school, for the instruction and practice of teachers in the science of education and the art of teaching.

"2. Pupils should not be received into the teachers' seminary, under sixteen years of age, nor until they are well versed in all the branches usually taught in common schools.

"3. The model school should comprise the various classes of children usually admitted to the common schools, and should be subject to the same general discipline and course of study. seminary should include three years, and the pupils should be divided into three classes, accordingly.

"4. The course of instruction in the teacher's

the model school.

"The necessity of specific provision for the education of teachers is proved by the analogy of all other professions and pursuits.

"Such an institution would serve as a standard and model of education throughout the community.

"5. The senior class, in the teachers' seminaThe term "Normal School," though now com.ry should be employed, under the immediate inmonly used to denote a training place for teach-struction of their professors, as instructors in ers, primarily signifies, a "model school;" that is, a school conducted on a plan deserving imi. tation by other schools.* A model school, in this sense, is an essential part of any well arranged institution for educating teachers. It is the experimental room where the future teacher learns by observation, the best methods of con. ducting an elementary school, and under the eye of his teacher, is taught to practise and perfect himself in those best methodst. Although the model school is, by some, regarded merely as an incidental appendage to the principal school; yet in Prussia, where seminaries to qualify teachers have been longest and most successfully in operation, the model or normal school is so

"All experience (experience which we generally appeal to as the safest guide in all practical matters,) has decided in favor of institutions sustained by government for the education of

teachers."

To the friends of education it is a deeply interesting inquiry, whether the principles of that system are so indigenous to Prussia, as not to admit transplantation and growth, with equal success, in any land desirous of having an edu

The French adjective normal, is derived from the Latin noun norma, which signifies a rule, a pattern, acated people? model. ↑ Essay on Education, vol. 2, p. 302.

A glance at some of those countries where the whatever has been done has been effected solely experiment has been tried, will, perhaps, fur- by individual enterprise. Whenever in Parlia nish the most satisfactory answer to this inquiry.ment or elsewhere, a government plan has been The primary Normal School of Haarlem, in proposed, to diffuse the blessings of a common the centre of Holland, was founded by govern- school education among the masses, normal ment, as early as 1816. It was in reference to schools have of late, almost invariably, formed this school, and one other established the same a constituent part of all such plans. year, at Lierre, near Antwerp, that the cele- In 1835, Lord Brougham said in the British 'brated M. Cousin, in his work on the state of House of Lords, "the seminaries for training education in Holland, in 1836, said: "I attach masters are an invaluable gift to mankind, and the greatest importance to normal primary lead to the indefinite improvement of education schools, and consider that all future success in It is this which above every thing we ought to the education of the people depends upon them. labor to introduce into our system." "These In perfecting her system of primary instruction, training seminaries would not only teach the normal schools were introduced for the better masters the branch of learning and science they training of masters." In travelling through are now deficient in, but would teach them what Holland, he was informed by all the school offi- they know far less-the didactic art-the mode cers he met with, that these schools "had of imparting the knowledge which they have, or brought about an entire change in the condition may acquire the best method of training and of the schoolmaster, and that they had given dealing with children, in all that regards both young teachers a feeling of dignity in their pro- temper, capacity, and habits, and the means of fession." The universal effect of the primary stirring them to exertion and controlling their schools of Holland upon her population, may aberrations." be read in an extract from the Third Report of George Nicholls, Esq., on the condition of the laboring classes, &c., in Holland and Belgium "In Haarlem, with a population of 21,000, we were informed there was not a child of ten years of age, and of sound intellect, who could not both read and write, and throughout Holland it is the same."

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In 1839, the Queen directed Lord JohnR us. sell, to form a Board of Education. His Lord. ship's circular on the subject says: that among the chief defects yet subsisting, may be reckoned the insufficient number of qualified teachers, the imperfect mode of teaching, which prevails in, perhaps, the greater number of the schools. Among the first objects to which any grant (of The first normal school of France, owes its money) may be applied, will be the establish origin to a decree of Napoleon, issued on the ment of a Normal School. I beg leave, at the 17th of March, 1808, directing the organization outset, to state my opinion, that the establishof the university and the establishment of a cen- ment of a normal school for training mas tral normal school at Paris. In 1829, there were ters in the most perfect methods of commubut thirteen of these schools throughout the em-nicating literary and industrial, as well as moral pire; in 1832, there were forty-seven; in July and religious instruction, is the most pressing 1833, a law passed requiring the establishment and important of these objects," &c. of one of those teachers' seminaries, in each of Parliament refused to vote any grant of money the eighty-six departments. In 1837, there were to carry out the views of the Board of Educa eighty-three of these seminaries in full opera- tion, and England was left with two semination, "forming," as M. Guizot the Minister of ries for the education of teachers; for these, she Public Instruction said, "in each department a was indebted to the exertion of individual be. grand focus of light, scattering its rays in all di-nevolence.

rections among the people." In concluding an When we read such views and such recomable speech in the Chamber of Deputies, he mendations, and read the result of them, we used these decided words: "All of you are are prepared further to read such items as the aware that primary instruction depends alto- following, in English papers: "In three years, gether on the corresponding normal schools. in England, there have been 361,894 marriages; The prosperity of these establishments is the of these, 723,788 married persons, 304,836 measure of its progress." could not sign their names."

The estimation in which the French nation hold these seminaries, may be learned from a provision contained in one of their recent laws, that no schoolmaster shall be appointed who has not himself been a pupil of the school which instructs in the art of teaching."

It only remains to be added here, that the French system is confessedly modelled after that of the Prussian; that those who resort to them are not only educated but maintained gratuitously..

Although from this hasty view of the estab lishment and operation of normal schools in Europe, they would seem to be so indispensable in a well-matured educational system, as to be founded and sustained by any intelligent government, desirous of a thorough education of its people; yet with two exceptions their introduc tion to this continent has been the unaided achievement of individual enterprise and bene. volence.

Their establishment has been repeatedly recommended by the educational officer in Pennsyl vania. In the sixth annual report of the Hon. Francis R. Shunk, superintendent of common

England, with all her wealth and literature; her munificent endowments of universities; her numerous and costly charitable institutions, as a government, has done very little for the educa. tion of her common people. She has never esIt ought, perhaps, to be stated, that the govern. ment bill for the normal and common school, uncondi tablished any general system of education;tionally required that all the pupils should be educated in the tenets of the Church of England. Against a Connecticut Common School Journal, vol. 1, p. bill containing such a sectarian provision, the entire body of dissenters so strongly protested, that minisHon. H. Mann's 7th Annual Report, p. 143. ters abandoned the whole plan.

84, 87.

schools, made to the Pennsylvania legislature, March 3d, 1840, he says: a more effectual method to increase the number of teachers, and to furnish facilities for extending the knowledge of the art of teaching, and improving this department of public instruction, is by the estab. lishment of teachers' seminaries, commonly called normal schools." In his next annual report of 1841, the same officer says, "the most obvious and direct means of providing competent teachers, is by the establishment of seminaries for their instruction. A community, in order to appreciate and compensate good teachers adequately, should be enlightened by the happy efforts of their labors; a result which can never be produced by those who are inefficient and incompetent." In his report of January 1842, he renewed his suggestions of the importance of these seminaries for instructing teachers. The government has, however, never made an appropriation to aid even a normal school, but private Manificence and enterprise have established several in the state.

In the annual reports of the trustees of the school fund of the state of New-Jersey, 1839 and 1840, the following views are expressed on the subject of normal schools: "There seems to be but one way in which a supply of good teachers can be secured. They must be trained to the business of teaching. They must be laught the art of teaching. Those who are to instruct others, must themselves be instructed. In short there must be schools for the education of teachers. To require that teachers should be examined and licensed, will not answer the purpose. When nearly all are unqualified, there is little room for selection. Their deficiencies in this way may be exposed, but how are they to be corrected?"

In his annual report, January, 1841, the superintendent of common schools of the state of Ohio, says "the establishment of normal schools is the only effectual means for extending the knowledge of the art of teaching, and placing this department of public instruction on that elevated ground that its vast importance demands.

The committee might continue to give these favorable opinions and sanguine recommendations of high official personages, but they content themselves with the general expression, that in nearly all the states where the subject of popular education has in any respect received an attention from public men, at all commensurate with the magnitude of interests involved, the establishment of normal schools has been the invariable means recommended to invigorate and improve common schools. But while state legislatures have generally neglected to test, by experiment, the expediency or practical utility of these institutions, the Canadian parliament, at its very last session, passed an act providing for their immediate establishment in both the Upper and Lower provinces.

While other states were deliberating, Massachusetts acted, and now justly claims the honor of first establishing institutions exclusively for teachers, as part of a state system of common school education. But even her action was stimulated by individual liberality.

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In 1838, a citizen of Boston, placed at the disposal of the Massachusetts Board of Educa

• Edmund Dwight, Esq.

tion, the sum of ten thousand dollars, to be expended in the qualification of teachers of common schools, on condition that the legislature would appropriate an equal sum to the same purpose. This proposition was communicated to the legislature on the 12th of March, 1838; ten days after, a joint committee of the two houses reported in favor of accepting the proposition; resolutions, making the appropriation to that effect, passed the legislature "almost unanimously," and on the 19th of April, 1838, received the signature of the governor.

The Board of Education having the sum of twenty thousand dollars thus placed at their disposal, "to be expended in qualifying teachers for the common schools in Massachusetts," with the single condition of rendering an annual account of the manner in which they had expended the money, felt themselves somewhat embarrassed in selecting the best method of carrying out the intention of the private and legislative donors of the benefaction. The propriety of es tablishing and liberally endowing a single school, was considered and decided against mainly on the ground that if but one was founded, its success or failure could be known but to the citizens of a small part of the state; and it was desirable that an experiment, in which the whole people had a direct interest, should, as far as practicable, be tried in presence of the whole people. The economy and expediency of engrafting a department for the qualification of teachers, upon academies in different parts of the state, was also examined. Against this plan it was objected that such a department would be but a secondary interest in the school-that" the principal and assistant teachers would not be selected, so much with reference to the incident, as to the principal object; and as the course of instruction proper to qualify teachers, must be essentially different from a common academical course, it would be impossible for any preceptor duly to superintend both."*

As the money seemed not intended to be invested as a permanent endowment, and as it was sufficient, with what it was reasonably expected the friends of education would contribute to establish more than one normal school, for a peri od of time sufficiently long to bring the usefulness of such institutions to the test of experi ence, it was finally determined to pursue this course. The Board finding their present means and encouragements for the future would justify the establishment of three schools with a fair expectation of sustaining them three years at least; decided to establish that number, and to locate them in different parts of the state. The latter course was taken not only to bring within the reach of the people the means of partaking their advantages, but of observing their usefulness; with a view too of enabling the people understandingly to decide on the final adoption or rejection of these seminaries as a constituent part of the system of common school education.f

In accordance with these views, a school for the reception of females only, was opened at Lexington on the 3d day of July, 1839; another for the admission of pupils of both sexes, was opened at Barre, in September of the same year? the third was established at Bridgewater on the

* Mass. Com School Journal, Vol. 1, page 35. † Second Ann. Rep. of Board of Education.

same principles as the Barre school, in the month of September, 1840.

The Lexington school received no pupils for less than one year; each of the other institutions admitted scholars for a less period. The terms of admission were, that applicants, if males, must have attained seventeen years of age, and sixteen, if females - must on examination appear well versed in orthography, reading, writing, English grammar, geography and arith. metic-must be in the enjoyment of good health, and must furnish satisfactory evidence of good intellectual capacity, and of high moral character and principles. The pupils were in addition required to "declare it to be their intention to become school teachers after having finished a course of study at the normal school."*

The following course of study was arranged and recommended for each institution; fully to complete it required three years:

1. Orthography, reading, grammar, composition and logic.

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8. Constitution and history of Massachusetts, and of the United States.

9. Natural philosophy and astronomy. 10. Natural history.

11. The principles of piety and morality com.
mon to all sects of Christians.
12. The science and art of teaching, with refer-
ence to all the above named studies.

The first term, the Barre school, with one teacher and one assistant, received thirty-nine pupils; the fourth term it numbered fortyseven-twenty-six males and twenty-one females; in December, 1841, the number of both sexes had reached seventy. In the year 1842 this school was suspended by the death of its principal, Prof. Newman.

during the year 1842 was about 45: that was the number in attendance at the close of the year 1843; at the preceding term 72 were admitted. On the day when this school was recently visited by one of your committee, there were 42 pupils under instruction, of which number 31 or 32 were females. On examining the register of the school, 233 persons were found to have been enrolled as members since its organization in September, 1840. This number includes several who did not remain through even one term. Of the whole number, 131 were known to have taught, after leaving school; 42 were attending school; 8 only (which includes two or three who were dead,) are known not to have taught; 5 others had never taught by reason of ill-health; 3 had married; 1 came from and returned to New-York; of the history of the remainder the principal knew nothing.

The day spent by the chairman of your committee at this seminary, was occupied in attending upon the regular exercises and examinations of the classes, and in a brief visit to the model school-room. The normal school was opened in the morning by reading a portion of Scripture, singing and prayer. The recitations, the explanations, the comments, &c., were all analyti cal and practical-and as far as practicablesubjected to the test of black-board demonstration. All seemed arranged and designed to make every scholar thoroughly acquainted with the subject and with the best method of elucidating and communicating it.

The rules of the institution require the pupils to teach in the model school-room in rotation, under the supervision of the principal. This part of the school exhibited the effects of the too constant confinement of the principal in the general recitation room.

The usefulness of this seminary is greatly im paired by the want of more teachers, and by the short and uncertain periods for which students are received. A term of 14 weeks is hardly suffiicent for one man and his assistant to eradicate bad habits of thinking and feeling, and implant new ones in fifty or sixty minds, reducing the whole to demonstration and to practice, in the

model school.

The model school connected with this institu

After this school had been in operation about The normal school at Lexington, designed exeighteen months, it was officially said by the clusively for ladies, closed its first year in August, Board of Education: "The scholars who have 1840, with 25 pupils; the second year numbered left this school have sustained a high reputation 40; the third year about the same number. Durin their professions as teachers. They appearing the last year there were the first term 31; to be decidedly better qualified for their task, both by their thorough acquaintance with the elementary branches of learning, and their familiarity with the principles and practice of the art of teaching, than the majority of those generally employed in the care of schools." It was of this seminary that President Humphrey of Amherst College, on visiting it, in December, 1841, said, "I was exceedingly pleased with the elementary and analytical processes in all the branches taught in the school. Every thing had a direct bearing upon the great business of teaching, for which the pupils were preparing." The Bridgewater school opened in September, 1840, with 28 pupils, of whom 21 were females; the second term was attended by 35, of whom 26 were females; the last term of the year 1841 closed with 52 pupils. The average number of pupils

Mass. Common School Journal, Vol. 1, pages 96, 309.

the second term 39; the third 42; the fourth 55;
at the close of the year the applications for the
next term were 60; this was the number in at-
tendance the day the school was visited.
tion, consists generally of from 40 to 50 young chil.
dren, from the several school districts in the town.
This school, under the general superintend
ence of the principal of the institution, is taught
mainly by the pupils of the normal school. The
principal visits this school daily as a listener and
observer, sometimes as teacher. Here, under
the eye of a master, is a real apprenticeship served
in the noble art of teaching-here theory is com-
bined with practice-here principles are illus-
trated by veritable examples. The model school
sustained in the vicinity a reputation so high,"
that for the two or three first years a much
larger number of children could be obtained for
it, if it had been desirable to increase the num·

ber, and this too when the sending a child to that school was attended with a very considerable extra expense to the parent.

As pupils from the normal schools have gone out into the town to teach, parents have of late been enabled to supply their children in their own district schools with the same kind of su perior education taught in the model school; and in consequence, the number of pupils in the lat ler school has been reduced to some 25 or 30. A fact which shows the practical effect of the education and training of teachers at the normal school, that they acquire and that they can communicate.

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COMMUNICATIONS.

EXCHANGES.

Mr. HOLBROOK has devoted a life of labor to the cause of education. His leading object has been to establish a system of exchanges, by which the minerals, fossils, shells, plants, &c., of different counties, states and countries could be obtained with but little more expense than the cost of transportation, each region supplying what is interesting and useful to that which exchanges with it. The following letter was not intended for publication, but its facts are interesting, and its suggestions sensible, and Mr. H. will therefore excuse us for thus making his plans partially known.

FRANCIS DWIGHT, Esq.,

MY DEAR SIR:-I send you a circular, touch. ing a subject which I know you appreciate common country schools, and with that view, School Apparatus. It is especially designed for durability, with simplicity and clearness of il lustration, has been aimed at. The globe is solid, fitted for being suspended, also for a stand, as different illustrations may require. The first elementary ideas about our earth are certainly given in no way so correctly or clearly, to a young mind, as by a globe suspended by a cord. Not only the shape, motions, and general divisions of the earth, but the elliptical form of its orbit can thus be shown by actual experiment, also the forces keeping the earth in its orbit, and how they give it an elliptical shape, may be shown.

The day spent at the Lexington seminary, there were in the model school about 30 children, of ages and capacities as various as the same number exhibit in a common district school. An experienced and highly qualified teacher spends all her school hours in this school; the more advanced pupils in the normal school in rotation, are required to assist in classifying and arranging the children, hearing and explaining lessons, teaching orally on the black-board, &c. passes under the eye of the teacher, aided by the frequent watchful suggestions of the principal. Interesting as it would be to detail minutely the exercises in this room-the natural and successful means used to make the stay in the schoolroom pleasant, instead of irksome-learning a delight, instead of a drudgery-even to children of four and five years of age-the committee feel they must hasten to the normal school-room. Here the morning exercises were quite similar to those of the Bridgewater institution, except that all, or nearly all of the pupils engaged in singing; as it was "review day" at the seminary, a very good opportunity was presented of learning the exercise and manner of study pursued at the school. Great pains are taken in The universality of the subjects illustrated by teaching reading, accent, emphasis, grammar, the apparatus fit it alike for all countries, the colloquial and written. Spelling and punctua- manual of explanations excepted: and these, in tion are taught at the black-board. A half hour missionary stations, where similar articles have spent by all the school in mental arithmetic, vul- heretofore been used to great effect, will be used gar fractions, rule of three, practice, interest, in their own translations. For Spanish America &c., showed great quickness in mental compu-a translation is about to be made, indeed has tation. Several scholars described and demonstrated problems in the various books of Euclid, stated and worked complex propositions in Alge. bra on the black-board with a readiness and clearness that evinced a perfect familiarity with

those branches of mathematics.

been made in part, in the city of Mexico, where the articles have already been ordered.

have brought interesting specimens from differ The exchanges already put forward by it, ent countries, and will certainly, when carried out, bring them in such quantities, as to be disAs there had been some change of principals tributed, not only to the interior of this state, since the organization of the school, no statisti- but to all the states. The following experiment cal information, to any extent, could be obtained is a specimen of the extent to which it may be as to the number of pupils who had taught or carried. Several months since, crowds of barewere now engaged in common schools. The in- footed girls and boys were collected from the stitution is now under the care of a principal and streets of New-York, by and for scientific lectwo assistant-teachers. Its usefulness, like that tures, given weekly, especially for them. After at Bridgewater, is somewhat circumscribed by entertaining them for an hour, outline prints of the want of more spacious buildings; each being animals, plants, or other objects of nature, geoat some seasons of the year crowded to its utmost metrical figures, geologicals, &c. &c., were discapacity-a most creditable fact, when it is re-tributed to employ their hands and minds at their membered that hitherto individual liberality, aid. ed by the bounty of the state, has only furnished homes. Among the fruits of these, were drawtuition and rooms free of charge to the students.ings, greatly varied, literally covering the side

We shall continue our extracts from this able document in our next number, commencing with an examination into the effects produced upon

the cause of education in the state of Massachusetts, by the establishment of normal schools.

walks in the region of "Five Points," near which the lectures were given; also, cabinets of minerals, shells, &c., made by many newspaper boys, and others, in that and in various parts of the city.

Among the specimens thus produced, many were of so much interest as to be sent, at the re

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