CHAPTER VI 

 STATE NORMAL SCHOOLS 



It is the business of state normal schools not only to train 

 teachers but also, as far as conditions permit, to find out by ex- 

 periment in practice schools, what to teach and how to teach it. 

 When both aspects of the work of these schools are considered, 

 the important relation which they bear to agricultural education, 

 particularly in elementary schools, becomes apparent. The prob- 

 lem of the normal school in this matter is twofold : (a) to meet 

 the rapidly growing demand for teachers who are able to give 

 satisfactory instruction in elementary agriculture, and (&) to 

 reduce the subject to a proper pedagogical basis, in other words, 

 to determine what phases of this great subject may be undertaken 

 in the elementary schools under average school conditions both 

 from the standpoint of the child and of the teacher. 



The following is a brief summary of the efforts of the state 

 normal schools to find a solution of this twofold problem. The 

 data have been gathered from one hundred and thirty-seven of 

 the one hundred and forty-five schools now actively engaged in 

 training teachers. 1 



When the diverse social, educational, and industrial interests 

 of the country as a whole are considered it is to be expected that 

 these differences will be reflected in the types of instruction given 

 in the various normal schools. To these differences brought 

 about by conditions more or less local are to be added those due 

 to tradition. The older schools are usually less elastic and adapt- 

 able than the newer ones. Bailey regards the latter fact as a 

 very serious obstacle in the way of a general introduction of 

 agriculture into these schools. He says, "One cannot look to 

 all the existing normal schools in the older states, or even to any 



1 In 1910 the nine state normal schools of Oregon were closed, owing to lack of financial 

 support from the state. 



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