NOVEMBEB 17, 1905.] 



SCIENCE. 



625 



matters which makes it impossible to se- 

 cure the highest point of efficiency in any 

 grade of the school system unless it looks 

 forward to and prepares for something 

 higher. You can not have good schools of 

 an elementary grade unless there is the op- 

 portunity for your best pupils, for those 

 who have the time and money, to pass on 

 up to ever higher grades of study. This 

 is the justification of the high school, the 

 college and the university from the stand- 

 point of the eighth and seventh and sixth 

 and first grade of the elementary school. 



As a state university this institution will 

 have iijtimate relations not merely with the 

 high schools and elementary schools of the 

 educational system, but with the other great 

 element of the secondary scheme, namely, 

 the normal schools. 



Many people have thought that the nor- 

 mal school is in a certain way merely a 

 temporary element in our educational sys- 

 tem. It is intended to train teachers for 

 the elementary and secondary schools. And 

 there is a feeling in many quarters that as 

 our high schools improve in quality and 

 our universities multiply, the necessity of 

 our normal schools will disappear. 



I have no doubt myself that the normal 

 school will change profoundly its character 

 in the course of years, though how it will 

 change I do not profess to know; but that 

 it will, within any time for which it is 

 worth our while to plan, become a superflu- 

 ous element in our scheme of education I 

 do not believe at all. Develop our univer- 

 sities as much as we may be able, develop 

 our colleges as much as private enterprise 

 and church initiative may assist us in do- 

 ing, we shall still not be able to secure for 

 our elementary and secondary schools an 

 adequate number of properly trained men 

 and women without the assistance of these 

 normal schools. 



I believe that they should stand in the 



very closest relation to the state university, 

 and I believe that it should be possible to 

 organize their work in such a way that per- 

 sons who intend to prepare for the work 

 of teacher in the elementary and secondary 

 schools of the state, and for the position of 

 superintendent and other similar admin- 

 istrative positions, should find it possible 

 to pass either through the normal school 

 and then through the university, or through 

 the university and then through the normal 

 school, as they may find it most convenient. 

 I believe that all our universities would 

 find it to their advantage to get into touch 

 with this great normal school system, but 

 for the state university this is an absolute 

 essential. 



The state of Illinois has established five 

 great normal schools and has equipped 

 them in a most liberal way, and will con- 

 tinue with increasing liberality to keep 

 them fully abreast of the times. They are 

 doing a work which no other element in 

 our school system is doing, and I expect, 

 for my part, to see them improve and grow 

 rather than decrease, and the state univer- 

 sity and the normal school together will 

 form, if you please, a single institution for 

 furnishing, in the most efficient and eco- 

 nomic method practicable, properly trained 

 men and women for the great system of 

 public schools supported by the state. 



But the state university, it seems to me, 

 must proceed further than I have thus far 

 indicated, and with one or two brief sug- 

 gestions as to some of the directions in 

 which the state university will develop, I 

 shall bring these considerations to a close. 



The state university will become more 

 and more a great civil service academy, 

 preparing the young men and women of 

 the state for the civil service of the state, 

 the county, the municipality and the town- 

 ship, exactly as the military and naval 



