acting president of Princeton College, New Jersey, advocated the establishment of teachers' seminaries.

In 1826 Governor DeWitt Clinton, in his message to the legislature of the State of New York, recommended the establishment of a seminary for teachers, and the same year Hon. John C. Spencer made an able report on the same subject in the senate of that State.

In 1826, and again in 1827, Governor Lincoln, of Massachusetts, in his annual message, urged upon the legislature the importance of making provision for the training of teachers.

In 1827 the American Institute of Instruction memorialized the legislature of Massachusetts, praying that provision be made for the better preparation of the teachers of the schools of the Commonwealth.

The citizens of Rochester, in 1830, petitioned the legislature of the State of New York to establish a State seminary for the training of teachers.

In 1830 the trustees of Washington College in Pennsylvania established a professorship of English literature with the special view of qualifying young men for taking charge of common schools," and the following year an appropriation of $500 a year was made by the State on condition "that the trustees shall cause that there be instructed annually, gratis, twenty students in the elementary branches in a manner best calculated to qualify them to teach common English schools." Numerous other appropriations for a similar purpose were made by the legislature of Pennsylvania, one of the most significant being an appropriation of $2,000 annually for five years to Jefferson College for the education of teachers of the English language.

In 1834 Dr. George Junkin, president of Lafayette College, wrote a letter to Mr. Samuel Breck, chairman of the joint committee of the legislature on education, recommending the providing in existing colleges of a course for teachers, a common school contiguous to the college to serve as a school of daily observation and practice. Rev. Chauncey Colton, president of Bristol College, recommended substantially the same plan in a letter about the same time to the same committee.

The Rev. Charles Brooks, of Massachusetts, visited Europe in 1834, and learned while there of the Prussian system of education and especially of the system of training teachers followed in that country. When Mr. Brooks returned the following year he urged the establishment of normal schools throughout the New England States and in New York and Pennsylvania. The president of Girard College, Prof. A. D. Bache, went to Europe in 1836 and inspected the schools of England, Germany, and several other countries. On his return he published a volume of several hundred pages on European educational institutions, one chapter of which was devoted to the education of teachers for primary schools." Horace Mann, Henry Barnard, and others later added to these contributions upon the education of teachers, and a public sentiment in favor of schools devoted especially to the fitting of teachers of children developed rapidly throughout many of the States of the Union.

66

The next year Samuel Breck urged upon the legislature of Pennsylvania the engrafting of a "teachers' course" in existing colleges and academies, and the establishment of "model schools" in connection with them.

In October, 1836, a public meeting in Philadelphia, called to consider the condition and improvement of institutions of public instruction in Pennsylvania, recommended a "plan for a teachers' seminary and for a board of public instruction." The plan was based on the teachers' seminaries of Prussia and France and Mr. Hall's seminary at Andover. It proposed an independent institution, a three years' course of study, with opportunities for practice in a model school.

The same year Thomas M. Burrowes, secretary of state and ex officio superintendent of common schools of Pennsylvania, in his report to the legislature, urged

that body to appropriate $10,000 for the establishment of two institutions, one in each end of the State, under the care of two of the colleges, for the preparation of common school teachers. The next year he repeated his recommendation for providing for the training of teachers, but suggested that the institutions should not be attached to any college, and that they should devote themselves exclusively to the preparation of teachers. In his next report his suggestion took the form of an emphatic recommendation; and he recommended also that these schools be composed of the brightest pupils, admitted free from all parts of the State.

This brief outline of the movement throughout the country for the training of teachers shows that the demand for the professional education of instructors of youth was not feeble or sporadic, confined to a single State or section of the country, but that it was widespread and strong. In other States also the idea was growing that schools were needed for the special preparation of teachers.

THE FIRST NORMAL SCHOOLS.

The first normal school that has existed from its organization to the present time was founded at Lexington, Mass., in 1839. Its establishment was due to Mr. Edmund Dwight, who offered to contribute for himself and other leading citizens a sum of $10,000 toward the establishment of teachers' seminaries, provided the State would give the same sum. Horace Mann, who was secretary of the Massachusetts board of education, lost no time in communicating this offer to the legislature then in session, and an additional sum of $10,000 was appropriated for the purpose of "qualifying teachers for the common schools of Massachusetts." The Lexington school began in 1839, with Rev. Cyrus Peirce as its principal. On its first day it had an enrollment of three pupils, only women being admitted. The studies for the first term were the common branches, algebra, natural philosophy, physiology, mental philosophy, bookkeeping, moral philosophy, and geometry. In an address delivered about this time by Edward Everett, governor of the Commonwealth and chairman of the board of education, he marked out very clearly the lines on which normal instruction should be built and the objects it should seek to accomplish. These are:

(1) Instruction, especially in the common branches.

(2) The art of teaching.

(3) The science of school government, and theory applied to practice in the model school.

The school at Lexington rapidly increased in size, and later in the same year another normal school was established at Barre and in the following year one at Bridgewater. The Lexington school was subsequently removed to Framingham and the Barre school to Westfield, where they are still in existence. The normal schools of Massachusetts in their youth were not popular institutions. Carter and Brooks and Horace Mann believed in them from the first. Daniel Webster and John Quincy Adams and men of their rank, who had broad views of the present and future educational needs of the country, supported these schools, but conservatism, localism, and vested interests were against them. But in spite of opposition, and partly because of opposition, the normal schools of Massachusetts continued to grow and prosper.

These schools were the natural outgrowth of the interest in public education which had been growing in this country for years, especially since 1820, when the influence of the German system of schools began to be felt in America. The first normal schools established in Massachusetts were not greatly dissimilar to the normal schools of the present day. As a requirement for admission

Candidates must declare it to be their intention to qualify themselves to become school teachers. If males they must have attained the age of 17 years, and of 16

* # *

if females, and must be free from any disease or infirmity which would unfit them for the office of teachers. They must undergo an examination in orthography, geography, and arithmetic. They must furnish satisfactory evidence of good intellectual capacity and of high moral character and principles. Examinations for admission will take place at the commencement of each academic year, and oftener at the discretion and convenience of the visitors and the principal.

The minimum of the term of study was fixed at one year, but a student wishing to remain longer in order to prepare himself for teaching in the common schools might do so, having first obtained the consent of the principal.

The following was the course of study:

(1) Orthography, reading, grammar, composition and rhetoric, logic. (2) Writing, drawing.

(3)

Arithmetic (mental and written), algebra, geometry, bookkeeping, navigation, surveying.

(4) Geography (ancient and modern), with chronology, statistics, and general history.

(5) Physiology.

(6) Mental philosophy.

(7) Music.

(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 common to all sects of Christians. (12) The science and art of teaching, with reference to all the above-named studies.

From this course a selection was to be made for those who were to remain but one year, according to the kind of school they were preparing to teach.

It was further determined that normal schools should be under the inspection of visitors, to be chosen in all cases from the board, except that the secretary of the board might be competent to serve in that capacity. It was decided also that each normal school should have an experimental or model school.

It is interesting to remember that the first normal schools were established by a combination of public and private donations. They were regarded by the legislature of Massachusetts as an experiment. The legislature at first declined to commit itself to their maintenance for a period of more than three years, but by that time they had so intrenched themselves in public favor that they soon became regularly incorporated into the State system of public education.

The opening of the first normal school in Massachusetts quickened the movement in other States. In 1839 Governor William H. Seward, of New York, recommended that normal school instruction be ingrafted on our public school system," and in 1844 the first normal school was opened at Albany under the leadership of David P. Page, a man remarkably endowed for the varied and difficult duties of the position of principal. As elsewhere stated, in 1838 Supt. Thomas H. Burrowes, of Pennsylvania, advocated the establishment of schools in that State for the education of teachers, in which should be given "a full course of theoretic and practical instruction in the art of teaching." In 1855 the State normal school at Millersville, Pa., began as a teachers' institute, under the leadership of James P. Wickersham, then county superintendent of schools, and has continued without a break as a normal school ever since. In 1857 the legislature of Pennsylvania passed a law which was somewhat similar to that passed by Rhode Island a few years before, and which permitted the citizens of the State to put their private money into normal school property. As a result the normal schools of Pennsylvania have been built partly by private funds, although they are State institutions. Ohio about the same time began the agitation for State normal schools. In 1841 the secretary of state of Ohio urged the legislature to establish normal schools similar to those of Massachusetts. The agitation then begun has

kept up intermittently ever since, and thus far has resulted in the establishment of a number of purely private institutions whose main purpose is the education of teachers. In addition, two normal schools connected with universities have been established within the past two years by the State of Ohio.

In most States the normal school system is an integral part of the common school system. The Eastern and Western States early adopted normal schools, and South Carolina in 1860 had one school of this kind. It was located at Charleston and called the "Girls' High and Normal School." Each Congressional district was authorized to send 15 students to the normal department, so that it was a State normal school. This excellent institution did not survive the civil war, but since the war normal schools have been generally introduced in the Southern States as a part of the public school system. The dates and places of the establishment of the first normal school in each of the States mentioned are as follows: Lexington, Mass., 1839; Albany, N. Y., 1844; New Britain, Conn., 1850; Ypsilanti, Mich., 1852; Millersville, Pa., 1855-1859; a Normal, Ill., 1857; Emporia, Kans., 1864; Farmington, Me., 1864; Winona, Minn., 1864; Plattville, Wis., 1866; Chicago (Cook County), Ill., 1867; Terre Haute, Ind., 1870; Nashville, Tenn., 1875; Cedar Falls, Iowa, 1876.

GENERAL OBJECT.

The normal schools of the United States have one general aim, the preparation of teachers for the public schools of the State in which they are located. Their patronage comes mainly from their own State, though they receive students from other States also, and one State, Delaware, has selected the schools of two other States to educate her students who are preparing to teach, instead of going to the expense of erecting and maintaining a State normal school.

The courses of study follow the same general lines, though there is considerable variation in both the extent of the courses and the thoroughness with which they are pursued. The courses in many States are affected by legal enactments, and the certificates issued are usually under State control. The standards of scholarship and of professional training of different normal schools differ widely even in the same State. Nearly every normal school fits its students academically, as well as professionally, for the vocation of teaching, and the universal practice confirms the view, even though some theorists seem to oppose it, that the true normal school must educate its students not only professionally but also academically. It may be added that the academic work of normal schools is professional in its character, and in this respect it differs essentially from the work of high schools, academies, and colleges.

From the catalogue of the State normal school of Colorado for 1903 the following extracts are taken:

The function of the normal school is to make teachers. To do this it must keep abreast of the times. It must lead in public education. It must project the future. The modern conception of education embraces all of human life. This wide and deep and rich notion enlarges the function of an institution that aims to prepare teachers. This function embraces in its relations the faculty, the child, those preparing to teach, the home, the state, society, and the course of study. The faculty is the school. Its power and influence consist in its faculty. The teachers should be picked men and women. They should be persons who have especially fitted themselves. Normal school work is unique. To be a teacher of teachers requires very special qualifications and preparation. Character stands paramount in the equipment of a teacher. its place.

Nothing can take

a Millersville began as a county normal school. Its success in a large measure determined the character of the State normal school law which was adopted by Pennsylvania in 1857.

Ability to teach ranks next in the hierarchy of qualifications. This is ability to adapt self and subject to the pupil. It is ability to inspire to action. It means one whose nature blends with those being taught. It is a natural gift specially trained.

Scholarship is the reserve power of every strong teacher. It commands respect. The scholarship of a normal school teacher should first be liberal, then special. Culture is essential. It gives tone to the entire personality. It is the development of the finer nature. It means good manners, good taste, refined thoughts, elegant expression, pure spirit.

Professional ethics and spirit bind the faculty into one harmonious whole, without which there is a great lack of efficiency. A due recognition of the above should characterize all the members of the faculty. Due regard for each other in speech and manner should always exist.

In the preparation of teachers the end in view is the education of the children of the state. The child is the supreme concern. The function of the normal school is to give such an interpretation of the child and its development in all directions as will best prepare it to enter fully, readily, and righteously into its environment.

An individual who enters to take a course in the State normal school should have maturity of mind. This is absolutely necessary inasmuch as the student who is studying subjects in their relation to the education of children has a more complex problem than the person who is studying the subject for the subject's sake.

The individual who enters should have reasonably good health. The work of the normal school demands that the student should have good health. The work of the teacher requires it.

One who is contemplating becoming a teacher should have a natural fitness to teach. The student can usually feel this; but when the authorities discover a lack of natural ability in a student to make a good teacher the student should be informed.

Common sense is a very superior qualification for the teacher.

Clean character is fundamental. Clean thoughts, pure motives, high ideals, are essential.

Intellectual ability is presupposed in the preparation of the teacher.

A very close relation exists between the teacher and the home. The teacher and the parents should be acquainted. The teacher should be intimate enough to talk candidly and freely about the interests of the child. The function of the normal school toward the home is so to prepare the people who enter that they may intelligently study the nature and wants of the child in common with the parent.

Since the child must become an organic part of society, the teacher should have an intelligent view of the relation of a child's education to the needs of society. The needs of the child and society are reciprocal. The aim is to individualize and socialize the child.

The function of the normal school to the State is apparent. The State is interested in the education and general intelligence of all its people. To this end she founds schools and maintains a public school system. The normal school becomes the very heart of this system. It prepares those who go out to have charge of the youth of the Commonwealth.

The responsibility of no institution of learning is so great as that of a normal school. It has a great function. It exerts its influence on the mountain and on the plain; the mining district, the stock-growing region, and the agricultural sections all feel its influence. It reaches profoundly into the lives and activities of the people. It is the people's school.

EXAMINATIONS AND CERTIFICATES.

There is a wide difference in the practice of different States with respect to the examination of normal school students and the issuing of certificates to them. (1) In some States the diploma of the school is authority to teach in the State in which it is issued. (2) In some States a board of examiners, outside of the authority in control of the management of the normal schools, has the power of deciding who can graduate from these schools and who can hold State certificates. In