66 



NORMAL SCHOOLS. 



fitted for diffusing a perfect system of in- 

 struction all over the country. ' 



Owing to difficulties arising out of religious ques- 

 tion*, the advocates of the rmmi.il s\-(em were tin:il>l<> 

 to establish a system of national education which 

 would pnnide for the (ruining of BhoohMMn. The 

 National Society, however, envied a (raininc college 

 for 74 m.istcr- nl' schools in Chelsea, which was com- 

 pleted in |848,tMpMof33,661. At Kaltcix-a 

 a mining school was established liy government officials 

 to >ii|i|i|y sch'>ls of industry lor p.ui|>cr children :nul 

 reform it ory schools I'.ir juvriiile criuiinals. with prop- 

 erly muli'ied teacher*, and at the same time to give an 

 rvtmple of normal education, comprising the liirina 

 tion of character, the development of the intcli:g< " '. 

 appropriate teclinic.il instniclioii. ami the acquisition 

 of method an 1 practical skill in conducting an cle- 

 liient.iry school. Alter the methods and results had 

 received the repeated and emphatic commendation of 

 the Queen's inspectors, the founders transferred the 

 in-: it ut iii to the management of the National So- 

 ciety. 



The success of these experiments dissipated the 

 prejudices against normal schools as a foreign institu- 

 tion, and inspired general confidence in their tendencies. 

 The different religious denominations, which had op- 

 posed the plan of the Committee of Council in 1839, 

 iioweame forward to found training colleges for teachers 

 of schools in their several connections. In 1852 there 

 were 34 normal schools or training eollc.n- in Kngland 

 and Wales, erected at an expense of 350,000, of 

 which the government contributed about one-half. 

 According to the lat.-st reports there are at present 44 

 of these training colleges in England and Wales. 



In Scotland the first attempt to train teachers in the 

 principles and practice of their art was made liy the 

 Education Committee of the Church of Scotland in 

 1820 by placing a few teachers, appointed to their 

 schools in the Highlands, for a short course of obser- 

 vation, instruction, and practice in one of their best- 

 conducted schools in Edinburgh. This plan was en- 

 larged and improved in 1838 ; and in 1840 a building 

 was erected for a normal school in Castjc Place, at an 

 expense of 10,000. In the meantime Mr. Stow, in 

 1836, commenced at Glasgow a similar enterprise at 

 his own risk to train teachers on a system of instruction 

 somewhat peculiar. The disruption of the Church of 

 Scotland and the organization of the Free Church led 

 to the establishment of two other normal schools, one 

 at Edinburgh, in 1849, and the other at Glasgow, in 

 at an aggregate expense of 20,000. 



The Commissioners of National Education in Ire- 

 land have always encouraged monitorial teaching. They 

 never contemplated, however, conducting a large school 

 solely by monitorial assistance ; nor did they ever per- 

 mit their monitors to forget that they were pupils. 

 The first regular monitors in the sen-ice of the board 

 were those in the model schools of Dublin, as far back 

 as March, 1833. These monitors were simply pupil- 

 tcachcrs receiving normal instruct ion in the theory and 

 practice of teaching. There is one great normal 

 school in Dublin, with model schools or schools of 

 practice attached. There is also a normal agricultural 

 m-hiMil at (ila-snevin. Hcsides these, and in connection 

 with them, there arc several model schools in different 

 parts of the country. 



'I'ti'- fir-t suggestion of a normal school in the 

 United States occurs in the Muxx'iclnitittx Mufjuzine. 

 for ITv.i. Kiip|K>rd to have been written by Klisha 

 Tick nor. in which he recommends the abolition nl'town 

 grammar schools and the establishment of a grammar 

 wliool in each county, in which should lie tauirht Eng- 

 li-li irr.inimar. Jjiitin. (Jreck. rhetoric, geography. 

 in ilhcmatie*. etc., in order to fit young gentlemen lor 

 college and school keeping He also recommended an 

 able preceptor who. with :\ lioard of overseers, should 

 annually examine young gcnlleiin n di-.-igmtl for school 



The first normal school established in the T'nited 

 States, avowedly for the instruction of those who de- 

 -ired to liceomc teachers, was the school at Concord, 

 Vt., instituted in 1S23 by the Ju-v. Samuel Uead Hall, 

 l-'or seven years he delivered a scries of lectures on 

 school-keeping and school government ; and to illus- 

 trate his theories he established a model school for 

 practice. This pioneer of American Normal Schools 

 continued to lalnir ill this special field until 1 

 teacher of teachers at Concord, from 1S23 to 

 and at Andover. Mass., as principal of the Teachers' 

 Seminary, from I.-O) to 1835; and at I'lvuiouth, 

 V II.. from 1 837 to 1840. 



The first formal effort to establish a normal school 

 in Massachusetts was made by James (i. Carter, in 

 Lancaster, in 1 *_'", to realize the plan of such an in- 

 stitution which he had presented in his Aiw.ii/* mi 

 J'ipii/tir Kliimlinn, first published ill the J!m>tiin I'/i- 

 irint in 1824-5, and afterwards issued in pamphlet form 

 in IS20. The town of Lancaster appropriated a por- 

 tion of land and the use of an academy building to aid 

 him in carrying out the enterprise, lie memorialized 

 the Legislature tor aid for a seminary for particular in- 

 struction in the science of education. The governor in 

 his message recommended the establishment of a 

 normal school, and asclect committee made a favorable 

 report. But the movement was in advance of public 

 opinion as represented in the Legislature, and failed W 

 the time being. Mr. Carter, however, continued his 

 private normal school and turned out UMiny excellent 

 teachers for the district schools of New England. 



In 1838, in a communication made by Hon. Horace 

 Mann, secretary of the board of education, to the 

 Legislature of Massachusetts, it was stated that private 

 munificence hail placed at his disposal the sum of 

 $10,000 to be expended under the direction of the 

 board for qualifying teachers for the common schools, 

 on condition that the legislature would place in the 

 hands of the board an eiptal sum to be expended for 

 the same purpose. Resolutions were passed accepting 

 the proposition and authorizing the governor to draw 

 his warrant for $10,000 for the purpose specified. Mr. 

 Mann, who had previously made himself familiar with 

 the workings of the normal system in Europe, took a 

 most active part in the establishment of the State 

 normal schools. 



After mature deliberation the board decided to es- 

 tablish three normal schools, one for the north-eastern, 

 one for the south-eastern, and one for the western 

 part of the State. Accordingly one was opened on the 

 3d of July, IS.i'.i. at l^exington ; but the school out- 

 grew its accommodations and was removed to West 

 Newton iii the same county, in 1844, and afterwards to 

 Framingham in 1853. The second normal school was 

 opened at Barre, Sept. 4, 1839. This school has since 

 been removed to \\estfield on account of the in.-ulli- 

 cieney of the accommodations at Barrd. The third nor- 

 mal school was opened at Bridgewatcr on the 9th of 

 September. 1810, and has never changed its location. 

 The school at Framingham is appropriated exclusively 

 to females ; and those at Itridg.ewaler and Westfield 

 admit iHith - 



As most of the normal schools of the United States 

 have been modelled, to a great extent, on the plan of 

 the Massachusetts State normal schools, just as the 

 latter were, as far as feasible, modelled on the plan of 

 the Prussian schools, a statement of I he course of study 

 adopted for the three new schools will give a fair 

 idea of the breadth and scope of the instruction. 



T/ir <'<iuna-<if Simla. The studies first attended to 

 in the State normal schools are those which the l.tw 

 requires to be taught in the district schools, namely : 

 orthography, reading, writing. English grammar, geog- 

 raphy, and arithmetic. When these are mastered 

 of a higher order are progressively taken. For 

 I ho remain longer than one year the following 

 was in r.ini'ed : 



(I) Orthography, reading, grammar, composition, 



