training of Teachers themselves in the science and art of teaching. This she significantly names a Normal School; and here she proposes to form under the best influences and to discipline by all attainable means the professional character of such persons as are willing to devote themselves for years, or for life, to the duty of rightly teaching in the Public Schools. It is established, not for the ultimate benefit of a few, but for the many-not for filling the ranks of the professions already recognized as learned, not for producing skilful engineers or brilliant military officers alone, but to prepare Teachers who can so teach the elements common to all occupations and professions as to fit the youth to choose wisely that which shall best develop his maturing powers, and enable him to make the most of himself as a true man in the State through after years. Such, in brief, are the arrangements by which the educational interest of the State is fostered and controlled. Newest among them all is the Normal School. But recently established in this Golden Land, and therefore imperfectly known as yet, it is fitting that in an Institute like this we should devote an hour to the idea, the means, and the essential elements which are concerned in its success. The idea accepted in most civilived States, that the civil power can economize by attending to the children's development, involves not only the establishment of Public Schools, but the necessity of wise instruction in the Schools established; and it should seem that, to a certain extent, the spirit of the instruction to be given therein must be affected by the position which the children may thereafter occupy, the institutions under which they are to live. The nature of educational principles, and of truth in general, indeed, is not sectional-not sectarian; but the wise application of those principles may depend upon the circumstances of national life. The education which the State would properly give to the children in Austria, would not be adapted to the needs of the children in the United States or in Brazil. In Europe there have been in various nations and for many years institutions designed for training Teachers for their special work, and the influence these Schools have indirectly exerted in maintaining the real life of the people amid the convulsions of war has never been properly estimated. But these can hardly be considered as models for the Normal Schools of our land. Here the children are to become the State; our institutions, our forms of government-assuming, as they do, that the people are the source of all just power, that they are to carry on the government, and not that the civil power should be confided to the few who happen to be born in certain ranks of life-require that intelligence, self-reliance, and virtue should be the characteristics of the citizen. Without instruction specially pointing to the development of the true spirit of manliness, which can appreciate its rights and its duties, the ends of popular government will surely never be secured. If the children grow up with narrow views,. if they are led to adopt false principles in their childhood life, if they are taught to live only for themselves, the power residing in the citizen will be fearfully misused. We watch too anxiously in these sad days the messages from the Atlantic side to need an illustration of what faction has been able to accomplish in modern times. Demagogues have heretofore proved the ruin of republics because the people were unable to perceive their own true interests; and without the masses who attend the Public Schools are wisely taught, without the principles of freedom are duly instilled into the young minds, and respect for constitutional law, there is little doubt that our own nation will follow on in the road to political ruin. Their School years determine the destiny of every people. Various suggestions have been made respecting the importance of Training Schools for Teachers long before the first step was taken for their actual establishment; but in eighteen hundred and thirty-eight, through the munificence of a private gentleman of Massachusetts, a proposition was made to the Legislature of that State, placing ten thousand dollars as a Fund for the support of such an Institution, upon condition that an equal appropriation should be made by the State for that purpose. The proposition was agreed to. Amid many discouragements the project was perfected, and on the third day of July, eighteen hundred and thirty-nine, the first American Normal School was opened, at Lexington, Massachusetts. The place and the time were fittingly chosen. The place was where the opening battle of the Revolution was fought, when it first became clear that freedom was to be secured for this great land where we dwell, and that henceforth the people were to be trusted with power for evermore. It was fitting that there, also, should first be formally commenced the special preparation of Teachers for the work of teaching humbly and teaching well in the Public Schools of the State which that battle ground had proven worthy to be free. It was a fitting time for the commencement of such a work-the day before the Anniversary of American Independence; shadowing forth, as I sometimes think, with a wisdom greater than the founders of that Normal School designed, the great fact that before a people can hope to be fully free, before they are worthy of the exalted privilege of ruling themselves, they must be taught aright. The Third of July must ever come before the Fourth! From that day of promise, when the Lexington Normal School was opened, with only three candidates for admission, the cause has continued to advance, and has come now to be honored in many of the States in our land. Without attempting to enumerate. all the institutions that have been established, may say that Massachusetts has now four State Normal Schools, supported at an annual expense of about seventeen thousand dollars. New York has one, whose aggregate pupils have been numbered by the thousand. The State commenced with an appropriation of ten thousand dollars per annum for five years, at the end of which time it was considered no longer an experiment, but a necessary part of the Public School system, and a noble building was erected expressly for its use. From the twenty-nine pupil-Teachers of its opening day in December, eighteen hundred and forty-four, in a gloomy building gratuitously provided by the City of Albany, it has increased in strength to the present time. Last year it had eleven Teachers, only two of whom were ladies, and an average of over two hundred students of both sexes. It had graduated one thousand two hundred and fiftynine Teachers, and over three thousand six hundred students had been connected with it for a longer or shorter time. It has a library of more than seven thousand volumes, and receives an annual appropriation of twelve thousand dollars. The amount invested for Normal School purposes in New Jersey is about one hundred and twenty thousand dollars, and in the Act establishing the institution the determination was clearly manifested to give its working a fair opportunity for success. I quote the eleventh section: And be it enacted, That for the support of the Normal School, and to carry out the purposes and designs of this Act in a manner worthy of the State of New Jersey, there is hereby appropriated the annual sum of ten thousand dollars for five successive years, to be paid out of the Treasury of the State upon the warrant of the Governor. This was established in eighteen hundred and fifty-five. It has now seven Teachers and ninety-two pupils. One hundred and fifty graduates have been sent out, and have done good work for the Public Schools throughout the State. Many other States have found it necessary to provide these Training Schools for Teachers. I mention only Illinois, which appropriated one hundred thousand dollars as a permanent fund, and then threw open to competition the selection of a place for its establishment. Various towns responded, offering liberal inducements; among them, Peoria, whose proposal to give fifty thousand dollars in money, and thirty thousand in land and buildings, was only surpassed by Bloomington, which gave over one hundred and three thousand dollars in ney, and thirty-eight thousand dollars in lands, etc. The buildings and grounds thus furnished are unequalled in excellence and adaptation to the purposes of a Normal School, even by those of New Jersey, which have been universally considered worthy of imitation. A State Normal School is a School established by the State for the express purpose of preparing Teachers for the Public Schools within its borders. It aims to secure for its students the best influences to aid them in imparting instruction, in wisely governing, and in developing aright the physical, intellectual, and moral nature of the children and youth who attend the Public Schools. It proposes to create a body of wise and devoted Teachers, with whom it shall be safe to trust the care and special educational training of the future citizens, that thus the children may become good members of society, as intelligent, self-relying, virtuous men and women. And the State has a right to expect that those who enjoy the advantages she offers here, will accomplish more as Teachers in a given time and with given facilities of acting, than others without the Normal training. I am thus particular in defining the purpose of a State Normal School, because it is from a mistaken impression of its objects that opposition, or at least coldness, has been sometimes manifested by those who should be among its warmest friends-I mean Teachers already in Public Schools and those in Academies. It has sometimes happened that the very establishment of a Normal School has been regarded as in some sort an intimation from the State to its present Teachers of dissatisfaction with their labors. But the fact is, the Normal School does not regard all those who have not been its pupils as “heathen men and publicans." On the contrary, it should be considered a feature in these institutions, that the graduates are going out to join, to reinforce a brave array of soldiers already in the field; that the objects of the true Teachers already working are those they have been trained to recognize as the most worthy; that the veterans are to be strengthened by a well-disciplined company of warriors fresh for the contest, and seeking to perform such deeds as will make their names worthy of enrolment among the tried warriors whose fame is already secured. There may be many stragglers hanging around the great educational army, nondescripts, seeking only the spoils, and careless whether the children under their control shall become noble, and true, and happy, and with these there may be little fellowship from the Normal-drilled recruit; but with the real army of Teachers there should never be a hesitation in striking hands or " falling in." Neither does the Normal School conflict with the legitimate work of Academies or Colleges. In fact, until the Public Schools are able to furnish as extended a course of instruction as the Academy, the Normal School is rather an aid to Academies than a rival. If, instead of the hasty elementary instruction received in their anxiety to reach the sciences and the languages, students were able to go from the Public Schools, as they will be under trained Normal Teachers, to the Schools preparatory for College, thoroughly grounded in the elements of knowledge, and able to enter appreciatively upon the work assigned them there, the position of an Academical Instructor would be deprived of half its annoyances; while the number of students would not be decreased because a proper awakening of mind in the Public Schools would not be satisfied with the attainments the Public Schools are expected by the State to give. The time now spent in distasteful drilling in studies for which the student is wholly unprepared in the Academies could be spent in such work as would richly repay the instructor and the students too, besides allowing the College to devote its wisdom and learning to their appropriate mission upon well-prepared candidates for the learned degrees. Thus the influence of the State Normal School tends directly to advance the cause of sound learning in every sphere of instruction. The interest of the one is seen to be the interest of all others; and the jealousies which sometimes exist between the instructors in public and private systems of Schools are materially lessened, if not entirely abolished. The Normal School is also directly and deeply interested in the success of Academies and Colleges. From them many of its best students come, consisting of young men and women who have resolved to spend some time in teaching, and who are anxious to acquire professional wisdom without the loss of years in obtaining it by experiment. While their investigations in Natural Science, and Mathematics, and Languages, may have gone far beyond the requirements of Teachers in our Public Schools, these students are conscious of their deficiency in the best methods of imparting elementary instruction, and in the general arrangement and discipline which will secure the best success. To them a year, or even a term, in the professional Training School, is worth more than thrice the time spent elsewhere; and to the children whom they are to teach the value of their Normal training cannot be estimated. It is not always the greatest mathematician who can best explain to a class in the Public Schools the processes of the fundamental rules in arithmetic; and I have known instances in Normal Schools where students, who entered fresh from higher Algebra, Surveying, and the classics, with a proud self-consciousness of their ability as scholars, became quite willing, after a fortnight's training, to re-enter upon the humble work in the class-drill by which the real principles of elementary arithmetic were developed. sexes. This leads me to consider more fully the kind of students that the Normal School seeks for its own. In most cases the law fixes the age below which there can be no admission. In some States, as New York, it is sixteen for females, and eighteen for males. The average age of all the students during the last term was twenty years, and their average of time employed in teaching previous to entering the Normal School was six months. In other States, as New Jersey, the age of sixteen is fixed for both In California the statute requires females to be at least fifteen, and males eighteen. It is desirable that they should be older than any of these ages, other things being equal. They should be such persons as can be developed into Teachers; and must be sufficiently mature to understand something of a Teacher's responsibilities. In the first classes of the New York State Normal School were persons who had taught ten or twelve years before entering. One young gentleman was thirty-five years old. Another of the best graduates, now occupying a very responsible position in New York, was nearly thirty when he graduated, and had taught with marked success for years before entering. I have frequently heard him speak of the different views he entertained of teaching, and the difference in the methods he adopted in Schools after he had spent three hard-working terms in the State Normal School. Not only a good degree of maturity is desirable, but good health, and especially good common sense. There should be a sympathy and love for children, and a patient, hopeful, energetic spirit; I need not mention the absolute necessity of good moral character in the pupil-Teacher; nor need I do more than suggest a willingness to be taught, and to conform to all the regulations of the Institution, as these are universally implied in the candidates for admission. The State Normal School does not claim the power of making true Teachers from all. Its idea of the true Teacher and his motives is such that many must be excluded from becoming candidates for the exalted office. It appeals to the earnest hearted only. He who would become the richest of his fellow men may not enter the Normal Halls, for they offer little scope for his efforts. The way to wealth does not lie through the Principalship of our Public Schools. Neither does the Normal School appeal to those desiring political honors. The honor it seeks is beyond all schemings of mere politicians. It seeks to place such motives before its pupils as will develop in them an ambition less showy, indeed, but which it is less difficult to cherish with a clear conscience and a warm heart. In many of the Eastern Normal Schools, as in New York, the candidates for admission are required to sign a declaration of their "intention to devote themselves to teaching in the Public Schools of the State, and that their sole object in resorting to the M 2 こだ Institution is the better to prepare themselves for that important duty." In some the employment of teaching in the Public Schools of the State for at least two years; The propriety of some declaration of this nature is unquestionable. If properly understood, the pledge to teach can never keep away proper candidates for admission, while it will generally indicate to improrer candidates that they are not wanted. But the Normal School does not bind all its pupils to teach in the Public Schools forever. To attempt this would be absurd. Such an obligation would consign all those noble women in the Commonwealth who should participate in the advantages of Normal instruction to a state of perpetual single blessedness-a condition which I think the most strenuous advocate of Normal Schools would dislike to require. Some pupils who enter will prove unadapted for the profession, either by reason of natural disqualification, or by acquired habits too strong to be materially modified in the few terms of the Normal course. Of these, those who teach at all will fail of the highest success, however greatly assisted by Normal instruction. Those who do not teach are able to make the discovery of their unfitness for teaching, and are thus saved the mortification of actual failure, while the Public Schools are saved the time which would have been lost in the attempt.. There are other pupils who will prove admirable Teachers, but for whom it may become duty to enter upon other avocations after teaching for a few years. To bind these to any one employment for life in order to render them fit candidates for three or four terms instruction at the Normal School would be a loss to the State, for they ought not to make such a pledge, and must therefore remain without the Normal culture. The hope respecting all who enter the School must be that such influences can be exerted during their connection therewith that they will keep on in the Teacher's work, not from dread of violating some antecedent pledge, but from choice. The Normal School would prove a most judicious investment for the State, even if it were morally certain that not one graduate would teach more than two years. The increased value of the Public Schools and the stimulus given to the neighboring Schools by the presence of an enthusiastic, well trained Teacher for two years, would be ample return for the expense of his training. The facts in regard to Normal graduates establish the assertion that the very great majority continue for many years in the chosen work, either directly as Teachers, or as School officers, who know what the Schools should be, and can tell how to make them so. And, whether graduates or not, those who have been connected more than one term with a properly organized Normal School, will be greatly influenced for good in their after-teaching; and, if they do eventually change their business, are almost invariably found to be intelligent and active advocates of right systems of education wherever they live, and probably exert an influence in this way that could not otherwise be obtained. The influence of any Normal School can never be justly estimated by reference only to its list of graduates. Some who have graduated will not succeed; and many do succeed, to whom, it is evident, success would not have come without the specific training they have received. Others go forth who would have succeeded without the Normal training, but to whom success would have come at the end of years, after unmeasured annoyance and loss of energy upon experiments, as well as great loss of material in the Schools where they taught. There are noble Teachers in this State-let me hope they are numbered |