Vermont, where I was educated in the public schools and academies. DR. RUFFNER, Supt. Ed., Va. I give also a testimonial of the Hon. J. Ormond, Wilson, General Superintendent of the Public Schools in Washington, in whose opinion I have great confidence: Office of Superintendent of Public Schools, Dear Sir: Very respectfully, HON. W. H. RUFFNER, J. ORMOND WILSON, Supt. State Supt. of Pub. Instr. Virginia. SUBJECTS AND MODE OF INSTRUCTION. Instruction will be given in school organization and discipline, and also in the primary branches, as to their subject matter and the best methods of teaching them. An important feature in the exercises will be Model Lessons, which will be conducted by resolving the Normal school into a Primary school, and exhibiting by example and practice a regular series of school-room exercises. Thus the teachers will not only be told how to do, but be actually practiced in the doing. Instruction will also be given in vocal music, calisthenics and elocution. Besides the regular exercises, occasional lectures will be delivered by General Eaton, United States Commissioner of Education, by the Superintendent of Public Instruction, and probably by Dr. Sears and several others. It is hoped, also, that the Governor and the Attorney General will take part in the opening exercises of the school. TEXT-BOOKS AND OTHER APPLIANCES. Let each teacher bring with him a memorandum book for taking notes on the lectures; also a slate and pencil, or instead thereof a L rough note book for figuring. Let him bring also a set of the primary text-books used in his school. Uniformity will be required only in one reading book, and in the copy book. The reading book agreed upon by the instructors is McGuffey's Fifth Reader, a copy of which each teacher-student will be expected to have for reading and elocutionary exercises. The copy-book required is Payson, Dunton & Scribner's No. 3. ADVANTAGES. I need not say much about the advantages of attendance upon this school. Every one who has any education wants more. All who have tried to teach must be conscious of the need of a more thorough mastery of the branches taught in school, and of greater knowledge and skill in regard to the methods of teaching those branches, and in regard to the organization and management of a school. And they must feel also the desire to add to their knowledge in many directions, and also to gain that knowledge of the world which comes from travel and from associating with people of intelligence and good manners. Lynchburg is a fine, pleasant city, where there is much to be seen and learned by any one who sojourns in it. And I think that in this city there are unusually many intelligent, thriving, well-mannered people of color, who will treat the teachers that come among them with great kindness. Moreover those who attend faithfully upon this school will not only feel the benefit of it for life, but will have a far better chance to obtain employment as teachers afterwards, than those who have not enjoyed such opportunities. Hence it will be worth while for all to make a great effort to go. Try to make and to save money from this time on, and if you should not have enough when July comes, try to induce friends to help you to embrace this opportunity, such as may never come again. Borrow, if you cannot do better. DIRECTIONS. As soon as you have made up your mind to attend the school, give your name promptly to your county superintendent of schools, who will forward it to Mr. Thomas A. Gladman, chairman of the Lynchburg Committee of Arrangements. In due time you will be notified in respect to all details of travel, arrival and boarding. Mr. Gladman will, no doubt, answer promptly any letter of enquiry addressed to himself. The sooner your name is enrolled the better. If there be a full school, no applicants will be admitted unless they promise to be present at the opening, and to remain to the end. W. H. RUFFNER, Supt. Pub. Instr. Education-Its Meaning and Methods.........129 | The Higher the Mountain the Colder the Top.. Teaching History..... .132 Composition Writing... ....134 Quick Calculation of Graded Examples in Items Arithmetic............... Oral Instruction........ II. Official Department. The University Normal-Lynchburg Normal-Traveling and Reception-No Recitations-After each Lecture-Apparatus-Prof. Funk-Railroad Fares-QuincyMcGuffey's Fifth Reader-Annual Report Blanks Census Books-Blank Warrant .142 .143 .143 .144 145 Entered at the Post Office at Richmond, Va., as Second Class matter. -OF SCHOOL BOOKS, By PROFESSORS VENABLE and HOLMES, of the University of Virginia; the late COMMODORE MAURY, of the Virginia Military Institute; PROFESSOR GILDERSLEEVE, of the Johns Hopkins University, and other eminent scholars and educators. The following books of this celebrated series have been Authorized by the State Board of Education for use in the Schools of Virginia, for four years, from August 1st, 1878. LOW PRICES. Geographies. MAURY'S FIRST LESSONS IN GEOGRAPHY, MAURY'S WORLD WE LIVE, IN, MAURY'S MANUAL OF GEOGRAPHY, Va. Edition, MAURY'S PHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY, MAURY'S WALL MAPS. Set of eight, HOLMES' FIRST READER, Readers and Speller. HOLMES' SECOND READER, HOLMES' THIRD READER, HOLMES' FOURTH READER, HOLMES' FIFTH READER, Arithmetics. VENABLE'S FIRST LESSONS IN NUMBERS, VENABLE'S INTERMEDIATE ARITHMETIC, VENABLE'S PRACTICAL ARITHMETIC, VENABLE'S KEY TO ARITHMETICS, Grammar, History, etc. HOLMES' FIRST LESSONS IN GRAMMAR, HOLMES' ENGLISH GRAMMAR, HOLMES' HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES, Full details as to books, terms, or rates of supply, obtained by addressing UNIVERSITY PUBLISHING CO., 19 MURRAY STREET, NEW YORK. Education-Its Meaning and Methods. An artisan must have a just conception of his work before he can successfully enter upon its accomplishment. The sculptor sees in the rough block of marble the life-like form and attitude of the finished statue, before he ever applies the chisel. It becomes the teacher in the highest sense to have a proper understanding of the nature of the work committed to his hand. He should have the ideal of a human being, well educated as to his physical, intellectual and moral endowments. So long as this ideal is not well defined before the mind, he will fail of becoming a successful artisan. Notwithstanding the vast importance of knowing what is meant by education, how many seem to remain ignorant of its true import. It is quite a popular notion that a man possessed of much knowledge is necessarily educated; and acting upon this theory many teachers direct their entire effort to imparting knowledge. Such, however, is not education; it falls far short of it. Education is the act of developing and cultivating the various laculties. It assumes that the mind is an active energy not a passive receptacle. It is the work of the educator to bring into action the latent powers, and train the mind to evolve its own results through a process of systematic reasoning. If education is of any value, it is in preparing children and youth to become successful actors in the drama of life. To become successful one must have not only knowledge but prudence. The greater part of the knowledge acquired within the college walls, proves but useless material amid the busy scenes of active life. In the whole curriculum of studies there are comparatively few subjects that have a practical bearing upon business affairs. Some imparters of knowl edge (they cannot be called educators,) advocate the exclusion of all |