MISSOURI STATE NORMAL SCHOOL, 
what we need is the best plans wrought out by men who believe'in them. As 
matters are, the State has the men, but it has not furnished the means. The 
appropriation to the North Missouri School ought to be doubled. 
“If it be possible to secure a Legislature capable of appreciating the educa- 
tional needs of the State, it will be seen by such a body that above all should 
the Normal Schools be fostered and cared for.” 
EEPORT or SEITATE COMMITTEE. 
Your Committee on Education, having, as instructed by Senate resolu- 
tion, visited the Normal School located at Kirksville, with a view of ascer- 
taining its condition and efficiency, respectfully submit the following report : 
We visited the institution on Saturday, the 7th inst., examined carefully the 
classes, the course of instruction pursued in the school, its management, and 
the condition of the building. We found the school in charge of Professor 
Baldwin and associate teachers. They are bringing to their aid all their 
talents, learning and energy in fitting our young men and women for the 
responsible duty of taking charge of the Public Schools of the State. The 
number of pupils registered in the school the present year, is 565. They 
are from nearly every county in the District, and from various other counties 
throughout the State. 
The new building, recently erected, and occupied about one year, is admi- 
rably adapted for the purposes of . a school of the character of the one at 
Kirksville. It is beautifully located on a lot of fifteen acres of ground donated 
by the people of Kirksville for this purpose. It commands a fine view of the 
surrounding country. It is easy of access from all directions. It will be a 
credit to the State for all time. 
Your Committee were gratified to find the pupils in attendance at this school 
to be composed of those who are fitting themselves by* their own exertions 
for their profession, and also to be able to say that, although the Normal 
Schools are comparatively new institutions in the policy of our State, the 
vigor and talent displayed in the one to which our visit was made, if pursued 
by all, must soon present their benefits in a manner to be correctly appreciated 
by the people, and dispel the prejudice against them which, to some extent, 
now exists. 
The system of instruction pursued at this, school compels the student 
to think, investigate the subject, and form his own ideas, and give his 
answers in his own words— a system which we believe admirably adapted to 
develop all the powers of the mind. 
We are convinced that the proper method to make our Common Schools 
effective and durable, to make them what they were designed to be, and should 
be, the means of proper education to all the children of the State, they must be 
placed in charge of those whose education has been directed, with that pur- 
pose, by teachers of experience. We believe no more effective aid can be 
rendered to the Common Schools than by fostering and sustaining the Normal 
Schools of our State ; in other words, we believe that they are but separate 
branches of the same great system, and that as life is infused into one, it will be 
necessarily felt in the other. The persons educated at our Normal Schools 
are rapidly permeating the entire State, and all schools will be more or less 
D. MOOEE, 
E. H. BEOWNE, 
X ^ ^ , WILL. C. EANNEY, 
Jefferson City, Feb. 18, 1874. Committee of Senate. 
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