LIBRARY OF CONGRESS. Chap. _____ Copyright I\ T o.. Shell /> UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. _ Dr. E. A. SHELDON. THE CONTEIBUTIOB" THE OSWEGO NORMAL SCHOOL EDUCATIONAL PROGRESS IN THE UNITED STATES / HOLLIS BT OF APR 2 91898 J BOSTON, U.S.A. r^0/ D. C. HEATH & CO., PUBLISHERS 1898 ^ two COPIES RECEIVED. 2nd COPY, TW0^ r ' 1898- ^loTW o> • ?4 Copyright, 1898, By D. C. Heath & Co. tt^^nu r Ttpogbaphy bt C. J. Peters ' W8$j®& w|l MATILDA S. COOPER (.Mrs. I. B. Poucher). CHAPTER IV. APPLICATION OF THE OSWEGO IDEA IN NORMAL SCHOOLS. It is impracticable to trace separately the lines of Oswego influence mentioned at the close of the last chapter. They were stated individually for the sake of clearness, but in practice the three phases went together and produced the change in form and spirit of instruc- tion known as the Oswego System. To some extent, however, the effect of the new methods upon the Nor- mal Schools of the country lends itself to separate treatment. Counting all schools bearing the name "Normal," we may say that there were some twenty Normal Schools in this country in 1860, of which only about one-half that number deserved that distinctive title. During the next decade this number was in- creased to nearly one hundred, 1 as against the twenty established during the two decades preceding 1860 ; and these latter were, moreover, in much greater per- centage, bona fide Normal Schools. Eighteen of these bona fide Normal Schools were set up west of the Alle- 1 One hundred and fourteen are reported in Commissioner's Report for 1871 . Several of these, however, were departments in other schools, and some few others were short-lived, private enterprises. 39 40 THE OSWEGO NORMAL SCHOOL. ghanies, 1 eleven being State Normal Schools and seven public, city Normal and Training-Schools. Five of these were in the cities of Davenport (Iowa), Indianapolis, Fort Wayne, Cincinnati, and Dayton. These, it will be shown, were with scarcely an exception organized by Oswego graduates. In 1895 it was estimated that the number of Normal Schools of all classes had increased to three hundred and fifty-six, — one hundred and fifty -five of them being public Normal Schools, — while the number of gradu- ates from all institutions offering training-courses for teachers was estimated at twelve thousand. 2 Moreover, the Normal idea has at last won recognition from the universities and colleges ; and in 1895 six thousand, four hundred and two students were taking pedagogical training in one hundred universities and colleges. It is evident that among these numerous centres of pedagogical progress, no one institution could maintain the somewhat exclusive supremacy that Oswego en- joyed during its first two decades. It will be the pur- pose of this chapter to show to some extent the basis upon which that supremacy rested, by exhibiting the influence of Oswego upon the Normal Schools of the country so far as that influence can be traced in the di- rect work of Oswego graduates in these schools. It is unfortunate for such attempts to trace influence that we must confine ourselves to this direct method. 1 Historical Sketches, p. 66. 2 U. S. Commissioner of Education. Report for 1894-95. THE OSWEGO IDEA IN NORMAL SCHOOLS. 41 The indirect effects elude our search. It would be very interesting to show how many schools had been modified, how many ideals changed, how many impulses started, by individuals and groups of individuals merely having read of Oswego's work through the various re- ports published concerning it, or from having heard ad- dresses from Oswego graduates and teachers who were in popular demand as platform speakers in many State and national gatherings of teachers. A very good example of this indirect influence is the change which school text-books have undergone in the last thirty years in the direction of the Oswego reforms. For not only have Oswego graduates themselves done their share of producing better text-books, but men who were never in direct contact with the Oswego methods have furnished books in response to the demands created by those methods. But it is manifestly a hopeless task to trace any of these indirect influences. Such intangible im- pulses lose themselves in the host of influences that operate in the educational world; for while it will be clear that to Oswego is due the honor of giving a defi- nite start and momentum to these impulses in this country, it is doubtless true that the air was full of the spirit of reform ; and a decisive movement having once started, there were, of course, men and women who en- tered into the new truths independently of any con- scious Oswego influence. Confining ourselves then, as we must for purposes of demonstration, to the direct work of Oswego graduates 42 THE OSWEGO NORMAL SCHOOL. in the Normal School, we find first, that the New York State Normal Schools were very promptly and effec- tively brought into line by Oswego's graduates. An Act passed in 1866, formally making the Oswego institution a State Normal School, 1 provided for six Normal Schools. In a paper 2 read at the twenty-fifth anniversary of the Oswego Normal School (1866), Professor Krusi reported that: — " The Fredonia (N.Y.) State Normal and Training-School at one time took nearly its entire corps of teachers from Oswego, Dr. Armstrong, the principal, having been teacher here (Oswego Normal). The State Normal and Training-Schools of Brockport, Potsdam, Genesee, Buffalo, Cortland, and New Paltz, have been organized on the same plan, and each has employed one or more graduates of the Oswego School as teachers of methods and for general training-work. The Oswego school may justly claim the credit, which is cheerfully accorded to her on every hand, of hav- ing laid the foundation and paved the way for the establishment of all the newer Normal and Training-Schools of the State." Another authority 3 indorses and broadens this claim in the following words : — " All the State Normal Schools excepting the one at Albany 4 1 The Oswego school became virtually a State Normal School in March, 1863, when the Legislature passed an Act appropriating $3,000 for its support. 2 " History of the (Oswego) Normal School," by Herman Krusi, pub- lished in Historical Sketches of the State Normal and Training-School, Oswego, N.Y. 3 Professor J. P. Gordy, in Rise and Growth of Normal Schools. 4 In a foot-note Professor Gordy added that the Albany Normal School was then (1890) about to incorporate the Oswego plan into its profes- sional work. THE OSWEGO IDEA IN NORMAL SCHOOLS. 43 have been organized on the Oswego plan. Normal College in New York City was organized on the same plan with Oswego graduates to do the work in methods and criticism . . . and Oswego graduates were invited to organize training-schools in Rochester, Syracuse, and Malone, N. Y." Dr. A. D. Mayo, in a classic address delivered at Os- wego in 1886, said: — " But outside your own limits, your work has been greatly magnified in New York. Half a dozen new State schools have been established since the day when I used to drop into the first Normal in Albany ; and all these have been organized according to your plan and largely set in motion by your graduates. If I am rightly informed, your vigorous institute system is working on the same lines ; while the great city Normal Schools of New York and Brooklyn, with numerous local training-schools and the summer assemblies at Chautauqua and elsewhere are all but rep- etitions and applications of the new primary education inaugu- rated here twenty-five years ago. In saying this, I would do full justice to the many celebrated teachers of New York who have never been connected with these institutions. But whatever may be claimed concerning priority of thought, we must certainly look to Oswego as the earliest and most successful embodiment of this great movement, which in a quarter of a century has revolution- ized the primary instruction of the country." In 1867 Dr. Sheldon was offered the principalship of the Albany Normal, and in the same year the charge of the Pedagogical Department in the University of Mis- souri, but declined because he feared to jeopardize the growing interests of the school which was to be the monument of his life's work, and of which he has been the honored head for thirty-six years. .44 THE OSWEGO NORMAL SCHOOL. There is abundant evidence at hand to show that this process which went on so efficiently in the Normal Schools of New York State was operative in like manner iD many other States, east and west. New England, the birth- place of the Normal School and of nearly all other phases of educational progress in this country, was not too proud to be taught by its original western neighbor. At the time of Oswego's birth, New England was the fortunate possessor of five Normal Schools, four in Mass- achusetts and one in Connecticut. Most of these insti- tutions were pioneers in the cause of special training for teachers. To the measure of success they achieved was due the successful transplanting from Prussia of the Normal School idea in this country. The high char- acter of their work brought dignity to the profession, and the superior quality of the work done by the teach- ers they sent out all over New England demonstrated to the friends of education that there was a profitable realm — namely, theory and practice of teaching — which was yet to be worked for its best fruits. These early Normal Schools mapped out the territory, made some earnest explorations around its edges with now and then a dash into the interior, frequently exhibiting, Co- lumbus-like, before the eyes of a delighted populace speci- men-treasures from the great unknown wealth within. Thus, all of them forced a higher scholarship upon New England teachers, — indeed, one of their graduates who joined the pilgrimage to the Oswego Mecca in 1862 has recently expressed to me her utter surprise at finding THE OSWEGO IDEA IK NORMAL SCHOOLS. 45 teachers taking part in the Oswego work who could boast only of a common school education. 1 These New England Normals did pioneer work also in the important matter of co-education, for they ad- mitted women at the outset to all the privileges of the schools, and demonstrated the peculiar value of woman in the education of children. The failings of the New England Normal have al- ready been pointed out in the first chapter of this sketch. When all is said, it remains that these schools were conservatives, and contented themselves with perfecting a pedagogy which rested upon principles, many of them true enough, but still fragmentary, unorganized, and indissolubly linked to conventional applications. That New England in time saw this, the following extract from Dr. Mayo's address on " The Normal School in America," will show. After paying a deserved tribute to the pioneer work of the New England Normal, he continued: — 1 Relative to the scholarship required hy Oswego of its students, this statement is found on p. 73 of Circular No. 8, issued by the Bureau of Education : — " At the outset, as we have seen, the school was organized as a strictly professional school. Candidates for admission were required to have pursued a course of study equal in thoroughness and extent to that pur- sued in the best high schools of the State. But the faculty of Oswego soon discovered that the knowledge of such students was not sufficiently thorough, or at least that a sufficient number of pupils, with a suffi- ciently thorough preparation, could not be found to fill the school on that plan. Accordingly, in 1865, it was decided to add a course of study in the English branches to the more strictly professional work. In 1867 the ancient and modern languages were added." 46 THE OSWEGO NORMAL SCHOOL. "But there was yet a great step forward to be taken. The spirit of the college and academy still brooded over the New Normal School. Its leading teachers were college graduates, and still believed with a mighty faith in the efficacy of exclusive lec- turing and class-room instruction. Their pupils were generally very young people, with only the crude knowledge gained in the country schools ; and two years seemed quite too short a time to stack them with useful knowledge, and give them an outfit in methods and rules for their coming work. Hence with few excep- tions the practice-school was ignored, and at best, a system of class-recitation, with occasional observation of school-work and lesson-giving used in its place. The senseless objection of ignorant parents, and stubborn opposition of jealous schoolmasters, often prevented the attempt to secure a great public school for observa- tion and practice under experts. " This has turned out the one serious defect of the New England State Normal. . . . For this reason a few years of good primary school-keeping in Quincy Mass., by that eminent genius for pri- mary instruction, Colonel Parker, ten years ago, so amazed certain eminent scholars and publicists of that locality, that the work was widely heralded as a discovery, and the 'Quincy System/ was elaborately written up throughthe land." 1 " I shall not soon forget my first visit to the Boston Training- School of fifteen years ago, where one of the most accomplished 1 Professor William F. Phelps, late principal of the Winona, Minn., State Normal School, in a recent letter, called my attention to the fact that twelve years before Colonel Parker did his excellent work at Quincy, the Winona School was doing similar work from Oswego models. The fact that quite elaborate "Nature Studies" constituted the basis of the expressive work at Oswego from the very beginning will be clearly seen by reference to Dr. Sheldon's Reports to the Board of Education at Os- wego, from 1859 to 1869. The Report of the Committee of educators made in 1861, and the one received by the National Educational Association (1865), give special notice to the Nature work done at Oswego. THE OSWEGO IDEA IN NOKMAL SCHOOLS. 47 of your graduates, after many days, had compelled the attention of the most self-contained body of public school men in America. Out of that beautiful school has been developed a great deal more than we Yankees are accustomed to pass to the credit of New York. There is no portion of the country now more thoroughly alive with primary and common school reform than the more pro- gressive part of New England ; and the best thing that can be said of Oswego is, that she is only too glad to gather in all these later fruits, with no offensive claims to her own service in the planting-time of twenty years ago." The Oswego graduate to whom Dr. Mayo refers above was Miss Jennie Stickney (now Mrs. John A. Lansing), of whose work Professor Gordy writes : — " Miss Jennie Stickney, a graduate of the Salem (Mass.) State Normal School, after completing the course at Oswego, was em- ployed by the Boston Board to organize a city training-school on the plan of the Oswego School, and train their teachers in the new methods. She was for many years the principal of this school, until it grew into the present city Normal School, with Dr. Larkin Dunton at its head." Professor Gordy cites also the well-known Worcester, Mass., Normal as a New England development from the work of Oswego graduates. He says, " Miss Rebecca Jones, a lady of large experience, came from Worcester, Mass., to Oswego, and immediately after graduation was invited by the Worcester School Board to organize a training-school in that city on the Oswego plan, which has developed into the present State Normal School of national reputation, with Mr. Russell as principal." He also records the fact that a city training-school was 48 THE OSWEGO NORMAL SCHOOL. organized in Lewiston, Me., by another Oswego gradu- ate, Miss Pond. The training-school at Portland, Me., also was organized by an Oswego graduate. Miss Stickney is more widely known through her text-books in Language and Reading than through her work at the Boston Normal. 1 These text-books have enjoyed a wide and well-merited popularity, and are all excellent examples of one way in which the Oswego principles have become disseminated throughout the land. A new State Normal School has just been opened at Hyannis, Mass. ; and Mr. W. A. Baldwin, an Oswego graduate, has been called upon to become its principal, and to organize it upon the Oswego plan. An Oswego graduate is teaching in the Springfield Training-school at North Adams. 1 The Boston Normal was one of the first of the new type of City- Normal and Training-schools set afoot in various parts of the country by Oswego graduates. A recent editorial in an educational magazine throws considerable light upon the origin and the need of the City Training- School : — " One of the decided superiorities of the New York public school sys- tem was the new departure in methods of instruction at the Oswego State Normal School, some five and twenty years ago. And perhaps the most valuable feature was the organization of the City Training-School for teachers. At that date the State Normal Schools everywhere were thronged with pupils, largely from the rural districts and villages, whose academic preparation was of the most elementary sort. The emphasis of instruction was of necessity on the academic side, and thousands of these graduates went forth with a scholarship inferior to that of the higher grammar-grades in the schools of every considerable city. It was largely because of this lack of reliable scholarship that the training in Pedagogy in the State Normal was so ineffective ; for until one knows what to teach, a method is practically of little importance. Even so late as 1860, only one State Normal School in Massachusetts had a prac- THE OSWEGO IDEA IN NORMAL SCHOOLS. 49 Miss Sarah J. Walter, for many years the able head of the School of Practice at Oswego, is now at the head of a similar department in the Normal School at Wil- limantic, Conn. An Oswego graduate is also at work in the New Britain Normal School. The State Normal School at Trenton N. J., one of the best of those founded before the Oswego Normal, was one of the first to investigate the new methods. Its able principal was Professor Wm. F. Phelps, whose report of the work at Oswego has been already referred to. After his visit, Professor Phelps immediately sent one of his teachers to Oswego to learn the new system. Of the changes effected by this one teacher upon her return, Professor Phelps writes : — " One of the most striking and valuable features of this exper- iment was its suggestiveness. It was an < eye opener ' ; and it at tice department; and ten years previous not half-a-dozen teachers in the schools of the city of Springfield were graduates of the neighboring State Normal at Westport. President Sheldon of Oswego, followed by the New York State Normals, made it possible that the improved meth- ods of instruction should be successfully worked in the larger cities of the Middle and Western States by his admirable organization of the city training-school especially for primary teachers; of which every pupil should be a graduate of the city high school or its equivalent, and for at least one year be under the training of expert teachers, with a large section of the public schools set apart for a practice department. " New England with characteristic independence very slowly followed this lead. In several large towns, what was called a training-school was simply a group of high-school graduates, set to teach in a large building on half pay, under a master who was expected to give such professional instruction and guidance as possible to his worn-out subor- dinates." — Education, November, 1896. 50 THE OSWEGO NORMAL SCHOOL. once set other teachers to thinking and studying, and the influ- ence of this one partially trained teacher extended far beyond the limits of her own room, to the school at large, and to the public schools of the town. . . . This experiment, imperfect as it was, led to lasting improvement. The new ideas, once finding a lodg- ment, were found to remain, and to grow in influence and power ; and the Normal School at Trenton to-day is in the front rank of institutions of its class in respect to its character, courses, and methods of instruction, and this is largely due to the impetus given it at that time." * In Pennsylvania, Professor Gordy states that Os- wego graduates were invited to organize Training- Schools at Philadelphia and at Reading. The new West was quickly responsive to the new methods. It was young, unconventional, little tram- melled by old traditions. It was settled by men who grasped opportunities. It had a consciousness that it could buy the best things the East could furnish. It was growing ambitious to possess a literature and an art. It was sensitive to remarks made about its educa- tion. It would have teachers as good as the best, methods as modern as its own life, — methods that were practical, real, and would yield quick results. These characteristics were inherent in the Oswego methods ; and the West adopted them in good, hearty, Western fashion. Says Dr. Mayo : — " But I am inclined to think no one influence during the past generation has been so potent in the Western common school- room as the Oswego Normal. While whole sections of the older THE OSWEGO IDEA IN NORMAL SCHOOLS. 51 States have been occupied in nailing Normal sign-boards on country academies of the old-time sort, the Western States, with the single exception of Ohio, have established one of the most effective systems of State Normal Schools and Institutes in the country. Ohio has perhaps led in the number and importance of her city Normal Schools, which, with the one exception of the admirable school at St. Louis, have led all American cities in the training of teachers. Every Normal School, as far as I know, State or city, between Pittsburg and San Francisco, has been or- ganized on the Oswego plan ; and hundreds of her graduates have been at work in them since 1865." 1 It is very desirable that the particulars upon which such generalizations are based be exhibited to the reader, and this can conveniently be done by tracing the labors of Oswego graduates in the Normal Schools of the West by States. The opinions of competent eye-witnesses of this peaceful revolution will also prove of some value in helping us to gain a correct idea of what was accom- plished. Miss Amanda Funnelle was graduated from the class of '62. She taught two years in the training-school at Oswego, which position she left to take charge of the model primary department in the State Normal School at Albany, N.Y., the oldest of the New York Normal Schools. At the end of three years this position was given up that she might introduce the new methods in the City Training-School at Indianapolis, then just organized. From here Miss Funnelle was called to 1 " The Normal School in America," hy A. D. Mayo, in Historical Sketches of the State Normal and Training-school at Oswego, 1886. 52 THE OSWEGO NORMAL SCHOOL. become the teacher of methods of primary instruction in the Indiana State Normal School at Terre Haute. Here Miss Funnelle put in eleven years of work. Sub- sequently she added Detroit, Mich., to her itinerary, where she held the position of principal teacher of the Detroit normal- and training-class, having for her assis- tant the Miss Scott who has lately done such original work in the City Training-School of Detroit. The In- diana Normal Schools in which Miss Funnelle labored have sent out hundreds of graduates, who have thus taken the Oswego methods into every section of the State. President Smart of Purdue University thus re- ports the results of his observation of Oswego influence in Indiana : — " I am very glad to give you my opinion concerning the influ- ence of the Oswego Normal School upon the educational interests of Indiana. I have had several Oswego graduates working under my immediate supervision for a number of years, and during my term of office as State Superintendent of Indiana I observed the work of many others. Oswego graduates have been employed in some of our large cities as superintendents of training-schools, and as teachers in other departments, and as instructors in our State Normal School. I am free to say that to the influence of no class of teachers are we so much indebted as to those who have come to us from Oswego. Those who are acquainted with the work and influence of the City Training-School of Indianap- olis, of the City Training-School of Fort Wayne, and of the work of the training-teachers in the State Normal School, will, I am sure, indorse this statement." 1 1 Quoted by Mrs. Delia Lathrop Williams, in an article on "The Influence of the Oswego State Normal School in the West," contained in Historical Sketches of the State Normal School at Oswego. THE OSWEGO IDEA IN NORMAL SCHOOLS. 53 The unusual compliments bestowed by Dr. Rice on the Indianapolis schools on his recent trip of investiga- tion have their foundation in the good work done by Miss Funnelle in the training-school of that city, and ably continued by Superintendent L. H. Jones, an Oswego graduate, now superintendent of the schools of Cleveland, Ohio. 1 Mr. Jones was graduated from Oswego in 1870, and immediately responded to the Western call in accepting a position in the State Normal School at Terre Haute, Ind. At the end of a year's work in the Normal at Terre Haute, Mr. Jones spent one year in the Indian- apolis High School, and the next eight years as princi- pal of the Normal Training-School at Indianapolis. The subsequent ten years were occupied as superintendent of the schools of Indianapolis, in which position his work attracted national attention. For many years he has been a force in the National Educational Associa- tion, and was a member of the famous Committee of Fifteen. Last year Superintendent Jones was chosen president of the Department of Superintendence. It is easy to see how through the work of such men and women Oswego ideas grew into dominant forces, and her methods became common property in the Western States. No State has been more thoroughly saturated with the Oswego innovations than Ohio. The chief educa- tiona 1 centres of Ohio to-day are those in which Oswego 1 Forum, December, 1892. 54 THE OSWEGO NORMAL SCHOOL. influence early became the controlling element. Miss Sarah Duganne, an Oswego graduate of the class of '64, accepted the principalship of the Cincinnati Training- School. In 1886 it had sent out eight hundred and twenty young women imbued with the Oswego spirit, who have honeycombed the schools of Ohio. The Day- ton Normal School placed at its head a woman trained in Oswego principles at the Cincinnati Normal, and be- tween the years 1869 and 1885 it had sent forth one hundred and ninety-nine young women to join forces with the eight hundred and twenty from the Cincinnati Normal. Cleveland has a flourishing training-school as a result of the general movement set afoot by Oswego graduates. During its first ten years it sent out more than five hundred teachers. The able superintendent of the Cleveland schools is an Oswego graduate. San- dusky organized a training-school on the Oswego plan, and the training-school at Columbus was started with an Oswego graduate at its head. Dr. E. E. White, one of the foremost educators of the last quarter century, thus speaks of Oswego influ- ence in Ohio and Indiana : — " I take pleasure in bearing testimony to the fact that this school exerted in its early history marked influence on primary instruction in Ohio and Indiana, a more effective influence than all the other Normal Schools in the country." 1 Quoted by Mrs. Delia Lathrop Williams in her paper in Historical Sketches of the State Normal and Training-School, Oswego, N.Y. THE OSWEGO IDEA IN NORMAL SCHOOLS. 55 And Dr. Hancock, " a man thoroughly conversant with the history of every public-school movement in the Mis- sissippi Valley," says : — "I am sure the Institute of 1867 in Cincinnati, in which those eminent teachers and Oswegoans, Dr. Armstrong, Professor Kriisi, Miss Seaver, Miss Cooper, and Mrs. Mary Howe Smith took part, marked an era in the schools of that city. They presented the business of teaching in a light in which it had not been seen be- fore by the large body of teachers there assembled. The spirit infused into this body by this new education was the main cause of the establishment of the city Normal School, with Miss Sarah Duganne, an Oswego graduate, at its head. She was followed by Miss Delia A. Lathrop, another Oswego graduate, who, with the assistance of four other graduates of Oswego, carried forward the work for seven years. Here was begun the great fight between dynamic and mechanic instruction, — a fight that has been going on ever since with somewhat varying success, but on the whole with a sure gain of territory by the first of these belligerent parties." Mrs. Mary Howe Smith (Pratt), mentioned in the quotation above, informs me that institutes similar to the one at Cincinnati were held for a succession of years in various parts of Ohio and Indiana, and aroused immense enthusiasm, resulting in an immediate increase in the number of applicants from Ohio and Indiana for admis- sion to the Oswego school. Mrs. Smith was in great demand for her clear expositions of the Oswego methods, and her aid was solicited by Professor Guyot of Prince- ton to apply the Pestalozzian principles to his well- known series of geography text-books. Oswego methods early secured a foothold in Iowa. 66 THE OSWEGO NORMAL SCHOOL. A Normal department had been a prominent feature of the University of Iowa since 1857. The Report of the United States Commissioner of Education for 1867-68 calls attention to the fact that Oswego graduates had reached that department. In the same volume we are told of a City Training-School in one of the cities of the State, that the " instruction is similar to that given in the Elementary Training-course at Oswego." Of Ottumwa, Iowa, the same report says, " The superin- tendent was successful in obtaining a competent and experienced teacher, and the training-school was opened in the autumn of '67. Miss Pride, the training-teacher secured, was a graduate of the Normal Training-School at Oswego, N.Y." In 1862 an Oswego graduate, Miss Mary V. Lee, known as Dr. Lee to all Oswego people, in company with Mrs. Mary E. McGonegal, opened the Davenport, Iowa, Training-School for teachers, under the general direction of Superintendent Kissell. Dr. Lee was one of the strongest personalities connected with the spread of the Oswego movement ; and her work in Iowa, as elsewhere, was full of life and suggestiveness, and created a profound impression in that section. Professor H. H. Seeley, president of the Iowa State Normal School at Cedar Falls, writes me that twenty- four years ago he was a student in the department of didactics at the State University, in which the teacher of methods was an Oswego graduate. "I therefore ob- tained from her," says he, "more or less of the first information and scientific conception of methods and plans in elementary education." THE OSWEGO IDEA IN NORMAL SCHOOLS. 57 " You can set Minnesota down as a Normal State ac- cording to the standard established at Oswego." These few words of Professor William F. Phelps tell the story of Oswego's remarkable achievement in Minnesota. The Winona, Minn., Normal School, originally pro- jected in 1860, was not put on a working basis until 1864, when President Phelps of the Trenton Normal School, and chairman of the Committee of Educators at Oswego in 1861, was invited to become its president. This he did in radical fashion. His plan was to make it over completely, according to the plans he had just witnessed at Oswego. Accordingly he filled the faculty immediately with Oswego graduates, or teachers in- structed in the training-schools established by Oswego graduates. In the spring of 1865 he called Dr. Lee from her Davenport work to become his first assistant at Winona. Of her work here he speaks as follows : — " Miss Lee was admirably equipped, both by nature and train- ing, for her responsible position. She had been very successful at Davenport, and had turned out many excellent disciples of the Oswego dispensation ; and as the institution at Winona enlarged I secured several other ladies from the Davenport school, . . . all of whom were well fitted to illustrate the ideas of the new education ; and the result was, that we had a second edition of Oswego transplanted to the new State of Minnesota." The Winona Normal was the first in the State, and set the standard for the other four since established. Professor Phelps writes that there are Oswego gradu- 58 THE OSWEGO NORMAL SCHOOL. ates in all the Normals, and that they have been there from the beginning. The training-departments of the Mankato and St. Cloud Normals were put in charge of Oswego graduates. Of the normal schools in Minne- sota, Professor Phelps concludes, — " They owe their strength and usefulness to the development of the methods taught at Oswego, and the public schools are reap- ing the benefits." Michigan was one of the first States to yield to. the persuasiveness of the Oswego methods ; for the first grad- uating class of the Oswego Normal (in 1862) sent two of its best teachers to its schools, — Miss Kate Davis who went to East Saginaw, developed its Training- School, and has worked chiefly in Training-Schools since, and Miss Amanda Funnelle, whose work in the Detroit Training-School has already been mentioned. Since then the alumni record shows, that, with one ex- ception, every year for twenty-five years has furnished one or more graduates to the schools in various parts of the State, including the Training-School at Grand Rapids. At present Miss Anna B. Herrig, an Oswego graduate, is the efficient Superintendent of the Depart- ment of Practice in the newly established Central Mich- igan State Normal School. Michigan's sister State, Wisconsin, at a later period incorporated Oswego methods in some of its principal educational institutions. Of one way in which this was accomplished, Professor William F. Phelps writes : — THE OSWEGO IDEA IN NOBMAL SCHOOLS. 59 " In 1876 I was called to preside over one of the Wisconsin Normal Schools. The new methods had not then any foothold in that conservative State. In making changes in the teaching force, I drew upon Oswego for those progressive elements needed to work a reform in the school and its antiquated notions and practices. The effect of the introduction of those teachers was revolutionary ; but it introduced many salutary changes and im- provements, that have not been lost upon the Normal School system of that Commonwealth." Wisconsin now has seven State Normal Schools or- ganized on the Oswego plan, and doing work of which any State might be proud. Miss Margaret W. Morley, author of those charming books, Songs of Life and Seed Babies, and a former teacher at Oswego, has done some especially good work at the Milwaukee Normal School ; so did also Miss Eleanor Worthington, another Oswego graduate. An item in the History of Education in Wisconsin, edited by Dr. J. W. Stearns, shows that Mrs. Anna Randall (Diehl) of Oswego was employed in the first faculties of both the Whitewater and Platteville Normals (1868) as teacher of reading and elocution. Training departments are still being organized by Oswego graduates in these Northwestern States. A recent letter from President Beadle of the new State Normal School at Madison, S. Dak., gives in substance the following data : — The school was organized in 1883, and proceeded with a faculty few in numbers till the fall of 1887, when the force was enlarged, and the following graduates from Oswego were appointed : — 60 THE OSWEGO NORMAL SCHOOL. M. Adelaide Holton, Principal of Training-School. Theory and Practice of Teaching Annie Klingensmith, Drawing, Critic Teacher in Training-School In 1889 was added from Oswego, Clara Holton, Critic Teacher, Vocal Music. In 1890, Harriet Eastabrooks, Critic Teacher. In 1892, Anna B. Herrig, Principal of Training-School, Methods Critic. Emma E. Rowe (Mrs. Grant Smith), Critic. The next year both these ladies resigned, and the fol- lowing teachers from Oswego supplied their places : — Bernice M. Wright, Principal of Training-School. Nellie Collins, Primary Critic. Burgess Shank, Drawing. Botany, Zoology, Physiology. Miss Wright (now Mrs. Shank) and Mr. Shank are now studying in Jena, Germany. " Oswego has therefore," says President Beadle, " directly and greatly influenced the whole life and work of the school in train- ing teachers and graduates, one hundred and fifty of whom are now THE OSWEGO IDEA IN NORMAL SCHOOLS. 61 teaching with great success in this State, a few of them in other States." This school furnishes a good example of the way in which most of our Western Normal Schools have devel- oped their professional work. In Illinois the work of Oswego teachers has been quite generally distributed among the public schools of the State. Among the Normal Schools it has been most notable in Colonel Parker's school at Chicago, formerly the Cook County Normal. A member of Oswego's second graduating-class (1863) taught seven years in the Cook County Normal. Since then Colonel Parker has freely employed Oswego teachers. 1 Profes- sor H. H. Straight 2 and his wife, Mrs. Emma Dicker- man Straight, whose work in Nature Studies at Oswego was most original, were picked out from the Oswego faculty by Professor Parker's discerning eye. Professor Parker calls them pioneers in the teaching of elementary science to little children. The following Oswego graduates, also, were captured by Colonel Parker : — Mr. George Fitz, now a professor at Harvard; Mrs. Mary Ailing- Aber, author of An Experiment in Educa- tion ; Miss Eleanor Worthington and Dr. Marie Mergler. Miss Emily J. Rice, an Oswego graduate, is teaching 1 See Colonel Parker's estimate of the influence of the Oswego Normal School at the close of Chap. II. 2 Professor Straight was for a time Vice-principal of the Cook County Normal. 62 THE OSWEGO NORMAL SCHOOL. at present in Colonel Parker's school. He has recently- pronounced her " one of the best teachers of history and literature in the country." Oswego graduates have also labored in the State Normal School at Normal, 111., and in the training- school at Oak Park. Chicago is now the headquarters of the Western Alumni Association of Oswego graduates. Evidence is not wanting that Missouri early learned of Oswego's work. At the laying of the corner-stone of the Warrensburg Normal, Professor D. H. Crut- tenden of the Oswego Normal delivered one of the addresses. Reference to the alumni record will show that a number of Oswego graduates have taught at this Normal school. Between 1872 and 1875 Professor Straight and his wife, one an Oswego graduate, the other a member of its faculty soon after, were members of the faculty of this institution, then under the prin- cipalship of James Johannot. President Osborne writes me that at the present time the mathematical depart- ment of the Warrensburg Normal is in charge of Pro- fessor George H. Howe, an Oswego graduate ; and a recent addition to the faculty is Professor A. W. Nor- ton, formerly in charge of the Practice Department at Oswego, but more recently principal of the State Nor- mal at Peru, Nebraska. Several Oswego graduates have been identified with the Kirksville Normal, among whom was Professor Charles S. Sheldon, who held for a number of years the THE OSWEGO IDEA IN NORMAL SCHOOLS. 63 chair of Natural Science, and is now doing similar work in his father's school at Oswego. Nebraska has but one State Normal School, organized in 1867. Its professional work was established on the Oswego plan, 1 and Oswego graduates have from time to time been called upon to work in that department; prominent among these was Miss Margaret K. Smith, who held the chair of School of Economy and Methods there. Three years ago the principalship of the institu- tion was conferred upon a former teacher at Oswego, Professor A. W. Norton, and its professional work was put in charge of Miss Anna B. Herrig, an Oswego graduate; the Kindergarten Department and the De- partment of Science were also put under the guidance of Oswego graduates. In Kansas, in 1868, Oswego methods were intro- duced into the Leavenworth Schools by Oswego gradu- ates. A Normal School was established on the Oswego plan, and for six years sent out graduates imbued with the Oswego spirit into different parts of the State. An Oswego graduate taught for eleven years in the State University of Kansas, at Lawrence. Out in New Mexico, a Normal course was established in the University of Mexico by an Oswego graduate. Replies I have recently received show that as far west as Oregon, Oswego graduates are in charge of the Training-Department in the State Normal School at 1 Circular of Information, No. 8, 1891, p. 75, U. S- Bureau of Educa- tion. 64 THE OSWEGO NORMAL SCHOOL. Monmouth. In the new State of Washington an Os- wego graduate is in charge of the Training-Depart- ment of the State Normal at Cheney; and the vice- president of the school is an Oswego graduate. He was recently tendered the principalship of the school, but declined. I am also informed, that, failing to find Normal Schools in Montana and Utah, Oswego gradu- ates have invaded the State universities of those States. Oswego influence in California is most strikingly manifested in the novel work of Earl Barnes, class of '84, and Mary Sheldon Barnes, class of '69, both pro- fessors in Leland Stanford, Jr., University. Professor Barnes, because of his valuable contributions to scien- tific child study, has been ranked next to Stanley Hall, the foremost investigator in our country in his chosen field. Mrs. Barnes is a daughter of Dr. Sheldon, and became generally known first through her Studies in General History, 1 in many respects the most original text-book of the last quarter century, in which the scientific method as applied to the teaching of the sciences at Oswego has found a singularly complete and successful application. Since then, Mrs. Barnes has issued an American history 1 on the same plan, which has met with a remarkable success considering the hard thinking which the method requires of young minds. Both Mrs. Barnes and Professor Earl Barnes are frequent contributors to educational literature, i P. C. Heath & Co., Boston. THE OSWEGO IDEA IN NORMAL SCHOOLS. 65 Other Oswego graduates have done good work for the State Normal School of San Jose. It thus seems reasonably certain that Oswego influ- ence upon the Normal Schools of practically every Western State and Territory has been both direct and powerful. In nearly all the cases cited, Oswego gradu- ates themselves have superintended the introduction of the new system in the Normal Schools ; in other cases these schools have invariably formed the type for the later Normal Schools which the good work of the earlier ones called into existence. At the South, for a long time after the war, the feel- ing between the two sections, which had kept the North and South separate years before the war, confined the work of Oswego graduates almost entirely to the schools for the freedmen. The Pestalozzian methods were pe- culiarly adapted to the awakening mind of a race which had been forced for centuries to derive its ideas from the concrete, — a race from whom books and most forms of abstract thinking had been rigorously removed. "From the concrete to the abstract," was equivalent here to that other Pestalozzian maxim, " From the known to the unknown." The isolated and private character of many of the schools for the negro at the South has made it a difficult task to get detailed ac- counts of Oswego's influence upon this section of our country. In the decade succeeding the war these schools were, with minor exceptions, either completely 66 THE OSWEGO NORMAL SCHOOL. ignored and isolated by the great body of the Southern whites, or more or less actively opposed; a condition of affairs which made the spread of Oswego methods to the white schools almost an impossibility. But in the schools for colored youth the new methods accom- plished most gratifying results, notably at Avery Nor- mal Institute, Charleston, S.C., and Atlanta University, Atlanta, Ga. Professor Amos W. Farnham, now principal of the Department of Practice at the Oswego Normal, was the first to break the way into the South with any con- siderable momentum. He was employed in 1875 as principal of the Avery Normal Institute. He associated with him three Oswego teachers. The professional work was thoroughly organized on the Oswego plan ; and Na- ture Study and Industrial Work, from the start essen- tial features of the Oswego philosophy, here received especial prominence. The graduates of this school were instrumental in spreading the practical features of the new education in many sections of the State among their own people. Four years later Professor Farnham began a similar work at Atlanta University, the leading school in Geor- gia for the higher education of the colored people. Here, again, nature work and industrial education assumed great prominence in the scheme of pedagogy. Evi- dence of the high character of the nature work done here is the book, Development Lessons, by Mr. DeGrafT and Miss M. K. Smith, an Oswego graduate. " The THE OSWEGO IDEA IN NORMAL SCHOOLS. 67 lessons on insects which that book contains are a tran- script of work done in Atlanta University by M. K. Smith, class of January '83. She also gave in that institution the Development Lessons on Form and Plants, and the plant illustrations which the book contains were engraved from drawings made by Miss Smith's pupils." 1 In Charleston and Atlanta, at this period, Professor Farnham reports that their Normal departments were visited by the prominent teachers of the white schools and members of the school boards. " It is plain to be seen," says he, "in localities where good work is done for colored youth, that the whites of those localities increased their efforts for the education of the white youth. And the more progressive patrons of white schools are on the qui vive that their children's school privileges shall not be inferior to those of colored chil- dren in their midst." After remaining at Atlanta three 3^ears, Professor Farnham was called to organize the Normal department of Claflin University in Orangeburg, S.C. At the end of two years, Professor Farnham declined an offer to take charge of the department of Nature Study in the Cook County Normal, that he might continue the effec- tive itinerant missionary work he was doing at the South ; accordingly the next two years were spent in organizing the American Missionary Association's school at Selma, Ala. Professor Farnham's latest work was the establishment of the Orange Park Normal School, 1 Paper by Professor Farnham in " Historical Sketches." 68 THE OSWEGO NORMAL SCHOOL in Orange Park, Fla., a school novel in more than one respect, and one which has lately provoked more atten- tion from the Florida State Superintendent of Educa- tion, the Florida Legislature, and the press at large, than an}' other school in Florida. In 1884 an Oswego graduate, Miss E. D. Santley, became principal of Beach Institute at Savannah, Ga., and successfully applied the Oswego methods in that in- stitution. Spelman Seminary, the largest girls' school in the South, perhaps in the country (it had nine hundred girls a few years ago), has for some time placed its Teach- ers' Training Department under Oswego influence. Early in the '80's Miss Anna Baldwin, an Oswego graduate, carried forward the work in the famous Hamp- ton Normal and Agricultural Institute. Other Oswego teachers have followed her from time to time, one of whom, Miss Susan Showers, has since done a note- worthy work at the new Calhoun School in Lowndes County, Ala. Oswego teachers have worked in Fisk University at Nashville, Tenn., in Tougaloo University at Tougaloo, Miss., in Clarksdale, Miss., Augusta, Ga., and the colored schools at Baltimore. An observant writer on Southern education has said : — " The Southern negro, in some respects, has been more fortu- nate than his white brethren. At Hampton, Va., is established one of the best training-schools in the South, which has sent forth great numbers of effective teachers for the colored children. The < Colleges ' and ' Universities,' perhaps a score in number, THE OSWEGO IDEA IN NORMAL SCHOOLS. 69 that have been established by Northern missions, made the mis- take, at first, of pitching the key too high, and leaving out of account the mighty factor of heredity in dealing with their pupils. It has been largely owing to the graduates of our Northern Nor- mal Schools, who have been employed as teachers, that this cleri- cal and collegiate mistake has been gradually overcome. The gift of Slater has now enabled nearly all of them to inaugurate industrial training. Thus organized, these ' universities ' for the colored people are really in some respects the most original schools in our country, and are destined to become a mighty power in the uplift of the American colored citizen." The limited scope and practical character of these new Normal departments soon proved them to be the very thing needed in the colored schools. The crying necessity for educated teachers for the emancipated race was so apparent to all, that Normal departments needed to waste no time in arguing their case or overcoming scholastic prejudices. They formed an easy transition from the hyper-classical curricula of which Dr. Mayo complains, to the shorter, more immediately useful Eng- lish courses in the " colleges " and " universities." At the present day they are justly the most popular courses in all colored schools engaged in the higher studies. In 1895 eight hundred and forty-four students were graduated from Normal courses in these institutions, while one hundred and eighty-six were graduated from collegiate courses. Many of these Normal courses in the colored schools make considerable provision for in- dustrial training, either in the shape of a nearly parallel industrial course, or of so many hours per week in the Normal course proper. 70 THE OSWEGO NORMAL SCHOOL. All classes of the schools of the South to-day share the benefits of the new education. Not only is the prej- udice against Northern Normal trained teachers in white schools fast disappearing, but every Southern State has its own system of Normal Schools for both races. In these newer Normal Schools at the South, Oswego influence is mostly secondary ; that is, the Northern teachers who have aided in this new awakening at the South have themselves been educated in the Normal Schools so generally established, as shown in the first part of this chapter, under Oswego influences. Oswego graduates introduced the Oswego Methods in the Train- ing-School at Washington, D.C., in the seventies. From the work of Oswego graduates in the Normal Schools of the country, which it has been the purpose of this chapter to exhibit, it is not difficult to realize the tre- mendous influence which Oswego has exerted, through the Normal Schools alone, upon the common schools of the land. Every year these Normal Schools send out thousands of teachers who have learned the new educa- tion in schools whose professional work was organized by Oswego graduates. These teachers can be found in nearly every city and town of the country, — in public schools, private schools, and Kindergartens. The revolution has been complete. The days of the reign of the alphabet, the blue-back speller, the dreary rules, the narrow gauged curriculum, the impenetrable text-book, the sunless, tradition-bound schoolroom and THE OSWEGO IDEA IN NORMAL SCHOOLS. 71 schoolmaster, are happily at an end. The new era of light and love and freedom is the heritage of every American boy and girl. All honor to Pestalozzi, to Dr. Sheldon, and to the American educators, who were so ready to see the good and adopt it. Oswego is a school with a past. It also has a pres- ent. Semi-annually it is sending out graduates with still better equipment than that possessed by those of the first decade ; and wherever they go, their influence is still noticeable for professional zeal and pedagogical skill. A complete census of Oswego graduates now at work in our schools would scarcely pay for the work involved, for it would reveal nothing new. However, some replies recently received to letters of inquiry sent into a number of States will not be without value as evidence. It will of course be recognized that the many excellent Normal Schools in all the States now render the migration of Oswego graduates from New York State exceptional rather than the rule. To trace Oswego graduates throughout New York State would be an endless task. They are to be found in all grades of public schools in all sections of the State. There are about seventy teachers in the public schools of Oswego, all but two or three of whom are Oswego graduates. A goodly number may be found in the schools of Yonkers, Ilion, Albany, New York, Brooklyn, Buffalo, Syracuse, and other cities and vil- lages of the State. In Buffalo Mr. C. N. Millard, '90, is the popular superintendent of all the Grammar 72 THE OSWEGO NORMAL SCHOOL. Grades of the city. Other Oswego graduates may be found there as principals of schools, in the high school, Buffalo Seminary, and on the faculty of the Buffalo Normal School. The Brooklyn Training-School employs Oswego gradu- ates as teachers of methods and critics. A large num- ber are teaching in the Brooklyn city schools, eight are teaching in the Froebel Academy (founded by an Os- wego graduate), and several are members of the faculty of Adelphi College. The Teachers' Training class in Syracuse is in charge of an Oswego graduate ; others are teaching in the high school and grammar schools of the city. Long Island has become remarkably partial to Oswego graduates. One of their number informs me that nearly all the teachers at Sayville, Greenport, Islip, Patchogue, Bay Shore, and Northport are Oswego graduates ; they are also at work on Staten Island and in Long Island City. Indeed, some years ago Long Island supported a flour- ishing Oswego alumni association. Recently it has be- come merged in the New York State Alumni Association of Oswego graduates. Several of the best private schools in New York State select their teaching force largely from among Oswego graduates. Instances are the Misses Masters' Ladies' School at Dobb's Ferry, the Albany Academy, and Emma Willard School at Troy, and the German Academy, Hoboken. In the neighboring State of New Jersey a number of graduates are at work in Paterson, at large salaries ; THE OSWEGO IDEA IN NORMAL SCHOOLS. 73 others at Hasbrouck Institute, Jersey City, and East Orange. New England still keeps in touch with Oswego graduates. The schools at Brookline, Mass., among the best in the country, are permeated with the influ- ence of Oswego graduates. The late superintendent of the Andover Schools (more recently of the schools of Dan vers and Belmont) and a number of his assistants are Oswego graduates. Oswego graduates are teaching in North Adams, Shelburne Falls, Springfield, and other places in Massachusetts. They are in Bridge- port, Stamford, and other places in Connecticut. A number are in Burlington, Vt., and several are in smaller towns of that State. Oswego graduates are at work in the public schools of nearly all of the cities of the Great West. Oswego influence, however, as has been shown, was most strongly felt in the West in the State and city Normal Schools, which now furnish the supply of teachers for the city schools. The Oswego methods have extended beyond the limits of the United States into foreign countries. Canada, where Dr. Sheldon received his first definite suggestions, has from time to time welcomed Oswego graduates to her schools ; and the Canada Board of Education has sent delegates to observe the Oswego work. South of us, in our sister republic, Mexico, an Oswego graduate has been working for fifteen years. South America has employed Oswego graduates, or 74 THE OSWEGO NORMAL SCHOOL. teachers taught by Oswego graduates, quite extensively in some of its States, notably the Argentine Republic. Professor Wm. F. Phelps, who has called the Winona Normal the u second edition of Oswego," was chiefly instrumental in the exodus, and thus refers to it : — " As an example of the secondary influence of Oswego, let me state that in the early '70's there was a call from the Argentine Republic for teachers of the modern type for the Normal schools of that country. One of my graduates, Miss S. E. Wade, was sent there, and was given a commanding position in the Nor- mal School at Parana, where she remained for four years. Her work was so satisfactory that others were called for ; and Miss Frances E. Allen of the Winona School was commissioned, and stayed there for five years or more. The work of these ladies was so acceptable that others still were demanded ; and I was glad to be instrumental in sending some fifteen or twenty in all. Many of them are still there, among them Miss Armstrong of Oswego, and others whose names I cannot now recall. These ladies have wrought a wonderful change in the schools and in the ideas of the people. They have practically shaped the public school policy of that country. I think there were some six or eight Normal Schools supported by the provincial and national government." An Oswego graduate has taught also at Bogota, State of Colombia. Japan is not unacquainted with Oswego methods. Mr. Hideo Takamine, who was graduated from Oswego in 1877, was appointed by the Department of Education in Japan, director of the Higher Normal School at Tokio, a position he filled for nine years. An official THE OSWEGO IDEA IN NORMAL SCHOOLS. 75 in the department informs me that Mr. Takamine " rendered good service to the advancement of general education in Japan." In 1887 Mrs. Emma Dickerman Straight, class of '71, whose work in Nebraska, Missouri, and the Cook County Normal has already been mentioned, went to Tokio, where she taught for a number of years in the Higher Normal School. 1 Miss Harriet S. Ailing, of the class of '83, is at present teaching in that country. A few years ago a Japanese lady spent several months at Oswego in observation. Oswego propagandists have played a large part in the remarkable development which elementary educa- tion has undergone in Hawaii. Since 1872 a number of Oswego graduates have been called to the distant islands, and several are now teaching there. In 1895 two Hawaiian young men were graduated from the Oswego Normal. They were sent there by a wealthy gentleman in that country, and have now returned as teachers to their native islands. 1 For the relation of this school to the other Normal Schools of Japan, see article on "The Educational System of Japan." Report of U. S. Commissioner of Education for 1890-91, vol. i. CHAPTER V. LATER MOVEMENTS AT OSWEGO. Oswego was the first State Normal School in the United States to offer a definite course in the Kinder- garten methods. Its Kindergarten course was estab- lished in 1881. The rooms were large, beautifully decorated and equipped at the start with all the Kin- dergarten necessities that good taste could suggest. The Kindergarten is free to the children of the city, and is exceedingly popular, mothers having to secure places for their children a year ahead. The music, the pic- tures, the warm colors, the merry games, the busy work, and happy faces of delighted children make these rooms an attractive feature for visitors. After the es- tablishment of this department, Oswego graduates had the privilege of watching under skilled direction the unfolding of childhood's buds, from the tots of four years of age in the Kindergarten, through the primary, intermediate, and grammar grades to the high school. The unity of life and the succession of its stages are thus subject to organized observation, and afford con- crete and certain data for the working out of methods adapted to those various changes in the child's evolu- tion. 76 LATER MOVEMENTS AT OSWEGO. 77 Since 1881 one hundred and thirty-two students have availed themselves of this generous provision, and they are now doing efficient work in various sections of our country. In 1888 nine Normal Schools had added a Kinder- garten course to their other courses. Oswego started out originally as a purely profes- sional training-school, requiring a certain academic scholarship as a condition of entrance. This plan was early found to be impracticable, because of the character of academic work which was presented, as well as the small number of pupils possessing the required schol- arship. As soon as it became evident that the train- ing-school must give the matter as well as the method, Oswego added (in 1865) to its one-year professional course two English courses, one requiring two years, the other three. In 1867 a four-years' classical course was added. The last year of these various courses was devoted exclusively to professional work. In 1890 Dr. Sheldon decided to discontinue the teaching of the ancient and modern languages, and to use the time and money formerly , given to such teach- ing to post-graduate courses, providing academical and professional training in more advanced English and scientific studies. The advanced professional course for those preparing themselves for the positions of critic and training-teachers in other Normal Schools has thus far served a very useful purpose. Graduates from this course are in demand among Normal Schools. Gradu- 78 THE OSWEGO NORMAL SCHOOL. ates of marked ability are invited by the faculty to take this course. In 1892 the two-years' elementary course was dropped in all of the State Normal Schools of New York. From the start the Manual -Training Idea — learning by doing — had been a cardinal principle underlying Os- wego methods ; and clay modelling, the making of ele- mentary scientific apparatus, and the various forms of handiwork now familiar in primary schools, occupied a considerable portion of the time of the student-teacher. Gradually facilities for this work grew until now the Oswego school has two large and well-equipped man- ual-training work-shops, — one for the four hundred children forming the practice school, the other for the Normal students proper. The standard jokes on woman's difficulties in driving nails and handling saws would fall rather flat among Oswego girls. The heavier machinery of both shops is run by steam-engines of suitable power. The allied department of mechanical drawing is ex- ceptionally well manned and equipped. Happy are the children taught in the, practice-classes at Oswego. They get the benefit constantly of the newest and best devel- opments in educational method. They were the first to experience the joy of emancipation from books and for- mulas into the inviting life of bird and rock and smil- ing flower ; and many natures here, formerly repressed because of a diffident speech and stumbling perceptions of spellingbook-inconsistencies and arithmetic puzzles, LATER MOVEMENTS AT OSWEGO. 79 rejoiced to find the industrious hand as expressive in its way as the tongue, and to find every growing tree and breathing animal an avenue to the knowledge which spellingbook and arithmetic kept so far away. In this practice-school the first American history that brought them face to face with original sources, and gave them the privilege of constructing their own philosophy of his- tory, saw the light. To them came the first sunny con- tact with the Kindergarten as related to the whole plan of Normal School work ; and with them, as I write, prob- lems are daily being worked out, which being based on their own natures and the constitution of the world about them, will shorten and make more attractive, more accessible, the roads leading to the temple of Truth. 1 Fortunate also the 1900 and more teachers who have entered its portals to study life, to follow all stages of its development, and to intelligently shape the body of knowledge into forms fitted to these stages, so as to get it with minimum waste of effort into eager minds ; but better than all to have received the benediction, the in- spiration, of the life of the man who for thirty-six years remained its faithful head. 1 See An Outline of Nature Study and History and Literature, (1896), School of Practice of the Oswego Normal and Training School. CHAPTER VI. PERSONALITIES IN THE OSWEGO MOVEMENT. DR. E. A. SHELDON. No adequate understanding of the spirit and the methods of Oswego's development can be had, except we put before us, in somewhat clearer light than could be done in the preceding pages, the lives of some of the men and women who have made it what it is. Dr. Sheldon was born in October, 1823, of New Eng- land parents, on a farm in Genesee County, N.Y. His first school-days were spent at an unattractive district school, his own feeling for which may be easily gathered from his remark that he had " gone to school to an ash- heap." Fortunately for his pedagogical development, a wide-awake college-bred man opened an academy at the nearest town, and initiated him at seventeen into the mysteries of Greek and Latin, algebra and geometry. Four years later he entered Hamilton College, purpos- ing at the end of his college-course to study law. Ill health forced him to leave college at the close of his junior year. While at college he was spoken of by his instructors as " a young man of intelligence, ability, the firmest integrity, and a warm heart," — qualities which exhibited the bent of his nature, and led him to 80 PERSONALITIES IN THE OSWEGO MOVEMENT. 81 interest himself in the philanthropic experiment which he began at Oswego, where during the interim he had gone to learn the nursery business. The misery and poverty of the city slums were a revelation to the young man. With him to recognize a condition was to seek for a practical remedy. He went among the tenement houses, making a record of the things he saw, and with this for a text succeeded in getting friends to form an " Orphan and Free School Association," which soon secured a school, but found dim cul ties in getting the right teacher. The enterprise was on the point of being abandoned — Mr. Sheldon was just then about to enter the Auburn Theological Seminary, but gave up his am- bitions to save the orphan school from failure. The story of what developed from here on has been sym- pathetically told by his daughter, Mrs. Mary Sheldon Barnes. " When asked what salary he wanted, he said, ' It will cost me about two hundred and seventy-five dollars a year to live, and this is all I want.' They gave him three hundred dollars, and my father entered what afterward proved his chosen career. " Behold, then, in the early winter of 1848 and 1849, the young schoolmaster before his first school. Utterly without experience, almost without a plan, he stands face to face with one hundred and twenty 'wild Irish boys and girls of all ages, from five to twenty-one,' utterly rude and untrained. Yet, he says, they gave him ' no trouble.' If they engaged in a free fight, it was 82 THE OSWEGO NOEMAL SCHOOL. from ignorance of the proprieties of time and place, not from any desire to be ugly ; if some boys became rest- less, they were sent out to race around the block and see who could be back first. They were called to order by rapping on the stovepipe ; they were held in order and kept to their work by the genuine love he bore to them. I have not been able to find that any case of discipline occurred in this rough 4 ragged school.' As my father went to his work of a morning, his warm- hearted Irish children trooped about him, seizing him by the fingers or the coat-tails, wherever they could best catch hold, to the great amusement of the storekeepers and the passers-by. Saturday morning he spent in pas- toral work, that is, in visiting his pupils at home, and in seeing that they were not suffering for the neces- saries of life. This was the hardest day of his week ; and the young schoolmaster usually found himself ex- hausted by noon, so great was the draft made on his sympathies by ignorance, sickness, incompetence, and misfortune. " The work could not stop here in my father's mind ; and from this beginning . . . sprang in time the organ- ization of free and graded schools in Oswego, and the establishment of the orphan asylum." These developments did not occur without struggle. In 1849 Mr. Sheldon married Miss Frances A. B. Stiles, and in 1850 opened a private school. This venture did not prove a success ; and he applied for and obtained the position of superintendent of schools in Syracuse, PERSONALITIES IN THE OSWEGO MOVEMENT. 83 N.Y. In the two years of his stay he consolidated and graded the elementary schools, and began a collection of books which formed the nucleus of the present valu- able Central Library in Syracuse. He published the first annual report ever made to the city schools, and laid the plans for what is now one of the finest high schools in the State. In 1853 he returned to Oswego, 'this time to thoroughly organize a system of graded free schools for that city. An evidence of his watchfulness and independence are the arithmetic ungraded schools and the unclassified school, which were inserted into the system to meet the wants of the sailor boys, idle from December to April, and of the irregular laboring poor who could not adapt themselves to the graded system. This was in 1859. Since then similar schools have been found indispensable auxiliaries to the public-school sys- tem of many cities. Dr. Sheldon's progressive work with the Oswego schools, resulting finally in the Oswego Normal and Training-School, has been described in former pages. The great exertions which he put forth to develop the Oswego Normal School, and to gain a wide recognition for the Oswego methods, would have borne down a man of a less vigorous constitution. "But these years of labor," says Mrs. Sheldon Barnes, "were, however, also years of honor and recognition. It is almost startling to see how instantly the educa- tional leaders of the day acknowledged the superiority of Oswego methods and ideas. In 1862 my father was elected superintendent of the schools in Troy; but he 84 THE OSWEGO NORMAL SCHOOL. resigned the honor, although the place was more impor- tant and central, and the salary larger by some hundreds than that he then received, for the simple but sufficient reason that he felt that the work in Oswego was not yet ripe for an independent life. The books on methods not only stirred up teachers throughout our own country, but 'had a good sale in England itself ; while the fame of the Oswego schools brought to the modest home by the lake many an educational pilgrim of distinction." In 1867 Dr. Sheldon refused the offer of the principal- ship of the Albany Normal and of the Department of Pedagogy in the University of Missouri for the same conscientious reasons which persuaded him to reject the Troy position. Sacrifices of this nature were not always appreciated, even by the citizens of Oswego. Apart from the opposition Dr. Sheldon had to face, led by Dr. Wilbur, the most serious and keenly felt was that in- stituted by those for whom he had spent his labors, — the people of Oswego themselves. He was accused of teaching cruelty to the children in the lessons on in- sects ; he was dubbed " Pope " because of his great influence with the Board of Education; and now in 1872 the attack was made all along the line on the whole scheme of Pestalozzian instruction. The Board failing to yield to the wishes of the reactionists, the fight was transferred from it to the public press and local poli- tics. Several newspaper extracts preserved by Mrs. Sheldon Barnes will serve to show the spirit of some of these attacks. PERSONALITIES IN THE OSWEGO MOVEMENT. 85 " The Pestalozzian propagandists are just now filling the Press with interminably long and dreary articles on the ' great under- lying principles ' of the i objective methods of teaching.' . . . At the election in May the people will have something to say about a system by which they have been humbugged out of large sums of money and an incalculable amount of time." " The tax-payers of Oswego will see to it that their schools shall be run in the interests of sound, practical education, and not . . . to build fortunes of book-publishing rings and Pestalozzian mono- maniacs." " We have yet to find a person not directly interested in the profits of 'the system' who does not agree with us that read- ing, writing, English grammar, arithmetic, and geography — and those branches only — should be taught in the public shools at public expense." Three years before this onslaught Dr. Sheldon had resigned his place as superintendent of the Oswego schools that he might give his whole time to the Nor- mal School. Thus the attack was not personally- against him as superintendent; but he felt it none the less keenly as being directed against the reform which he initiated, and which was his life. The reactionists gained the day, and for several years the old regime of the text-book and the narrow gauged cheerless curricu- lum attempted to take the place of the subjects and methods characteristic of the New Education. The high school was abolished. The change only served to bring into stronger relief the real merits of the objective studies. For many years Oswego methods and Oswego graduates have held possession of the Oswego public 86 THE OSWEGO NORMAL SCHOOL. schools. To-day the city superintendent is an Oswego graduate, as are all but two or three of the seventy or more teachers under his direction. In 1880 the long years of toil brought on poor health, and Dr. Sheldon offered to resign as principal of the Normal School. The Board would not listen to it, granted him a year or two of rest, and insisted upon continuing his salary. The faculty divided his work among themselves. These evidences of the real feeling of the people toward him materially aided his recovery. In 1881 he reassumed his principalship with the old-time vigor. That year he made the kindergarten an organic part of the train- ing furnished by the Normal School. In 1869 Hamil- ton College conferred upon him the degree of A.M., and in 1875 the Regents of the University of New York added Ph.D. The contribution which the Oswego Normal has made to American pedagogy is certainly a sufficient work for any one life ; yet Dr. Sheldon was not oblivious to edu- cational questions — especially in his native State — which did not distinctly concern the Oswego school. For many years Dr. Sheldon earnestly though pa- tiently labored to secure the abolishment of the double- headed system of educational control in New York State. The difference which has often existed between the Board of Regents of the State and the Department of Public Instruction has long made this a desirable con- summation. In 1874 Dr. Sheldon secured the co-ope- ration of the normal-school principals of the State, who PERSONALITIES IN THE OSWEGO MOVEMENT. 87 sent him and Dr. M. Mc Vicar to Albany to accomplish if possible a unification of all the educational interests of the State. Dr. Sheldon made an address, which has been published, outlining his plan for unification, before the Association of School Commissioners and Superinten- dents of the State. The plan was simple, and approved by the Board of Regents itself, the State superinten- dent, and a conference of prominent educators of the State. Notwithstanding all of this indorsement the bill was killed by purely political influences. Dr. Sheldon, nothing daunted, made another attempt at the time of Mr. Draper's election to the office of State Superinten- dent, but failed to secure his co-operation. His last effort was made before the recent constitutional conven- tion of the State, but political forces again conspired to repress a measure which nearly every one conceded to be good and worthy of adoption. With his accustomed optimism, however, Dr. Sheldon said recently : " Great good, however, has grown out of the movement. It has tended to bring together and relate the educational work of the State, and effect a good state of feeling between the educational men belonging to the two de- partments. In this way a great gain has been made, and so I feel that my work has not been altogether vain." Another movement inaugurated by Dr. Sheldon has shown more tangible results. In 1888 Dr. Sheldon read a plea before the Regents' Convocation at Albany for the establishment of a system of elementary training- 88 THE OSWEGO NORMAL SCHOOL. schools as the lowest grade of a system of professional State schools, of which the then eleven regular Normal Schools would be the next higher grade, and a thorough- going university school of pedagogy would complete the series. The Association of Academic Principals ap- pointed a committee, of which Dr. Sheldon was chair- man, to report on elementary training-schools. The result of this effort was, that the teachers' classes, which were in the academies under the direction of the Board of Regents, were put in the control of the Department of Public Instruction, and they are now making steady improvement with promise of greater things. The other aim of Dr. Sheldon's — that of limiting the work of Normal Schools to professional work with subjects distinctively below college grade, leaving the pedagogical instruction of college students to the peda- gogical departments in the universities — does not meet with favor on the part of the normal-school men of the State, since the plan would necessitate a giving up on their part of some academic features in their present courses with which they do not like to part. The uni- versities, however, favor the notion, and the present State superintendent indorses it. It is very probable that Cornell will soon organize such a department. To recount the various addresses made by Dr. Shel- don before educational bodies, State and national, and papers written for different occasions, would transcend the limits of this sketch. In another place a list of some of these which have been printed are given, to- PERSONALITIES IN THE OSWEGO MOVEMENT. 89 gether with his books on object teaching. His Manual of Elementary Instruction and Lessons on Objects were the first books in this country which were the results of practical and successful application of Pestalozzian principles, and were of great value as practical guides to those interested in applying the work of the great Swiss reformer. Shortly after their publication, Hon. Henry Barnard, then United States Commissioner of Education, wrote of them, in connection with others which followed : — " In looking over the Manual of Object Teaching, Lessons on Objects, Primary Object Lessons, Oral Lessons on Social Science, Outlines of a System of Object Teaching, Child's Book of Nature, Model Lessons, etc., published within the last two years, we are more than ever satisfied that the world moves. At the recent Buffalo meeting of the National Edu- cational Association, Dr. Sheldon, who had read an address, was recognized as the Nestor of the profession ; an opinion which was but a re-expression of that voiced by the World's Fair officials at Chicago, who made him the president of the Department of Professional Train- ing of Teachers, probably the highest honor that could come to him in his chosen field. At the close of the Fair they capped the climax by awarding his school the Medal of Honor and Diploma for its long and useful career under one principal. 1 As a man Dr. Sheldon was universally loved. Those 1 See foot-note on next page. 90 THE OSWEGO NORMAL SCHOOL. who sometimes opposed him in policy praised him in life. Even the warm enemies of early days now acknowledge themselves his warm admirers ; and with the open book of his long life record before them, critics of former days see the mistakes of their own interpretation, and the absolute purity of his motives. Dr. Sheldon's char- acter was a singular combination of simplicity and of strength. Innate nobleness and kindness gleamed from every feature of his fine gray head. I know of no student of his now living who did not regard him as a personal friend, and none whom he did not delight to call " children of my household." His beautiful home by the shore of Lake Ontario, now no longer graced by the presence of his devoted wife, but recently deceased, was always wide open to his students ; and the trees he loved are now fragrant with hallowed memories of his generosity. This account of Dr. Sheldon's life had scarcely been completed when the sad news flashed across the country of his death. Aug. 5 I received his last suggestions re- garding this work ; and on Aug. 28 his great soul, even The words of the award are as follows : — FOR EXCELLENCE OF EQUIPMENT, METHOD, WORK, AND WIDE USEFULNESS THROUGHOUT ITS LONG HISTORY UNDER ONE PRINCIPAL. FOR EXCELLENCE OF EDUCA- TIONAL METHODS AND LITERATURE AS EVIDENCED 6Y THEIR USE IN THE UNITED STATES. In his report for the Bureau of Education in 1893, Dr. Eaton gave the Oswego exhibit first place among the normal schools of New York, and emphasized the work it had done in bringing the Pestalozzian prin- ciples and methods to America. PERSONALITIES IN THE OSWEGO MOVEMENT. 91 according to his own dying wish, went to be with Christ, to live the larger life. He died in accord with his oft- expressed desire, with the harness on. The beginning of his thirty-seventh year as principal of the Oswego Normal and Training-School was but a few days off, and he was in the midst of preparation for it. The night before he died he discussed school affairs with a member of the Department of Education, and it is said that but forty-five minutes before his death he was conversing with a young man who called to see him about school matters. The immediate cause of death was heart disease. The end came suddenly, but did not find him unprepared. There was scarcely an hour's warning, but Dr. Sheldon recognized it at once. There were pres- ent with him then his son, Professor Charles S. Sheldon, and wife, and Dr. Sheldon's sister, Miss Dorliska E. Sheldon. Mr. Charles Sheldon, in a letter just received, has lifted the curtain of that hallowed death chamber. It discloses the great end of a great soul. Mr. Sheldon writes : — " A few moments before his death, while his lungs were filling, and we all felt that the next breath might be his last, a heavenly radiance lighting his face, he whispered, < ^Yith mother,' then, a moment later, 'with mother and Christ.' His own life had been so bound up in hers [his wife's] that when he was left alone, after she had passed away, he seemed to be leading a life of waiting. Within about five minutes after these last words, he passed peace- fully away." Dr. Sheldon is survived by five children : Mrs. Mary 92 THE OSWEGO NORMAL SCHOOL. Sheldon Barnes, formerly of Leland Stanford Univer- sity, now in Europe ; Professor Charles Stiles Sheldon of the Oswego Normal School ; Mrs. Frances Elizabeth Ailing of Chicago; Mrs. Anna Bradford Howe, and Mrs. Laura Austin Inman, both of Indianapolis, Ind. An only sister, Miss Dorliska Elizabeth Sheldon, made her home with her illustrious brother during the last twelve years. When the news got out the morning Dr. Sheldon died, the city that had known him half a centur}^ seemed stunned. The editor of the Oswego Daily Palladium wrote : — " The city of Oswego is in the midst of a profound sorrow to- day. One who was enshrined in the hearts of all its people, from the humblest to the proudest, from the highest to the lowest, is no more. No man in all this community was ever more beloved than Dr. Sheldon. ~No announcement could have brought a ruder shock than that which told of his sudden death this morning. In the presence of a grief that touches every heart, the editorial pen falters." The Oswego Daily Times called his " life so blameless and akin to worth and goodness that evil seemed no part of his pure and exceptional nature. All knew him, all loved him, and all will mourn his departure with a unanimity and depth of feeling that is or could be the tribute of but few. Beyond the immediate neighbor- hood of his daily rounds and toil he will be missed and mourned, as well by the thousands who in the past have come within the sphere of his personal influence, and PERSONALITIES IN THE OSWEGO MOVEMENT. 93 carried away with them to distant parts — to every State in the Union, and to lands even beyond the seas — the inspiration of that influence, whose fruit always was and will be the enlightenment and advancement of humanity. His loss to the educational forces, not of the State alone, nor yet of the whole country, but generally throughout the world, cannot easily be repaired, — a field in which few have labored longer, more assiduously, or achieved more valuable and marked results." The way in which Dr. Sheldon's character had pen- etrated every portion of the community is signally shown in an incident stated at the funeral by the Rev. Mr. Wills : — " You will pardon this, I know. A woman in the common walks of life paused the morning of the doctor's death in front of the school ; and seeing there the evidences of mourning, and hav- ing ascertained the cause, there upon the corner of the street she bowed her head and wept copiously and audibly." The funeral was a great demonstration of Dr. Shel- don's hold upon Oswego and the educational life of the State. One nearly full-paged account opened as fol- lows : — " The vast throng, representing all classes and conditions of life, which filled Grace Church yesterday afternoon indicated plainer than words the esteem and love in which Dr. Edward A. Sheldon, late principal of the Oswego State Normal and Train- ing-School was held by the citizens of Oswego. Xo such out- pouring has been seen here in years." 94 THE OSWEGO NORMAL SCHOOL. Floral tributes came from the Department of Educa- tion, the local teachers, and his own faculty. The same account states that " a large number of the city officials, including members of the Common Council, Department of Education, Department of Works, De- partment of Charity . . . occupied seats in the church, as did two hundred school-teachers. Among the distinguished educators present were State Superintendent of Public Instruction, Charles R. Skinner of Albany; Dr. James M. Cassidy, Principal of the Buffalo State Normal School; Dr. T. B. Stowell, Principal of Potsdam State Normal School; Dr. Mc- Yicker, formerly Principal of Potsdam Normal, and a warm personal friend of Dr. Sheldon. Dr. Sheldon's death called forth appreciative notices from the press at large, and letters and telegrams of sympathy poured in upon the stricken sister and chil- dren from all parts of the country. Among them was this telegram from Colonel Parker of the Chicago Nor- mal : — " Regret exceedingly that I cannot be present at the last sad rites. I have loved Dr. Sheldon for many years. This divine spirit will live and grow forever in the hearts of a free people. While we shall miss him and deeply mourn his loss, let us thank God for a long and glorious life filled with righteousness. Francis W. Parker." The Local Board of the Oswego State Normal and Training-School held a special meeting the Saturday PERSONALITIES IN THE OSWEGO MOVEMENT. 95 after Dr. Sheldon's death to pay tributes to his mem- ory. Two of its members, Hon. Theodore Irwin and Mr. Gilbert Mollison, were members of the original Board, organized by Dr. Sheldon twenty-seven years before. Addresses were made by the above-mentioned gentlemen; and suitable resolutions were drawn by a committee composed of Judge J. C. Churchill, Hon. Theodore Irwin, and Hon. A. S. Page. The addresses and resolutions were published in the Oswego papers, and expressed in eloquent words the great services Dr. Sheldon had rendered to the city, the State, and the nation. The Oswego Teachers' Association held a memorial session on Saturday, Oct. 2, at which strong addresses were made by men and women who had been associated with Dr. Sheldon in his educational labors. Professor C. W. Richards, principal of the Oswego High School, presided. The addresses made by Hon. George B. Sloan and Professor Amos W. Farnham were published in the daily papers. The tributes which have attracted the widest atten- tion were read at a memorial exercise held in Normal Hall, Oswego, Thursday evening, Oct. 21. The following addresses were delivered at that time : — The Life and Character of Dr. Sheldon. Professor I. B. Poucher. Dr. Sheldon as We Knew Him. Miss Serita L. Stewart. 96 THE OSWEGO NORMAL SCHOOL. Dr. Sheldon's Influence on Education in New York. Hon. C. R. Skinner, LL.D. State Supt. of Public Instruction. The Place of Dr. Sheldon in the Educational World. Lewis H. Jones, A.M. Supt. of Schools, Cleveland, Ohio. Dr. Sheldon and the Church. Rev. David Wills, Jr. The scholarly addresses of Hon. C. R. Skinner and Superintend- ent L. H. Jones are given at length in the next chapter, as is also an extended extract from the address of Professor Poucher, the nearly life-long associate and present successor of Dr. Sheldon. SOME ASSOCIATES OF DR. SHELDON. Some reference has already been made to Professor Hermann Kriisi, who, with Miss M. E. M. Jones of Eng- land, brought the Pestalozzian torch from the Old World to the New. Hermann Kriisi was a Pestalozzian by birth, having been born in Yverdon, Switzerland, the place of Pestalozzi's famous school. His father, who was a teacher in Pestalozzi's school, subsequently established a normal school at Gais ; and in this school Hermann received his early education, supplementing it later by studies in Dresden and Berlin during the years 1835 to 1838. For a time he assisted his father at Gais; but on the death of the latter accepted a position in Dr. Mayo's School, Cheam, near London. Subsequently he became a teacher in the Home and Colonial School, London, where he arranged his famous courses in inven- tive drawing, a work which was soon introduced into PERSONALITIES IN THE OSWEGO MOVEMENT. 97 America. It was considerably elaborated at Oswego, and became for many years the most popular series of drawing-books in the country. At the invitation of Professor Wm. Russell, in 1852 he came to America to work in Professor Russell's pri- vate normal school at Lancaster, Mass. ; and it was here he wrote his valuable book on perspective. As regular lecturer before the Massachusetts State institutes he became associated with his distinguished countrymen, Agassiz and Guyot, and other prominent educators. Professor Kriisi's lectures in several States, and publi- cations on drawing, were revelations to the people at large of the real value of drawing in the schools. In 1857 he became a teacher in the Trenton (N.J.) State Normal School; from here he received his call to Oswego, and here at Oswego he remained for twenty- five years a faithful and efficient exponent of his noted fellow-countryman, Pestalozzi. His first work at Os- wego was straight to the point. It was the adaptation of the Pestalozzian principles to the work in number, form, and drawing in the Oswego schools. Professor Kriisi applied his inventive system to the teaching of geometry and philosophy, which were taught without books, guiding himself by the reason and inven- tive skill of his students. "While at Oswego Professor Kriisi published his Life of Pestalozzi, which enjoyed a wide sale, and for many years was the only life of Pestalozzi accessible to English readers. Professor Kriisi's work is thus a most important factor 98 THE OSWEGO KOBMAL SCHOOL. in the development of Pestalozzian principles on this continent ; especially can his personality never be effaced from Oswego history. His manner of presentation was clear and logical, but withal charmingly frank, and a genial humor constantly played about the topic of the hour. After a short visit to the old home, Professor Kriisi is again in America, enjoying the rest his eminent labors have doubly earned for him. Miss Matilda S. Cooper (now Mrs. I. B. Poucher) was graduated from the Albany Normal in 1856. She was immediately employed in the Oswego schools, and on the organization of the city training-school was appointed one of the critic teachers, an appointment which illustrates one valuable characteristic of Dr Shel- don's ; namely, the power to recognize a true teacher. The fact that she remained identified with the Oswego Normal School twenty-five years illustrates another and perhaps rarer power of Dr. Sheldon's ; namely, the ability to hold on to the true teacher. So also her husband, Professor Poucher, has put, with the excep- tion of some short absences, forty-nine years of his life into the Oswego schools. Professor Kriisi, we have just seen, remained at his post twenty-five years ; and Dr. Lee, of whom we shall speak later, was re- tained until her death, eighteen years. The training Miss Cooper had received, combined with direct and conclusive habits of thought, enabled her to take vigorous hold on the new principles, and make them yield clearly formulated logical results. Of PERSONALITIES IN THE OSWEGO MOVEMENT. W Miss Cooper's work Professor Aber wrote a few years ago : — " To the careful and unremitting drill of her method and prac- tice-school work is largely due the fact that the Oswego Normal School has turned out so large a product of successful teachers as compared with her production of mere talkers and essay writers. No one else deserves so much credit for this as Miss Cooper. The maxims, The idea before the word, The concrete before the abstract, One step at a time, Never tell the child what he can find out for himself, were constantly applied by her as the plumb-line and try-square to test all work. Her method of inculcating prin- ciples and teaching the art of questioning was philosophical." To which Dr. Sheldon adds in response to an in- quiry : — " Mr. and Mrs. Poucher have been with us from the time of the organization of the school, and perhaps know better than any other persons now living its source and development." Professor Isaac B. Poucher, Dr. Sheldon's successor, has had a long and honorable share in Oswego's growth. He was graduated from the Albany Normal in 1847, and the next year began his career in Oswego in what was known as the " red schoolhouse." The fashion in the color of schoolhouses must have changed soon after that, for his next school-teaching was done in the " yellow schoolhouse." From here Professor Poucher was promoted to the principalship of the Oswego Academy, which occupied the site of the present high school. In 1852 the 100 THE OSWEGO NORMAL SCHOOL. young professor decided to exchange his profession for that of medicine, and to that end resigned his principal- ship, and matriculated in the medical department of the University of New York. At the close of the first six months' course of lectures Mr. Poucher resumed his former work at the academy, purposing to return to New York in October. But fate ruled otherwise ; for agreeing temporarily to take the place of a sick teacher, upon the death of the teacher Professor Poucher was prevailed upon to continue his work, and in 1855 was installed in a new school building as associate principal with Mr. Douglass. In 1859 he was called upon to christen another new school building ; and here he was allowed to remain until Dr. Sheldon selected him, in 1867, for principal of the Oswego Normal Practice School, and instructor in mathematics. Professor Poucher proved himself in his element in the chair of mathematics, and made his department one of the strongest in the normal school. He applied the Pesta- lozzian principles to mathematical instruction along the lines marked out by Professor Kriisi, — dispensing with text-books in both algebra and geometry, work- ing out with the student independently and with rigid logic his own text-book. Students of his always speak of the convincing clearness with which he developed a line of mathematical reasoning. His syllabus of arith- metic is a good example of this. In 1885 Professor Poucher was appointed Collector of United States Customs at the port of Oswego, but on PERSONALITIES IN THE OSWEGO MOVEMENT. * 101 leaving that position resumed his old work in the nor- mal school. Professor Poucher was always very popular with the normal students, and his general pedagogical as well as business ability made him equally respected in the faculty. Dr. Sheldon and the Board soon came to rely upon him in times of emergency; and during a two years' absence of Dr. Sheldon, Professor Poucher was installed acting principal. His recent unanimous appointment by the Local Board of the Oswego Normal School as Dr. Sheldon's successor, and its immediate approval by the State Superintendent of Public Instruc- tion, was not entirely unexpected, and has been received with universal satisfaction by the alumni and students of the Oswego Normal School. In 1858 Professor Poucher married Miss Katharine L. Allen, by whom he had three children, — W. Allen, Katharine M., and Lucy Augusta. W. Allen Poucher has been Special Deputy Collector of Customs of the District of Oswego, N.Y. Miss Katharine M. Poucher is now Mrs. E. W. McColm of Columbus, Ohio. Miss Lucy Augusta Poucher is now Mrs. Albert E. Nettleton of Syracuse, N.Y. Professor Poucher's wife died in December, 1881. In 1890 Professor Poucher married Miss M. S. Cooper, and thus very fittingly brought together two lives that had long been engaged in a common work for the institution of which he has just now become the honored head. Dr. Mary Y. Lee was one of the most original, posi- 102 THE OSWEGO NORMAL SCHOOL. tive, and at the same time charming personalities connected with the Oswego Movement. She was graduated in 1860 from the New Britain (Conn.) Nor- mal School, and in the spring of 1862 was selected by State Superintendent Camp to go to Oswego to learn the Pestalozzian methods. In the fall of the same year, in company with Mrs. Mary E. McGonegal, she opened the Davenport (Iowa) Training-School for teachers, under the direction of Superintendent Kissel. u In the spring of 1865 she became Professor W. F. Phelps's first assistant in the normal school of Winona, Minn. While in Minnesota she often attended institutes and Sunday-school conventions, where she gave lessons. These lessons led to a memorable summer spent with the great preacher D. L. Moody, who brought her to Illinois that she might give before bodies of Sunday- school teachers lessons taught in accord with Pesta- lozzian principles." At Winona Dr. Lee wrote a gram- mar based upon Pestalozzian methods, published as Lee and Hartley's Grammar. In 1874 she was gradu- ated from the Medical Department of Michigan Univer- sity, and immediately became the teacher of physiology at her alma mater, the Oswego Normal School, "prac- tising medicine as school duties would permit." In 1880 she went abroad with Miss Mary D. Sheldon, spending two years in visiting in Great Britain and on the Continent. The last year she was an "out student" at Cambridge University, devoting her time to physi- ology and biology. Upon her return to America she Dr. MARY V. LEE. PERSONALITIES IN THE OSWEGO MOVEMENT. 103 resumed the teaching of Physiology, and worked out rational methods of teaching zoology, botany, the human body, and reading. About this time Dr. Lee became convinced of the merits of the Delsarte system of physi- cal culture, and successfully introduced it at Oswego. She died at her post in the summer of 1892, having been a teacher at Oswego eighteen years. Such in bare outline is the record of a life remarkable alike for its strong convictions and its openness to truth. Her thought and its expression were strikingly direct and original, and her audiences were never bored by dull speaking. This characteristic brought her in fre- quent demand as a public speaker upon educational and other topics which won her sympathies ; for Dr. Lee was many sided in her interests, leaning especially to those which she believed made for righteousness in individual and national character. She gave up a lucrative prac- tice in medicine, and rejected many tempting offers, it is said, that she might annually have the opportunity of impressing those who were to be the instructors of youth with the importance of maintaining pure bodies, free from the tyranny of fashion, of drink, and of narcotics. Dr. Lee possessed the kindest of hearts, and was prodi- gal of time and affection to those in need, as hun- dreds of Oswego students would gladly testify. Her memory is most fittingly kept green at Oswego by the Dr. Lee Memorial Fund, which provides aid to worthy students and occasional lectures to the whole student body. 104 THE OSWEGO NORMAL SCHOOL. Professor H. H. Straight deserves a place in Oswego history for his philosophical work with the natural sciences, accomplished first at Oswego, and later at the Cook County Normal. He left Oberlin a young theo- logical student somewhat experienced in teaching, to be- come the principal of the State Normal School at Peru, Neb. Reversing the course proclaimed by the poet, instead of nature's leading him to nature's God, his study of God had led him to nature ; and at Peru he resigned the principalship that he might devote himself to the problem of working out rational methods for teaching science in the chair of natural science and psychology in that institution. Shortly after this Pro- fessor Straight went to school to Agassiz, who straight- way became his controlling inspiration. In 1875 he accompanied Professor N. S. Shaler of Harvard, and the State geologist of North Carolina, in several geological expeditions. The following two years were spent in special study at Cornell and Harvard. In 1878 he accepted the chair of natural sciences in the Oswego Normal School. Here he planned the excellent sys- tem of laboratories with which the Oswego Normal is equipped, and here he proved conclusively the practica- bility of experimental work in large classes. At Oswego Professor Straight's pedagogical insight gave him the entire charge of the practice school, and later he taught classes in history and philosophy of education. This range of work enabled him to see beyond the boun- daries of the natural sciences, and to perceive clearly, PERSONALITIES IN THE OSWEGO MOVEMENT. 105 what the schools are but beginning to recognize through Herbart's pedagogy, that nature is a unity, and all sub- jects of study have vital relations with one another. His work at Oswego in this line was several years in advance of the Herbartian wave in this country. Pro- fessor Straight was a popular lecturer, and frequently gave courses of lectures at Martha's Vineyard ; Froebel Academy, Brooklyn ; Summer School of Science, Salem, Mass.; and other places. His work in the Cook County Normal may be judged by the opinion of Colonel Parker, who said that the most perfect primary teaching he has ever seen was done under the direction of Professor Straight. Profes- sor Straight's legacy must be the direct inspirations he gave to his pupils at the various centres where his influ- ence was felt. But a small portion of his actual work found its way into print. He did not care for fame or money. He died Nov. 17, 1886. His wife, Mrs. Emma Dickerman Straight, shared her husband's pedagogical zeal and skill, having taught with marked success in the Nebraska State Normal School, the Oswego Normal, the Cook County Normal, and in the schools of Tokio, Japan. She died in 1890. There are many others whose work in the perfecting and spread of the Oswego methods deserves fuller treat- ment, but of whom only brief mention can be made here. The general method and spirit of Miss Cooper's work in the method and practice department at Oswego was admirably retained in the superior work of Miss S. J. 106 THE OSWEGO NORMAL SCHOOL. Walter, who was connected with the Oswego practice schools for nearly twenty-five years, and from 1881 to 1894 was the efficient principal of the consolidated practice schools. She is at present occupying a similar position in the State Normal School at Willimantic, Conn., and has recently published her latest thought upon arithmetic teaching, a line of work which she de- veloped with great clearness and force in the Oswego practice schools. In recent years Miss Margaret K. Smith of the class of '83 has done some important work in the later devel- opments of the psychological side of Pestalozzi's work, especially through Herbart. Upon her graduation Miss Smith taught a while at Atlanta University. The book published from the results of her work here has already been mentioned. 1 Later Miss Smith was called to take the chair of school of economy and methods in the State Normal at Peru, Neb. In 1885 she went to Germany to study systems of pedagogy. Two years later she became teacher of psychology at the Oswego institution. In 1892, at the solicitation of Dr. AVilliam Harris, United States Commissioner of Education, Miss Smith translated Herbart's Psychology into English for the International Educational Series, of which Dr. Harris is the editor. It was the first English translation of that important work, and contributed its share to the present interest in Herbart in this country. Miss Smith has also translated a work on industrial education for 1 De Graff and Smith's Development Lessons, Professor EARL BARNES. PERSONALITIES IN THE OSWEGO MOVEMENT. 107 the D. C. Heath Publishing Company; and she was also one of the translators of Lang's Apperception, published by the same firm. Miss Smith has done her share of writing for the magazines, and contributes book reviews to the School Review published at Chicago University. At present she is at work in psychology and history in the University of Gottingen, Germany. Mention has already been made in these pages of the work of Earl Barnes, '84, and Mary Sheldon Barnes, '69. The following account of Professor Earl Barnes is taken from an educational journal: — " Earl Barnes, professor of education in the Leland Stanford Jr. University, was born near Oswego, N.Y., in 1861. He was educated in the common country and village schools, and gradu- ated from the advanced course in the Oswego Normal School as president of his class in 1884. Meantime he had had two years' experience ki teaching country and village schools. After gradu- ating from Oswego he taught for two years in a German academy at Hoboken, N". J., and then entered Cornell University as a special student in American history. While a student in Cornell Uni- versity he went abroad with his wife, Mary Sheldon Barnes, author of Sheldon's series of histories, and spent a year gather- ing historical materials for President Andrew D. White, and study- ing in the University of Zurich. After his return to Cornell, and while still an undergraduate, he was tendered the professorship of European history in Indiana State University. While teach- ing in Indiana he took his A. B. degree with the class of 1890. The year after he was given leave of absence, and spent the year in Cornell University doing postgraduate work, taking his A. M. degree at the end of the year. 108 THE OSWEGO NORMAL SCHOOL. " When the Leland Stanford Jr. University was established in California, Mr. Barnes was one of the original fifteen men selected by Dr. Jordan to begin the work in that institution ; and the de- partment of education which he has built up there is now one of the most nourishing in the United States. During the last three years Mr. Barnes has become generally known through his stud- ies on children, though his strongest work is along the lines of the history of civilization." Shortly after her graduation, Miss Sheldon entered Michigan University, taking largely scientific studies. She graduated here in 1874. And now, to use Miss Sheldon's original words, she was " greatly disappointed at being invited to return to Oswego to teach Latin, Greek, botany, and history, instead of a range of sciences ; revenges herself by applying scientific meth- ods to history ; becomes interested in her revenge, and projects a book, ' O that mine enemy would write a book ! ' determines to devote herself to completing this idea." In 1876 she accepted the chair of history at Wellesley College, and in 1880 entered Cambridge University, England, to study modern history under Professor. J. R. Seeley. In 1882 Miss Sheldon became the teacher of history and literature at Oswego, where she finally worked out and published Studies in General History (D. C. Heath, Boston), which, notwithstanding its radical departures from conventional school histories, and the difficult nature of the work it demands of stu- dents as opposed to the time-honored memory work, still enjoys an increasing popularity, and was the pio- Mrs. MARY SHELDON BARNES. PERSONALITIES IN THE OSWEGO MOVEMENT. 109 neer in a growing movement which is already influen- cing both the writing and teaching of history in this country. Since her marriage to Mr. Earl Barnes in 1884, Mrs. Barnes has studied at Cornell University, and spent a year abroad in collecting material for Pres- ident White. In 1891 she published Studies in Ameri- can History along lines similar to those followed in her earlier text-book. She is now assistant professor of history at Leland Stanford, where her husband is pro- fessor of education. 1 Miss Mary R. Ailing, class of '69 (now Mrs. Mary R. Alling-Aber), has had a varied and useful pedagogical career, principally in normal schools. In 1870 she was principal of the practice department of the city Normal and Training-School, Cincinnati, Ohio. For three years subsequently she taught in the Oswego Normal. In 1875 she spent a year on the faculty of the Cook County Normal School under Professor Par- ker. In 1880 she taught in the State Normal School at Providence, R.I. ; and the next three years were spent as principal of the primary department of Miss Shaw's school, Boston. It was in connection with this school that Miss Ailing conducted an experiment in education which attracted considerable attention. An account of it can be found in the preface to her book, The Chil- dren's Own Work, and in two articles in the Popular Science Monthly (1890) on "An Experiment in Edu- 1 Professor Earl Barnes and his wife have left their work at Leland Stanford for further study in Europe. 110 THE OSWEGO NORMAL SCHOOL. cation." Miss Ailing has been a frequent contributor to the New England Journal of Education. Her writ- ings have lately been collected, and form the main sub- stance of a book : now in the press of Harper Brothers, and which promises to be an interesting contribution to the pedagogy of the year. In 1884 Miss Ailing married Mr. William M. Aber, also an Oswego graduate, who is now at the head of the department of Latin and Greek in the University of Montana. Professor Aber's article in the Popular Science Monthly for May, 1893, on "The Oswego State Normal School," has been freely drawn on for this sketch. Miss Mary E. Laing, class of '74, has represented Os- wego ideas in the normal schools of St. Cloud, Minn., and Platteville, Wis. The justly celebrated Froebel Academy, Brooklyn, is her creation. Miss Laing has studied psychology and pedagogy in Zurich, Jena, and Gbttingen. Her work in child study has been described in the May, 1894, Forum. At present Miss Laing is 1 This book, An Experiment in Education, has just appeared, and is attracting unusual attention. " An Experiment in Education, by Mary R. Alling-Aber (244 pp. Si. 25), possesses unusual interest. — interest like that awakened by Mrs. Aiken's Methods of Mind Training. ... If these results are made out, and they seem to us made out, the work of our elementary schools ought to be entirely recast, so as to embody in them the ideas presented in this volume. This statement alone will be sufficient to justify the plea with which the volume concludes, — for the establishment of educational ex- periment stations. This volume, though small in size, seems to us one of the most valuable and stimulating which. has appeared in a long time." — Wisconsin Journal of Education, edited by Dr. J. W. Stearns of the University of Wisconsin. PERSONALITIES IN THE OSWEGO MOVEMENT. Ill successfully carrying out her views in this interesting field at Oswego, where she is teacher of psychology and pedagogy. Lady graduates from Oswego have frequently been pioneers in securing recognition for their sex as school officers. One lady graduate of the first class served five years as county superintendent in Washington Terri- tory, and five years as member of the Territorial Board of Education. Another lady graduate has been super- intendent of public schools of Iowa City, Iowa. Still another was State institute conductor of Minnesota. Lady graduates of Oswego have served as county super- intendents in New York State, while a recent lady grad- uate was a member of the State Council of Nebraska. These life sketches show in concrete fashion how Oswego has influenced the art of teaching in even remote sections of our country, and also that her grad- uates are growing people, — men and women who fre- quently stop right in the midst of successful teaching to study again in the best schools at home and abroad. This characteristic is an important one, and speaks well for the kind of ideals established at Alma Mater. CHAPTER VII. EXTRACTS FROM ADDRESSES Delivered at a Memorial Exercise held in Honor of Dr. Sheldon, at Oswego, N.Y., Oct. 21, 1897. dr. Sheldon's influence on education in NEW YORK. Hon. Charles R. Skinner, New York State Superintendent of Public Instruction. For more than half a century Edward Austin Sheldon gave himself, body, soul, and spirit, to the work of edu- cation. Courageous, sincere, enthusiastic, patient, per- severing, he overcame difficulties, removed obstacles, won victories, where others with judgment less cool, with zeal less intense, would have been disheartened and driven from the field. We rejoice that these fifty years of service were given to education in our own State, and that we are the inheritors of the fruit of his labors. Loving friends have told us the charming story of his useful life. They have told us of his Puritan birth, of his home and its congenial surroundings, of his early struggles, his college longings and experience, — how he came to Oswego to meet his first discouragement in 112 EXTRACTS FROM ADDRESSES. 113 business ; how he became interested in the free-school movement which he was compelled to abandon; how he organized the schools of Syracuse, and gave them an impetus they still feel ; how he was called back to Os- wego by the free-school party ; how he laid his plans for advanced instruction in the principles and methods of teaching ; how in spite of fierce opposition and ridicule he steadfastly interested State and country in object- teaching, and established it forever as a mighty force in education; how, believing in patriotic citizenship, he offered his services to his country to preserve the Union which he loved; how his plans developed into a school for the training of primary teachers ; how the Legislature came to his aid in 1862 through the sym- pathy of the State superintendent; how in 1867 the Oswego Normal-School was accepted as a part of the great normal-school system of the State; how for thirty years he worked " like a Hercules" as its princi- pal ; how he resisted tempting offers to honorable fields elsewhere, preferring to finish his work here ; how he was called into other States to assist in organizing method schools upon his plan; how men and women were attracted from every county and State and coun- try to come within the charmed circle of his influence, and how they became instruments in extending that influence, and in organizing similar schools in other States and countries ; how, inspired by his growing success, institutions were founded to uplift the colored people of the South; how echoes of his iufluence came 114 THE OSWEGO NORMAL SCHOOL. from the republics of South America, the Sandwich Islands, and from far-away Japan; how his methods received the indorsement of the National Educational Association ; how he wrote the books which, have helped others and extended his power for good; how at the great Columbian Exposition he was an honored figure in educational deliberations, and received a medal of honor for his beloved institution " for excellence of equipment, method, and wise usefulness ; " and, how finally discour- agement gave place to hope, and defeat was crowned with glorious victory. Surely the " end crowned the work," and patient, self-sacrificing service had its re- ward. The central thought which moves us now is that he was the first great advocate in this country of the prop- osition that children should be taught according to cer- tain fixed natural laws, which always have and always will govern the development of children, and determine their possibilities. Believing in the doctrines of Pes- talozzi and Froebel, he was their most distinguished representative in this country, and the first to point out the necessity of observing in the training of children cer- tain unchangeable laws of nature which could not be violated without spoiling life. Mythology made nature an enemy, and pictured it in hideous forms. It was reserved for modern philosophers, and Dr. Sheldon was one of these, to regard nature as a friend and not an enemy, — something that should be studied and loved. EXTRACTS FROM ADDRESSES. 115 He believed that every child represented nature as much as a tree or flower, and should be studied and taught by natural methods. He believed that education is a growth, a natural development, not adding to, but bringing out by proper method ; that children are not all to be measured by one standard or governed by one law, or their character and usefulness in life deter- mined by the arbitrary rules of per centum calculations and estimates. He said of his work many years ago, " In this plan of studies the object is not so much to impart informa- tion, as to educate the senses and awaken a spirit of inquiry. To this end the pupils must be encouraged to do most of their talking and acting." In 1873 he said, in an address to the students at the Geneseo Nor- mal School, "I may judge your work by a standard which you do not recognize. I cannot determine the education of a child by its ability to answer questions in a given way. These answers may be learned from books. Rather let me ask a question to which they have not learned an answer from the text-book, and let them give an answer in their own language from their own thought." Was this the new education ? Whether new or old, it worked a revolution in educational methods — in the proper treatment of the children. When the world be- came convinced that object-teaching was related to the happiness of its. children, when it was certain that it could not be laughed down nor stamped out, this school 116 THE OSWEGO NORMAL SCHOOL. and Dr. Sheldon's efforts became centres of observation. They were the Mecca to all teachers who had been led to believe there was a simpler, better way to teach chil- dren. His work led educators to give attention ; and when they began to think, conviction came. It was not a momentary flash, a passing thought or fancy, but a settled conviction. He was always in earnest ; and be- cause he was in earnest, he convinced the thoughtful and won victories. He bravely defended the convic- tions of his own conscience on intellectual battlefields, which he never left except as conqueror. Through his work and his influence in first attracting attention to this new principle in the education of children, he helped to lay broad and deep the foundations of a system which will never again be questioned or attacked, but which to-day recognizes the power and scope and the possibilities of the kindergarten as a living, vital force in education, and places it within reach of millions of our children. It is no longer an experiment, but a set- tled fact; and the State now knows what it means to lead children early to think and do for themselves. Beyond this, the influence which he exerted through all these years has led our educators into other avenues of thought, and the principles which he advocated have developed well-organized plans of investigation. As a result, whatever is practical or valuable in child study and nature study, as we find them, comes largely through his teaching. EXTRACTS FROM ADDRESSES. 117 Behind his profession, behind his work, stood the man. His sterling manhood shone out in all he did through his whole professional life. As an author of educational works he breathed his sympathetic spirit into his books, and the influence of his thought and personality went wherever his words were read ; and who can tell the power of a written word conceived in the hope of helping others? Through the printed page he multiplied his influence over teachers and pupils, and perpetuated his power. His advanced thought, his clear statement, his mastery of the subject, and his conscientious purpose made him as successful in touching the lives of his readers as in personal contact with those he taught. In the educational associations of the State and coun- try he was always welcome, and took a deep interest, not only in promoting their objects, but in the discus- sions which they furnished. Even if his associates dif- fered with him, they admired his rugged sincerity, his earnestness of purpose, and the courteous bravery of his gentle speech. He was everybody's friend ; he had no enemies in the educational field, and was never pro- voked in debate beyond the bounds of kindly firmness. The influence which he exerted in these associations was always in the direction of higher standards. His . last educational visit was to Milwaukee, where his face, like a loving benediction, smiled upon those who gath- ered in the National Educational Association, a most familiar figure ; and my last look upon my friend was 118 THE OSWEGO NORMAL SCHOOL. as lie mingled happily with the vast concourse of edu- cators which gathered there. His ideas will not perish. They have taken too deep root. It is for us, then, as we feel the influence of his life, his work, and his friendship, to carry on the labor for education and humanity which he left unfinished. We who knew him well, and were with him in spirit and heart, must follow him in the path made easier and more luminous for his zeal and enthusiasm. That which Frederick Douglass said of the immortal Lincoln may be repeated of our associate: " He could receive counsel from a child, and give counsel to a sage. The simple approached him with ease, and the learned approached him with deference." He loved his work, and put into it all the strength of his calm mind, tender heart, and trained understanding. His enthusiasm for his profession was so infectious that no one whose privilege it was to counsel with him could fail to be strengthened and helped. His greatest charm was his simplicity. Modest in his estimate of his own abilities, he was upheld and sustained at all times by the sincerity and integrity of his own aims and prin- ciples. With the lapse of time his fame as an educator will grow greater, and his name will stand among the mas- ters of learning who have given the best service of their lives to the uplifting of humanity through educa- Superintendent LEWIS H. JONES. EXTRACTS FROM ADDRESSES. 119 tion. There are two classes of educators, — the worker and the inspirer. Dr. Sheldon was both. It was a touching tribute to his memory published here on the day of his death : — " The life he lived is nobler than anything that could be said of him. If we would correctly measure the man, we must meas- ure the things he loved. He loved his home, he loved the children, he loved his country, he loved nature, and he loved his God." THE PLACE OF DR. SHELDON IN THE EDUCATIONAL WORLD. 1 Lewis H. Jones, A.M., Superintendent of Schools, Cleveland, Ohio. In the long and prosperous period during which the Oswego State Normal and Training-School has de- veloped its life, founded its beliefs, and established its practices, many minds have contributed essential parts of the whole ; *but there has been but one head to the institution. It is not often that it is given to one man to originate a system of education, to embody it in an institution, and to live to see that institution through its beneficent influences permeate the entire life of a nation. It has been the fate of most reformers to die before the cry of victory has rung in their ears. Dr. 1 Included here by courtesy of the Educational Review, in which mag- azine the complete address will shortly appear. 120 THE OSWEGO NORMAL SCHOOL. Sheldon had the rare felicity to enjoy a long and peace- ful career of unabated prosperity for the cause of his heart, and to die without a question as to its future. With his death the sceptre passes into no untried hands. Enemies there have been; but they have been van- quished by being converted into friends; and so as time goes on, the cause gathers about it an ever-increas- ing multitude. It is my special province to-night to speak of the educational work of Dr. Sheldon, rather than to dwell on the lovable traits of his character which made those of us who knew him intimately love him so well, and which created in us such profound respect for his man- liness. It is perhaps more difficult for me to separate his professional self from his personal and social virtues than for one who had known him only in his profes- sional capacity. Perhaps, however, this is more imagi- nary than real ; for more than any other teacher I have ever known his success as an educator was the direct result of his greatness of soul, and capability as a man and citizen. It was this greatness of character which led him to seek for the permanent and universal in education as opposed to the temporary, partial, or local. Dr. Sheldon cared little for peculiar crazes in educa- tion, but sought that which is permanent. His good sense saved him from the mistakes of erratic enthusiasts. EXTRACTS FROM ADDRESSES. 121 Froebel founded his theory to a certain extent on a study of infancy ; Pestalozzi, upon childhood ; Herbart, on youth ; Rosenkranz, on the study of the mature man. Dr. Sheldon included in the psychology on which he founded this school the study of man throughout his development, from infancy to manhood, and throughout life ; and the best elements of all these systems have been embodied in the philosophy of education practised in this institution. A further marked element of strength in Dr. Sheldon's work is found in the fact that in the midst of his educational work he lived an upright life, in harmony with the best phases of all the insti- tutions which civilized man has originated for the up- lifting of humanity. He believed in the substantial progress of the race, and never doubted the high destiny of man. Rousseau, in his fierce fight for the rights of the individual, violated the conscience of his time, and broke faith with all the institutions of civilization, in order that he might emphasize the tenets of individ- ualism and a return to nature. Dr. Sheldon recognized what Rousseau never saw, — that a return to nature is, in fact, to be a return to nature under law and order; and that the institutions of civilized life are the most natural things which any one can conceive when the nature of man is thoroughly understood. It was the great strength of Dr. Sheldon that he allied himself with all the forces of nature and spirit that make for righteousness and civilization. ... He seemed never troubled, like Matthew Arnold, to find a name for this 122 THE OSWEGO NORMAL SCHOOL. higher power. He never beat about the bush, or talked about a power, not ourselves, that makes for righteous- ness : but he reverently pronounced the name of God ; and had he lived in Bible times, I have no doubt he would have announced his educational beliefs with- 44 Thus saith the Lord," so confident was he of the friendship and guidance of the God of the universe. The time was fortunate. Much dissatisfaction was being felt and expressed in many parts of the country with existing conditions of education, and especially with the condition of the primary schools. Up to that date the colleges had set the type of school, public and private. The view had been taken from above. No one had come down to see how the problem might seem when looked at from the view-point of the child. So complete was the reversal that Dr. Sheldon lived to see the time when, in spite of the assertions of university leaders, colleges and universities have been obliged to change their courses and improve their methods because the primary schools are better than the universities. Pupils who have had good teaching in the primary and grammar schools have compelled the teachers in high schools and colleges to wake up and do something more than lecture after a cut-and-dried form on the dead theories of the dead past. To Dr. Sheldon more than to all others combined is due this result. I am aware that many others have joined in the later movement, and some have even fancied themselves leaders in the movement. It is always easy to follow after some one EXTRACTS FROM ADDRESSES. 123 has blazed out a path. There were bold navigators in the time of Columbus who could make a voyage to the new world in less time than it first took Columbus to cross the unknown sea, but many of them would never have passed out of sight of land had no one preceded them. It was a province in which Dr. Sheldon had some followers, many imitators, but no rivals. It is hard for me to separate these matters from personal memories. Yet this is no time to speak his- torically. The history of a great movement can be correctly written only after a time-perspective has been attained. It lacks a few days of being thirty years since I came to this institution as a pupil. The insti- tution had even at that time an international reputation. I well remember the feeling with which I came. My experience in teaching prior to that time had made me thoroughly dissatisfied with existing conditions and methods. I came here, not exactly to scoff, as Gold- smith's villagers went to church ; I came rather in doubt ; but I remained to pray. Life began to seem worth the living, when hope, purpose, and plan devel- oped themselves one after another. I found myself in the presence of a born organizer, in whose mind the educational ideas of all time fused and blended, elimi- nating the inconsistent, until the best of all theories remained an organized plan for the education of chil- dren. I have never believed it a case of pure thinking. Dr. Sheldon was too great to allow himself to degene- 124 THE OSWEGO KORMAL SCHOOL. rate into mere intellect. Neither have I ever thought him an originator of individual ideas. He found ideas as the bee finds nectar. He made systems of education as the bee transforms nectar into honey. I think it was Mark Hopkins who said that the heliocentric and geocentric theories of the solar system are precisely alike as to their materials of thought. The greatness of the one is that the sun and not the earth is made the centre. It is the mark of a great man to recognize intuitively the organizing truth in the heterogeneous mass of facts in any province of thought. Dr. Sheldon had this instinct in a higher degree than any other whom I have ever known. He did not neglect facts ; indeed, he observed patiently, and waited for the last hint; but he interpreted facts in the light of great principles. After all, his great strength was in his sanity, — his willingness to take all into account, and then, risking his all, to stand. He was in harmony with the great forces of the universe, and had little need to fear the outcome. An extract from the address of Professor I. B. Poucher, President of the Oswego State Normal and Training-School. Another commendable element ever observable in Dr. Sheldon was sincerity. He was transparent as a statue of glass. He was in every respect just what he EXTRACTS FROM ADDRESSES. 125 appeared to be. His sentiments were never disguised. On all questions in which he was interested he held definite views and expressed them with fearlessness, and yet he was generous to a fault with those who dif- fered from him. He was tenacious of his own opinions, which were formed after the most mature deliberation, yet he was most respectful and tolerant of the opinions of others. Do not judge from this, however, that he was not a formidable antagonist. There are at least two here this evening who have been often by his side in controversies, one of which occasions will never be forgotten. It was at a meeting of the principals and several members of the faculties of the normal schools of this State held in this building early in the history of this school. It was an open secret that at this meeting the methods of instruction pursued in the Oswego Normal School were to be attacked, and the school overwhelmed with disgrace. After various random shots from lesser opponents, the leader of the opposition arose. He was a profound thinker, clean cut, incisive in argument, possessing a metaphysical mind — one of the best con- troversial speakers in the State. He was, however, a Christian gentleman, open to argument, and willing to be convinced. His arguments were as strong as the weakness of the position would permit. He closed. Every one felt that the critical point in the delibera- tions had arrived. The eyes of every Oswego teacher were riveted upon their leader, Dr. Sheldon, who they 126 THE OSWEGO NORMAL SCHOOL. knew was equal to the formidable task before him. He arose from his seat with great deliberation, walked to one side of the room with his hands clasped behind him, his head bowed as if his spirit was troubled. He spoke with great calmness. With that simplicity and plain- ness which rendered him so gracious and pleasing, he unfolded the Pestalozzian principles upon which the Oswego methods were based. The arguments of the opposition were swept away like cobwebs. When each and eveiy one was answered, the fire began to kindle in his eyes, he threw back his head, and with an expres- sion of conscious power, he said : " Gentlemen, I will never give up the instruction in methods in the Oswego Normal School ; I will cut loose from every other nor- mal school in the State first, and pursue our course alone, if necessary, rather than give up what we con- sider the most important part of our work." The meeting closed, and those from a distance went to their homes. The two leaders continued their arguments by correspondence. They met face to face at different $ times to renew the contest. The final result was that the Oswego curriculum, including instruction in meth- ods, was adopted by every new normal school in the State, nearly every one of which employed one or more Oswego graduates. If upon mature reflection, after consultation with his friends, an action seemed right, then he favored it, no matter what the result. I remember once at a faculty EXTRACTS FROM ADDRESSES. 127 meeting the matter of changing the curriculum was the subject of deliberation and discussion. The concensus of opinion seemed to favor a different grouping of some subjects and omission of others. The argument led to but one conclusion, which seemed to startle a certain member of the faculty, who remarked, " So you want to get rid of me, do you ? " Dr. Sheldon's answer was, "No, my dear friend, we do not want to get rid of you. We want to do that which is best for the normal school. Its interests are always first with me, even above those of my family. If it would be an advan- tage to this school for me to resign my position I would do it to-morrow." This closed the discussion. The change was made, and the resignation followed. The principle that guided Dr. Sheldon in this and all trans- actions was the highest good to all. Selfishness was not a part of his nature. Lest any should think me a partial witness, let me add some testimonies from the first educators of the nation, received in personal correspondence in the past few days : — Dr. Mc Vicar of New York City says : — "I feel sure that it is difficult to overestimate the nobility of Dr. Sheldon's character, or the greatness and importance of his life-work." Superintendent Maxwell of Brooklyn : — " I admire Dr. Sheldon as one of the great educa- tional leaders of this country. It is impossible to state 128 THE OSWEGO NORMAL SCHOOL. too strongly the good influence he exercised in inspiring others with his own zeal and lofty ideas." Superintendent Jones of Cleveland, Ohio : — " I owe to Dr. Sheldon, more than to any other one person, whatever of inspiration I have carried into my teaching." " The Hon. Charles R. Skinner, Superintendent of Public Instruction, said to Dr. Sheldon : — " Your advice, founded on long years of experience, will always be received by this department with the utmost pleasure and profit." Professor Hermann Kriisi: — "Dr. Sheldon loved truth, and possessed a pure, honest heart. His relations to his family were of a pa- triarchal character, like those of a kind, loving father to his children. I never knew a man who came nearer to my idea of being a saint than he, or a woman with more of the attributes of an angel than his wife, who passed away before him." ADDRESSES AND RESOLUTIONS INSERTED IN THIS Hlumni flDemorial j£&ition AT THE REQUEST OF A MEMORIAL COMMITTEE APPOINTED BY THE FACULTY OF THE OSWEGO NORMAL SCHOOL. MEMORIAL RESOLUTIONS Of the Local Board of the Oswego State Normal and Training School, Aug. 28, 1897. Yesterday afternoon at four o'clock a meeting of the local board of the State Normal and Training School was held in the City Hall to take action on the death of Dr. Edward A. Sheldon. When President Mollison called the meeting to order there were only two absentees, namely, ex-Senator George B. Sloan and George T. Clark, both of whom were unavoidably detained. Frederick O. Clarke was chosen to act as secretary, and then followed the formal announcement by Presi- dent Mollison of Dr. Sheldon's death. Mr. Mollison made appropriate remarks respecting the connection of Dr. Sheldon with educational interests. Former Judge John C. Churchill, after emphasizing the president's remarks, moved the appointment of a committee of three to draft and present resolutions ex- pressive of the feeling of the board on the occasion. Judge Churchill, Messrs. Theodore Irwin and A. S. Page were named. The committee reported the follow- ing memorial and resolutions : — It is with feelings of profound sorrow and regret that this board has learned of the sudden and unexpected death of its late 131 132 THE OSWEGO NORMAL SCHOOL. acting secretary, the principal of the Oswego State Normal and Training School, Dr. Edward A. Sheldon. Scarcely a day has passed since his commanding figure, his alert step, his " good gray head that all men knew," were seen upon our streets ; he attentive to all the interests with which he has been so long identified, when without pause in his work, and almost without premonition, the city is startled by the announce- ment of his death. The founder, we might say the creator, of this school, whose local board we are, he has been identified with it from the begin- ning. When in 1853 he took charge of the public schools in Oswego as the first secretary of its Board of Education just or- ganized, in the rules for the government of those schools, prepared by him and adopted that year, it was required that the teachers should " meet every Saturday from 9 to 12 a.m., for mutual in- struction and improvement, and by recitations and general exer- cises strive to systematize and perfect the modes of discipline and teaching in the public schools." At those weekly sessions he was the teacher, and with untiring patience and ever-increasing intel- ligence and skill he taught the teachers how to teach. It was one of the first schools for the instruction of teachers on this continent, the first step in the development of teaching as a profession. With his patient perseverance and perception, clear at the first and ever growing clearer, of the necessities of the case, from this beginning grew naturally the Oswego Training School, the Os- wego Normal and Training School, and at last the Oswego State Normal and Training School ,whose local board we are, and which, under his guidance and inspiration beyond any other single influence, has elevated and improved the methods and sys- tems of instruction in the public schools of this country. But it will be for others, better fitted than ourselves, to speak of the character and value of his work, to do justice at some other time and place to the work accomplished by our deceased friend. MEMORIAL ADDRESSES AND RESOLUTIONS. 133 It is for us as citizens of Oswego to express the debt we owe him for the sixteen years of faithful and fruitful toil he gave to the management of our public schools, and for the system of instruction he established in them. It is for us as members of this local board to unite with the most experienced and successful of the great educators of the country in declaring the value of the services rendered by him during the twenty-eight years he has served as principal of the Oswego State Normal and Training School, not only to this school and the students instructed here, but to the cause of prog- ress in educational methods in the country at large and in the regions beyond. It is for us as friends to declare his untiring industry, his pa- tient perseverance, his unselfish devotion, his upright and noble manhood, his Christian character and life, his unwavering trust in the good providence of God, the noble example in every good word and work which he has left us. Resolved, That this memorial of the late principal of the State Normal and Training School be entered upon the records of the board, and that an engrossed copy of the same be furnished the family of the deceased, in whose great loss we share, and with whose sorrow we sympathize. Mr. Edwin Allen moved the adoption of the report and resolution. Mr. Coon, in seconding the motion, made reference to the integrity, uprightness, and nobility of character so marked in the life of Dr. Sheldon. Mr. Coon's re- marks were listened to with the closest attention, and what he said of the venerable educator voiced the senti- ments of all present. In further seconding the motion, Mr. Irwin spoke as follows : — 134 THE OSWEGO NORMAL SCHOOL. I greatly regret my inability to express in fitting words the feelings of my heart on the sad event which has called us to- gether. No one, I am. sure, feels more deeply the sense of per- sonal loss sustained in the death of Dr. Sheldon, for he was a valued friend whom I had known for half a century. I first knew him as a young man when he came here to reside in 1847. Two years later he came with his bride to board in the same house with me. But it is in our relations in the management of the normal school during a period of thirty years that I have known him most intimately, and have learned to appreciate his many valued qualities of mind and heart. In his loved profession of education he attained wide and mer- ited renown. His judgment and his views in all that related to educational methods were remarkable. He was loved by all, both teachers and pupils, who came under his influence ; and in all sec- tions of this broad country are those, numbering many thousands, who will learn with profound sorrow of his death. Beyond his great ability as a teacher, Dr. Sheldon was an able man of affairs and of business. As treasurer of this board, and member of the committees on building and teachers, I have been impressed with the vast amount of labor he performed cheer- fully, and in the most correct and methodical manner. No cost of time and trouble was too great for him in his desire to relieve the members of this board from the vast details of the manage- ment of the institution. I shall miss his familiar form in our streets and at our meet- ings, the inspiration of his example, the pleasant smile and cheer- ful greeting, and shall always cherish the remembrance of this noble Christian gentleman. At the conclusion of Mr. Irwin's remarks the report was adopted. President Mollison extended, on behalf of the family, MEMORIAL ADDRESSES AND RESOLUTIONS. 135 an invitation to the members of the board to act as honorary pall-bearers at the funeral. On motion of Mr. Page the invitation was accepted. The Mayor, Common Council, city officers, Board of Education, city teachers, and alumni of the Normal School have been invited to attend the funeral of the late Dr. E. A. Sheldon from Grace Church, at 2.30 p.m., Sunday next. ADDRESS OF HON. GEORGE B. SLOAN. At the Memorial Services of the Oswego City Teachers' Association, October, 1897. The Hon. George B. Sloan was introduced as the next speaker, and made an address touching mainly the personal characteristics of Dr. Sheldon. Express- ing his appreciation of the privilege accorded him by the teachers in addressing them, he referred to several reasons for his pleasure in responding, among them one most prominent, — the fact that he had always counted himself among those who placed the highest conceiv- able value on education, believing it to be productive of the greatest attainable moral, social, and economic advantages. Holding thus the opinion that education was absolutely necessary to success in life, he could not fail to have the highest regard for those who followed the profession of teaching, and hence his gratification in being called on by the teachers to speak of one for whom he entertained so much esteem and regard. 136 THE OSWEGO NORMAL SCHOOL. Passing then to speak of Dr. Sheldon, Mr. Sloan pronounced glowing words of eulogy, which he said were only words of justice. If, said he, there are some extremely critical people who think I have taken the measurement of Dr. Sheldon in too large a mould, who think that in my admiration I am not strictly accu- rate, their views can be easily accounted for. They simply did not know Dr. Sheldon, so noiselessly, so unostentatiously, with so much self-abnegation and so little desire for public commendation, was the work of his life carried on. He had rarely known a man, said Mr. Sloan, so oblivious of his own achievements, so actu- ated by a desire to do the daily duty that came to him without thought of personal benefit. The majority of the people composing this community have not had the opportunity of learning in its plentitude what manner of man Dr. Sheldon was. It is a fact that in educa- tional circles his opinion ranked as high as that of any member of the profession, so well did our leaders appre- ciate the value of his counsel, his high character, and his devotion to his duties. His warm admiration for Dr. Sheldon, said the speaker, had led him to attempt to analyze his charac- ter, to determine what were the elements which made him such a successful man. He thought the greatest and fundamental characteristic was an equable and se- rene temperament, which enabled him to restrain irrita- tion and impatience under the most trying circumstances. He was to a marked degree swayed by the influence of MEMORIAL ADDRESSES AND RESOLUTIONS. 137 a desire and capability to weigh the pros and cons of every case before reaching conclusions. In this respect Mr. Sloan declared only one other man of his acquain- tance ever approximated to these conditions of perfec- tion in Dr. Sheldon. Another trait of character was spoken of, — that of industry. Amid all the discussion of the proper length of time for daily labor so much talked about in the press and elsewhere of late years, Dr. Sheldon, while sympathizing with every movement to ameliorate the condition of laboring men, calmly went his own way, limiting himself not to eight, nor ten, nor twelve hours for his daily allotment of toil. Perhaps fourteen hours would more fully measure the extent of his devotion to his duties. He loved his work because he loved his fellow-men. He loved to see young people prosper. He loved to see them grow, along those lines which prom- ise development of character, — the lines which make for happiness and usefulness in this life, and give assu- rance of a blessed hereafter; and this accounts for his intense absorption in his work. Mr. Sloan then spoke of the gentleness of his disposi- tion, his engaging manners, his tactfulness in bringing others to his way of thinking, first reaching his own conclusions by means of thorough, honest investigation and logical reasoning. In his own work on the local board, Mr. Sloan said, as chairman of the committee of teachers, he had invariably submitted to the judgment of Dr. Sheldon, as had in fact the other members of 138 THE OSWEGO NORMAL SCHOOL. the board. One more element of the character of the deceased was referred to, — that of his absolute conscientiousness. Every question was submitted to the test, Is it right? Is it wrong? measured by rules of morality, and the divine will; and when satisfied on these points, nothing could swerve him from his position. Nothing could be farther from the truth, the speaker said, than for a moment to suppose that Dr. Sheldon fell short of being a firm man because of the fact that his methods of reasoning were not those of the dogmatist. It is true that he was never outwardly aggressive. He never impressed one as possessed of the least degree of vanity, and one might at first assume that possibly there was not enough self-assertion in his personality ; but little observation was needed to perceive, however, that sincerity and ample determination, as well as benevolence, were written in every line of his coun- tenance ; and those who knew him best came to under- stand that when a principle was at stake Dr. Sheldon's convictions of the right of the side of the question he espoused were sure to be made fearlessly plain, and fail- ure to convince those he addressed rarely followed his efforts. So logical and winning indeed were his methods of stating a proposition, and then supporting them with well-considered reasons, so apparent, too, were the can- dor and fairness of his contention, that his case was not unlikely to be won with its simple but characteristic presentation. It has always seemed to me, the speaker continued, MEMORIAL ADDRESSES AND RESOLUTIONS. 139 that Dr. Sheldon's tactfulness, or, as might perhaps more properly be said, his pacificatory powers, the qual- ities so helpful, if not indeed determining, in so many of the remarkable successes of Franklin's career, though of necessity displayed in a narrower field of action in Dr. Sheldon's case, were nevertheless akin to those for which the great philosopher and statesman was distin- guished. In concluding his address, Mr. Sloan referred to the generosity and broad sympathy of the man whose loss we mourn, expressed in so many ways unknown to the public, expressed often in aiding struggling students to realize their ambition for an education. He voiced his own personal love for him as a friend, and declared that there had not within his recollection lived and died in Oswego a man whose planting and tillage would show more abundant fruitage than that of Dr. Sheldon ; that while in Shakespeare's time conditions and environ- ment might have warranted the immortal bard in writ- ing, " The evil that men do lives after them, the good is oft interred with their bones," it is not true in our day. It is not, it cannot be true in Dr. Sheldon's case. The touch of Dr. Sheldon's life will be felt not only by those whose work was with him and near him, but it will be felt by others still, and yet again it will be felt by future generations, unrecognized, unseen perhaps, but yet working out helps to higher ideals, after all earthly recollections of his lovable personality shall have faded out of sight forever. 140 THE OSWEGO XOEMAL SCHOOL. A life like that of the great educator, Dr. Sheldon, now gone from among us, is imperishable in its influ- ence for good, and the lessons of its example will never die. The light of these lessons will shine on, and more brightly. It will point the way to wholesome thought and wholesome action. Its rajs will quicken the souls of thousands drawn every year to our institutions of learning. Encouragement ' will be felt by those who are striving to be teachers. They will be made better teachers. More than that, they will grow into better men, better women. They will grow into better men and better women because they will wear the crown of righteous endeavor, — the endeavor of useful aims and cheerful sacrifices. These, in the nature of things, are the sequences of lives like Dr. Sheldon's. May it not be concluded, then, that no legacy is more grateful, no wealth more valuable, no incentive more helpful, than the examples of such lives. To be factors while living in shaping for good the destinies of those who live later, is indeed a laudable and noble ambition. Even more than that; it should fill the largest measure of human desire, especially when such lives as the one that is ended are emulated, because the record of that life re- veals no obligation unfulfilled, no act to cause regret. MEMORIAL ADDRESSES AND RESOLUTIONS. 141 Address at the Memorial Exercises of the Normal School, by Rev. David Wills, Jr. DR. SHELDON AND THE CHURCH. The church of God I It is single. It stands alone. There is no other. Its members, filled with the Spirit, are of every name, every land, and every age. Into this church, because he was a child of God, Dr. Sheldon came, as the flowers come to the sun, as the student runs after knowledge, as artists sketch and poets sing. A renewed man, a good man, and full of the Holy Ghost, he moved into and in the church universal with much of the naturalness of home life. It was spirit seeking the spiritual. His moral philosophy was Copernican ; and the central force was Jerusalem, the house of God's abode. In social and political life he was a pilgrim father ; dominant over all other interests was Zion, the city of the Most High. But man's vision is limited. We see, at best, but a part of any truth; we discover only the little circles within the larger orb. So we speak of churches. We make divisions, — the church invisible and the churches visible, the church formed of real faith and the churches founded on professed faith. Dr. Sheldon was also a member of the lesser church. He was wise enough to see that even an imperfect organization was better than no organization ; and he was too broad not to recognize the present day naturalness, if not necessity, for theo- logical and rubrical differences among Christians. 142 THE OSWEGO NORMAL SCHOOL. As a member of such a church he was loyal; heart and hand he was with it. To him its sacraments meant the oath to support it and, if need be, to suffer for it. A man of business, no business was more serious than that of the sanctuary. Nor was his loyalty ever more apparent than in the charity of his fellowship. That student, of whatever ecclesiastical name, whose life was hid with God in Jesus Christ, was the ideal churchman to Dr. Sheldon. Then he was a consistent member. Consistency is a pale word to express the blood-red meaning I have in mind. He was so good, so true, so pure, his words influenced us, his wisdom guided us; but, most of all, his character was his power over us. Such a man ! We believed in him ; we trusted in him. Such a heart ! Near it, we felt that God himself was nigh. And he was a loving member. Ah, here is the crown jewel of this illuminated, this brilliant life. The flash was from the heart. The history of Dr. Sheldon, broad and varied though it may be, will all be written within the limits of the first and the great commandment: " Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and thy neighbor as thyself." His religion was neither a proposition nor a profession, it was a passion. He did not think nor argue about God ; he rather gazed into the face of God as a true son looks into the counte- nance of a loving father. By communion he was changed into the heavenly image. And truly he loved others. His heart was with all. He was drawn, by moral MEMOEIAL ADDRESSES AND RESOLUTIONS. 143 gravitation, to the goodness of all the good, and his soul went out in gentleness and pity towards the badness of all the bad. He was a loving member, and this is all ; for God is love, and love is the fulfilling of the law. Only let us remember this. Dr. Sheldon was and is a member of the church. That church is founded on love, and "neither life nor death" shall separate its members from that love. Let us believe in the com- munion of the saints ; let us fellowship ever with Dr. Sheldon. He lives ! He lives ! " One family we dwell in Him, One church above, beneath, Though now divided by the stream, The narrow stream of death. One army of the living God, At his command we bow; Part of the host have crossed the flood, And part are crossing now." Memorial Resolutions of the Normal Principals of the State at the Semi-annual Meeting, October, 1897. Whereas, Since the last semi-annual meeting of the Normal Principals' Council, Dr. Edward A. Sheldon, its president, much honored and much beloved, has passed from a life of rich labor into eternal rest, and, Whereas, The members of this Council desire to express and record our sense of deep sorrow, and give utterance to our appre- ciation of the work and worth of our leader, be it 144 THE OSWEGO NORMAL SCHOOL. Resolved, That the members of the Normal School Principals' Council, assembled in session at Lake Mohonk, hereby express their profound feeling of personal loss in the death of Dr. Edward A. Sheldon, our enthusiastic and ever-hopeful leader, our wise counsellor, our kindly and warm-hearted friend. Resolved, That we hereby convey our tenderest sympathy to his much-bereaved family, to the faculty and students of the Os- wego Normal School, and to the many graduates of Oswego, widely scattered throughout the country, who bear in their lives the im- press of the manly man, the whole-souled teacher, the wise guide, the true friend, and the high-minded patriot. Resolved, That in view of the high character of Dr. Sheldon, the conspicuous place he occupied as one of the fathers of the normal-school system in America, and one of the pioneers of our public-school system, the president of this council appoint a com- mittee to prepare a suitable memorial of Dr. Sheldon, and to submit the same at the next meeting of this council. Resolved, That a copy of these resolutions be forwarded by the secretary of the council to the family of our departed friend, to the local board the faculty, and the students of the Oswego Normal School. Memorial presented Dec. 13 by the Committee Appointed by City and Village Superintendents. To the Council of City and Village Superintendents. Gentlemen, — Your committee appointed to draft a memorial to the late Dr. E. A. Sheldon beg leave to submit the following : — The lives of the great and good are our richest in- heritance. Such a heritage is ours in the late Edward MEMORIAL ADDRESSES AND RESOLUTIONS. 145 Austin Sheldon, A.M., Ph.D., Principal of the State Normal and Training School at Oswego. To-day we stand too near to get the proper perspec- tive for a fair estimate of the work of this man. The times do not permit of reforms like those instituted by Comenius ; the laws of mental growth have been care- fully studied and formulated ; educational theories have been promulgated and tested; but in a day when the trend of American education was towards formalism, it was Dr. Sheldon who arrested pedagogical thought, and insisted upon bringing childhood into touch with na- ture, thereby predicating scholarship upon experience. For nearly half a century he devoted his talents and energies to the development and improvement of our public-school system, during which period a host of disciples went forth from under his teachings whose missionary work has moulded and improved the meth- ods of teaching throughout the Tength and breadth of our land. A pioneer in the introduction of untried methods at a time when those in vogue were crude and unphilosophical, he devoted himself resolutely and as- siduously to the work of reform. He declined honors and emoluments which broader fields of work offered, and steadfastly toiled where he believed his Master had called him. Happily he lived to see in the fruition of his work a golden harvest of merited honor. His name stands enrolled among the most illustrious promoters of popular education of modern times. Without claiming for Dr. Sheldon the credit of dis- 146 THE OSWEGO NORMAL SCHOOL. co very or the invention of a new system of pedagogics, his work was so distinctive, his theory of training teachers so radically different from his contemporaries, that we do well to pause and to consider our indebted- ness to his life, and to honor the memory of a man who has given form to the educational thought and the edu- cational practice of a continent. When the future historian of pedagogics shall re-write the changes in American education, the progress in primary education and in the training of teachers, Edward Austin Sheldon shall stand alone, the Pestalozzi of the New World. Simple, unpretending, seeking to be taught that he in turn might teach, his sole aim was to discover and to establish a system of pedagogics, simple, logical, based upon the unfolding activities of childhood, which should fit man for humanity and for his eternal destiny. Dr. Sheldon's character was unique. He labored for a principle, and subjected all minor considerations to its advancement. He was not an enthusiast, but a patient, persistent, and hopeful worker. He was ever courteous, gentle, and unassuming under conditions which would have rendered a less noble character autocratic and pre- tentious. He was guileless and pure, a disciple of the Great Teacher in precept and in example ; in fine, a Christian gentleman. His home, " Shady Shore," with its trees and vines, its bees and flowers, was an outward index of his sym- pathy with nature. Longfellow's tribute to Agassiz may well be applied to him : — MEMORIAL ADDRESSES AND RESOLUTIONS. 147 "Nature, the old nurse, took The child upon her knee, Saying, ' Here is a story-book Thy Father has written for thee.' "And he wandered away and away With Nature, the dear old nurse, Who sang to him night and day The rhymes of the universe." The grove, the garden, the vineyard, the lake, were his teachers. In these more than in books he found the inspiration of his life. He read them, not as bota- nist, not as naturalist, but as a child to whom these were an open revelation of a divine intelligence ; to him they were a boundless store of knowledge, in which he found much to contemplate, and the very contempla- tion was inspiration, joy, peace. In reviewing the life of Dr. Sheldon for the purpose of finding the secret of his power, at least the following characteristics may be discovered : a genial, hopeful spirit; love for children ; enthusiasm born of conviction of the righteousness of his cause; the elevation of hu- manity; catholicity of spirit; supreme faith in divine guidance and aid ; faith that somehow through all his work the "purposes of God would surely work their own best way." ' His own words in explanation of his declining flat- tering invitations to posts of honor best reflect his real life. "I have endeavored to put myself in position to pursue the line of duty, without reference to personal 148 THE OSWEGO NORMAL SCHOOL. inclination, seeking simply to know my Father's will, and then to do it." In his address of welcome to the alumni, on the oc- casion of the celebration of the first quarter century of the Oswego Normal School, Dr. Sheldon said, " One of the surest elements of prosperity in any undertaking is loyalty to truth. To this more than any other thing has our success been due. Thoroughly imbued with the belief that there are certain unchanging laws of mental growth which must form the basis of all true educational progress, we have made them the foundation- stone of our structure." In speaking of the agencies which have contributed to the growth of the school he continues, "All these I have emphasized as human in- strumentalities ; but rising far above them all, and in and through them all, there has been infinite wisdom to guide, direct, and control all efforts and all events, and give them success. The providence of God has been very marked in the whole history of this school. We can but regard it as an institution of his own planting and protecting, and to him be all the praise of what we are and what we hope to be." Dr. Sheldon will ever hold a conspicuous place among American educators on account of two lines of work, either of which would merit lasting fame. Himself an ardent lover of nature, he sought to put every child in touch with nature, that the young life might early feel the presence of the Creator, and early learn to love him. To this end he gave prominence to MEMORIAL ADDRESSES AND RESOLUTIONS. 149 the acquisition of knowledge through the senses in pri- mary education, and in laboratory methods in advanced study. That primary knowledge is sensuous was not an original conception with Dr. Sheldon, but he brought the attention of educators to this fact, by the emphasis which he placed upon observation lessons, or "object lessons " as they were first termed. These views were stoutly controverted in educational gatherings, and a man of less profound conviction would have abandoned the field; but certain of his position he met argument with fact, until his critics and opponents, convinced of the correctness of his position, became his warmest friends. His oft-repeated, "You may not see it now, but you will come to acknowledge my position," was his only personal rebuke offered those who differed with him in these debates. The present generation of teachers can hardly realize that what they accept as cardinal principles in education were advocated for years by Dr. Sheldon alone. His faith in the ultimate suprem- acy of truth made him a bold defender of a principle whose verity he had tested. The second phase of school-work in America for which Dr. Sheldon is responsible, and for which he alone is entitled to credit, is the so-called " Oswego theory of training teachers." A firm believer in the necessity of a clear comprehension of principles, Dr. Sheldon did not believe that such comprehension could be divorced from practice. Precept and rule derived their content from application ; hence the basal principle in the train- 150 THE OSWEGO NORMAL SCHOOL. ing of teachers was the necessity of a school of practice where principles could be tested, and where habits of correct teaching could be formed. The place of the schools of practice in the normal school as taught by Dr. Sheldon was at first strenuously opposed in the State associations and in national councils, but the results ob- tained in the Oswego school soon vindicated the author; and to-day the numerous normal schools based upon the original Oswego idea are the strongest evidence of the far-seeing mind of this prince of educators. To Dr. Sheldon must be given the credit and the honor of dem- onstrating the necessity of the practice department in the normal school. The members of this council who were present at the Buffalo meeting of the national association in 1896 will recall the heated debate upon the " Organization of the Training-School," and also the clearness with which Dr. Sheldon outlined his ideal normal school. The serious if not the fatal defect in our educational system before the advent of the " Oswego Movement " was the strange neglect of childhood, a system predicated, upon the university and not upon the kindergarten. How to reverse this system was the problem which engaged the attention of this second Pestalozzi. But who was to instruct him, and where was material to be found? Some means must be devised to put the child into proper relation with life. His education must be helpful, uplifting, and inspiring. Dr. Sheldon believed that " education should imbue man with respect for the circumstances and the events of his environment, and at the same time inspire him with faith in the inexhaustible resources of his nature ; for only by producing better things can he elevate himself above his past." MEMORIAL ADDRESSES AND RESOLUTIONS. 151 Dr. Sheldon never hoped to see self-wrought reforms ; he be- lieved in tireless activity. " When I have done my best to per- suade men to my ideas I keep right on, and trust to the vindication of results." His life was an incarnation of the masterful senti- ment of Lord Bacon, " In this world God only and angels may be spectators." His theories were not the result of accident, but were the logical outgrowth of mature reflection. He had faith in them. Willing to make minor concessions for the sake of gaining major ends, he never yielded what he considered a cardinal prin- ciple. ISTo secondary considerations were allowed to infringe upon the unity of his ultimate purpose. To this everything was sub- ordinated. That childhood even might be so related to life that its early lessons wonld put it in sympathy with nature, with truth, with purity, with God, was the end sought. The words of Thomas Arnold fitly voice his sentiments : " What I want to see in the school is the abhorrence of evil." " To become one in heart with the good and generous and devout is, by God's grace, to become in measure good and generous and devout." In his searchings for means to relate the child to nature, Dr. Sheldon found in the im- ported collection of the educational appliances in the National Museum of Toronto the first help to his great system of " object lessons." His return from Toronto is thus described by his gifted daughter, Mrs. Mary Sheldon-Barnes. " Well do I remember the delight with which he returned from this visit armed with some material appliances for accomplishing his desires. The dark shelves of the little closets opening off from the dingy office where my father lived and worked all day as secretary of the Board of Education became filled with wonders delightful to my childish eyes, and I think no less so to his own ; colored balls and cards, bright colored pictures of animals, samples of grain, specimens of pottery and glass." Here were the means provided by nature to put childhood into touch with herself, and into sympathy with her. These rather than books should prove the inspiration which would 152 THE OSWEGO NORMAL SCHOOL. make books and life itself intelligible. " The difference between a useful education and one which does not affect the future life," says Dr. Arnold, " rests mainly on the greater or less activity which it has communicated to the pupil's mind, whether he has learned to think and to act and to gain knowledge by himself, or whether he has merely followed passively as long as there was some one to draw him." Such a life cannot be restricted in its influence to a single city or to a single State. Like the central sun, its vivifying energy must penetrate the regions most remote, and with its touch im- part new life. Who shall presume to say that child study and the American kindergarten do not owe more to Dr. Sheldon than to any other person or agency for their marvellous development in this country ? These are no longer a matter of controversy; as demonstrated facts they challenge the admiration of the world. Myriads of little ones who have never lisped his name, and who will never hear his voice, are sharing the blessings of his life, his work in their behalf, his ministry to children's schools. If the good bishop of Moravia was the first evangel of modern pedagogy, if the long-suffering master of Yverdon was the second, this noble priest of humanity, with his " ragged school," was both the Comenius and the Pestalozzi of America. If Yverdon was the educational Bethlehem of the Old World, Oswego is that of the New ; for " E. A. Sheldon, with his ragged Oswego boys and girls in 1848, and Heinrich Pestalozzi, with his desolate orphans at Stanz in 1779, teach the same lesson." " Oh! weep for Adonais! though our tears Thaw not the frost which binds so dear a head And thou, sad Hour, selected from all years To mourn our loss, rouse thy obscure compeers, And teach them thine own sorrow! Say, "With me Died Adouais; till the Future dares Forget the Past, his fame and fate shall be An echo and a light unto eternity." APPENDIX A. 153 APPENDIX A. TABLE 1.1 Geographical Distribution of Oswego Graduates During Its First Quarter- Century (1861-1886). « 2 3 M 2 < p a < ' 3 w 2 % State. State. b H M State. ° i » §3 o g z Maine, 10 Michigan, 93 No. Carolina, 8 New Hampshire, 5 Wisconsin, 17 So. Carolina, 6 Vermont, 35 Minnesota, 66 Georgia, 8 Massachusetts, 32 Iowa, 46 Alabama, 7 Connecticut, 19 Missouri, 24 Florida, 2 Rhode Island, 3 Kansas, 20 Arkansas, 4 New York, 1276 Nebraska, 36 Louisiana, 7 Pennsylvania, 70 The Dakotas, 3 Indian Ter., 1 New Jersey, 72 Colorado, 10 Texas, 1 Delaware. 2 8 California, Arizona, 20 1 Country. Maryland, Virginia, 8 Wyoming, 4 Canada, 4 Dist. Columbia, 5 Montana, 1 Mexico, 1 West Virginia, 1 Oregon, 1 So. America, 6 Ohio, 60 Washington, 1 Japan, 2 Maryland, 73 Kentucky, 9 Hawaii, 3 Illinois, 94 Tennessee, 4 India, 1 1 Based on alumni records. It is needless to say that the table is incomplete, for many graduates have changed positions since the record was made. The fig- ures represent the number of graduates between the dates named who have been traced to a given State. For the purposes of the table, which is to show by the direct method the extent of Oswego influence, where one graduate has taught in several places, each place is taken as representing an Oswego teacher. 154 APPENDIX A. TABLE II.l Present Distribution of Oswego Graduates "Who have been Graduated During the Last Ten Years (January, 1887, to January, 1897). State. ft c §^ $ fa 5 z o < « c State. fa f- z b State. £ < » H H i, a i-t < « g M fa H z 6 Q 2 o Maine, 1 "Wisconsin, 2 So. Carolina, 1 New Hampshire, 2 Minnesota, 12 Georgia, 2 Vermont, 16 Iowa, 3 Alabama, 1 Massachusetts, 20 Missouri, 2 Mississippi, 2 New York, 505 Nebraska, 11 Florida,. 2 Pennsylvania, 14 So. Dakota, 5 Louisiana, 1 New Jersey, 55 Colorado, 2 Indian Ter., 1 Maryland, 3 Utah, 5 Texas, 1 Virginia, 3 1 California, Oregon, 4 2 Country. Dist. Columbia, Germany, 32 Ohio, 10 Washington, 4 Persia, 1 Indiana, 5 Kentucky, 2 Canada, 2 Illinois, 10 Tennessee, 2 China, 1 Michigan, 6 No. Carolina, 1 Hawaii, 4 1 Based on the latest records kept at the Oswego Normal School. The tahle includes none of the graduates enumerated in Table I. A number of those enumerated are married, but as a rule taught before marriage in the locality designated. In observing this distribution two facts which operate strongly against it should be kept in mind. The first is that the normal schools of New York State, during half of the decade, have charged students from other States a tuition fee of forty dollars a year ; the other is that the large output of the numerous State, city, and normal schools of the different States make it un- necessary and difficult for graduates from other States to be employed. 2 Studying. APPENDIX B. 155 W X S h- 1 1 £ o w >» Ph M Pm S3 <1 O rt M CT CO p p a A o o o o ■"C 'C 'uS ^ ■© '© '© r © rP & si ,P co co co co <<<< © CD rP "* o e* «n ^£ ° £ 2 p ?•» S © § a .2 ^ £ g ^ co .P |« o ■1 a © © O 5> © m g co © H 3 o .S o a © <» |! p "S a & © K S © © rP 5 r° S * tic <2 o <2 2 $* to U m ■3 © -3 -d © -a O O tt> © a> S a, O >H O P 05 f5 43 © X 2 P ig » i — i 73 o •5 a o g ® * £ w> s +3 Pi * "3 t3 .P -a £ ° Z p o o CO © p 5 .2 CO ° a «H £ 2 £ CO © w d ft g < V~ > c3 c3 o3 1 H WWW W w — S t • «. S a a m -. M «3 d 5 £ Ph ~ o (^ 111 - Is T3 "3 O M pw £ +3 M o e .a &h ^ ^ g ** I o Si? ft O § £ O © H 1 8 B ^ 2 £ w* I o 6q be « 5^ H w <» r-H -C OQ OQ a H APPENDIX B. 157 & 00 00 IS C5 00 00 O © -5 1-5 o o © CD +2 S 8 © +3 +3 £ © © <3 c3 > bX) bJO & (3 c3 CS 02 S£ M P. '3 c« q q Q o ^ > ^3 « PS &0 rrt * VJ got-: • ?* °0 *» rf? ^ • e © ts (§ § £ q^ I 5 ! H^ 5 s ^ 8 S PL 02 IB £ q . q S -3S * © SI I q v „ S 5 .5 s •S ^ -a S © V o ^ &5 © 5 5& o £ R.."q 158 APPENDIX B. 00 00 ffl ffi 00 00 00 00 o o WW 6 6 e8 P. ft tf g H s 5 a 3^ 2 S 5 *» .2 O O «! an =j S 02 fc ^ © « £?£ 8 < © fi - ■5 ^ •5-S 5S 3 o 6 bq a cti p p< -ti u< < to o o bo ,P —5 CO P £ yj T5 O a >> P a rt O —j o P o DQ B3 in 93 o CD 33 cd V +j 'O 9} ,P p 9) ,Q i v; P £ O o TP ,p ^ es P 03 ,P CO p H o u 0) M APPENDIX C. 159 APPENDIX C. Bibliography of Chief Sources. Annual Reports of United States Commissioners of Education. Barnard's American Journal of Education. For particular references see foot-notes to chapters. Rise and Growth of the Normal School Idea. By Prof. J. P. Gordy, Bureau of Education, Circular No. 8, 1891. Boone's Education in the United States. '(Chapter on "Preparation of Teachers," p. 137.) Appleton (New York), 1889. Annual Reports of Superintendent of Education, Massachusetts. The Evolution of the Massachusetts Public School System. G. H. Martin. Appleton (New York). The Normal School in America. Paper by A. D. Mayo in " Historical Sketches of the Oswego State Normal and Training School," 1887. History of Object Teaching. Paper by N. A. Calkins, published in Barnard 's American Journal of Education, vol. xii., p. 633. The Oswego State Normal School. Article by Prof. William M. Aber in Popular Science Monthly, May, 1893. Annual Reports of the Board of Education of Oswego, N. Y., from 1854 to 1868. Annual Circulars of the Oswego Normal School, and Reports of Alumni Meetings. History of the Normal School. Paper by Hermann Krusi in " Historical Sketches of the Oswego State Normal and Training School." 160 APPENDIX C. Editorial in Education for November, 1896. Annual Proceedings of National Educational Association. Report on Object Teaching. Made by Prof. S. S. Greene before the New England Association at Harrisburg, Pa., 1865. Year-Book of Education, 1878. Kiddle-Schem. E. Steiger (New York). History of Education in Wisconsin. Dr. J. W. Stearns. 1893. ADVERTISEMENTS EDUCATION. 133 An Introduction to Herbart' s Science and Practice of Education. Translated from the German of Herbart by Mr. and Mrs. Felkin. With an introduction by Oscar Browning. Cloth. 207 pages. Retail price, $1. 00. NOT a few have become discouraged in their efforts to understand Herbart's teaching by reason of the somewhat difficult form in which it has been presented. Felkin's Introduction affords the proper method of approach, and clears the way for a correct appreciation of the nature and importance of the great doctrines of Herbart. The book is not "elementary, 1 ' except in the sense that signifies dealing with elemental facts. Its scope includes chapters on Psychology, Ethics, Practical Pedagogy, Character, Government, and Discipline. The materials have been gathered largely from Herbart's Umriss Padagogischer Vorlesnngen and his Umriss der Allgemeinen P'dda- gogik. "The object of the book is to answer a question which many stu- dents of education are now asking: Who is Herbart? and what did he and his followers teach ? It answers this question better than any other account of the Herbartian method hitherto published in Eng- lish. 1 ' — From Mr. Brownings Introduction. Child Observations. By the Students of the State Normal School, Worcester, Mass. First Series: Imitation and Allied Activities. With an Introduction by Principal E. H. Russell. Cloth. 300 pages. Retail price, #1.50. THIS is believed to be by far the largest collection of facts of child- life ever given to the public. It exhibits, by more than twelve hundred instances carefully observed and succinctly recorded, the operation of the faculty or instinct of imitation in children, covering the period between the first and fifteenth years of life. The records are arranged progressively in groups according to the ages of the chil- dren observed, and show in an interesting way, by concrete examples, the growth and development of this fundamental activity of childhood from year to year. Psychologists, teachers, parents, and all students and lovers of chil- dren, will find here a rich store of material for their study and enter- tainment. L24 EDUCATION. Compayre s History of Pedagogy. Translated and Edited by W. H. Payne, Chancellor of the University of Nash* ville and President of the Peabody Normal College; with Introduction, Notes, References, and an Index. Cloth. 618 pages. Retail price, #1.75. Special price for class use. IN one volume of moderate size the reader will find an interesting^ instructive, and comprehensive account of all the greater move- ments in the history of human thought as it bears on education. The great need of the teacher is breadth of view, and an adequate survey of the whole field of educational activity, and these wholesome and necessary endowments can come only from a study of the history of education. For this high purpose it is safe to say that there is no other book in any language which has the excellences of Compayr^'s History of Pedagogy. W. T. Harris, U. S. Coni>r of Edu- cation, Washington ; It is indispensable among histories of education. G. Stanley Hall, Pres. of Clark Univ., Worcester, Mass. : It is the best and most comprehensive universal history of education in English. The translator has added valuable notes. Irwin Shepard, Pres. of State Nor- mal School, Winona, Minn. : We adopted immediately upon its publication, and are now using it with great satisfaction in a class of sixty members. Through the aid of this book, the subject has assumed a new interest and importance to all our teachers and students. Gabriel Campayre, Chambres des Deputes, Paris: Votre traduction me oarait excellente et je vous remercie des soins que vous y avez mis. J'ai grand olaisir a me relire dans votre langue, d'autant que vous n'avez rien n6glige pour l'impression matenelle. J. W. Stearns, Prof, of the Science and Art of Teaching, Univ. of Wis. : It will, I believe, serve to increase interest in the history of educational thought and ex- perience,— an end greatly to be desired. M. A. Newell, late Supt. of Educa- tion, Baltimore, Md.: It is a very valuable addition to our pedagogic literature ; it is as brief as the breadth of the subject would allow, and is comprehensive and philo- sophical. The notes and index added by Professor Payne very much increase the value of the work. E. H. Russell, Prin. of State Normal School, Worcester, Mass.: I say unhesi- tatingly that it is a very valuable edition to the list of first-rate books for teachers I have put it into the hands of our senior class, and have recommended it to our graduates. N. M. Butler, Professor of Philoso- phy, Columbia Coll., N. Y. : It should be in the hands of every teacher, every normal- school student, and on the list of every " reading circle." I predict for the book the greatest success, for it deserves it. E. E. Higbee, late State Supt. of Pub- lic Instruction, Narrisburg, Penn. : I hope it may be introduced into all the nor- mal schools of this State, and give a dig- nified impetus to studies of such character so much needed and so valuable. EDUCATION. 125 Compayre' s Lectures on Pedagogy. Translated and Edited by W. H. Payne, Chancellor of the University of Nash ville and President of the Peabody Normal College. Cloth. 500 pages. Retail price, #1.75. Special price for class use. THIS is a companion volume to the author's History of Peda- gogy and is characterized by the qualities that are so conspic- uous in the earlier volume ; it is comprehensive, clear, accurate, and is written with rare critical insight. To have an original and superior mind elaborate a systematic theory of education out of the best his- toric material accessible, and present as its complement a revised series of methods, would be thought an invaluable service to the teaching profession, but this is precisely what M. Compayre has done in this charming volume. It is the most original and satisfac- tory manual for teachers that has ever appeared in English. Jas. MacAlister, Pres. of Drexel Inst,, Philadelphia, Pa. : I have known the book ever since it appeared, and re- gard it as the best work in existence on the Theory and Practice of Education. Thomas J. Morgan, recently Prin. State Normal School, Providence, R. I. : It seems to me the best book on the sub- ject which has yet been published in America. H. B. Twitmeyer, Coll. of Northern III., Dakota, III. : It is the best resume I have ever seen on the study and practice of teaching. Richard Edwards, Ex-Supt. Public Instruction, Springfield, III. : I value the book very highly indeed, and think it will have great effect in uplifting the profes- sion of teachers in this country. W. W. Parsons, Pres. Ind. StaU Normal School : I pronounce it an excel- lent popular treatise on the Science of Education. I consider it a valuable addi- tion to our professional literature. Christian Union ; Especially in- genious is the chapter upon the education of the attention ; that, too, upon the cul- ture of the memory is of great practical value. We should like to put this work into the hands of every instructor, whether parent or teacher. Psychology Applied to Education. By Gabriel Compayre. Translated by Wm. H. Payne, Chancellor of the University of Nashville. Cloth. 225 pages. Retail price, 90 cents. IN the statement of doctrine and application, this manual is profound without being obscure, and simple without being commonplace. There are thousands of teachers who have neither the taste nor the leisure to master the details of educational science, nor even to read the profounder treatises, but who are anxious to find a rational basis for their art ; for such there is no book that can be commended so highly. i 4 o EDUCATION. The Early Training of Children. By Mrs. Frank Malleson, England. Cloth. 127 pages. Retail price, 75 oents. AN invaluable guide to mothers, to kindergartners and to primary teachers. The topics treated are: Infant Life; Nursery Management; The Employment and Occupation of Children; Train- ing in Reverence, in Truth, in Obedience, and in the other Cardinal Virtues; and finally, the best system of Rewards and Punishments. And every suggestion is practical. Every line tells. No question is treated without a full recognition of the difficulties involved, and no measure recommended which has not stood the test of actual trial, and is not based on sound educational principles. No one can read the book without sharing the author's earnestness and faith. With these " Notes," and Miss Peabody's Lectures to Kindergart- ners, the most inexperienced mother or teacher may be "doubly armed." Comenius s The School of Infancy. An essay on the education of youth during the first six years. Edited, with an introduction, notes, and a bibliography of the Comenian literature, by Will S. Monroe. Cloth. 116 pages. Portrait. Retail price, $1. 00. THE celebration of the three hundredth anniversary of the birth of Comenius has given great impetus to his fame. A man who could decline the presidency of Harvard College, who was invited by Parliament to visit England and remodel her schools, and whose advice was sought by several Continental powers, is entitled to a hear- ing even in these days. Thus far his " School of Infancy," which is in some respects his greatest book, and is at least the most practical and modern in spirit, has been but little known. In it he advocates sense- training, anticipates modern child-study and the kindergarten, cham- pions nature-study and naturalness in method, provides for systematic physical training, and declares that education is a universal right, that knowledge should be fitted to action, and that the school should pre- pare for life. The genial Quick says of it : " ' The School of Infancy 1 has not had anything like the circulation it deserves. 1 ' The book contains a portrait of Comenius, an introduction, notes, and full bibliog- raphy of the Comenian literature ; and at the end of each chapter cross-references to the standard literature of primary education. EDUCATION. 139 The Student's FroebeL By William H. Herford, late member of the Universities of Bonn, Berlin, and Zurich. Cloth. 128 pages. Retail price, 75 cents. THE purpose of this little book, as stated by the editor in his preface, is to give young people, who are seriously preparing themselves to become teachers, a brief yet full account of FroebePs Theory of Education ; his practice or plans of method is reserved for a second part. This book is adapted from Froebers Education of Humanity (Die Erziehung der Menschheit}, published in 1826. The editor has tried to give what is FroebePs own in English as close as possible to the very words of his author. The book, in addition to an Introduc- tion treating of the subject in general, has chapters on The Nursling, The Child, The Boy, and The School, and summaries of the teachings. The Psychology of Childhood. By Frederick Tracy, Lecturer in Philosophy in the University of Toronto, with Introduction by President G. Stanley Hall of Clark University. Cloth. 183 pages. Retail price, 90 cents. THE author has in this work undertaken to present as concisely, yet as completely, as possible, the results of the systematic study of children, and has included everything of importance that can be found. Some of its special features are thus summarized : — ( 1 ) It is the first general treatise, covering the whole field of child psychology. (2) It aims to contain a complete summary, up to date, of all work done in this field. (3) The work contains a large amount of material, the re- sults of the author's own observations on children as well as those of perhaps a score of very reliable observers. (4) The subject of child- language has been gone into with especial thoroughness, from an en- tirely new and original standpoint, and with very gratifying results. (5) A very exhaustive bibliography, containing, it is believed, every- thing of value that has ever been written on this subject, is appended. J. Clark Murray, Prof, of Philo- sophy, McGill University, Montreal, Ca- nada: In English we have certainly no original work on the psychology of child hood to compare with it, and even among translations from German and French there is none which shows such a mastery of the whole subject. Earl Barnes, Department of Edu- cation, Leland Stanford fr. University, Cal. : No book has come from the press during the past year which I have been so glad to see as this one. For all of us who are carrying on courses in the psychol- ogy of children it will prove an invaluable aid. Elementary Science. Bailey'S Grammar SChOOl PhysiCS. A series of inductive lessons in the elements of the science. 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MeiklejOhn'S English Grammar. Also composition, versification, paraphrasing, etc. For high schools and colleges. 90 cts. Meiklejohn's History of the English Language. 7 8 pages. Part in of Eng- lish Language above, 35 cts. Williams's Composition and Rhetoric by Practice. For high school and col- lege. Combines the smallest amount of theory with an abundance of practice. Revised edition. $1.00. Strang's Exercises in English. Examples in Syntax, Accidence, and Style for criticism and correction. 50 cts. HuffCUtt's English in the Preparatory School. Presents advanced methods of teaching English grammar and compositon in the secondary schools. 25 cts. Woodward's Study Of English. From primary school to college. 25 cts. Genung'S Study Of Rhetoric. Shows the most practical discipline. 25 cts. See also our list of books for the study of English Literature. D. C. HEATH & CO., PUBLISHERS, BOSTON. NEW YORK. CHICAGO. ENGLISH LITERATURE. The Arden Shakespeare. The greater plays in their literary aspect, each with intro- duction, interpretative notes, glossary, and essay on metre. 45 cts. Moulton's Literary Study Of the Bible. An account of the leading forms of literature represented, without reference to theological matters. $2.00. Moulton's Four Years of Novel-Reading, a reader's guide. 50 cts. Hawthorne and Lemmon's American Literature. A manual for high scheols and academies. $1.25. Meiklejohn's History of English Language and Literature. For high schools and colleges. A compact and reliable statement of the essentials. 90 cts. Hodgkins' Studies in English Literature. Gives full lists of aids for laboratory method. Scott, Lamb, Wordsworth, Coleridge, Byron, Shelley, Keats, Macaulay> Dickens, Thackeray, Robert Browning, Mrs. Browning, Carlyle, George Eliot, Tenny- son, Rossetti, Arnold, Ruskin, Irving, Bryant, Hawthorne, Longfellow, Emerson, Whittier, Holmes, and Lowell. A separate pamphlet on each author. Price 5 cts. each, or per hundred, $3.00 ; complete in cloth $1.00. Scudder's Shelley's Prometheus Unbound. With introduction and copious notes. 70 cts. George's Wordsworth's Prelude. Annotated for high school and college. Never before published alone. #1.25. George's Selections from Wordsworth. 168 poems chosen with a view to illustrate the growth of the poet's mind and art. $1.50. George's Wordsworth's Prefaces and Essays on Poetry. Contains the best of Wordsworth's prose. 60 cts. George's Webster's Speeches. Nine select speeches with notes. $1.50. George's Burke's American Orations. Cloth. 65 cts. George's Select Poems Of Burns. 1 18 poems, with introduction, notes and gloss- ary. $1.00. George's Tennyson's Princess. With introduction and notes. 45 cts. Corson's Introduction tO Browning. A guide to the study of Browning's Poetry. Also has 33 poems with notes. $1.50. Corson's Introduction to the Study of Shakespeare. A critical study of Shakespeare's art, with examination questions. $1.50. COOk'S Judith. The Old English epic poem, with introduction, translation, glossary and fac-simile page. $1.60. Students' edition without translation. 35 cts. COOk'S The Bible and English Prose Style. Approaches the study of the Bible from the literary side. 60 cts. Simonds' Sir Thomas Wyatt and his Poems. 168 pages. With biography, and critical analysis of his poems. 75 cts. Hall's BeOWUlf. A metrical translation. $1.00. Students' edition. 35 cts. Norton's Heart Of Oak BOOks. A series of six volumes giving selections from the choicest English literature. See also our list 0/ books for the study of the English Language. D. C. HEATH & CO., PUBLISHERS. BOSTON. NEW YORK. CHICAGO. Heath's Pedagogical Library i. ii. in. IV. V. VI. VII. VIII. IX. X. XL XII. XIII. XIV. XV. XVI. XVII. XVIII. XIX. XX. XXI. XXII. XXIII. XXIV. XXV. XXVI. XXVII. XXVIII. XXIX. XXX. XXXI. XXXII. XXXIII. Compayre's History of Pedagogy. " The best and most comprehensive his- tory of Education in English." — Dr. G. S. Hall $1.75. Compayre's Lectures on Teaching. " The best book in existence on theory and practice." — Pres. MacAlister, Drexel Institute. $1.75. Compayre's Psychology Applied to Education. 90 cts. ROUSSeau'S Emile. " Perhaps the most influential book ever written on the subject of education." — R. H. Quick. 90 cts. ; paper, 25 cts. Peabody's Lectures to Kindergartners. Illustrated. $1.00. Pestalozzi's Leonard and Gertrude. Illustrated. 90 cts. ; paper, 25 cts. Radestock's Habit in Education. 75 cts. Rosmini'S Method in Education. "The most important pedagogical work ever written." — Thomas Davidson. $1.50. Hall's Bibliography Of Education. Covers every department. $1.50. Gill's Systems of Education. $1.25. De Garmo's Essentials of Method. A practical exposition of methods with illustrative outlines of common school studies. 65 cts. Malleson's Early Training of Children. 75 cts.; paper, 25 cts. Hall's Methods Of Teaching History. A collection of papers by leading edu- cators. $1.50. Newsholme's School Hygiene. 75 cts. ; paper, 25 cts. De Garmo's Lindner's Psychology. The best manual ever prepared from the Herbartian standpoint. $1.00. Lange'S Apperception. The most popular monograph on psychology and pedagogy that has as yet appeared. $r.oo. Methods of Teaching Modern Languages. 90 cts. Felkin's Herbart's Introduction to the Science and Practice of Education. With an introduction by Oscar Browning. $1.00. Herbart's Science Of Education. Includes a translation of the Allgemeine P'ddagogik. $1.00. Herford's Student's Froebel. 75 cts. Sanford's Laboratory Course in Physiological Psychology. 90 cts. Tracy's Psychology of Childhood. The first treatise covering in a scientific manner the whole field of child psychology. 90 cts. Ufer's Introduction to the Pedagogy of Herbart. 90 cts. Munroe's Educational Ideal. A brief history of education. $1.00. Lukens's The Connection between Thought and Memory. Based on Dorpfeld's Denken und Ged'dchtnis. $1.00. English in American Universities. Papers by professors in twenty represen- tative institutions. $1.00. Comenius's The School of Infancy. $1.00. Russell's Child Observations. First Series: Imitation and Allied Activities. $1.50. Lefevre's Number and its Algebra. $1.25. Sheldon-Barnes's Studies in Historical Method. Method as determined by the nature of history and the aim of its study. 90 cts. Adams's The Herbartian Psychology Applied to Education. A series of es- says in touch with present needs. $1.00. Roger Ascham's The Scholemaster. $1.25. Thompson's Day Dreams of a Schoolmaster. $1.25. Richter's Levana; or, The Doctrine of Education. "A spirited and scholarly book." — Prof. W. H. Payne. $1.40. Sent by mail, postpaid, on receipt of price. D.C. HEATH & CO., Publishers, Boston, New York, Chicago fr}.*£h\' mmmmm w